WoW Alliance Race Update/Announcement/Rumor.

How is this for a big little update, for those of you who play WoW here is the little info nugget you have been waiting for. According to the upcoming February issue of Computer World, the blizzard team has decided to go with the Draenei for the new Alliance race available in the upcoming expansion: The Burning Crusade. The people at blizzard have also not denied this to be the case. This is sad for the Panderan and High Elf fans, however this seems to be the most logical choice at this time, as seen in the WoWWiki Rumor Breakdown below there are plenty of reasons for this, not the least of which is "uglying" the Alliance to oppose the "prettying" of the Horde that the Blood Elves are supposed to accomplish. I dont like to bite hard onto rumors, but I like where this one is heading.

[Link] (WoWWiki Rumor Breakdown)
[Link] (Parting Visions Feb Computer World Pics)

My apologies for the tardiness.

Ok, so the holiday season hits us all pretty hard. Unlike many other blogs, I dont make money to do this, I do this as a service to my friends and the internet people out there. However it has been just over a week since I have made an entry. Sorry. I mean that, I try to be as consistant as possible but the holiday times were just too much for me to handle and also make entries here. This does not mean that there wasnt things that were newsworthy that happened, there was, and I plan on updating with those things.

With all of the "year end roundups" and "year in review" things going on all over the intertron, I was thinking about doing a "year in advance" and tell you all about the cool things that are going to be happening next year because... this year already happened, and most of us were there for that.

So the moral of the story is this, we made it through the holidays and you can expect more posts. Also, I have moved the right sidebar around to be more user friendly, I also add things to that all the time, you can tell by the bright green "NEW" right next to them. So... enjoy that. Happy hilidays (Late) and enjoy.

Xbox 360 scalpers robbed at gunpoint.

A group of would-be scalpers were robbed of four newly purchased Xbox 360s while dining at an Anchorage (Alaska) McDonalds.
A group of five males, ages 14 to 24, scored five Xbox 360s early Sunday morning at a Best Buy in South Anchorage. Later, they tried to sell two of those units for $600 each to people still in line. When no one accepted their generous offer, the group headed out to McDonalds for breakfast.
The 14-year-old was left in care of the Xboxes while the other four men ate breakfast inside. At that point, at least two men who had observed the failed scalping attempt and followed the bunch to McDonalds, approached the van where the boy was keeping watch, put a gun to his face, and made off with four of the units. The fifth 360 had been stashed under the boy’s seat. When greed meets greed, the greed with the gun wins.

So... do I need to wear my kevlar vest to my local Best Buy on the 22nd? I mean... I usually roll strapped, but perhaps some extra protection. Just a thought.

[Link]

Judge rules against "intelligent design" in public schools.

In response to what is undoubtedly the most arrogant and insulting name for a religious historical theory, a judge in Pennsylvania has ruled against the teaching of a "religious alternative to science" in the public schools.

Here is what the judge had to say.

"Intelligent design" is "a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory" and cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district.

Here is what the children had to deal with before this.

The school board policy, adopted in October 2004, was believed to have been the first of its kind in the nation. It required students to hear a statement (disclaimer .Ed) about intelligent design before ninth-grade biology lessons on evolution. The statement said Charles Darwin’s theory is “not a fact” and has inexplicable “gaps” and referred students to an intelligent-design textbook, “Of Pandas and People,” for more information.

This is what the judge had to say about that.

Jones blasted the disclaimer, saying it "singles out the theory of evolution for special treatment, misrepresents its status in the scientific community, causes students to doubt its validity without scientific justification, presents students with a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory, directs them to consult a creationist text as though it were a science resource and instructs students to forgo scientific inquiry in the public school classroom and instead to seek out religious instruction elsewhere."

[Link]

10 reasons the Xbox 360 doesn't quite rock - yet

This is not the profound bashfest that the title of this entry would indicate, nor is it the easily dismissed nitpickings of a nintendo/sony fanboy. These seem to be valid claims and issues. None of the issues raised in the article seem to be dealbreakers, however they are things that the gamer has/should be expecting for a finished "polished" final product in the next generation of gaming consoles. Sorry, there is no punchline in this entry... this is serious stuff here.


[Link]

Pwned by devastating cuteness.

If you cant look at this website and not at least "aawww" a little bit, you have no soul. Seriously, no matter how bad your day is, the undeniable cuteness of the subject of this brilliant blog will make you emit those squishy noises that women make when they see neat shoes. I dare you to resist the adorableness. I fear the cute overload.

[Link]

2D Halo Shooter. Halo Zero.

Apparently this amazing little FREE shooter is built on the Metal Slug gaming engine using all of your favorite elements of the Halo Franchise. If you are a fan of gaming in it's many forms, please dont pass this opportunity to play a wonderful side scroller up. This is a fan game, time will tell if the gaming industry (Microsoft and Bungie) are smart enough to, instead of shutting it down with their lawers, pick up the development team and utilize them for their talents. This is how the gaming industry is different from the heartless recording industry. Please enjoy this pixel perfect peice of gaming.


[Link]

Unlikely objects in bottles.

Other newsblogs have titled this "Bottles impossibly filled with impossible objects" and although that makes for a pretty catchy headline, it doesnt accurately describe what is being looked at here. I am in no way downplaying the awesomeness of what is here, this stuff is amazing however by looking at what is inside of the bottles, yes, without disassembling/folding the items there would be no way to get them into the bottles as they are, however with a little thought you can figure out how they were put in there, also... they exist and are thereby not "impossible"... just unlikely as they obviously could not simply "fall in" on their own. There is something cool/strange about someone who would take a deck of cards and drill a hole in them, just to take them each out, curve them and stuff them into a bottle just to reassemble them inside again and put a bolt through the hole and screw a nut on the end... very cool stuff.


[Link]

Female sex bunnies.

Heather Kelly, a game designer over at Ubisoft has come up with a clever way to harness the power of videogames to improve sex, for women. Apparently she knows that the way to gaming nirvana is through the vagina, using a stylus. All jokes aside, the concept of stroking a virtual bunny who reacts to the point where they "fly" is something that I'm quite sure will assist in teaching "blossoming" woment cope with the tragedy that is their changing body. Just kidding, it's blue and adorable... just like women. This game will never be made, the politicians will see to that but I would like to play it, you know... for science.


[Link]

SET, the wordy furniture.

If your modern storage solution, we all know you have them, doesnt "say" enough about you, you can literally spell it out with these verbose little (see also; giant) letters that can be configured to spell anything your heart desires, now if I can just get someone to "donate" 15 of these little beauties so that I can keep my laundry in the words "Vicious Lunchbox" across my front lawn in a brilliant advertising peice with bonus storage. If only my german was better I could tell you how much these bad boys are, but I would assume it would just be easier to trick your crazy uncle with that "awesome garage" to build them for you, seriously just slip the blueprints onto his workbench, he'll think he drafted them, just stop him before he tries for the patent. Or else he will have the modern gangsters over at set 26 knocking on his garage door. We dont want that to happen.


[Link]

Halo Movie Updates and Script Overview.

There are some updates to the Halo Movie News blogged about yesterday. In an interview at Dark Horizons, Peter Jackson spoke about how he is looking forward to taking a break, and that the break he mentions is producing Halo, this all but guarrantees that he will not be directing the movie in any way shape or form. Also he confirms (in a round about way) that the script overview on the Latino review site is indeed credible. Having read the overview I am quite intrigued and believe the hype, I'm excited for the movie, not simply because I'm a fan of the franchise (the script reviewer has not played the game and he is excited) but because it sounds like the movie will be very gory, something that I feel was implied in the game but never really shown. (Oh, and for a spoiler- The script follows the first game quite accurately... with more.) I like the scene where the other soldier takes a plasma grenade to the chest and curls over to protect his fellow marines... and then blows up. Beautiful.


[Interview]
[Script Review]

Q-Unit... another wonderful album mashup.

Download this quickly, before it gets shut down. I love album mashups. This one in particular has the strangest possible image, a 50cent/Freddy Mercury composite image. Creepy. They are missing the wonderous FM teeth. With song titles like: Bohemian Wanksta and We Will Rock You In Tha Club, how can you possibly go wrong. Enjoy... quickly, before the record companies file their paperwork.


[Link]

That Cloud Game

This is a delightful little FREE game that has creativity in spades and relies fairly heavily on it's innovation. The people responsible for this should be expecting Shigeru to knock on their doors pretty soon, as he is the only other person capable of making clouds fun. It was a student project at USC, a grant well spent. Check it out, it is very innovative.


[Link]

Halo Movie

Today, rumor has it that the director of Hellboy and Blade II, Guillermo Del Toro will be first in line to be considered for directing the Halo movie with Peter Jackson as the executive producer. Although I like Del Toro's movies thusfar, I feel as though in this instance, in regards to the halo storyline, his directing style will most likely end up foppish and banal. I think that Jackson would make a very appropriate director, instead of executive producer. I dont think you need to look much further than "Meet the Feebles" to see that Jackson can do what is necessary when he needs to. At least nobody has mentioned the wonderous Mr. Uwe.

[Link]

Bigfoot? Sasquatch? Yeti? Ask the BFRO.

The BFRO stands for, The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. They have just released some recent photographs of what some believe to be Bigfoot. The photographs were taken on Silver Star Mountain in Washington. Apparently credibility and legitamacy are not high on my list as I have already blogged about latex zombies and metal insects, a news story about bigfoot was inevitable. Please, enjoy the youthful whimsy of this.


[Link]

Pack of Russian squirrels kill barking dog... and take it with them.

This newstory on the BBC News World Network is quite strange. Here is my favorite exerpt:

"They literally gutted the dog," local journalist Anastasia Trubitsina told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
"When they saw the men, they scattered in different directions, taking pieces of their kill away with them."


[Link]