The Ziggurat of Doom

I don’t know which is funnier, the violence, or the insipid news casters. I know the Fool would say the latter.

So, I’d like to talk some more about Portal.

To set this up: I played through it twice last night. I finished, then turned on the developer’s commentary and played straight back through. And the commentary really cemented for me what an incredible game it was, on practically every level. But there are two particularly cool things I’d like to look at: the difficulty curve, and the story, both of which tie into the one quality that really drives the game’s brilliance: pacing.

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Everything this guy says about Portal is true.

Or, if videos terrify you and you want the one-sentence summary, I quote: “Portal’s great, and if you don’t think so, you must be stupid.”

I Am Legend - Trailer Download, View Trailers Starring WIll Smith. Ha ha. Because he really saved I Robot. Now I don’t have to look forward to it. The book was good though. I should reread it.

GAAAAH! The stupid, the horrible, painful stupid!

Right, better now. Just needed to get that out of my system.

Link is not to anything harmful, except maybe to your opinion of your fellow man. I quote from the link:

The Bible opens with the description of God creating the universe in six days. That report is accepted as literally true by 60% of the adult population.

NB: Barna is not a disinterested group, but this is not inconsistent with other polls I’ve seen. It’s just the latest and most depressing one.

Anyone else watching Reaper on CW? It’s got the Hillarious Devil character, which I love.

Taco Bell’s WS Giveaway: What Are The Odds You’ll “Win?” - Sports Biz with Darren Rovell - CNBC.com

For years, Taco Bell has put up some crazy promotions related to the World Series. My take is they’ve tried to give away a free taco, but they focused too hard on the publicity of it all and not on the actual possibility that one of their promotions could ever pay off for fans.

Over the last five years, here’s what didn’t pay off. A Taco Bell target in McCovey Cove in San Francisco was never hit (2002). A 16-person human billboard was never hit (2003). A 12-by-12 foot target during Game 3 was never hit (2004). And a home run left of centerfield in Game 3 didn’t occur (2006).

But this year, it’s going to happen. The folks at Taco Bell are offering a free taco to America if a player steals a base during the entire World Series They tell me that this has definitely happened every year since 1990. My job is now to tell you how many people I think will really redeem a taco when this happens.

So let’s start with the rules in the fine print. If a base is stolen in Games 1 or 2, fans can collect their Free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco on Tuesday, Oct. 30. If a base is stolen in games 3-7, the redemption date is Nov. 6.

Mass Effect has gone gold. This is the game I bought a 360 to play.

Going gold doesn’t mean they can’t delay it again. It just makes it much less likely. We may even see that November 20 launch.

Now, since EA bought Bioware a few weeks ago, I’m a little wary of where the future may take them. But for now, this will do. (Besides, if things go poorly with EA, I fully anticipate mass resignations, followed by the formation of a new company. This is not uncommon.)

BBC NEWS | England | Beds/Bucks/Herts | Firefighters face ‘ladders ban’

Firefighters have been banned from using their ladders to take down festive bunting because it is deemed a health and safety risk.

I’ve been meaning to link this for a while, but keep forgetting, so here it is.

Gunnerkrigg Court. A webcomic I found a few weeks ago and added to my RSS list. I’m quite a fan - the art is neat and stylish, and the story and world-building are interesting. Go forth, enjoy.

Rejoice my fellow geeks, for the Daily Show is yours, free and legally to boot.

I think the site just got slashdotted, but for all of you who can, go get your This Week in God and Back in Black while you can.

Roy Williams is rich, popular with the ladies, athletic, hell, he’s a professional football player. A pretty good one at that. He’s also a huge dork. Here are some wildly entertaining links
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Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu

UBUNTU 7.10
The latest releases of Ubuntu for desktop and server are available today for download. This release brings together the best of free and open source software delivered on a stable, easy to use and learn platform

Apparently, it’s all pretty now.

The world as we know it is changed, and will forever be divided into Before and After. We can rely on nothing in this terrible new reality, where up is down and black is white. Everything is torn asunder.

Capcom has announced a new Street Fighter game.

Street Fighter IV.

Four? Yes, four. After at least six iterations of SF2, at least three of SF3, and more than a few of SF Alpha, someone finally found the increment button.

Stay tuned - I’ll be doing exhaustive and ongoing coverage in the field of “game genres no one but me actually care about anymore”.

Rob Liefeld shoots on Alan Moore (Navel Gazing)
In an environment where everyone is either crazy out of their gourd, or a filthy lying scum bucket, there’s something magical about the biggest scum bag telling lies about the craziest person around.

Greg Mankiw’s Blog: Strange Bedfellows
Here at Zod, we usually make a pretty conscientious effort to avoid nakedly political posts. However, the murder to both sides aspect of this post is just too hilarious to pass up. It’s got something for everyone.

Verizon Wireless: If you don’t opt out, we get to share your CPNI call data

Verizon Wireless has been contacting its customers via snail mail to inform them of their intent to share CPNI data with its “affiliates, agents and parent companies (including Vodafone) and their subsidiaries.” The company says that customers who do not want their CPNI data shared need to call 1-800-333-9956 to “opt-out.” Upon dialing the opt-out number, Verizon customers will be prompted for their phone number, billing ZIP code, and last four digits of their Social Security Numbers (in the case of businesses, their Employer ID numbers). Failure to opt-out will be interpreted by Verizon Wireless as “consent” to the company’s data-sharing practices.

Opt out required for privacy is BS.

Get your conspiracy theory on.
Knights Templar win heresy reprieve after 700 years | U.S. | Reuters

A reproduction of the minutes of trials against the Templars, “‘Processus Contra Templarios — Papal Inquiry into the Trial of the Templars’” is a massive work and much more than a book — with a 5,900 euros ($8,333) price tag.

I haven’t been blogging much about comics for a few reasons. I’m behind on my reading. There’s just an overwhelming pile of trash being published right now (see 1), and I’ve had less time for blogging and blog reading in general. Anyway, the new design for Captain America came out.


I think it’s notable for a few reasons:

1. It doesn’t suck! This is very rare in costume redesigns. The shine might take a little time to get used to, but it’s a costume that actually has good visual structure, flow, and highlights. We haven’t seen much of this in the last 30 years or so. Also, negative space. I <3 u negidiv spc!
2. They kept the pirate boots. This will allow me to continue roll up my pants in one six inch cuff and inform everyone I see that “I’m Captain America, Bitch!” when I drink heavily. It’s a special time.

Why am I not talking about the gun? Because it’s obviously just there to generate controversy, and I don’t care.

Via Slashdot, six bureaucrats at the Japanese Agricultural ministry have been reprimanded for editing wikipedia articles on the job, including over 250 articles about robots in anime.

One minister on the scandal: “The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam.”

I think Christian’s quote about giant robots is fitting here: “The Japanese are just incontinent when it comes to giant robots. They’re doing their best to hold it in and then… oops, robot.”