Zuckervati MissingLinks

A look at the technology of the future, as it pertains to gaming ... and the eventual enslavement of the human race. Not like that hasn't happened already.

The Next 25 Years of Video Games | Cracked.com

What Will Suck About It

People are dicks.

Check your inbox. How many of your emails are from friends, as opposed to spammers? How many of your female MySpace-friend requests are dummy pages set up for porn?

Spore and PS3 Home are still made up of people and therefore a certain percentage of those wondrous new universes will be composed of dicks. At some point you will travel to a wondrous new Spore world and find the creatures there have evolved to have hides covered in porn URLs.

As for PS3 Home, do you think Sony is pouring tens of millions into development so you and your little friends have a place to hang out? No, they're creating one of the greatest targeted-marketing opportunities in the history of advertising. How long until busty virtual girls are chatting you up, then interrupting flirty conversations to say they'll need 20 bucks to continue?

Posted by zuckervati at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

Hey, this is a grand idea. Let's force everyone on a plane to wear shock bracelets.

A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers.

This bracelet would:

• take the place of an airline boarding pass
  
• contain personal information about the traveler
  
• be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage
  
• shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes
  

Seriously, I wonder if they gave us the option of stripping nude or wearing a shock bracelet, which would be worse. I know I'd be going in the buff.

Posted by zuckervati at 02:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

But the other guy totally is.

YouTube - Stossel and Oil Heroes

Posted by zuckervati at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

Excellent set of instructions to get you started on your new charlatan career track.

Guide to "Cold Reading"

4. Gain the subject's cooperation in advance.

Emphasise that the success of the reading depends as much on the subject's cooperation as on your efforts. (After all, you imply, you already have a successful career at character reading - You are not on trial, your subject is!) State that due to difficulties of language and communication, you may not always convey the meaning you intend. In these cases, the subject must strive to fit the reading to his/her own life. You accomplish two valuable ends with this dodge - Firstly, you have an alibi in case the reading doesn't click; it's the subject's fault, not yours! Secondly, your subject will strive to fit your generalities to his/her specific life circumstances. Later, when the subject recalls the reading, you will be credited with much more detail than you actually provided! This is crucial. Your reading will only succeed to the degree that the subject is made an active participant in the reading. The good reader is the one who , deliberately or unwittingly, forces the subject to search his/her mind to make sense of your statements.

Posted by zuckervati at 01:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

At least according to bill C-61. Yes, he's adorable, but that won't get him anywhere with the Canadian government.

SFFaudio - Blog Archive - WALL-E, a Bill C-61 copyright criminal.

Here's the evidence:

1. WALL-E records audio from his favorite movie, Hello Dolly, putting in onto his own digital recorder (bypassing the macrovision DRM on the tape). A COPYRIGHT CRIME UNDER C-61

2. WALL-E archives the audio, he doesn’t merely time-shift it. He listens repeatedly! A COPYRIGHT CRIME UNDER C-61

3. WALL-E shares his DRM-broken music with his friend, another robot named EVE. A COPYRIGHT CRIME UNDER C-61

4. WALL-E watches Hello Dolly on multiple evenings, on the screen of an iPod. Hello Dolly is not available through the iTunes store, therefore he broke the videocassette DRM when he platform shifted it. A COPYRIGHT CRIME UNDER C-61

Bill C-61 sucks. Big time.

Posted by zuckervati at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

Very cool art by Dmitry Maksimov. Combining photography with crazy Miyazaki-esque creatures.

Where Photography Meets Illustration | Design You Trust™. World's Most Famous Social Inspiration.

Posted by zuckervati at 03:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

I'm not saying this makes Boba Fett look cool. Just way cooler than in Ep 1-3.

Posted by zuckervati at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

These guys are such assholes.

Think Progress - Fox News distorts photos of New York Times reporters.

This morning on Fox & Friends, co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade called Jacques Steinberg’s June 28 New York Times article on Fox News’s declining ratings a “hit piece,” adding that Steinberg and Times editor Steven Reddicliffe are “attack dogs.” During the segment, Fox aired blatantly distorted photos of Steinberg and Reddicliffe with their teeth yellowed, eyes blackened, and facial features exaggerated.

Posted by zuckervati at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

Short version: He lasted about 15 seconds; Yes, it's most definitely torture; No it's not very effective at getting useful information.

Believe Me, It's Torture: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com

The “board” is the instrument, not the method. You are not being boarded. You are being watered. This was very rapidly brought home to me when, on top of the hood, which still admitted a few flashes of random and worrying strobe light to my vision, three layers of enveloping towel were added. In this pregnant darkness, head downward, I waited for a while until I abruptly felt a slow cascade of water going up my nose. Determined to resist if only for the honor of my navy ancestors who had so often been in peril on the sea, I held my breath for a while and then had to exhale and—as you might expect—inhale in turn. The inhalation brought the damp cloths tight against my nostrils, as if a huge, wet paw had been suddenly and annihilatingly clamped over my face. Unable to determine whether I was breathing in or out, and flooded more with sheer panic than with mere water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal and felt the unbelievable relief of being pulled upright and having the soaking and stifling layers pulled off me. I find I don’t want to tell you how little time I lasted.

Posted by zuckervati at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) |

False.... Good Snopes.com article on the history of the Canadian flag.

snopes.com: Canada's Maple Leaf Flag

Many of these flags bore Union Jacks and fleur-de-lys. Quite a few featured a beaver, including one wearing a Mountie hat; another one showed an adult beaver encircled by ten smaller ones (Canada and its provinces). Other wild creatures included Canada geese, grizzly bears, moose, salmon, bison, caribou. The North Star was a popular emblem, as was the cross. Several designs included aboriginal symbols. And one, submitted by the self-proclaimed "Society for the Suppression of Blue Lines" of Toronto, consisted of "crossed red hockey sticks rampant" and a single hockey puck.

Posted by zuckervati at 05:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

We came that close to putting a beaver on the flag, people (pinches fingers together).

Choosing Canada's Flag - The Archivist - Publications - Library and Archives Canada

On December 15, 1964, after a prolonged and bitter debate lasting thirty-three days, the House of Commons passed an act providing a national flag for Canada. The design chosen was based on the flag of the Royal Military College in Kingston.

Although debate over a distinctive Canadian flag lasted for nearly a century, there was renewed controversy during the election campaign of 1963, when Liberal leader Lester B. Pearson promised that Canada would have a flag of her own within two years. Once in power, Prime Minister Pearson promoted a design by an Ottawa heraldic expert, Alan Beddoe. This design, with three maple leaves on a white field and a vertical blue bar on each end, soon became known as "Pearson's Pennant."

By contrast, the Leader of the Opposition, John Diefenbaker, favoured the Red Ensign, the flag of the British merchant marine, which had flown on Canadian vessels since 1892. Furthermore, in 1945, it had officially replaced the Union Jack as Canada's flag on land until such time as the Canadian Parliament chose a new one.

Posted by zuckervati at 05:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

Dr. Henry Morgentaler is finally among those named to the Order of Canada. Much to the chagrin of right-wing and anti-abortion groups.

Now 85, Morgentaler, a Polish Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Montreal after the war, opened his first abortion clinic in 1969 and performed thousands of procedures, which were illegal at the time.

Morgentaler, a trained family physician, argued that access to abortion was a basic human right and women should not have to risk death at the hands of an untrained professional in order to end their pregnancies.

Morgentaler's clinics were constantly raided, and one in Toronto was firebombed. Morgentaler was arrested several times and spent months in jail as he fought his case at all court levels in Canada.

His victory came on Jan. 28, 1988, when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down Canada’s abortion law. That law, which required a woman who wanted an abortion to appeal to a three-doctor hospital abortion committee, was declared unconstitutional.

Posted by zuckervati at 04:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

Awww, come on. This little guy?

Think Progress - Right-Wing Apoplectic Over Pixar’s WALL-E: ‘Malthusian Fear Mongering,’ ‘Fascistic Elements’

Somehow, this touching love story has outraged the radical right:

Shannen Coffin: From the first moment of the film, my kids were bombarded with leftist propaganda about the evils of mankind. It’s a shame, too, because the robot had promise. The story was just awful, however.

Greg Pollowitz: It was like a 90-minute lecture on the dangers of over consumption, big corporations, and the destruction of the environment. … Much to Disney’s chagrin, I will do my part to avoid future environmental armageddon by boycotting any and all WALL-E merchandise and I hope others join my crusade.

Glenn Beck: I can’t wait to teach my kids how we’ve destroyed the Earth. … Pixar is teaching. I can’t wait. You know if your kid has ever come home and said, “Dad, how come we use so much styrofoam,” oh, this is the movie for you.

Dirty Harry: Have we lost Pixar? Have we lost the wonderful studio who brought us The Incredibles and Ratatouille to Bush Derangement Syndrome? Here you have a winning streak going back ten-years, enormous amounts of public goodwill, equal amounts of credibility as serious storytellers, and they stop things cold, yanking you out of the story with the liberal nonsense. Quite a disappointment.

Jonah Goldberg: I agree with the charges of hypocrisy. I agree that the Malthusian fear mongering was annoying

Posted by zuckervati at 04:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

And 6% of Muslims, 7% of Catholics, and 28% of Jews are either atheist or agnostic in that they don't "believe in God or a universal spirit". This according to a strangely flawed Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum on religion in American culture. Somehow you can be an Atheist or an Agnostic and still believe in god. Like that makes any sense.

Call me crazy, but if you are an Atheist, you don't believe in a God or a universal spirit. And conversely, if you you don't believe in a God or a universal spirit ... my friend, you are an Atheist.

The Secular Coalition for America has an idea about this:

Pew reported that 21 percent of atheists in their survey said they believed in God or a universal spirit, that six percent of them considered it a personal god, and that 40 percent of agnostics feel certain that God exists. Conversely, among respondents who say they are affiliated with a religious tradition (Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Muslim, etc.), a surprising number said they actually do not believe in a god or universal spirit.

"When atheists are telling you they believe in God and Catholics are admitting they don't, that's evidence of the stigma our society puts on nontheists," said Lori Lipman Brown, Director of the Secular Coalition for America. "Americans repeatedly tell pollsters that an atheist is the last person they'd want their children to marry, the last person they'd vote for as President. This prejudice also appears in the widespread impression that atheists lack ethics and values."

However, I'm pretty sure either the questions were terribly misleading, or 1 in 5 Atheists are, in fact, not Atheists. It's also possible that they are vegetarians who also eat pork and/or fish.

Posted by zuckervati at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) |