jeff barr

[quote name='Petrovich4' timestamp='1292918175' post='2548090'] DF disbanded before NEW's attacks. They also had less then 10 members. Their treaties weren't explicitly passed onwards post-death. Also, you have a reckless ally, then don't ally with them. Reap what you sow. [/quote] You forgot this part: DF was explicitly under protection of The International during disbandment. And regarding your last statement, You are saying MADP or bust? aka: no MDoAPs?....[s]MDoAPs[/s]? I am no great FA strategist, but I can tell you, regardless of the situation, that is a poor FA policy.

It's far too early to say yet.

[quote name='bakamitai' timestamp='1292913844' post='2547968'] /me rubs his stache Well done FEAR for honoring your treaties. [b]Too bad PC and iFOK don't.[/b] [/quote] PC and iFOK had an [b]Optional Aggression[/b] treaty with NEW meaning you have the option to NOT follow in your allies footsteps when they make a silly act of aggression. I think NEW's non-allies as well as allies realize the war is unjust/doublefacepalm. I'd say thus far PC and iFok have played their cards wisely. This is clearly why Optional Aggression clauses exist, so you are not sentenced to death by a reckless ally. [ooc]Daft Punk in this Tron sound track is epic win. [/ooc]

[quote name='hellsign' timestamp='1292757577' post='2544287'] you are failure..so shut up sad to say NEW..but war won't happen soon..this is the right moment but at a wrong time..these people are prepared for Xmas & new year party...they will keep this till end of january and bang... [/quote] Right moment but wrong time? So...[i]not[/i] the right moment? I'm not sure what the point of your post is. You can't tell me you fully support raiding a disbanded alliance which is being protected. I simply won't believe it. Although the tone in your response implies otherwise.

lol, NEW. What are you thinking?

Bummer dudes. It is a shame to see you go. Have fun in your new homes!

Awww, I was expecting some lulzy inane ragequit announcement about papajacky and arbiter being incompetent racist jerks. Papajacky + arbiter, i still <3 you, and you are always welcome around my #cnsparta.

[quote name='youwish959' timestamp='1290357605' post='2519097'] ...huh? [/quote] I believe he was pointing out the fact that Vin Diesel is about the most fraudulent badass in existence, and it poorly meshes with your IC persona....or does it O.o

o/ ONYX!! May you grow strong and prosperous!

yeah trades are a pain in the ass. I guess it would be an interesting experiment to see them gone. Although that would really level the playing field even more then the already level playing field. In TE especially, I like going and seeing which Trade Combos are leading nation growth. Alliances put more strategy into trades way back in the day. I dont think most allianes/nations put that much strategy into trades anymore as they are just too much a pain in the ass. Even though the gain is huge if you know what to do with trades, there is a very small percentage of people that actually take advantage of all the benefits trades can offer. Another reason to not get rid of trades is the simple fact that it initially gets nations interested. I remember when I first started a nation, after clicking around on my nation to look at a few things, I had already gotten several trade and alliance request messages, and I thought that was pretty cool back then, because I felt "wanted". If people don't feel wanted, they arent going to play this game. Frankly, If you don't have new comers getting messages about trades, what will the messaging system really be used for? I guess recruiting alliances will use it to target newcomers I guess, but it seems to me like you will lose a pretty significant purpose for your messaging system too.

Awww, I <3'ed heggo. Good luck Heft, Weebs, and NSO.

o/ Hoo o/ Kait o/ Rok o/ Tautology

NSO knows they like to stretch the limit beyond reasonable levels, and I really don't see exactly what differentiates this from when members of NSO leave the AA to fight a moral crusade/political stunt and then are immediately accepted back after their "deeds" are done. If they want to act like dicks, they should accept the repercussions when people respond in turn. Smokescreen all you want, NSO. Opportunism or ease perhaps, You take it for granted how lenient alliances are towards you. If you want people to respect you, you should to respect other alliances. lern2diplomacy RV, Jesus son. With the amount of blunders NSO has had of late, I am surprised moldavi hasn't tried to found another alliance yet.

[quote name='Necromancer V4L' timestamp='1288115006' post='2493621'] Face it, Hyp, most of Sparta's current and former government should never have been leadership, myself included. I should never be government in any alliance, ever. [/quote] Gosh, this is an excellent post to make people stroke your ego. [b]Most[/b] of sparta's government eh? Like 90% 100% 110%? Say and do what you will, Sparta would not be be where it is today if it didn't have some of the best leaders on Bob. To say most members of govt are undeserving of a govt position is frankly, ignorant and disrespectful. I'm sorry you don't feel that you are qualified to be a leader. I can honestly say from an IC and OOC perspective that I hate being a leader. Becoming a leader typically entails that you 1.) have to be a bad guy when necessary 2.) Means you have to put in a lot of extra work. Despite my general dislike for being a leader, I have been thrust into several leadership positions both IC and OOC. If you are capable and available, people will ask you to be a leader when the time comes. That's just the way it is.

I guess that's true when you are redesigning something, but a large part of engineering is inventing something that doesn't exist. If companies didnt innovate, they wouldn't remain dominant in industry. I think that is the whole concept behind engineering. Most projects requiring engineering are tough projects. Much tougher then the common man can just pick up and do. How do you design a plastic bottle? It has to look good, be cheap, hold water, and you have to be able to quickly mold inject it. Bottle design is surprisingly hard actually. There is a lot of thought and time goes into it. I interned at a firm that had a "bottle guy". It's more complicated then it looks. Companies can get pretty cut-throat when they produce several million bottles! The place I interned at designed Dove soaps bottle line as well as others. Off the subject of bottles, Who designs your computers motherboard, or your car's engine? People BUILD engines all the time. They pick out a stock block, intake manifold, carb or w/e, etc, etc. But usually people dont design their own block, cylinder heads and etc. Of course not, that is a ton of complex work. Not only does it require knowledge about engines, but it requires knowledge of gas dynamics, heat transfer, machining processes, and more knowledge that isn't intuitive unless you have an education of or extensive experience with.

[quote name='Hiro Nakara' timestamp='1288005599' post='2492688'] For the most part you would be correct, very few people that do no work and dedicate no time, get into positions of power within Sparta But I could be wrong, but Olaf was grandfathered in with very little work done compared to other Spartans. Not that I'm hating, as I like Olaf, I like his style. I'm just wondering if that's what Necro means? [/quote] Hiro, You know I love you brah, but your comment is butchered with poor punctuation and grammar thus making it difficult to decipher. Forgive me if I misread your post. Sparta has never selected members of government based on seniority. That's just not the way we roll. I had someone express concern about this the other day. (I suspect they felt they got the shaft somewhere along the line, hence why they brought it up to me) Sparta selects members of govt based on capability and availability. If you're not capable, you don't get the job. If you not available, you don't get the job. Considering as both you and Necro were both members of Sparta gov, I find your comments a bit surprising that either of you would elude to anything else other then that. Sometimes, poor decisions are made, but tough. That is the way things go. Try not to ragequit over it. Sparta govt tries to make the best decisions they can with the information they have at that time. Olaf put in a considerable amount of time in several areas of govt before being promoted to king. To imply that olaf had not put in as much time into the alliance, as compared to others, is gross misinformation quite honestly.

o/ Luka o/ Loaf! Enjoy retirement dude!

o/ Congratz

That's true. I didn't think about that. Most plastics don't get recycled and end up in a landfill anyway. Hence that would be a good characteristic for a bottle in a landfill to have.

It is surprisingly hard to recycle plastic. You can't mix different grades of plastic, as it is very difficult (expensive) to separate different types of plastic. Not to mention, there is almost an infinite number of types of plastics. Even specific recycling garage cans I doubt get a very high return on recyclable goods. People throw whatever they want in those things. Using less plastic just means it will cost the company less to produce the bottle. It also means that less "stuff" will require being thrown away.

You are correct, I guess it just bothers me that a company tries to build additional revenue off a standard industry revenue practice. It seems kind of like double dipping to me. Any company, that manufactures bottles of any kind, tries to reduce the volume of substance required to make the product, simply because it will save the company literally millions. Does that mean any of those companies give a damn about the Environment? While bottle companies probably do in some way care about the environment, I doubt saving the environment is their first corporate priority. It will take a bit more then their bottle label advertising to convince me that saving the environment is their corporate priority, which I feel their advertising implies. That said, I will concede, being humble about such revolutionary bottle design changes probably won't help their corporate missions either.

When I was younger, I always liked building things. Like every young engineer, I played with Legos and K'nex. Even before I graduated high school, I had graduated into building tougher things, including steel fabrication and stick built nitro airplanes amongst other things. Despite what I thought I knew about the world at that time, I don't think I entirely understood what an engineer did. I always thought, "engineers build stuff". After going to school, I have learned that is not entirely true. Engineers design stuff. While there are many different types of engineers that perform many different services, in general, engineers are taught to use tried and true methods to optimize, invent, or improve products. As you might imagine, there are many different types of products that exist in the world that an engineer has to be prepared to know how to work with, hence their education usually covers a wide range of subjects. I will be graduating in December with a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering. My education has ranged pretty widely. Some of the topics I have studied over the last few years are: Fluid mechanics, Gas Dynamics, Thermodynamics, Materials, Basic Electronics, Hardware Programming, Electric Motors and controllers, Product Design, Aircraft design, Basic Rocket design, Complex Dynamics systems, Control systems, Hybrid Systems, and Auto Racing Dynamics. Since this is my first blog, I thought it would be cool to take questions to gauge my audience. "How does _______ work?" "Why does ________product look like this?" "What is a __________ used for?" "Why do experts recommend people do ___________, when _______ occurs?" or whatever you come up with. I'll do my best to answer them. If there are any other engineers out there, you can see how good my responses are. Better yet, you should ask questions and try to stump me. ;D I'll take questions about literally anything, but aircraft and electronics (hardware and software) will likely get the best response. Engineering Development of Note Ice Mountain Eco-Bottle I saw an Ice Mountain bottle of water a few weeks ago. As soon as I saw it, I thought it was a pretty blatant revenue strategy conveniently masked behind a marketing ploy and social trend. The fallicy: 30% less plastic you say? It touches my heart that Ice Mountain could be so concerned with the earth, pollution, and bottle production emissions! The reality: Bottle manufacturing plants typically charge by the volume of plastic required for your bottle. If you could reduce the volume of the bottle enough to reduce the cost of a bottle by just $.01 per bottle, and you produce 100 million bottles a year, you would save your company $1 million a year. Whodathunkit, Saving an absurd amount of money doesn't make your company look as good as being environmentally friendly. Some lowly engineer that makes 60K a year probably designed that bottle, and coincidentally created this crappy marketing ploy. The fallicy: This bottle is more flexible making it easier to recycle? The reality: Bottles arent crushed when they are recycled. They have to be melted down and sent through refining processes so.....uh what? Obviously there is absolutely no relation between the crushability of the bottle and there being 30% less plastic in the bottle Crappy marketing strategy or not, it is pretty impressive the engineer who designed this bottle was able to reduce the amount of plastic used by 30%. That is a huge reduction of material (and hence production costs!). I think they reduced most of the plastic around the cap. If you compare new bottles to old bottles, the caps do appear to be unnecessarily large on the old bottles. Kudo's Mr. Ice mountain bottle engineer! Tell me what you think. =====Topics I am thinking about for next time====== Why you get the shaft with text message charges Why aircraft have winglets

[quote name='Lennox' timestamp='1287173211' post='2485385'] Can you get me something engraved for my barrett .50 cal? [/quote] Wikipedia says that's a $9,000 beast. pics or gtfo

I love how that Website says MACHINED OUT OF SOLID BILLET!!!!!11!!!!!!!1!11!1!1!, as if there was such a think as hollow billet.......

um wut? Also, hai tl