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Citizen Evolution concepts tickle our green fancy, freak us out
We've nothing against sustainable living -- in fact, we wholeheartedly support it -- but Wollersberger & Charlesworth's first project is certainly out there. Showcased at the opening of the 'Project Vienna – How to react to a city?' exhibition at MAK Vienna, Citizen Evolution demonstrates four specific service models for humans of the future. From a sophisticated funneling system that gathers pigeon waste and converts it into power for the home to a downright creepy energy gathering apparatus that taps into old coffins, there's a whole lot of far-fetched ideas here that may just morph into reality before we know it. Hit the source link if you're looking to expand your mind on a day when most shut it down.
Poll: Watching Life on Discovery tonight?
We all saw, and loved Planet Earth in its various forms, and now it's time for Life to air on pretty much every Discovery network at 8 p.m. (though interestingly, not HD Theater, which is fine -- we wouldn't want to miss our WRC highlights anyway.) We got an early preview of the first of two episodes that will be airing tonight and it was fantastic. It'll be hard to convince hardcore Attenborough fans to accept any substitute in narration but Oprah does a good job, and there's no doubt that the bar has been raised in the genre of watching animals do incredible things in super slow-mo HD. What was supposed to be just a few minutes preview turned into watching the entire thing, and rewinding just to watch that chameleon part once more turned into a complete second viewing. So, will you be tuning in? %Poll-43230%
Discovery's next epic series Life airs March 21 on seven networks, June 1 on Blu-ray
We've been waiting for the next Planet Earth for quite some time, and the latest contender to the throne is Life. An 11-part series devoted to exploring "the adaptability and diversity of life on Earth" each episode focuses on a different form of life, and of course, does it all in HD. The first two hours will air on Discovery Channel HD; TLC HD; Animal Planet HD; Science Channel HD; Investigation Discovery HD; and Planet Green HD, March 21 at 8 p.m., with two hour installments following each Sunday at 8 only on Discovery Channel HD. Check the video previews embedded after the break for more info on all the new camera technology used to make this series even more beautiful to look at than the last -- but hide your credit card first, the Blu-ray release June 1 is already available for preorders and imagining all that super slow-mo footage in 1080p is definitely too tantalizing for the weak-willed among us.
Nikon CoolPix 'Style' and 'Life' series hands-on
What, it wouldn't be a camera convention without Nikon (and everyone else, for that matter) showing off a basket of new point-and-shoots. We knew what the company was bringing -- selections from its "Style" and "Life" series, as well as the P100 superzoom we covered earlier this week -- and now we've gotten our hands on the L22, S4000, L110, and S8000. There isn't much to say, frankly -- a collection of pocket shooters of various feature sets and various price ranges to cater to various demographics and psychographics. Still, we know you need to get that "fix" when it comes to pictures of gadgets, so let's get on with it, shall we? %Gallery-86322%
All the World's a Stage: Reflections on the passing of a roleplayer's mom
All the World's a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one man in his time plays many roles.Long time readers of "All the World's a Stage" may remember that I wrote an earlier series of three articles, called "WoW is a Work of Art," which I viewed as a kind of launch pad for this column about roleplaying. The first article talked about how when my mom came down with a very serious form of brain cancer, I had to put other things in my life on hold in order to come back to the US and take care of her. I was happy to do this, of course -- it was an honor to be able to be there for my mother when she needed me, but I won't pretend it was very much fun. Cancer is a terrible disease that wreaks havoc on one's body and emotions all in one big punch. Roleplaying in WoW was one of the social activities I could do for fun at that time, a little world I could enjoy without actually having to leave my home and the loved one that I was caring for.Last weekend, the life of my mother was very visibly coming to a close. As the deadline for this column approached, I asked for leave (incidentally the first weekend since almost two years ago with no article in this column), and spent every moment with her I could. She died on Monday afternoon, leaving me an inheritance of countless feelings and thoughts which I shall undoubtedly explore for the rest of my life.Among many other realizations and ideas that have come to mind, I realized that my roleplaying career had come full circle. My decision to play WoW and eventually write about it had begun with my mother's cancer, and now that this cancer had finally taken her life, I wondered, how has this roleplaying contributed to my real life? Has it made me a better person? When I eventually lie on my deathbed as my mother did, will I feel thankful to have roleplayed in WoW the same way my mother felt thankful for all of her experiences in life?
Screen Grabs: Roman Nevikov makes final call on Palm Treo Pro
Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com. Well, what do you know? Yet again, the tech-savvy bunch producing NBC's Life has managed to incorporate a relatively fresh piece of technology into the storyline. For those still waiting to check the season finale on DVR, you may want to skip ahead, but for those who either a) already watched or b) don't ever care to watch, here's the skinny. Roman Nevikov, Charlie's arch enemy, appeared to be tracking his every move on Palm's Treo Pro (minus the branding). 'Course, he also considered using it as a weapon upside Reese's skull, but thankfully no LCDs or QWERTY keyboards were harmed during filming. So sad he'll never get to upgrade to a Pre, ya know?
Screen Grabs: Nikon's D90 nearly an accessory to murder
Screen grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com. One thing's for sure -- the producers of Life sure know how to weave modern day technology into the storyline. Just a few weeks back we saw a Time Capsule with all sorts of sordid evidence, and this week we witnessed a Nikon D90 + SB-600 combo nearly being an accessory to murder. But look, if this thing is good enough to shoot dead people, it's probably good enough to photograph your cousin's bar mitzvah.
Ask a Lore Nerd: Life and Death
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week blogger and columnist Alex Ziebart answers your questions about the lore and history of the World of Warcraft. Ask your questions in the comments section below, and we'll try to answer it in a future edition. Today we're fielding a lot of questions on the Light and the Shadow, and Life and Death. I don't know why, really, that's just how things happened! Trends like that are always fun, like the week or two where we had nothing but dragon questions. It makes picking out themes really easy!Emorich asked... I was under the impression that C'Thun wasn't dead. I thought we simply stopped him. After all, we were attacking one of his eyeballs, hardly a vital organ. Is Kil'Jaeden dead too? I thought we basically just pushed him back through the portal and now he's really pissed.
Conservative Christian site decries Game of Life's 'gay agenda'
Uber-conservative Christian site WorldNetDaily recently published a hard-hitting investigative report into Hasbro's downloadable PC title The Game of Life, an adaptation of a board game created by Milton Bradley in 1860. Their qualm with the game stems from the fact that it allows players to have same-sex marriages. A WND representative elocuted his or her hang-up with a review on the game's hosting site, explaining, "Many sections of society accept this as normative, but many also would consider this too mature a theme for children. Others would consider this downright offensive."According to the WND report, one unnamed "concerned mother" found that the inclusion of same-sex marriages raised questions in her six-year old daughter that she wasn't ready to answer. She posted a similar review containing these concerns, which was quickly deleted by an administrator for being "inappropriate." Her response to this censorship is where the story really jumps the shark -- "I had no idea how insidious they were being with pushing the homosexual agenda," she explained to WND.It's great when parents keep an eye on their youngsters' gaming habits, especially when they play said games with them. We understand a parent not wanting to discuss sexuality with a toddler -- what we don't understand is how the mere inclusion of same-sex marriages in the PC version of Life is the same as endorsing, or insidiously pushing, an "agenda." As WND concedes, even the original Life board game allowed players to bond two same-colored (and similarly gendered) pegs in holy plastic matrimony.[Via GamePolitics]
Screen Grabs: Time Capsule holds all sorts of Life's secrets
Screen grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com. While Reese got grilled and Crews got one step closer to figuring out who stabbed him in the back decades ago, Robert Stark happened upon what Captain Tidwell thought was a small computer. Clearly, someone failed to tip him off on the fact that a Time Capsule isn't in any way a Mac mini. Ah well, at least some gal finally convinced him to get a haircut.
Guildwatch: Leave Tankserious alone
No classier way to /gquit than that, really -- have a power outage in the middle of a raid, and then return just to tell everybody that you're gone forever. Good luck with that whole "life" thing -- tell us how it turns out.Lots more drama, downed, and recruiting news in this week's Guildwatch. Who knows: your guild (or server) might even be in here. Click the link below to find out.
Ezra's father thanks the WoW community for their support
The Orange County Register's Blizzard Blog has posted a message from Micah Chatterton, father of Ezra "Epheonix" Chatterton, who, as we reported yesterday, passed away earlier this week. Micah's pain is tangible, but he says that Ezra loved his life, and the greatest tribute that he or anyone else can pay to Ephoenix is by trying to love life as much as he did. He also thanks the WoW community for their outpouring of support. There's no question that we can be a little silly and raucous at times (which is what makes, as Ezra certainly knew, being around this game so much fun), but when it comes down to it, we are a community, and when one member of the community suffers, we all do.Once again, we pay our condolences, along with all of our readers who posted comments yesterday, to Micah and his family in this time of grief. Definitely give his statement a read -- it's extremely sad to hear about the suffering that Ezra went through, but Micah is exactly right: Ezra's life and the smile he had even when facing a tragedy like this should be an example for us all.Micah also forwarded the message along to us, so we've posted it in full after the break.
Mac 101: Keep your battery happy and healthy
There's a good tip at CreativeBits today on prolonging your battery's life. Specifically, it's about letting it run through "cycles."When your battery is fully charged, be it in your laptop, iPhone or iPod, and you let it run until the device dies, you've used up one cycle. Over time, it will lose its ability to retain a full charge. However, there are simple steps you can take to prolong its life (or draw out its death. However you choose to look at it). The folks at CreativeBits recommend at least one cycle every two weeks.You can also use tools like CoconutBattery and iStatPro to see how many cycles your laptop battery has completed and to monitor its health.For a more thorough look at your laptop's battery check out our article on battery calibration.
HDTV Listings for September 29, 2008
What we're watching tonight: NBC (1080i) has the season premiere of Chuck at 8 p.m., Heroes at 9 p.m. and season premiere of Life at 10 p.m. CBS (1080i) lines up The Big Bang Theory at 8 p.m., followed by How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Worst Week and CSI: Miami ABC (720p) has Dancing with the Stars at 8 p.m. and Boston Legal at 10:01 p.m. Fox (720p) brings Terminator: SCC at 8 p.m. followed by Prison Break CW (1080i) has Gossip Girl at 8 p.m. followed by One Tree Hill ESPN (720p) presents Monday Night Football with Ravens/Steelers at 8:30 p.m. USA (1080i) has WWE: Raw at 9 p.m. Mojo HD (1080i) drops in Pressure Cook at 9 p.m. TNT (1080i) has Raising the Bar at 10 p.m. HBO (1080i) presents Taxi to the Dark Side at 9 p.m.
Metareview: Spore Creatures
With all the current hype surrounding Spore, even ardent DS fanboys such as ourselves have to strain to recall Spore Creatures. It looks like a totally different game to its PC counterpart, and we quite enjoyed it when we went hands-on at GDC '08. So which is it: the sleek, refined alpha member of its species, or a sloppy afterthought of a game, heading for history's rubbish bin? We copied and pasted some other people's thoughts to find out! IGN (78%) gave the game one of its better reviews, praising its sense of fun and creativity: "Spore Creatures isn't intended as a replacement for the core PC Spore experience -- it's meant to compliment that design with a unique experience that lifts many of the core elements. And for the most part it succeeds in that task: this is a fun, involved, albeit more linear DS experience with a few quirks that get in the way, but even with those quirks it's great to experience a game on the more limited handheld with a similar sense of creativity that PC gamers will have in Spore." Eurogamer (5/10) isn't so keen, arguing the game is crippled by its linear nature: "What it doesn't offer is any sort of Free Play option where you can do your own thing. You can indulge your creative desires or you can play the game. You can't really do both at the same time in any satisfying way, which suggests that "linear action adventure" simply wasn't the right direction to take the Spore concept for its handheld outing." GameSpot's (65%) Kevin VanOrd just couldn't emotionally bond with his creations: "It's still a cute adventure across multiple planets, and it features a pared-down version of the creature creation tool that helped make the PC release such a success. It has some annoying quirks, and it won't inspire an emotional connection between you and your digital doppelganger, but Spore Creatures is still a pleasant diversion and an appealing, if ordinary, companion to its bigger brother." %Gallery-15944% This post is a part of our Metareview category, but we also like reviewing things ourselves, and making sure our voice is heard. We're conceited and self-absorbed like that.
Spore Creatures evolves new screens, Japanese release date
In the beginning, there was a confirmation.Shortly thereafter, a release date and gameplay details emerged from the primordial ooze a Newsweek interview, and an involuntary chemical reaction a Joystiq hands-on session soon produced screens. Then, for some time, nothing. Until this morning, that is, when we found that the screens had suddenly multiplied in number, and had inhabited our gallery!The newly developed screens were joined by boxart for the Japanese version of the game, which sort of reminded us of Pokémon Trozei!'s box, and a Japanese release date: September 11th.So goes the ongoing story of the evolution of Spore Creatures.%Gallery-15944%
Player vs. Everything: Why won't you just take a break?
Everyone plays MMOGs at different speeds. Some people spend just a few hours a week playing, and some of us spend altogether far too much time on these games. I submit, for evidence, that 4-hour raids three nights per week is considered a "light raiding schedule" by most raiding standards. That's almost a part-time job, when you count the time you spend farming for mats and doing random other runs on top of that! Still, it doesn't matter how much time you actually spend playing -- anyone can get pretty wrapped up in their favorite game. Even a "casual" player can get to the point where they're just playing because it's what they do, instead of playing because they're having fun. Whether you play for 5 hours each week or 50 hours each week, sometimes it's good to step back, take a breather, and get off the game for a while. Right? It seems so simple, so obvious. "Yes, of course it's good to take a break," you say, nodding along with me. "Just as soon as I get my Tier 9 Sword, Epic Firetruck, and Gleeful Gnome Pet, I'll do that. Though, I should really wait until my Tier 10 Sword and Mega-Epic Firetruck... and then help my guildies get theirs." Meanwhile, there's that nagging feeling in the back of your mind: Is this actually fun?
All the World's a Stage: Writing what you know
All the World's a Stage is a source for roleplaying ideas, commentary, and discussions. It is published every Sunday evening.Many people don't realize it, but every time you put your fingers to the keyboard to spell out some words, that's the same writing skill that authors and poets take years and years to practice and master. Of course there's a big difference between a simple text message and an epic fantasy novel, but any form of writing shares many of the same the fundamental skills - skills which one must then adapt to suit the particular medium you are using to communicate.As a roleplayer, in particular, one can benefit a great deal from many of the basic principles any writer uses when putting their ideas down on paper, especially principles of good communication within a storytelling medium.Today, we'll explore a particular aspect of the writing craft as applied in roleplaying: Writing what you know vs. writing what seems cool.
Draper introduces new FlatScreen Lift to conceal your HDTV
For those still not keen on hanging their flat-panel on the wall, Draper has crafted an all new motorized lift in order to reveal and conceal your HDTV at the press of a button. Designed to handle plasmas / LCDs up to 50-inches and add less than 5-inches to the overall depth, the FSL-F-50 FlatScreen Lift can be built into custom cabinetry and even includes "a unique secondary shelf beneath the display itself, allowing you to attach a matching trim piece to fill the opening left by the open cabinet lid." The unit can reportedly hoist up to 210-pounds and takes just over half a minute to fully deploy with zero weight. Oh, and if this particular model doesn't jive with your current TV, the firm is expected to add two additional sizes in the near future to accommodate smaller displays and units spanning up to 65-inches diagonally.[Via Widescreen Review]
Forum Post of the Day: How did your undead die?
Yeah yeah, lolRP, but even though I'd never seriously do an emote with my character (though I do enjoy /coughing at inappropriate times), I do kind of enjoy thinking of what my characters did before I started playing them in the game. As I've said before, my Orc Shaman was actually a prisoner in Durnholde Keep along with Thrall (and though I've tried to find him among the Orcs down there, I don't look too hard -- wouldn't want to cause a paradox).But for my Undead Rogue, I've never thought about this questions: What did he die of? Whether it was choking on a gnome, one too many enchantments (never knew those could kill you), or the old standby of, y'know, cancer, every Undead character out there used to have a life (and now they just play WoW, ha!). So how'd your Undead lose theirs?I'd like to think mine was something poetic, like his family was murdered by roving noblemen, and he arose from the afterlife and became a backstabbing rogue to avenge his lost ones. But it's probably more pathetic: like most of the Forsaken, he probably just got trampled underneath the onset of the Scourge. Of course, that'll make an appointment with Arthas more interesting...
