KotOR MMO confirmed, as if everyone didn't already know it.

An EA rep dropped the bomb that the upcoming BioWare developed MMO for LucasArts is, indeed, KotOR. Of course, when news hit that BioWare was working with LucasArts again, everyone immediately suspected a KotOR sequel. When it was announced that it would be an MMO, the frenzy increased drastically.

I know the MMO market is getting clogged, but this is one MMO that I'm glad to see coming about.

Ever since it was announced in 2006, BioWare's massively multiplayer role-playing game has been shrouded in mystery. Though the Canadian developer opened a satellite studio in Austin, Texas, just to develop it, its cofounders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk maintained an iron wall of silence. However, Electronic Arts knew enough about the title to help convince the company to buy BioWare/Pandemic for $860 million last year.

Today, as E3 2008 wound down, the fog hanging around BioWare's MMORPG appears to have dissipated. Less than 72 hours after presiding over EA's own press event--where the project was nowhere to be found--CEO John Riccitiello almost casually revealed the MMORPG in question is a sequel of sorts to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

"We've got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development," Riccitiello told Conde Nast Portfolio magazine. "The first title, based on the Warhammer property, will launch soon. And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about in partnership with Lucas [Arts is] coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry." When contacted by GameSpot, BioWare reps declined to comment further.

BioWare's first Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game was released in 2003 for the original Xbox and PC, and was named the year's top RPG by GameSpot. An Obsidian Entertainment-developed sequel was released in 2004 and 2005 on the same two respective platforms. Both critically acclaimed games are set several thousand years before the events of the Star Wars films, and cast players as adventurers who eventually become powerful Jedi Knights.

Currently, the Knights of the Old Republic MMORPG is set for release sometime in 2009. Once it launches, it is unclear what will happen to LucasArts' current massively multiplayer title, the Sony Online Entertainment-developed Star Wars Galaxies.
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Is greed good?

In essence, greed has killed off all of our food sources in the Chesapeake Bay. Greedy fishermen took more than they should using huge dredging machines to wrench up every possible oyster. Greedy companies sloshed their waste into the Bay to avoid having to properly dispose of it. When oysters got low, the fishermen turned their leering eye towards blue crabs. Now they, too, are almost all gone. A nation of excess finally paying for taking so much and giving so little. Good game, idiots.

It's an anxious summer for watermen harvesting the Chesapeake's best-loved seafood, the blue crab.

The way some see it, the crabbing business here isn't just dying. It's already dead.

Crabs have thrived in the bottom muck of the Chesapeake and its tributaries even as centuries of overfishing harmed oysters, fish and other species in the nation's largest estuary.

Now blue crabs are in trouble, too, and when they go, a way of life is sure to go with them.

"There was a time when crabbers were only out here from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Now, it's about all we have left," says Kellam, 53, steering his 30-year-old rig "Christy" out of the Potomac River and onto the bay for a day of crabbing.

The contradictory decor in the cabin sums up the outlook of today's waterman: a red wooden good-luck horseshoe dangles over a mud-splattered copy of "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook."

The bay's blue crab stock is down 70 percent since 1990 due to overfishing and water pollution, according to Virginia and Maryland fisheries managers.

The states have imposed steep cuts on this year's female crab harvest, aiming to reduce the number of crabs taken by more than a third.

For Kellam and his neighbors in southern Maryland, where the working rigs and crab picking houses that sustained these communities for generations have been replaced by yachts and vacation homes, hopes are dim that the blue crabs will ever come back.

"It's looking worse every year," says Bob McKay, who at 74 is the oldest working waterman in St. Mary's County. He still sells crabs out of a shed in his yard but doubts the industry will live much longer than he does. "I don't know what the solution could be."

Really? Let's see... a few paragraphs up there was, "The bay's blue crab stock is down 70 percent since 1990 due to overfishing and water pollution, according to Virginia and Maryland fisheries managers." Okay, okay. Let me try and figure this one out. Hmm. Okay, I think I got I got it. Stop overfishing and polluting the fucking Bay.

There was a time when Chesapeake watermen made their living off the winter oyster harvest, using hand tongs and later power dredges to supply most of the world's oysters. But disease and over-harvesting nearly wiped out Chesapeake oysters in the 1980s, and despite millions invested in restoration, they've never recovered.

Scientists estimate the Chesapeake now contains about 1 percent of the oysters it once did.

After the oyster industry collapsed, watermen looked to hardy blue crabs to make up the slack. But the next generation may not have another option.

"I want to make a living on the water," says Randy Plummer, a chain-smoking 19-year-old who works on Kellam's crab rig. "But there ain't no future in it. Everybody knows that."

Plummer has wanted to crab since he was a boy, but is instead headed to community college this fall, at the urging of Kellam and his parents.

Even scientists who called for the harvest reductions say overfishing isn't entirely to blame.

The main culprit is water pollution and soil runoff from development throughout a watershed that is home to 10 million people. Excess nutrients wash into the Chesapeake, causing algae blooms and choking the native plant life that crabs rely on for food and habitat. In the summer, large swaths of the Chesapeake contain so little oxygen that scientists call them "dead zones," because few critters can live there.

"It's certainly getting more difficult to make a living on the water," conceded Lynn Fegley, a biologist in charge of crabs for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. But Fegley says the cynicism along the Chesapeake is unfounded. There will always be Chesapeake blue crabs, she says -- as long as watermen lay off them when the stock dips.

"As the watershed gets more crowded, the face of the fishery may change. But people are always going to want seafood, right? It's healthy and it's delicious. What we have to do is find a way to harvest seafood that's sustainable for the future," Fegley says.

But Thomas Courtney, who sells Kellam the alewife fish he uses for bait, laughs when asked whether state efforts to revive blue crabs will bring them back.

"It ain't what we're pulling out of the water. It's what we're putting in the water," says Courtney, 62.

"You've got a cornfield, 20 acres, you put 80 or 90 houses on it, hook 'em up to sewer pipes, put roads and ditches down. That's what's destroyed the bay. It ain't us. They let development take over and then, that's it, we're done."
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So, why are we asking the Feds for money to restore the Bay instead of fining the ever-loving shit out of these companies that are dumping waste into the water? Because greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

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Fuck the children.

Congress is considering legislation to give the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco. And while the bill would ban fruit and candy flavorings, it would allow the continued sale of menthol-flavored brands. That has led to sharp criticism from some smoking control advocates, who argue that menthol lures some people to try cigarettes and helps keep others from trying to quit. The advocates are pressing for an amendment to ban menthol.

But Phelps said that would be a mistake. "We don't believe it's right to ban a particular ingredient because some people prefer the flavor that ingredient provides," he argued.
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So, they want to ban all fruit flavorings and menthol? What about adult smokers who enjoy that? It's not just kids buying this shit, you fucking retards. Stop enacting this nanny-state bullshit because of "the children." Let me get one thing clear: I hate "the children." Not only do I hate "the children" but I, very specifically, hate your children as well. Kids die. It's a fact of life. And, you know what? No, not all life is precious and not all kids are little miracles or gifts from some god. They're little organic, squishy, meat-sacks with an inflated sense of self-importance.

So, if children are attracted to and use something that they are not allowed to have, then why are tame, flavor-heavy liquors not being banned, such as Malibu Rum? What about cheap beer? What about lollipops which probably induce oral fixation that can later lead to smoking? Better yet, why not just fucking ban everything.

Once more, fuck you and your shitty children.

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Feel the Force!

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has been getting a lot of positive reviews. Now it seems to be getting some serious major media attention. Besides looking like a ton of fun to play, Force Unleashed is also a canonical bridge between Star Wars III: Revenge of The Nerds Sith and A New Hope. Unlike either of those movies, Force Unleashed probably won't make fans cringe quite as horrendously since Lucas probably wasn't able to hands-on destroy it.

When LucasArts releases "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" on Sept. 16, the video game will serve as George Lucas' official median between 2005's "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" and 1977's "Star Wars: Episode IV -- A New Hope." In the game, players become Darth Vader's secret apprentice and use The Force to hunt the remaining Jedi.

"Force Unleashed" allows gamers use supercharged Force powers to bust through objects, wield a lightsaber, blast lighting bolts and fling around foes. The game will also change the way fans view "Episode IV" through "Episode VI -- Return of the Jedi," LucasArts project lead Haden Blackman told The Associated Press at the E3 Business and Media Summit.

"There's a couple of big twists and turns in the story," said Blackman. "One revelation in particular really impacts the rest of the saga as a whole. It goes way beyond filling in gaps. We try to make a bridge on every level. The story has a real implications on 'Episode IV.' In some ways, without the apprentice, 'Episode IV' couldn't happen."

Versions of "The Force Unleashed" will be available on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2.
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So, they're making it for the fucking PS2 but no love for the PC? Not that I'm shocked, but I am disappointed.

Force Unleashed vids:

Gameplay footage 1 @ E3


Gameplay footage 2 @ E3


E3 Stage Show Demo


Newest Trailer

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A lot at E3.

Yeah, E3 is very different this year. Gone is a lot of the hoopla and it's now a closed-to-the-public event. Still, a lot of great news has been coming out from it.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

Having successfully developed Quake 4, Raven was also revealed as the developer of id's revival of its seminal first-person shooter franchise Wolfenstein. First teased by id CEO Todd Hollenshead way back in February 2006, the tentatively titled Return to Castle Wolfenstein once again drops players into the role of all-American hero BJ Blazkowicz as he wages a one-man war on the supernatural sect within Nazi Germany's Third Reich.

As for new details, Activision said today that Wolfenstein will be a story-driven shooter that will be presented over the course of interlinked missions. The publisher also noted Wolfenstein will offer "class-based team objective gameplay," and online gamers will be afforded both conventional and supernatural weaponry. It is currently slated to arrive on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.
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EA publishing id's upcoming title, Rage.

Today's Electronic Arts press conference at the E3 Media & Business Summit ended with a shocker. Namely, that id Software had decided not to partner with longtime publisher Activision for its next project, Rage. Instead EA will distribute the game under its EA Partners program, which lets independent developers take advantage of the massive publisher's marketing, sales, and support expertise without having to surrender any sovereignty over their IPs.
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Random stuff from EA event.

[3:32] A totally unassuming Will Wright shambles onto stage in a black T-shirt to talk about Spore, which apparently began with his childhood chemistry set.

[3:33] A slide show describes his fascination with science, up to and including the work of Dr. Frankenstein.

[3:34] He said the goal of Spore is to have science and expression overlap.

[3:35] He said they reason the Spore Creature Creator was released first was to have everyone populate the game with 100,000 creatures in two months. The game now has 1,756,869 species of creature--more than on Earth itself.

[3:36] And that only took 18 days--just 11 more than God, Wright jokes. Ergo, Spore creators are 38 percent of God. Lightly blasphemous laughter ensues.

[3:37] Now slides of various creatures are shown, including all-bone animals, realistic humans, and a giant red living whack-a-mole machine.

[3:38] YouTube now boasts 85,000 Spore videos, including ones from celebrities ranging from David Lynch to...Melissa Joan Hart?!?!?!?

[4:12] Onto the stage walks Greg Zeschuk, co-founder of BioWare, to loud whoops. He's gonna show off the recently renamed Dragon Age: Origins. He says the game is the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate.

[4:13] He says the "origins" refers to the fact both that it's a return to BioWare's roots, but also how the characters will have detailed back stories. "You origins are the lens with which you will see the game."

[4:14] Roll Dragon Age trailer. It shows a very Lord of the Rings-like stand off with Orc-ish monsters attacking a castle.

[4:15] The game's Elf-like hero is assaulted by a minotaur, and then ends the trailer.

[4:15] Looks like the subtitle isn't the only announcement from BioWare. Dragon Age "is coming to the PC and consoles in the future," says Zeschuk.

[4:15] Enter Valve Software's Gabe Newell to display Left 4 Dead, which "will let you feel like you're inside in a horror movie."

[4:16] He says the goal of Left 4 Dead is to combine the social aspect of Counter-Strike and Team Fortress with the narrative of Half-Life 2.
[4:19] The game will have an AI "director" which will change how events unfold in the game depending on how you play the game. Play badly and the game will offer lesser challenges, but also lesser rewards. He shows the difference in the form of a shootout at a gas station. The bad players only face a few zombies, while the skilled players face a whole wave of zombies--and are rewarded by a massive explosion.

[4:20] After showing some detailed character models, Newell says the game is shipping November 4 for the PC and Xbox 360. Cue another trailer--easily the bloodiest yet.
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Dragon Age: Origins E3 2008 trailer

Apogee to return.

In December, 3D Realms shocked the industry by showing, for the first time since 2001, brand-new footage for the long-regarded-vaporware Duke Nukem Forever. While scarcely more than a minute of footage, the teaser indicated that 3D Realms was on the verge of releasing Duke Nukem Forever in 2008. Comments by 3D Realms' George Broussard notwithstanding, a report from the Dallas Business Journal indicates the developer is targeting an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 release, in addition to the PC.

With the Duke's revival assured--dare it be said--it now appears that one more remnant from the past will reemerge. Today, Apogee Software--abandoned by 3D Realms as a publishing label since 1996--announced that it would be relaunching its publishing efforts for smaller-scale development by bringing back a number of games from its legacy catalogue, as well as all-new properties.

Apogee's first project will be a three-episode Duke Nukem Trilogy that it plans to bring to the "handheld market." The trilogy's individual installments will be titled Critical Mass, Chain Reaction, and Proving Grounds. However, Apogee did not elaborate on which specific platforms the games would arrive, when they are expected to hit the market, or if the three titles were part of a single product or part of a trio of releases. Apogee had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

"This marks a new beginning for a famous publisher with a history of market-making innovation," said Apogee chief operating officer and cofounder Terry Nagy. "I can't think of a better character than Duke or a better franchise than the Trilogy to usher in a new era for Apogee."
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Upcoming Golden Axe title for PS3.

Golden Axe's triumphant return to the modern era is largely unchanged from the classic medieval brawler. You still run around with a huge sword, unleash magic attacks and beat up sack-wielding gnomes for goodies. The biggest difference is that cooperative play has been left out entirely; you'll have to slay these dragons alone. We went hands-on with the first level of Golden Axe: Beast Rider today, and it retains the fun, grizzly feel of the original.
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Hands-on with Ghostbusters game.

There was no Stay Puft Marshmallow Man this time, but Terminal Reality and Sierra did stop by to give us a tour of the famous library scene from the original Ghostbusters movie back in 1984. With PKE meter in hand, we got a chance to play the PlayStation 3 version and make our way through the library to trap the pesky ghost while racking up a small fortune in damages. What stood out the most was the detail in the environments that we were exploring and the proton pack--it kind of makes you want to get your own.
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Hands-on with Fable II.

While roaming the E3 showfloor earlier today we noticed that a demo version of Fable II is playable on two of Microsoft's kiosks there. We have an appointment to check out the game with Peter Molyneux tomorrow but we're as eager to play the game as you are so, ahead of what will likely be a more substantial Fable II story 24 hours from now, here's a rundown of what we saw:
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Hands-on with Left 4 Dead.

It's not often you can say you were lucky enough to be caught in a zombie apocalypse, but that's just what happened to us earlier today when we paid a visit to Valve's E3 2008 meeting room. Tucked away from the show floor proper, Valve had four PCs running to give players a chance to test out their co-operative skills in this four-player shooter that uses the Counter Strike Source engine. Although our team of four failed just shy of reaching the salvation, we enjoyed every moment of it.
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Gears of War 2.

The opening cinematic narrated by Marcus Fenix is accompanied by a sweeping view of the world that we will return to in Gears of War 2. Ever since the Game Developers Conference earlier this year, it has been hard not to keep a close watch on this sequel. At the Microsoft Press Event to jump-start E3, design director Cliff Bleszinski and senior producer Jonathan Zamkoff were able to play through a brief but exciting section where the locusts have returned and are now sinking entire cities.




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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II

The yearly E3 convention is traditionally the time and place to reveal exciting new details on upcoming games, so what better venue to take the wraps off of the hard-hitting new intro video for Dawn of War II, the sequel to Relic's fast-paced and violent real-time strategy game based on the classic sci-fi universe? The mighty Space Marines return to battle against the feral Orks and their other rivals in a sequel that will feature impressive destructible terrain and a brand-new single-player campaign in which you'll guide a small squad of soldiers and equip them with piles of loot, not unlike how you'd normally develop an adventuring party in a role-playing game. While you watch the new trailer from Plastic Wax, you can also pick up some new details on the game at E3 in our exclusive interview with producer Mark Noseworthy and lead designer Jonny Ebbert.




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Did Wall Street's greed cause our current economic crisis?

As I listened to Chain of Blame co-author, Paul Muolo, talk about Wall Street's complicity in creating the mortgage crisis that is currently still looming over our heads, I couldn't help but think of Gordon Gekko's infamous words: "greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

The subprime mortgage crisis has led to more than a million home foreclosures and has sent ripples through the world economy. But who is to blame for this situation? According to financial writer Paul Muolo, fingers should be pointing at Wall Street.

Muolo is executive editor of National Mortgage News. He and reporter Mathew Padilla wrote Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis. The book focuses on Angelo Mozilo, founder and CEO of Countrywide Financial, using his story to trace the complicated events that led to the crisis.
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Go to the source above to listen to the NPR Fresh Air segment.

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Blinded with raving!

Some concertgoers lost up to 80 percent of their vision after attending the Aquamarine Music Festival on July 5, the newspaper Kommersant reported.

"It is just a deterioration in the sharpness of the eyesight, not a burn," she was quoted as saying, and said she could not confirm the injuries came from lasers.

"The treatment is not very pleasant. It involves a lot of needles," Grishina said. "But all the patients are in optimistic spirits, and we are hoping for a good result."

According to the reports, concertgoers said the festival's dance floor was covered by a canopy because it was raining. The lasers were pointed horizontally under the tent instead of into the sky, which led to the injuries, the reports said.

"After five or ten minutes on the dance field, I couldn't see anything," a young man in sunglasses identified as a concertgoer said on NTV television. "I could see out of my left eye, but my right eye is all fog."

The broadcast showed video from the festival recorded by cellular phones, one of which appeared to burn out when a laser shone on it.

The festival was held in the Vladimir region east of Moscow. During the summer, techno music enthusiasts often organize open-air raves on empty fields outside Moscow.
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Who's the asshole?

Trouble has been brewing for quite some time between Viacom and Youtube, but it's still not completely over just yet. Viacom has demanded that Youtube give up user data. What Viacom plans on doing with this, I don't know. Many are wondering. Will Viacom try and go RIAA on those users and sue them? Your guess is as good as mine. The best part is, a judge who probably doesn't know jack-shit about IT or about internet privacy concerns has ordered Youtube to give these records to Viacom, saying that privacy concerns are minimal at best. I'm sure I could track down some people with an IP addy and a list of searches as well as other contextual information.

he video-sharing site YouTube will be allowed to mask the identities of individual users when it provides viewership records to Viacom Inc. and other copyright holders behind a $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit.

YouTube disclosed late Monday that it would substitute user IDs, Internet addresses and other identifiers before submitting the database to Viacom as required under a July 1 court order widely criticized by privacy activists.

"We remain committed to protecting your privacy and we'll continue to fight for your right to share and broadcast your work on YouTube," the company said in a blog posting.

U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton had dismissed privacy concerns as speculative in authorizing full access to the YouTube logs after Viacom and other plaintiffs argued that they need the data to show whether their copyright-protected videos are more heavily watched than amateur clips.

Lawyers for Viacom and the other plantiffs signed an agreement with YouTube on Monday saying they would accept measures to help YouTube preserve the anonymity of the records. Under the agreement, YouTube can swap the identifiers with other values under a protocol that YouTube has a week to propose.

The new values will still have to let the plaintiffs determine which individual watched which clip and when, but they will mask cases where an existing identifier contains personally identifiable information — such as first initial and full last name in a user ID.

In limited circumstances, it may still be possible to track records to a specific individual based on that person's viewing habits, as Time Warner Inc.'s AOL discovered when it released to academic researchers some 19 million search requests made over three months. AOL substituted numeric IDs for the subscribers' real user names, yet the items searched produced enough clues to track down some of the users and identify them by name.
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Fortunately, Viacom has avoided a major PR backlash by allowing Youtube to anonymize user data that it is ordered to hand over. But who is the asshole in this? Is it Youtube for agreeing to give up the data? They were forced to by a court order, so there's not much wiggle room. Viacom requested it, are they the assholes? What about the judge that dismissed any and all privacy concerns? I think it's a bit too early to tell. What is worrisome is what Viacom plans to do with the data. Hopefully, they will use the data for this case, and this case only, then properly destroy it. If Viacom gets any crazy ideas of going after individual users, they can expect a major resistance and alot of anger coming their way.

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All-American piss-swill is now Belgian piss-swill.

Some might be crying over this, but to me it's no big deal. When Bass was sold to Interbrew (which is now part of InBev) it went straight down the shitter. The subtleties of the malt bill that made Bass such a wonderful ale to drink at just below room temperature were entirely gone. Now it's hard to stomach a Bass at proper temp or even at ultra-cold temps that companies suggest their shitty beers are best served at. Bass tastes like Coors. What's the point in paying more for an import of a shitty beer whose doppelganger is brewed domestically? (Bass, although owned by InBev, is actually contract brewed by Coors)

Budweiser won't get any worse or any better because it was bought by InBev. It'll still be the rice-heavy bastard-child of pilsner lagers that was solely engineered to make beer using the shittiest, cheapest ingredients possible. The Anheuser-Busch breweries won't close down because it wouldn't make sense for InBev to try and import Budweiser. All this buyout means is the cash flow has changed hands. Other than that, the shitty, bastardized German-based lagered pilsner that was created for women-folk to drink during Oktoberfest will continue to be the beer of choice for numerous American men at various sporting events and will continue to be heralded by the clueless as a "real man's beer."

For details on the merger as well as a list of the more well-known (in the USA) InBev brands, click the jump.

Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev has purchased St. Louis based Anheuser-Busch in a $52 billion takeover creating the world's largest brewer in St. Louis on July 14, 2008. The takeover from InBev began in May and concluded on July 13, 2008, after the Anheuser-Busch board of directors agreed on a $70 a share in cash. The new company will have net sales of $36 billion a year, offering consumers about 300 brands. InBev chief executive Carlos Brito, 48, is known for cutting costs, and will head the new company, called Anheuser-Busch InBev. Pictured is a brew kettle at the Anheuser-Busch World Headquarters building in south St. Louis on July 14, 2008. (UPI Photo/Bill Greenblatt)
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Bass (United Kingdom)
Beck's (Germany)
Boddingtons (United Kingdom)
Hoegaarden (Belgium)
Labatt Family (Canada)
Leffe (Global)
Löwenbräu (Germany)
Spaten (Germany)
St. Pauli Girl (USA)
Stella Artois (Global)
Tennent's (United Kingdom)

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Beat this, Country Bear Jamboree!

Penny Arcade is fucking awesome. Without it, I may very well have missed this incredibly awesome video.




You can read the original post at Penny Arcade if you want. There's some other links, including how The Rock-afire Explosion got started.

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Dinosaurs? That's not scinece. Now, the bible says...

Some things in life are just too funny and strange to make up. I was searching Google Video for Alton Brown's ceramic smoker episode (brilliant idea, btw). Somehow, through the divine grace of Google, my search of alton brown ceramic yielded the truth from the words of Ken Hovind. At first, I wasn't sure what to make of Eric's kind and disarming demeanor. Was this some sort of joke? Then, like sweet drops of honeydew, Hovind's words began to settle upon my fragile little mind. Was I being charmed by some sort of internet video Pied Piper? Fortunately, I found his Wikipedia page, and we all know, Wikipedia is "serious fucking business™." What followed was pure intrigue. I never knew the bible contained so much science! Furthermore, I found out that there is a "scientific" field that is, according to the Great Wiki, "the search for living examples of animals taxonomically identified through fossil records, but which are believed to be extinct" and "the search for animals that fall outside of taxonomic records due to a lack of empirical evidence, but for which anecdotal evidence exists in the form of myths, legends, or undocumented sightings."

Obviously, someone with a scientific background based on hunting for leprechauns and Bigfoot has immense credibility and is not something to be taken lightly. Go ahead, take the jump and watch and listen as Kent Hovind, cryptozoologist extraordinaire, unleashes his rambling missive of superior biblioscientificalitical analysis upon you. Of course, some of the things aren't fully covered in here, you have buy DVD 6 for that.




For shits and giggles, I made this a few nights ago.

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A Guild divided.

Wow... So, this apparently happened a little while ago. Guild Wars has separated it's skills changes into PvE (player vs environment) and PvP (player vs player). To those who know nothing about Guild Wars, let me explain.

Guild Wars has a level cap of 20. It is pretty easy to get to level 20, but that's not where you truly gain your power. You gain your power from skills. And there are a lot of them. The best way to think of these skills is like a card game. You get skills from quests, buying them, and by buying "capture signets" that allow you to get skills from dead bosses. This is also how you get Elite skills, which are very powerful. Think of this as adding a card to your deck.

Unlike Wow and many other MMOs, you can only equip eight skills at one time. Think of this as the cards in your hand. When you are in towns and outposts, you are surrounded by your peers. Here you buy, sell, chat, celebrate holidays, join into parties to do missions, farm, quests, and whatever else. As soon as you leave these areas, you are in an "instance" where only your party exists. So it is now the party versus the monsters and you can no longer swap out cards, you can only play the cards in your hand. You are limited to only equipping one Elite card before you leave a town.

Now that I explained it, and hopefully I made it clear enough to understand, I will no longer refer skills as cards.

Previously, these skill balance were an ongoing trial and error process. Some skills were introduced to overcome extremely powerful monsters and bosses. The problem was that these skills were exploited by players in PvP to unfairly quash their opponents. This is a severe problem because PvP isn't just for shits and giggles. Well, not to some people. There are tournaments, both regional (North America, Korea, etc) and national where people earnestly compete for virtual and real world prizes, which includes money.

Naturally, this made things difficult. Skill changes affected the entire game. By separating the skill changes into PvP and PvE changes, you can now have skills more tailored to how they should be in the different game modes. This means that if a skill is slightly over powered, that's okay to leave it in PvE, but maybe tweak it to be more balanced in PvP. It also means that nerfs for either perspective of gameplay do not adversely affect the other.

The common complaint seems to be, "oh noes! Now I have to read more about teh Guild Wars!" If this is best people can come up with to complain about, then praise Ao. Yeah, I admit it is going to be a pain for those of us that do both PvP and PvE to remember what skills do what and so on, but the nice thing is that PvE can work towards getting locked in while PvP can still be kept fresh via various tweaks. I see this as an absolute win/win situation. Besides, you can save skill sets on templates. The complaint of it being harder to keep up with skill changes is relevant, but considering the great gain in gameplay, is entirely forgivable. Also, isn't this how Guild Wars 2 is purported to work?

GG ANet. GG.

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Limbo of the Lost: is this some kind of joke?

In case you haven't heard, adventure game Limbo of the Lost is in a bit of trouble. Their publisher has dropped the game after it was found that Majestic Studio's game contained a bevy of stolen resources. These resources include, but are not limited to Crysis, Oblivion IV, Oblivion III, Unreal Tournament 2003, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Painkiller, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Black & White, Thief: Deadly Shadows, WoW, Diablo 2, Lord of the Rings, and a few others. And that's just stuff that people have been able to pick out over the past few days since this story broke.

Hit the jump for links to pics.

Gameplasma.com
Gamespot forums
Shacknews

I can't think of a better way to kill your career than by stealing assets from a bunch of extremely popular and well known titles. I don't know how long those developers thought they could get away with this, but they did manage to get away with it for quite some time. The game has been available since November 2007 in Japan.

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Does weighing airline passengers make sense?

Much of this ties into exactly what in said in my "Even an idiot has his day" editorial. Does that small amount of weight add up to create a fuel-wasting money sink for airlines? If one uses simple logic and reason, probably not. My guess is that this is a ploy by airlines to get more money. If you have a 747 at full capacity with 400 passengers who are all 30 pounds overweight, that adds 12,000 pounds of extra weight. That might seem significant, but when the vehicle itself weighs somewhere around 400,000 pounds, that means that the extra weight added amounts to roughly 1/35th at optional takeoff weight and 1/80th at maximum takeoff. A 747 has a maximum takeoff weight of between 780,000 - 970,000 pounds and an optional takeoff weight at 400,000 pounds, plus or minus a few pounds depending on the model.

Of course, you have idiotic shits like Daniel Hamermesh (of freakanomics fame) saying that charging passengers by weight makes perfect sense. Well no shit it makes sense from an economic standpoint, it means more money. Duh! But does the science support it? Not really. Slowing down your airspeed does make sense, as you exponentially use more fuel per second to run engines at higher and higher speeds. But the addition of 1/35th to 1/80th is such an insignificant amount of weight that the difference can only be described as negligible at best. We're talking about pennies on the dollar here, folks. Now, if it was 1/16th to 1/40th (meaning that each passenger is 60 pounds overweight), then that might be a problem, but such a scenario is highly unlikely. You should also keep in mind that these figures are assuming that every single one of the 400 passengers is overweight. Furthermore, what if you are simply tall? I'm 6'3" and I weigh about 190 pounds, which is average for my height. Are you trying to tell me I will have to pay more because I'm taller? Even though it is the airlines that have shrunk the size of the seats to cram more passengers on there in the first place? I'm sorry, but that's bullshit. Especially since none of the tests to find ideal weight are anywhere near correct. (according to several, I should weight 165-170 pounds. at that weight, I would be emaciated)

I've got a much better idea. We take the CEO pay for these airlines and reduce it $40,000 a year. This is on par with what most firefighters and teachers make, let alone pilots. Considering these CEOs can't seem to keep their fucking business afloat without government bailouts, these CEOs should not be able to reap big bucks until they can finally get their business straight.

GORDON GEKKO: "Greed for lack of a better word - is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit."

BILL MOYERS: Gordon Gekko's words were ringing in my ears the other day as Northwest Airlines emerged from bankruptcy.

After 20 months of restructuring the company, CEO Doug Steenland rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange.

DOUG STEENLAND: The best way to secure job security, the best way to secure security of your pensions and the best way to increase standards of living is for the airline to be very successful and profitable."

BILL MOYERS: And if you feather your own nest in the process---more power to you. On top of Steenland's salary, reported at half a million dollars or more last year, he will get a total compensation package of $26.6 million in stock.

That's $5.8 million in stock options and $20.8 million worth of restricted stock that will vest over the next four years. And his official next-of-kin — the company's four Executive Vice Presidents - were offered more than 10 million dollars each, on top of their salaries, if they stay on for four years.

Oh, yes, Gary Wilson, the outgoing chairman — who already has $21 million dollars from stock he cashed in just before the bankruptcy — will get a two million-dollar good-bye gift plus medical and dental insurance for life — that's right — for life.

As for the folks who merely fly the planes, fix the engines, and serve those meals — I mean, snacks — well, they took pay cuts of 20 to 40 percent, as well as curtailed medical benefits, fewer days off and frozen pensions.

JUDITH FISHER, FLIGHT ATTENDANT: When you have veteran employees that have given a lifetime of commitment to service and good employment to this employer. It made me really really angry. Very sick to my stomach when I my pension has been cut and frozen.

BILL MOYERS: No wonder Northwest pilots, flight attendants and machinists were out in protest on the steps of the Minnesota state capitol last week.

To keep the airline aloft, pilots increased their working hours by as much as 20 percent while taking a pay cut of 40 percent.

PROTESTORS: We built these airlines, we built this company. Let's take it back today.

BILL MOYERS: To make ends meet, pilot Ron Hay has to sell his house and move his family back to his wife's hometown in Texas.

RON HAY, NORTHWEST PILOT: Our CEO's $26.6 million is one complete annual payment to our pension fund. Our pension fund could be one more step closer to whole. The $25 million is probably in excess any funds needed to bring us back down to a medical benefit that we wouldn't have to pay anything.
- Source

video of the excerpt above

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Even an idiot has his day.

I don't really like Kanye West. Why? A myriad of reasons. Quite a few of the directly correlate with why I no longer look or listen to Mos Def with a modicum of respect. Kanye West has repeatedly shown himself to be a pompous, egotistical blowhard, trumpeting himself as masterful, and already worthy of great annals of history. I also lose a bit of respect for him because his writing is simply atrocious. I'm sorry, but I cannot take anyone seriously whose sentence structure is punctuated with 2's. It looks sloppy and simply unprofessional. Besides, how hard is it to write "to" instead? Also, there's the little matter that Kanye believes the government gave Africans AIDS so they could steal their diamonds. This coming from a man encrusted in diamonds.

As for Mos Def, hearing him state on Real Time With Bill Maher that the brutality and murder of those who refused to convert during the Muslim conquests after Mohamed's death was "a very convenient revision of history," really lowered my opinion of him. I know Mos Def is Muslim, and that's fine, but to blatantly selectively ignore history like that is insane. It's idiotic. It's refusing reality, just like Holocaust deniers. To top things off, Mos Def does not believe that Al Qaeda was responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

But this is all just bullshit, right? So what if two very prominent musicians are kinda nutty and believe in mumbo jumbo conspiracy bullshit, right? Musicians are pretty well known for being eccentric and kind of kooky and say dumb shit all the time. Like Alicia Keys saying that gangsta rap is a government ploy to get blacks to kill each other. (never mind the fact that most of the government was trying to ban it for years) Apparently Mos Def, Kanye, and Keys aren't alone in their conspiracy theorizing and selective information alternate reality. A poll done in 2006 showed that slightly over 1/3 of the 1,000+ asked people believed, in some varying degree, that 9/11 was a conspiracy.

Personally, I find this to be appalling. That means, if we use that poll as a national view, that 1/3 of the population is delusional. The cornerstone of all variety of 9/11 conspiracies involve selective information, incorrect information, lies and distortions. This is also what is used to illustrate evolution is a falsehood. Some of of Darwin's theories were wrong, (survival of the fittest, for example) but the over-arching premise was correct. Animals do mutate and change, resulting in a slow progression of new species. I have heard many times, "if evolution is true, then shouldn't there be tons of new animals popping up all of the time?" What? Why? From where? That's not how evolution works. These straw man arguments presume an untrue facet of evolution in order to discredit it. That's not being rational and, furthermore, that's not being intelligent. Let alone "smart."

This is fine and well if this was just opinions on a subject, but it's not. These are ideas that fundamentally shape your world view. Rejection of evolution means a rejection of the core understanding of biology. Believe it or not, but there has never been a single peer-reviewed article published in any scientific journal denouncing evolution or promoting intelligent design. This is a fact. To say otherwise is to lie. It is to invent the truth to serve a purpose. It is a removal from reality in an attempt to create your own.

So why do these conspiracies and myths float around, and why do so many people believe them? Because people are not informed. They are not intelligent. They do bother to learn or understand the world around them. It's like the game "Telephone," where a phrase is whispered from person to person and it slowly evolves into something drastically different. Except this isn't just gossip. It's not about the neighbor's affair or about Angelina's babies. (all 2.6 million of them) It's about understanding fundamental aspects of out life. It's like understanding that the Earth rotates around the sun and that it spins on an axial tilt. You can choose not to believe that, but that is the case. It's a fact and is true whether you want to believe it or not.

I was quite relieved when I saw Jon Stewart's interview with Rick Shenkman, the author of Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter. No one wants to think that they are dumb, but when 70-some percent of Americans thought that Saddam was behind 9/11 in the months prior to invading Iraq, and I bet a large chunk continue to think so, that is a good example of our collective idiocy causing real world problems. When people take untrue information and construct a fantasy world, especially when this is done en masse, then you have a nation that refuses to accept or admit reality. If roughly 3/4 of the population is completely delusional and unwilling or uncaring to educate themselves on important information pertaining to the world they live in, one has to wonder, "what the fuck is wrong with us as a society?" We have information at our fucking fingertips! How the shit do you think I composed this? Perhaps the scariest in all of this is that it is reasonable to assume that portions of these delusional, unwilling to self educate people run important parts of our lives, including government functions. Apparently a decent number of them work in the entertainment industry.

Another popular conspiracy seems to be the more mundane "Bush lied" conspiracy, which doesn't hold up either. Want to know the truth? The CIA was duped by a cab driver. Seriously, that's what happened. The CIA, for whatever reason, thought Rafid Ahmed Alwan's stories to be credible. Bush used this information to make a case to go to war. The American people were a bunch of idiots and unable to properly digest any of the information, supported the war, and so we invaded Iraq. Even the Rockefeller report (which was touted as proof that bush lied) says that all the information the President used was substantiated. Bush didn't even have to lie. So many people were so fucking stupid that they let Bush and company do it. So many were uninformed, ill-informed, and just outright complete idiots that they didn't even need to hear Bush's reasons for war, the American people had already conjured up their own delusional reasons to go to war: Saddam was the mastermind behind 9/11.

To be fair, I don't think everyone is stupid, but it worries me when I see that, potentially, 1/3 of the population has eschewed critical thinking for . The 9/11 Truth movement isn't interested in finding the truth. They are interested in validating their version of the truth, which is exactly the problem. No matter how many people believe in a 9/11 conspiracy, it does not make it true. No matter how much people want to believe that Bush deliberately lied to go to war with Iraq, the facts simply do not support such a claim. You cannot cherry-pick information and create your own reality. To do so is delusional. To do so is to ignore the reality of the world around around you. And when the confederacy of dunces is backed by a veritable mass of dunces, suddenly the inmates are running the asylum.



Makers of the Loose Change 9/11 conspiracy video
Vs.
journalists from Popular Mechanics.
the debate starts around the 17min mark

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Jack Thompson's epic faliure.

Things have finally come to a head for Mr. Thompson, the anti-gaming right wing loony attorney from Florida. Thompson's disbarment has been on the plate for a while now. Thompson has been facing disbarment for 31 (!) various infractions of misconduct. Though I don't think his harassing email to the mother of Strauss Zelnick, Take Two's chairman, is one of them.

After finding him responsible for 27 separate instances of professional misconduct, the Florida Bar has requested that controversial Miami attorney and anti-gaming activist Jack Thompson be disbarred for 10 years, reports GamePolitics.
- Source

And what exactly do those 27 guilty verdicts pertain to?

Among the Florida Bar offenses for which Judge Tunis has recommended a guilty verdict:

* Knowingly making a false statement of material fact or law to a tribunal
* Knowingly disobeying an obligation under the rules of a tribunal
* Communicating the merits of the case with a judge before whom the proceeding is pending
* Using means that have no purpose other than to embarrass, delay or burden a third person
* Engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation
* Engaging in conduct in connection with the practice of law that is prejudicial to the administration of justice, including to knowingly or through callous indifference disparage or humiliate litigants or other lawyers
* Making statements that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to the truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge
- Source

Thompson also handed in a 14 page 4,500 word "objection" after he was denied the ability to verbalize his rambling tirade. He then stomped his feet, called the Florida bar fascists, called the presiding judge arrogant and incompetent and probably said some other stupid shit too. If one takes the time to read Thompson's rambling, delusional "objection," you quickly realize just how fucking nuts the guy is. Especially when you get to the part where he compares himself to Jesus and John The Baptist.

Before walking out of the courtroom, Thompson filed what he called "Thompson's Formal Objection to June 4 Sanctions Hearing." In the rambling, 4,500-word objection, Thompson questioned Tunis' ability to preside at his hearing, calling her incompetent and arrogant and threatening to have her removed from office "in the days and weeks ahead." He also went on to call the people run The Florida Bar fascists and denied that he was involved some sort of "petty culture war."
- Source

You can go to the above quoted source (kotaku.com) to read Jack Thompson's lengthy letter.

If all of this still doesn't convince you Thompson is crazy...

Thompson had alleged in his lawsuit that The Florida Bar has participated in a civil conspiracy, collaborating with complainants who have filed SLAPP bar complaints against him to shut him up.

The Bar claims that Thompson had violated an order not to send a circuit court judge any letters or emails relating to a November 2005 case involving the death of two police officers. The Bar claims Thompson violated the order more than 30 times but no contempt charges were filed against Thompson.

The complaint also alleges that Thompson has sent strong and accusatory letters and e-mails to several lawyers including Miami attorney Alberto Cardenas, lawyers with the Philadelphia law form of Blank Rome and Judge James Moore of Fayette County, Ala.

One of the counts against Thompson is for his letter to Cardenas accusing him of “distribution of pornography to children”.
- Source

It's still too early to say goodbye to Jack just yet, as Thompson still has motions filed against the Florida Bar and against the Florida Supreme Court. However, once these machinations begin to peter out he will be left with nothing until his 10-year disbarment is up. Perhaps that's what he plans. To have his other asinine motions go on and on until he is allowed to reapply to the bar.

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George Will Fucks Colbert up, left, right and every way.

No, that this should not be much of a surprise, though I would think Will would smear a smile every now and then. Perhaps this is just wishful thinking, as I've never seen George Will smile. Ever. And maybe he won't. Ever. Still, the man is a stalwart of conservatism. And I don't mean that stupid bullshit "I'm one of you!" crap that GW did so well. Nor do I mean that stupid bullshit "I'm one of you" that Reagan ran on. Nor do I mean that "I'm not Jimmy Carter" that Nixon ran on.

No, George Will channels the era of Buckley Jr., but without the warm-hearted cheer and semblance of friendly and lively debate. George Will's counterpoints crack like a whip across his opponent's words. Unless you agree with him you are wrong and he simply not interested in any attempt to sway his belief structure. Normally, Colbert can squeeze a juicy bit from any sour lemon, but not so with Will. Instead, Will counters with blank-faceted one liners. Surely, someone whom espoused analytical thought would be open to interpretation? Not so, and that is what Colbert faced. The essence of the "unapologetic, mean-spirited, asshole that is absolutely correct, and you know it" pundit. One might take that as a derogatory view of Will, but I view it as exactly Will's strength. George Will is not a cuddly conservative of comfort. He is coldly assertive. He is not your buddy, he is your better, and he will make sure to remind you of that.

Many consider Limbaugh to be the bastion of Modern conservatism. Limbaugh wishes he could be even remotely resemble Will. For Colbert to think he could tear down something like Will is sheer insanity and Will proved that. You cannot embarrass or upset that which has no doubt nor humility.

Yet, with all of the appeal of a steel wall and the bravado of a hydrogen bomb, George Will stood against the mock-centric machine known as Stephen Colbert and not only escaped unmarred, but completely unscathed. Not only did George Will run Colbert down, but he made a very good statement for his cause, despite Colbert's best efforts. All of which proved that not only is George Will a formidable opponent, but that the GOP has much deeper and better intellectual minds than the barren shit-waste that comprises of Hannity, O'Reilly, Levin, Limbaugh, Savage, Boortz, ad nauseam.

Why stop at Will? Surely Frank Luntz would love to come back onto the Report.

George Will on Colbert Report:



Nothing After The Jump

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Slow news days...

I've been delving into Neverwinter Nights 2's toolset recently and I'm very happy with the updates they've done to it. It's tremendously much more useful now, especially with the undo function. One-shot conversations don't need you to set condition and action scripts, but the lack of a script wizard means you have to write out simple scripts. Or you can use Lilac Soul's script generator. Area design takes a bit longer than with NWN1, but the trade off of having to bake the walkmesh and texture the levels for the amount of creative freedom is totally worth it.

The past few days seem to have been pretty slow for news. You can tell when...

"Overweight nude to set art world record" is a big news item. I have been hearing a lot of positive things about Boom Blox. The Penny Arcade boys seemed to be all about it. Clinton is reported to have won West Virginia, which shows that West Virginia is a bunch of idiots if they think Hillary will actually be able to do anything at all about oil prices. (Hint: it's the weak dollar, surging demand, weak supply, and our unwillingness to use our own oil) Al Sharpton's being investigated for tax fraud in the tune of millions. Oh, and Man U won the Barclay Premiership. Fuck you, Man U.

Other than that, it seems like the same old, same old.

The Army's living conditions are deplorable shitholes (that's why you don't private contract that shit, those troops deserve better), Palestine and Israel are still fighting, the Pope is still railing against sex and contraceptives, DMX is an asshole, O.J did it (he wrote a fucking book about it. we already know he did it), people can't stop talking about their fucking Blackberrys[1][2], and a mother in Kansas City was arrested for having her 12 year old daughter trained to be a dominatrix.

Yep. Just the same old, same old.

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Stupid people should be responsible for stupid pets.

This is a great example of how some people can be absolute unreasonable idiots when it comes to their pets.

Jeffery Ely was driving on the night of Jan. 4 when Fester, a miniature pinscher, squeezed past owner Nikki Munthe as she was letting in her other dog and ran out onto the road. Ely's car struck Fester, killing the 13-pound dog instantly.

Now Ely is suing the Munthes for about $1,100 for damage to his car, time he had to take off from his two jobs to get the car repaired, and court fees.

Pieces of the bumper were propelled into the radiator when it hit the dog, Ely said, necessitating a replacement. Ely maintains he didn't have problems driving until after the accident and that the radiator issues were not pre-existing.

Yeah, okay. That sucks. The people lost their dog and now this guy is trying to get money out of them. However, he's not being extravagant. He's trying to replace the parts of his car that were damaged because this dog ran out in front of his car. It's not like he's suing for $10,000 or a million or anything. This seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Ely said he feels sorry for the Munthes' loss but, as a dog owner himself, feels that they must be responsible for their pets' actions.

"I have complete compassion for them," Ely said. "I know how it feels. I love dogs. But once you get them, they are your responsibility."

Munthe said she has always been worried about the busy road the family lives on.

"We would have never let him off-leash because we're so terrified of this road," she said.

Then why did you? Better yet, why didn't you build a fence? Or maybe, you know, discipline your fucking dog to not run out into traffic and endanger people's lives?

The Munthes have filed a $2,400 countersuit against Ely for the cost to buy Fester, the time they had to take off work for court appearances, and the cost of buying a dog to replace Fester.
- Source

Now that's where it gets fucking stupid. Counter suing? On what claims? That it was the driver's fault your stupidfucking mutt ran out into traffic and got hit? I suppose the driver should have known that there was a dumb bitch with a retarded mongrel living there and slowed to a crawl. Once again, it sucks that this lady lost her dog, but she is responsible for her pet's actions. She obviously made no attempts to restrict the dog's access to the road via fence or some other method (electric fence) and she obviously didn't bother to train the dog not to run out into traffic. Some people are so ludicrously idiotic when it comes to their pets.

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Net Neutrality

This is important. Read up, write your congressional representative.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday introduced legislation that would bar network providers from discriminating against some Internet content.

Committee chairman John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan, said the bill he and California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren had introduced would require U.S. broadband providers to operate their networks "in a reasonable and nondiscriminatory manner so that all content, applications and services are treated the same and have an equal opportunity to reach consumers."

"If we allow companies with monopoly or duopoly power to control how the Internet operates, network providers could have the power to choose what content is available," Conyers said in a statement.

Verizon spokesman David Fish responded in a statement, saying such a bill would be a "tough sell" in Congress.

"Broadband deployment is a bright spot in the U.S. economy that provides high paying jobs, unprecedented infrastructure investment, and innovation. Why would Congress want to jeopardize all that with this bill?" Fish said.

At issue is the so-called "network neutrality" controversy that pits open-Internet advocates against some service providers, who say they need to take reasonable steps to manage ever-growing traffic on their networks.

Some of network neutrality complaints have centered on charges that broadband companies were engaged in anti-competitive conduct, while others involved charges of political censorship.

The net neutrality issue has been spotlighted by a series of incidents in which network operators, such as Comcast and Verizon, were accused of hindering certain online data moving over their networks, such as file-sharing or text-messaging.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc.

In February the chairman of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee introduced separate legislation that would require regulators at the Federal Communications Commission to study the network neutrality issue and hold public hearings.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has said that his agency was ready, if necessary, to step in and stop broadband providers from interfering with users' access.
- Source

Fuck you, Verizon.

Just remember, the internet is not a big truck.

Series of Tubes Dance Mix


The Daily Show


Ted Stevens' Orginal Rambling, Incomprehensible Speech

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