Watermonkey

You never answered my question, "TrueFusion". Do the personal opinions you?ve spouted off here represent OFFICIAL xisto policy? If they do, then add this to my growing list of reasons for leaving. If they don?t, then stop wasting my time.

To clarify, and unless i'm mistaken, the maximum earning for any post is $10. Again, disclosure is unnecessary when the users themselves can figure certain things out through observation. Yeah, the amount given is subject to OpaQue's interpretation of what will not only keep members posting, but also not drain Xisto or Xisto out of business. Ever since the system allowed users to "purchase" domain names, a lot of people mostly sign up just for that, but domain names don't pay themselves.

(My point is confirmed: Even the Mods (at least this Mod) don't know the mycents system.)

I'm just going to respond to this because I don't want to get so far out of focus as to be scattered and nonsensical.

Yes. You ARE mistaken, and contradicting yourself all in one paragraph. The max award per post is $1 or 100 "mycents". Figuring things out through observation is what has led the conversation to this point. I know, first hand, that a simple thread starter containing an initial post of fewer than 250 characters, nothing out of the ordinary or earth-shattering, has generated a reward of 100 mycents. I know, from first hand observation, that a single post, such as this one, that is much longer and contains some four or five syllable words generates far less than that. You say the amount given is subject to OpaQue's interpretation... thus completely and totally agreeing with and confirming what I said previously. But to add to what you said, any member whose name appears in RED has this ability. You would be mistaken to put all that awesome power in the hands of one person.

 

There is really no reason to specify any exact amount.

What kind of barter system is this? Time is a commodity. And if I'm trading time for money I need to know what to charge per hour. Is this is official policy or your personal opinion? If the former, then why doesn’t admin just say so in the Mycent thread (or here) instead of letting members knock their heads up against a brick wall? I’ve learned more about Mycents right here in my final thread than the hundred some posts in the Mycents thread. But - if this is just your personal opinion I’ll write it off like I write off everything motivated by blind, unquestioning subservience to imposed hierarchy.

 

If you do not take the time to do the math, then it can be argued that you really weren't that much interested as anything you have said implies.

Any idea who would make that argument? Not any one I respect, I assure you. Since I don’t have a hosted account, I can’t very well do the “math” now can I. You are missing the whole point. I’m not the only one pissed off by this cryptic accounting system and it's only one of many issues leading to my decision to vacate this place.

So there has been other things bothering you?

Well now that you mention, there are lots of things bothering me but I'll hold off mentioning the really nasty ones for now. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not posting for Mycents. Too mysterious and secretive. There are no clear parameters explaining exaclty how many words or characters earn a dollar. WTF? Members keep asking for clarity and this is the latest response I saw on the Mycent thread:

 

There is no set amount. The number of myCENTs you will get per post and topic depend on the length and quality of what you have written. A longer post that is written clearly and uses the right BBCodes will earn more than a one-line post with no punctuation or anything. I think the maximum you can earn for any one post is 100 myCENTs ($1) but I am not totally sure on that.

Even the mods don't know for sure. If it?s a question of spammer paranoia then don?t punish long-term members by leaving them in the dark on something so vital to maintaining their accounts. Saying that posts that are ?long and quality? earn more money doesn?t tell me anything. It just leaves the door wide open to speculation and potential abuse of authority. In other words, members are confused and powerless while the Mycents system remains some shadowy overlord you better not piss off if you want to keep your hosting account active. Actual people are sitting on their fat butts somewhere going through each and every post and assigning mycents based on their subjective interpretation of your posts. Can you believe that? That's just stunning to me to find that out.

Pffft. It's the EVIL Mods I actually LIKE!

 

Here's the thing. Even if I stay around, and that's a big IF, unless I'm turned blue so I can edit my own posts, I'm not going to contribute to the intellectual value of this site any more. When I signed on three years ago, I was never under any impression that once my posts were made, they'd no longer be under my control or ownership. This web site is worth around $3M USD according to some web site my significant other was looking at the other day. I'd edit this later to correct that with the actual name of the website, but I won't be able to. But the point is, the worth of the site is dependent upon the intellectual contributions of its members who, in return, receive hosting credit and other rewards. This is all fine and dandy, but I'm not working for some evil corporation under a contract that says anything I create becomes the property of the company. Further, not being hosted, I'm not looking for the credit that others look for. Seems like I should be able to transfer my rewards to someone who is, but that's another issue for another thread. I'm probably going to start a blog somewhere or something where I can build up the value of my own site. So much to say, so little time...

Well trappers. I regret to inform you all that I can't post on a forum that doesn't allow me to edit my posts any time I wish and I've become aware that posts from other members have been disappearing, and no one's talking. I can't help but think my stay here is no longer welcome by Admin or staff, so I'm not likely to come back unless things do a major turn-around. I'd like to thank those moderators who have been friendly and helpful to me in the past, and to the others, well, don't quit your day jobs. Mike, good luck with your degree. I hope you find yourself making a living doing what makes you smile.Jim, I'll be seeing you around the corner. Keep up the good Mod work and don't sweat the pettyness.Shree, I hope things continue to work out for you. Stay inside, away from that pollution and don't work so much all the time. It's not worth it if you can't have fun once in a while. And thanks for accommodating my requests over the years.The rest of the people here, take good care of that which matters most to you.WM

It'd probably cost a fraction of that price to just get it sent out and gold plated yourself. I don't know how they're gold plating it, I suppose you can only plate over another metal like aluminum but not plastic so maybe you couldn't get it plated yourself. That's too bad, because a gold plating wouldn't cost much at all. You'd just be paying for the exclusivity and novelty, but not anything of any real value. Anyone who buys this and doesn't have at least two supercars in the garage is a fool. I had my .44 Desert Eagle Semi-automatic pistol plated in nickel after I bought it some years back and it didn't cost that much at all. I even had the extra 10" barrel and all three magazines plated. I doubt it cost more than about $400 for everything. I know that the cost would've been the same if I'd had it gold plated, but, really, gold? How Gaudy can you get?

I almost forgot: There was a common observation from my customers I found interesting but could never explain. They agreed, when switching from DN "Charlie" to Direct TV "DIK", the picture seemed sharper and brighter. I've never been able to determine what would cause this observation, but I swear I heard it from many many customers.

I'm looking at sending my nephew to the Navy as a musician and I was looking to see if anyone here knows someone who's a musician in any branch of the service. He's going to a University toward getting a degree in music, but he doesn't know how to pay for it after this year. The Navy would, according to their web site, pay for the rest of his degree if he chooses to go to school while he serves. They seem to have a top notch program that's pretty exclusive...

You obviously didn't join the Navy. Too bad. For the purposes of this paper, it's incomplete without showing all the detail for the Navy ranks you showed for the rest. I know this post comes way too late to critique, and I'm curious how things are going for you in the... Army?

Having now been an employee for DTV for around nine months, I can shed some light on the way these companies operate. There's a reason DN stock value has plumeted and their subscriber base has gone lower and lower for so many consecutive months I can not count. Originally I worked for Ironwood, but they were soon to be called "Direct TV Home Services", a totally owned subsidiary of DTV. I can't speak for the rest of the country, but I can tell you the installers from the Spokane WA office are mostly completely professional and, on the whole, do a bang-up job even when the conditions aren't the best. I know that many of the DN installs are done by a contract company out of Spokane, but some are done from local contractors too (I don't live in Spokane, but a couple hours away). I've seen the work DN installers do and I've been quite disgusted by some of the shoddy work. I know that if a thoughtless tech were to punch a hole in the roof or cause any other damage to the structure, the office in Spokane would hire a contractor of your choice to repair the damage. If I were to lose my marbles or stop caring about where my money goes, I'd not hesitate to patronize DTV, but they are only the lesser of two evils. They pay their employees only about half of what they should (the install techs in the field), requiring them to drive many hours without compensation. It's unthinkable to treat your hardest working people so badly.

Forgive me, I didn't read past page one, but I just have to laugh at razeredge repeating the same old line that Apple is more expensive then other brands. I find that if I build an XPS on one tab in my browser and an Apple in another and try my best to keep the two equal (though you can't do it, Apple has far superior hardware configurations) you'll always end up spending more money on the XPS.
The software argument is gone too because of the ability to run Windoz on the Apple any time you want, even run it in its own window without having to reboot. Kinda handy if you need software for work that you can only run on a Windoz machine, like MS Streets and Trips or something.
Another myth that's fascinating to me is that you can't find a Mac for under $1000. False. Way false. One example is the little Mac Mini, http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ either configuration will cost significantly under $1000. Granted, you'll have to buy a monitor separately, but that's usually the case with desktops. Your starting price point for the Macbook, http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ , is under $1000, and less at least a hundred less than that if you're a student or employee of the school system. Lie. They never check. You, too can get a student discount without any effort at all. Just order it online in the "education store". My personal favorite non-portable is the imac. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Check this thing out. Admittedly the one I linked to is the high end version with a 27" monitor and a quad-core chip, but for $2k (my configuration put it at $2837 without the education discount), look at all you get! I don't see how you can go wrong with Mac, and Consumer Reports agrees. Can't link, but you can go to your local library to check out their most recent reviews.

Humans are little more than an annoyance to this planet. We can be wiped from her in a matter of minutes if she chooses to wipe us out. Five (I think) civilizations before us have been wiped out suddenly without so much as an effort. We're destined to suffer the same fate again. So don't worry about the population being too big. I live on 20 acres and can't see my closest neighbor. My mother owns 20 acres where one could build a home in the woods next to a creek and be hidden from the roads and neighbors. I can drive miles and miles in Montana or Wyoming without seeing another living soul. There's no danger of people overpopulating the planet any time too soon. But, if you think that there should be a culling of the population, I invite you to cut your own throat just to start it off and stand by your convictions. Go ahead, kill yourself first if you think the population should be diminished. I've heard that CO poisoning is easy if you just lock yourself in a small room with a small kerosene heater and a match. Just light it up and go to sleep. Suicide is truly painless.

Well, I've been resolving to lose about 10 pounds of pure blubber that's accumulated around my waist each week for the past four months or so. I doubt making it a "new years" resolution will help, but what the hay, I'll resolve to do it again. More importantly, I resolve to accumulate considerably more material possessions including at least 10 pounds of silver and several ounces of gold if I can. Don't forget, he who dies with the most toys and stuff, wins. I think I'm a lap or two behind, so it's high time I started making up for it... Must replace one of the vehicles this year too. I'm going to need a pretty good job to accomplish any of this...

Wow. I can't believe all this time has gone by without me responding to this post. Incredible. I must've been drunk for the past two weeks or something. What our friend means when he says "there is no global warming" is that there's no human-caused global warming. I'd take this a step further and state, according to all that climate data the "scientists" at Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England were manipulating according to their own emails leaked to the rest of the world via hackers (Russian?), that the planet is actually in the midst of a cooling trend presently. A good place to become informed if you're still one of the Algore minions and actually believe that a tax will solve all of our climate change related trouble would be this keen website: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ or try this one for the current events outside of Jolly ole England and it's "scientists" who are clearly a joke and should all be charged with fraud. Oh, wait a minute, I think I just read here, http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ , they actually are being served! The fallout from this, the greatest scam ever perpetuated on human-kind, is going to be felt for many years.

I'll be sure to vote as soon as I gather all the graft that members have sent me to see who to vote for... :PCash is accepted, cheques preferred.

I was just going to send you some of the snow your land of chill dumped on me the other day. You need some of it back, don't you?

Wow. I wonder what else we've been lied to about?

But, im moronic enough to say that if everyones being vaccinated, we're all in the same boat. Why not?

Well, if "everyone" was getting a frontal lobotomy, we'd all be in the same boat, too, right? Well, except for those few "elite" who exempt themselves from getting the miraculous procedure. Let's say that all the media propaganda and the medical doctors were telling everyone that this new procedure could save us all from getting sick again and it'd have the side benefit of curing all mental illnesses. If you don't get the lobotomy (we won't call it that, though, we'll call it the "brain straightening" therapy or something benign sounding so as not to alarm the populace), you'll be chastised, your kid will be made fun of at school, your church leadership will denounce you as a heretic and you'll be the laughing stock. Would you get the procedure done then? What if there were studies published supporting the supposed benefits of the procedure and claimed it'd add 50 quality years to your life? At what point would you get a lobotomy? When you'd be in with the masses, in the same boat as everyone else? Sounds like the classical definition of a "Lemming" to me.

Oh, I just noticed you asked "why not?". Because it's the wrong thing to do and if millions of people do it, it's still the wrong thing to do. You just need the courage and spinal fortitude to say "no" when someone tells you to do the wrong thing.

Windows sucks and people buy it because they're stupid. That's not just a quote, I'm repeating it because it's a truth for me too. The reason Big Pharma gets away with drugging up the people is people have stopped asking questions. And, from some of the responses here, I'd say that some people just don't give a damn. Are people suicidal or just so apathetic as to appear that way? The ingredients of the H1N1 and H5N1 vaccines have been listed in this thread on the original post and it's like a deer in the headlights reaction from some. I'm amazed that these ingredients can be listed and defined and anyone would still consider this vaccination a good idea. I mean, formaldehyde? Mercury? Squaline? Really? I'd bet you wouldn't put any of those things down your throat where they'd meet your bodies natural defenses. Go ahead, prove me wrong. Go down to the chemical supply house and find mercury and formaldehyde and pour a little vial of each down your throat. Can't? Then how the hell, pray, can you let someone inject those things into your arm? HOW???!

Internet radio is played here all day long. Mostly it's RBN but occasionally pod casts from Gnostic Radio. I don't see the point of listening to BBC or whatever that NYC station was. Sounds like the same ol main stream lame radio to me. You can get that anywhere on the traditional radio dial. Each to his own, I guess.

There's an old song that came out before I was out and about called Child in Time by Deep Purple. Contained therein are the lyrics,

sweet child in timeyou'll see the line
the line that's drawn between good and bad
see the blind man
shooting at the world,
bullets flying, taking toll
if you've been bad, Lord I bet you have
and you've not been hit by flying lead
You'd better close your eyes
Bow your head and
Wait for the ricochet!

I wanna hear you scream

sweet child in time
you'll see the line
the line that's drawn between good and bad
see the blind man
shooting at the world,
bullets flying, taking toll
if you've been bad, Lord I bet you have
and you've not been hit by flying lead
You'd better close your eyes
Bow your head and
Wait for the ricochet!

I gotta hear you scream!

I know it's a war protest song from the Vietnam era, but that's about all i can figure, well let's take a look:

Don't really know who the sweet child in time is other than perhaps someone born in the US and still relatively innocent of all the wrongdoing committed by his country, or does that symbolize an entire generation of Baby Boomers?
Don't know the significance of the line drawn between good and bad unless it's the 38th parallel in Korea or the line separating North and South Vietnam?
The blind man shooting at the world I think is U.S. Foreign Policy (or you could expand this to mean NATO or The Allies or even Isreal's minions)
Don't know who "you" is, but apparently he's been bad and deserves the consequence of such to the extent he's going to get caught in the cross-fire one way or another.
Don't know why they need to hear someone scream.

Thoughts?

Wow. I can't recall ever seeing the level of hostility you've displayed here anywhere else in my entire time spent at Xisto. Add to it the heaping pile of ignorance you've displayed and I can't think of any reason to keep this thread going. People who are thinking of becoming members of this site will look at this and think again. Unbelievable.

personally, i have no problem believing what you said in this post than believing that the u.s. government was responsible for 9/11. like i said in one of my previous posts. i do believe that the u.s. has covered up many things in the past. but this thread isn't about past u.s. conspiracies. it's about the 9/11 attacks.

Sometimes you have to study history to determine what's happening in the present and attempt to stop bad things from happening in the future.

 

oil has always been big business. there have been many business to try and preserve oil rights and will go to great lengths for the all might dollar. but that's business. the bush family has been involved in the oil business before sr. and jr. ever took office which lead to theories. even a movie.

 

although i believe there is truth in everything, i also believe in exagerated truths that lead to lies in everything. so the real truth is that nobody will ever know the truth when the truth can get lost so easily. especially with the internet age where communication world wide is more easily available and words can spread like wildfire.

 

this is why words should be chosen carefully. not to talk about theories and fictional events which could slander people and even a nation(which in a lot of countries is against the law and punishable by imprisonment for lible or slander).

So, you don't believe in the First Amendment to the Constitution?

 

the FACT is, all the conspiracy theories behind 9/11 have been disproven and if a person with their eyes closed doesn't see that, then they haven't done their due diligence to research it on their own and in their own time rather than take what someone else has written.

If all conspiracy theories behind 9/11 have been disproven, then the government's own theory must be included, or are you calling their theory, "fact"? It's not fact, it's just what they're telling you it is. That doesn't make it fact. And who, pray, has disproven these other theories you've mentioned? A popular science magazine article doesn't qualify as proof. Any time a politician whose last name isn't "Paul" opens his/her mouth, it's almost inevitable lies will spew forth. So, we can conclude that the odds are excellent that any time you hear the main stream media "report" something from the government, it's going to be twisted, skewed, or outright false because the media doesn't actually do any actual investigative research anymore, they just regurgitate what the White House Press Secretary has approved for public consumption.

 

theories are funny to me. they remind me of another thread than baniboy got me involved with which was about the question, "what is the definition of an organism". there are many definitions just like there are many theories. yes, there is truth in those theories and definitions, but what is the REAL truth without the man made definitions and theories? THAT is the question.

There is a group of people who believe as sure they can be the earth is flat. That's their truth and you can't talk them out it. But that just doesn't make it so. I think it just depends upon what you're willing to believe. If you just can't believe your government lies to you, then so be it. Nothing I present to you will change that. But to discount the evidence as rubbish and many thousands of degreed engineers and architects as being full of it without consideration of the extra weight their word carries as a function of their education and experience in their discipline, makes you a fool, in my opinion. That's not just directed at you, Anwiii, but to anyone who would discount the evidence and not believe their own eyes but believe the lies told to them from the media or anyone else for that matter. That's the literal definition of "putting your head in the sand".

 

people who come up with theories are the ones who have the closed mind. they gain a reputation of seeing one side and one side only when even the other side holds truth to it.

So in your world, someone who thinks outside the box or expresses any kind of independent thought is close minded? And you think I've discredited myself? Wow.

 

it's like religion and people only believing in only one religion when people can actually learn a lot more when they focus on more than one religion or "theory".

 

when talking about theories, the possibilities are endless....but the theories don't account for one thing. there is only one truth.

Your truth?

 

now i have my own beliefs about the u.s. government and it's hidden agendas and it's citizen control despite what is written in the constitution. but that has NOTHING to do with 9/11 and i would stake my life on it knowing what i have come to know about our government. i did see it as an easy solution to the issues we already had in the middle east though.

 

when talking about these issues, we can easily go in to the issue of why america doesn't disban the nuclear weapons in china...but see, those issues would be off topic in this thread

So in your world, America has the right to disban[sic] (dis-arm) another country like China? By what right? Does a country not have the right to defend itself or is it just those countries who are allies of America that have that right? Either way, I believe if America were to try and take China's nukes from them, they'd get them the old fashioned way, the way they were intended to be delivered. HOT.

 

you talk about the cia which indirectly relates to top secret intellegance the u.s. holds. there is a reason why certain information isn't available to the general public and there is a reason why the american people needs to trust their own government even when a government is able to make mistakes and not knowing the mistakes until the final outcome.

Give me one reason to trust a group of people or an entity who time after time and time again has proven itself to be untrustworthy.

 

it's so easy for foregners to make judgments in a country they don't even live in. now i can say a lot about canada, but i wont because i don't believe in disgracing a nation. unlike you.

 

i suggest sticking to hockey conversations rather than conspirosy theories that can ruin a nation if everyone believed in your fairy tales. at least you can have some pride talking about the only thing your country is good in when competing against the united states because you will LOSE in this thread and that is a FACT....not a theory.

I thought you weren't going to say anything aboot Canada. Your ignorance speaks volumes. I'm a veteran of the U.S. Navy, honorably discharged under the conditions of Medical Retirement in 1988. I've been around the world and seen things most people I know couldn't even imagine. I've seen the government, first hand, cover up the truth. I trust my eyes, not the CGI manipulated video that is shown on your television during the nightly news hour(s). I'm a home/land owner and citizen with a current, active, valid passport of the United States of America. Care to make any more assumptions about me?

The US Cyber Crimes Centre has gone one step further and is just using the PS3s apparently:

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

 

According to game developers they are difficult to program to use effectively, but when you do they are lightning quick compared to pretty much anything else on the market, especially for simple and repetitive tasks like Folding@Home and general supercomputing tasks.

 

 

 

You don't really see many Apple supercomputers, if any at all, do you? I suppose the cost of hardware is higher with Apple, but if you're building a supercomputer and getting a bulk discount then that might not be an issue. I guess it's simply the fact that you're locked in to using Apple's OS, so they've never really got a foothold in a market dominated by Linux and Windows PCs.

Not at all. Apple OS IS built on UNIX. Check out the Server OS that comes with it...

 

This is about a year and a half old, but the pics alone are worth looking at... http://gizmodo.com/254251/apple-running-top-500-supercomputer-at-nab

 

 

And the OS?

Xserve isnt just for the Mac. With out-of-the-box support for Mac, Windows, UNIX, and Linux clients, Xserve is the easiest way to provide powerful, innovative network and Internet services for multiplatform workgroups. Active Directory support, for example, makes it easy to add Xserve to your Windows-based IT environment to support an expanding population of Mac clients.

From https://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=search&src=support_site.globalheader.search&locale=en_US&q=Xserve

 

A few years ago, Virginia Tech bought a G5 Apple supercomputer that, at the time, ranked #3 in the world and cost a fraction of what competitors would've charged. Here's the latest I could find on their computer, but it's a few years old now. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

From right there I see that you don't know all the facts. They hijacked four planes. They chose to use these planes since they weren't fully booked (less people to deal with rebelling) and they were cross country flights. If they were to hijack 10 planes they would need more people, and even less attacks would be successful. Because the middle of the building was weakened and caved in due to the fire. The top floors (above where the plane hit) added to the weight (creating an almost free fall speed) and pulled the building down with it. Ever played Jenga?Sounds like a load of bologna to me, this documental.


I have prejudice about liars, but that's about it.


Indeed he did. Two bored idiots managed to fool the same system, and killed 168 people doing it (Oklahoma City Bombings). 9-11 was just a larger scale.
Other than the numerous videos showing Osama praising the attacks and the numerous training facilities that were found, you are correct about that last part.

What?


a. Three happened on the same day. These aircraft were used as missiles and were driven into the buildings at a high speed. The aircraft were FILLED with jet fuel. Add to that the weight of the many floors above it, the weakening of one main area could cause the whole building to collapse, which is EXACTLY as it happened. See: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

b. You're telling me that you've never seen a fire spread to another building. Add the debris from the other two buildings, a fire can bring it down.

c. You're joking right? I assume you have never seen the pictures.



See: http://www.oilempire.us/pentagon-photos.html
a. http://www.oilempire.us/oil-jpg/hole11.jpg 16 feet is a load of bolonga.

b. The security cameras at the Pentagon didn't capture it because the plane was moving so fast!

c. See the website. In re to the tapes, whenever a crime is committed, surveillance tapes are always seized if they may have images of the crime. It happens all the time. A good amount of the time they are never released to the public either.


What?


a. Wouldn't you want those 2000 to 3000 jailed and prosecuted? Obama is continuing the war as well.

b. Another joke.

c. That goes against 99% if not 100% of the conservative mentality.



You're telling me that the Taliban had nothing to do with 9-11? They were in control of Afghanistan before we came in.
As for Iraq, the USA helped to take down one of the largest mass murderers in history, and prosecuted him as well. Sure it had nothing to do with 9-11, but we still made progress there.



I never believed that. The less government, the better.

Thanks for putting up those links to oilempire.us.etc., Disturbedone. I had no idea there is actually a liberal think tank out there coming up with propaganda blaming the "Bush regime" and "peak oil" on the 9-1-1 events. They're actually saying the government let these events transpire because they needed cheap easy oil in the middle east. Amazing anyone would buy that considering there's more easy oil under MT, ND, SD, and AB than in all of the middle east combined. Then, of course, there's AK that has just about as much oil. Then there's pretty much everywhere else in America that's got more oil than you can shake a stick at. Did you know there's countless wells in the region of eastern MT, etc. the oil companies won't tap? The wells are capped. Did you know there are a lot fewer refineries in N. America now than there were in the 70's? It's not the oil prices that are responsible for nearly $3/gallon gasoline. It's the severe lack of refineries. Don't believe me, research it yourself. Try not to research any more from the left, though. I think you've already covered what they're selling. Seek a new angle.

A couple interesting tidbits gleaned by visiting the top500 site: The most powerful supercomputer in the world, outside of NSA, is a IBM using an advanced version of the same processor used in the Sony Playstation 3! The computer achieved a staggering 1.026 Petaflop/s speed and is being used by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The 2nd fastest computer in the world is less than half as fast! One way to build your own supercomputer would be to find cooled racks like those pictured above and fill the racks with Apple servers. Each server can contain 2 quad-core Xeon "Nehelam" Intel processors, 3Gb (minimum) memory, 3 1Tb hard drives, dual 750W power supplies and much much more for about $7k each. Throw about 20 of those in a cabinet along with a few racks of RAID arrays and you've got yourself a supercomputer running at probably over 100 Teraflop/s. And if you order that many, Apple would probably be happy to give you a good discount and lots of support in return for good publicity.