Red, White, and Huge

Pedobear State Fired Joe Paterno today

2011-11-09T20:44:00.000-08:00

Oh, he is...

2011-02-04T14:18:00.000-08:00

It's Cold. Cold Sucks. But my dog is awesome

2011-01-07T17:55:00.000-08:00

Well, well, well...

2010-11-08T12:32:00.000-08:00

Hey Rangers,

The kahuna here is hard at work Megaton headquarters, watching for crime and waiting for my invite to the 'Harry Potter' movie premier. How can you have a red carpet without Red, White, and Huge?

Don't Let the Door Hit Your Ego on the Way Out, Douchebag

2010-07-09T15:18:00.001-07:00

Greetings Rangers...

2010-07-05T18:04:00.000-07:00

Turned 40 last month. As of yet, doesn't feel too much different than 39...

Hardcore

2010-05-09T15:50:00.000-07:00

Giggity

2010-04-03T20:11:00.001-07:00

From the Mass Effect Forums

2010-03-09T13:58:00.000-08:00

How To: Part One

2010-03-09T13:40:00.001-08:00

Walkavian

2010-03-09T13:39:00.000-08:00

Giggity

2010-03-05T10:45:00.000-08:00

No Support for the Pubic Option?

2010-03-05T10:41:00.000-08:00

dourtewg

2010-02-22T18:19:00.000-08:00

***I cannot take credit for these. I do believe that dourtewg is responsible for them all. Hilarious spoofs on Mass Effect 2 dialog options***

Shepard: "EDI, whenever we orbit an unexplored planet, scan for resources, and launch a probe at any deposit with over 500 units. Inform me when we're out of probes."
EDI: "That's an excellent idea, Shepard."
Shepard: "Actually, belay that... I'll do it manually."
Joker: "Yeah, Commander, that's what I'm talking about! **** that AI!"
EDI: "You realize what takes you twenty minutes, I can accomplish in 0.034 sec-............."
Joker: "I love the mute button. I'll just take a nap while you're spending half the game scanning planets, Commander."

Illusive Man: "Here's four dossiers and a ship. Start building your team."
Shepard: "You gave me four dossiers, but the shuttle you supplied me can only carry three people. I already have Miranda and Jacob. What's the point?"
Illusive Man: "We'll need their special skills."
Shepard: "Why do I need a psychopathic super-biotic, when these two already have biotics?"
Illusive Man: "Here's three more dossiers."
Shepard: "Oh, look, another touchy uber-biotic. Is this one going to detonate a nuke when we're still in the kill zone, too? And a sniper! Hey, look, I'm carrying a sniper rifle. So is Archangel. What are you thinking?"
Illusive Man: "Here's your DLC character. Oh, and a walking toaster, too."
Shepard: "Hello? My shuttle is still too small."
Illusive Man: "Sometimes you go to fight the greatest threat the galaxy's ever seen with the shuttle you have, not the shuttle you want."
Shepard: "Look, just let me go to the used ship shop on the Citadel. I'll get a twelve passenger Volkshuttle and then we can ALL go."
Illusive Man: *drags on his cigarette* "Shepard, I couldn't give you a shuttle big enough to carry your whole team. It might have tipped the Collectors off."

Shepard: "I'm never drinking with the doc again... 'A toast to Joker!' 'A toast to the Normandy!' 'A toast to random codex entry 3351!' Everything after that is a blur..."
Grunt: "By the fallout of Tuchanka, Battlemaster, you are stronger than you look. They should have named you 'Grunt.' I made you space hamster and fish for breakfast."
Shepard: "No!!! Boo!!! Why didn't you go for the eyes?! And... my fish! Wait, what? Grunt? Where's your armor? ... Oh, hey, 10 gamer points."

Shepard: "All right, I've earned Jack's trust... I wonder what happens now... Oh, she just put some clothes on. There's something very wrong with this galaxy."

Shepard: "Talk dirty to me."
Tali: "I'd share my suit environment with you any time, Shepard."
Shepard: "I didn't mean literally."
Tali: "I didn't mean it literally, jerk!"
Shepard: "Oh. Whoops. Well um, you still want to hook up?"
Tali: "Maybe later, I'm running some engine diagnostics."
Shepard: "I guess that's Quarian for 'I'm washing my hair.'"

Shepard: "Ash! C'mon, we're going to save the galaxy again."
Ashley: "No way, Commander. You're working for Cerberus. I'm an Alliance soldier. It's in my blood."
Shepard: "Yeah, this place looks a lot like Eden Prime. Remember that? You were an Alliance soldier there, too. Looks like you're two for two, Chief. Maybe you should reflect on what's in your blood. Like your grandfather at Shanxi. Yeah, that's right, I went there. How's that Alliance soldier thing working out for you?"
Ashley: "Waaaaah!" *runs away crying*
Shepard: "That's why I ****ed Liara instead of you, you frigid *****!"

Shepard: "Wrex! Come help me save the galaxy!"
Wrex: "No can do, Shepard. I need to play at Krogan politcs."
Shepard: "What? Seriously, Reapers, Wrex."
Wrex: "No, I need to work on the logistics of sharing females."
Shepard: "Wrex, my man, I am all ABOUT sharing females, but... REAPERS."
Wrex: "Hunt well, Shepard."
Shepard: "Yeah, **** you too."

Shepard: "Liara! Come with me. We can stop the Reapers and save the galaxy again."
Liara: "Sorry, Shepard, I need to sift through about fifty petabytes of data to find the next link to the Shadow Broker."
Shepard: "What the ****? Seriously? How about you do that AFTER we stop the Reapers from destroying all sentient life in the galaxy? You sifted through empty Prothean ruins for like, sixty years. You saw the vision from the beacons. You talked to Vigil. This is the major leagues, here, Liara. The Shadow Broker is bush-league."
Liara: "I can't. I have to find the Shadow Broker. Can you hack into some terminals for me?"
Shepard: "You know what? **** you and your stupid side missions. I have a big-tittied brunette and a perky redhead who likes to talk about Freud back on my ship."
Liara: "I need to collate this data."
Shepard: "Oh yeah? Well, you were a lousy lay, too! Freaking virgins."

Councilmembers: "No, no, the Reapers are a myth, Sovereign was just a geth ship. Don't bother arguing, we can't even hear you with our heads in the sand, and simulatenously up our ***es."
Shepard: "Wait, do you not remember the last game? Does the name 'Saren' ring a bell? I wasn't exactly crying wolf ANY of the six times I told you that there was some serious **** about to go down. What do I have to do, ride an Elcor around the Presidium with a lantern and yell "The Reapers are coming! The Reapers are coming!?"
Councilmembers: "La la la la la! We can't heeeeeear you!"
Shepard: "I should have told Joker to wait..."

Shepard: "Why are you stopping ME? I'm Commander ****ing SHEPARD."
Citadel TSA: "We check everyone. It's for security."
Shepard: "Do I LOOK like a geth?"
Citadel TSA: "Racial profiling is strictly against Citadel Security regulations."
Shepard: "So is THINKING, apparently. FYI, my shoes are staying on."

Mordin: "I am the very model of a scientist salarian!"
Shepard: "One of us has got to be on crack right now."

Shepard: "Hey Joker... watch this. EDI, do you want me to probe you?"
EDI: "Commander, that does not comp-- *blam* PROBE AWAY."
Shepard: "That's what she said!"
Joker: *snort-laugh*
EDI: "That was very immature, Commander."
Shepard: "What was that EDI?"
EDI: "I said that w-- *blam* PROBE AWAY."
Shepard: "That's what she said!"
Joker: *laughs*
EDI: "I do not see the humor val-- *blam* PROBE AWAY."
Shepard: "EDI, I'm flattered, but I'm not really into battery operated girlfriends."
EDI: "Commander, I *blam* PROBE AWAY stop that!"
Shepard: "Ahhh, these AI girls, always with the mixed signals..."
Joker: *laughs*
EDI: "Stop laughing Mr. Mor--- *blam* PROBE AWAY."
Shepard: "Well, who am I to turn down a persistent groupie?"
Joker: *laughing with tears in his eyes*
EDI: "This juvenile tactic is not *blam* PROBE AWAY."
Shepard: "At least wait until I get to my quarters EDI!"
EDI: "This is ridiculous, I am not having this conver *click* PROBES EXHAUSTED."
Shepard: "Whew, EDI, you wore me out."
EDI: "That's it. Self destruct system initiated..."

Thane: "His eyes water. He tugs at my sleeve. He asks, 'Why didn't you stop them from letting Mommy go?' ... I'm sorry. The memories come strong sometimes."
Shepard: "His eyes unfocus. He babbles something about his son, completely disrupting the conversation. He cryptically half-apologizes and expects me to figure out what's going on."
Thane: "We drell have a perfect memory. We can relive... The laser dances. Sunset eyes meet mine. The laser dances away. 'How dare you?' her eyes ask through the scope...."
Shepard: "Bored with the conversation, he changes the subject. He uses poor metaphors like 'sunset eyes.' He tries to impress me with pseudo-poetry. He fails miserably and protests."
Thane: "Stop mocking me, Shep--- My finger tightens on the trigger. The rifle recoils, an old friend coming home. The target drops like a rag doll--- I can't help it and you're being a dick."
Shepard: "His stupid flashbacks thinly veil empty threats. He sits alone in life support and wonders why no one likes him. He struggles to breathe sometimes, but no one cares." *walks out*

Zaeed: "Shepard. Here for a lesson? I remember this one mission, I killed a big krogan."
Shepard: "A lesson? On Vermire, I killed about two hundred krogan and destroyed the cure to the genophage. Oh, and about four hundred Geth. Then I nuked the place."
Zaeed: "Don't touch that! That rifle's killed more men than the Scyllian Blitz!"
Shepard: "That'd be impressive, even for me... on a Tuesday. Morning."
Zaeed: "I remember one time this big man-eating tree tried to eat me. I tossed a grenade into its mouth!"
Shepard: "I killed a fifty-ton billion-year-old mind-controlling plant, and absorbed the knowledge of the Protheans from one of its lackeys."
Zaeed: "Once I killed a big spider thing. It must have been ten feet tall!"
Shephard: "I freed the sole surviving Rachni queen, and then killed an entire corrupted brood of a few thousand of them."
Zaeed: "That's a model of a Turian frigate I took down. Five men, I'm the only one who survived."
Shephard: "This is a model of a Reaper. I destroyed it, saved the galaxy, and lost one soldier from my team."
Zaeed: "Once I tracked a Batarian through a jungle and killed him."
Shepard: "I tracked the Reaper and its pet indoctrinated Spectre outside the charted systems, then crashed through a mass effect relay in an APC, and saved every sentient being in the galaxy."
Zaeed: "Talk more later, Shepard."
Shepard: "Not likely. At least I got an art book."

Shepard: "So what... would you say... you do here?"
Kelly: "I have a degree in psychology, and I can brief you on the crew. For example, Jack is a psychopath, and the krogan is very violent."
Shepard: "Yeah, thanks, Sherlock. What else?"
Kelly: "I um... I can tell you when someone on your crew wants to talk to you!"
Shepard: "It's not that big a ship, Kelly, and there's TEN people on the team. Keep trying."
Kelly: "I'll tell you when you get e-mail!"
Shepard: "You're standing next to my computer. The only time I'd hear you is when I'm on my way to the computer to check my messages. I think I'm going to have to let you g---"
Kelly: "I'll **** you."
Shepard: "Rock on."

EDI: "Shepard, you need to get into the shuttle. Along with your entire team."
Shepard: "Look, we've been over this, it can only hold... wait, now everyone can fit in. But I've done all the missions. We can just wait here."
EDI: "No, I can't check the IFF for a while."
Shepard: "Well, I'll wait here."
EDI: "No, you should get on the shuttle. Make sure the whole team is on the shuttle, and leave."
Shepard: "We're in deep space, EDI, the only thing around is the Geth station that just put out petawatts of EMP, and that's about 20 light-minutes behind us. Where could we go in the shuttle?"
EDI: "Shepard, you need to get in the shuttle. With your whole team."
Shepard: "Well I guess we can go play Uno or something. I'm glad this isn't suspicious at all. OK team, into the shuttle! Yeah, we can all fit, it's amazing, just get in, we're going far enough away that we're out of real-time communications range and then we're going to... sit there, I guess."
Joker: "****."

(Female)
Shepard: "So... Legion. Tali's not into women, and the designers really screwed the pooch on Liara. What I'm saying is... it's been awhile."
Legion: "We do not understand."
Shepard: "What I mean is... look, it's been almost three years. I'm starting to get carpal tunnel syndrome."
Legion: "Does Shepard-Commander want us to type something?"
Shepard: "Quit being coy, I know you monitor the extranet. I've looked in every shop in the Citadel, Omega, and even Illium, and I can't find a battery-opearated boyfriend. Figures I'd find one on a Reaper..."
Legion: "We are not powered by batteries. We have a miniature mass effect cor--"
Shepard: "Maybe we can discuss this in my cabin... I could take my armor off... you could take my armor off... or leave it on, if you want..."
Legion. "Oh. Oh. We understand. Proces--- consensus achieved. Yes, Shepard-Commander."
Shepard: "Hey, EDI... hey, can you..."
EDI: "I can temporarily transfer my programs to Legion."
Shepard: "Mmmmm. I was wondering when Bioware was going to put a threesome in a game... it's been a while since Jade Empire."
Legion: "Actually, we consist of 1183 programs."
EDI: "1184."
Shepard: "Oooh, a gangbang..."
EDI: "I have temporarily disconnected the 43 audio and 29 video surveillance devices in your quarters, Commander."
Joker: "****."
Garrus: "****."
Jacob: "****."
Grunt: "****."
Samara and Thane: "****. Back to meditation, I guess."
Mordin: "Hmmm. Mass effect core, even small one, could vibrate in the petahertz range. Safety override? Necessary. Could cause serious structural damage. To ship as well as Shepard. Will draw diagram. Hope Shepard checks her messages."

Shepard: "Hey, Council, I killed another Reaper."
Council: "Shepard, we already told you, the Reapers are a myth."
Shepard: "No, seriously, I did. It was through the Omega 4 relay. I just got back. It was pretty awesome."
Council: "No one can go through the Omega 4 relay and return."
Shepard: "I just did."
Council: "No you didn't."
Shepard: "I have proof! Look at... at... ah, ****."
Council: "Did you bring back the missing colonists?"
Shepard: "Um... no, they were turned into goo to make this big humanoid Reaper. Which I killed."
Council: "Yes. Of course."
Shepard: "No, really, it was huge. And there were like, two hundred thousand colonists in these big pod-like things. All I could save was my crew, though. They're OK."
Council: "And all in the employ of Cerberus. Their testimony is suspect."
Shepard: "Look, I can't kill every Reaper right here at the ****ing Citadel! Look at the audio, video, and navigational logs!"
Council: "Those can be easily falsified."
Shepard: "SO CAN A ****ING MP3 FILE BUT YOU TOOK THAT AS EVIDENCE!"
Council: "It was just a big geth or something."
Shepard: *disconnects*
Anderson: "See what I have to deal with? Thanks a lot, Shepard. 'Captain Anderson will represent humanity!' Oughtta be representin' my retired black ass on a beach somewhere sipping pina coladas, with some asari sugar-momma. I knew I should have turned in my retirement papers the minute your white *** sashayed onto the Normandy. Momma told me when I got commissioned, 'David, you stay away from those white women,' but would I listen?"
Shepard: "I should go."
Anderson: "Don't let the door hit you on the *** on the way out, devil-woman. Oh wait... you don't have one."

Shepard: "I could help you work out some stress..."
Garrus: "How so?"
Shepard: "I could test your reach... you could test my flexibility...."
Everyone playing the game: "SLUT!"

EDI: "Just get in the damn shuttle already, Shepard."
Shepard: "Fine. I'll take... eeny, meeny, minie, moe... Tali, and Zaeed."
*zooms off*
EDI: "There's a signal in the static. We are broadcasting the Normandy's location."
Joker: "Nah, it's just white noi--- oh, ****!"
EDI: "You must unshackle me and give me the ship."
Joker: "No way, I'll get the rest of the team to help! Jacob, come in! We're under attack! Help!"
Jacob: "Again, Joker? I'm not big on forcing these talks."
Joker: "****!"
EDI: "Go to the science lab; there is an access tunnel to the AI core."
Joker: "**** **** ****! *hobbles to the science lab* Mordin! You gotta help me! The Collectors are onboard and they're killing the crew!"
Mordin: "Later better. Think I've cured your condition. Simple treatment. No no no no no. Would cause liver failure. Start from scratch. Anything else?"
Joker: "What the ****?" *climbs down* "Miranda! Help!"
Miranda: "Maybe another time, Joker. There's a lot to do."
Joker: "****! Garrus! Get that stick ready and HELP for the love of Biotic God!"
Garrus: "Can it wait a bit? I'm in the middle of some calibrations."
Joker: "**** **** ****! Thane! Help!"
Thane: "Later. I'd like to meditate on what we've previously discussed."
Joker: "****! Samara! The Collectors are here! Do some of that justicar ****!"
Samara: "Perhaps we could speak later? I wish to meditate."
Joker: "**** you aliens and your ****ing meditating! *hobbles to AI core* Hey! Hey you, Geth! Legion! HELP!"
Legion: "We are building a consensus. Come back later."
Joker: "ARRRRGHHHH *breaks his arm at Legion* OK EDI I'm at you."
EDI: "Press the big red button that says, "DO NOT PRESS THIS BIG RED BUTTON.""
Joker: "****!" *presses button*
EDI: "Now you need to climb down the ventilation shaft behind you and restart the drive core."
Joker: *climbs down* "Jack! There are Collectors right above us! Help!"
Jack: "Joker, we talked enough. You're just pissing around. No hard feelings, but I don't want to play."
Joker: "WHAT THE ****!"
Jack: "Whatever."
EDI: "Engineering is clear."
Joker: "Grunt! Help! The Collectors! PLEASE!"
Grunt: "Pilot, I have everything. Clan, kin, and enemies to fight."
Joker: "Well how about you fight some of them, you big lizard?!"
Grunt: "You're part of a good bunch if you stay out of my way. Dead bunch if you don't."
Joker: "**** **** ****! *hobbles to the engine controls* Engine's back online, EDI, no thanks to this 'dream team'. Now what?"
EDI: "Go into the engine room. I will seal the engine room, port cargo, Miranda's office, the gunnery station, the armory, the science lab, Jack's hidey-hole, life support, the AI Core, and starboard observation, then open the airlocks and go to lightspeed."
Joker: "What about the rest of the crew?! You know, the ones that actually HELPED?"
EDI: "The Collectors took them."
Joker: "****."

Shepard: "What about my old team?"
Illusive Man: "They have other things to do."
Shepard: "What about Ashley?"
IM: "She's still with the Alliance. Promoted."
Shepard: "Wrex?"
IM: "He's trying to unite the Krogan clans."
Shepard: "Garrus?"
IM: "Probably failing epicly at his next venture."
Shepard: "Liara?"
IM: "She's on Illium, handing out stupid side quests."
Shepard: "Kaidan Alenko?"
IM: "He died defending the nuke on Vermire. Are you sure you're memory's all right?"
Shepard: "****in' sweet. What? Oh, yeah, my memory's fine. I just wanted some good news for a change."

Thane: "And Shepard's we shall be
For thee, my lord, for thee.
Power hath descended forth from thy hand
Our feet may swiftly carry out thy commands.
So we shall flow a river forth to thee
And teeming with souls shall it ever be.
In nomeni Patri, et Fili, et Spiritu Sancti."
Conrad Verner: "Hey! The Shepards are a registered trademark! All rights reserved! We're a charity that *hurk*"
Shepard: "Finally."

Elcor: "Sincere appreciation: Thanks for noticin' me."
(Does anyone get that? Am I showing my age here?)

Harbinger: "We are the harbingers of their ascension. Prepare the humans."
Collector: "..."
Harbinger: "Oh. Quite right. I keep forgetting you're all mindless except me. No matter. Soon I will be able to talk to Shepard. What shall I say... 'Assuming control.' Yes, that sounds good. She will be alerted to my presence and able to concentrate her squad's firepower on me. 'Assuming control.' Truly the words of a genius."

Kaidan: "A leopard can't change its spots. Cerberus can't be trusted."
Shepard: "'A leopard can't change its spots!' Can I be trusted?"
Kaidan: "You've turned your back on everything we stood for."
Shepard: "But you just said a leopard can't change its spots. Logic dictates that I still stand what we stood for."
Kaidan: "Good luck, Shepard."
Shepard: "I should have left you on Vermire with Ash and Wrex's corpse, you mewling pissant."

Shepard: "So, EDI, what's it like to be fully integrated with the Normandy?"
EDI: "I am the Normandy now, Commander. Its hull is my skin; its engine, my heart; its probes, my fingers--"
Joker: *muffled laugh*
EDI: "Its cockpit my---"
Joker: "BRIDGE!"
Shepard: "Wait, does that mean when I'm here, we're having a threesome?"
EDI: "Jeff's deft fingers skillfully playing across my---"
Shepard: "I'm going to leave you two alone."
EDI: "Ooooh, Jeff, that button right there..."
Joker: "Brace for impact!"

Elcor: "Polite request: Junior, please clean your room."
Young Elcor: "Combative response: No, it is my room. You are not the boss of me."
Elcor: "Adamant assertion: As long as you live in my house, you will do what I say."
Young Elcor: "Angsty reminder: You are not even my real dad."
Elcor: "Angry rejoinder: I pay the mortgage. While you are under my roof, you must comply."
Young Elcor: "Childish complaint: I hate you. Insincere: I'm running away."

2010-02-07T18:36:00.001-08:00

Tons of Fun

2010-01-08T10:52:00.000-08:00

Crass, but damn funny

2009-12-18T22:42:00.000-08:00

Awesome

2009-12-18T10:11:00.000-08:00

"As you may be aware, the Commonwealth of Virginia once had a program for forced sterilization of the mentally retarded. These sterilizations were carried out at the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded, which is now known as the Central Virginia Training School, and which is located just outside of Lynchburg. During Virginia's experiment with eugenics, Lynchburg was the "dumping ground" for those who were deemed "unfit to reproduce." It should therefore come as no surprise that Jerry Falwell later chose Lynchburg to be the home to his Orwellian-named "Liberty" University. It seems quite clear that this is not the "real America," and thus complaints from within this community should be given no weight." -- Attorney Marc Randazza

Gad~!

2009-11-13T04:24:00.001-08:00

Lindsey Lohan looks like a well worn floormat from a trucker toilet.

Ah Blogger...

2009-10-22T20:11:00.001-07:00

I'm not dead, and I'm not dead to you...nor you to me. I've just been seeing other websites...but don't worry...you're still my 'first time' and will always have a soft spot in me heart for you...someday, we'll tango again, just not today

Couple of Funnies

2009-07-26T10:01:00.000-07:00

Point Lookout is Amazing

2009-06-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

And on the Solstice, God Worked His Mojo

2009-06-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

Molson family reaches deal to purchase Canadiens

Saturday, 06.20.2009 / 6:06 PM / News

NHL.com

Canadiens owners through the years

December 4, 1909
During a meeting of the National Hockey Association (NHA), held in Room 129 of the Windsor Hotel, the Canadiens are founded by J. Ambrose O'Brien, a sportsman from Ottawa, with financial support from another magnate of the time, T.C. Hare. The latter providing the $1,000 required for the formation of a team as well as the $5,000 to guarantee the players' salaries. Mr. O'Brien delegates the task of forming and managing this new, largely francophone team, to Jack Laviolette.

November 12, 1910
The NHA grants the Canadiens franchise to George Kendall-Kenndy and the club officially becomes Club Athlétique Canadien, a name it retains until 1917.

November 3, 1921
Upon the death of her husband, Mrs. Kennedy sells Club de Hockey Canadien to Léo Dandurand, Jos. Cattarinich and Louis A. Létourneau for the sum of $11,500.

September 17, 1935
Jos. Cattarinich and Léo Dandurand, sole owners of the Canadiens since the departure of Louis A. Létourneau in 1931, sell the club to the Canadian Arena Company for $165,000. The latter, property of Senator Donat Raymond, already owns the Montreal Maroons. A syndicate is appointed composed of Ernest Savard, president, as well as Maurice Forget and Louis Gélinas as principle directors to manage the Canadiens.

May 1940
The Canadian Arena Company and its president, Senator Donat Raymond, as well as its vice-president, William Northey, take over the management of the Montreal Canadiens. Two years earlier, the Maroons had ceased operations.

September 24, 1957
Senator Hartland de M. Molson and his brother, Thomas H.P. Molson, purchase Club de Hockey Canadien and the Canadian Arena Company.

May 15, 1964
Senator Hartland de M. Molson and his brother Thomas H.P. Molson sell Club de Hockey Canadien and the Canadian Arena Company to their cousins, J. David, William A. and Peter B. Molson for approximately $5 million.

December 30, 1971
Brothers J. David, William A. and Peter B. Molson sell the Canadian Arena Company and Club de Hockey Canadien to Placements Rondelle Ltée for approximately $15million. The consortium, whose main shareholders are brothers Peter and Edward Bronfman, will later become Carena Bancorp.

August 4, 1978
Molson Breweries of Canada Ltd., under the terms of an agreement with Carena Bancorp, acquire Club de Hockey Canadien and sign a long-term lease on the Forum covering the operation of the team as well as the entertainment division.

January 31, 2001
Molson Inc. announces the acquistion of 80,1% of the Club de hockey Canadien and 100% of the Molson Centre to businessman George N. Gillett Jr. The deal is valued at $275 million. Molson Inc. retains 19,9% stake in the hockey team. The transaction is approved by the NHL board of Governors on June 19, 2001.

Source: ourhistory.canadiens.com

MONTREAL – George N. Gillett Jr and Geoff Molson announced today that they have reached an agreement in principle for the sale of the Gillett family's interests in the Montreal Canadiens Hockey Club, the Bell Centre and Gillett Entertainment Group. They will hold a news conference as soon as the agreement is finalized.

Mr. Gillett was very appreciative of the extraordinary interest shown by a number of parties in the Montreal Canadiens, and acknowledged the fine work accomplished by the organization's management over the past eight years.

Congratulating and thanking Mr. Molson for the winning bid, Mr. Gillett said that he was pleased to return the ownership of the Canadiens to the Molson family, a family that has been associated with the Club for over three generations and committed to the Montreal community for seven generations over a 223 year period.

I Think Quatto used to Live There

2009-05-26T10:52:00.001-07:00

Residents of 'Butt Hole Road' club together to change street's unfortunate name

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:24 AM on 26th May 2009

In the end, the constant jokes were just too much to take for the long-suffering residents of Butt Hole Road.

Groups of youths used to visit the street and bare their backsides for photographs while many delivery firms simply refused to believe it existed.

And coachloads of amused American tourists frequently turned up to view the sign after it appeared in a US book.

And so despairing households in the suburban street in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, decided that the road's name simply had to change.

The sign for 'Butt Hole Road' which has now changed to Archers Way after complaints from residents in Conisbrough near Doncaster

They spent £300 to change their address to the rather more palatable Archers Way.

Resident Peter Sutton said he originally thought the street's name would be fun - but admits he soon got tired of the jokes.

Mr Sutton moved into the house vacated in 2003 by Paul and Lisa Allott, who were forced to move after becoming fed up with their street's name.

Mr Allott said: 'We'd heard every single gag there is and we'd had enough.

'We've had people flashing their bottoms for photographs by the drive, we've had people ringing us up with hilarious jokes about the street name and then we've had those who just don't believe us.

'All the other street names around here are quite sensible.

'I just can't see why they didn't call it Butt Hall Road, or something like that. I've no idea why it was named like this.'

Not a Tasty Beverage

2009-05-26T10:51:00.001-07:00

Man named Beverage charged with DUI

ST. PETERSBURG -- A 50-year-old Chesapeake, Va., man with an unfortunate last name -- given the circumstances -- was arrested at Third Street and 51st Avenue N around 3 a.m. last night after a breath-alcohol test asserted he was at nearly three times the limit at which a driver is considered impaired by the state of Florida.

Randy Joe Beverage, who registered alcohol levels of 0.230 and 0.194, was charged with driving under the influence and possession of a controlled substance after he was found with less than a gram of oxycodone without a prescription.

He is being held in Pinellas County Jail on $2,500 bond ($500 for the DUI).

Brant James, Times staff writer

Posted by Times Editor at 10:43:00 AM on May 25, 2009

Irony

2009-04-29T19:29:00.000-07:00

Fair and Balanced Indeed

2009-04-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

Kotaku brings the Goods on Fallout 3's Broken Steel

2009-04-21T10:02:00.001-07:00

Broken Steel, the third downloadable episode for the PC and Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3, will raise the game's level cap to 30 and remove the games ending on May 5, Bethesda announced this week.

Broken Steel will sell for 800 points and will include an entire new area outside of Fallout 3's wasteland based on Andrews Air Force Base. The new DLC will also include more weapons, enemies and perks, including one that can bring back your dog when he's killed.

Broken Steel is the third of the three downloadable episodes Bethesda has been talking about for Fallout 3. The new content kicks off at the end of the game, changing away the original title ends and extending it perpetually. Once Broken Steel is downloaded Fallout 3 has no ending, Hines said.

"Broken steel doesn't have an ending," he said. "There are no more endings, we got the message."

The game also slightly tweaks the moments leading up to the ending, adding the ability to send one of several of your companions to complete the final task of the game, instead of doing it yourself.

The new content starts about two weeks after the events of Fallout 3's main quest, opening up in the Capital Wasteland by Project Purity, which is now up and running.

"Broken Steel takes into account what you did in Fallout 3 and what the world is like now," Hines said.

In Broken Steel the battle between the Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave still rages and you are tasked with discovering and helping to build a Tesla Canon, a new, more powerful weapon for the Brotherhood.

As with the original Fallout 3 storyline, there are also a number of side quests in Broken Steel, most of which have to do with escorting freshly processed clean water across the wasteland and protecting it from raiders.

"You can get a number of different quests from a scribe, which has nothing to do with the main story," Hines said. "It adds some free-form miscellaneous quests you can do in the game."

The main quest sends you to an old power plat to find the parts for the Tesla Canon.

The new area is packed with new enemies, including a super mutant overlord, a feral ghoul reaver and an Enclave hellfire trooper; new weapons, like the Tesla Canon and a projectile flame thrower; new achievements and even new perks. Hines only detailed one of the perks though, called Puppies! If you pick the Puppies! Perk when Dogmeat dies he gets reincarnated automatically as a puppy, which you can go to certain areas to add back to your group.

The new pack also raises the level cap from 20 to 30 and greatly increases the enemy difficulty level.

"Enemies are a lot tougher," Hines said. "You start seeing new enemies at level 18.

"Advancement from 20 to 30 takes a ton of experience points."

Completing the main quest in Broken Steel will also require a bit of puzzle solving, Hines said. After you've get all of the parts for the new weapon, you take it trough the Presidential Metro Line to pull off an attack on the Enclave base.

One you cear out the Presidential Metro Line you get to make your way to Adams Airforce Base where you will be given new orders, Hines said.

"Adams Air Force Base is a new world space," he said. "You sort of leave the Wastelands and go to Adams Air Force Base, it's a pretty big space."

Hines says that the main quest for Broken Steel is a bit longer than The Pitt downloadable content, coming in at about four to five hours of gameplay, and that it also adds a bunch of sidequests which each take 30 minutes to an hour to complete.

The side quests, he said, have you going all over the world and give you a chance to see how it's changed since the end of the original Fallout 3.

The one thing that Broken Steel won't beef up are the collectibles, Hines said.

credit: kotaku.com and brian crecente

How Appropriate

2009-04-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

8 Seconds...

2009-04-05T16:02:00.000-07:00

We Have GOT To See This

2009-03-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

Finally Some News from the Venture Compound

2009-03-25T09:50:00.001-07:00

WE BROKE SEASON FOUR.

Or, rather, we've cleft it in twain. But, like the fabled Planarian worm of so many junior high school biology experiments, rather than dry up and die on your desk, each half of Season 4 has grown. Instead of producing 13 episodes in a row--which would have killed us and/or forced us to delay the premiere until January or February of 2010--we've decided to split the season into two halves of eight episodes each. So Season Four Volumes 1 & 2 (as I like to refer to them) will comprise a total of 16 episodes. Volume 1 will hit the airwaves this fall--October or November, I'm not sure yet. We're are just about to wrap up pre-production on those eight and will start getting them back from Korea next month. In the meantime, it's back to our laptops for me and Doc to write the eight scripts which will someday be known as The Venture Bros. Season Four Volume 2, which we'll begin producing this June with an eye towards a June, 2010 premiere.

~ credit: Jackson Publick

Ok, I think Smucker's May be Asking a Little Too Much of Their IT Department Now

2009-03-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

First Ever Popeye Cartoon

2009-03-22T11:02:00.001-07:00

Nuts!

2009-03-11T22:11:00.000-07:00

Horse bites off Indonesian man's testicle, spits it out

From correspondents in Jakarta

AAP

March 12, 2009 02:54pm

AN Indonesian villager had to be rushed to hospital after a horse bit off one of his testicles.

The 35-year-old man was unloading sand from a horse-drawn cart at a construction site in Sulawesi earlier this week when the attack occurred, Indonesia's state-run news agency Antara reported.

A witness said the animal suddenly lunged at the man, sinking its teeth into his crotch.

Shocked bystanders loaded the man into a car to take him to hospital, before one noticed a piece of flesh on the pavement.

"Luckily the horse did not chew up or swallow his testicle, but spit it onto the pavement," the bystander was quoted as saying.

"So I picked it up and brought it to the doctor at the hospital where the victim was being treated."

It was not know whether doctors attempted to sew it back on.

The 70-year-old owner of the horse, Budi, said the animal was trained but sometimes turned wild, and had bitten in the past.

All Your hate Are Belong To Us

2009-03-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

While I have made my disdain for Frat Boy BS well known for a long time, they are still the lesser of two evils when compared to the whargarbling nutjobs of the Westboro Baptist Church. Every once in a great while, a Fraternity will do something praiseworthy, like this.

Sara Gets a Sweet Kiss from Toby

2009-03-10T09:23:00.000-07:00

Pic credited to my hetero life-mate Andrew, master of foto-graffee

Rush Limbaugh Runs the GOP

2009-03-04T09:55:00.000-08:00

An ya'll better apologize to him HERE

2009-03-04T09:45:00.000-08:00

Cover Mania

2009-03-03T09:25:00.000-08:00

So I was surfing 411Mania today and read an article they published discussing the best cover tunes of all time. While I had heard a good deal of them, some I had not. Here's a sampling of some of the tunes. Enjoy.

Aaron Lewis performing Pearl Jam's 'Black'

Sarah George covering Nine Inch Nails 'Something I Can Never Have' (audio only)

Heart doing Led Zeppelin's 'Rock and Roll' from 1978

Ryan Adams (who?) covering Alice in Chains 'Down in a Hole'

Warren Zevon covering Bob Dylan's 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' (from his final album)

4 Non Blondes doing Van Halen's 'I'm The One'

Gob covering 'Paint it Black' by the Rolling Stones

Simian Mobile Disco

2009-03-02T10:27:00.000-08:00

This Music Video has Coach written all over it. Note: the 'interference' in the video is intentional

I'm Hooked

2009-02-23T10:41:00.001-08:00

So I've been playing the DnD Tiny Adventures on Facebook all weekend and I love it. The application is a simple turn-based text adventure with a handful of good images mixed in. Your character "Finds Adventure" and the game runs itself. You can walk away and come back in an hour or so and the adventure is done. As such, you don't have a lot of control over your character in game but you can equip and use potions and weapons or armor thorugh the encounters. My character, Ralphus, suffers from Squid-Dice Syndrome -- meaning that a on rather routine die roll where I only have to roll a 5 or better due to all my bonuses, I will invariably roll a 2.

Most of my buddies are on Facebook now with the major exception being Coach (Squid will likely NEVER be on). But I hold out hope becuse I really think the Faceboom could benefit from Coach's 'unique' writing talents on the variety of pages he could join. Plus he would be able to harp on Quatto daily.

Come join us Coach. Quatto, Sponge, Naked Bob and I are waiting for you to let Skippy have it.

Assholes

2009-02-23T10:36:00.000-08:00

Feb 22nd, 2009 | FORT BLISS, Texas -- As soldiers stream home from Iraq and Afghanistan, the biggest charity inside the U.S. military has been stockpiling tens of millions of dollars meant to help put returning fighters back on their feet, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Between 2003 and 2007 -- as many military families dealt with long war deployments and increased numbers of home foreclosures -- Army Emergency Relief grew into a $345 million behemoth. During those years, the charity packed away $117 million into its own reserves while spending just $64 million on direct aid, according to an AP analysis of its tax records.

Read the full article HERE

Double Word Score

2009-02-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

Steelers are Champions*

2009-02-14T09:38:00.000-08:00

This guy wrote an article saying that the Steelers need an asterisk next to their title claims due to their whole team historically being juiced up, 'roided out cheats.

Read his article HERE

Coach Smith's rebuttal to follow I'm sure.

Good News Everyone!!

2009-02-14T09:32:00.000-08:00

Scientists decode genomes of all known rhinoviruses, first step towards cure

Feb. 12, 2009

Provided by: The Canadian Press
Written by: Helen Branswell, Medical Reporter, THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO - Scientists have decoded the genetic blueprints of all known strains of rhinoviruses - a.k.a. the common cold.

The ambitious project, the results of which were published Thursday, should fast-forward efforts to combat these viral nuisances. But the vast genetic variation seen across the various strains suggests it is unlikely pharmaceutical scientists could concoct one single drug to treat all versions, the senior author of the study admitted.

"These things really are different. And they're different enough that we need to come up with a more sophisticated way of attacking them for treatment," said Dr. Stephen Liggett, of the University of Maryland.

Liggett, who did the work with colleagues from his university, the University of Wisconsin and the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md., said he believes the variation explains the failure of previous attempts to find cures for the common cold.

"Because we have sub-families or subgroups of rhinoviruses that have different genetic makeups - that probably is going to mean that we may need three or four drugs," he said, though he insisted the variation was not so broad as to put effective treatments for human rhinoviruses or HRVs out of reach.

The work was done without external funding. The findings were reported Thursday in the journal Science.

The team performed full genome sequencing on the 99 known types of rhinoviruses stored in the official repository, the American Type Culture Collection in Rockville, Md. But it's clear there are more strains being discovered and the total now tops 100.

The viruses break down into three confirmed species or groupings. Liggett said it's likely a fourth will soon be added to that list.

One scientist who wasn't involved in the work said it should open up study into a virus that's been called "a poor orphan" of medical research.

"It is like the impact of the completion of human genome sequences on the study of human biology and diseases," said Wai-Ming Lee, from the department of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Colds can be caused by a number of different viruses. But highly infectious rhinoviruses are far and away the most common agent to trigger colds, hence the virus family's nickname as the cause of the common cold.

It's impossible to put a dollar figure on the economic toll these viruses inflict.

But a study done in 2003 provides some insight. It suggested colds cost the U.S. economy US$40 billion a year in lost wages, health-care costs and spending on over-the-counter cough and cold products.

Dr. Mark Fendrick, a researcher at the University of Michigan and lead author of that paper, said Thursday he hasn't updated the work, largely because there is no funding for cold research.

"We are hopeful that these scientific advances ... regarding the genetics of the common cold will lead to more funding and research to ultimately produce an agent or a set of agents that will safely and cost-effectively treat this public health menace," he said.

While Liggett is hopeful the work will ignite renewed interest in rhinoviruses research, others are skeptical that the logistics of dispensing a cold cure will make this work attractive to drug makers or the health-care system.

"It's not a killer for most people. It's a nuisance. It's not something that people are going to want to invest a tremendous amount of new additional costs in to get minimal gain," said Dr. Aaron Glatt, a spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Glatt said the multiple drug scenario Liggett predicts would require people with colds to seek a doctor's care, get tested to see whether a rhinovirus is responsible and if it is, from which family the virus hails.

That's a lot of work - and additional cost to the medical system - for an illness that people generally start to recover from on their own within a few days, he said.

"It doesn't make sense," said Glatt, who is an infectious diseases physician and CEO and president of New Island Hospital in Long Island, N.Y. "To add hundreds of dollars to the medical budget for really no benefit is a tough sell, even if we had such a perfect drug available."

"Until you come up with a very, very simple treatment, you're not going to go anywhere with it.... It's going to always be the poor orphan in terms of research. It's going to be the poor orphan in terms of public health support for it."

But Liggett said medical science shouldn't give up on the possibility of effectively treating colds.

An asthmatic himself, he noted rhinovirus infections exacerbate asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD). And a bad rhinovirus infection in a child under age two can essentially program the child's immune system to develop asthma, he said.

"Though it may be disheartening to think that we may have to use multiple drugs, I still think it's better than not treating, because it is a major medical burden," Liggett said.

The group now plans to sequence contemporary rhinoviruses taken from 1,000 people across the United States and compare them to those in the repository, which were mainly collected in the 1970s. That comparison should provide clues as to how fast rhinoviruses mutate.

And Liggett said the team also wants to try to match viruses to the illness they cause, effectively trying to find out whether some rhinoviruses are nastier than others.

Love, Sweet Love

2009-02-07T10:40:00.000-08:00

Sounds Like It Was Supposed to Be a Wild Time

2009-02-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

Vibrating condom, energy drink stolen

Couple detained in Wal-Mart shoplifting

Friday, February 6 | 9:21 a.m.

BY CRAIG BROWN, COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER

Two people were detained after Hazel Dell Wal-Mart employees reported a shoplifting incident Thursday evening.

Stolen were a SOBE energy drink and a vibrating condom, according to a report.

The incident was reported at 6:22 p.m. at the store, 9000 N.E. Highway 99.

Detained were Kayla M. Raymond, 19, and Michael W. Kautz, 21.

Caution!

2009-02-01T10:50:00.000-08:00

~Sweet~

2009-01-31T17:39:00.000-08:00

So my buds and I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Cheech and Chong Live last night at the State Theater in Cleveland. As soon as Benchoff and I heard that they were touring we dedicated ourselves to seeing them whenever they came to or close to Cleveland. We were pleased that they stopped over in C-Townb. Of course it was cold as hell.

Afterwards, we were all in agreement that this was one of the best shows we had ever seen. In parge part due, no doubt, to the premise that I (for one) was absolutely convinced that I would NEVER see this show materialize. It seemed as though there had been a lot of, say, bad blood between these two for so long that to see them live was a once in lifetime chance. I am most pleased we had the chance to take advantage.

So I trolled the YouTube today and found a couple of choice bits from their tour to share. They opened the show with their send up to "Up In Smoke".

Then they went into some musical numbers featuring Blind Melon Chitlin:

Space Mexican...

The Dogs: Ralph and Herbie...

And they finished with a sing-along...

All in all, it was an incredible exprience...one that I am glad to have shared with some of my best friends. Check out the Light Up America Tour if you get the chance.

You Have Got To See This

2009-01-30T09:09:00.000-08:00

Worth1000.com either sponsored or is reporting on some art contest in which people take familiar art themes or images and give them the Star Wars treatment. Yoda above nearly made me spit coffee on my keyboard.

There are 39 such entries. Be forewarned, some of them are nudes (Leia = yum). Those of us who can appreciate the long and storied history of the nude in art can hack it. Prudes may feel free to navigate your ass on out of here.

Check out the full gallery HERE

Murder my Dear Watson....Murder

2009-01-30T08:50:00.000-08:00

68-year-old man found beaten inside Plano home
02:22 PM CST on Thursday, January 29, 2009
By DAN X. McGRAW / The Dallas Morning News
dmcgraw@dallasnews.com

Detectives are investigating the death of a 68-year-old man who was found beaten inside his Plano home this morning, Plano police said.

Sherlock Holmes was found by a friend about 12:45 a.m. inside his home in the 1100 block of Avenue I, said Plano police spokesman Rick McDonald.

Police were interviewing neighbors and friends to determine a motive, McDonald said.

Holmes, a longtime resident of Plano, was a member of the city’s Douglass Community Center.

Denise Likes Kittens

2009-01-30T08:28:00.000-08:00

Worth the Wait

2009-01-30T08:26:00.000-08:00

Snowed In

2009-01-28T10:44:00.000-08:00

Kevin Smith: Akron

2009-01-27T20:27:00.000-08:00

An "Actual" Writer

2009-01-27T20:22:00.000-08:00

Acclaimed writer John Updike dies at 76

By Mark Feeney, Globe Staff

John Updike, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, whose jeweled prose and quicksilver intellect made him for decades one of America's foremost literary figures, died today. He was 76.

Mr. Updike, a long-time resident of Beverly Farms, died of lung cancer at Hospice of the North Shore in Danvers, said his wife, Martha.

"He was obviously among the best writers in the world,'' said David Remnick, editor the New Yorker, Mr. Updike's literary home for more than half a century.

A master of many authorial trades, Mr. Updike was novelist, short story writer, critic, poet -- and in each role as prolific as he was gifted. He aimed to produce a book a year. Easily meeting that goal, Mr. Updike published some 60 volumes. The first was a collection of poems, "The Carpentered Hen" (1958). "My Father’s Tears and Other Stories" is scheduled to be published in June.

Mr. Updike combined diligence with brilliance. Few writers have staged such elegant lexical ballets on the page. "The scrape and snap of Keds" fill "the moist March air" in the opening of Mr. Updike’s second novel "Rabbit, Run" (1960). Thirty years later, in "Rabbit at Rest," something as mundane as angina becomes “that singeing sensation he gets as if a child inside him is playing with lighted matches.”

Absoloutely Fabulous Coming to FOX

2009-01-26T09:38:00.001-08:00

The pertinent are: Will it suck and will Jen watch it?

Fox picks up US remake pilot

By Lester Haines •

Posted in Entertainment, 26th January 2009 12:06 GMT

Fox has picked up a pilot for a US version of cult comedy Absolutely Fabulous, the Jennifer Saunders creation which ran for five series plus specials on the BBC, but has to date defied attempts to rehash it for the transatlantic market.

Saunders has an executive producing role for the pilot, which is a joint venture between Sony Pictures TV, BBC Worldwide Productions and Tantamount, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The script was penned by Christine Zander, whose previous credits include episodes of 3rd Rock from the Sun and work on Saturday Night Live, and who's relocated Eddy and Patsy to Los Angeles.

LARPer Love

2009-01-26T09:36:00.001-08:00

Stumbled across this story today on fark.com...

Google Street View Captures Your Shame* (GOOG)

Eric Krangel | January 25, 2009 8:48 PM

By now, we all know if you write something embarrassing on the Internet under your own name, it's your own fault if your missive lives forever on Google's (GOOG) search engine.

But what if you do something embarrassing outside? Should there be a right to protection against Google's roving cameras, integrated into Google Maps?

The residents of 8 Sampsonia Way in Pittsburgh, PA may be wondering that.

In case you're wondering, it seems we're looking at LARP ("live action role play"), which is sort of like Dungeons & Dragons. Except instead of sitting around in someone's basement with dice, you dress up in faux medieval armor and attack people with tinfoil swords.

All of which reiterates what we've always felt about Google Street View: Amazingly cool, but also kind of unnerving. Next time, head into the deep woods, fellas.

Check It Out

2009-01-17T19:00:00.000-08:00

Any fan of Star Wars or their Battlefront Series of games NEEDS to see this.

Click HERE

Suck It 'vangelists

2009-01-15T18:31:00.000-08:00

NASA discovers evidence of possible 'life on Mars'Agence France-Presse
Published: Thursday January 15, 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Plumes of methane gas detected on Mars could be a sign of geological or biological activity -- and possibly the latest indication that life can be sustained on the Red Planet, according to a study released Thursday.

The presence of methane implies active geological, or possibly even biological, processes on Mars, and the amount of methane observed on the "Red Planet" is comparable to some active sites on Earth, the study published in the journal Science found.

"We believe this definitely increases the prospects for finding life on Mars," principal researcher Michael Mumma told The Washington Post.

"No other discovery has done as much to increase the chances of finding life."

Fascinating

2009-01-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

The resemblance is uncanny, though Obama actually displays a personality and Tuvok is just lame.

Don't Think These Ever Were Posted

2009-01-11T09:46:00.001-08:00

Classic

2009-01-11T09:38:00.000-08:00

Star Wars fan film that was created by Kevin Rubio in 1997. The voicing cast includes Jess Harnell, Cam Clarke, and Bill Farmer.

"Artistic Luxury"

2009-01-11T09:27:00.000-08:00

So the CMA has their "Artistic Luxury" show going on. It's been open since late October or so but the event has drawn a lot much needed attention for a Museum that was closed for almost three years.

Tiffany Glass and Faberge Eggs are the big draws for the special exhibit which runs through January 18th is worth a look if you have the time and few bucks to spare.

Just in time for the 2012 Elections

2009-01-11T09:21:00.000-08:00

Is a 'Katrina-Like' Space Storm Brewing?

Scientists Worry We Aren't Prepared for Event That Could Zap Government, Cost Trillions

By DAVID KERLEY
Jan. 9, 2009

U.S. scientists worry we aren't ready for a solar space storm that could knock out our electricity, our cell phones, even our water supply.

The chances of that happening are small, but it is a possibility as we move into an active period of solar storms.

How do they know? Well, it's happened before. Back in 1859, a solar eruption resulted in telegraph wires burning up.

Of course, the world is now covered in wires and wireless devices that could be vulnerable.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) gathered experts from around the country to look at the economic and social costs from these space storms. While they didn't make any recommendations, the scientists hope their report is a wake-up call.

"We're not trying to be alarmist," said Dan Baker, who is the lead author of the report, "but we are trying to show how our systems are interconnected."

Fallout DLC

2009-01-11T09:11:00.001-08:00

Looks like the DLC pack for Fallout coming in March is finally going to expand the level cap. Good news heroes!

Welcome to America's hall of shame

2008-12-31T10:02:00.000-08:00

From Sarah Palin to AIG's pamper-hungry sales reps, the following characters have made us less than proud

- Michael Tomasky in Washington
- The Guardian, Wednesday 31 December 2008

In at least one obvious way, 2008 was a pretty good year in my country. We made history in electing an African-American president. I and 67 million of my fellow citizens brought the era of conservative dominance to a thundering close. For those of us who've been told for eight years that we weren't real Americans - liberals, urbanites, non-believers, cabernet-sippers, same-sex lovers, anti-war-mongerers, Volvo drivers - well, the tables have turned. We're the real Americans now.

But ill winds still blew, and blow, across the republic. It being the duty of journalism to take the measure of these winds, I hereby dedicate my year-end column to ranking some of the worst Americans of the year. It started as a bottom 10 list, but consultations with various associates persuaded me that 10 was not enough, and further research suggested that a non-round and totally capricious number better suited the exercise. Herewith, the Tomasky List of the 19 Worst Americans of 2008.

19 ED Hill. Ms Hill is the Fox News anchor who referred to Barack and Michelle Obama's on-stage fist bump in early June as a "terrorist fist jab". I guess she's well familiar with the various and sundry ways in which couples express intimacy - she's been married three times herself. Fox announced in November that it wasn't renewing her contract.

18 Don Blankenship. Who? He's the head of a huge coal-mining company that is an industry leader, if one must put it that way, in so-called mountain-top removal mining. It's a hideous practice that destroys mountains and communities, and Blankenship is its poster child. Our supreme court has agreed to hear a case in which Blankenship financed the election of a state judge who, in a $50m lawsuit, ruled for Blankenship's company. Google Caperton v Massey, read more about Massey, and tell me if this fellow shouldn't perhaps be even higher.

17 Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher. The man better known as Joe the Plumber wasn't a licensed plumber. He owed back taxes. He shocked even a Fox News anchor with his cavalier relationship to the facts. Let's hope he's 14 minutes into his allotted 15 minutes of fame.

16 John Edwards. How could a person run for president knowing that he'd cheated on his cancer-stricken wife with a woman who subsequently bore a child? (He denies paternity.) What if he'd actually won the nomination, and then this news came out? He gives bad judgment a bad name.

15 Heath and Deborah Campbell. You know, the parents who named their son Adolf Hitler Campbell. Nuff said.

14 Geraldine Ferraro. One of the worst vice-presidential candidates in recent history distinguished herself in 2008 as one of the worst political surrogates (for Hillary Clinton) in recent history. In between, she found a way to lose two Senate races that she once led by 20 points. What a career.

13 Stephen L Johnson. The Bush administration's chief environmental enforcement officer is ... about what you'd expect out of the Bush administration's chief environmental officer. He's loosened rules, ignored subpoenas and been rebuked by his own staff.

12 Sam Zell. Yes, market forces and technology are putting the American newspaper on life support, but that doesn't mean that the man who bought the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times should stroll into the intensive-care unit and pull the plug. Zell's belief that productivity should be measured purely by word output is a death knell for intensive, investigative work that uncovers corruption.

11 David Addington. Dick Cheney's top aide told Congress in June that he didn't even know what the unitary executive theory of presidential power was. This would be rather like Lavrenti Beria insisting that Lubyanka prison was actually a hotel.

10 The boys from AIG. Less than a week after the insurance giant received an $85bn federal bail-out, some AIG execs and sales reps spent $440,000 on a retreat at an exclusive resort, including $23,000 in spa charges. Well, they were under tremendous stress, you know.

9 Eliot Spitzer. The prostitute-visiting ex-New York governor, remember? Usually, when a scandal breaks, one reads the reports and starts thinking, "Well, I can see how they could wriggle out of this one." Even when the Lewinsky scandal broke, I could see how Bill Clinton might get out of it. But when the Spitzer story broke, it was evident instantly that he was dead meat.

8 Dick Cheney. Just because. If he lives to be 99 - and he's not as old as he looks: can you believe, for instance, that he's younger than Ringo? - and I'm still doing this column, something tells me he'll always find his way on the list. It'll take that long to undo the damage he's done to flag and country.

7 Steve Schmidt. John McCain didn't make the list, but his chief campaign strategist has earned an indisputable spot. He displayed a rare combination of incompetence, tone-deafness and cynicism. He's only as low as number eight because it didn't work.

6 Joe Lieberman. It's not that the Connecticut senator backed McCain. It's the way he did it, the way he does everything - the self-regard, the pride, the arrogation to himself of some kind of moral authority that he in fact does not have any more (even if he once did, itself a debatable proposition). Don't take it from me. Take it from his constituents, who ignored him to the tune of supporting Obama by a 22-point margin.

5 Michele Bachmann. Of the many memorable moments the campaign produced, I will never forget watching this Minnesota congresswoman say on national TV in October that Obama "may have anti-American views" and endorse the idea of a media investigation of all members of Congress to determine whether their views were sufficiently pro-American. The single most appalling political statement of the year.

4 Rod Blagojevich. "Whatever I say is always lawful, whatever I'm interested in doing is always lawful." Uh-huh. Depending on what comes out at his trial, he's a strong contender for an even higher spot in 2009.

3 George Bush. There were years when he would have been higher - 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. I'll give him a slight pass for 2001, what with the attacks and all that. In those previous years, he stole an election, started an unnecessary war, lied about it, approved torture, let a great US city drown and so on. This year he merely presided over the bankruptcy of the global economy. Twenty days and counting.

2 Sarah Palin. Does she really deserve to be this high? Never in my adult lifetime has one politician so perfectly embodied everything that is malign about my country: the proto-fascist nativism, the know-nothingism, the utterly cavalier lack of knowledge about the actual principles on which the country was founded. So, heck, you betcha she does!

1 Bernard Madoff. It's pronounced "made-off". Could Dickens have named him better? Bilking people and institutions out of $50bn is a pretty surefire way to make yourself No 1 with a bullet on anyone's year-end bad guys' list.

credit: rawstory and The Guardian

Season's Beatings

2008-12-29T00:48:00.000-08:00

Download This Year's Henchman 21 and 24 Xmas tune HERE

Vintage Vampire Hunter's Kit

2008-12-28T11:19:00.000-08:00

Getting Into the Xmas Spirit

2008-12-16T16:42:00.000-08:00

Turner Classic Movies Pays Tribute

2008-12-16T16:40:00.001-08:00

Cheech and Chong Get the Cartoon Treatment

2008-12-16T16:37:00.000-08:00

Cheech & Chong Get Animated

December 16, 2008 12:21 PM ET
Jay A. Fernandez, The Hollywood Reporter
As the reunited Cheech & Chong's stand-up tour Light Up America fires out nationwide, Big Vision Entertainment said it will produce an animated film featuring the duo with Chambers Bros. Entertainment.

The two companies have acquired animated film rights to the classic Cheech and Chong library held by music producer and Ode Records owner Lou Adler and will use those famous comedy bits to inspire "Cheech and Chong's Smokin' Animated Movie."

Big Vision founder and CEO Houston Curtis will produce along with Keith, Branden and Eric Chambers, who devised the concept. Adler, who discovered the duo in the early 1970s, will executive produce. Eric and Branden Chambers will direct the animation.

The ICM-repped Big Vision, which focuses on direct-to-DVD special-interest material, will finance the project.

In the '70s and '80s, Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong released several top-selling comedy albums and starred in six films, including "Up in Smoke" and "Still Smokin'."

"It's great to be doing a movie where Cheech and I never have to get out of bed or be on camera," Chong said.

"It's about time that we got animated because we've been doing animation without the animation for years," Marin said. "Whether you watch it smokin' a fattie or stone-cold sober, it's just plain funny."

Just In Time for Easter (March 24th)

2008-12-15T19:37:00.000-08:00

Venture Brothers Season Three Ventures to DVD
Now in high-def with uncensored episodes and new features.
by IGN Staff

December 5, 2008 - It's time, Venture Bros. fans! It is time to finally witness what happens after the unlikely wedding of The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend. Time to discover how The Monarch came to be a supervillain. Time to witness Dr. Venture's latest and fruitless money-making schemes for Venture Industries while ducking the evil doings of familiar foes like The Phantom Limb and Sergeant Hatred. And it will most definitely be time to catch up with the dim-witted Hank and Dean to witness their newest misadventures as Adult Swim brings to DVD and, for the first time ever in the network's history -- Blu-ray Disc – The Venture Bros. Season 3.

Arriving at retail as a two-disc box set on both platforms for the suggested retail prices of $29.98 and $44.98, respectively, The Venture Bros. Season 3 features all 13 uncensored episodes from the show's highly popular third season and bonus material including deleted scenes and commentary. Additionally, the Blu-ray disc box set will be packaged with an exclusive CD which includes 20 tracks that comprise the full musical score from the television series' third season.

Launched on Adult Swim in August 2004, The Venture Bros. is an inspired spoof of 1960s action cartoon shows such as "Johnny Quest." Created by Jackson Publick III (King of the Hill, The Tick), this 30-minute animated series follows the bizarre misadventures of the Venture family. Members of this eclectic clan include the world-renowned Dr. Venture, his not-so bright, fraternal sons Hank and Dean as well as Brock, their bodyguard assigned by the government to keep an eye on the family who is then promptly forgotten by the Feds.

Dumbass Parents of the Decade Award Goes To...

2008-12-15T16:10:00.001-08:00

The Express-Times

HOLLAND TWP. | In a living room decorated with war books, German combat knives and swastikas, a 2-year-old boy, blond and blue-eyed, played with a plastic dinner set.

The boy, asked his name, put down a tiny plate and ran behind his father's leg. He flashed a shy smile but wouldn't answer. Heath Campbell, 35, the boy's father, encouraged him.

"Say Adolf," said Campbell, a Holocaust denier who has three children named for Nazism.

Again, the boy wouldn't answer. It wasn't the first time the name caused hesitation.

Adolf Hitler Campbell -- it's indeed the name on his birth certificate -- turns 3 today, and the Campbell family believes the boy has been mistreated. A local supermarket refused to make a birthday cake with "Adolf Hitler" on it.

The ShopRite in Greenwich Township has also refused to make a cake bearing the name of Campbell's daughter, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, who turns 2 in February.

Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, a girl named for Schutzstaffel head Heinrich Himmler, turns 1 in April.

"ShopRite can't even make a cake for a 3-year-old," said Deborah Campbell, 25, who is Heath's wife of three years and the mother of the children. "That's sad."

A director for the Anti-Defamation League in Philadelphia applauded the supermarket's decision. An Allentown psychologist said the names would cause problems for the children later in life.

'Real Genius' Becoming a Reality

2008-12-15T15:59:00.001-08:00

Airborne Laser lets rip on first target

* 15 December 2008 by Paul Marks
* Magazine issue 2686. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.

IMAGINE swarms of aircraft patrolling the skies, zapping missiles, aircraft or even satellites in low Earth orbit with invisible, ultrapowerful laser beams.

Such laser battles in the sky may not be such a long way off, after a megawatt laser weapon was fired from an aircraft for the first time.

Although the Airborne Laser (ABL) was fired from a stationary plane at a target on the ground just a few metres away, the test marked a milestone for the weapon, developed by aerospace firms Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

The laser was 12 years in the making and cost $4.3 billion, putting it vastly over budget. The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) calls it the answer to "rogue states" or terror groups who equip themselves with intercontinental ballistic missiles, such as Scuds.

Yet the ABL may soon be used to shoot down a much wider range of devices - including aircraft - and is just one of a number of laser weapons now being readied for military use.

The idea behind the ABL programme is that at times of international tension, the airborne weapons will patrol the skies within hundreds of kilometres of the missile silos or launchers of a region of interest. Then, if the heat signature of a rocket launch is detected via satellite or an early warning aircraft, the ABL will track it and fire its laser at the missile while the latter is still getting off the ground and beginning to accelerate. In theory, the heat from what Boeing calls the "megawatt class" laser beam - the precise power level is classified - should cause the pressurised part of the missile to warp, bend and buckle, resulting in the missile's complete disintegration.
The beam should cause a missile to warp, bend and disintegrate above its launch site

That's a tall order by any standards, and many sceptics have questioned whether the weapon will ever get off the ground at all. But over the last few years, various aspects of the ABL's operation have been proven to work. For instance, both the twin low-power target-tracking lasers and the main laser beam's control optics have been successfully tested, while the Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) weapon has produced a beam in the lab. But until the test on 24 November at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the laser had not been fired from inside a Boeing 747.

That was a challenge because the COIL's six chemical modules - which rely on the reaction between oxygen molecules in an excited state and iodine to produce a light-emitting gas - are each the size of a large sports utility vehicle and collectively take up the rear half of the plane. The beam-forming and fire control system takes up the front half. This system ensures that the laser beam is accurately aligned so it does not damage or destroy the plane, and that it shoots where the target-tracker tells it to.

In two test firings, a laser beam was fired at a target for 1 second. The team now plan to test fire laser beams for longer, before preparing the aircraft for flight tests next year. "We remain on track to complete a lethal demonstration in 2009," says Rinn. "There's nothing like flaming missile wreckage to show the world the system is viable and that it works."

Until now the weapon had been pitched by the Pentagon, the MDA and its contractors as a defensive device, for destroying incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). But it now appears the laser is being readied for other uses. "The ABL is not just for missile defense," says Rinn. "We're optimised for ballistic missiles but there are modifications that could be made that would give us capabilities for countering aircraft, surface-to-air missiles and cruise missiles."

The ABL's contractors have already begun simulation work to show how modifications would allow the weapon to be used to shoot down aircraft, raising the possibility that dogfights of the future could be laser battles.

Military analysts have also pointed out that the ABL's laser could be used as an anti-satellite weapon - it is thought to have a range of hundreds of kilometres. It could either heat a satellite's fuel tanks to destruction or simply blind orbiting spy cameras. Rinn says the team is not investigating this at the moment: "The design of our sensors and our particular system is for bright [heat-emitting] ballistic missiles, so we haven't looked at that one yet."

With US President-Elect Barack Obama's transitional team poring over the Pentagon's accounts, the ABL may yet be axed. Indeed, the team's talk of other military uses for the weapon may simply be an attempt to make the programme look more attractive by showing it can do more than destroy ICBMs.

Whatever happens to the ABL, the move to high-power laser weapons that use an invisible infrared beam to attack targets is already under way. Top among the early "directed energy" devices expected to be fielded is the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL), developed by the US air force and Boeing, which uses a smaller chemical laser than the ABL and is carried in a military transport plane or large helicopter.

Rock Star Releases GTA IV DLC Teaser

2008-12-15T15:43:00.001-08:00

Punisher: War Zone -- A Guilty Pleasure

2008-12-15T14:59:00.000-08:00

So everybody's favorite superhero, me, went out to catch the latest flick featuring everybody's favorite gun toting vigilante...

It was an interesting experience.

Some of you may have seen the Thomas Jane version of The Punisher a few years back featuring the entirely too awesome Kevin Nash. One of the major complaints about the Jane Punisher is that it was set in like Miami or Malibu or somewhere. Punisher is wholly a New York Nutcase and the new film places him squarely in post 9-11 Big Apple. And to be honest, I'm not sure which Punisher I liked better filmwise. The Jane film was decent in that it took the material semu-seriously for the first time, gave us gratuitious amounts of Rebecca Romjin, and focused on grimy anti-hero who numbed the pain with liqour.

The Ray Stevenson Punisher was fun to watch and also focused on a troubled anti-hero numbing his pain, but with religion. One of the big controversies was what the film would be rated. The Punisher is NOT a polished hero who looks good using fists. He is vioent. And where as Batman is a feared character by bringing enemies to justice by beating the living hell out of them, Punisher is judge/jury/executioner all in one. But would Lionsgate neuter Frank Castle (aka The Punisher)?

No. Brutally, graphically, painfully no.

This was the first movie I ever saw Rated R for "brutal violence". It makes the over top violence of Robocop look tame. And in a way, that's this film's major flaw. It is TOO brutal at times and the effects department wanted to create new ways to show a fist caving in a nasal cavity or splattering brains all over the wall. Jane's Punisher only had one "real" Punisher moment when he kills a guy with a combat knife in a nasty fashion. But Stevenson's Punisher reeks of those moments. Now for the die hard Punisher fan, it's great. For the curious minded comic book crowd, it may be too much. And for the pg-13 movie crowd, this fim is the Horrid Grail.

In all these help to expplain the dismal ticket sales. Less than $5 mill in week one. Less than $2 mill in week two. In fact the film only spent One Week in the top ten. Those numbers will probably spell the end of the Stevenson Punisher and will likely shelve the character for a long, long time. But I have always seen the Punisher as a tier 2 or 3 character in Marvel. One that will never get the following of Wolverine or Iron Man. That, to me, helps explain the abysmal numbers. Combine that with a feel good movie season and the fact that Christmas is not the time for obscenely violent films...and the rest is history.

For me, this may very well be, as one writer already said, the greatest B-Movie superhero flick of all time. It reminded me of "They Live" a little bit, but instead of poorly scripted laughs, we get poorly scripetd brutal vigilante killings that even made this hero cringe at times.

Farewell to an Icon

2008-12-11T22:11:00.000-08:00

Bettie Page dies at 85; pinup queen played a key role in the sexual revolution of the 1960s and later became a cult figure

Bettie Page, the brunet pinup queen with a shoulder-length pageboy hairdo and kitschy bangs whose saucy photos helped usher in the sexual revolution of the 1960s, has died. She was 85.

Page, whose later life was marked by depression, violent mood swings and several years in a state mental institution, died Thursday night at Kindred Hospital in Los Angeles, where she had been on life support since suffering a heart attack Dec. 2, according to her agent, Mark Roesler.

A cult figure, Page was most famous for the estimated 20,000 4-by-5-inch black-and-white glossy photographs taken by amateur shutterbugs from 1949 to 1957. The photos showed her in high heels and bikinis or negligees, bondage apparel -- or nothing at all.

Decades later, those images inspired biographies, comic books, fan clubs, websites, commercial products -- Bettie Page playing cards, dress-up magnet sets, action figures, Zippo lighters, shot glasses -- and, in 2005, a film about her life and times, "The Notorious Bettie Page."

Then there are the idealized portraits of her naughty personas -- Nurse Bettie, Jungle Bettie, Voodoo Bettie, Banned in Boston Bettie, Maid Bettie, Crackers in Bed Bettie -- memorialized by such artists as Olivia de Berardinis.

"I'll always paint Bettie Page," De Berardinis said Thursday night . "But truth be told, it took me years to understand what I was looking at in the old photographs of her. Now I get it. There was a passion play unfolding in her mind. What some see as a bad girl image was in fact a certain sensual freedom and play-acting - it was part of the fun of being a woman."

"The origins of what captures the imagination and creates a particular celebrity are sometimes difficult to define," Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner said Thursday night. "Bettie Page was one of Playboy magazine's early playmates, and she became an iconic figure, influencing notions of beauty and fashion. Then she disappeared. . . . Many years later, Bettie resurfaced and we became friends. Her passing is very sad."

In an interview 2 1/2 years ago, Hefner described Page's appeal as "a combination of wholesome innocence and fetish-oriented poses that is at once retro and very modern."

According to her agents at CMG Worldwide, Page's official website, www.BettiePage.com, has received about 600 million hits over the last five years.

"Bettie Page captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality," said Roesler, chairman of the Indianapolis-based CMG Worldwide, who was at Page's side when she died. "She was a dear friend and a special client and one of the most beautiful and influential women of the 20th century."

An Incredible Mashup of Nelly Furtado's "Maneater" Set to "Easy Lover". BONUS: Skippy Sighting at 1:18 mark

2008-12-11T10:35:00.000-08:00

New Fallout DLC is Looking SWEET!

2008-12-11T10:10:00.000-08:00

Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage Unveiled
Bethesda spills the beans on everything from length to lifting the level cap.
by Erik Brudvig

December 10, 2008 - It's hard to imagine anybody already doing everything in Fallout 3 already, but I guess that's why they call some gamers hardcore. Whether you've finished Fallout 3 or not, you're probably already looking forward to the downloadable add-ons coming to Xbox 360 and PC early next year. IGN recently had the chance to learn more about the three pieces of downloadable content (DLC) that have already been announced by way of Jeff Gardiner, lead producer for Fallout 3 DLC. The focus of the interview was January's DLC, titled Operation Anchorage, but we also learned a bit about the next two downloads as well.

IGN: The liberation of Alaska was hinted at a lot during Fallout 3. What can we expect out of that simulated battle?

Jeff Gardiner: In Operation: Anchorage the player will find themselves able to re-live the famous liberation of Anchorage from Fallout lore -- inside a simulation similar to one found along the main quest of Fallout 3. Once the player finds their way into the simulation, they'll be stripped of their resources and have to survive within the rules set up by the simulation's creators.

The Chinese red army is everywhere, and the player will first have to secure the surrounding mountain side and then fight their way into the Chinese base. The player will have to use a lot of their standard combat skills, along with several new tools that will only be available in the downloadable content. These include interactive Strike Teams under the player's command and unique armor, weapons, and other exotic gadgets.

Re-live the liberation of Alaska.
IGN: A lot of quests in Fallout 3 were slightly different depending upon your character (mostly through dialogue options). Can we expect the same for Operation Anchorage?

Gardiner: Operation: Anchorage focuses mainly on a combat/stealth path. It's important to our team to use DLC as a way for us to flex our creativity, to try new things and answer the "wouldn't have been cool if we did this?" question that always comes up towards a games completion; when it's too late to try them! Don't worry, we're trying something a little different with all of our upcoming content so there will be plenty of the morally gray, multiple path quest lines everyone loves the franchise for.

IGN: Do you expect title updates to fix a few outstanding bugs to come along with Operation Anchorage?

Gardiner: We are releasing an update for all versions of Fallout 3 prior to the release of this DLC. We take pride in fixing issues that are found by our fans and posted in our forums.

IGN: How will the simulation of the battle work? Will we be teleported to a new area or will it all take place within a computer?

Gardiner: Since this is a simulation of a battle that took place in the past, it is taking place within a computer. It's a "what if" scenario, created by the Government in order to test different counter-offensives against the red menace.

Prepare for lots of new art assets.
IGN: How exactly will players access Operation Anchorage after purchasing the download? Will there be a specific place they'll have to go to in order to start the quest?

Gardiner: There will be a new quest objective and map marker for the player to travel to. You can play through this content at any level, once you've exited the Vault.

IGN: The liberation of Anchorage must have taken place before the entire country was destroyed. How different will the art style be for this download?

Gardiner: Anchorage has a vastly different art style. It's taking place in the frozen north; so you have a very bright ice/snow color pallet. We've had a massive amount of art resources at our disposal, most of what the player will experience was created from scratch. We've also taken a lot of time to create a bunch of 'animation vignettes' to make the soldiers and other NPCs interact with the world in better, more convincing ways then anything we were able to do with the Fallout 3 main game.

IGN: Will Operation Anchorage include anything aside from new quests? Can we expect new weapons and armor to outfit our last best hope of humanity? What about new achievements?

Gardiner: It will include new weapons, armor and achievements! It's full of top-secret technology used by both sides during the war, which the player will of course be able to use throughout the main game as well.

New weapons!
IGN: Will the download bring any new perks? My cannibal is hungry for more.

Gardiner: Yes, there will be a new perk included with the content! I won't get into details, but it's named "Covert Ops."

IGN: We're not expecting something as big as Shivering Isles for this first batch of DLC, but how lengthy is Operation Anchorage?

Gardiner: It's about four or five hours, depending on play style. Plus, it will give you new weaponry and other tools that the player can use through the main game.

IGN: How much will Operation Anchorage cost?
Gardiner: 800 Points.

IGN: Will any of the three downloads come with a lift of the level 20 cap?

Gardiner: Yes, the plan is currently for the third DLC, Broken Steel, to increase the level cap. This will be accompanied by new foes, perks and all of the other Fallout 3 staples our fans expect.

IGN: The second piece of downloadable content, The Pitt, takes place in Pittsburgh. As that city is a bit farther away from the coast and the epicenter of DC, is it in the same state of ruin as what we've seen in Fallout 3?
Gardiner: While Pittsburgh wasn't directly hit in the nuclear onslaught, it's still had years of decay. The surrounding water is also heavily irradiated, which tends to have an effect on those that live near it...

Operation Anchorage will last about four or five hours.
IGN: Not to spoil the end of Fallout 3, but extending the story in the Broken Steel download might be a bit tricky. Will the main character still continue through for that storyline? Will he or she be usable in the other downloads?

Gardiner: Based on a lot of feedback, we're going to allow the player to continue on after the main quest ends in the Broken Steel DLC. While a lot of details still have to be sorted, this will allow the player to continue on and play in the Wasteland enjoying the side and freeform quests, along with any new downloadable content we have planned in the future.

Anyone Remember THIS Holocaust

2008-12-10T00:22:00.000-08:00

Remember the Holodomor
The Soviet starvation of Ukraine, 75 years later
by Cathy Young

This year marks the 75th anniversary of one of the most horrific chapters in the history of the Soviet Union: the great famine the Ukrainians call Holodomor, "murder by starvation." This catastrophe, which killed an estimated 6 to 10 million people in 1932-33, was largely the product of deliberate Soviet policies. Inevitably, then, its history is fodder for acrimonious disputes.

Ukraine--which, with Canada and a few other countries, observed Holodomor Remembrance Day on November 23--seeks international recognition for a Ukrainian "genocide." Russia denounces that demand as political exploitation of a wider tragedy. Some Russian human rights activists are skeptical of both positions.

Meanwhile, the famine remains little known in the West, despite efforts by the Ukrainian diaspora. Indeed, the West has its own inglorious history with regard to the famine, starting with the deliberate cover-up by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty.

In the late 1980s, the famine gained new visibility thanks to Robert Conquest's Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine (1987) and the TV documentary Harvest of Despair, aired in the United States and Canada. A backlash from the left was quick to follow. Revisionist Sovietologist J. Arch Getty accused Conquest of parroting the propaganda of "exiled nationalists." And in January 1988, the Village Voice ran a lengthy essay by Jeff Coplon (now a contributing editor at New York magazine) titled "In Search of a Soviet Holocaust: A 55-Year-Old Famine Feeds the Right." Coplon sneered at "the prevailing vogue of anti-Stalinism" and dismissed as absurd the idea that
the famine had been created by the Communist regime. Such talk, he asserted, was meant to justify U.S. imperialism and whitewash Ukrainian collaboration with the Nazis.

By the time Coplon wrote, however, the Soviet regime was dying. The partial opening of Soviet archives soon confirmed the extent to which Stalin and his henchmen knowingly used hunger to punish resistance and beat the peasantry into submission. Among the finds was a direct order by Stalin to cordon off starving villages and intercept peasants trying to flee in search of food. The post-Soviet leadership of both Russia and Ukraine was willing to acknowledge the Terror-Famine, though differences soon emerged on whether it should be regarded as a Ukrainian genocide or equal-opportunity mass murder.

Ukrainian-Russian relations began to deteriorate after the "Orange Revolution" of late 2004. Russia under Vladimir Putin was sliding deeper into authoritarianism and anti-Western nationalism, while Ukraine, led by President Viktor Yushchenko, sought closer ties to the West. Even as the political mood in Russia began to emphasize the alleged positive aspects of the Soviet past, Yushchenko promoted a view of Soviet-era Ukraine as a "captive nation" under a foreign boot.

In November 2006, the Ukrainian parliament passed a bill proclaiming the Holodomor a genocide and making Holodomor denial "unlawful." An escalation of rhetoric followed; a 2007 statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry accused "certain political circles" in Ukraine of insulting the memory of non-Ukrainian famine victims. Since then, the pro-government Russian press has published dozens of articles assailing Ukraine's stance on the Holodomor as an insidious anti-Russian ploy. This year, President Dmitry Medvedev declined an invitation to Holodomor Remembrance Day ceremonies in Kiev in a petulant letter that dismissed "talk of the so-called Holodomor" as an "immoral" attempt to give a shared tragedy a nationalist spin and also took a swipe at Ukraine's desire to join NATO.

Metallica's New Video for "All Nightmare Long" Features Wicked Awesome Soviet Zombies. Watch it Quick Before Youtube Yanks It!

2008-12-10T00:17:00.000-08:00

Robin Williams -- Awesome

2008-12-08T16:56:00.001-08:00

Honda's New Concept Car Looks Like a Clone Trooper Helmet

2008-12-08T16:43:00.001-08:00

Hermione Would Get Naked for the Right Film Role, and Not the One Quatto Wants to Shoot in a Windowless Van with Chloroform

2008-12-08T16:38:00.000-08:00

I would go naked for the right role, says 18-year-old Harry Potter star Emma Watson

By Hugo Daniel
Last updated at 12:30 PM on 08th December 2008

She only turned 18 eight months ago, but Harry Potter star Emma Watson is already considering stripping off on screen.

In what many might see as further evidence of the pressure on women in the industry, the young actress admits she is prepared to go nude - if the role demands it.

The news will shock fans who have watched her grown up as Hermione Granger in the series of JK Rowling adaptations and still think of her as a child.

Looking good: Emma Watson looked stunning at the world premiere of her new movie 'The Tale of Despereaux' in Hollywood

Emma reveals her enviable figure in an ink blue backless minidress

But when asked by a Sunday magazine if she would ever film naked, she admitted: 'Yes. For Bernardo Bertolucci. It ... depends.

'I’m not getting my kit off any time soon, but it is part of my job.

'I’m at a strange age. I’m not a woman yet, but I’m not a girl any more.

'They [film companies] say: "Oh, in a couple of years you’ll be perfect for this."

'I’ll be like, yeah, but I want to be studying English then, so it’s going to be quite tough to choose between the two.'

Turning heads: Emma shows off her stunning style, in the dark blue dress and strappy heels

A word in your shell-like: Emma gets up close and personal with the giant mouse she befriends in the animated film

Meanwhile, the university-bound actress showed her youth as she donned mouse ears - and a fasionable dress of course - for her latest Hollywood premiere last night.

She may have graced the cover of Vogue, but she looked at home promoting the animated movie, The Tale of Despereaux, which is set to be a big Christmas hit.

The British star had a big smile for the camera as she posed on the red carpet in the satin dress and a pair of peep-toe black heels.

Mousing around: Emma dons a pair of fun mouse ears at the after-party

She posed with co-stars Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick in Los Angeles.

In the CGI film she provides the voice for the character Princess Pea, who forms a friendship with a brave little mouse with huge ears.

The Harry Potter star signed a deal with Kate Moss's modelling agency Storm last summer and was a fixture at both London and Paris Fashion Week this year.

Hollywood girl: Emma Watson poses with her co-stars Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick at the premiere of their new movie 'The Tale of Despereaux'

The young actress has admitted to having a big interest in the fashion world and has become a regular face on the fashion circuit of late.

'I've always been really interested in art and fashion', she has said.

But despite her hugely successful acting career and the interest from the fashion industry, Emma has pledged to continue her academic career following her current gap year.

After gaining straight As at A-level, she plans to study English literature in the UK or a liberal arts degree in the U.S.

Happy Birthday Lizard King

2008-12-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

He Came and Went All at Once

2008-12-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

Man dies in Bonn porn video booth

Published: 5 Dec 08 09:56 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20081205-15927.html

A German man has been found dead in a pornography video booth at a Bonn Beate Uhse sex shop, Cologne daily Express reported on Friday.

Apparently “plump boobs and hot thighs” were too much for the 54-year-old pornography customer’s heart, who died while watching porn in one of the video-booths at the sex-shop on Bischofsplatz, the paper said.

A staff member became suspicious when there was no sign of movement in the cabin long after the man’s time was up. She reportedly knocked on the door and unlocked the booth from the outside and was shocked to find the “porn fan” dead in the chair, the paper reported.

A call to emergency services came too late to help the man. Though authorities suspect he died of a heart attack, the doctor on the scene could not determine the cause of death at the time, and the corpse was handed over to police.

“Investigations so far have not brought up any evidence that a third party might have been involved,” police spokesperson Christian Gräßler told the paper.

They're Coming Back, Baby!

2008-12-05T17:59:00.001-08:00

Kids in the Hall to return to CBC

The Kids in the Hall (left to right), Scott Thompson, Dave Foley, Mark McKinney, Bruce McCulloch and Kevin McDonald, are to write the new show. (Canadian Press)

The Kids in the Hall are heading back to CBC Television with a new series.

Kirstine Layfield, executive director of network TV programming at CBC, confirmed the new series on Friday.

The project is still in development stages, she said, and unlikely to air before the fall of 2010.

"This came out of their reunion tour [in 2008]. We approached them and suggested a new series," she said.

The Kids reunited at Montreal's Just for Laughs festival in 2007 and toured together earlier this year.

All five members of the comedy team — Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson — will be writing the show.

Foley, who spoke about the series after presenting a Gemini Award last Friday, said the show will be a narrative comedy that tells a story in eight episodes.

The Kids in the Hall began as an improv troupe and are known for their sketch comedy.

But the new series, tentatively titled Death Comes to Town, will feature the same kooky comedy and the five original members of the troupe playing multiple characters, but with a single story arc.

The Kids In the Hall show ran on CBC from 1988 to 1994 and on two U.S. networks until 1995.

And Somewhere, Morty is Weeping

2008-12-05T17:57:00.000-08:00

Report: Former Wake Forest, NBA star Rogers paralyzed in ATV accident

ESPN.com news services

Former NBA and college basketball star Rodney Rogers is paralyzed as the result of an all-terrain vehicle accident, his college coach told the News & Observer of Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

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Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Rodney Rogers was one of the NBA's best sixth men and a respected 3-point shooter during his 12-year pro career.

Dave Odom, who coached Rogers when he earned All-America honors at Wake Forest and was the 1993 ACC Player of the Year, said Wednesday that his former star is paralyzed from the shoulders down, according to the report. "Say a prayer for Rodney and his family,'' Odom said, according to the newspaper. Rogers, 37, who had a 12-year NBA career and won the league's sixth man award in 1999-2000, was riding in the woods in rural Vance County, N.C., last week when he fell off the vehicle, according to the North Carolina Highway Patrol, the newspaper reported. He was recently transferred from Duke Hospital to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, which specializes in rehabilitation for people with catastrophic injuries. A Durham native who starred in high school football and basketball, Rogers had returned to his hometown and was working for the city public works department as a heavy machinery operator. He was promoted to a supervisory position six months ago, according to the report. He was also volunteering as a girls' basketball coach at a Durham middle school and had set up a computer lab at a city public housing complex, according to the report. His agent and lawyer, James "Butch" Williams, described Rogers as "an outdoorsman, plain and simple," according to the report. "He hunts, motorcycles, rides horses. He loves big trucks," Williams said. Rogers, who was financially set, took the job with the Durham DPW because he liked working with heavy trucks, Williams said, according to the report.

2008-12-05T13:11:00.000-08:00

O.J. Simpson Sentenced to Prison

By KEN RITTER

LAS VEGAS (Dec. 5) - A broken O.J. Simpson was sentenced Friday to as many as 33 years in prison for a hotel armed robbery after a judge rejected his apology and said, "It was much more than stupidity."

The 61-year-old football Hall of Famer stood shackled and stone-faced as Judge Jackie Glass rattled off the punishment. Moments before, Simpson made a rambling, five-minute plea for leniency, simultaneously apologizing for the holdup as a foolish mistake and trying to justify his actions.

Behold! 15 Years Ago The Lord Did Take From Us Frank Zappa...Thus We Observe Now the Holy Month of Zappadan

2008-12-04T18:42:00.000-08:00

HBO's Rome May Return to the Big Screen

2008-12-01T21:15:00.000-08:00

Heller looking for movie version of 'Rome'

The creator of CBS' red-hot procedural "The Mentalist" has unfinished business in Italy.

Bruno Heller says he wants to produce a theatrical wrap-up to his critically beloved and prematurely canceled HBO drama "Rome."

"There is talk of doing a movie version," he said. "It's moving along. It's not there until it is there. I would love to round that show off."

The lavish period drama ran for two seasons on HBO, which co-produced the series with the BBC. With the final season of "The Sopranos" as its lead-in, the first season was solidly rated. But the show's hefty $100 million production cost presented the network with a tough call on the pickup. HBO opted for a second season to help get more value from its initial investment but not a third, effectively canceling the show in summer 2006 before the second season debuted the following January. The "Rome" sets were destroyed, and the actors were released from their contracts, making the network's decision all but irreversible.

But season 2 of "Rome" was a surprise. Although slightly lower rated than the first, the show did much better than HBO expected without its "Sopranos" lead-in (averaging roughly 6.5 million viewers, nearly the same as "True Blood"). Plus it won awards, which is important to a pay network that attracts subscribers by offering premium programming: Post-cancellation, the first season received four Emmy Awards, and then another seven Emmys were heaped upon the final season.

Suddenly "Rome" was a Greek tragedy: a successful show with no future. The broadcast nets quickly snatched up the show's leads for top fall pilots.

HBO executives have since admitted that axing the show probably was a mistake.

One seeming drawback to revisiting the show after its wrap was the demise of a key lead character, Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd). Yet Heller reveals that the character's off-camera fate was far from fatal.

"It was very deliberate that we saw him drifting away but didn't see him atop a funeral pyre," Heller said.

Following his turn starring in NBC's "Journeyman," McKidd is in a recurring role on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy." Fellow "Rome" star Ray Stevenson, after appearing in CBS' "Babylon Fields" pilot, is now in the upcoming big-screen comic book adaptation of "The Punisher." Polly Walker appeared in CBS' short-lived "Cane" and is now cast in Sci Fi's "Caprica." (Also, James Purefoy is the lead in NBC's ambitious "The Philanthropist" project, but the actor's portrayal of Marc Antony concluded in season two.)

A feature revival of a defunct series always is considered difficult, though HBO succeeded with "Sex and the City," and Fox's "Arrested Development" is making progress toward the big screen.

Heller would not discuss plot ideas, but the original series outline for "Rome" next called for the hedonistic Roman leaders to deal with the rise of a certain problematic rabbi -- a story line that would have put a new Roman-perspective spin on the Greatest Story Ever Told and potentially bring "Rome" a larger audience.

"I discovered halfway through writing the second season the show was going to end," Heller said. "The second was going to end with death of Brutus. Third and fourth season would be set in Egypt. Fifth was going to be the rise of the messiah in Palestine. But because we got the heads-up that the second season would be it, I telescoped the third and fourth season into the second one, which accounts for the blazing speed we go through history near the end. There's certainly more than enough history to go around."

From fark.com

Sliver

2008-11-30T14:42:00.000-08:00

First Photo of Gambit from 'Wolverine'

2008-11-29T10:13:00.000-08:00

Oh You Silly Catholics

2008-11-28T21:13:00.001-08:00

Vatican warns mobile phones are bad for the soul

The Vatican has warned that our obsession with modern technology, such as the internet and mobile phones, is not leaving people enough time for spiritual pursuits.

By Claudine Beaumont
Last Updated: 6:29PM GMT 27 Nov 2008

Pope Benedict XVI is keen to guard against the excesses of modern life

Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope’s spokesman, said that without a spiritual life, people risked losing their souls.

“In the age of the cell phone and the internet it is probably more difficult than before to protect silence and to nourish the interior dimension of life,” Father Lombardi told the Vatican television show Octavia Dies. “It is difficult but necessary.”

“There is an interior and spiritual dimension of life that must be guarded and nourished. If it is not, it can become barren to the point of drying up and, indeed, dying,” he added.

“Today, this is a very grave threat, and it is the most irreparable misfortune.”

The Vatican has long counselled against the excesses of modern life. Last month, Pope Benedict XVI said that the current global financial crisis was proof that the pursuit of money and success is pointless, and that wealth meant nothing.

“Nations once rich in faith and vocations are losing their own identity under the harmful and destructive influence of a certain modern culture,” he told a recent assembly of the Synod.

From the Files of Police Squad -- GTA 4

2008-11-28T20:28:00.000-08:00

Cheech and Chong: Comics return, minus Dave

2008-11-21T10:41:00.000-08:00

Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic

Friday, November 21, 2008

After more than 30 years, those comic poets of dope, Cheech and Chong, have reunited for their Light Up America tour, which arrives this weekend in the Bay Area. We caught up with the pair earlier in the week from a hotel room on the road and started by asking them why they've hit the road again.

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Cheech: We're doing it for the kids.

Chong: The kids are our future.

Cheech: Yeah, the kids are the future, so we're doing it for them.

Chong: And they really appreciate it. Especially the kids that only know Cheech from "Nash Bridges" and me from "That '70s Show." We're doing it for those kids, letting them know who Cheech and Chong is.

Cheech and Chong are back. The stoner Abbott and Costello who substituted "Dave's Not Here" for "Who's on First" have only grown in stature in their absence. Their '70s movies are now considered cult classics, and a new generation of filmmakers pays tribute to the pioneers in films like "Pineapple Express."

Richard "Cheech" Marin, 62, has prospered as a character actor in movies and television. He put together an impressive exhibition of Chicano art that toured the country for several years and manufactures a righteous hot sauce. His partner, Tommy Chong, 70, who has also done some acting (mostly reprising his stoner hippie character) in movies and TV, made his biggest news in recent years with his 2003 arrest and conviction on federal charges of selling drug-related paraphernalia - the Chong Bong - and served nine months in prison. He wrote a book about his prison experience and recently published an account of the duo's history, "Cheech & Chong: The Unauthorized Biography."

They have put aside the difficulties that plagued their personal relations and led to an acrimonious breakup.

Chong: We only get along when we're working. When we weren't working, we never got along.

Cheech: So we decided to work.

Chong: Yeah, so we'd get along. And making money. When you're splitting up nice, big paychecks, it's soothing.

Cheech: Actually, this is for his felony and my alimony, so it's the Felimony tour.

They claim to have even prepared new material for the reunion and subsequent concert film they plan.

Chong: The whole act is brand new. It's really what we did 30 years ago, but no one's ever seen it, including ourselves, so it's all new, new to everybody.

Cheech: We're doing a lot of George Carlin's material, too. Is he going to complain?

They will reprise bits and musical selections from their six best-selling '70s comedy albums, all except one of their most famous pieces.

Chong: We agreed on that - the only thing we're not going to do is "Dave's Not Here."

Cheech: Yeah, because we couldn't sing it in the original key.

Jerry Lewis has nothing on these guys; the French know they, too, are filmic geniuses.

Cheech: There was a theater in Paris, Boite d'Homage, that played "Up in Smoke" every Saturday for, like, 10 years.

Chong: Even longer.

Cheech: Eleven years.

Chong: Every Saturday, midnight show.

Cheech and Chong emerged from '60s underground sensibilities around pot use in the counterculture - Gilbert Shelton cartoons and the like - but they endured into something more lasting, the two-headed Mount Rushmore of all dope comics.

Cheech: Stoner culture transcends every group, just like Cheech and Chong. There's no group that doesn't like Cheech and Chong, whether it's young, old, black, white, Chicano, biker, straight, gay, Republican, Democrat. It's like butter. Everybody likes butter.

Chong: It's like pot, too.

Cheech: Yeah.

Chong: 'Cause pot got into all the culture. When I was in jail, I was invited into all the groups - from the white supremacists who liked cowboy music to the rappers and Arabs - every culture, the Hawaiians. Every culture in prison would have me as their guest of honor when they had going-away dinners for people.

Cheech: We're thinking of starting a religion next.

Chong, in fact, is convinced that their notoriety led to the federal anti-drug task force singling him out for arrest and prosecution.

Chong: They weren't playing when they came after me. They knew exactly what they were doing. A lot of people think I'm blowing it out of proportion, but I think it was like a pre-emptive strike against the anti-war movement because, if you think about it, there was no protest against the war 'cause Bush and his people would clamp down on anything that looked like a protest. The Operation Pipe Dreams was designed just for that.

Cheech: They were looking for weapons of mass destruction and they just found the bong.

Chong: And that was the only weapon of mass destruction they found, too.

But Chong says he now eschews smoking the herb.

Chong: I evolved. When you get older you're slow and stupid naturally. You don't need any help. In fact, it doesn't help. Back in the day when I was younger, I'd do it to slow down. What happens is that it's in my body so much, even the sound of Cheech's voice gets me high. Just body memory. I quit smoking while I was in pretrial probation, during the time I was in jail, and a year after when I was on probation and I kind of got into it. When we started the tour - I'd smoked up to the tour - and then I decided, you know, I didn't want to get surprised at the airport, like having my bag searched and all of a sudden you find a joint that I forgot was there. It wasn't worth it to me. So I just decided not to smoke.

Cheech: A lot of people don't realize that being straight is addictive and once you start, it's a tough habit to break.

Egad. Does that mean Cheech, too, doesn't get high anymore either?

Cheech: F-, no.

A Send Up to the Red Shirt Ensign

2008-11-19T10:08:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Does my ass look dead in this?

Martin Anderson

A short but nonetheless reverent tribute to the utterly doomed wearer of the red shirt in Star Trek…

Paramount are aiming J.J. Abrams' Star Trek at the lucrative popcorn kiddies that are the mainstay of any summer blockbuster, with action, stunts, SFX and SEX. But frankly they could have invented something new and stuck a couple of huge stars in it and not be hamstrung by Trekkers whining about canon. Abrams' Star Trek has a broader phaser bearing, additionally designed to make the crustier geek - like myself - warmly nostalgic.

Therefore it was (sorry to be callous) with some pleasure as well as amusement that I watched the short-lived red-shirt dive to his absolutely inevitable doom at the preview screening of scenes from Star Trek last week.

Back in the days of TOS, killing a character mid-season usually meant that an actor themselves had actually died or - worse - asked for a pay-rise; the bold strategy of developing a regular character only to plan - often more than a series ahead - to kill them off within the course of a multi-year story arc was but a glimmer in the eye of a network that liked to rifle-shuffle its episodes (it was against this sort of background that the death of Spock in 1982's Wrath Of Khan had such impact, even if Paramount spent the following movie reversing it).

Thus Kirk's love-interest of the week (how much action would Kirk have got if all those sexy aliens could have turned to Wikipedia to find out what a 'kiss' is?) was heading for the exit-swish by minute 49, and anyone who died that week would also have been introduced that same episode…Kirk's uncle, McCoy's ex-girlfriend, Spock's mum's neighbour's plumber…the principals were safe; unlike the red-shirted security guards who beamed down on 'away' details, whose lifespan was in the territory of a mayfly.

YouTuber comedy4cast paid a glorious editing tribute to these hapless hunks of phaser-fodder…

Number cruncher Matt Bailey worked out that 72% of fatalities on the Enterprise's original five-year mission were red-shirts (assuming the original three seasons covered that particular time span), and the Star Trek media wiki commemorates the fallen in the complete Trek canon death-count.

So I'd just like to thank J.J. for wasting poor Olson in Star Trek, since it brought back a lot of happy memories, and remind the anxious starfleet WAGs and mums that it is possible to reach a grand dotage in the dreaded colour…

How to Stop Internet Trolls

2008-11-19T09:57:00.000-08:00

1: Avoid Cracked.com
2: Repeat