Gee Whillickers

Well, this may just change things a wee bit. A new drug is entering human trials after resounding success on rats that can stop you from getting drunk, no matter how much you've imbibed. Even more, if you're already drunk and you take it, whammo, almost instant sobriety. Even better, if you take it when hungover it cures that too. Here's the article: http://www.mnn.com/food/beverages/stories/new-drug-may-keep-you-sober-no-matter-how-much-youve-had-to-drink

Ah, English. Where we take unsuspecting words from every other language in the world, hustle them into an alley at gunpoint, then proceed to beat the living tar out of them until they submit and agree to become our own, no matter the source, and despite that fact their grammar and pronounciation just doesn't fit with the rest of the words around 'em. Shoe-horn 'em in there anyway! What the hell, why not? It's English dammit! .

It's good someone is trying to change this weird legal loophole. It's also amazing that it exists, that people try and use it, and that it sometimes works.

What he said.

The pink one should go into the pink audio jack in the back of his computer for analog microphone input. Since it has USB, it sounds like it could also be hooked up digitally, so that would work too. From the answer above, I'm wondering if he's looking for a physical, mechanical volume control. What I was referring to was the software volume control. Depending on the version of Windows he has, he can either click on the volume control in the lower right tray area, then click on "mixer" or he can double click on the volume control to bring up the mixer. Alternatively, he can go into the control panel, find the sound settings-volume control and do it there. He's looking for the Microphone setting, which could be either immediately viewable, alongside the volume controls for various other settings, or there may be a tab to click on, to change it from "outputs" to "inputs" to find the microphone setting. Anyway, once he finds the microphone volume setting, he can just raise it all the way and see how Dragon responds. He may need to adjust it downwards from there.

Did he perhaps turn up the wrong volume control? The volume for the speakers, which is the obvious one, isn't the correct one for this. He'll need to ensure the microphone volume is turned up all the way.

:lol: Oh now that was well done, blue. You just waved your magic wand to come up with that one, didn't you?

One of Canada's more famous statesmen, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, said while amending the Criminal Code in the late 1960's to get rid of antiquated anti-homosexuality laws, "There's no place for the State in the bedrooms of the nation." He then added, "...what's done in private between adults doesn't concern the Criminal Code". This became a policy statement and greatly influenced Canadian politics to this day, up to and including, I believe, gay marriage. Even now, in the days of more and more rampant fringe right-wing conservatism, you won't find many politicians who would dare to speak against gay marriage, pornography, contraception, and all of the other things that seem to be such a hot topic in US politics. We can but sit, stare, and shake our heads while watching the feces being flung. Oh, and we still can't figure out what you guys have against universal health care. It just seems so...well...barbaric...that you have people speaking out against it.

I've been enjoying this story over at gayauthors by Hamen Cheese. It's called "Charlie." It's not finished yet, but looks like it's getting close. It's well done, aside from a few awkward turns of phrase and wordings. The character development and increasing complexity as the story rolls along had me turning pages much too late. Here's the link: http://www.gayauthors.org/story/Hamen%20Cheese/charlie

Came to the thread for the reference to the shot of the guy's butt. Didn't leave disappointed.

There were writers from AD at times Who thought they'd try and write rhymes Little did they know There'd be a Hell with snow Before they're accepted as anything but crimes

My problem when watching U.S. election coverage these days is that it takes me a minute to figure out if it's a parody show, or a real candidate doing a real interview/speech. Then it takes me a minute to figure out if I'm watching a comedy show or a horror show. Very confusing.

More of a roll-up tablet than a roll-up laptop, the difference being the lack of a true keyboard. I can manage to type on touchscreen keyboards. I've gotten reasonably proficient on my phone and android tablet. But, neither is nearly as efficient or satisfying (not to mention even close to as fast or accurate) as typing on a real keyboard with real keys I can feel under my fingers. I couldn't imagine trying to do any real writing on anything like that.

I can understand that Dabeagle. That's why he's such a paradox. If you were to only read his books, (aside from a few later notable exceptions) having never heard of him otherwise, you would likely be convinced he is very liberal and almost certainly gay. The themes run constant through his work. That's why so many believe he's seriously closeted.

Oh my. Uhh, sorry everybody. I won't be able to write anything for the next many months. I just remembered a previous commitment...

One of the significant issues with having a protagonist so young, in a story with a character that requires such a wide emotional range, is finding an young actor that can do it convincingly. Most younger actors just couldn't pull this off. By the time a person hits 14 years old, and have had a wee taste of heartache, joy, fear, righteous anger, etc, they can pull it off far better. It makes sense they're using a 14 year old, and yeah, probably they'll have him play an Ender of 12 or so, that makes sense.

The government body here that is responsible for regulating ISP's is the same body that's responsible for radio, telephone, TV, and other old-school communication methods. Reading their press releases, working through their regulatory gobbledygook, and listening to their interviews, or, even worse, answers to questions in parliament is truly scary and disappointing. These folks just don't get it. Most of them are still trying to figure out how to dial out on their cell phones, the few who even own a cell phone. And they're making legislation that is backwards, short-sighted, stupid, and will have far-ranging consequences limiting the wonderful information at the fingertips of today's youth. Watching what kids can do today with all of this information at their fingertips is awe-inspiring. And truly amazing. Yes, there's a whole lot of crap out there. But the kids that get it, the ones who know what they're doing, are just as good as sifting through the chaff to find the diamonds as they are at using those resources in the first place. I'm not exactly a youth anymore. Far from it! But even I have a hard time remembering how I managed before the internet. And Google. When writing, I constantly have a tab or twelve opened to various google searches, web pages, and other information to fact check and research. Even when out for dinner and talking about some random topic of conversation, whenever a question comes up, say about the population of somewhere, or some obscure question like the chemical makeup of seawater or whatever, I can just whip out the smartphone and find the answer. That's amazing. Astounding. And I'm an old fart. Imagine what kids of today will be able to do with that, having grown up with it all their lives. We're living in the information world that was the science fiction of my youth. And believe me, I think it's wonderful.

Almost every actual TV show and movie I watch is now via the internet. Though with the big screen hooked up to the computer I suppose that still counts at watching TV. As for actual live TV, these days it's rare. Sports mostly, and the odd news show, special of whatever ilk, and whatnot. That's about it.

The only thing vaguely in common with the Starship Troopers movie and Heinlein's book is the title. It's true for the most part, Hollywood does have an awfully hard time with decent SF book-to-movie adapations. However, there are some exceptions, especially if you include fantasy into the mix. Still, I tend to think this is going to end up an adventure movie about a boy-hero, instead of a psychological thriller about the conflicting motivations of driven people.

I'm pretty sure the feline contact has already been made. You know all those times you see your cat staring upwards at nothing? Yeah. The takeover begins.

I've always gotten a kick out of those roller coaster photos. I've seen some pretty hilarious things that people have somehow snuck onto the rollercoaster and managed to get set up at the exact right moment.

Just when you thought the world of competitive events couldn't get any weirder, they did. I give you: Chessboxing Yes. I said Chessboxing. And it's exactly what it sounds like. Alternating rounds of two guys playing chess, then boxing. Winner is decided by either checkmate or TKO. Okay, who wants to work this into a story??

Sounds interesting. I think I'll give this a look and see if it's at all useful.

Actually, sometimes they're even better. I find nuances I missed during the first reading. Another great story, Cole. Thanks. Well done, and good for Jeffrey for finding his self-confidence.

Healthy debate is a positive thing. Forums such as these should be a place for reasonable debate and disagreement. I can think of three or four threads from the past two weeks right off the top of my head where people rather strongly disagreed with other people. I know one of these involved my thoughts, and somebody else's very different thoughts. I like that we can do this, and hope that we can remember that we can and will disagree on things. Every one of us. I might agree with another given person here 99 times out of a hundred, but then someone brings up the hundredth point, and look out, it's on! We just don't see eye to eye on that particular subject. That's fine though! It really is! This place would be awfully boring if someone posted something, and then the next twenty replies down the page were different versions of ,"Yup," or "I agree." Don't leave, blue, and personally I don't think anybody means any variation of, "Shut up." Rather, just, "I disagree." We can disagree and still be fine. Now for the obligatory Canadian hockey analogy: When two buddies here are playing hockey and happen to be on different teams, guess which players have the biggest hits, the most colorful and rude comments to each other, and if the league allows, have the most energetic fight. And guess who goes arm in arm afterwards for a beer at the nearest pub to laugh about it all afterwards? So, blue, lemme buy you a beer down at the pub, and let's laugh about different opinions about the rudeness of jokes. I'm buying.