Azalin

You're not an !@#$ - you're doing me a favor. Just for that, I'm buying two steaks for dinner tonight and tossing one out.

Yeah, that was an interesting read to say the least. I was about three-fourths of the way through before the Christ parallel finally hit me. You never know - they probably still do their laundry on Titan, and what else would they use on their whites?

Not only that, but according to Stranger In A Strange Land, the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is the remnants of a planet that got a little bit too nosy for their own good. Don't mess with the Heinlein.

Nope, I'm basing it on both science and a working knowledge of the infrastructure. You're basing your conclusion on politics. Which one is known to deal in fact, and which one in spin?

I don't know the exact (or even the approximate) amount, but you'd probably need a lot, since as far as I know, oxygen is always a required component for combustion. If Tom has already seen your question, he's probably working out the math right now.

There is a scene in one of the promo videos for this season where they show Palmer lying face-up on the floor - he suddenly sits up, gasping, and there's what looks like bloody tears in his eyes. I posted it earlier in the thread, and I'll repost it if I can find it. Here it is: http://youtu.be/wenmEoWKdiI?t=1m6s

1) I'm pretty sure you'd only have combustion or an explosion if there was oxygen present. 2) Who cares? If there are beings there, screw'em - we have enough diversity around here as it is. Before you know it, they'll be wanting their own bathrooms. 3) If you could blow it up, you'd monetize it by putting up a couple satellites mounted with cameras, advertise the explosion, and make a butt-ton of cash off of the ad revenue.

I think Trump did what he needed to do: Hang in there without losing his #%$@. A lot of people tuned in to see if he'd act like the buffoon that the left continues to try to paint him as (and to be honest, he's definitely come off that way in the past), and Hillary did her best to try to bait him, but it didn't work. I especially liked the way he countered the question of releasing his tax returns by saying he would when Hillary handed over all her missing emails. I expected him to do that, and was pleased that he did. But in the name of all that is holy, it's tough to listen to her voice for more than a minute at a time. Ugh..... the more I hear her, the more a lot of things about Bill start to make more sense.

Thank you, sir.

What evil lurks in the heart of Hillary.... I'm old too.

He said that her husband signed NAFTA. She was first lady at the time.

15 minutes in and she's already blaming the Bush administration for our economic woes.

He sounds like someone I would've gotten along with just fine. RIP.

I have had more meaningful discussions with Gatorman. Believe whatever the hell you want, facts be damned. I'm not wasting any more time with you.

You really need to learn a bit about how the technology works. Comcast was originally a cable television company on par with Time Warner. Both of those companies have infrastructures built around their original coaxial cable system. They used to offer faster internet than phone companies due to the digital cable systems they put in place, because their coaxial carriers were able to handle more traffic. The problem is that fiber is capable of handling much higher transmission speeds, and companies like Alcatel, Fujitsu, etc invested all their R&D into multiplexing and transport technology to be deployed on fiber optics. There's very little that cable companies can do at this point without ripping out their coaxial network and putting in fiber. Time Warner started putting data caps on their customers years ago - not in an effort to "monetize data", but instead to manage the ever increasing load on the network. Seriously, this isn't complicated stuff. Data caps on wireless are there for the same purpose. The network can only handle so much at a time, despite the speed in which the technology is being upgraded. Remember 3G? Then it became 4G? Now we have 4GLTE, with 5G right around the corner. Have you noticed how each new technology is faster than it's predecessor? Or that cost of data plans relative to the monthly data limits has become more affordable? Despite the improvements in the technology, it still isn't anywhere near being what it will become in the next decade - the technology is racing to catch up with customer demand, and the only reason that demand exists is because of the divestiture of AT&T in the early-mid 80's, creating 7 RBOCS (aka "baby bells") and a separate long distance carrier, with whom MCI became the first major competitor. The only reason we even have an internet right now is because the federally regulated monopoly was broken, and free markets were introduced into the industry. Period. Your belief that ISPs aspire to place data caps on home internet is fallacy, mainly because most ISPs already employ multi-tiered pricing by offering different levels of bandwidth for home internet. By coincidence, grocery stores offer lower prices per pound on meat when purchased in the larger family packs. That's the exact same thing.

Of course. What was I thinking?

I've read a summary of the trilogy of novels, and according to what I read, they've veered pretty far afield in the television version. According to the books, Bolivar/Master rips Palmer into pieces once his usefulness has past. This obviously won't happen now, so I'm expecting them to come up with a fresh round of treachery from Palmer - at least one more time. As I mentioned above, I don't see him making it past the end of this season. Unless he somehow becomes the recipient of the crimson worm, which I seriously doubt will happen.

Felons are not permitted to own a firearm. If someone pulls a gun on the police, the police need to shoot them. How much should we pay non-skilled labor in order to avoid crime and social strife?

One of the all-time greats. And this from someone who loathes golf. RIP

Kudos to you for being a good dad. Metal has largely become a parody of itself. Not all bands fall into this category, but a lot are way, way beyond the pale. If you like that sort of thing, then that's fine - to each his own. Personally, I'm not terribly inspired or impressed with ogre vocals belching out corpse-grind poetry over blast beats, but a lot of the younger folks are (this is where I try really hard to not sound like my parents did when I was trying to play along with my Deep Purple records). I believe you and I are fairly close to the same age - with me probably a handful of years older. I think it's safe to not worry about extreme lyrics having a negative effect on your son - most kids, like we did in our day, recognize the extreme for what it is - nothing more than shock value. You strike me as a thoughtful, caring person, and I think you've probably impressed those same qualities on your children. Just try to keep up with what he's listening to, and you should be fine. On the other hand, if he starts throwing down to Nicki Minaj or Justin Beiber, then you've got a serious issue on your hands.

When you think about it, Setrakian holds all the cards in this deal. He can withhold the serum as he wishes, and Palmer's on even thinner ice with Eichhorst as it is. He didn't even know that Bolivar had been slain, so if he's smart he'll realize that he's on the outs with the strigoi and nearing the end of his usefulness. Unfortunately for him, I think his usefulness has neared its end with both sides. I doubt he'll survive the season.

How about "Turds exchange words"?