Images 6 and 7

As you guys know Phil was in Afghanistan and Iraq. I think I posted, maybe emailed, a different story by Rick Loomis not too long ago. Mr. Loomis was the reporter/photographer embedded with the unit.

Anyway, Phil and our other brother found some more of the guy's work. (Here and here.) Same work different publications.

Notice the NOT uparmored HumVee.

Notice the too many similarities between a skirmish trench and a shallow grave.

To be selfish for just a moment seeing a picture of your little brother in a hole in the ground in a far away land is at a certain level of fucked-up-shit. Forgive me, I am not capable of saying that in a proper manner.

So I asked him what went through his mind and how he prepared for it all besides just the Marine training. He said what he did was to unplug from everything in this world and concentrate only on the task at hand - killing and not being killed.

He even unplugged himself from his feelings for mom.

An entirely higher level of fucked-up-shit. Not even on the same scale. Thankfully, as you also know, he survived and was able to plug back in to the world and mom. One of the things we didn't really understand when he got home was the unplugging in the first place or how long it took to recover and to be fully plugged back in. It was a long walk back. It took a few years. He is different, or changed, but he is back.

Pennsays Rapelay

http://crackle.com/c/Penn_Says#id=2473058&ml=o%3D12%26fpl%3D360812%26fx%3D

Short version. Crazy Japanese game where you are supposed to rape. A lot of people are up in arms saying this game will cause more rape. Others say 'fantasy is fantasy' and to outlaw fantasy is to create a catagory of 'thoughtcrimes'.

He does state that he believes he could watch any number of violent movies, or violent games with murder and that he do the same with rapegames and rapemovies, and he would NEVER rape nor murder.

My first thought was 'as an adult, yes, but what about a child watching/playing rapelay day in and day out?'

But then I realized the problem with the above scenario is blaming the videogame rather than the parent. The reason we divide humans into adult and child has nothing to do with size, it is all brain development. That's why children are not held in full account for their actions, not allowed to sign binding contracts, and not allowed to do anything they want.

Of course, that opens up the can of worms of 'If a parent is 'neglecting' a child and allowing that child to play unending hours of violent rape games (with no interjection of context...'this is just a game Billy and this conduct would not be okay in real life') is it acceptable for the state to remove the child? Who gets to decide what other games/movies besides rape based ones are serious enough to be considered child endangerment?

Ultimately, I agree with Penn, but I think it might be a little less cut and dried than he states it

Paranoia and ...

Lexicon?

Oh snap!

I was just re-researching the Lexicon game Dock showed us a while back. I want to try and set one up again; a smaller one with a couple rules variants. During my homework I found this.

So the two questions I have for all of you are:

When is AVK going to run us some Paranoia?
and
Is there enough interest to get a smaller, leaner Lexicon off the ground?

2010

From Square-Enix Members Blog.

Trico?

Paul Barnett: My Hero or My New Man Crush?

The fact that he couldn't care less about either choice or even simply me makes me like the guy even more.

Seriously, who is this guy and why didn't I know about him before? I can't type out any sense right now so just watch the videos. Fast forward the first one to four minutes in because his partner is ... Well, I can't tell if his partner is just stupid or looks stupid next to the greatness that Mr. Barnett is.

Video Games - E3 2009 - The MMO Report

Video Game - E3 2009 - Sessler's Soapbox

Wolfram Alpha

Stephen Wolfram is the guy behind Mathematica. His company, Wolfram Research, is releasing a new product next week called Wolfram Alpha, a screencast of which was made available today. The product is being billed as a competitor to Google, but I'm not sure that's the feel I get from the demonstration. It is fairly impressive at delivering answers to questions, rather than webpages that may have answers, although it must be noted that these questions have been hand-picked for the demo. Check out the screencast, I think you'll find it interesting in a science fiction future kind of way.

Remember: Don't use the fish

all your Left 4 Dead performance statistics should now increase

Thrones HBO Ireland

http://grrm.livejournal.com/84893.html


At last it can be told.The news has finally been made public, so I'm finally free to whoop and holler and share the great news -- the HBO pilot of A GAME OF THRONES will start filming in October, in Northern Ireland. The announcement was made in Belfast. Here you go:http://www.northernireland.gov.uk/news/news-ofmdfm/news-ofmdfm-210409-hbo-to-film.htmYes, I'm thrilled. Ireland should be a great place to film. And the facility we'll be using, the Paint Hall, is amazing as well:http://www.northernirelandscreen.co.uk/page.asp?id=211 Before it was a film studio, the Paint Hall was part of Belfast's famous Harland & Wolff Shipyards, where the TITANIC and many other ships were constructed. The facility is pretty titanic as well. Of course, all of us connected with A GAME OF THRONES are hoping we'll fare somewhat better on our own maiden voyage.Yes, Parris and I will be going over to Ireland this fall to see at least part of the filming. Not for the whole shoot, alas, I don't have time for that... but we have to be there for at least part of it. Maybe we'll see some of you in a Belfast pub.There's lots of other exciting news on the pilot as well, but nothing I can share. Sorry, lips are sealed. You'll have to wait for Mr. Benioff and Mr. Weiss... and HBO.
Mood: excited

Ruth's Chris helps internet security

I was doing a little bit of looking for a new freeware firewall when I came across an article entitled

The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security

Even for a nontechy like me it is an interesting read, as is this guy's broad histocal view of the techworld. I've included the link on the bottom.

One of his listed dumb ideas is 'Action is Better Than Inaction' which he counters with a fake Sun-Tzu quote of "It is often easier to not do something dumb than it is to do something smart." (This of course reminds me of Mark Twain's line 'Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.)

He then relays the following story:

Several years ago I had a client who was preparing to spend a ton of money on a technology without testing it operationally. I suggested offhandedly to the senior IT manager in charge that he should send one of his team to a relevant conference (in this case, LISA05 ) where it was likely that someone with hands-on experience with the technology would be in attendance. I proposed that the manager have his employee put a message on the "meet and greet" bulletin board that read:"Do you have hands-on experience with xyz from pdq.com? If so, I'm authorized to take you to dinner at Ruth's Chris if you promise to give me the low-down on the product off the record. Contact, etc..." The IT manager later told me that a $200 dinner expense saved them over $400,000 worth of hellish technological trauma.

I thought that was both funny enough and clever enough to share.

http://www.ranum.com/security/computer_security/editorials/dumb/index.html