Universal Soldier #8's page

What knowledge skill would psychic powers and abilities fall under?
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Where is this found?
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Perhaps this has been asked and answered but my search fu is just bad. I think I remember this being answered or actually reading it in the book but I'm at a loss.
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Note: I've just been playing around with the downtime rules and was seeing what it would take to make a "monastery" building into a "psychic monastery".

I am reading the material and I am interpreting it in a particular manner, but I am unsure of the validity of my interpretations.
I used the search option and didn't quite seem to find what I was looking for, so...

The phrenic archetype brings in changes at the following levels- 2, 4, 6, 9, 12, 18

The rules for mystics with archetypes state- For any level at which an archetype provides an alternate class feature, a mystic who takes the archetype alters or replaces the listed class features.

I am interpreting this to mean it does so from the beginning- 1st level, even if it is a result of a 6th or 18th level change. Does it do so from the beginning or when the change takes place?

Example 1: the phrenic archetype introduces phrenic awakening at level 2
The Mystic change for an archetype that introduces something at level 2 is- For the highest level of mystic spell you can cast, reduce the number of mystic spells known by 1... The rule goes on to describe how this effects levels 2, 3, and 4.
Question: Does this apply at level 1 also?

Example 2: the phrenic archetype introduces phrenic senses at level 6
The Mystic change for an archetype that introduces something at level 6 is-You don’t gain access to the highest-level connection power you would normally have access to.
Question: Does this start at level 6 when you would normally gain a 6th level connection power or does it start at level 1? IOW, do you gain the level 1 and level 3 powers normally and then gain a delayed progression starting at 6 or are you delayed from the beginning and don't gain the level 1 connection power until level 3? The same can be asked of the level 18 replacement change- is your access to the second highest level power delayed until level 18 or do you not gain your level 1 power until level 6?

Similar questions can be asked regarding access to connection spells...

I have been searching for some general timeline info but haven't found it and was hoping that I could be filled in or pointed in the right direction if it has been released.

1. Has any type of basic timeline for events been released?

2. Do we have any idea how long it has been since the drift drive was gifted to the races by Triune?

3. As I understand it, drift technology was granted before the war against the Veskarium Empire and that war lasted centuries until the swarm arrived. Is that correct and do we have any idea how long the swarm war lasted and how long ago it ended? It did end, correct?

4. Since the two game systems are different, have we been told whether or not the technology in Starfinder (weapons and armor and others) is similar in power level to that produced by Androffa?

TIA

This curiosity came up while playing in the new Rise of the Runelords game tonight.

So, if you are not familiar with it and want to play without getting a spoiler you may wish to stop reading here.

Edit Note: Perhaps this should have gone in a different forum. I'm not sure where it should go...

Either this hasn't been explicitly asked or my google fu is off.

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Benefit: The alchemist can throw bombs that splash in a 40-foot line rather than affecting a radius. The line starts at the alchemist and extends away from him in the direction he chooses. The alchemist designates one creature in the squares affected by the line to be the target of the bomb and makes his attack roll against that creature; all other squares in the line take splash damage.
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Draw a line for AoE then target a square in the line for direct damage is different than targeting a hex for direct damage and then splashing around it.

The description says nothing about misses.

IOW, is the direction of the line set by the alchemist regardless of whether or not he misses?
If he misses the creature would the line remain in place and a new spot be the full damage square (perhaps in or out of the line)?
Would miss be determined normally and a new line be drawn through it as a 40' line?

Yes, I am asking that question.

Mainly, I am looking to what would be necessary to start a colony in an airless or near airless environment such as an asteroid of the diaspora.

IOW, game mechanics to meet the basic necessities of such a venture.
Things such as (air) life support and protection from vacuum.

1. Denizens to populate or at least build until it has self-contained life support?
2. Magic spells and items to make use of?
3. Technology?
4. 3rd party spells, equipment, classes?
5. Trying to minimize cost but if really expensive is the only way...

My general thoughts/plans for starting:

1. Portal or interplanetary teleport
2. Make simulacrums (sp?) of the robot gearsman as they would work best in such an environment. Undead may work fine but intelligent undead with the proper skills and a willingness to work unsupervised my be difficult to arrange...
3. Build greenhouses enclosed using the gearsmen. Basically pay outright for the price of the building (Ultimate Campaign) and have it built underground by the robots.
4. Greenhouse(s) would need light...everburning torches (cheap), item to have daylight (expensive) in continuous operation; possibly a heat source
5. Means of an airlock for going in and out? Or perhaps something like a two way dimension door portal so that an airlock would not be needed?

Just looking for ideas onn problems that would need to be addressed and means to address them.

Ideas?

I am hoping to be wrong on this but don't think I am. So, I am looking for the specific defining words or a trick to accomplish it.

Can a character (human, half-elf, half-orc) take racial heritage as their first level feat to qualify and take their first character level in a racial archetype of a class?

If so, how. Or, is there not something stopping this?

Note: I have seen such wording regarding feats and quals for prestige class qualification but I have not seen it specifically for base class qualification...

Pretty good news for a change. I hope someone hasn't posted this elsehwere and I just missed it.

Baby born with AIDS virus appears to have been cured

WASHINGTON A baby born with the virus that causes AIDS appears to have been cured, scientists announced Sunday, describing the case of a child from Mississippi who's now two and a half years old and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection.

There's no guarantee the child will remain healthy, although sophisticated testing uncovered just traces of the virus' genetic material still lingering. If so, it would mark only the world's second reported cure.

Specialists say Sunday's announcement, at a major AIDS meeting in Atlanta, offers promising clues for efforts to eliminate HIV infection in children, especially in AIDS-plagued African countries where too many babies are born with the virus.

"You could call this about as close to a cure, if not a cure, that we've seen," Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, who is familiar with the findings, told The Associated Press.

Challenges abound as researchers search for rare disease treatments
How they survived the plague: The battle for AIDS research
A doctor gave this baby faster and stronger treatment than is usual, starting a three-drug infusion within 30 hours of birth. That was before tests confirmed the infant was infected and not just at risk from a mother whose HIV wasn't diagnosed until she was in labor.

"I just felt like this baby was at higher-than-normal risk, and deserved our best shot," Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist at the University of Mississippi, said in an interview.

That fast action apparently knocked out HIV in the baby's blood before it could form hideouts in the body. Those so-called reservoirs of dormant cells usually rapidly reinfect anyone who stops medication, said Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins Children's Center. She led the investigation that deemed the child "functionally cured," meaning in long-term remission even if all traces of the virus haven't been completely eradicated.

Next, Persaud's team is planning a study to try to prove that, with more aggressive treatment of other high-risk babies. "Maybe we'll be able to block this reservoir seeding," Persaud said.

No one should stop anti-AIDS drugs as a result of this case, Fauci cautioned.

But "it opens up a lot of doors" to research if other children can be helped, he said. "It makes perfect sense what happened."

Better than treatment is to prevent babies from being born with HIV in the first place.

About 300,000 children were born with HIV in 2011, mostly in poor countries where only about 60 percent of infected pregnant women get treatment that can keep them from passing the virus to their babies. In the U.S., such births are very rare because HIV testing and treatment long have been part of prenatal care.

"We can't promise to cure babies who are infected. We can promise to prevent the vast majority of transmissions if the moms are tested during every pregnancy," Gay stressed.

Doctors claim to have "functional cure" for HIV
Timothy Ray Brown, man thought to be first "cured" of AIDS, says he's still cured

11 PHOTOS
Man "cured" of AIDS: Timothy Ray Brown
The only other person considered cured of the AIDS virus underwent a very different and risky kind of treatment — a bone marrow transplant from a special donor, one of the rare people who is naturally resistant to HIV. Timothy Ray Brown of San Francisco has not needed HIV medications in the five years since that transplant.

The Mississippi case shows "there may be different cures for different populations of HIV-infected people," said Dr. Rowena Johnston of amFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. That group funded Persaud's team to explore possible cases of pediatric cures.

It also suggests that scientists should look back at other children who've been treated since shortly after birth, including some reports of possible cures in the late 1990s that were dismissed at the time, said Dr. Steven Deeks of the University of California, San Francisco, who also has seen the findings.

"This will likely inspire the field, make people more optimistic that this is possible," he said.

In the Mississippi case, the mother had had no prenatal care when she came to a rural emergency room in advanced labor. A rapid test detected HIV. In such cases, doctors typically give the newborn low-dose medication in hopes of preventing HIV from taking root. But the small hospital didn't have the proper liquid kind, and sent the infant to Gay's medical center. She gave the baby higher treatment-level doses.

The child responded well through age 18 months, when the family temporarily quit returning and stopped treatment, researchers said. When they returned several months later, remarkably, Gay's standard tests detected no virus in the child's blood.

Ten months after treatment stopped, a battery of super-sensitive tests at half a dozen laboratories found no sign of the virus' return. There were only some remnants of genetic material that don't appear able to replicate, Persaud said.

In Mississippi, Gay gives the child a check-up every few months: "I just check for the virus and keep praying that it stays gone."

The mother's HIV is being controlled with medication and she is "quite excited for her child," Gay added.

© 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

About this:

"a comprehensive table of the gods in the pantheon"

Since it is a table and not in length explanations, what is included on this table that is not included in the table added to the last page of the world guide covering the 12, the fallen, and the primordials?

Are there any rules for creating these anywhere?

Creating something like one of Golarion's flying cities (now fallen...) seems epic and out of league for the PFRPG. But, at a cost of 50000gp for the airship, it seems within the realm of higher level characters and the power doesn't seem to be out of bounds as, by upper levels, teleport is available and flight is pretty common.

So, I'm looking for some guidelines, preferably (but not exclusively) from the rules themselves...

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Alpha Orcs

Point Expenditures for Alpha Orcs
0 RP Type: Humanoid (orc, human)
0 RP Size: Medium
0 RP Base Speed: Normal
2 RP Ability Scores: Flexible Modifiers
0 RP Language Trait: Xenophobic (choose from common, orc, draconic, goblinoid
1 RP Defensive Racial Ability: Defensive Training, Lesser (humans)
3 RP Defensive Racial Ability: Defensive Training, Greater
1 RP Movement Racial Ability: Fast
4 RP Offensive Racial Ability: Ferocity
1 RP Offensive Racial Ability: Weapon familiarity (Firearms, Man Catcher)
2 Senses Racial Ability: Darkvision
4 Senses Racial Ability: Scent
2 Genetic Suite: Master Tinker (2) or Natural Armor (2) or Silent Hunter (2)

Alpha Orcs Racial History

Though their name suggests they are merely a superior breed of orc, they are in fact partly human. Many years prior to the present (though the actual meaning of time passage when comparing differing dimensions can be disputed...) the military of a nation in a highly advanced technological world (one might say it was a world with super villains and heroes) with little to no (common) knowledge of magic came upon a dimensional rift. Orcs poured through it. Of course, the orcs were no match for the technology of the nation and were quickly dispatched with many prisoners taken for interrogation (i.e. experimentation).

This "experimentation" resulted in an attempt to create super-soldiers that could be used for many purposes ranging from combat to crowd control. Using the Orc DNA to improve certain aspects, they were genetically designed to be superior in many categories but easily controlled. But, there were dissenters within the program and those who wished to destroy it from without. Many of the specimens grown in uterine vats had their chosen DNA altered to make them far more independent thinking, and some even rebellious. With the aid of an outside agency (some individuals referred to as super heroes), these free thinking Alpha Orcs made an escape and took with them many stored embryos (with the free thinking genes) and fled through an unstable dimensional door.

This trip was fraught with danger and much of the technology brought with them was lost. They held off many who thought to take control of them but finally claimed a reasonable amount of security. However, after much internal strife, they made a decision and abducted many women from some local human and orc tribes so that they could implant the remaining embryos brought from the old world and assure the survival of their race. The result brought forth an unforeseen outcome. None of the Alpha Orcs had been previously raised by mothers who had loved them. They were born out of vats.

This led to an awakening in the Alpha Orcs who had been focused solely on military survival. In the generations since, the Alpha Orcs have remained largely xenophobic but have begun to expand their area of control and have sought to trade with others in order to learn that which they have forgotten and raise the bar to new heights.

Alpha Orcs (racial description)

Alpha Orcs are a young, proud race resulting from genetic tampering with the intent of making super soldiers on some far off technologically advanced world. They have worked hard to ensure their survival and have only recently begun to reach out to other races and societies. Their current home world has a small population and a number of dimensional doors. They keep many secrets of their own which they have refused to divulge even for the much sought after knowledge of magic.

Physical Description: Alpha Orcs have an appearance that closely resembles their lesser Orc brethren but they are not quite as tall and not nearly so thick. Most are long limbed, almost to the point of being very unusual. They have dark, thick hair and eyes whose color covers a wide range. They often cut their hair short, even the females, and typically carry themselves in a distinctly disciplined and military manner.

Society: The Alpha Orc society is quite xenophobic as a result of having fought so long for their survival. They are communal but also have close family ties. Although they demand adherence to a strict set of rules, they do not tolerate slavery or magical compulsion. Those who do not follow the rules of the homeland are excommunicated. But, in the homeland, they have quite a bit of technology that they use with the most notable of these being firearms, even advanced ones. Resources have limited their production and growth as a society.

Relations: Alpha Orcs have little love for their Orc cousins and less still for their Human cousins, although their skill at fighting their human cousins will allow them the comfort of trading with them. They feel both empathy and pity for the Half-Orcs they have met and there are numerous ostracized Alpha Orcs who have sought to ally themselves with such half breeds. They resent the hatred they receive from Elves and Dwarves and have no trouble in returning it to these groups.

Alignment and Religion: Alpha Orcs have been forced to live a regimented life in order survive but they chafe under it as they have many progenitors that were genetically engineered to be free thinkers. But, they still have a high genetic disposition toward cooperation as they were engineered to work in combat groups. But, having escaped with little culture (and none of it their own) they have very little cultural identity regarding divinity and the afterlife. Many who leave the homeland flock to various congregations.

Adventurers: There has been a recent surge in Alpha Orc adventurers as they have sought to investigate the world and dimensions around them. This includes spies and scouts as well as those who have been excommunicated. They are numerous gunslingers and monks and rangers among them. Practitioners of magic (both arcane and divine) as well as rogues are virtually nonexistent in those of the first generation to leave the homeland.

Male Names: David, Evan, Richard, Thomas etc.
Female Names: Beverly, Jennifer, Sarah, Vanessa

Alpha Orc Racial Traits

+2 to any two abilities: Alpha Orcs were engineered to be superior

Medium: Alpha Orcs are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Swift-footed: Alpha Orcs were engineered to move quickly about the battlefield. Base movement of 40'.

Darkvision: Alpha Orcs were given the genetics of darkvision so as to be elite units on a modern battlefield.

Scent: The Orcish olfactory senses were heightened to keep these battlefield predators from being ambushed.

Ferocity: Alpha Orcs were engineered to fight to the death. An Alpha Orc remains conscious and can continue fighting even if its hit point total is below 0. The Alpha Orc is still staggered and loses 1 hit point each round. It still dies when its hit point total reaches a negative amount equal to its Constitution score.

Defensive Training: Alpha Orcs were designed to react to human movements and gain a +4 dodge bonus when facing humans

Combat Training: Alpha Orcs were genetically engineered to react to the brutal modern battlefield with firearms and receive a +2 dodge bonus to AC.

Weapon Familiarity: Being genetically engineered for riot control and fighting on the modern battlefield, Alpha Orcs are proficient with Man Catchers and Firearms. They pick up the items and instinctively recognize their use.

Genetic Suites: Alpha Orcs were designed to fill various roles and there appear to be a number of genetic suits they have received. Choose one of the following: Master Tinker (+1 on disable device and knowledge: engineering, proficient with any weapon personally created), Natural Armor (+1 bonus to natural armor), or Silent Hunter (reduce the penalty for stealth checks when moving by -5 and can make stealth checks at -20 while running).

Languages: Alpha (The First, their language). Alpha Orcs with high intelligence scores can learn from the following: Common, Orc, Goblin, and Draconic.

Thread started.

link to the..."Serious: I can't believe I just read this" thread

Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem Are Having an Anchor Baby

At least Fox News can now openly admit their racism...

That seems pretty openly inflammatory to me. Not only that, we have been recently reminded, by Liz, of the thread at the top of the OTD subforum...

"Please Play Nice in the Political Threads" thread.

In it...

<snip>
Consider this a blanket warning: threads started with incendiary titles for the specific purpose of starting a flame war will earn the poster a temp ban, no warning, from now on. Paizo's messageboards are not the place for you to air your grievances against those you disagree with. Play nice.

-Josh

Although, technically, the "title" isn't incendiary, the actual content of the OP is. I don't see that as being a worthy distiction. So, although I feel it inappropriate to make inquiries regarding the starter of the thread, why would such a thread be allowed to exist after we have just recently been remined about the stickied thread?

link

I had no idea it is this bad. What has become of personal responsibility? :(

Try this.

Note: I haven't tried it but it looks like what you are asking for.

Would anyone happen to know the page count on this?

That would give me an idea on what type of crunching they did in this basic set.

Is it mostly lists and costs without full descriptions or is it all the full descriptions with the only thing missing being the individual breakdown (included in the corebook) of how advantages and limitations affect each and every power?

I don't know if the powers that be are aware of this or if this is the correct place to make this statement, but it seems that all the links to the faction guide product have broken down and send the site user to the Pathfinder Chronicles product page. There is a list of the products excluding the faction guide.

Pathfinder Chronicles product page

If a product is chosen and then the left and right arrows are followed to the right, the user will eventually get to a faction guide link that will revert the user back to the above page.

:(

I was looking through the bestiary and I read something in the back of the book that surprised me:

Orc Subtype: This subtype is applied to orcs and creatures related to orcs, such as half-orcs. Creatures with the orc subtype have darkvision 60 feet and light sensitivity.

So, does this mean that half-orc player characters are supposed to have the light sensitivity quality?

Has anyone been playing the race that way?

Is this in some errata that I haven't read?

I originally thought it would not apply to PCs because it wasn't specifically mentioned in the half-orc description within the PF core rulebook. However, I am reconsidering after reading this explicit statement:

Orc BloodHalf-orcs count as both humans and orcs for any effect related to race.

Any thoughts?

I am curious as to whether or not there is any published material for a few places and where I can find it if it exists. The places are as follows:

Palin's Cove: a port town in the vicinity of Korvosa at the mouth of the Falcon River.

Harse: a settlement upriver from Palin's Cove where the Sarwin River empties into the Falcon River.

Crystalrock: A fortress (?) upriver from Harse where the Falcon River first leaves the Mindspin Mountains.

Thanks in advance.

I updated to Adobe Reader 9.3, deleted my files and tried again. Now, I receive a message that say: Insufficient Data for image. I have all blank pages. But, it is listed as Zip in mt folder rather than PDF, so I am working on that...

Damn, I wish I had saved that one.

2d6 ⇒ (6, 5) = 112d6 ⇒ (5, 4) = 92d6 ⇒ (1, 6) = 7

Is it a trap? Students push Admiral Ackbar for Ole Miss mascot

I just find this hysterical. :)

Will a "Star Wars" character be the new Ole Miss mascot?

The campaign for Admiral Ackbar is gaining Internet, if not intergalactic, steam.

Tuesday, Ole Miss students voted to find a new mascot to replace the abandoned Colonel Reb. A student committee to develop and propose a new mascot will be formed soon.

Ackbar, a member of the Mon Calamari species who led the Rebel Alliance ships into the Battle of Endor, appears to be the early favorite. He has more than 14,000 Facebook fans. Websites like notatrap.org -- "It's a trap!" was his famous line -- are promoting Ackbar's candidacy.

"Who wants a Colonel when you could have an Admiral?" the Web site asks, before launching into "The Story of Ole Miss Ackbar."

Fast Track Tragedy: Shame on Olympics

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- So this is what the Olympics have become, a dateline for a death sport. It wasn't enough for organizers to build a safe, practical sliding track on Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler. No, they had to design a $105 million monster that turned the luge into a joyride to hell, with wicked turns, a 152-meter drop -- the world's longest -- and a surface so rapid that it lured racers to approach 95 mph.

Too fast. Too dangerous. And too deadly for a mere sled -- basically, a missile upon which a human being slides face-up and feet-first, vulnerable to his immediate demise.

All week, there have been crashes on the course, more than a dozen in total, one that left a Romanian athlete unconscious for a brief time. And all week, not a soul from the International Olympic Committee, the International Luge Federation or the Vancouver organizing committee expressed concerns about the wipeouts. Nevermind that one racer had described the 13th curve as the "50-50 Curve,'' based on the odds of a crash. Nevermind that 15 months ago, when the sport's elite racers familiarized themselves with the Whistler Sliding Center, athletes suffered 73 crashes during training runs. Nevermind that as recently as Thursday, U.S. luger Christian Niccum compared ramming into the ice at 90 mph to being on fire, saying, "I just wanted to rip off my suit, 'I'm on fire. I'm on fire.' '' And nevermind that on the same day, Australian luger Hannah Campbell-Pegg voiced an ominous tone and a cry for help.

"I think they are pushing it a little too much. To what extent are we just little lemmings that they just throw down a track and we're crash-test dummies?'' she said. "I mean, this is our lives."

For Nodar Kumaritashvili, a 21-year-old luger from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, this would be his death. In an accident so grisly and horrific that Canadian TV stations suggested viewers turn away, the young athlete died shortly after flying too fast through the 50-50 Curve, losing control on the final 270-degree turn, hurdling projectile-like over an icy wall and slamming into an unpadded -- yes, unpadded -- steel pole. A rescue crew tried to revive him trackside by pumping his chest and giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but there was no hope. Kumaritashvili was dead, a victim of a sport gone mad and organizers who weren't paying enough attention

Wow. This is very sad. My condolences to the family. :(

It happened again. :(

I was watching the Fox News morning show this morning and I saw an interesting story. A fout year old kid who was suffering from over 100 seizures per day stopped suffering them after switching to a ketogenic diet.

WOW!

What is a ketogenic diet you might be thinking?

Well, generally it is a diet designed to stimulate the body to produce ketones by minimizing the amount of sugars ingested. In order to get energy the body must breakdown proteins and that produces ketones as a byproduct.

Note: People suffering from untreated type 1 (insulin dependent) diabetes are unable to use the sugars in their blood and as a result the body eventually begins breaking down proteins and producing letones also...

Well, enough words from me. How about what the Children's Hospital Boston has to say:

Seizures and Epilepsy

Ketogenic diet - Certain children who are having problems with medications, or whose seizures are not being well controlled, may be placed on a special diet called the ketogenic diet. Certain children who are having problems with medications, or whose seizures are not being well controlled, may be placed on a special diet called the ketogenic diet. This type of diet is low in carbohydrates and high in protein and fat.

What is a ketogenic diet?

The ketogenic diet is sometimes offered to those children who continue to have seizures while on seizure medication. When the medications do not work, a ketogenic diet may be considered. No one knows exactly how the diet works, but some children do become seizure-free when put on the diet. However, the diet does not work for everyone.

What does the diet consist of?

The ketogenic diet is very high in fat (about 90 percent of the calories come from fat). Protein is given in amounts to help promote growth. A very small amount of carbohydrate is included in the diet. This very high- fat, low- carbohydrate diet causes the body to make ketones. Ketones are made by the body from protein. They are made for energy when the body does not get enough carbohydrates for energy. If your child eats too many carbohydrates, then his/her body may not make ketones. The presence of ketones is important to the success of the diet

High-fat foods:

butter
heavy cream
oil
mayonnaise
cream cheese
bacon
cheese
cheese

So, the treatment consists of eating BACON! And BUTTER! And CREAM CHEESE! Of course, the low carbohydrate requirement of the diet would remove candy, and cake, and ice cream, and a lot of non-diet beverages. :( But hey, you can't have everything, right?

EAT MORE BACON!

This may sound like a vague question, but what exactly are the limitations on what can be used and thrown as a weapon?

What are the opinions out there and why?

Reporters Become Part of the Story in Haiti by Steve Pendlebury

(Jan. 19) -- As a rule, journalists try to avoid getting personally involved in the stories they cover. But in the midst of such a monumental tragedy as the Haiti earthquake, professional detachment is sometimes put aside -- especially when the reporter is also a physician.

Case in point: CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who's spent a week treating quake victims in between filing compelling reports about the medical catastrophe in Haiti. Gupta -- a neurosurgeon who turned down President Barack Obama's offer to become surgeon general -- has played this dual role before, in 2004 after the tsunami in Southeast Asia and the next year after the earthquake in Pakistan. While reporting on a team of Navy doctors in 2003, he was called on to perform emergency brain surgery on a wounded boy in Iraq. A few days ago, the Navy paged Dr. Gupta again. He went to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to operate on a Haitian girl who suffered a severe head injury in the quake.

Gupta told TVNewser that in such situations, he's a doctor first. But Bob Steele, the Poynter Institute's journalism values scholar, complained that Gupta crosses the line between covering the story and participating in the story too often. "It clouds the lens in terms of the independent observation and reporting," the DePauw University journalism professor told the blog DimeWars.

Of course you can add me to the list of people complaining about something but I believe my complaining about this complaint is warranted. ;)

Note: I am not complaining about the editor (Steve Pendlebury) who penned the linked and quoted article but rather those complaining about the journalistic standards of Gupta and others.

Mexico cartel stitches rival's face on soccer ball

MEXICO CITY—The body of 36-year-old Hugo Hernandez was left on the streets of Los Mochis in seven pieces as a chilling threat to members of the Juarez drug cartel. A note read: "Happy New Year, because this will be your last."
To drive home the point, the assailants skinned Hernandez's face and stitched it onto a soccer ball.
<snip>
His torso was found in a plastic container in one location; elsewhere another box contained his arms, legs and skull, Robles said. Hernandez's face, sewn onto a soccer ball, was left in a plastic bag near City Hall.

I think they have sen too many Quentin Tarantino movies.

This thing is frikkin' huge. I added nearly 1000 feet to the plans after they started building. That is crazy.

Dubai Set to Open World's Tallest Tower

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Jan. 3) - Dubai is set to open the world's tallest building amid tight security on Monday, celebrating the tower as a bold feat on the world stage despite the city state's shaky financial footing.

But the final height of the Burj Dubai - Arabic for Dubai Tower - remained a closely guarded secret on the eve of its opening. At more than 2,625 feet, it long ago vanquished its nearest rival, the Taipei 101 in Taiwan.

The Burj's record-seeking developers didn't stop there.

The building boasts the most stories and highest occupied floor of any building in the world, and ranks as the world's tallest structure, beating out a television mast in North Dakota. Its observation deck - on floor 124 - also sets a record.

I found this starting in USA Today's site and it led to this article:

Forever Gone

'Page 1,020" — it may soon be a mantra for one of the most disturbing abuses of legislative power in history. In setting up an Independent Medicare Advisory Board, that page of the Senate health overhaul bill passed in the dead of night early Monday says, "It shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection."

What does everyone think of this "provision" that was slipped in and would (provided it is constitutional) prevent future congress and senates from making changes to it?

Well, it seems I am forced to add more myself. So be it.

Where do you find a dog with no legs?

Why do gorillas have big nostrils?

What kind of coffee was served on the Titanic?