Wired has a cool article on LucasFilm Foley artists that record the sounds for video games using everyday household items, all sorts of hardware, and whatever else their “active ears” can imagine as something else.
Update: I’m working on the layout of the blog and will eventually convert it to my main page rather than have a separate blog page. I’ll try and remember to e-mail my “regular” viewers once I’ve done this, but even if I don’t I’ll leave a placemaker page once I make the move. I’m not sure I like the scheme just yet, and I see some cross-browser issues, so things may be a little out of place until I figure them out. I really hate dealing with Internet Explorer, but web logs show that about 80% of my hits come from IE, so I guess I have to accommodate them. Also, earlier versions of Netscape aren’t working out as well either because of some of the CSS formatting, although I’ve minimized the problem as best as I can for now. For those of you wavering, download Mozilla, the open source browser from Netscape! It has the best HTML and CSS support out of all the browsers out there, and it might just piss Bill Gates off a little.
Anyway, comments and suggestions are welcome and appreciated!
Playboy’s ‘Women of Enron’ issue hit the stands. But it’s tastefully done and not at all exploitive. Yeah, right. Still…
Follow-up: As I figured, quite a furor was caused by a Federal Appeals Court decision that the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance are unconstitutional. Bipartisan condemnation of this decision seems to be the trend of the day, ranging from “This is the worst kind of political correctness run amok” (Republican Senator Christopher Bond) to “Just nuts” (Democratic Senator Tom Daschle). However, I do think that it was particularly cheesy to hear that House members gathered on the Capitol steps to recite the Pledge Of Allegiance; that’s almost as bad as their horrible rendition of “God, Bless America” after 9/11.
The Federal Appeals Court basically disagreed with a lower court’s ruling that “the ceremonial reference to God in the pledge does not convey endorsement of particular religious beliefs.” Once again, I agree with this statement and see no reason why it should have been overturned.
On a related topic, a CNN interview with the litigant that brought suit in the first place shows how myopically he views the world. When asked whether “In God we trust” should be removed from all U.S. currency his reply was “Absolutely.” He also admitted his daughter was not ostracized in school for being an atheist or not reciting the Pledge, but that “My daughter is in the lawsuit because you need that for standing.” So the original basis for the suit is not even valid. Hmmm….
The first photograph ever taken was captured by French inventor Joseph Nicephore Niepce in 1826, who called it a “heliograph.” Pretty cool…
Wow, those South Koreans can be pretty cruel. Soccer fans came up with pretty imaginative signs for their game against Germany, comparing the “turtle boat” South Korean team with the “rusty tank” German team. Sticks and stones…
Tired of losing at Monopoly? Then visit this Monopoly strategy guide and kick ass next time you play.
A Stockhold fashion retailer has launched wear-once paper panties as a summer clothing item. I don’t see this at all, but according to the designer, “Many guys don’t change their underpants every day. It would be perfect to sell paper underpants at petrol stations.” OK, we’ll put that into the “cons” column for Stockholm as a honeymoon destination.
Because of lackluster sales of his latest album,“Invincible,” Michael Jackson is deeply in debt to Sony. There’s only one thing to do! The King of Pop has summoned Al Sharpton and Johnnie Cochran to his cause. How ludicrous. His main claim is that his album was not promoted heavily enough, but it’s pretty obvious to me that people have finally realized that not only has Michael Jackson turned into a freak but also that his music hasn’t been any good for, oh, 15 years.
A federal appeals court ruled the Pledge Of Allegiance unconstitutional because of the words “under God.” I think that this interpretation of church versus state is ludicrously stringent and agree with the government’s view that “the religious content of ‘one nation under God’ is minimal.” The phrase does not explicitly endorse, affirm, or impose any particular religion, or a religion at all, for that matter. Of course, I can see knee-jerk ACLU types saying that this is tantamount to forced school prayer, but I obviously strongly disagree.
The Washington Post also has an article on this travesty, with this quote from Judge Alfred T. Goodwin: “A profession that we are a nation ‘under God’ is identical, for Establishment Clause purposes, to a profession that we are a nation ‘under Jesus,’ a nation ‘under Vishnu,’ a nation ‘under Zeus,’ or a nation ‘under no god,’ because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion.” Again, I disagree. “Under God” does not explicitly imply any particular deity, or could in turn imply the lack of a deity, to admittedly stretch a metaphor somewhat.
I’m usually pretty moderate in my political views, leaning left and right at will, but I feel the need to rail against this radically liberal bullshit. If they’re that offended by the phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance then what of the song “God Bless America,” the later verses of the “Star Spangled Banner,” and all of our money (“In God We Trust”)?! In any case, the implications for this will obviously be great, and I look forward to a speedy Supreme Court reaffirmation.
