On Sunspots, Pointless Points-of-View (aka Politics), and Call of Duty 4 online

If you're interested in science, read the first section below.
If you hate (or even like) special interest groups, causes, and the election, do read the second section (you'll learn something!).
Like gaming? Read the third section, but read Section #2, too.

Sunspots? Yep, here's an article (fairly short & to-the-point, so do read it) on the lack of sunspots this year and it's potential effect on the climate. The neatest thing is the idea that there could be a slight climate change toward the cooler (yay!) and it would counteract any recent/near-future global warming effects.
I'm still not convinced by anything I've read that "global warming" is a man-made or recent event. Just like the stock market, the climate goes up and it comes down. And its trends are long-term. I don't need the hype from doomsayers. Oh! That's the perfect segue into my next topic... ;P

As the presidential election comes closer, all those annoying special interest groups are vying for attention, and religiously supporting whatever candidate promises them the attention they think they deserve because it ought to be a politically correct world. Of course, those promises mean nothing, and watch how fast your candidate-of-choice turns his back on you once he's elected [I of course have my candidate selected, but I'm writing without candidate-bias for everyone's benefit to my point]. So if you're involved in one of the 612 strillion special interest groups blindly following someone because they promise you cake [just a head's up, just like in Portal: thecakeisalie thecakeisalie thecakeisalie!], let me point out some smart lyrics from Billy Joel's "Angry Young Man" (note particularly the last 2 lines):
"I believe I've passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage / I found that just surviving was a noble fight. / I once believed in causes too, / I had my pointless point of view, / And life went on no matter who was wrong or right."

Spencer got the Xohm broadband connection at home and promptly hooked up his PS3 & Xbox 360 to it (which are hooked up to a projector and display a 7' image). It's a good, cheap ($80 for the device, $25/mo subscription) solution for high-speed internet at home. If you're in Baltimore, that is...
So last night we played Call of Duty 4 online in the Team games... mostly deatchmatch and Domination (where there are 3 flags to guard). As usual the people playing were incredible good and us not so much. But we learned fast, and got to the point where we were racking up points and stood toe-to-toe on the endgame boards with the better players.
I say "better" in this sense as in "better fraggers", not necessarily gameplayers. CoD4 is not like Halo where everyone's stats are equal. CoD4 uses a class system, where you choose your 2 guns & assortment of grenades & jazz, add on attachments to your guns to increase their effectiveness in various ways, and also apply "Perks" to yourself/weapons (like increased HP, increased damage, invisible on radar, etc, etc). And you unlock these features, and unlock stronger guns, via an experience system.
This adds an RPG-like feel to what would otherwise be a standard, predicitable FPS! =)
You add EXP and level up by killing people, completing objectives in the objective-based game types, and by completing personal Challenges for each weapon (like getting 25 headshots with each sniper rifle).
So, while playing against opponents that deal more damage per shot than you, and who have more HP than you, getting points via fragging isn't going to be the easiest. Instead, we focused on completing objectives (like recapturing the flag) which award us as many or more points than a kill. Actually, that's the way I prefer to play online FPS anyway. =)

Call of Duty 4 online team play:
The pros: you get to customize your weapons and loadout to your liking. =)
The cons: it takes hours of online gameplay before you unlock every gun, and until then you're playing with & against people who are maxxed out (giving them a higher advantage & making your progress slower).