Watch out for SPORE!

My oldest daughter and I have been waiting for SPORE to come out for a loooong time. Well, it finally did.

All I can say is: What an incredible dissappointment.

The DRM is awful. Electronic Arts apparently thinks that a multi-gamer family should buy multiple copies of the same game so everyone can play.

The license allows you to install the game on up to 3 computers, but you may have only one account.

That’s right… ONE ACCOUNT.

So what that we bought the Creature Creator and it allowed for multiple accounts. How nice for SPORE to be able to use up all those nifty creatures we all created.

And, since I let my daughter sign in first so she could play, the SPORE account I created with the Creature Creator is completely useless now – except to EA.

The thing that sucks the most is that to install SPORE you have to uninstall the Creature Creator. I guess I could live with only being able to play the game with one account, but now I’m out the 10 bucks I spent on the full version of the Creature Creator. Not only do I have to play on my daughter’s account, I can’t continue to build creatures in the Creator on my account.

It’ll be a cold day in hell before we buy another game from EA. From what I hear, the only people who got a game worth playing were the ones who downloaded the pirate version from a torrent.

What a shame.

The Big Picture

(I know it is April Fools Day… but, I assure you, this post is NOT a joke.)

Unless you live under a rock, you’re aware of the theory of “peak oil”.  Everybody knows this, right?  We’ve been taught since childhood that oil comes from dead dinosaurs.  Well, certainly the notion is a bit more complicated than that… but, for the most part, oil comes from what is left of the decayed organic matter that was around millions of years ago.

 I accepted this believe without question until I was well into my 30s.  But, now… not so much.

 You see, I came to the realization one day that the primary thing governments use to control their masses is fuel and the lubrication that drives the machines that drive our economy.  “Petroleum” means literally “Oil from Rock.”  And, I have come to firmly believe that it is just that.  Oil is created continually by the intense pressures deep inside the earth.  It percolates up through the various layers of crust and picks up organic material along the way.  Thus giving the impression that it is a product of the decay of organic matter.

Don’t believe it?  Is it an assault on the very core of your being?

Good… it should be.  But, you should have the courage to delve a bit deeper.  Don’t just scream and run away.  There is more and more evidence to support this belief.  NASA recently discovered that one of Saturn’s moons – Titan – has more hydrocarbons than Earth’s entire oil reserves.  It freaking rains from the sky!

Obviously, Titan was once teeming with dinosaurs and rain forests!  Wow!

Then there are the deep-water researchers who claim that the hydrogen-rich fluids venting from the Lost City Hydrothermic Fields of the Atlantic Ocean are created by abiotic synthesis of hydrocarbons in the center of the earth.  Imagine that…

What you may not realize is that the governments and oil companies of the world know this already as they gouge us at the pumps.  Oil supplies are a political and social hammer to pound the world with and the handle is about to fall off.  They know that one day they won’t be able to keep it a secret any longer.  When that happens, people will understand that the inflated gasoline prices we pay now are simply a method of control.  A way to make the economy shift generally in one direction or another so that they may control a wide variety of things… from food prices to you-name-it.

They know their time is running out.

However, the primary function of power is to do whatever is necessary to maintain it.  How do they do that?  What other thing could they possibly come up with that could wield such control over billions of people.

Carbon Dioxide.  CO2.

You see, the great myth of man-made global warming is the mechanism the powers-that-be will use to keep us under control once the cat is out of the bag on “fossil fuels.”  It is simply a way for the government of every nation to devise new taxes/penalties on individuals and corporations based on their “carbon footprint.”  Tax on your bar-b-que?  You bet.  How about a “mileage tax” on your car?  How about a 1% Global Warming Tax on everything you buy?

It is all about staying in power.  It is all about control.

Just remember… Hurt not the oil and the wine. 

Related Links:

Truckers Pull Rigs Off Road, Others Slow to Crawl in Loosely Organized Protest of Fuel Prices

Abiotic Oil Debate

Discovery backs theory oil not ‘fossil fuel’

New data: Maybe oil isn’t from dead dinos

Titan’s surface organics surpass oil reserves on Earth

World needs more CO2, environment confab told

What is it good for?

WAR! Good God…

Well, you know the words.  War is an awful thing.  Necessary at times, unfortunately, but horrible.

Still, though, I miss the “good old days” when war had meaning.  Not some fight for ideology fought by arm-chair generals sipping cocktails.  But, a nasty, no-holds-barred event when the victor came away with some old-fashioned “spoils of war.”

Used to be, when a leader sent his young people to give their lives they collectively came back with something.  We were conquerors… not messengers of democracy to people who know nothing of it.  War was fought for land and resources.  If you had to go through the horrors of war, you could be assured that if you won, you won more than some political points for the next U.N. meeting.  You took the country.  You filled up your trucks with booty.  You didn’t have to worry about the Geneva Conventions (which only apply to the West, right?)  You didn’t have to worry about whether you had permission to shoot at your enemy.  You blasted them, subjugated their population, took their stuff, and hoisted your flag on their lands.

That’s what should have happened in Iraq… we should’ve went in there and taken over everything.  A McDonald’s on every corner.  Not send our young people to die for some fleeting Iraqi democracy that will never exist – nor do they want.

Contrary to popular, leftist beliefs, the Iraq war is not being fought for oil…  one need only look at the price of a gallon of gas right now to dispell that idiotic belief.  The Iraq War is being fought over ideology.  As much as the politicians deny that this is a war against Islam; that is exactly what it is.  (Not that I think that is necessarily a bad thing.)  And, that’s what our enemy thinks regardless of what western politicians claim.  I would much rather the U.S. have fought the war for oil.  Because, right now, our good soldiers are dying for absolutely nothing.  At least, nothing they can put in a truck and take home with them.

War is dirty.  You can’t fight a war being “nice” to your enemy.  Collateral damage?  Please.  The children of our enemies grow up to be our enemies.  Did we worry about collateral damage during the world wars?  Nope.  If we had, we all be speaking a mix of German and Japanese right now.

So, what is war good for?  Right now, absolutely nothing.  (Say it again…)

But, it didn’t used to be that way.  And if Western Civilization plans on sticking around, we’d better remember how to fight a proper war.  Otherwise, start brushing up on the Quran.

Tell Me How You Really Feel

I’m surprised at how many people call themselves a Liberal or a Conservative when often their core beliefs don’t line-up with their self-proclaimed affiliation.  Here are some quick questions I’ve asked friends when they claim one or the other:

Do you believe abortion should be used as a method of birth control?

Do you believe non-felons should have the right to own and keep a handgun in their home for protection?

Do you believe that Socialism is a viable form of government?

Do you believe that Capitalism is evil?

I’m not going to bother to tell you what you are based on how you answered the above questions… If you’re intellectually honest, you should already be looking at both sides of every issue.  That being the case, you should be able to figure it out for yourself.  Since, however, most people can’t be bothered with such things and only make decisions based on feelings – or how something looks on television – I’m content to let you wallow in self-doubt and confusion.

P.S.  Alan Keyes for President.

Waiting for Windows 7

Caught an interesting article about a software tool that lets you strip some of the bloat from Windows Vista.  Which is great, since from what I’ve seen of it, it is some seriously bloated OS software.  I won’t run it.  My XP system is stripped down to optimize for pro audio and video.  I could care less about pretty backdrops, system sounds, etc.  I cringe when I see Vista with Aero, or whatever it’s called, running.

I mean, its cool and all…  eye-goodies.  If your running a general purpose system for internet, music, etc., go for it.  Impress your friends.  But, if you’re doing anything serious… forget about it.

One tidbit in the article gives me hope, though, the next version of Windows will be modular and initial developers will have to write code based on a “minimal” installation of the new OS.  Maybe one day I’ll have a 64-bit OS with more than 4 gigs of RAM without having to deal with bloated eye-goody that I don’t need.