Because Saying "Blog" Wasn't Awkward Enough

We now have "Splogs". Spam Blogs whose only reason to exist is to generate ad revenue and push my hit counter into the low double digits...

Speaking of Games

The BBC has a couple of crackers at the moment.

The Seven Noble Kinsmen and Death in Sakkara. Old school point and click adventures with the occassional arcadey bit, well, Sakkara is. I'm not so sure about Kinsman as I've not had long enough to go through it, but in both cases they are well-made with great porduction values and compelling, if, perhaps, a little hackneyed, stories.

I first found these through Jay Is Games, of course.

Happy Games Only

UK Resistance are launching a campaign to bring the joy and fun back into gaming. It's called the Blue Sky In Games Campaign and it has some advice to developers on how they can improve their games

• Change everything that's grey into blue.
  
• From now on, everyone wears red shoes.
  
• Make everything happen at midday or sunset.
  
• Replace gun textures with banana textures.
  
• Turn all cars into pink convertibles that wobble and only do 15mph.
  
• If you get 100 of anything, a little tune plays.
  
• Instead of saying "crew" say "your buddies".
  
• Instead of saying "hood" say "zone".
  
• Make the female characters something other than prostitutes.
  
• Make the black characters something other than drug dealers.
  

You know, none of that seems like a bad idea at all. Though I guess it could all get a bit samey after a while. However, the last four suggestions should be taken up immediately.

The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword...

...But shooting someone will really get their attention.

Bolivian writer Edgar Ra-miro Reynaga on Wednesday shot and wounded a street vendor in downtown La Paz after accusing him of selling an illegally printed copy of his book, police said.

Via Bookslut.

Defending Imperial Nudity

Paul Krugman recasts Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Suit" as if it happened today.

Fox News repeatedly played up possible finds of imperial clothing, then buried reports discrediting these stories. Months after the naked procession, a poll found that many of those getting most of their news from Fox believed that the emperor had in fact been clothed.

Imperial officials eventually admitted that they couldn't find any evidence that the suit ever existed, or that there had even been an effort to produce a suit. They insisted, however, that they had found evidence of wardrobe-manufacturing-and-distribution-related program activities.

Odd Moments In Advertising Part 1

I know what this is supposed to be. It's a rip-off of the Shining being used to show the "horror" of petrol prices. Driving past billboards with it on, though, you get a wierd subliminal image that it's about something else entirely... Or maybe it's just that I think everything is about anonymous blow-jobs.

Lesbian Cheerleader Bust Up Follow Up

For those of you who cannot read the phrase "Lesbian Cheerleader" enough times. Susie Bright has a long thoughtful article on the recent Lesbian Cheerleader incident.

Most of the web comments came from horny men who couldn't believe they'd found the mother lode, the actual article of the lesbian cheerleader. They had no concerns about the girls' career... one man said, "if they make a video where they fist each other's mayonnaise jars like there's no tomorrow, they'll be set." He apparently has no idea how little porn models are paid, regardless of their ephemeral fame.

"Mayonnaise jars"?!?

Economists Proved Right!

From Accidental Hedonist comes news of research showing that the price of seafood changes with its availability. They said that they were happy with their findings and are now moving on to the vexatious problem of exactly where bears take a shit.

Actually, it's interesting in that they've used the price of fish to take a guess at that particular fish's abundance, working backwards, I guess. Though they then do go on to denigrate the very people who helped them:

“All this comes from a few crazy people who collected menu cards, but it’s a remarkable resource,” Dr Holm said.

A Thought So Scary You Have To Laugh At It

Slacktivist has an intriguing post on how low Bush's approval rating can concievably go. Based on the premise that he'd have to go round to some Americans' homes and light a cigar with the Declaration of Independence while shooting their dog before they'd admit that, maybe, he wasn't all he's cracked up to be, and they won't be sharing that drink with him after all.

Anyway, Slacktivist borrows this dialogue from the Kung Fu Monkey site:

John: You realize this leads to there being over 30 million crazy people in the US?

Tyrone: Does that seem wrong?

John: ... a bit low, actually.

Probably explains my confusion in the last post, anyway...

Reasons I Don't Understand America Part 1

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders were arrested after a bar dispute that broke out early Sunday after patrons complained the women were having sex in a bathroom stall, a police arrest report said.

So let me get this straight. Someone complained that two cheerleaders were getting it on in the lav? Were the complaints that their video tape had run out? There wasn't a decent place to a real good view? As Bill Hicks once said, after finding out the lesbian sex scenes had been cut from Basic Instinct because they turned the test audience off, "Boy, is my thumb not on the pulse of America".