Now, now we get the wave of cheap imitators who don't imitate the storyline or the ambiance of GTA IV, just the violence. (Disclaimer: I don't actually own the game - I'm not a big fan of the GTA experience. Reading the news is dark and nihilistic enough for me, I don't need to experience it my video games. Just that, with that much money in play, companies are going to churn out clones that miss the point, and, in the process, infuriate even further that segment of the population that believes video games are the root of all evil.)

Tags: gaming

Tags: politics - general, religion

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me a hundred times...?

Another issue the Harper government has decided they know better than Canadians in general. What I don't get is why they even try to keep most of this stuff secret -- 9 times out of 10, it'll get out, somehow.

Of course, with the Liberals effectively leaderless right now (damnit Dion, grow a freaking pair), there really isn't much alternative to Harper right now. Layton seems to have calmed down again, but, I admit I'm governed by my fears in this case, remembering Bob Rae's thought that "We learned too late that the politics of opposition are not the same as the politics of government. The politics of protest are not the politics of power." And I'm not convinced Layton understands that.

Tags: politics - canada

Just push the big red button. Well, okay, watch the guy push the big red button.

You know you want to....

Tags: interesting links

The only real way to fight bad information is with good information. The problem is, it's easy to smear somebody with a single line, and the proof of innocence might be many pages long. Doubly hard if people want to believe the bad information, whether out of prejudice, willful ignorance, or actual malicious intent, and so won't take the time to consider proof, because it's obviously 'false and misleading.'

Report: Hoax Anti-Obama E-Mails Still Fool Dumb White Guys

Hopefully, I'm wrong about this -- that this will be a campaign fought on important issues, like the military and foreign policy and the economy. The last two Presidential elections were about character, and, the person with the 'better' character won -- and where is the United States now? Character is no replacement for actual competence.

Tags: politics - general

Pidgin Controversy Triggers Fork

Tags: philosophy

Having signals analysis like this is an advantage, but not decisive. Even if you had perfect knowledge of the play coming next, you would still have to execute -- and, if you guessed perfectly two or three times in a row, odds are the opposing team would do something about it and adjust. It's important to note that, as far as I know, no coach of a team that the Patriot's spied on believed that knowledge of signals was the deciding factor in their games.

Regardless though, this was against league rules. Now that there's growing evidence that the Patriots cheated here, the question is where else they might have cheated?

This stupid act of arrogance (why cheat if the advantage won't be decisive) will forever tarnish Belichick's accomplishments, because you don't know what the hell else he might have done. You will always have to wonder if he really is the great football coach that everybody thought he was, or if he was just more ruthless than the rest?

Tags: sports