The project, a brainchild of anime entrepreneur and Viz Media CEO Seiji Horibuchi, would demolish the 1746 Post St. Hokubei Mainichi Building and, in its place, erect a new structure dedicated to Japanese pop culture. The building would house several businesses including a cafe, a Kinokuniya annex bookstore and a movie theater owned and operated by Viz. The top floor would house offices for Viz pictures and the Hokubei Mainichi newspaper.
(Full Story)
Creve Coeur-based CIS Communications has put forth a proposal to conceal a cell phone tower for U.S. Cellular inside a 95-foot cross to be built on land owned by the Way of Faith Christian Center. Church members have agreed to lease space on church property as long as the tower is designed as a simple Christian icon instead of a metal tangle of bars and wires. (Full Article)You'll get better reception than God!
People with severe paralysis could find new opportunities from shopping to doing business or making new friends in the virtual world of Second Life by just thinking about it, if experiments being conducted by a Japanese university bear fruit. (Full Story)So technology is allowing the disabled to basically live "real lives" interesting implications...
ABC News reporters embedded with presidential candidates throughout the race will post news stories, blogs and photographs from the campaign trail directly onto Facebook, ABC said. A section of the application called Debate Groups will allow Facebook members to post and share thoughts about the campaign, especially during the nominating conventions of the political parties next year. (Full Story)I've gotta say, this seems an awful lot like ABC and Facebook is teaming up to basically create message boards for people to bitch about candidates on. Debates? More like preaching to the choir of people who already support a candidate and adding fuel to the fire of people attacking other candidates. Plus this rings a little too fmailiar after CNN and their YouTube debate where people were allowed to submit video questions....which CNN sifted through and selected certain ones that basically gave candidates a chance to practice their canned responses. Web 2.0 is about interaction and ABC and Facebook are not acting as a platform for communication but rather an excuse for two organizations to get some news coverage while the voters still have no real interaction with the candidates.
Technology is all about control, and the more we Americans singularly worship technology, the more we singularly worship control. Our society is increasingly dominated by megatechnologies -- huge, complex technologies that most of us neither understand nor can control. (Full Article)
Leaders of America's corporate mass media have embraced a financial model that relies upon a fatal internal conflict. The future of media, they believe, belongs to "consolidators" like the Drudge Report and Huffington, who pull together creative content--in these examples, news stories and opinion columns--they don't pay for. But who will write the stuff they steal--er, consolidate? (Full
Article)
More than four in 10 teens, or 43 percent, who instant message use it for things they wouldn't say in person, according to an Associated Press-AOL poll released Thursday. Twenty-two percent use IMs to ask people out on dates or accept them,and 13 percent use them to break up.Call me old fashioned but if someone is going to tell me that they may have given my Chlamydia, I'd prefer they didn't use AIM or txt messages. Be considerate and use E-mail!
Check out this poster for the upcoming Sarah Connor Chronicles. Check out tv addict for more! With the strike going on this show is looking to be a welcome addition to our waning schedules!
"Every freshly-scrubbed little kid's face should have been sued off the face of the earth."
Well I'm heading out to pick up Assassin's Creed, then playing it after watching Pushing Daisies tonight. Kristen Bell better show up in the first 10 seconds of the game or I'm really gonna be angry! Check back tomorrow for impressions of the game that is really dividing reviewers!More than 70 million blogs populate the Web today. Many read like personal diaries, with angst-ridden musings about relationships or wild nights out. But thousands of blogs — no one is sure how many — are written by entrepreneurs and
corporate leaders to connect with current and potential customers. These bloggers tend to write about industry issues, or excitement and dilemmas within their own companies.
A key reason the Internet has been such a success is because it is the most open network in history. It needs to stay that way. Barack Obama strongly supports the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet. Users must be free to access content, to use applications, and to attach personal devices. . . . Because most Americans only have a choice of only one or two broadband carriers, carriers are tempted to impose a toll charge on content and services, discriminating against websites that are unwilling to pay for equal treatment. . . . Such a result would threaten innovation, . . . It would also threaten the equality of speech through which the Internet has begun to transform American political and cultural discourse.Good to see that candidates are viewing technology as a real issue in the upcoming election
Tvguide reports that Seth McFarlane, creator of Family Guy is warning the Fox network that airing this coming Sunday's episode of the hit show will be a "colossal dick move" and damaging to the pair's already strained relationship. 
"It's just such a waste of time," said Lackman, 47, a power plant operator from Center, N.D. "I tell him, 'Do something that has some lasting value.'"Lackman's avoidance of the digital diversions that captivate his 15-year-old son, Tyrus, is shared by many parents. More than four in 10, or 43 percent, of those whose young children play video or computer games never play along with them, according to an Associated Press-AOL Games poll released Monday.Nothing new comes from this article but I think it is odd that parents just avoid games altogether and I'm betting these are the same ones who also complain about violence in games. Hey parents, you're the ones buying your teenager these games, maybe you'd like to take some sort of interest! My parents will play Wii Sports and really thats all they need to play, I have 4 siblings and we all grew up playing games, games which my parents were very aware of as far as content goes so maybe parents of teens today need to take an active role in gaming.
See that big ol' banner to your right? That would be an ad for Child's Play, a charity that the fine fellows at Penny Arcade run which helps give toys to Children's hospitals. Good cause eh? So I suggest ya'll head over to the main site and give a little back this Holiday season. I know I will. Thanks!
New federal legislation says universities must agree to provide not just deterrents but also "alternatives" to peer-to-peer piracy, such as paying monthly subscription fees to the music industry for their students, on penalty of losing all financial aid for their students.Full Story
Fewer than 1 in 10 unnatural deaths trigger an autopsy in Japan, which officially claims one of the world's lowest per capita murder rates.
Forensic scientists say there are many reasons for the low number of autopsies, from inadequate budgets to a shortage of pathologists outside the biggest urban areas. There is also a cultural resistance in Japan to handling the dead.
Reporters are funny people. At least, some of the New York Times reportersare. Their story on the strike was the most dispiriting and inaccurate that Iread. But it also contained one of my favorite phrases of the month.
“All the trappings of a union protest were there… …But instead of hard hats and work boots, those at the barricades wore arty glasses and fancy scarves.”
Oh my God. Arty glasses and fancy scarves. That is so cute! My head is aflame with images of writers in ruffled collars, silk pantaloons and ribbons upon their buckled shoes. A towering powdered wig upon David Fury’s head, and Drew Goddard in his yellow stockings (cross-gartered, needless to say). Such popinjays, we! The entire writers’ guild as Leslie Howard in The Scarlet Pimpernel. Delicious.
Consumerist has a very interesting article about Gamestop store policies that may suprise you, or piss you off. I usually split my game shopping between Gamestop and Best Buy but prefer Best Buy as I get points on my rewards card for buying stuff. Still though I know people who have worked at Gamestop and it can get pretty ugly in there!
Ahh if only I could live in Japan. i could drink FFVII Potion and get nifty figures with it. Which would sit on my toilet so they can watch me borch that potion right back into the sewer system it came from!
"Target strives to provide merchandise that will appeal to a wide variety of guests. We also want guests to be comfortable with the purchasing decisions they make at Target. All video games and computer software sold at Target currently carry ratings by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)--from early childhood through mature audiences. While Manhunt 2 was given a Mature rating by the ERSB, we received additional information that players can potentially view previously filtered content by altering the game code. As a result, we have decided not to carry the game."
Via: Kotaku
Found a Wired article about the mass production of computers that will eb given to kids in third world countries. my favorite bit:The small yet rugged XOs require low power and can be recharged by hand, have a screen that can be read in full sunlight and boast a user interface designed specially for children
It is CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s belief that these will become extremely relevant brand advertisements because they are akin to personal recommendations from your friends.
I think we are in the second wave of the internet boom (hence the 2.0) and that leads me to wonder, will there be the same level of fallout that we saw during the dot-com days?The person who coined the phrase "Web 2.0" in 2005 gave a presentation entitled
"What people still haven't understood about Web 2.0". For instance, he said he has the impression that a lot of people think Web 2.0 is the new digital version of the "Summer of Love". As he points out, the new Web is not so much the home of hippie ideals as of fierce competition. "Web 2.0 is a battlefield where competitors fight tooth and nail."
Joe Trippi, senior advisor to the John Edwards presidential campaign, and Cyrus Krohn, the director of the eCampaign division of the Republican National Committee, both spoke of how social networking has changed the face of politics on a panel at ExecutiveBiz's The New New Internet conference here.
These gamers' collective knowledge-building projects represent one of the most important aspects of contemporary video game culture, but also one of the most overlooked. Despite stereotypes of antisocial gamers who prefer to consume rather than create, most video-gamers are in fact engaged in a highly collaborative effort to exhaustively understand their favorite games. The video-gaming community is, quite simply, engaged in intense and highly successful "collective intelligence."
It was not the most eloquent line uttered in movie history, and it may have been one of the silliest: “Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our
lives.”
It's not just that someone who hasn't seen Star Wars won't appreciate Kevin
Smith films or that any person who doesn't know about the Beatles won't
appreciate the Apples in Stereo; those connections are obvious (and usually
meaningless). What's less clear -- and much more important -- is the degree to
which all of culture is imperceptibly defined by whichever
of its entities happens to be the most popular at any given time.
ManHunt 2 Video Game: Blasted for Linking Mental Illness to Violence; Retailers
Asked Not to Sell Based on Public Health Concern
ARLINGTON, Va., Nov. 1
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) today
condemned the controversial video game Manhunt2 based on its irresponsible,
stereotyped portrayal of people with mental illnesses, asking that it be
recalled or modified, or that retailers decline to sell the game. NAMI executive
director Mike Fitzpatrick issued the following statement:
"NAMI asks Rockstar
Games to recall or further modify the videogame Manhunt2 due to its
irresponsible, stereotyped portrayal of mental illness. We also ask retailers to
be responsible in responding to public health concerns.
Even though some
people may consider Manhunt2 to be only a game, it unfortunately perpetuates and
reinforces cruel, inaccurate perceptions that people who live with mental
illnesses are violent. The U.S. Surgeon General has condemned such
stigmatization, identifying fear of stigma as a major barrier to people getting
help when they need it. The overall contribution of mental illnesses to violence
in society is exceptionally small. In fact, people living with mental illness
are far more likely to be victims of violence.
Released on Halloween,
Manhunt2 enables players to assume the role of a patient fighting to escape from
the "Dixmor Asylum for the Criminally Insane." The patient uses a variety of
sickening techniques to torture and kill security offices and others in his
way.
Manhunt2 initially received an "Adults Only" rating for players ages 18
and older in the United States. This rating would have limited the game's
market; several major retailers will not sell games with that rating. Rockstar
made some small changes to the game, including the removal of a graphic scene
with castration, and received a new rating of "Mature" for players ages 17 and
older. The British Board of Film Classification was not satisfied with the
changes and citing the game's "unremitting bleakness" and "casual sadism," has
banned the game in the United Kingdom.
Concern over the violence reflected in
the game up until now has not yet been extended to include the outrageous
portrayal of the 54 million people in the United States who live with serious
mental illnesses. We do not favor censorship, but we do ask for responsible
exercise of creative rights when serious public health concerns are at issue. It
is our right to demand a higher standard."
I was playing Manhunt 2 last night and apparently if you are just watching someone play the game like my brother was, the censoring of the kills really doesn't take that much away, cua you can pretty much tell exactly what is going on. Something about a drill and several nails made one scene particularly colorful. While the game is by no means stellar, it is a very...interesting experience.
(Comic from Penny-Arcade.com, visit the site, now!)
