Contents
Writing of Mine That Doesn't Totally Suck
Reading
Playing
alChandler's Halls
Serving dozens since 1999
Newsfeed 1/27/12
The big story is that in the fourth quarter the US Economy grew by 2.8%, more then anyone expected. And now for the bad news, first of all 2.8% is not enough to generate new jobs so unemployment is still going to be a bitch. Secondly, a lot of the growth in the economy came from business types restocking their inventories. Consumers still aren't buying so now that they're fully stocked, expect business spending to slow. Finally, the payroll tax cut and unemployment extension ends next month. Get ready for the usual pissing and moaning from the Republicans in Congress. If either fails to gain renewal, the economy could tank.
Iran is threatening to cut off oil exports to Europe. Since the EU already slapped sanctions on Iran, this is the equivalent of Iran shouting, "Thief! Thief! Baggins, we hates it forever!"
It doesn't look good for Greece. The IMF is saying that Greece's efforts to reduce its long term debt aren't working. That, in turn could effect the EU's willingness to lend Greece more money. Greece has to pay its creditors another installment in March. If it doesn't get more money from the EU it will default. Right now it's trying to negotiate with its creditors but that isn't going well. But what the hell, March is like months away. Oh, by the way, Portugal will need more money too.
China opened fire on Tibetan protesters, again (That's actually the headline in the Times, not too jaded, are we?). Things have been heating up in Tibet since Tibetan protesters started setting themselves on fire to protest the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Tibet was a part of China under the Qing dynasty. When the dynasty fell in 1911 Tibet became independent. In 1950 the People's Republic of China ended that nonsense once and for all.
In Syria, fighting between government forces and the Free Syrian Army is heating up with military action occurring in the suburbs of Damascus. I don't understand why dictators fail to grasp the concept of gettin' out while the gettin' is good. In the meantime, the UN Security Council is discussing ordering the Syrian government to surrender. What a capital idea, I wonder why the rebels didn't think of it?
Apple plans to audit the conditions in its Chinese factories. Apple has been auditing conditions there since 2007 but this time they're serious, just wait till your father comes home.
The Pentagon's budget will shrink next year. Ships and planes will be cut, troops will be cut and bases will close. Congress has to give its approval for that last item. The Pentagon will be beefing up on stuff like drones.
In a bit of good news, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is offering live webcasts of its concerts. The Washington Post happily reported that today. What they failed to report, in true brain dead fashion, was the url. The url is: http://www.dso.org/. The next concert is Saturday at 8:00 PM.
The New York Times is reporting on a 16 year old girl in Cranston, Rhode Island. Said girl, Jessica Ahlquist by name, is an atheist who goes to Cranston High School West. It seems that a prayer, written by a 7th grader back in 1963, has been hanging on the wall of the school's auditorium for 49 years. Well not no more! Ms. Ahlquist sued, the prayer is now covered and a shit storm of epic proportions is blowing in Cranston. Ms. Ahlquist has a police escort to and from school and has received death threats.
The latest polls in Florida give a slight edge to Romney. The primary is next Tuesday and if Romney doesn't pull off a win he's liable to join Ed Muskie (Remember him?) in the front runners crash and burn club.
Obama's college affordability program would tie federal grants to colleges to the colleges affordability. If you'll allow me to editorialize briefly, we should be making every effort to get young people into college. Instead of saddling our most talented students with crippling student loans, we should be subsidizing them. Now back to the usual snark.
Robert Hegyes, best known as Juan Epstein in "Welcome Back Kotter", died of a heart attack yesterday. Aside from playing Epstein, he also played Chico Marx in the national touring company of "An Evening with Groucho", was a regular on "Cagney and Lacey", was Artist in Residence at Rowan University and was an adjunct instructor at Brooks College in Long Beach, California.
January 27, 2012
Newsfeed 1/26/12
Naval seals rescued Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted from Somali pirates yesterday. The two aid workers had been held for ransom since October. The US staged the raid because reports were coming in that Ms. Buchanan's health was declining. That and the usual talk about not allowing American citizens to be harmed (Ms. Buchanan is American, Mr. Thisted is from Denmark). Nine Somali pirates were killed in the course of the rescue.
Judge Baltasar Garzón of Spain, is on trial for abusing his power by launching an investigation into abuses that took place under Francisco Franco (who is still dead). Apparently a general amnesty was issued in 1977 for crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War. Judge Garzón has made a career of pissing off the wrong people, inside and outside of Spain.
Egyptians are gathering in Tahrir Square, Cairo, to celebrate the anniversary of the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak. Just to liven things up the Egyptian government is barring Sam LaHood, from leaving the country, along with five other Americans, none of whom is the son of Ray LaHood, the Secretary of Transportation. All six are members of something called the International Republican Institute. The Egyptian government suspects that the IRI, and other non profit groups, may be working to destabilize Egypt, as if the military hasn't been doing a good job of that all on their own.
Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland, is planning a referendum on Scottish independence. The target date for the referendum is sometime in 2014. Prime Minister Cameron insists that only the English Parliament can dissolve the union. It has something to do with the Act of Union of 1707. Until this is settled, expect much dick waving between Mr. Salmond and Mr. Cameron.
The Philippines is negotiating with America to expand the United States' military presence there. The Philippines is rather worried about China's growing military power.
The Fed has dropped the cheery news that the economy will still be fucked, although somewhat less fucked then it is now, in 2014. So interest rates will remain at their current levels until then.
Indiana has passed its right to work law over Democratic howls of anguish. Currently if you work at a union shop in Indiana, you don't have to join the union but union dues will still be deducted from your paycheck. The right to work law will prohibit unions from collecting dues from nonmembers.
Newt Gingrich will have a base on the Moon by the end of his second term. The hard part will be winning that pesty election in 2012.
Obama is getting some push back on his call to raise the drop out age to 18. States feel that's all well and good but show us the money. So far, Obama isn't showing any and the states are having problems paying the bills as it is.
After showing signs of improvement, new home sales were down in December. Economists are advising home buyers to ignore that man behind the curtain.
In other news, there's a growing sense of public outrage about the harsh conditions in Chinese factories where Apple products are assembled. This outrage will continue to build right up until the announcement of the iPhone 5. Ooooh, shiny!
James Gorman, head of Morgan Stanley, invited employees who were dissatisfied with their smaller paychecks to pursue career opportunities elsewhere. Meanwhile, investment bankers at Bank of America are getting their salaries trimmed by 25%. Not only that, but from now on, coffee is for closers.
In New Jersey news Governor Christie responded to Senator Sweeney's vow to make gay marriage a priority by calling for a referendum on the matter. Governor Christie compared the matter to civil rights struggles in the South and said, "The fact of the matter is, I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South." Why yes Governor, I'm sure the town fathers of Montgomery, Alabama would have loved a referendum on civil rights.
January 26, 2012
Europe's Worst Ever Crisis
No newsfeed today. I wrote a longish editorial on jobs for the mailing list but you've read it here before so I'm not reposting it here. But I do want to quote a little snippet from an article in the Guardian about the Greek financial meltdown:
With Europe's worst ever crisis moving into its third year, the chancellor is facing growing resistance to her key aim at Monday's summit - finalising the "fiscal compact" treaty that is the euro's new rulebook, foreseeing quasi-automatic fines for fiscal sinners, empowering the Luxembourg-based ECJ to sit in judgment of the 17 countries' budgets, and establishing legally binding debt ceilings for eurozone governments.
The italics were mine. You see, while the Greek debt crisis is pretty bad, I'm thinking that maybe, Hitler, Napoleon, bubonic plague, the collapse of the Western Roman Empire or a dozen other things rank slightly higher on the crisis scale then Greece not being able to pay its debts. I expect that kind of reporting from an American paper but I'm a little dissapointed to read this sort of thing in the Guardian.
January 24, 2012
Things I Learned Today: Angels of Mons
In 1914, during World War I, the heavily out numbered British forces defeated the Germans at the Battle of Mons. There were stories that angels intervened for the British.
And now I digress. In 1972 I picked up a copy of Arthur Machen's The Three Imposters. Machen died in 1947 and hadn't been in print in years but Lin Carter, editor of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series,
brought him back into print. His work is now readily available, at least from online stores, and he's regarded as a master of horror. So, I'm currently reading a collection of his stories and one of the pieces
is called The Bowmen, written in 1914. It was a fantasy tale in which archers from the Battle of Agincourt intervene during the Battle of Mons and save the day. Machen wrote it for a London paper called the Evening News.
It was published but it wasn't labeled as fiction so a number of readers took it as an actual account of events at Mons. That was enough and the legend of the Angels of Mons spread. At one time the story was rather
famous, Now, not so much. I've come across it in my readings so I was aware of it but never new that Arthur Machen was, unintentionally, responsible.
It's amazing how a bit of knowledge can lay dormant for years, then bubble to the surface and form a connection with something else.
January 24, 2012
Rick Santorum
This is an image from a page that allows you to send money to Rick's campaign. And the picture cheerfully says: Conservatives Unite Now Till Saturday. I'll let you work out the acronym for yourselves.
January 23, 2012
Newsfeed 1/23/12
Yesterday the Arab League came up with a proposal for peace in Syria. It called on President Assad to resign as part of the peace process. That didn't go over to well and Assad will not resign.
The EU finally banned Iranian oil in an effort to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear program. Iran insists its nuclear aims are strictly peaceful.
Croatia voted to join the EU. No decision yet on whether or not they'll adopt the euro, but I know which way I'd vote on that.
France is going to take a vote to make it a crime to deny genocide. Not so much the concept of genocide but rather if a specific instance of genocide took place. Which is what is pissing Turkey off big time, because France voted that the Armenian genocide in 1915 was, in fact genocide. The Ottoman Empire, that is Turkey, was responsible for that one and they're still touchy about being called out on it. All this is being played out against a backdrop of Turkey beginning to realize that it's better to be a major regional power in the Mideast then to try to tie its fortunes to the rather creaky EU.
Kim Dotcom, founder of Megaupload, is applying for bail. A judge in New Zealand will decide on that by Wednesday. Megaupload was a file storage and/or sharing service. I could upload a large file to Megaupload and you could access it under certain conditions. The United States is arguing that Megaupload was used to transfer copyrighted stuff. Well, nobody could argue seriously against that but the crux of the case is that Mr. Dotcom knew this nefarious stuff was going on and took advantage of it for his own gain. Bottom line is sometimes a service like Megaupload is the only real way to move an obscenely large but legal file from point A to point B. Now everyone in that business is freaking and even companies like Apple and Amazon are a little nervous.
Representative Gabrielle Giffords is quitting the House. She's decided that she can't focus on rehab and her duties and if one or the other has to go it's her seat in the House.
Romney and Gingrich are gearing up for 8 days of campaigning, culminating in the Florida primary next week. At this point I want to call your attention to an article about Gingrich in Salon. The article compares a potential Gingrich candidacy with that of Goldwater's in 1964. I'm just bringing it up 'cause I've been saying that for awhile now. I rule.
Farmers in Georgia and Alabama are changing the way they do things in response to tough laws against illegal immigrants. The idea was that the crackdown would open a lot of backbreaking, soul numbing jobs paying slave wages to Americans. But for some reason, Americans just aren't applying. So some farmers are switching to less labor intensive crops, other are planting less and some are relocating to states with less brain dead governments. Just expect higher food prices courtesy of the governments in Georgia and Alabama.
New Jersey Democrats say that they're going to try to legalize gay marriage this year. Not only because it's the morally right thing to do but also because it would put Governor Christie in an uncomfortable spot.
In Atlantic City news, a shitload of people turned out for a jobs fair run by Angel Management Group. AMG is going to run The Social, which, according to the Press is an entertainment/night life complex in Revel. Atlantic County unemployment is at 12.4%, which means job applicants aren't troubling their heads with foolish things like unions or job security.
January 23, 2012
Presented Without Comment
January 22, 2012
Newsfeed 1/22/12
The big story is Gingrich getting 40.4% of the vote in South Carolina. Romney was a distant second at 27.9%. But more on that later.
Speaking of elections, the results are in for the Egyptian election. The Muslim Brotherhood won 47% of the seats in parliament, 25% went to an ultraconservative Islamic alliance and the remaining seats went to the Wafd Party, a liberal party. Parliament will appoint members to a body who will draw up Egypt's new constitution. The Muslim Brotherhood, while conservative is far more moderate then the ultraconservatives, so it will be interesting to see what the Egyptian constitution ultimately looks like.
In Zabadani, Syria, government forces left the city leaving it to the Free Syrian Army. Right now nobody seems to know why.
The political head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaa is leaving his job after 16 years. He had some conflicts with the Hamas leaders in Gaza so this might be a discretion is the better part of valor thing. Mr. Meshaa favored political action over violence while the leaders in Gaza thought that their current strategy of lobbing missiles into Israeli territory and then hiding when the Israeli military blew stuff up was working out just fine.
Well then, Newt kicked Mitt's ass in South Carolina. At this point we have Santorum taking Iowa, Romney taking New Hampshire and now Gingrich winning in South Carolina. So far, this is great for Obama. Obama won in 2008 by nodding and winking at liberals. Then after he took office he abandoned us. Speaking for myself, I was ready to vote third party this November, then came the primaries. By showcasing guys like Santorum and Gingrich, the Republicans are reminding people like me just how scarey they are. Hell, even if Mitt is the nominee, I intend to vote the shit out of Obama this November. If nothing else the primary season is reminding independent voters that their only real option is to vote for Obama. Which is probably not what the Republicans intended. By the way, Warren Ellis has a great campaign slogan for Newt, Gingrich 2012: America is his wife now.
Obama gives his State of the Union speech this Tuesday. It's going to focus on the economy and the differences between his economic plan, which focuses on economic recovery, jobs and fairness and the Republican
approach, which centers on crossbreeding men and orcs to produce a warrior race of orcs called the uruk hai. To be honest, developing the uruk hai would create a lot of jobs.
Joe Paterno is in the hospital because of complications form chemotherapy. Currently he's on a ventilator. Uh, update on that, he just died.
Experts think that housing prices will continue to drop in 2012, in spite of the fact that sales in December hit an eleven month high.
In NJ news, State Senate President Sweeny has said that a proposal to allow casinos in Bergen County is dead, at least for the next five years. But if Governor Christie's reforms haven't tuned things around for Atlantic City in five years, the Legislature will look at the proposal again. Say, wouldn't that be about the time Christie finishes his second term? Just speculatin'.
January 22, 2012
Working At The Apple Plant
The New York Times as a rather breathless article about why Apple has its iPhones assembled in China. What got to me was this passage:
Apple had redesigned the iPhone's screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.
A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company's dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.
Understand, this wasn't some kind of emergency shift. At the Apple plant in China you work 12 hours a day, six days a week for $17 a day. Cool, huh? And that's the problem with the article. I points out why Apple likes the plants in China but glosses over the fact that factories like Foxconn treat their workers in ways that would have been considered exploitative at the turn of the last century. No, American workers don't need to be more like the poor bastard assembling iPhones for 12 hours a day. And, as the son of a union worker, I think it's contemptible to suggest such a thing.
January 22, 2012
Why Retail Workers Hate Our Guts
January 21, 2012
Newsfeed 1/21/12
Today is the day of the South Carolina primary and Mitt Romney is realizing that it might be a long primary season. See, the thing is that it's very hard to unseat a sitting president. Ford lost the election in 1976 because of the Nixon Pardon and a very strong challenge from Ronald Reagan. Carter lost the election in 1980 because of a similar challenge from Ted Kennedy. Now that dynamic is in play again but on the challenger's side. Romney needs s string of convincing victories but Gingrich and Santorum are fighting him. Should be interesting.
On to the rest, The United States may shut down its embassy in Syria for security reasons. Nobody wants to be sitting in ground zero of a civil war.
Salman Rushdie has decided to skip the Jaipur Literature Festival in India after he was warned that he was going to be targeted by assassins.
He has attended the festival before but this time he's going to show up via a video link.
In Italy, Prime Minister Mario Monti is taking steps to jolt the economy be loosening regulations and infrastructure spending. Although Italy has cut government spending, the country wants to avoid the fate of countries like Ireland, that are stuck with 14% unemployment rates.
Today's wtf headline comes from Navajas, Spain. A bull with flaming balls of wax stuck on its horns gored a man to death. Navajas has a festival this time of year where they stick flaming balls of wax to bull's horns and let the poor bastards roam through the streets. Might be time to rethink that tradition.
In the war the rest of the world doesn't give a shit about, African Union peacekeeping troops are nearly at Mogadishu, the capitol of Somalia. The AU's troops are fighting against (see if you can guess) Islamist insurgents. The AU has 10,000 troops in Somalia with Uganda and Burundi soldiers doing the heavy lifting. Kenya has just asked the UN to allow it to merge its troops in Somalia with the AU's troops. I hope this mission works out, it would be nice if Africa can finally get its shit together.
The state of Kansas has a new office called Office of the Repealer. No, seriously, the idea is to eliminate old, outdated laws. The office proposed the elimination of 51 laws but one of the laws the decided to keep was criminal sodomy. It's sort of a moot point since the Supreme court ruled that anti-sodomy laws were unconstitutional. It's just snark that Kansas is directing towards gay men and women.
The Supreme Court has rejected the Texas redistricting plan drawn up by a lower court. See, Texas is getting four additional seats in the House of Representatives. The Texas Legislature drew new districts that, favored Republicans. it went to court and the federal court drew districts that favored Democrats. The Supreme Court just killed that map and sent the whole thing back down, This is important because control of the House could hinge on it.
Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney (Is it me or do these guys have names that sound like they're bit players in Issac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy?) were both scheduled to show up at Tommy's Country Ham House
in Greenville at 10:45 AM. So far, no word of any casualties.
A United States District Court ruled that Vermont can't shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor. The court told Vermont that regulating nuclear power plants is a federal matter. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given the plant a 20 year license.
In the wake of the shitstorm the feds unleashed on Megaupload, other file storage services, you know, dodgy fly by night ones operated by
shady companies like Amazon and Apple, are wondering about their own liability.
Finally, I just learned that Chuck Norris has endorsed Gingrich. Obama should start packing now.
January 21, 2012
Star Wars Uncut: The Director's Cut
A few years ago a guy named Casey Pugh asked people to remake scenes from Star Wars: A New Hope, 15 seconds at a time. Now they're edited all together in a fan made remake of the original. And yes, Han shoots first. The film is an achievement and really funny, but may I offer a tip of the hat to the retiring George Lucas? Say what you want about his recent efforts, he's been extraordinarily generous about letting people play with his movies, the only caveat is that you can't use his stuff for your own commercial gain. There's a reason why there are so many Star wars parodies, it's because Lucas gave the go ahead a long time ago. Whatever you may think about The Phantom Menace, there's a special place in net history for the director who saw Troops and laughed his ass off.
January 21, 2012
Nothing Here But A Happy Dog
January 21, 2012
Newsfeed 1/20/12: Insomnisa Ahoy!
Four French soldiers were killed by an Afghanistan soldier. This is on top of a second fatal attack on 12/29. Attacks on Allied troops are increasing, pretty much showing that nothing has changed in Afghanistan in the ten years we've been there. At any rate, the French are about ready to pull their 3,600 troops out. The soldiers are there for training purposes and the French government is taking the realistic view that the whole endeavor in Afghanistan is a balls up, shit stained cock fest and one should always cut one's losses.
Prime Minister Putin of Russia will meet with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger today to discuss old times and world events. A little like Grand Moff Tarkin and Lord Vader getting together to chew the fat.
The Arab League is thinking of extending its mission in Syria because the observers haven't sufficiently humiliated themselves yet. There are calls for the League to just admit that Syria is slaughtering its own citizens and to pull the observers out.
The newly democratized civilian government in Myanmar is conducting military operations in a province (or whatever its administrative designation is) called Kachin State. Kachin State is currently being run by the Kachin Independence Army but it has a lot of natural resources and now that Myanmar is out of the international doghouse the country wants to reassert control over said resources. Adding to the fun is China, which has business interests in Kachin State.
Megaupload is one of those sites that I've never heard of but has been around for a long time. It's a hosting service of sorts. You upload a largish file to Megaupload, you're given an url and now others can download the file. Yesterday in New Zealand Megaupload's founder, Kim
Dotcom (I swear that's the guy's name) was arrested. Around the world six other people were busted too and charged with copyright infringement and conspiracy. It seems that Megaupload was used to host copyrighted files. In a response to the arrests, Anonymous launched attacks that brought down, albeit for a short time, the sites of the MPAA, the RIAA, Universal Music group and the US Justice Department. I can't think of a better way to convince Congress that they should take a hands off approach to the net.
At yesterday's Republican debate, Newt Gingrich was complaining about an ABC interview with his second wife. The second Mrs. Gingrich claimed that Newt asked her for an open marriage so he could continue to fuck his mistress, Callista Bisek, who became the third Mrs. Gingrich. Gingrich denounced ABC news for the interview. For the rest of the debate, the four candidates fell upon each other like starving dholes.
Former Senator Christopher Dodd, head of the MPAA, wants a sit down between representatives of the entertainment industry and the tech industry following the rather dramatic anti-SOPA protests on Wednesday. He'd like to discuss antipiracy. Mr. Dodd, talking about the planned net blackout on Tuesday said, "It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and who use their services. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today." I suggest that Dodd will have to suck a lot of tech cock to back peddle from that one.
And finally, Obama's first campaign ad defends the loan guarantees to Solyndra. Because you always want to come out of the starting gate by calling attention to one of your major fuck ups.
January 20, 2012
Newsfeed 1/19/12
Got sidetracked and never posted this thing.
Several hedge funds have announced that if Greece tries to force them to take losses, they'll sue Greece in court for human rights violations. Good luck guys.
Murdoch's News Group Newspapers unit has settled with 36 people over phone hacking. The victims who settled included Jude Law, who walked away with 130,000 pounds.
Another Iranian fishing boat crew was rescued by the US Navy. This is the third save this month.
This one is kind of hard to follow but Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to ask Switzerland to reopen a money laundering case against President Asif Ali Zardari. the Prime Minister has refused on the grounds that the president is immune form prosecution under Pakistan's constitution. There's speculation that the court could ask the military to intervene. There's been a lot of tension between Pakistan's military since the US raid that killed bin Laden.
The Chinese government is introducing RedPad Number One, an Android tablet preloaded with apps for Communist party leaders. you can read state run newspapers and blogs and even verify identification cards, all for only 9,999 yuan ($1,586.06).
Rick Perry just withdrew from the race and is now supporting Newt Gingrich. I don't know the rational behind that choice at all, I would have expected him to support Santorum but I guess if the choice is between a delusional madman and a psychopathic megalomaniac you just flip a coin.
And speaking of delusional madmen, the final tally is in from Wisconsin and it turns out that Santorum won by 35 votes.
Cory R. Maples is on Alabama's death row. He missed a chance for appeal because of a mail room fuck up. Unusually for a progressive state like Alabama, the courts ruled that Maples had no right to another shot an an appeal. The Supreme Court disagreed by 7-2. As you might guess, the two dissenters were Scalia and Thomas.
First time unemployment dropped to 352,000, the lowest since April 2008. According to the Times, when first time claims drop below 375,000 a week, it generally means a drop in the unemployment rate.
And as long as we're being oh so happy, inflation was flat in December. Yay!
But Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy today. Boo! But seriously, it's been heading their for a long time now. The bankruptcy is designed to protect the only asset the company still has, its patent portfolio.
Finally, Governor Christie has signed a bill reducing the number of commissioners on the Casino Control Commission from 5 to 3. There were already two vacancies on the board. By the way, Chair Linda Kasskert leaves in August, so get those resumes in now folks.
January 20, 2012
The Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Gameplay Demo
It's great and I won't be buying the game.
The game is a lot like Batman: Arkham Asylum. I loved the Batman game but I wasn't coordinated enough to complete it. That's why I never bought the sequel. Kingdoms of Amalur looked great but it was less
like Diablo and more like Batman. Even on the easiest difficulty I had problems.
But if the whole hand/eye thing is working better for you then it does for me, check it out. Me, I'll wait for Mass Effect 3. Even if they've changed the
play mechanic, and I hope they haven't, I'd have to get that one. It's the last game of a trilogy and all that.
January 19, 2012
SOPA/PIPA
According to Ars Technica, 13 Senators have backpedaled from PIPA. Five of those
Senators were sponsors of the bill. The House seems to be a bit more bullish on the bill but all in all the internet blackout seems to have rattled Washington.
Look, if anything on this site generated revenue I'd want to maximize that right away. But I wouldn't except the rest of the net to help me, nor would I consider it just if your site was shut down because
you innocently linked to a page that was pirating all my incredible material. In fact, if your site did bring my attention to the infringing site, great. Thanks to you I can sic my vast legal team on them.
And remember, stealing is wrong but if an industry is going to claim that piracy costs it 100 billion dollars a year then you damn well better open your books to me and prove it or shut the fuck up.
Update: Found this press release from the MPAA:
Only days after the White House and chief sponsors of the legislation responded to the major concern expressed by opponents and then called for all parties to work cooperatively together, some technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns, rather than coming to the table to find solutions to a problem that all now seem to agree is very real and damaging.It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today.
It's a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests.
A so-called "blackout" is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals. It is our hope that the White House and the Congress will call on those who intend to stage this "blackout" to stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy.
I didn't know that Wikipedia, Boing Boing and Whatever were technology business interests. Live and learn I say.
January 19, 2012
Newsfeed 1/18/12: SOPA Edition
By way of a small editorial, as opposed to the usual snark, you may be aware that Wikipedia and other sites have gone dark to protest SOPA/PIPA, Congress' latest attempt to stop online piracy.
I don't pretend to know how much revenue is lost to piracy, the same way I don't know how much money Wawa looses to shoplifting. I do know that the bills in question moves the burden of stopping piracy from the copyright holders to individual websites. My site could be sued, or even shut down if I link to a post that, unknown to me, is on a site that also infringes on somebody's copyright. Now, if alChandler's Halls is shut down, three or four people will meet in a bar and toast to the good times. If Facebook is shut down, a lot of revenue and a lot of jobs go away.
And now a quote by Shamus Young:
"If you can't make money doing X, then you go out of business if you insist on doing X. If Pepsi stopped making money on vending machines because people routinely vandalized the machines and nobody ever called the cops because vandalism was socially acceptable, then Pepsi would have to find another business model. I'm sorry people are jerks, but your earning a living can't come at the expense of the freedoms of everyone else."
And that's what scares companies like Disney, not piracy. People are finding other business models. Randall Munroe does a strip called XKCD. It's not syndicated, it's not behind a paywall, it's free. Furthermore, you can take his strip and put it on your site if you wish, knock yourself out. Munroe makes his money off of merchandising. It's worked, at least so far.
Even scarier is Louis CK. He filmed one of his concerts, put it on his site and charged $5 to download it. There was no DRM on the download, he trusted you. It seems to have worked out for him, he made a million dollars.
That's what frightens the MPAA, that as technology advances people will create works of art that formerly needed the type of money only a movie or record company could provide. They will do anything to hold onto that model and if it means breaking the internet, that's a small price to pay.
Now, if you're still with me, a few news stories:
The Prime Minister of Greece told her creditors that Greece may pass legislation forcing them to accept losses. Greece is broke.
In other EU news, Croatian voters are having second thoughts about the vote to join the EU, scheduled for this Sunday.
Russia is reminding the world that Arab uprising can lead to wars and all sorts of suffering. They'll veto any UN resolution that authorizes the use of troops against the Syrian government. Which would be more impressive if somebody actually put forth a resolution like that. It should be noted that Russia is still shipping arms to the Syrian government.
Captain Francesco Schettino of the Costa Concordia explained in court that the reason he didn't take charge of the evacuation was that he tripped and fell into a life boat. Seriously, that's what he said.
The effort to recall Governor Walker of Wisconsin turned in over a million signatures. Only 500,000 were needed to force a recall
.
The racial rhetoric is heating up in South Carolina. During Monday's debate, Gingrich was pressed about his crack that Obama was "The food stamp president".
Governor Christie has called apon Mitt Romney to release his tax returns. If you haven't figured it out by now, Christie wants to run in 2016 but that will be difficult if the guy he's officially backing, Romney, wins in 2012.
Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo is stepping down from the board. You may remember Yang as the genius who turned down Microsoft's $47.5 billion takeover offer. Thanks to Yang's canny leadership, Yahoo's current value is about $20 billion.
January 18, 2012
Newsfeed 1/17/12
Five more bodies have been pulled from the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia bringing the death total to 11. So far people are blaming the Captain for taking manual control of the ship away from a computer. The ship then hit a reef.
Iceland seems to be recovering from its financial disaster. She handled it by allowing banks to fail and telling foreign creditors to go fuck themselves. The article in the Washington Post gently suggests that Iceland's options aren't available to the US or the EU.
In Russia, Prime Minister Putin has announced that he's running for president because only he can guide Russia through the problems that lie ahead. Actually he was a tad more flowery but that's the sense of the article he wrote for Izvestia.
The Chinese economy is slowing, growing by "only" 8.9% last quarter. We should be so slow.
International debt inspectors, whatever the hell they are, are going to Greece to try to figure out how much of its debt, if any, Greece can repay. Greece needs this to go well because the owe 14.5 billion euros, due in March. Meanwhile, Greek citizens are protesting austerity measures.
Romney revealed that his tax rate is probably about 15%. He hastened to add that the reason was much of his income derives from investments he made in the past. Once that was explained, I felt my rising gorge turn to kittens and unicorns.
A Russia oil tanker is about to reach Nome, Alaska with much needed fuel. It's half a mile away and a hose will transfer the fuel to the town.
The Obama administration is about to force drug companies to tell how much they give to doctors for research, consulting and entertainment.
Not to surprisingly, a study indicated that doctors who get perks from drug companies practice medicine a little differently then those who don't.
The state of Arizona has a law on the books that, well just read it:
A. A school district or charter school in this state shall not include in its program of instruction any courses or classes that include any of the following:
1. Promote the overthrow of the United States government.
2. Promote resentment toward a race or class of people.
3. Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.
4. Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.
Because of that law, Shakespeare's "The Tempest" is a banned book. You see, Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, is exiled on this island. He's enslaved its only native, Caliban, and Caliban resents it. The action takes place on an island in the Atlantic and that makes Caliban a Native American. So the resentful Caliban has to go.
North Jersey legislators want to bring gambling to the Meadowlands. The idea is that North Jersey folks aren't going to Atlantic City they're going to New York, so why not build a casino that will lure them back? South Jersey legislators are rather cool to the idea. Governor Christie's gaming panel came out against the idea of casinos outside of Atlantic City and, so far, Christie has gone with the panel's recommendations.
January 17, 2012
What Does a 13 Year Old Cat Do All Day?
Pretty much this.
January 17, 2012
This has been a Whenpigsfly production.
Any questions or comments can be directed to kaliban13@comcast.net.
Logo courtesy of Mrs. Silverman.