Digital Divide

According to the Australian Parliament the definition of Digital Divide is:

‘The lack of access to information and communications technologies by segments of the community. The digital divide is a generic term used to describe this lack of access due to linguistic, economic, educational, social and geographic reasons.’ – http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/

Feenberg first states that the internet is not a fully developed technology and that it was only ARPANET that would fund the project in the start as it was lavish and speculative. The outcome was not guaranteed and no-one could predict what the technology would bring. Ironically, this issue of being unfunded and no-one would invest is exactly what the people affected by the Digital Divide have to deal with. The government struggle to invest money into the lower classes as the output that they get from them is low.

In the paper, there are a few issues which Feenberg describes, in his conclusion he lists a few example of areas which the internet has played a vital role. When considering the digital divide in medical terms you can clearly see the benefit, especially for those seeking medical advice but can afford the fees. This is not usually the case in the UK but if there is a problem one can Google a query and find at least a good estimation if not the answer they were looking for. Sites like Wikipedia provide a vast amount of information which can be read by anyone, there are no registration fees or limits to the amount of information available. This in turn provides a cheaper alternative for those seeking advice. Social communities have been set up. From experience migraine sufferers have their own space where they talk about remedies and what works for them as well as other options which they might not have heard of before.

Music sharing has had an incredible rise since the start of the decade. Feenberg writes that “between an $18 album with one good song and a free or 99 cent download of that same song, there is no competition.” In my opinion this is very true, everyone has bought an album before where only half if not less is worth listening to. Some term these poorer tracks as filler tracks, just to make up for the rest of the album. iTunes is at the top of this unsteady market, it tackles the money issue as well as provide users with a cheaper alternative. Some listeners enjoy the thought of physically holding and album where as others are just interested in listening to it. Ultimately it comes down to buying something. With the music market spanning thousands of different artists it would be almost impossible to buy every album that you liked, some people just cannot justify it. Now with the availability of the sites like Rapidshare and of course Napster which really kicked off this shift in the music industry, it has been at the top of the record labels agenda to combat music piracy.

The list that Feenberg has listed is all about money or the lack of in some cases. The digital divide was first used by the U.S. administration and U.S. journalists to describe the social gap between those involved with technology, particularly between children and their schools. Speaking of a mobile computer lab in a truck, Al Gore said, “It’s rolling into communities, connecting schools in our poorest neighborhoods and paving over the digital divide.” In the paper it is clear that people were very skeptical in using the internet for any sort of education. With the internet being so vast no-one could predict how deep it would integrate into everyone’s lives. School computer access was always going to be an issue. Rich schools were much more likely to provide their students with internet access so ultimately even though the internet is a free resource but the equipment needed to have the internet was not. There are a few projects which try to tackle the global digital divide where poverty is refine in poor underdeveloped countries. However, One laptop per child and 50×15 rely heavily on open source software. The projects were developed to bridge the gap in the digital divide and also a term called the knowledge divide. The Knowledge Divide is where a lack of technology causes the lack of useful information and knowledge.

David Noble wrote:
“Visions of democratization and popular empowerment via the net are dangerous delusions; whatever the gains, they are overwhelmingly overshadowed and more than nullified by the losses. As the computer screens brighten with promise for the few, the light at the end of the tunnel grows dimmer for the many.” (Noble, consulted Nov. 11, 2006: 12).
I think Noble was making the point that where there are profits there will equally be losses, and in most cases where someone gains someone else losses out. Feenberg also points out that:
“some argue that the digital divide excludes the poor from participation while enhancing the well to-do people. others complain that the internet people are able to segregate themselves and other argue that the internet is so thoroughly colonized by business that it is little more that an electronic mall. without face-to-face contact, it is said, people cannot take each other seriously enough to form a community.”

IDAT 307: 4D Proposal

4D: Project Proposal.

1: Title
The Philosophy of Time

2: Project Summary:
The Philosophy of Time Travel is a fascinating fictional accompaniment to the film Donnie Darko. It is entirely fictional but underpins terminology and ideas which people think time travel constraints to.

The idea of space and time travel is fascinating. There is a scene in Donnie Darko where a trail (Liquid Worms) of the subjects’ future protrudes from their body in front of them. The protrusion is the subjects’ future and in this case it’s the main character Donnie who finds out where he is going to go. He can potentially see his path and where he will be going. So his choices are already predefined even though he is blissfully unaware and obtains what he thinks is free will. Heroes season 3 also had this style of trail (Watery Ooze), where Daphne was so fast that she left this trail behind her indicating that this in some way is her past as technically her physical body was ahead of herself.

“Donnie becomes able to see time lines in front of his family–semi-transparent liquid arrows that seem to lead them into the future. He becomes fascinated by the theory of worm holes, and discovers that a key book, The Philosophy of Time Travel, was written by a neighbor, Roberta Sparrow” – http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20011026/REVIEWS/110260302/1023

Upon reading about the philosophy of time travel I came across a project of the same title. The project was hyped up by this… ‘The past and future flow through a monumental collaborative installation at The Studio Museum in Harlem’

I was also watching The Mothman Prophecy and there is a scene where there is a Psycologist explaining what these visions are and he paints a picture to the main character, Richard Gere, that if there is a car crash a few blocks down the road which you cant see, but if someone is up high they can see further down the road. In other words just because you cant see it doesnt mean its not happening or there.

Its a great idea to blend together with Space and Time.

Theoretical Research:
I came across some theorys’ related to space and time. Metaphysics is a fascinating subject to study and one could get lost for hours thinking about different possibilities and outcomes. Common-sense tells us that objects persist across time, that there is some sense in which you are the same person you were yesterday, in which the oak is the same as the acorn, in which you perhaps even can step into the same river twice. Philosophers have developed two rival theories for how this happens, called “endurantism” and “perdurantism”. Broadly speaking, endurantists hold that a whole object exists at each moment of its history, and the same object exists at each moment. Perdurantists believe that objects are four-dimensional entities made up of a series of temporal parts like the frames of a movie.

Perdurantism or perdurance theory is a philosophical theory of persistence and identity. The perdurantist view is often defined as being the claim that objects have distinct temporal parts as opposed to endurantism (endurantism is the view that an individual is wholly present at every moment of its existence). The use of “endure” and “perdure” to distinguish two ways in which an object can be thought to persist can be traced to David Kellogg Lewis (1986). However, contemporary debate has demonstrated the difficulties in defining perdurantism (and also endurantism).
For instance, the work of Ted Sider (2001) has suggested that even enduring objects can have temporal parts, and it is more accurate to define perdurantism as being the claim that objects have a temporal part at every instant that they exist. Zimmerman (1996) has said that this won’t work, as there have been many self-professed perdurantists who believe that time is ‘gunky’ and that for every interval of time, there is a sub-interval. Consequently there are no instants,[dubious – discuss] and Sider’s definition must be altered to admit of this fact. Currently there is no universally acknowledged definition of perdurantism (see also McKinnon (2002) and Merricks (1999)).

John McTaggart acknowledged that events seem to be ordered in time and that time’s passage can be understood in terms of events moving from the future to the present to the past. He then set out to demonstrate the unreality of time by discussing two conceptions of time:

1. A:One where events find their ordering in time in virtue of instantiating different temporal properties at different times and,
2. B:One where events bear an unchanging (static) temporal relation to all other events (e.g. if event M is earlier than event N at any time, it will always be earlier than N.)

McTaggart set out to demonstrate that time is an illusion by first showing that (B) alone (without A) will not guarantee the passage of time. He then shows how (A) (and its combination with (2)) lead to contradiction. Any attempt to avoid this contradiction leads to an infinite regress. He concluded that time was not a real part of our physical world.

The A-, B-, and C-series

John McTaggart proposed that time could be described by three series, the A-series, the B-series, and the C-series. The A-series corresponds to conception (1) above, while the B-series corresponds to (2). He defined these as follows:

The A-series: “..the series of positions running from the far past through the near past to the present, and then from the present to the near future and the far future..” McTaggart further declared that “the distinctions of past, present and future are essential to time and that, if the distinctions are never true of reality, then no reality is in time.” He considered the A series to be ‘temporal’, a true time series because it embodies these distinctions and embodies change.

The B-series: “The series of positions which runs from earlier to later..” The B series is temporal in that it embodies direction of change. However, McTaggart argues that the B series on its own does not embody change.

The C-series: “..this other series — let us call it the C series — is not temporal, for it involves no change, but only an order. Events have an order. They are, let us say, in the order M, N, O, P. And they are therefore not in the order M, O, N, P, or O, N, M, P, or in any other possible order. But that they have this order no more implies that there is any change than the order of the letters of the alphabet…” According to McTaggart the C-series is not temporal because it is fixed forever.

Just as a quick NOTE:
Water and metal are two key components in Donnie Darko. Water is the key to allow travel between the Primary and Tangent (worm holes or Time Portals, or the tunnels created of liquid in the movie). Metal is the substance of the item that created the time rip to begin. These are known as “Artifacts” (the jet engine). Donnie can see the tunnels of water coming out of people’s bodies throughout the movie, predicting what they are going to do next. While typing this up I also thought that in the movie Constantine, the main character uses Water as a gateway to hell. There are many groups in real life that believe in these portals

3: Development:
I will be looking for inspiration from movies, papers and books. My initial thoughts were to create an installation but I want to explore as much of the subject as possible. I will explore and innovate the field of digital time-based audio/visual media with consideration of:

• the historical conventions of film and television production

• experimental innovative approaches to these forms by artists/producers over the century

• the opportunities offered by new media forms, synchronous/asynchronous media, multi-location, telematics, etc.

4: Plan of Work:
Gather research while the lectures are going on. Once the workshops start, I will start to think about the outcome.

5: Output:
Seminars will be to explore concepts behind 4D/timebased work, historical perspectives, and design strategies. I shall be using the seminars as a good reference points which will enable me to further think about my output from these references. I will be taking my own view of the project, I dont want to re-invent the wheel but I need to keep it realistic with the time I have to complete the project.

6: Criteria:
My research shall be as concise as possible. Only when I am comfortable with my research I shall procede further with my final outcome. I will be in contact with my peers and the module leader to ask for assistance to ensure i’m keeping on the right track of ticking all the boxes for the module criteria.

7: References:
I have a few references already:
McTaggart, John Ellis, 1908, “The Unreality of Time,” Mind: A Quarterly Review of Psychology and Philosophy 17: 456-73.
Donnie Darko – Movie
The Philosophy of Time Travel (Fake Publication)
The Mothman Prophecies – Movie
The Butterfly Effect – Movie
Memento – Movie
Heroes: Season 3 – Series
The Studio Museum in Harlem – 144 West 125th Street, New York, New York.

8: Visual Material:

Predator! Adrien Brody

from wired.com…

Skinny Oscar-winner Adrien Brody will break type to play an alien-fighting action hero in Predators. The latest installment of the sci-fi franchise, which is being executive-produced by Robert Rodriguez (Sin City), casts Brody as a mercenary hired to fight creepy monsters.

Variety reports that Brody soon begins shooting Predators in Hawaii and at Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios in Austin, Texas. 20th Century Fox plans to release the flick on July 9, 2010.

Given that Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in the original 1987 Predator, this gig marks a major re-invention for Brody, who picked up an Academy Award for The Pianist and starred in Peter Jackson’s King Kong. Nimród Antal (Kontroll) directs.

Sweet

Non Serviam!

…is a motto by a number of political, cultural, and religious groups to express their wish not to conform; it may be used to express a radical view against established common beliefs and organisational structures accepted by the majority.

Can this be said by all aspect of Art?

Dragon Quest IX

Outside the giant Yodobashi-Akiba department store in the Akihabara district of Tokyo, hundreds of gamers gather each day, crowdsourcing the hunt for rare creatures and virtual treasure.

They stand, packed together in a cordoned-off area reserved for them, as store employees attempt to keep the sidewalk clear, ushering the players behind safety barriers. Everyone is holding a Nintendo DS and playing this year’s hottest new game: Dragon Quest IX

It’s a cartoony, easy-to-master role-playing game about grand adventures, but these players aren’t off slaying dragons. They’re swapping character data to meet other avatars and quite possibly collect valuable treasures.

Call it a massively multiplayer offline game.

“They get here pretty early in the morning,” said a 26-year-old player named Kawamura who stood away from the massive crowd but remained glued to his DS. It’s a scene that’s been repeated daily, albeit on a smaller scale, at hundreds of game stores, train stations and other convenient meeting spots all around Japan ever since the game’s July release. By harnessing a simple gameplay element to a previously existing capability of the Nintendo DS, developer Level-5 has created a sensation capable of drawing gamers together.

The items the Dragon Quest players are exchanging are treasure maps that lead them to hidden dungeons filled with monsters and treasure. When a player finds a map in the single-player game and then passes it along, his name will be attached, perhaps making him a mini celebrity.

Players seek several notorious maps in particular, said Kawamura. The “Masayuki Map,” named after the player who found it, leads to a dungeon full of nothing but King Metal Slimes, enemies that give the player copious experience points when they are defeated. Another map, called “Kawasaki Locker,” leads to a dungeon full of treasure chests packed with high-powered items.

The Dragon Quest players are mostly adults, although a few kids have cajoled their parents into bringing them to the meetups. Deo, a 9-year-old player, wandered back and forth between the cordoned-off area and his dad, who was sitting on a nearby bench — also playing Dragon Quest IX.

“You can meet a lot of interesting people,” Deo said, “and get items that you don’t already have.” The boy said his favorite item so far is the “Chiyoda-ku Map of the Gods,” named after the area of Tokyo in which Akihabara is located.

Reserved Area

Since the release of the original game in 1986, Dragon Quest has become a household name in Japan. It’s one of the country’s best-selling game series, and has moved close to 50 million copies worldwide. It’s played by kids, teens, parents and grandparents; the long-awaited release of a new Dragon Quest game is something of a national holiday here.

Except for some spinoff titles, the games have previously only been released for home consoles; the announcement that Dragon Quest IX would be released for the portable DS raised some eyebrows at first. But the crowds of people still milling about Yodobashi playing the game nearly three months later suggests that it was a savvy business move on the part of publisher Square Enix.

The game mode that’s fueling the Japanese crowds is called sure-chigai tsuushin, or “passerby communication.” It’s a brilliant concept for densely populated cities like Tokyo: If a player sets his DS on communication mode, then puts it into his pocket or bag, it’ll automatically search for other DS systems while he is walking around, riding the train or eating lunch at a coffee shop. When he opens his DS later, the player might find that the device has located other players that passed by during the day, and automatically exchanged virtual hellos. In a game like Dragon Quest, that means he’ll see the other player’s character, read a short message they wrote into the game and perhaps receive an in-game treasure from them.

The genius of sure-chigai, then, is that you don’t have to seek out other people who own the game. But the hundreds of people outside Yodobashi-Akiba know that you have to meet as many people as possible if you want the best treasures in the game.

Passerby communication has been around since the early days of DS. In the 2005 game Nintendogs, it was called “Bark Mode.” Another player’s virtual dog would join yours on the screen, and perhaps bring a present, like a chew toy. It’s been used in many other games since then, but nothing has ever caused a reaction like the Dragon Quest crowds.

After the game’s release, players quickly surmised that they were likely to collect more maps if they milled about in locations where other gamers would be. Since Yodobashi-Akiba boasts one of the biggest gaming sections in Tokyo, players began collecting around the Nintendo DS demo stations on the store’s 8th floor. Soon the crowds grew so large that they were practically taking over the floor, and Yodobashi set up an official area outdoors (and banned playing the game inside the store).

Banned from playing indoors

Players also established an extensive wiki on the subject, logging various maps and their benefits. The wiki also lists locations where players can expect to find others using sure-chigai — and tracks shops that have banned it. Dragon Quest IX is currently so ubiquitous, though, that picking up new virtual pals just while walking down the street is easy. I couldn’t walk more than a block down the street in the Shibuya entertainment district without my DS filling up with new visitors.

As befitting a new Dragon Quest release, promotional activity is all over Tokyo. If you bring your DS to a McDonald’s restaurant, you can download a red clown wig, just like Ronald’s, for your character to wear. Square Enix has also been quick to jump on the popularity of sure-chigai tsuushin.

A new television commercial (embedded), which can also be seen playing in Japan’s subway cars, shows a guy and a girl hooking up because they both happened to be in sure-chigai mode. (”Oh, your birthday is next week?” he says when he sees her transmitted data.)

They’re soon joined by two more giggly Dragon Quest players, and they all become pals.

On the streets of Tokyo, I didn’t observe anything nearly this social happening in real life. Most players kept their heads down, filing new data away on their DS and scooping up more after seeing what maps they’d been given. While every player I talked to said they were interested in the game because you can “meet people,” nobody seemed to actually be meeting each other.

Then again, in a culture where randomly introducing yourself to a stranger is something of a breach of etiquette, perhaps there really is a deep appeal to being able to virtually encounter other people, if only in passing.

James Cameron’s Avatar

James Camerons Avatar

Background and details about Avatar:

The story’s protagonist, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), is a former Marine who was wounded and paralyzed from the waist down in combat on Earth. Jake is selected to participate in the Avatar program, which will enable him to walk. Jake travels to Pandora, a lush jungle-covered extraterrestrial moon filled with incredible life forms, some beautiful, many terrifying. Pandora is also home to the Na’vi, a sentient humanoid race, who are considered primitive, yet are more physically capable than humans. Standing three meters tall (approximately 10ft), with tails and sparkling blue skin, the Na’vi live in harmony with their unspoiled world. As humans encroach deeper into Pandora’s forests in search of valuable minerals, the Na’vi unleash their formidable warrior abilities to defend their threatened existence.

Jake has unwittingly been recruited to become part of this encroachment. Since humans are unable to breathe the air on Pandora, they have created genetically-bred human-Na’vi hybrids known as Avatars. The Avatars are living, breathing bodies that are controlled by a human “driver” through a technology that links the driver’s mind to their Avatar body. On Pandora, through his Avatar body, Jake can be whole once again. Sent deep into Pandora’s jungles as a scout for the soldiers that will follow, Jake encounters many of Pandora’s beauties and dangers. There he meets a young Na’vi female, Neytiri, whose beauty is matched only by her ferocity in battle.

Over time, Jake integrates himself into Na’vi’s clan, and begins to fall in love with Neytiri. As a result, Jake finds himself caught between the military-industrial forces of Earth, and the Na’vi, forcing him to choose sides in an epic battle that will decide the fate of an entire world.

In 1994, director James Cameron wrote an 80-page scriptment for Avatar. Cameron said his inspiration was “every single science fiction book I read as a kid”, and that he was particularly striving to update the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter series. Cameron saw his story as being about how advanced civilizations supplant indigenous cultures, in either actively genocidal or more unpremeditated ways, and was influenced by the story of Pocahontas. In Avatar, humanity extends that practice to entire planets. The premise of a paralyzed man whose mind is remotely controlling an alien body is very similar to Poul Anderson’s 1957 short story “Call me Joe.” In August 1996, Cameron announced that after completing Titanic, he would film Avatar, which would make use of “synthetic”, or computer-generated, actors. The project would cost $100 million and involve at least six actors in leading roles “who appear to be real but do not exist in the physical world”. Special effects house Digital Domain, with whom Cameron has a partnership, joined the project, which was supposed to begin production in the summer of 1997 for a 1999 release. However, that was not to be, due to the special effects he wanted ran the budget up to $400 million, which made the film impossible to be made.

In June 2005, director Cameron was announced to be working on a project tentatively titled “Project 880″, concurrently with another project, Battle Angel. By December, Cameron said that he planned to film Battle Angel first for a summer 2007 release, and to film Project 880 for a 2009 release. In February 2006, Cameron said he had switched goals for the two film projects – Project 880 was now scheduled for 2007 and Battle Angel for 2009. He indicated that the release of Project 880 would possibly be delayed until 2008. Later that February, Cameron revealed that Project 880 was “a retooled version of Avatar”, a film that he had tried to make years earlier, citing the technological advances in the creation of the computer-generated characters Gollum, King Kong and Davy Jones. Cameron had chosen Avatar over Battle Angel after completing a five-day camera test in the previous year.

Cameron’s early scriptment for Avatar had circulated on the Internet for years. When the project was re-announced, copies were subsequently removed from websites. In June 2006, Cameron said that if Avatar was successful, he hoped to make two sequels to the film.

From January to April 2006, Cameron worked on the script. Working with Paul Frommer, linguist and Director of the Center for Management Communication at USC, he developed a whole language and culture for the Na’vi, the indigenous race on Pandora. In July, Cameron announced that he would film Avatar for a summer 2008 release and planned to begin principal photography with an established cast by February 2007. The following August, the visual effects studio Weta Digital signed on to help Cameron produce Avatar. Stan Winston, who had collaborated with Cameron in the past, joined Avatar to help with the film’s designs. In September 2006, Cameron was announced to be using his own Reality Camera System to film in 3-D. The system would use two high-definition cameras in a single camera body to create depth perception.

Filming and effects

Avatar was filmed using newly developed 3D virtual cameras, which would produce stereoscopic 3D images simulating human sight. In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough. The director planned to create photo-realistic computer-generated characters by using motion capture animation technology, on which he had been doing work for the past 14 months. Unlike previous performance capture systems, where the digital environment is added after the actors’ motions have been captured, Cameron’s new virtual camera allows him to observe directly on a monitor how the actors’ virtual counterparts interact with the movie’s digital world in real time and adjust and direct the scenes just as if shooting live action; “It’s like a big, powerful game engine. If I want to fly through space, or change my perspective, I can. I can turn the whole scene into a living miniature and go through it on a 50 to 1 scale.” Cameron planned to continue developing the special effects for Avatar, which he hoped would be released in summer 2009. He also gave fellow directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson a chance to test the new technology. Spielberg and George Lucas were also able to visit the set to watch Cameron direct with the equipment.

Other technological innovations include a performance-capture stage, called The Volume, which is six times larger than previously used and an improved method of capturing facial expressions. The tool is a small individually made skull cap with a tiny camera attached to it, located in front of the actors’ face which collects information about their facial expressions and eyes, which is then transmitted to the computers. This way, Cameron intends to transfer about 95% of the actors’ performances to their digital counterparts. Besides a real time virtual world, the team is also experimenting with a way of letting computer generated characters interact with real actors on a real, live-action set while shooting live action.

In January 2007, Fox announced that the studio’s Avatar would be filmed in 3D at 24 frames per second. Cameron described the film as a hybrid with a full live-action shoot in combination with computer-generated characters and live environments. “Ideally at the end of the day the audience has no idea which they’re looking at,” Cameron said. The director indicated that he had already worked four months on nonprincipal scenes for the film. Principal photography began in April 2007, and was done around parts of Los Angeles as well as New Zealand. The live action is shot with the proprietary Fusion digital 3-D camera system developed by Cameron and Vince Pace. According to Cameron, the film will be composed of 60% computer-generated elements and 40% live action, as well as traditional miniatures. The performance-capture photography would last 31 days at the Hughes Aircraft stage in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, California. In October, Cameron was scheduled to shoot live-action in New Zealand for another 31 days.

To create the human mining colony on Pandora, production designers visited the Noble Clyde Boudreaux drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico during June 2007. They photographed, measured and filmed every aspect of the rig, which will be replicated on-screen with photorealistic CGI. Around 1000 people worked on the production.

Music

Composer James Horner will score the film, which will be his third collaboration with Cameron after Aliens and Titanic. Horner recorded parts of the score with a small chorus singing in the alien language Na’vi in March 2008. He is also working with Wanda Bryant, an ethnomusicologist, to create a music culture for the alien race. The first scoring sessions were planned to take place in the Spring of 2009.

Manchester United vs Manchester City

What a fucking joke that game was. I think the referee is a United fan. What a big load of biased pish. The FA is a disgrace, stop fucking spending money on holidays and sort the discipline of football out. These referees are shit and start embracing technology.

Giant Space Bubble

The Bubble Nebula

Called the Bubble Nebula, this eerie, translucent sphere is created by fierce winds from a superhot star 40 times the size of our sun. Moving at nearly 4.5 million miles per hour, stellar winds whip the cloud of gas around the star into a near-perfect bubble, which stands out from the rest of the more stationary gas in this emission nebula.

Located 7,100 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia, the bubble is about 6 light-years in diameter and glows pink because of the red, hot gas that surrounds it. The first clear picture of the Bubble Nebula was taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in 1997, and this new image was captured in July by the South Common Observatory in Britain.

Guitar Hero 5: Courtney Loves Sues Activision

Courtney Love, the widow of former Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, has threatened to sue publisher Activision for breach of contract over her late husband’s appearance in Guitar Hero 5.

“For the record this Guitar Hero shit is breach of contract on a Bullys part and there will be a proper addressing of this and retraction,” Love said on her Twitter account, later adding: “WE are going to sue the shit out of ACtivision we being the Trust the Estate the LLC the various LLCs Cobain Enterprises.”

Activision has since issued a statement to various news outlets, including Kotaku, defending Cobain’s depiction in the game. “Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5,” the publisher said.

Activision vice president Tim Riley also told the Guardian: “Courtney supplied us with photos and videos. She picked the wardrobe and hairstyle, which turned out to be the ‘Teen Spirit’ look, then we went back and forth over changes – some subtle, some not so subtle.”

However, Love’s attorney, Keith Fink, told VG247: “Activision’s statement is not accurate in suggesting that they were given an unfettered use of Kurt’s name and likeness. The agreement Activision has with the trust doesn’t grant them the right to use his name and likeness in ways that denigrate his image. We are demanding the trust take appropriate action to protect Mr. Cobain’s image and would hope Activision would do so on its own accord and prohibit users of the game from singing songs of others.”

Former Nirvana band members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl have also expressed their unease over the use of Cobain’s likeness in Guitar Hero 5, telling the Associated Press: “While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in ‘re-locking’ Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future.”

Halo 3: ODST

As the new Halo game is due for release I thought I would troll the tinterweb and pull some facts about the upcoming game Halo 3:ODST:

Halo 3: ODST is a new standalone expansion for the legendary first-person shooter video game Halo 3. Players assume the roles of human UNSC soldiers known as Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs) during the events prior to Halo 3.

Bungie initially conceived ODST as a small side project to produce in the lull between Halo 3’s completion and Halo: Reach. Instead of featuring recognizable characters such as the Master Chief from previous games, the developers focused on the ODSTs. Story director Joseph Staten penned a detective story utilizing film noir settings, design, and characters. Composer Martin O’Donnell abandoned his previous Halo themes to create a quieter, jazz-influenced sound. During development, the game grew in scope to that of a full-sized game.

One thing which is apparent is that Halo 3 has created a multiplayer sensation, luckily ODST packs them same and then some:

ODST’s multiplayer offering is identical to Halo 3’s, and will ship with a total of 24 maps. Maps consist of the original eleven Halo 3 maps (Construct, Epitaph, Guardian, High Ground, Isolation, Last Resort, Narrows, Sandtrap, Snowbound, The Pit, Valhalla), the Heroic map pack (Foundry, Rat’s Nest, Standoff), the Legendary map pack (Avalanche, Blackout, Ghost Town), the “Cold Storage” map, and the Mythic map pack (Assembly, Orbital, and Sandbox) as well as three new maps (Citadel, Heretic, Longshore). The exclusive maps are also counted as “Mythic” maps and are tied into Halo 3’s achievements. The Halo 3 multiplayer does not require Halo 3 to play and ships on a separate disc.

ODST also contains a new game mode called Firefight, wherein players take on increasingly difficult waves of varied enemies. Firefight will include new medals as well as the ability to co-op with up to 4 teammates over Xbox LIVE or System Link. Each player has a set number of lives and the game ends upon their depletion. There is no time limit, no limited number of rounds and no maximum number of kills. Skulls will be incorporated into Firefight as a means to increase the difficulty and provide variation. The maps used in Firefight will be unlocked as the player progresses through the ODST campaign. It is also noted that the enemy characters appearing in each wave are generated at random, thus the player will be unable to anticipate the strength of the next wave prior to its arrival.

ODST is a first-person shooter. Although the gameplay of ODST bears a strong resemblance to previous Halo titles, the player does not assume the role of the enhanced human supersoldier Master Chief. Instead, the player controls a lone UNSC soldier, known as “the Rookie”, in the city of New Mombasa, East African Protectorate (formerly Kenya). Since the soldier, known as an ODST or Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, does not possess Master Chief’s advanced armor, reflexes and strength, he is more vulnerable to gunfire; players are forced to act more cautiously. The soldier HUD is different from the previous series, with red outlines for the enemies thanks to a new feature called the “VISR” (Visual Intelligence System, Reconnaissance). The “VISR” also gives you a compass and outlines important items in yellow, but has no radar. However, the aiming reticle remains. It will also include an open world environment.

Placement

Well my placement at the Peninsula Medical School has come to an end. After a fun filled and hard working year it is time to return to my fourth year at university. I’ve learnt so much while working there and i’d highly recommend any future placements to try and get a place there.

Mr T… Bag

New Michael Jackson Song

Click for Michael Jacksons New Song

The song — “A Place with No Name” — sounds similar to the song “A Horse with No Name” released by the group America back in 1971. We’re told several years ago America’s manager gave his group’s permission for Jackson to record the song, “A Place with No Name” — despite the similarity.

America’s current manager, Jim Morey, who was also Michael’s manager in the late 80’s and early 90’s, tells us, “The band was honored that Michael chose to do their song and they hope it becomes available for all Michael’s fans to hear.”

It’s unclear when Michael recorded the song.

Oasis at Wembley Stadium

I went to see Oasis on the 12th of July. Supporting them were Kasabian, The Enemy and Revenrend and the Makers. I’d just like to say the Wembley Stadium is fantastic, the ground is massive and the staff are very helpful. The only let down was being showered by cups of beer. Here are some photies…

Rev Al Sharpton

During Michael Jacksons Farewell public tribute there was a guest speaker called Rev Al Sharpton. When I saw him I knew I recognised him from somewhere. LO and behold this afternoon i’m currently watching Louie Therouxs weird weekend, the show is Black Nationalism, a show whcih talks about the famous Amadou Diallo case.

“In 1999, Sharpton led a protest to raise awareness about the death of Amadou Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea who was shot to death by NYPD officers. Sharpton claimed that Diallo’s death was the result of police brutality and racial profiling. Diallo’s family was later awarded $3 million in a wrongful death suit filed against the city.” – Wikipedia (sorry)

Here is Rev Al Sharptons speech at Michael Jacksons Farewell Tribute, a truely heartbreaking speech.

For those interesting in watching more of Rev Al Sharpton the Louie Theroux Weird Weekend video can be found here:

Michael Jackson: The Farewell

Michael Jackson

Berry Gordy says “The Jackson 5 blew everyone away at Motown Records when they auditioned. He described Michael’s performance as “way beyond its years”. When he did his iconic moonwalk, I was shocked. It was magic. He went into orbit and never came down. “

There was another death today… I’ll Be There which was sung by Mariah (rubbing my fingers together) Carey at Michael Jacksons Farewell tribute today at the Staples Centre. Very touching speeches from Kobe, Magic, but Rev. Al Sharpleton… wow that was amazing. John Mayers rendition of Human Nature was awesome. Brooke Shields still looks amazing, she’s clearly still very emotional, she quotes “… he was caring, funny, honest and pure. He was a lover of life and cared so deeply for his family, friends and fans. He was often referred to as the king, but he reminded me more of The Little Prince”.

The songs have been amazing – Mariah aside. Rev. Al Sharpleton has stolen the show so far, his speech was just awesome, on par with Martin Luther King, he says “It was Michael Jackson that brought blacks and whites and asians and latinos together”. Jennifer Hudsons song Will Be You There was incredible especially when Michael was voiced over at the end. Jermaine Jackson has sung Smile, just incredible and so so moving.

Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, Civil Rights Activists, has both given moving speeches just as their family is well known for. Congresswoman Shiela Jackson Lee came on stage to pay tribute to Jackson. She makes reference to Jackson’s court cases and says “people are innocent until proven guilty”. I must be honest she confused me greatly, however Michael Jackson will be recognised as a World Humanitarian.

Usher took to the stage, telling Michael Jackson he loves him and means so much to him and sings ‘Gone Too Soon’, wearing dark shades so his eyes cant be seen. The first person to touch while singing at his coffin. Very moving when he ended the song in tears and receiving hugs from the Jackson Family. Smokey Robinson took to the stage again to talk about how Michael Jackson sings his songs better than him, he says “… He is going to live on for ever and ever and ever and ever. He has made an enormous impact on people’s lives across the world”.

X Factor finalist Shaheen Jafargholi has blew everyone away with an awesome redention of Who’s Lovin’ You, Michael is quoted to have enjoyed Shaleens original performance which captured the nations hearts at the X Factor finals. Michael Jackson’s tour organiser asked the crowd to join together in singing ‘We Are The World’. The Family and contributors were on the stage while singing We Are The World, and then finished off with Heal The World.

“We thank you. We thank you very much,” says Jermaine.
“A part of you will live in all of us. I will treasure the good times, the fun we had singing, laughing and dancing” – Marlon Jackson

The Jackson siblings hug. Paris, Michael’s daughter, takes the microphone: “Daddy has been the best father anyone can imagine.”

The family is carrying the casket out of Staples center as “Man in the Mirror” plays.

Michael Jackson R.I.P

Michael Jackson Memorial

R.I.P Michael Jackson…

My Blog and The Gaians

Gaia Online

I’m getting loads of views by having Gaia Online mentioned so I thought i’d do a bit of research as to why people are searching such a broad term rather than a specfic part of the game. Was originally called Go-Gaia.com in 2003 but the changed to GaiaOnline in 2004. It’s quite hard to say what exactly the website is, its a mish-mash of social gaming but with insane forum activity (Million posts per day), with 7 Million unique visitors each month.

For more information visit this link.

Kanye West vs 30 Seconds to Mars

Kanye West and 30 Seconds to Mars, I thought this would be an interesting mix together, its out a little in a few places but I think its not bad (I would though wouldn’t I?)

For more mixes please visit my channel on Youtube.

Thanks for listening!

Max Payne 3!!!

New screenshots of Max Payne 3 have been released. Rockstar (the new owners of this awesome franchise, was Remedy Entertainment) finally delivered us some pictures:

According to Rockstar’s Sam Houser, they are starting a new chapter of Max’s life with the game. “This is Max as we’ve never seen him before, a few years older, more world-weary and cynical than ever.” Since the last game, the press release states Max has left New York behind and has “drifted from bad to worse”. The press release then goes on to say Max has been double-crossed in this new city and he is searching for the truth and a way out.

A recent issue of Game Informer has revealed that the story is set 12 years after the last game. Payne has been cut loose from the NYPD, and has moved to São Paulo, Brazil where he’s taken up employment in the private security sector, working for a wealthy local family.

The game is due for release this Winter!

Pharrell vs Freq Nasty

Pharrell vs Freq Nasty, this is probably one of my favourite mixes that I have done, I wont be uploading all of my mixes. Just the ones which I think are fairly good.

For more mixes please visit my channel on Youtube.

Thanks for listening!