I remember one extremely annoying episode when Alan had to take direct action against some people who, in my opinion, had entered into the game for the express purpose of posting numerous commercial messages on the Forum.  I remember thinking that these people had effectively hijacked the Forum.

This happened quite a long time ago.  Over a very short period of time, their advertising messages were relentless.  However, Alan took swift and decisive action to ban these miscreants from the game and I believe he put in place some barriers to entry to prevent a recurrence of such activity by these pirates.

I also noticed these anomalies as mentioned. 

Ordinarily, everything proceeds as "smooth as silk".  It has only been a very few times in the years when the scoreboard and the Forum have gone a bit "ka-flooey".  It is a testament to how carefully Alan Walker has maintained things.  Whenever there has been an moment of odd functioning, things are brought back to normal very quickly.

I am in complete sympathy with the unfortunate occurrence which your friend experienced.

I recently experienced a similar computer-hacking and an instance of computer files held for monetary ransom.

This was an unfortunate occurrence and engendered extreme annoyance on my part.

Fortunately, I have gotten beyond the circumstances into which these computer hoodlums placed me—somewhat inconvenienced and relatively unscathed.

I will not go into the details except to say that there are evil people who "pretend" to offer computer help against viruses and malware.  

It is a sad thing that one's use of a computer exposes one to the evils of criminals who have some degree of computer expertise and can speak somewhat convincingly.

Sadly, some of these people are nasty criminals of a high magnitude.  

It is known that some of these evil people have recently hacked into computers belonging to hospitals and have demanded ransom be paid to them.

I sense that this kind of occurrence is not uncommon.

It is very difficult to know whom to trust when one grants these hoodlums uncontrolled access to one's computer via a remote session.

Rogue_Mother, thank you for the article on trilbies in particular and other hats as well.  I did not find the article offensive.  I found it informative.

I don't know if this is a big deal or not...I have lately been wearing a black hat with a black silk headband.  I have been calling it a derby.  When I wear this hat, I sometimes receive compliments on it whereupon I usually reply:  "I have a lot of fun wearing it."

However, I met a woman who commented on the hat and when I mentioned "derby", she was adamant and said:  "It is NOT a derby.  It is a bowler."

Often the name "Charlie Chaplin"  has been mentioned in connection with my hat.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Note:  I am unable to photograph this hat and include the picture.

There appears to be a fourteen hour disparity in the time listed for a forum message as compared to when it was actually posted.

This example describes a message currently appearing at the top of the Forum.

For example, a message is listed as posted today (referring to the message itself) as 03:56:42AM.

However, the message is shown on the Forum as today 05:56:42PM.

Where I am in the United States it is still morning.  That is, the time shown in the Forum has not yet occurred.

I have checked my profile and it shows my "Chihuahua time" is correctly synchronized with my current local time.

Have I got something incorrectly set?

Hillary Clinton did receive several million more actual votes than Donald Trump.

The margins for victory were extremely close in many states.  

However, people do not actually directly vote for the candidates themselves.  We actually vote for electors who then meet and vote for the president.

Whoever receives the greatest number of POPULAR votes in a state in nearly every case receives ALL the ELECTORAL votes for that state no matter how thin the margin.

As nineoaks has pointed out, on several occasions the candidate winning the greatest number of popular votes has NOT BEEN ELECTED president.

Both Hillary Clinton and President Obama gave thoughtful concession speeches.  President Obama says he benefited from an orderly transition of power when he was first elected in 2008, and he will accord Donald Trump the same orderly transition of power now.


Can someone relate what Angela Merkel's response was?  I have not heard about it.  Thank you.

This has been the most contentious presidential election in a very long time. 

I would not have been surprised if the two candidates had come out for the third presidential debate wearing boxing gloves.

I will be very happy when 11pm comes Tuesday evening.  Unless there are states where the vote is extremely close, or if there is a situation reminiscent of the situation in the state of Florida in 2000  (the "hanging chads"), the outcome should be pretty much known.

I will be so happy that this election is finally over.

I could not agree with you more.

In the New York city area, we are expected to receive around nine inches of snow, possibly somewhat more to the west and south.

I will also be exceedingly annoyed if power is lost for more than twelve hours.

During Superstorm Sandy (October/November 2012) which seriously devastated many homes and businesses near the water in New Jersey and New York, I was without heat and power for seven days.  We have a "new" power company since then.  

If power is lost for a substantial time period, things could be much more difficult when compared with Superstorm Sandy.  At that time, since I had no heat, the inside temperature fell to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit.  Since it is midwinter, inside temperatures could fall considerably lower.

Winds are expected to exceed sixty miles per hour.  

There is a full moon and "astronomical tides" are expected, with high tides minimally three feet greater than normal.  There is a high probability for coastal flooding.

There is a lot of anxiety abounding.

A number of public transportation systems have totally suspended service "for the duration":  in Washington DC, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York.  The mayor of New York city has encouraged everyone to remain at home so that snow removal vehicles are not impeded by automobiles whose owners have left their cars in inappropriate locations, thereby blocking passage through thoroughfares.  New York city has on hand more than 300,000 tons of salt (!) for melting snow.

As Bette Davis famously said in a 1950 movie, "All About Eve":  "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night."

Possible snow totals have been increased to twelve to twenty-four inches in the New York City area.