1984 Becoming a Reality?

Okay, I freely admit that the title of this post was purposely sensationalistic, but in all seriousness, is America becoming more and more Orwellian as time goes on, or am I crazy? Let's examine a couple of news stories:

E3 Afterthoughts

So E3 ended in disappointment. I don't get why the hell I got my hopes up again, I'm such an idiot. Never the less, unlike last year, I was so over it, that I didn't bother watching any conferences besides the "Big 3." Oh, and parts of the EA, Mass Effect 3 and The Old Republic beckoned me. Would have been wonderful if 2K held a press conference of their own. As a publisher, they have more franchises that I'm interested in than anyone else, including Bioshock Infinite, which has superseded ME3 as my most awaited game.

I cannot say it was all disappointment. In fact, when I think about it, it was actually pretty decent, good even. "Holy fuck, what a contradiction!" you proclaim. And well, yes it is, but that's because my initial response was just me being a whiny entitled fanboy, who expects all my every wants to be catered to. I was disappointed because I didn't see any announcements that made me go "bat shit, lose control of my bodily functions" crazy and immediately proclaimed E3 a huge frustrating failure. But, when I do get to thinking about the announcements, and sure maybe nothing really stood out and astonished me, but overall it was actually good. On the other hand, maybe the WII U was amazing, but I'm still trying to decide if in fact that's just more confusing and intriguing than actually impressive. Regardless, I have plenty of news and information to be happy about.

Ninja Gaiden 3 E3 2011 Debut Trailer

Well, that was ultimately disappointing. Hopefully we get some in depth gameplay footage this E3.

Can`t say what I`ve seen so far is all that revealing, save for the fact that Hayashi and co. still seem to think a gigantic, nearly stationary boss is an engaging boss fight....

What do you guys think?

Irony On The Internetz

Christians embarrassed about/ashamed of Satan? (Silence on the Satan(ic) front).

Christians embarrassed about/ashamed of Satan? (Silence on the Satan(ic) front).

I'm Canadian, and here in Canada there's not a whole lot of public god talk. Some, sure, but it's sparse and mostly negligible. Down south however, in the good ol' US of A, it's ubiquitous. It's just god god god. Politicians, athletes, celebrities, televangelists, news anchors, radio hosts, television personalities, basically everyone pimps their god in public. And of course, the majority of them are referring to Yahweh, the god of the Bible, when they speak about this god character.

Interestingly however, very few of them ever mention Satan.

Ever notice that? If so, ever wonder why?

Super Quick Note To Those Who Think Reading on an E-Reader

Constitutes the same thing as reading a book, and is not, in any way, a lacking, impoverished experience......

Fearful Teen Commits Suicide Due to Harold Camping's Judgment Day Forecast

http://www.christianpost.com/news/fearful-teen-commits-suicide-due-to-harold-campings-doomsday-50542/

A 14-year-old girl from Russia was so scared of the May 21 doomsday and rapture prediction made by Harold Camping that she committed suicide the same day, investigators said Wednesday. The teenager wanted to choose death rather than be among the ones suffering on earth after the rapture. Nastya Zachinova, who lived in the Republic of Mari El in Central Russia, believed that the world end on May 21, her family told LifeNews, a Russian tabloid. The girl's personal diary entries revealed how terrified she was of the suffering that was to take place. She believed that she was not one of the "righteous" people that would be taken up to heaven but someone who would remain on earth and suffer. “Whales are trying to beach themselves and birds are dying – it is just the beginning of the end,” Zachinova wrote in her last diary entry, as reported by RIA Novosti. “We are not righteous people, only they will go to heaven, the others will stay here on Earth to go through terrible sufferings,” she wrote. “I don’t want to die like the others. That’s why I’ll die now."

The girl hung herself.

Poor thing :(

Unfortunately, as much as I would like him to, Camping cannot be held responsible for this, at least not criminally. Should he be? Is his speech protected under free speech laws? Can one be held responsible if their firmly held religious belief causes someone else to kill themselves (or someone else)? What do you think?

Oh, and what if he's full of shit? What if he's literally making all of this up for publicity and money? What would you think then?

Priest Sex-Abuse Case Hits Church of Pope's Adviser

Catholic Sex Abuse Scandal Number 938346473893 Hit Closer To Home For Pope Ratzinger:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2072613,00.html?xid=rss-world

The latest sex-abuse case to rock the Catholic Church is unfolding in the archdiocese of an influential Italian Cardinal who has been working with Pope Benedict XVI on reforms to respond to prior scandals of pedophile priests.

Father Riccardo Seppia, a 51-year-old parish priest in the village of Sastri Ponente, near Genoa, was arrested last Friday, May 13, on pedophilia and drug charges. Investigators say that in tapped mobile-phone conversations, Seppia asked a Moroccan drug dealer to arrange sexual encounters with young and vulnerable boys. "I do not want 16-year-old boys but younger. Fourteen-year-olds are O.K. Look for needy boys who have family issues," he allegedly said. Genoa Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, who is the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, had been working with Benedict to establish a tough new worldwide policy, released this week, on how bishops should handle accusations of priestly sex abuse.

New Ninja Gaiden 3 Scans (OXM)

Here are three new Ninja Gaiden 3 magazine scans. These ones are from OXM this time. (This is an update to this post, which contained the original 3 scans (from OPM) and a bit of info).

Scans:

Ninja Gaiden 3 Scans, and a Little Bit of Info....Including Multiplayer

Ninja Gaiden 3 Scans and Information Revealed in OXM and OPM. 


Here's a bit of info:


60 frames per second. 
Blood is back. 
Difficulty level won't be toned down for casual gamers. 
There will be both competitive and cooperative modes. One or both will support up to 8 players. 
The store is gone. Weapons will upgrade over time. 
Greater emphasis on Ryu's story. No other playable characters planned yet. 
May feature Move support."

Shinobi Announced for the 3DS 1st Footage!! And Info.

First Ninja Gaiden, and then Shinobi.....Nintendo really wants me to give in and get a 3DS, don't they?

Apart from the shitty art style and the fact that it's polygonal as opposed to hand drawn pixels, this looks promising.

Here's the gameplay trailer:



Here's what Russ Frushtick from MTV (I didn't know they had anything to do with game coverage, but w/e) had to say:

Ripoff Report: Volume 1

Ripoff Report: Volume 1

This is a new blog series in which I illuminate total and utter ripoffs in the world of downloadable content, aka DLC. The focus is on the bullshit that is DLC, on a game by game basis.

This week's game is:

Dante's Inferno

Are Outspoken Atheists Fundamentalist? What about Militant?

“Atheists are as fundamentalist as those they rally against!” “Militant atheism on the rise.” Sentiments like these are heard on a daily basis now, in response to the “rise of the new atheism,” a concept I have some issue with, but will let fall by the wayside for the purpose of this particular post. So what do these words mean, and does their usage as applied to atheists constitute a fair charge, or are they charges falsely levied?

Let's find out, shall we? We'll start with fundamentalist atheism.

Cognitive Dissonance and You

Feeling as Gleeful as I want to be? Think that we're looking at a whole new era? 

Think again.

The sad thing is, rather than realize their errors, owning up to them and moving forward, many of Camping's followers will, due to the dissonance they will experience (cognitively), actually strengthen their resolve and adherence to their ideology.

Especially those who made public proclamations, as it has been shown that a public statement of belief lessens the willingness to retract said belief/heightens the threshold for evidenciary based retraction. 

So, as much as we may be laughing and in our heart of hearts hoping that this will finally be the catalyst to a more rational future....it's not going to happen :(

Irrationality Takes a Hit AND Three Big (at least to me) Scientific Discoveries Reported On Reality Day

Irrationality Takes a Hit AND Three Big (at least to me) Scientific Discoveries Reported On Reality Day

May 22^nd, 2011 is a special date. Anyone reading this likely knows why, so I'll spare you the elongated diatribe and say yay for Reality Day and down with paranoid ignorance, irrationality, fear mongering and pseudoscience. See, not only were the christians wrong (again) (and yes, it was specific sects, not all of them, I know) about the rapture, end of the world, yadayada, but on this awesome day known as Reality Day (as in, you're still here, welcome to reality, pal) science offers three MORE blows to specific assertions put forth by specific subsets of the religious community. Specifically, I am referring to assertions regarding mammalian brain size, contrarian positions regarding the expansion of the universe and dark energy, and lastly, contrarian positions regarding the idea of complexity arising out of simplicity without the guidance of some sentient intelligence.

So, what were these three reported findings?