Posturing

All of McCain's back-and-forth lately shows that his decisions are not motivated by any particular political beliefs or ethical positions, but are the result of political calculations.

Federal Funds

One Trillion dollars is the price of buying out the latest incarnation of the Great Depression, according to the Bush Administration. The reason that solar panels are as expensive as they are is because they can not use economies of scale. If there was a large order for solar panels, we would see a reduction in price. We could spend 10 billion dollars on solar panels to make every federal building more self-sufficient. It'd be an investment for the future, and it'd give the industry a huge kickstart.

Civilization II: Everyone Hates Me.

I've been playing some Civilization II. It is a fun game. Unfortunately, diplomacy seems to be an impossible option, at least for the long term. You can bribe someone with all the money and technology you want, only to find that they hate you five turns later.

There's a mode where you can re-enact historical scenarios. There are only two in the game at start, but I assume that there are more on Internet somewhere. I've played WWII a bunch of times. Hint: Play as Germany. They win.

Another hint: Do not play as the "Misc. Countries" team. They have only 4 cities, and one of them is conquered by the Nazis on turn one. Before you even get to go. I tried to stick it out, relying on the fact that the other teams had bigger fish to fry. Then I received this message:



Apparently, they had heard about my plan to colonize the uninhabited Middle East, and thought they had to set aside their differences to stop me.