I used to think this commercial was so badass in 1987.
Friday, February 29, 2008
This is one of the most disturbing things I've read lately
The US has more prisoners than any other nation on the planet. 1 in 100 adult males are in prison. Read that again. 1 in 100. $44 Billion dollars have been spend last year on incarceration. Govenment spending for this so-called "rehabilitaion" has risen six times faster than spending for higher education. The worst part of all? This surge in spending has not reduced crime rates or recidivism rates.
The justice system is a business. Three strikes laws, and the "War on Drugs" has created a massive, thriving economy that feeds on the suffering of citizens. People who pose little to no rish to society are being imprisoned in vast numbers.
How much money could be saved in California alone if the judicial-prison compelx reduced sentencing guidelines and used parole and rehabilitaion instead? Unfortunately they have little motivation to do so. It's all about the bottom line. Let's cut education spending instead.
The "justice" system is a government backed corporate conglomorate operating under the guise of "helping" it's citizens. What a fucking crock.
Nothing will ever be done. It will keep getting worse. Welcome to the police state.
Article here.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
I want this...
You can read all about how badass this camera is right here.
It films in HD, 24 fps (so it looks a lot like film). They used this thing on Cloverfield. Fuck yeah.
Some one give me $5000!
Or just buy me the baby brother: the AG-DVX100B.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Damn punks!
(Editor's note: I am not over 30 or even 30 for that matter but most of this is pretty apropos. Replace Atari with NES and I think it fits pretty well.)
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears
with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were
when they were growing up; what with walking
twenty-five miles to school every morning ... uphill BOTH ways
yadda, yadda, yadda
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up,
there was no way in hell I was going to lay
a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it
and how easy they've got it!
But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.
You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my
childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!
And I hate to say it but you kids today you
don't know how good you've got it!
I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The
Internet . If we wanted to know something,
we had to go to the damn library and
look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!
There was no email!! We had to actually write
somebody a letter... with a pen!
Then you had to walk all the way across the street and
put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!
There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to
steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself!
Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the
beginning and @#*% it all up!
We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you
were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!
And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either!
When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was!
It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer,
a collections agent, you just didn't know!!!
You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics!
We had the Atari 2600!
With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your guy was a little square!
You actually had to use your imagination!!
And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever!
And you could never win.
The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died!
Just like LIFE!
When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating!
All the seats were the same height!
If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see,
you were just screwed!
Sure, we had cable television, but back then that
was only like 15 channels
and there was no on screen menu and no remote control!
You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on!
You were screwed when it came to channel surfing!
You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the
channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons
on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?!
We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!
And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat
something up we had to use the stove or go build a frigging fire... imagine that!
If we were lucky enough to eventually have a microwave, it had 2 settings… cook and defrost.
If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing
and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.
That's exactly what I'm talking about!
You kids today have got it too easy.
You're spoiled.
You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!
Regards,
The over 30 Crowd
(Thanks, Doug)
Monday, February 11, 2008
Contra Turns 20
And in celebration, here is a sweet video I found on YouTube that shows the differences between the USA, JAP, and PAL versions of the game. Continuing the long tradition of America getting shitty ports of great Japanese games, the JAP version of Contra contains a special chip that adds and intro and better backgrounds to the game. In America, game makers could only use the stock NES chips so, again, we got a shittier version than the Japanese got. Boo.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Quote of the day
"Your truck may be the manliest thing I've ever seen but the alarm sounds like it belongs in a 1998 Honda Civic. It should make a sound like what Godzilla would sound like if he got hit in the balls."
-Me
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Kaizo SMW Hack + Quantum Physics
This is 137 plays of a notoriously difficult Super Mario World Hack all layered on top of one another for some many worlds theory meets Super Nintendo badassary.
Explaination here.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
The History of Dragon Quest
An exhaustive history of Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior on the NES) is up over at Gamasutra. Due to poor sales, we ended up missing out on both of the Super Nintendo installments of the franchiese. Dragon Quest V, one of the previously mentioned games lacking a stateside release, is considered to be the best Dragon Quest to date and, as usual, we Americans got screwed out of it because of all the Madden-playing fucktards. Thanks, assholes!
Exploding Hamster
Maniac Mansion was a pretty warped game. Check out this sequence; don't mind the German.
Aliens and tentacles, oh my!
There is a great feature on Maniac Mansion over at The International House of Mojo (Monkey Island 2 reference FTW!). This is the prequel to Day of the Tentacle, my favorite game of all time.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden
Yes, this is a real game. Yes you can download it:
http://www.tomatoland.org/drdougbeach/BarkleyV108.zip
Friday, February 1, 2008
Into the enigma
Still haven't seen this one.
Check out this fascinating article. A writer is invited to examine the archives of the eccentric genius director Stanley Kubrick. This is a must-read for any fan of Kubrick's films or of crazy people in general.
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