Review: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
by botherer on Mar.03, 2008, under The Rest
Woo woo! New Ace Attorney game!
Review on EG this morning. I shall quote the appropriate:
Also, I forgot to link to this review of Harvey Birdman last week.
Direct Your Hate… This Way
by botherer on Feb.29, 2008, under Rants
Today’s most vile human being is… Feargal Sharkey!
Formerly the lead singer of the Undertones, and formerly worth oxygen, the appalling cretin said this to The Register, when defending the role of copyright for musicians, and opposing sharing of music:
“Invariably, it’s artists and creators who are at the sharp end of this food chain, and they’re the ones that will get to the stage that they’ll give up and go and do something else – because they have to pay the rent, pay the gas bill and feed themselves, buy shoes, and deal with all the things normal people expect to deal with in life. So people have to realise there’s an implication in this.
There’s been all this play about FairTrade coffee and FairTrade sugar – but what about FairTrade bloody music?”
This sell-out corporate shill just compared having his album downloaded with living as a slave in a developing nation. I’m lost for words to describe how utterly, poisonously foul that is.
Nevermind the extensive stupidity of making an argument about people expecting to get paid “at the end of the week”, in defense of an industry body that’s currently fighting to have decades of extra copyright for artists who did their week’s work over fifty years ago, and still believe they are entitled to infinite profit for eternity.
The interesting point he makes, which is hopefully true, is that when sharing music does finally destroy the recording industry, and it becomes recognised as the strangling evil on music that it has been for the last one hundred years, most people will walk away. And thank goodness. That will be the most glorious day. I cannot wait for 90% of musicians to stop, leaving only the 10% who are in it for reasons that matter.
A couple of weeks ago, the equally viciously stupid Roger Daltry stated (without irony) that thousands of musicians had “no pensions and rely on royalties”. And therefore they should be entitled to perpetual profit from work they did decades earlier. Um? So if I don’t get around to setting up a pension, do I get this too? No? Oh, it’s only musicians who are special enough that if they’re too stupid to have arranged a pension, they deserve special rights? I see.
And these guys are winning the debate. It’s terrifying. But the good news is, Feargal Sharkey will always have made that comment about Fair Trade, and even when the RIAA and BPI own the copyright on our own circulation systems, he’ll be the despicable human being who said that. Well done Sharkey – look what you’ve become.
Kevin Smith Is Clever
by John Walker on Feb.26, 2008, under The Rest
It’s always fun when decent internet memes first start to spread. It’s much more fun when those making them are professionals with a budget. Although, as ever, Kevin Smith manages to disguise his budget beneath a veneer of laziness. Which is perfect. Stealing the X is fucking Y idea, he cleverly promotes his next movie, Zack And Miri Make A Porno. Thanks to Steph for the link.
Be warned, this is full of naughtiness. Your mum would be cross if she heard it:
Clearly Silverman Really Wants Me
by John Walker on Feb.25, 2008, under The Rest
If you didn’t see the video from the Jimmy Kimmel Show where his girlfriend, Sarah Silverman, confesses in song that she’s been fucking Matt Damon, then you’re rubbish at the internet.
It’s here:
Rumours of a revenge video have been around for ages. It’s finally aired. And yes, Jimmy Kimmel is fucking Ben Affleck:
The list of celebrities in there is just insane. You’d normally need to be saving the world to get that much of Hollywood in one place, rather than making a dumb video for a pretend fight on a chat show. But this is by far the preferable result.
Quackometer Taken Down, Put Back Up Again
by John Walker on Feb.21, 2008, under The Rest
Here’s a quite remarkable story. Quackometer is a site that covers bad science – the dubious or downright nonsensical claims made by those professing “alternative medicine”. It’s been doing a splendid job for the last couple of years. Recently it posted a story about “Professor Joseph Chikelue Obi MD MPH FRIPH FRCAM FACAM MICR”, covering his various documented moments of madness, to which the good doctor replied with a mystifying lawsuit.
Quackometer’s pathetic hosts, Netcetera (“passionate about hosting”), responded to the empty threat by pulling the entire site offline, permanently. A mealy-mouthed excuse about violating terms and some such rubbish is all they’ve given as explanation, because of course their only reason was cowardly stupidity, and a complete lack of interest in protecting the rights of freedom of information.
Professor Obi, as he likes to call himself, was fired from South Tyneside General Hospital for serious professional misconduct, and had his license to practise medicine in the UK revoked. A trustworthy man to be sure.
He now claims to be the boss of the “Royal College of Alternative Medicine”, which is a near-fictional entity, not existing beyond a website, and so many of those letters after his name are of dubious origin, while many others are cheaply bought titles from various worldwide websites. Delightfully, he is alleged to have conned an old lady out of her life savings since being fired for allegedly failing to treat a heart attack patient, innappropriate treatment of psychiatric patients, and abusive behaviour toward colleagues. He’s all-round the sort of guy to which you’d want an ISP to immediately capitulate, yes indeed.
Gimpy’s Blog provides an excellent summary of the recent closure of the site (from which much of the above has been cribbed), and a previous post details where you can find copies of the articles removed from Quackometer, for instance here.
Fortunately, the good people at Positive Internet, who host this blog, as well as Rock, Paper, Shotgun, have stepped in to provide hosting for Quackometer, which should be online again shortly. Positive have a history of stepping in to offer hosting for sites that have been shut down either by cowardly ISPs, or for sites that deserve support but cannot afford excessive hosting charges. The wonderful Bad Science site is a previous rescue of theirs.
“Professor” Obi has duly threatened Positive in his latest blog post.
His blog is well worth a read. It’s very difficult to believe it’s not a spoof, so hilarious is its composition. For Obi, any who disagree with him, or mention his tawdry past, are automatically racists. For Obi, “victory” means saying, “I’m going to sue you!” to anyone who observes his history. For Obi, the only logical course of action is to describe himself as “Leader of the Opposition against the General Medical Council” – a clearly evil body as they dared to fire him for repeated counts of serious misconduct.
Phrases like, “Speaking in Belfast , at the end of a Private Inspection Tour of an Alternative Medicine Facility , the Eminent Black British Human Rights Crusader delightfully said…” are just so fun. So, after he walked around someone’s back room where they wave crystals, the disgraced former doctor said to the other guy in the room…
Seriously, have a read. If it’s a spoof, then I’ve been fooled. But the writing style matches that of his own nutcase website, implying something this ridiculous might actually be real.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
by John Walker on Feb.19, 2008, under The Rest
New review up on Eurogamer, for one of the most lovely DS games yet.
Professor Layton is a top-hat-wearing fellow who has a penchant for puzzle-solving. He has heard word about a mysterious village containing a special puzzle revolving around an object called The Golden Apple. Travelling with his young companion, Luke, he enters the curious village to discover a town populated by people obsessed with puzzles, and a lot of peculiar secrets. It’s a puzzle game, but with one heck of a story.
In Treatment Revisited
by John Walker on Feb.14, 2008, under Television
My early impressions were correct. As In Treatment nears the end of its third week, it continues to escalate. It really is one of the most stunning pieces of television I’ve seen.
I can’t stress enough how much this show is worth watching. If you’re in the US, subscribe to HBO just for this (as if you needed another reason), or watch it on their website. If you’re outside the US, fake your IP so you can watch it on HBO’s site, or find it by whatever means the moronic system forces you to. You’ll want to find out what I discuss below for yourself.
Sudden Swing To Obama
by John Walker on Feb.14, 2008, under The Rest
The best reason to vote Obama so far, America-o-readers:
Mountain Goats Return
by John Walker on Feb.10, 2008, under The Rest
2007 was missing something incredibly important: a new Mountain Goats album.
2008 will not be so cruel. Here’s the video for the first single:
Also, Darnielle’s song for Super Tuesday here.