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Record number of aircraft 'laser events' gives us one more reason to hate LA
Are you that kid aiming his father's laser pointer at people walking along city sidewalks? Yeah, well stop it -- now. What you might consider a harmless prank can have serious repercussions when aimed at the cockpit of an approaching jetliner. What seems like good fun at the time can temporarily blind a pilot attempting to land nearly a million pounds of life, metal, and fuel. According to the numbers just released by the FAA, 2010 saw a record number of reports of lasers pointed at aircraft -- "almost double" the number of reports from 2009. Of the 2,800 incidents reported nationwide, the Los Angeles area reported the most with 201 incidents, followed by Chicago (98), Phoenix (80, half of which were probably UFO related), and San Jose (80 -- nerds!). Top 20 list after the break.
Breakfast Topic: What it's like to have a Spectral Tiger
Cogfizzle of the aptly named Ace of Spades over on the forums recently came across a Spectral Tiger in the TCG, and has an interesting post up about how people are reacting to his new mount. Most of the people who say something to him simply want to know where to get it (which means to us that more people need to read WoW Insider), but there's also an undercurrent of hostility -- some people think that as a TCG item, the Spectral Tiger mount isn't a "real" achievement in the game, compared to, say, a Netherwing mount or a Zul'Aman bear. True, you can (legally) buy the special loot cards from eBay (or win them from WoW Insider, hint hint stay tuned), when you can't buy those other mounts. But Cogfizzle, we presume from what he says, got his the old fashioned way -- by buying and playing the WoW TCG. Can you blame him for that? I'm of the second group he describes -- when I see a rocket mount or a Spectral Tiger ride by, I just give whoever's riding it a nod and go on my way. But are these mounts less impressive because they can be bought, even if they were gained the "right" way? Or are you not "impressed" with rare or tough-to-get rep mounts in general? Ezra Chatterton famously came to us with the news that he was the first with the Pheonix mount, for fear that players in game might give him grief for having it.It's an interesting thought, and of course social quirks like this are why we play this game in the first place. Of course none of you would ever harass anyone in the game (right?) but how do you feel when you see someone ride by on a Spectral Tiger?
Ezra Chatterton suffers a stroke
Some time ago, Blizzard helped Make A Wish fulfill the wish of Ezra Chatteron, young boy with brain cancer, to be a game designer for a day. He was able to design Ahab Wheathoof and his quest, as well as get his character name on an arena crossbow. It's a nice gesture, and good proof that Blizzard does have a heart. Unfortunately, things have not been going so well for Ezra lately, as OC Register reports that he recently suffered a stroke. Micah, Ezra's father, reports that he was doing well up until the stroke, and was enjoying playing around with possible new talent builds for his character in Wrath of the Lich King. He can communicate again, but is plague by pain, vision problems, lethargy, and weakness on his right side. While his outlook is currently grave, both he and his father are hoping that a new round of treatments will work. We here at WoW Insider would like to wish Ezra and his father all the best and a swift recovery, and like Gadgetress, we hope to one day interview him as a developer on a future Blizzard game. If you'd like to send him your own well wishes, you can do so at ephoenix at earthlink dot net.
NASA to hold Phoenix press conference tomorrow, water on the brain?
It's been a while since we've reported about the doings of our robotic friend on Mars, but a press conference tomorrow (Thursday) could uncover Phoenix's first positive report of water on the red planet. NASA's conference will be held at 2 p.m. Eastern Thursday and we're hearing that Phoenix Mission is ready to report that water ice is not only confirmed, but the research robot has dug some ice out of a trench, heated it, and confirmed that it is, in fact water. If this all holds true, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be able to determine whether or not the atmosphere could sustain life and lead to manned missions to Mars. We call shotgun.
First Ashes of Al'ar drop bought for 190k gold in China
MMO Site is reporting that the very (server-- see update) first drop of Ashes of Al'ar (aka Peep the Pheonix mount) has appeared in China, and that it was subsequently bought for 190k gold.You'll have to take this with a grain of salt until we get further confirmation: the epic flying mount is obviously bind-on-pickup, and so it's not like such a thing can just be thrown on the AH for the highest bidder. But it could be that the guild the mount dropped for somehow sold a raid spot, or it could even be that one guildie paid another just so they could have it (someone in my guild did the same thing with Attumen's mount when it dropped, although it was far less than 190k gold).But that is definitely a mind-blowing amount of gold. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether it's legit (by my calculations, it's not-- to collect that much gold, a player would probably have to be running their 10 daily quests for years), and also to decide whether or not it was worth it. Guess he just really, really wanted a mount without feet.Update: Commenter Wisely lives up to his name and wisely contributes some insight: This is not the China-first drop of the mount-- it is the server first on China's Molten Core server. Also, Wisely says that it was an "auction" among guild members-- instead of DKP, they pay gold to the guild. He also claims that for 190k gold, she would have had to have spent about $960 USD, but I'll remind everyone that spending even $1 on gold is against Blizzard's Terms of Use. Rampant or not, that doesn't mean goldselling isn't against the ToU, in China or elsewhere.[Via WoR]
Blizzard banning players in game for forum stupidity?
You may have missed the ruckus on the General forums this weekend-- and if you did, consider yourself lucky. Some idiot (at least we're pretty sure it was just one guy on his many alts) posted a lot of junk on Saturday about a story right here at WoW Insider. We won't bore you with everything they said, but the gist of it is exactly the kind of harassment that Ezra's father was trying to avoid-- players complaining that they weren't cool enough (even with a house that hadn't burnt down, and, you know, their health) to get the epic mount that Ezra did. Yes, it seems Penny Arcade's theory came into effect yet again.Fortunately, it's gone now-- the fever pitch hit on Saturday morning, and it wasn't till early Saturday afternoon that a CM finally showed up on the boards and deleted that junk. We can only suppose that if they had hired someone to take Tseric's place yet, it might have been taken care of sooner.But here's the best part-- while this weekend's incident was far from the first shameful occurrence on the official forums, it might be the first in which a player got penalized not just with a forums ban, but with the loss of an in game account. Iroc says his brother jumped in to make an Ezra troll post this weekend and found his account in game disconnected.Frankly, if anyone deserves it, these losers on Saturday did. But given the way that Blizzard's rep replies in the thread, it doesn't seem likely that they're banning in game for idiocy on the forums just yet-- more likely that Iroc's brother had an unrelated technical problem. Considering the way the forums are, however, it just might be a possibility worth considering.
