Mindjack, the digital culture webzine, examines the impact of BitTorrent on TV shows and asks whether this distribution model should be embraced by the television companies.
Part two: The new laws of Television
Post-Script: The Swarm Manifesto
Tags: bittorrent, copyright, TV
Halo 2 and the Criminal Mind
The story of how a nice family man was corrupted by the video game Halo 2 and turned into a sociopathic clan leader within a single day.
“Watch the language around the boys, dear.” She’s gesturing to John’s two toddlers, now playing on the living room floor. The oldest is opening a recent birthday gift, a plastic playset in a box marked with a cartoon man with a ponytail and a goatee. The words Brett The Communal Farmer are marked in pink above his head, below it says And His Life Partner, Tim! There is not a toy gun or G.I. Joe to be found in the house.
“I’m not gonna censor myself. Dave’s doin’ an article on the mind of the average gamer and I can’t filter my thoughts. And my first unfiltered thought is that Halo 2 be da filthy.”
This early exchange with the wife didn’t bode well for the future, as we can see in this later episode.
She examines the TV, watching John stride up behind an unsuspecting opponent and blow holes in his back.
“Wait a second,” she said. “Why did you kill that guy? Isn’t he another human?”
John shook his head in frustration. “He’s wearing blue armor.”
“So… the guys in blue armor were also born evil?”
“Honey, if you would take a moment to think before you talk, you’d see that the uniform means he’s on the other side. It’s a game. Like football.”
“But… you’re blowing their guts out. So, like, in the Halo universe are you saying that it’s a normal human pasttime to-“
“-I’m trying to play here! Don’t make me get Ghraib on your ass!”
“If you talk to me like that again, I’ll never let you touch my…” she trails off into stricken silence. “John, what the hell are you doing?”
What John’s wife had just observed was the Halo custom known as “tea bagging.” This is a sort of celebration where the victor squats over the vanquished’s face to simulate dipping his testicles into the cold, dead, open mouth of the corpse much in the same way one would dip a teabag into a cup of hot water.
The article was written by David Wong and John Cheese.
John Cheese? Wasn’t that the former name of John Cleese before he changed his surname?
Tags: games
It was the Queen’s Speech today in which she outlined what her government would be doing in this parliament.
Tony Blair has pledged to create a “culture of respect” as he put moves to tackle crime and disorder at the heart of his third term agenda.
Public service reform also figured strongly in the Queen’s Speech, setting out the government’s new programme.
A total of 44 bills and six draft bills are in the 2005 Queen’s Speech – ensuring a packed legislative schedule in the parliamentary session that follows the general election.
The 44 bills for Parliament to debate by November 2006 included ID cards and laws against religious hatred.
The Conservatives say Labour has copied much of their agenda. The Lib Dems say Mr Blair has not listened to voters.
BBC News: Queen’s Speech at-a-glance or in full.
As outlined in the speech the government has not yet given up on it’s planned National ID card scheme.
Controversial plans to introduce a compulsory identity card scheme have been unveiled in the Queen’s Speech.
The cards, which had to be dropped ahead of the election, will be linked to a National Identity Register holding information on all UK residents.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke said there had been “technical” changes to the new bill to take account of previous objections to the plans.
The Lib Dems say the plans could be defeated with Tory and Labour support.
I really wonder why they insist on pursuing this ill-conceived plan that will be both costly and inefficient, and will certainly not provide increased national security.
Further reading:
• My analysis of the scheme.
• The text of the Identity Cards Bill
• NO2ID NewsBlog
An abandoned Ministry of Defence facility that my father used to work at about 25 years ago. They were I believe the computer services department of the MOD and had a computer the size of a house.
The entirety of this set of photos is viewable at Flickr.com.
Tags: photography
I watched the great war movie The Dambusters again this weekend as part of Channel 4’s 100 Greatest War Films Weekend and was a bit shocked to learn that they had named their dog Nigger and that it was the codeword to be used on the mission for a successful breach of the Moehne Dam after the dog.
Nigger, a black Labrador Retriever who gave his name as the codename for the Dam Busters mission in World War II. (He was given the name solely because he was black, but it is usually edited out of modern versions of the film about the mission.)
This text licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “List of historical dogs”.
Such were the innocent times of the 40s when heroic British pilots could name their pets with derogatory terms for other races.
Tags: movies, World War II
Richard Feynman wrote letters to all kinds of people. Here are some of them.
This is particularly beautiful.
On loss
Arline Feynman died on June 16, 1945. The paper on which this letter was written is well worn, and it appears as though he reread it often.
To Arline Feynman, October 17, 1946
D’Arline,
I adore you, sweetheart … It is such a terribly long time since I last wrote to you — almost two years but I know you’ll excuse me because you understand how I am, stubborn and realistic; and I thought there was no sense to writing. But now I know my darling wife that it is right to do what I have delayed in doing, and what I have done so much in the past. I want to tell you I love you.
I find it hard to understand in my mind what it means to love you after you are dead — but I still want to comfort and take care of you — and I want you to love me and care for me. I want to have problems to discuss with you — I want to do little projects with you. I never thought until just now that we can do that. What should we do. We started to learn to make clothes together — or learn Chinese — or getting a movie projector.
Can’t I do something now? No. I am alone without you and you were the “idea-woman” and general instigator of all our wild adventures. When you were sick you worried because you could not give me something that you wanted to and thought I needed. You needn’t have worried.
Just as I told you then there was no real need because I loved you in so many ways so much. And now it is clearly even more true — you can give me nothing now yet I love you so that you stand in my way of loving anyone else — but I want to stand there.
I’ll bet that you are surprised that I don’t even have a girlfriend after two years. But you can’t help it, darling, nor can I — I don’t understand it, for I have met many girls … and I don’t want to remain alone — but in two or three meetings they all seem ashes. You only are left to me. You are real.
My darling wife, I do adore you. I love my wife. My wife is dead,
Rich.
PS Please excuse my not mailing this — but I don’t know your new address.
Tags: love, Richard Feynman
Five’s version of the celebrity reality show format The Farm returned to our screens last night. I always try to avoid watching programmes like this but often I’m drawn in against my will.
Quite by accident whilst flicking through tv channels I caught a part of the first show where they introduced all the ‘celebrities’ and amongst the usual has-beens and nobodies was a face I never expected to see, Mr. Ron Jeremy, Porn Star.
I’ve been fascinated by him since I watched the documentary Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy, not the best looking guy in porn by a long shot but he seemed like a genuinely nice guy and in many ways a kind of tragic figure as well.
Now a farmhand on this reality show Ron Jeremy met in many ways his pig equivalent.
The Farmhands were then introduced to The Farm’s resident boar, Nick.
“Nick has testicles and so he can be quite unpredictable,” Jon said.
“So this guy gets to go with all those girls?” asked a visibly impressed Ron.
“The breeding sows get pregnant by artificial insemination,” continued Ryan. “We do this so that we can introduce new blood to the breed,” he told the porn star adding, “it’s not pretty, Ron.”
Apparently Nick’s purpose on The Farm is mostly to act as a ‘teaser’- titillating the female pigs and getting them in the mood for love.
“He’s got a very strange demeanour this pig,” Ryan informed. “He looks gormless. Mind you, you look like that if you have sex a lot,” he concluded.
Tags: sex
