Something Worth Saying Over And Over

The Atlantic has an article explaining, in so many words, how America behaved exactly like all those emerging nations it has a tendency to look down on and got themselves in to exactly the same sort of mess that leads countries to ask the IMF to bale them out. Full of good stuff. Especially this little bit:

A whole generation of policy makers has been mesmerized by Wall Street, always and utterly convinced that whatever the banks said was true. [...]

Of course, this was mostly an illusion. Regulators, legislators, and academics almost all assumed that the managers of these banks knew what they were doing. In retrospect, they didn’t.

Of course these bankers who didn't know what they were doing are now trying to convince people that they are the only ones who know the system well enough to dig us out of this mess. Hmmmm.

Tim Schafer: Legend

As part of his eternal self-promotion (and he deserves what ever recogition he gets), Tim Schafer has released a mini Escape the Room type thing in the style of the classic Lucasarts adventures. It's called Host Master and the Conquest of Humor and is worth the ten to twenty minutes of your time it takes to finish it. Fun, funny and rewarding -- all the things an adventure game should be.

Update: I've just got my monthly quota of hits here looking for a walkthrough for the above. I don't want to do that, but I will give some hints.

• The description of each item often has a subtle hint.


• Looking at something after you've used it will occasionally get more information.


• If it's dirty, it probably needs cleaning.


• Some things aren't used to bright light.


• Almost all objects have a different response to the different commands, so just because one doesn't work on something doesn't mean another won't.

PG Porn Again

I'm sure I've linked to this before when they did the first one with Nathan Fillion. They've just done another PG Porn with some guy from TV shows I don't watch, but, as far as I can tell, they are pretty much spot on parodies.

Notes And Such

So I have a fun Saturday coming up. "Team Training" at nine. Cricket at two. Markus' at six to start the Linz gig by nine.

Luckily Sunday is free.

Cricket training was excellent last Sunday. It was nice to have our own space for two hours and not be worried about being moved on by some seventh league football teams' third youth teams trainer. My legs have just about recovered. I was a bit worried, but everyone I've spoken to has been the same. "No pain, no gain" I guess...

Which is all to say, yes I'm v. busy at the moment.

So, here, take a look at this stuff:

• Austrian Cricket Association. An attempt to boost their page rank... CC Steyr's mini page, too.


• Bruce Campbell at the AV Club (from a while ago, but Bruce is always good value).


• Bars of Black & White A minimalist, but well made, escape the room game.


• This Is Why You're Fat Pics of foods that manage to pack far too many calories onto one plate. The gross outweights the droolsome by quite a large margin.


• What Buffy can teach us about difficult levels in games. To be fair (ish) they got it a bit more right with the second game. I remember the first one I need a walkthrough and invincibility to finish. The second one I just needed a walkthrough (mostly because the camera was so bad that at one point there was no way of seeing a certain opening...)


• The Bikeshed Problem Procrastination at its finest.


• Different drummers tendancy to speed up displayed in graph form. I'm not sure this proves any thing, but I found it fascinating.

Nathan Fillion at the AV Club (from a while ago, but Nathan is always good value).

• The Economist: Prohibition has failed; legalisation is the least bad solution


• Smell like The Shat.

Photos From The Unplugged Irish Gig

The Bluesberries in Widescreen.


All solos should be this much fun.



Won't someone please tuck in my shirt.



Beer. Foamy.



You talkin' to me?

Laughin' Len Live

Surely part of the thrill of a current Leonard Cohen concert is whether the 74 year-old might, er, croak while urging us to stuff the last tree that's left up the whole in our culture.

His singing voice actually seems more of a slightly breathless rasp than before, just a touch thinner than I remember, on this NPR cherry picking of his recent concert at The Beacon Theatre, but it certainly suits the songs well.

From The "Don't Give Them Ideas" File

A barely satirical swipe at Ryanair in response to the news that they are considering charging a pound for inflight use of toilets.

Via BoingBoing.