IT Director for a non-profit in Washington, DC. Man About Internet.
Tonight, the House of Representatives voted 218-203 to pass a $50 billion funding bill for Iraq that would require withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Iraq to begin within 30 days of the bill’s enactment, with a completion goal of Dec. 15, 2008. The AP reports:
The bill was on shaky ground this week, after some liberal Democrats said they were concerned it was too soft and would not force Bush to end the war. Conservative Democrats said they thought it went too far and would tie the hands of military commanders.
Uncertain the bill would pass, Pelosi on Wednesday delayed a vote by several hours while she met with supporters and asked them to help her round up votes.
The bill’s prospects brightened somewhat early Wednesday after three leading anti-war Democrats announced they would support it. California Reps. Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters said they had agreed to swing behind it because the bill explicitly states the money should be used to bring troops home.
UPDATE: The Gavel has more.
(Via Think Progress.)
A big new World of Warcraft patch has been released, updating v2.2.3 of the game to v2.3.0. The 281mb download introduces the new 10-man instance of Zul'Aman as well as Guild Banks, while also adding new gear and items for PVP Arena Season 3, decreasing the experience needed to level up from 20 to 60, and offering more balancing tweaks and bug fixes.
World of Warcraft PTR Patch 2.3.0
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at ../patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html
The latest patch notes can always be found at ../patchnotes/
Zul'Aman
Zul'Aman is a 10-player, level 70 outdoor instance located in the Ghostlands. Players will be able to confront six new bosses including the Forest Troll Warlord Zul'jin.
Guild Banks Introduced
The Guild Bank is a shared repository for an entire guild and will be accessible through Guild Vault objects near existing banks. The Guild Bank will allow players with the appropriate permissions to store items and money for use by the rest of the guild. Permissions to withdraw and deposit money and items are controlled by the guild leader through the guild controls menu. The Guild Bank is divided up into separate tabs so that the guild leader may restrict access or group items into distinct categories.
o Up to 6 purchasable tabs each containing 98 item slots
o Permissions to view/deposit/withdraw per tab
o You may use your Guild Bank withdraw limits to pay for item repairs (now enabled on all merchants)
o Transaction logs of the last 25 actions within each tab, as well as money activity.
Dustwallow Marsh
Dustwallow Marsh has seen many improvements with the addition of over 50 new quests and a new neutral goblin town called Mudsprocket located in the southern part of the zone. There is also a small quest hub featuring a crashed goblin zeppelin, to the east of Tabetha's hut.
Leveling Improvements
Many leveling improvements have been made for the old world.
o The amount of experience needed to gain a level has been decreased between levels 20 and 60. In addition, the amount of experience granted by quests has been increased between levels 30 and 60.
o Level 1-60 dungeon quests have had their experience and faction rewards increased.
o Many elite creatures and quests in the level 1-60 experience have been changed to accommodate solo play.