tempest in a teacup

One of the big headlines in the news right now is the launch of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland. The facility is meant to accelerate and collide subatomic particles in order to recreate conditions that were present at the start of the universe so that the interactions of these particles can be studied.

One of the (somewhat ridiculous) concerns coming out of this experiment is that the collision could cause the end of the world (by creating a black hole, or god knows what else). While this concern has been thoroughly refuted several times by people more qualified than me, the folks at Reddit and Fark have taken a different approach to addressing them.

Click here to see what I mean.

Sound advice, all things considered.

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Just saw this piece on the BBC website:
Eat less meat to combat the effects of human activities on the global climate, says the UN’s top climate scientist.

Disclaimer: I’m a vegetarian.

The scientist’s position focuses mainly on greenhouse gas emissions without pontificating about the superiority of a vegetarian diet, which is good, I think. If anything I know that ideas tend to be more favourably received when argued logically, not when preached by someone on a high horse. I’m actually quite interested in seeing the text of the speech Dr Pachauri will give on Monday, if only to see how he tries to sell this idea.

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In other news, I’ve been taking advantage of the 50% discount offer on all id software games on Steam to try out some old FPSes that I missed out on - Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Doom 3. RTCW is pretty good so far, but I played partway through the Doom 3 demo before going ‘fuck this shit’ and deleting it. The people complaining about the light levels in this game aren’t kidding in the slightest. I couldn’t see what the hell I was shooting at half the time, and the fact that I needed to drop my existing weapon to use the flashlight only aggravated this. Yes, you play a marine a century in the future when we’ve colonized Mars and created teleportation technology, but you don’t have access to a flashlight that doesn’t tie up one of your hands.

Long story short, I probably won’t be buying that one.

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It happens to be the 25th anniversary of GNU this month, and Stephen Fry, of all people, has put out a video explaining the promise of free software to commemorate the occasion. Mr Fry, contrary to what most might believe, is quite a techie, and an avid proponent of the concept of free and open-source software (as anyone who reads his blog would know).

In any case, if you’re curious about what this free software business is all about, Mr Fry puts it in rather simple terms that anyone can understand.

Click here to watch the video.

(The server handling the streaming seems to be hammered right now, so you may want to just download the video and watch it on your computer. You’ll need the Ogg Theora codec - a free codec - for it to work)

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I spent most of the day at PAX today, since I’d never been to a gaming convention and there were a few games I wanted to check out. I actually didn’t get to play too many of them (the lines were way too long for me to be standing around) but I did get a reasonable idea of how some of the games I’m looking forward to are shaping up.

Click here to read more >>

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…of why I play the airblast Pyro in Team Fortress 2.

The backburner can be great fun in pure ambush play, but the ability to just run up to a control point and BLOW PEOPLE OFF IT is just too awesome. Bonus points if said point is suspended over an instant death pit :D

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Here’s last month’s edition.

Games that have been knocked off the list due to completion:

• Devil May Cry 4 - Beat it on Devil Hunter, although honestly I don’t think I’m really done with it yet. I can’t say that I’ve really mastered any aspect of the game (except maybe Nero’s Devil Buster but it’s LOL EZ anyway).
• NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams - I’ve gotten all my C ranks and unlocked the true ending to the game, so it’s leaving the list. I’ll still keep trying for A ranks and better scores from time to time, though (it’s a freaking score attack game - who wouldn’t). Maybe I’ll put some footage up here when I try it out.
• Zack & Wiki - I’ve beaten the main story quest, but I haven’t found any of the hidden treasures yet. Still, that’s good enough for me for now.
• Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition - Beat it shortly after my last list of doom post. I’ve fiddled around a bit with the other modes (the Ada side missions and the Mercenaries minigame) but I haven’t gone back to the game yet.

Games still being played:

• Super Mario Galaxy - Would you believe I’m still stuck on that one Luigi purple coin mission?
• Advance Wars: Days of Ruin - Really haven’t touched it at all.
• Sonic Rush Adventure - That last Sol Emerald is a bitch.
• Mass Effect - I’ve just finished up the Noveria story quests. It seems that there really aren’t that many main story quests which is a little alarming, but I’ll see what happens. I’ve started to get a good feel for my final opinion on the game, too…and it’s a little uneven.
• Beyond Good & Evil - Still fun - I’m right after the part where Pey’j gets kidnapped (spoiler).

Games that were started and beaten over the course of the month:

• Metal Gear Solid - Great boss fights, great sneaking areas, terrible gun controls, WALL OF PLOT is annoying.
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance - Boss fights are somewhat less great, sneaking is much more fun, gun controls are better, WALL OF PLOT is still annoying.

New entries on the list:

• Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence - Not too far in. I can’t say I’ve gotten the hang of CQC yet - for some reason every time I try to grab someone from behind I end up throwing them and setting off an alarm.
• Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword - this is surprisingly good for a handheld conversion of Ninja Gaiden. There are some cutbacks (simplified combos, only one melee weapon and two ranged weapons) but otherwise it’s fast and furious just like the console versions.
• Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune - my first PS3 game! Think Gears of War crossed with Resident Evil 4 with a minimal bit of Tomb Raider splashed in for good measure. Very polished and slick - nothing to complain about so far.
• Bionic Commando: Rearmed - I never played the NES version, but even so this game is pretty cool. While the levels and bosses themselves are pretty well-designed, I particularly like the Portal-style Challenge Rooms.

And that’s it for August!

It just occurred to me that my Wii backlog is basically empty now (except for Galaxy). Any Wii game recommendations? Keep in mind that I’m a lonely bastard who plays games by himself all the time.

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Amazon is going to be having PS3 deals all day today (August 27th), starting at 12am PST for the big daily deal and then lightning deals every four hours starting at 6am PST. Just a heads up in case there’s some PS3 game or accessory that you’ve been on the lookout for.

And no, I don’t know what the deals are going to be in advance, so don’t bother asking. You can usually make a pretty good guess from the clues on the Gold Box page anyway.

EDIT: The list of deals is up - the daily deal is Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. The lightning deals haven’t been revealed yet, but here are my educated guesses:

6AM: Resistance: Fall of Man
10AM: Ridge Racer 6
12PM: Ratchet & Clank Future
2PM: Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
4PM: Devil May Cry 4
6PM: Warhawk

Looks like either games I have no interest in or that I already own. Urgh…

And now to pad out this post a little more, here’s what my desktop currently looks like (click to view full-sized version).

Why yes, I am rather obsessed with sandviches at the moment.

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Somehow in the space of two hours I have managed to not only leave my cell phone at work, but fill my apartment with smoke. How did I manage the latter, do you ask?

Why, I cooked some instant noodles!

In the microwave.

Without adding water first.

Do you know what you get when you cook flavour powder, dried mushroom, dried rice noodles and oil in a microwave without water? You get a giant block of simmering carbon. And a crapload of smoke.

And my apartment STILL smells like smoke, 3 hours later.

Fun fact: this apartment I’m living is was refurbished after a fire accident prior to my renting it.

I really wish I could say that there was something important on my mind while I was engaging in this minor act of arson, but there really wasn’t…

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As you’ve probably noticed by now I’ve made the layout a bit wider, mainly so that the comment threads don’t get squashed smaller and smaller as more people reply. They still get compressed, but now it’s not nearly as much of a problem.

I’ve also added a new banner, which if anything emphasises my lack of creativity in coming up with something that actually matches my blog’s colour scheme.

And er, that’s all I have to say, so in the meantime have my favourite ending theme from the ARIA series.

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So it was looking like while Kyoto Animation will be working on Tonari no 801-chan after Clannad: After Story wraps up, the fans of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu were going to be left out in the cold yet again.

Well, according to Zepy, it looks like we might get a lifeline! Of sorts.

Haruhi-chan and Churuya-san manga to be released in animated form on Youtube

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This…wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for a new Haruhi series. But hey, anything related to Churuya-san gets my seal of approval.

Also, if they’re going to be animating fanmade spinoffs, I hereby cast my vote for an animated version of Kyonko!

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