Biden [chat]

So, Joe Biden.

Report from the End of the World: Pat Pat Buchanan Loved Obama's Convention Speech

Ted Stevens: Sarah Palin a Series of Tubes

Sarah Palin is not a big truck. You can't keep piling it on. Sarah Palin is a series of tubes.

WoW 3.0.2 Patch Notes: Laughing my Balls Off

So, Blizzard released some information regarding the 3.0.2 patch. After getting about halfway through the post I laughed my balls off. So, I thought you all might enjoy knowing why.

Blizzard is changing the way Buffs and Debufs stack in raids. Previously, certain buffs only affected members of one's 5 person party and not the raid as a whole. Upon the release of 3.0.2 buffs will affect the entire raid. The reasoning behind this is "We want players to be able to form raids and parties based on who they want to play with, rather than who has the correct talents and abilities to min-max their raid performance." So, rather than put a Shamman in every caster group to give those casters Totem of Wrath now one shaman's totem will affect the entire raid. Which certainly sounds neat, until you see how they're balancing this.

There are thirty or so different categories into which buffs and debuffs fit. Here you will find a comprehensive list of the changes made broken down by category and which spells/talents are in that category.
In each category, you can only benefit from the most powerful spell granting that effect. For example, Fel Intelligence grants spirit and intellect, both weaker than Arcane Intellect and Divine Spirit. If a player has Fel Intelligence and receives a stronger Arcane Intellect buff, he will gain the intellect value from Arcane Intellect and the spirit value from Fel Intelligence.

This is the point at which I laughed my balls off.

To simplify raid composition, to enable players to "to be able to form raids and parties based on who they want to play with, rather than who has the correct talents and abilities to min-max their raid performance" Blizzard is creating a new definition of raid optimization, a new system of exclusion.

Think of it this way. Pre 3.0.2 Totem of Wrath affected only the 5 people in the casting shaman's party. With 3.0.2 Totem of Wrath will affect the entire raid. So, pre-3.0.2 raids who had more than 5 casters had to include an elemental shaman in each 5 person party which needed the buff. (which usually meant that 2 Elemental Shamans were ensured spots) With 3.0.2? Raids need only have ONE Totem of Wrath source, ONE Elemental Shaman. More than one is a waste of a spot. By reclassifying Buffs into 30 categories Blizzard has now created a new system of raid composition: Build a Raid which maximizes those 30 categories.

That's why I laughed my balls off. Blizzard wants to open raid compositions, remove barriers and allow more people in. But the system they made to do that LIMITS CHARACTER INCLUSION!

And that's completely ignoring the new automation system Blizzard is creating for mana regeneration abilities:

In addition to this change, we also needed to address the "mana battery" roles in a raid. The mana regeneration effect they grant is no longer limited to their own party, and it no longer depends on the amount of damage they deal. Each time they trigger the mana regeneration effect, 10 people in their raid group will receive a buff which causes them to regenerate 0.5% of their maximum mana each second. This buff, Replenishment, will be given preferentially to raid members with the lowest mana, but will re-evaluate which raid members receive it each time it is fired. Replenishment is provided by Shadow Priests, Survival Hunters, and Retribution Paladins.

Man, I can't fucking wait until my warlock gets the Replenishment buff over a healing priest. That will be spectacular!

Fucking Blizzard. "It works! LET'S BREAK IT!"

Palin for Governor: Issues

Since http://www.palinforgovernor.com/issues.html has gone to "Service Unavailable" it's probably the case that the McCain campaign is shutting it down or tampering with it. So, the content from that page (loaded from my cache) can be found in the first comment to this post, if anyone wants it.

McCain: Sarah Palin's Vagina

Well played, McCain?

With a vice presidential pick of Sarah Palin McCain makes an obvious appeal to Pumas, those Hillary Supporters who are simply pissed as fuck that Obama picked Biden. As the 1984 winner of the Miss Alaska beauty pageant I'm sure Sarah Palin would bring great strengths and mental rigor to the office of Vice President. As a creationist, Palin will certainly behoove McCain's "golden street cred" with the moronic dipshit wing of his party. And as someone who does not know what the Vice President does I'm sure she'll be funny to watch:

“[A]s for that V.P. talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day?

But I'm mostly trying to figure out what the fuck McCain is thinking; if McCain actually watched the Democratic Convention.

Yes, there are Hillary supporters who are pissed off. But that number keeps shrinking. Going into the Convention around 20% of Hillary Supporters were pissed off. We do not have any numbers for after the convention yet. But in what way is it sensible for McCain to make a Vice Presidential pick to steal 20% (if not fewer) of Hillary Clinton supporters?

And it's not as if Palin shares Hillary's goals or ideals. If one looks at Palin's positions on the issues one can see that Palin's comparison to Hillary Clinton begins and ends with her lack of a penis. Are Clinton supporters really that fixated on penises and vaginas? Is that all they care about? Peruse Palin's stance on Social Issues:

I am pro-life and I believe that marriage should only be between and man and a woman. I am opposed to any expansion of gambling in Alaska.

Pithy.

I don't know what the fuck McCain is thinking. Romney would have helped him with the economy. Tom Ridge would have helped McCain with the "9/11" crowd. Palin? The only explanation for Polin is that doddering old McCain thinks this is two months ago, when the Democratic Presidential Race was primarily fixated on penises and vaginas.

Obama Convention Speech

Jon Stewart: On Campaign Coverage

Obama: Nominated

Hugh Laurie: Protest Song

Zero Punctuation: Braid

Hillary to Supporters: STOP BEING FUCKHEADS!

"Fuck Fox News"

Watch as Nerdy McNerd Nerd from Fox News wades into a crowed of "Far Left" protesters in Denver, featuring such evil Obama hating thugs. People like Cindy Sheehan, the rights ultimate cypher, and Ward Churchill.



Two things about this clip. First off, how is walking into the middle of a marching crowd an effective way of learning about these groups issues. By pulling a stunt like this, this goober is trying to bait the crowd into reacting negatively to his presents. People can clearly see who he is reporting for, and it sure to get a rise out of the marchers.

The second thing that stands out has to do with his repeated assertion that his free speech is being violated. The first amendment does not require people to answer questions.

They're God Damned Sophists

φιλοσοφία is not the articulation of a desire to earn money and fame through publishing works and amassing journal articles. Philosophía is not subject to some social system or departmental union of hapless layabouts attempting to amass funds. Philosophy, love of wisdom, love of knowledge, is not some half-hearted endeavor meant to serve as a distraction while one mucks about attempting to live one's life and have a good time at a bar. Philosophy is that act of engaging with reality and discerning truth and knowledge and wisdom.

Which does not appear to be what Graduate School is. Grad School is a collection of Sophists doing the exact same mundane, opportunistic, money driven bullshit that the sophists of antiquity did.

Sure, philosophy is there, kind of, suppressed into the background by due dates and grading hierarchies and class schedules. A brief glimmer of philosophy may appear within the designated time frame of a class. Philosophy, as a thing, in this metaphor, can occasionally be seen struggling against the tide of everyday activities. But philosophy is not what this place is about. It's not the primary drive. This is just another system. This is just another mundane actualization of self-preservation maintained by beings incapable of manual labor.

In the Emendation of the Intellect Spinoza wrote:
So I wondered whether perhaps it would be possible to reach my new goal-or at least the certainty of attaining it-without changing the conduct and plan of life which I shared with other men. Often I tried this, but in vain. For most things which present themselves in life, and which, to judge from their actions, men think to be the highest good, may be reduced to these three: wealth, honor, and sensual pleasure. The mind is so distracted by these three that it cannot give the slightest thought to any other good.

The point being, of course, that to engage in philosophy one must abandon all of that other shit. To pursue knowledge and wisdom one must abandon those fabricated sorts of "knowledge" and "wisdom" propagated by society. To actually be philosophers we can't be concerned with our department's funding, the readership of our newsletter, or introductory picnics meant to foster a welcoming social atmosphere.

Yes, to be beings concerned with our own self-preservation and social, financial means we must be concerned with those components of the grand social fabrication which foster development in those arenas. To increase funding we must jump through those hoops. To have a keen social life we have to maintain and foster those relationship by jumping through those hoops. To maintain our existence we must jump through those hoops.

But in the effort to do philosophy; in that effort to pursue and find truth, knowledge, and wisdom? Those hoops are hindrances; they do not behoove us.

So when you observe these people with their families and their children and their friends you start to wonder why they're here; why they're maintaining the position that they are philosophers when, obviously, they are not.

And the answer really does little more than fill one with an inconsolable rage.