JohnEdwards
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'Mortal Kombat X' and the comedy of violence
Mortal Kombat is synonymous with violence -- hell, it's baked into the franchise's name. But despite how increasingly gruesome the series has become with each successive release throughout its 23-year history, it hasn't lost sight of keeping the tone light as a counterbalance. Whether that's a head popping up saying, "Toasty!" in falsetto after a particularly brutal uppercut, or turning an opponent into a crying baby that slips on a puddle of frozen urine at the end of a match, humor is just as intrinsic to the game as its bloodshed. What the series delivers is cartoony, over-the-top violence akin to the B-movie horror of something like Peter Jackson's Dead Alive. Fatalities, Mortal Kombat's signature, end-of-match moves, are shockingly gory, for sure, but somehow developer NetherRealm keeps the game from feeling like torture porn. "We're not out trying to make Saw or a horror film," says NetherRealm Lead Designer John Edwards. "We don't take ourselves too seriously."
Widget Watch: John Edwards Dashboard Widget
Is this the future of politics? Vanity widgets? Former VP candidate John Edwards' campaign has released a widget that provides all the latest headlines from his headquarters. Unfortunately, the widget does not match the man for visual beauty. (Without doubt, Edwards is the single best looking former candidate out there--and I'm including you, Mr. Quayle, in my calculations when I say that. Eight hubba hubbas on a ten hubba scale.) It's kind of clunky. There's too much black text, not enough white space and a poor use of the red, white and blue background which makes it hard to visually scan through the links. Of course, this being a free widget from, you know, a politician, the first thing I did upon downloading it was to open it up and read through the code to make sure it wasn't going to start revealing personal information, signing me up for unwanted spam, creating tinfoil hats in my home folder, and so forth. The widget does none of those things. The code was clean--a simple adaptation of some existing Apple classes. The widget was designed by Ben Kazez, a student at Carleton College majoring in computer science, who has interned at Apple. I tried contacting him to find out the story behind the widget, but he has not yet responded to my e-mail.Thanks Lawrence Sanbourne
Anti-Wal-mart senator tries to get PS3 from... Wal-mart
Former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards is one of the millions of parents across the country who want to secure a PlayStation 3 for their children this holiday season. No surprise there -- what is surprising is that an Edwards staffer tried to secure the system from Wal-mart, a retailer that Edwards has repeatedly targeted for unfair treatment of its employees.Edwards confirmed to the AP that his wife Elizabeth mentioned her desire for the PS3 to a staffer, who then used the senator's name to try to secure a system from a Wal-mart store in Raleigh, NC. Edwards said he and his wife said they were not aware of the staffer's actions and that the staffer feels terrible about his mistake.Wal-mart, for its part, is doing its best to make an issue of the gaffe, accusing Edwards in a statement of trying to jump to the front of the line "while the rest of America's working families are waiting patiently." Strong words, but really, what self-respecting PS3 hopeful wouldn't use a bit of name-dropping if they thought it would help them secure a system on launch day?[Thanks Vinnk]
