Astronomer

Do you think anyone will become sick like a plague or other kind of illness as their are theories that many catastrophes in our time are the fault of meteors that carry these viruses? I doubt as well but just in interesting thought. So if we see many people get sick in time... maybe it is true. Nope. Not a chance. The odds of anything biological coming in from space are near zero. If in the remotest chance that something biological did come in, the odds of it having the exact biological pathways to infect something that evolved here would be as close to absolute zero as one could imagine. Viruses infect us because we're of the same biosphere - they evolve in an arms race against our defences so they have learned to "trick" receptors on cells etc. Remember - we (viruses, fish, plants, elephants etc) all evolved from a common ancestor in the remote past (all have DNA. Plant, animal, it doesn't matter. DNA is DNA), so that common origin means that we're alike enough that DNA can be transferred, defences can be broken. Anything from not around here would have no pathways to infect us. Gesssusss Mate..what a Lecture...!!! ..and you play among us Idiots...???? ;-) I'm a science nerd.

Do you think anyone will become sick like a plague or other kind of illness as their are theories that many catastrophes in our time are the fault of meteors that carry these viruses? I doubt as well but just in interesting thought. So if we see many people get sick in time... maybe it is true. Nope. Not a chance. The odds of anything biological coming in from space are near zero. If in the remotest chance that something biological did come in, the odds of it having the exact biological pathways to infect something that evolved here would be as close to absolute zero as one could imagine. Viruses infect us because we're of the same biosphere - they evolve in an arms race against our defences so they have learned to "trick" receptors on cells etc. Remember - we (viruses, fish, plants, elephants etc) all evolved from a common ancestor in the remote past (all have DNA. Plant, animal, it doesn't matter. DNA is DNA), so that common origin means that we're alike enough that DNA can be transferred, defences can be broken. Anything from not around here would have no pathways to infect us.

Glad to see you wearing the tags Tigerlily! See you in the FT server!

Awesome for the folks in Russia if this is true. I participated in a grid search for pieces of meteorite a couple of years ago with a team from the local university's Astronomy and Earth Sciences department, headed by a friend of mine. One of the pieces struck and smashed a car windshield. Our team didn't find any, though we got to hike through beautiful vinyards and up the Niagara Escarpment. Beautiful views.

Great Motherboard, love the case, awesome video card! You'll love booting from the SSD as well. Congrats on the new system! Can't wait to see the interior/exterior pictures!

Yup. A 750-800w supply would have been plenty for my needs, but when I got a great deal on the 1200w, I took it. My tower now has 6 drives, 2 hot-swap bays, 2 video cards etc. 800w would still be enough, but I like having some overhead, particularly as I add more crap top the rig. :-) Best advice is to get a brand with a good reputation (Corsair, Thermaltake, Seasonic etc,). Do your research before you buy. Some PSU calculators can be found here: 1. ThermalTake PSU Calculator - http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power 2. http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html 3. http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine 4. http://www.journeysystems.com/power_supply/ The above was taken from this well-worth-the-read page: http://www.squidoo.com/best-psu-power-supply

On-board audio has improved dramatically over the past few years, so you can save some $$ and use what comes with the motherboard. 8Gb RAM is more than enough for gaming, but memory is cheap, so 16Gb can be had for under $100. A single video card will do you fine, so get the best that's within your budget. I went overboard and bought 2 EVGA nVidia 680's, but the price was right and my frame rates and graphics effects are awesome. I still suck at gaming, however. I've had great luck with ASUS motherboards. I have a P8Z77-V Deluxe in my main rig for its power handling capabilities. It has 16-phase power for the CPU. As an over-clocker, this is important to me as it provides enhanced stability in regards to voltage to the CPU. Definitely get a SSD for a boot drive and for loading your games. Speed is king and the 15 second or so boot times is worth it. an 800-1200w power supply is a must, particularly if you plan on rocking 2 video cards and adding drives, water cooling etc. I found a great deal on a Cooler Master 1200w PSU so I went with that. Make sure that whatever display you get has a good refresh rate so that you get no motion blur. My main 27" screen states 1ms. That may be a marketing exaggeration (or not), but it's a joy to use when gaming. Also, get a case with plenty of fans or room for fans and space for air flow and cable management. Good luck! Keep the questions coming!

Happy birthday, big guy!

I was living in Nova Scotia, Canada, almost a decade ago when we got over 3 feet of snow (with strong winds) in 24 hours. Our driveway could hold 6 cars. It took 2 of us with snow scoops 13 hours to clear out the 5 foot drifts. 4x4's couldn't make it to the top of the hill where our home was. That was an amazing storm. 6 months prior, we were in the eye of Hurricane Juan. That was a helluva year for weather!

Thanks! Very awesome of you to do this.

Were you in a building or up against a wall? Sometimes your character's body will pass through a wall and become a target.

I haven't seen this one before. Been in this situation many times in COD. My wife thinks the bearded guy reminds her of Belted. The dipshit with the heavy reminds me of...me.

Wow! I can't wait until I retire too, ya lucky bastard!

Canada Computers has these for $69 every now and then. That's where I picked mine up at.

Congrats! Love my RAT7. Best gaming mouse that I've used.

Totally agree with the media grotesquely glorifying the shooters. On an unrelated note but regarding the video...Holy Crap! Ted Nugent has changed A LOT since I last saw him!

That...was hot!

Belted just gave you a box of choc-o-lates...

http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Can-A-New-GPU-Rejuvenate-A-Five-Year-Old-Gaming-Rig-/ "New video card launches from AMD and NVIDIA are almost always reviewed on hardware less than 12 months old. That's not an arbitrary decision — it helps reviewers make certain that GPU performance isn't held back by older CPUs and can be particularly important when evaluating the impact of new interfaces or bus designs. That said, an equally interesting perspective might be to compare the performance impact of upgrading a graphics card in an older system that doesn't have access to the substantial performance gains of integrated memory controllers, high speed DDR3 memory, deep multithreading or internal serial links. As it turns out, even using a midrange graphics card like a GeForce GTX 660, substantial gains up to 150 percent can be achieved without the need for a complete system overhaul."

Thanks for sharing that!

This kid is awesome, and I mean that sincerely. He has obvious challenges, but he has a real passion (to put it mildly) for the weather and he has his own YouTube channel. His videos are reposted on an Atlantic Canadian Facebook weather page and folks there are very supportive of him. It's too bad some a-holes have to post the occasional nasty comment to his videos on YT. I'd replace my local TV weather person with him in a heartbeat! You go Frankie!

Just saw this...Good deals on the nVidia 660's and 670's. You can add another one later on to give yourself a serious performance boost if you need it.

I'm running 2x EVGA GTX 680's, 2Gb. Sweet frame-rates at high graphic levels, though one would be more than enough. I'm an over-clocker and I hack the crap out of my hardware (custom firmware on the video cards to unlock voltages and other goodies to boost overclocks) . These are top-notch cards, though you can get 95% of the performance at a better price with the 670's.

Strong disagree here. "Male bonding" is really "unit member bonding". Under fire, gender means squat.