Nov 29
From The Atlantic: U.K. TESTS OUT URINAL-BASED PEE GAMES. You’ve gotta scroll down like half a page for this but video games are being installed in urinals so men can play with their piss. I can hardly think of a more concrete example of new media at work. A simple function which was private and imaginative …
May 13
Joe Larson has made a chess set that allows you to assemble its pieces into a giant robot. Digital Trends says: For the most part, Action Chess is a pretty standard Chess set. Both the pieces and board exhibit a kind of utilitarian simplicity that is at once functional and attractive. If you want to …
Oct 31
The long held human dream of inflicting post traumatic stress disorder on ourselves in the comfort of our own homes has come a step closer to fruition. From Singularity Hub The Gadget Show, airing on Channel 5 in the UK, recently embarked on creating the most true to life simulator for first person shooter games ever built. They …
Jul 03
the art of alex varanese – alt/1977: we are not time travelers. Alex Varanese looks at modern products through a 1977 lens.
Feb 04
Whatever happened to good old fashioned opium? These days people are uploading their lives, not into a solitary hallucination but into a shared network of fantasies. According to the CBC documentary, Strangers in Paradise, this effects relationships in the raw world. Marriages are breaking up, children are abandoned and Mom becomes a biker’s bitch. Basically, …
Nov 17
I can’t claim to be a huge Pacman fan. It was a bit before my time. As a youth, I remember that he had been all but replaced by Miss Pacman and, besides, my favorite video games were on the newfangled Nintendo Machine. I did play some of the arcade ones but I think it …
Sep 23
The Blue Jays season is drawing to a close. And yes I know that they’re now called “The Jays” but they’re still the Blue Jays to me. Even if they don’t play like it. They certainly had a pretty bad season. At the start I thought they could do well as long as they didn’t …
Dec 13
I love video games. Especially the Civilization Series. Some people –crazy people– think that the hours I spend playing Civ 4 are a waste of time. I couldn’t disagree more. I’ve learned a lot from this game. Here’s a few pieces of wisdom about the realpolitik that I’ve picked up: 1. Oil is a perfectly …
Oct 12
I know you’re probably busy watching your baseball. I like baseball too. (Go Tigers!) And it was fun to watch the Yankees, er, crash and burn. But Hockey season has started. I just figured that you guys should all know that our national anthem up here isn’t that “Oh Canada” nonsense. Most of us don’t …
Sep 26
I did not post when Tie Domi retired. But, thankfully, he is back in the news. This time it has nothing to do with hockey. It’s all about Canada’s second love; politics. Apparently, Mr. Domi has been engaging in congress with Belinda Stronach. The lucky bastard. There are few fantasies that I hold as dear …
"This ultra-sharp, darkly satiric, hyper-speed novel is set in a world where multi-level mega malls serves as city states and everything on the outside lies in ruin. On the lower red levels, gang violence and media saturation and bio-tech designer drugs rule. During the weekend, slummers from the green levels leave their safe lives of jobs and families to partake in risky, sometimes deadly, fun on the red levels. And on every level, TV and advertisements literally penetrate the mind. Death is easy and life cheap, until that life is your own or your beloveds. Extreme stylization, great characters, and a high-level of intensity is maintained throughout. This is a whip-smart, truly violent novel that has at its core a still very human pulsing heart."