http://www.krcrtv.com/man-accused-of-fe ... l/28108006
It's like being fed your own kid. Definitely one sick puppy!
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

Interesting... They appear to be adding Epic AT's in CO. Their latest plot arc add beings Dr. Destroyer back from plot oblivion to threaten the world again. And to kick it off, they've added an AT that's only playable if you've got a 40th level character. Sound familiar?
Apparently, according to their blog, they plan on adding more Epic AT's to the game in the future. The current one is a sentient machine with tons of offense, probably minimum defense. Sounds like it might be interesting.
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Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

Oh noes! My secret identity, exposed!
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

Definitely worth passing along: 
Artists, fans rally to support cartoonist's ailing wife

Quote:...for the past three years, Sakai has been faced with the greatest challenge of his life: making sure his wife, Sharon, is as comfortable as possible as a brain tumor slowly takes away her ability to live. 
The couple’s East Pasadena home has been transformed into a care unit for Sharon, who is bedridden, blind and deaf as a result of the tumor. The dining room was emptied and now resembles a hospital room, and a nurse is on hand five days a week to provide care. 
“We prefer her at home,” said Sakai, who has lived in the same home with his wife for nearly 40 years. “We’re making the best of it.” 
Sakai’s friends had known about Sharon’s condition for years, and it didn’t take fans long to notice she no longer was attending comic conventions, such as San Diego’s Comic-Con, with her husband. 
Those friends, including members of the Comic Art Professional Society, knew Sakai wouldn’t ask for help – it wasn’t in his nature – even when Sharon’s medical bills began to exceed her health insurance coverage. So six months ago, they took it upon themselves to begin raising money on the Sakais’ behalf.

If you use this link to do it, it'll go towards getting me free stuff.

http://www.transformersuniverse.com/re ... 241de71b1e

I'm going to be honest, right now the game is still in Open Beta with weekly 70ish Mb downloads of the client to get the latest patch (the hot-patcher supposedly works, but is so much slower I just get the whole client download each time) and most of the focus is on PvP with only a single free roam map per faction and two co-op PvE maps shared between them, with a rota of "shoot the wandering enemies," ""heal the generic allies," and/or "collect the widgets" missions appearing with gaps of 5-20 seconds between one finishing and the next beginning on the free roam map. It's not intended to have a wide power progression like an RPG, though there are at least 50 experience levels to climb, but mostly what those do is give you one stat point and ten of the micotransaction currency (each worth half a US cent, with more characters to chose between ranging from 995-3995 currently, though there is also a 25% off sale on Decepticons right now because Autobot players outnumber them 60-40 right now - and yet, the matches ten 57-43 in favor of 'Cons, supposedly due to better teamwork and attracting more of the older players who think in terms of more complex tactics.)

That small edge is still significant when combined with a new player just getting used to how it plays, so my recommendation is to ignore the "Queue for PVP" box that pops up as soon as you get through the min-tutorial, pick a robot (if you don't just stick with the tut's tank) and deploy, instead going out into the free roam map, finding one of the big glowing portals that are in the one or two of the corners (directly ahead of you on Autobot map, diagonally for Deceps) and enter the Crisis map instead. It still says "Queue for PVP" but that is in fact the co-op game mode, where you face hordes of basic enemies, a few tank-types, a midboss and a boss, with no way to "lose" and death/respawn not mattering overall. This will level you up quickly for the first few - Lv5 within 2-3 hours as I recall - to get a few tuning points, a "power core" slot and selection of cores to put in it (minor passive enhancement, dropped as loot,) and most importantly give you a chance to get to know the special attacks and equipment of the available units, and get a good start to picking up the cheap-tier DPS or Tank unit if you want to, both of which are quite good on either side.

You get both an Autobot and Decepticon "commander" (IE your visible username) with a single login account, and each of those can initially pick from three characters each time you deploy form the hangar - my Decepticon is Bottlerocket, and Autobot is WaveConvoy though I will probably change it to something more original and not interCapped later. You may be able to have spaces in the commander name, at least I see people with them on the forums, which use the same two names depending on whether you hit the "play as Autobot" or "play as Decepticon" button at the top of the page.

Robots are designed along the WFC/Transformers Prime lines, which is a half-step between Bayformers and Classic style as best as I can put it.

I only play Crisis (the co-op mentioned above) and usually as a healer, and I'm having fun with it despite usually preferring a DPS focused play style. I will give two last pieces of advice though: If you want the healer to keep you alive, DON'T run around all over the map looking for trouble! The healers and tanks are the same speed and DPS units are usually faster, so he will never catch you and and experienced medic won't even try until you come to him, or at least stop running around like a turbo-chicken with a crashed logic processor. Second, the Terrocon Screamers are popcorn grunts while the bigger guys creep along menacingly with their big hammer, but kill the Screamers first anyway rather than getting focused on the damage sponges. Screamers are fast, have rockets, and like to run away from short-ranged stuff, while the heavies are dirt slow and only have melee attacks.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

My antivirus is about to run out.
I've been using bitdefender, but I'm not fond of it. It keeps asking me to log into their website, and it's got a very annoying habit of flashing large advertisments for itself on the bottom of my screen.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a good, discrete antivirus?

of kidney failure. I did get to hold her until she stopped breathing, though, like I did while Mum tied off the umbilical cord and delivered the other puppies.

I haz a sad.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/frankli ... -1.2760311

Details expected later today.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

... and the "banality of evil."  Note particularly the lines near the end of the article, 

Quote:"It is apparent Milgram assuaged participants' concerns by making them believe in a noxious ideology -- namely, that it is acceptable to do otherwise unconscionable things in the cause of science."

how employers who had received federal stimulus money gouged workers and taxpayers
Here is one part of the series...

Quote:At one low-income housing project in North
Carolina, two-thirds of the workers hired to pour concrete, paint,
shingle roofs and hang drywall were treated as independent contractors.
Here’s what would have needed to happen with these 100 workers to pass
the federal tests:

• Each worker could come and go as he pleased, setting his own hours and schedule.
• Each
  worker owned and used his own tools and supplies and had enough of a
  line of credit with vendors to buy the necessary materials, such as HVAC
  equipment and siding.
• Each worker tackled the work as he saw fit, not heeding direction and correction from superiors.
• Each
  worker secured enough compensation to allow him to earn a living and
  cover the overhead that a self-employed person must handle.

All 100 of these workers earned from $7.25 to $20 an hour
Read
more here:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/static/featu ... rylink=cpy