A heart-stopping (perhaps literally) 4,889 calories of beef, lettuce, tomato, salsa, sour cream, chili and Fritos on an 8-inch sesame seed bun. Total weight: nearly 30 ounces.
The ballpark management suggests that one of these hamburgers can feed four people. But if one person manages to eat the whole thing, he/she will earn the right to wear this t-shirt:
Great Britain is running out of money.
China wants to dump the U.S. dollar as the de facto global currency.
And now the United States Postal Service is beginning to beg for a bailout.
What's that Chinese curse? "May you live in interesting times", or something.
Here's one more reason why the United States will soon have to owe the old Soviets an apology: there's now a bill in Congress to "bail out" the struggling newspaper industry. If it becomes legislation, print news companies that accept government aid will be restructured as nonprofit, and will be banned from making political endorsements (very much like how churches are granted nonprofit status so long as their ministers don't endorse candidates).
What the hell is happening to this country? I mean... government-managed newspapers?!?
Hey, I've worked in the newspaper industry. As a reporter. Twice. And there are a lot of reasons why newspapers are dying. And almost all of 'em are the fault of the newspapers themselves. They've failed to keep up with modern technology, in a time when ever-increasing numbers of people are turning to the Internet for their information. And what was the biggest reason why that has happened?
Because I hate to say this, but too much of the newspaper industry has grown spoiled and complacent. The alleged "bias" that a lot of people ascribe to traditional journalism? I honestly don't know if it's political favoritism as much as it is that the age of the hard-nosed investigative reporter for "the big daily paper" has come and gone. Too many reporters don't want to work hard for the story. They want it given to them pre-digested, without the risk of asking the serious questions.
So lemme be succinct: if newspapers are dying, let 'em die.
They more than earned it. The newspapers no more deserve our money to stay afloat than do the auto companies or the investment firms.
Besides, does anyone really want the federal government managing the funny pages? I sure as hell don't.
All of which makes it the more astonishing that in the dying glow of video gaming's first burst of prominence, one title was produced which a quarter-century later is still hailed as one of the greatest and most groundbreaking games of all time.
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns was released by Activision in March of 1984. It was the sequel to 1982's Pitfall!, one of the biggest selling titles for the Atari 2600 system and still considered one of the most classic video games ever produced. Activision programmer David Crane designed and wrote both games. But for the follow-up Crane abandoned Pitfall!'s tried and true formula, and instead opted to change things up a bit.
And what changes they were! Pitfall II: Lost Caverns wound up being the largest game ever produced for the Atari 2600. And in the process it introduced new elements that are now considered to be standard fare for most modern video games. Gone from the original was the twenty minute time limit: you could now play as Pitfall Harry for however long you wanted.
And you were gonna need all that extra time too, because no other console game of the time boasted as big a geography as Pitfall II. Whereas the original game had Pitfall Harry trapped running horizontally, the sequel was but eight full screens across... each made of twenty-seven vertical levels. Most of those had Harry plunging into the pitch black of a long-lost subterranean network beneath the mountains of Peru. Just make sure that you've explored all eight screens of the ground above before you enter the underground, 'cuz there's no going back. But once you've gone deep, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns plays much like any modern "sandbox"-style game. You can run, jump, swim and dive (another addition from the original) through two rivers, all the while avoiding the underworld's treacherous wildlife (bats, poisonous toads, the classic Pitfall! scorpions, Andean condors, and electric eels). There is no one single way to win the game: you have all the freedom you could possibly want in order to reach the end.
Speaking of endings, Pitfall II featured a definite finale: something that was extraordinarily rare for video games of the time. The game manual has Pitfall Harry looking for his niece Rhonda and their cat Quickclaw, and being hired to recover the stolen Raj Diamond. You only need to find those three things in order to win the game (at which time Harry will jump jubilantly). But more dedicated gamers will be driven to gather all twenty-some gold bars hidden throughout Lost Caverns, and also nab a rare cave rat that will stymie your early efforts to catch it from the front. Finding everything you possibly can will escalate your high score toward a possible 199,000 points... but falling onto a hard surface will cost you points. So will getting hit by one of the beasties. But unlike Pitfall! you can not die in Pitfall II because there are no "lives" to speak of. Injury results in Harry being transported to the last ancient Incan "healing spot" (marked by red crosses) that he touched: probably video gaming's first-ever use of continue points. If you're very good, you will get all of the prizes and end the game without a single loss of points. And yeah, it's possible. I've done it a bunch of times before. Hard, but possible :-)
One of the things about Pitfall II that a lot of folks still remember fondly about the game is its soundtrack. When you start Harry off on his adventure you get a heroic theme that eventually tapers off to a more subdued tune. Collecting a prize restarts the theme again. Getting hit by something bad gets a more downbeat tune playing, for however long it takes Harry to get transported back to the last healing point. And if you catch a ride on a balloon (really specimen bags that Rhonda filled with steam from a geyser) you're treated to a rousing rendition of "Sobre las Olas".
All of this came at a curious price: the Atari 2600 system's hardware could not, by itself, handle all of Pitfall II's technical demands. Game creator David Crane engineered and patented a special component that was embedded in the cartridge along with the game's ROM. Called a Display Processor Chip (DPC), it enabled Pitfall II to be capable of much more than any other cartridge for the console. Crane had hoped that the DPC would extend the shelf life of the Atari 2600, but the deepening game "recession" along with the age of the system (nearly eight years old at the time) meant that the DPC never got a chance.
But Pitfall II: Lost Caverns did. And even today, the game holds up surprisingly well. If you want to play it, it was included in the Activision Anthology for the Gameboy Advance a few years ago, and I've seen it packed with some of those fancy "plug-in" joystick controllers that you can find in toy stores. I've seen a few other official releases of it as well in recent years.
However you find it, whether you're new to the game or you've been underground many time before, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns will keep you entertained old-school style.
In the name of preventing damage to "the broader economy", President Obama and his Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are now seeking power to seize a wider array of businesses, and not necessarily banking/finance-related firms either.
I was afraid this would happen.
The regulation pendulum has been swinging wildly between both far ends of the spectrum. During the administration of George W. Bush there was a lot less regulation of such businesses, and that's a big reason why we're in our current economic mess. Now the Obama gang, exploiting public outrage like that about the AIG bonuses, is going to drive us toward too much regulation.
When the American government begins seriously talking about nationalizing businesses, start worrying. One way or another, if Obama and his bunch gets this kind of "authority", it ain't gonna end well.
There was no question which one I wanted to spotlight first: Daily Breakfast with Father Roderick. It's considered by most to be the #1 Catholic podcast on the Internet. And though I'm not a Catholic this is bar none the most rollickin' fun and captivating regular podcast that I've ever come across. In addition to his theological perspective as a Catholic priest, Father Roderick Vonhögen also comments on pop culture and trends such as Star Wars (he and I used to be on TheForce.net staff together, where he did the amazing "Virtual Prequels" feature), music, video games, iPhone apps, and health and nutrition. Avid runners will especially find Father Roderick's reports on his personal training to be of great interest. No matter who ya are, Father Roderick offers up something for everyone!
If you've got iTunes on your computer, click here for the Daily Breakfast podcast.
I hope and pray that this will be an ever-increasing trend. Especially since some cities using the cameras have been found to be illegally altering the traffic signals so that the yellow light is shorter in duration, in an attempt to make more money from the cameras.
Philip José Farmer was the very first "hard science fiction" writer that I ever read. It was a 1990 interview he did with Starlog that piqued my curiosity about him. Wasn't long afterward that I went out looking for a copy of To Your Scattered Bodies Go, the first Riverworld novel. It remains one of the most original books that I've ever read. Let's face it: you gotta respect a man who writes a novel starring every single person who ever lived. Then my already-demented young brain came across his Venus on the Half-Shell, which Farmer wrote under the pseudonym "Kilgore Trout" (to this day some people still think it's a book that Kurt Vonnegut wrote).
All told, Farmer wrote more than seventy books, including the World of Tiers series and the Dayworld trilogy (which would make for a kick-butt film adaptation if done properly). Farmer also wrote many short stories, of which his first, "The Lovers", is probably his best known.
Philip José Farmer, one of the most prolific writers of the science fiction genre, died on February 25th at the age of 91.
Think I might read To Your Scattered Bodies Go again, in his honor.
Billie Piper, Catherine Tate and Freema Agyeman will appear in the final Doctor Who episode starring David Tennant as the Doctor. They will reprise their roles as Rose, Donna and Martha, respectively (though how they are gonna bring back Rose and Donna is beyond me). The episode, scheduled for later this year, will also mark the end of Russell T Davis' tenure as head showrunner (what, you mean "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" wasn't a big enough send-off?!). Tennant's Doctor will face off once again against arch-nemesis the Master before regenerating into the Eleventh Doctor, played by Matt Smith.
And this coming April 12th - Easter Sunday - will be the next Doctor Who special. "Planet of the Dead", incidentally, will be the 200th Doctor Who story since the show began in 1963. Mash down here for some pics of the upcoming show... which will doubtless be on the Intertubes for downloading a few hours after it premieres for our Brittish brethren!
Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze is coming to your living room... and he's bringing a few thousand of his friends with him. The 1975 action film based on the classic pulp hero is just one of many movies that Warner Brothers is making available via a first-of-its-kind "on-demand DVD" service that's launching today.By visiting warnerarchive.com you can select from many films that have previously not been made available in the DVD format. You pay twenty bucks and a week later a custom-made DVD - complete with nice case - comes in the mail. I just scanned through the catalog (only a fraction thus far of the complete library that Warners aims to make eventually available) and there are some real gems in there, including Abe Lincoln in Illinois and Countdown, the 1968 pre-Apollo 11 flick starting James Caan as an astronaut caught up in a mad race between the United States and the Soviet Union about which country will be the first to land on the Moon. There's even 1982's Yes, Giorgio starring Luciano Pavarotti (wait a sec... Pavarotti made movies too?!?).
This is one site that I am going to be watching with great interest. I think this is a very cool business model that Warners is experimenting with, and hopefully it will succeed enough for other studios to consider doing likewise.
If this new research bears out and scientists can discover how cold fusion works, that might be a very large step toward potentially cheap and renewable energy.
(And I think now's a good opportunity for some smart entrepreneur to trademark the "Mr. Fusion" brand :-)
The Nano seats four, and the basic model has no power steering, air bags, radio, or air conditioner. Oh yeah, and instead of welding the plastic and sheet-metal parts of the exterior are joined with adhesives: a glued-together car.
The Nano has a maximum speed of 70 kilometers per hour... or 43 miles per hour.
This thing would get eaten alive by most of the roads around where I live.
Eurogamer is reporting that 2K Games honchos have let it be known that the forthcoming sequel to 2007's mind-blowing BioShock is still being called BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams. Late last week the story got out (originating from another 2K source) that the "Sea of Dreams" was being dropped from the title.
Eurogamer also notes that it will have plenty more to report on the much-awaited sequel in the weeks to come.
It found common ground between Evolutionists and Creationists. And provided a reason to make peace between the two.
Just finished watching the episode. I'm now greatly enticed to buy up the season DVD sets, and check out what else I might have missed of this apparently very fine show.
It... has been reported, to this blogger... that today, March 22nd, has been declared, International Talk Like William Shatner Day.You are, urged... to modify your speech patterns, accordingly.
Over the past several days there have been a lot of tributes to Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton, the incorrigible moonshiner whose rascally and entrenched ways endeared himself to a devoted following not just in Appalachia but across the Internet. As has been reported here and elsewhere in the media, Popcorn took his own life this past Monday, rather than report to federal prison later in the week to begin serving an 18-month sentence for "illegally" making likker.(If you'd like to read more about Popcorn Sutton and his illustrious career, click on the "popcorn sutton" tag" and you can find lots of material that this blog has linked to over the course of the last year.)
Earlier today JR Hafer, a longtime friend of Popcorn's, forwarded along an essay that he had written. I personally think it's one of the finest that has been written about Popcorn Sutton: a man whose life story sounds like the kind of movie that Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam would probably make. You'll understand why I say that when you read JR Hafer's "The Legend of Popcorn Sutton".
Brace yourself y'all: this is one wild tale. Some stuff here, I didn't even know about until now :-)
And against the fears of how I had thought it would bear out, I am compelled to regard it as a far greater success than I had ever dared hope.
No rest for the wicked though. On to the next endeavor. But tonight, I will allow myself an all-too-rare sense of satisfaction, and share from experience that with patience and steadfastness, just about anything is possible.
