Make sure you reserve your Legendary Edition of Halo 3 before it’s too late. Don’t disappoint your cat!

NASA risked certain doom by allowing former teacher Barbara Morgan to hitch a ride aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. The surprisingly successful launch put a fully in-tact crew and vehicle into orbit with nary a hint of the devastating fireball Christa McAuliffe caused in the 1986 Challenger launch.
As it turns out, perhaps it really was the O-rings and not the teacher element. Don’t hold your breath though…reentry can be tricky.

It’s being billed “mini-E3″ by the press but the actual news ought to be just as big as any previous E3 show. The real announcements and strategic moves occur in the big 3 keynote speeches by Microsoft, Sony & Nintendo.

• Tuesday, July 10 - Microsoft Keynote - 10:00 PM CST
• Wednesday, July 11 - Nintendo Keynote - 11:00 AM CST
• Wednesday, July 11 - Sony Keynote - 1:00 PM CST

The “mini” part of this year’s E3 is really the show floor display. The above listed press conferences will be just as important for the industry as ever before. We’ll likely hear news of cheaper hardware and see the major software releases for the rest of the year and into early 2008.

Sell-out gaming network G4 will actually air each of the above press conferences live. They also appear to have quite extensive coverage of the entire show.

Check out the names on my fantasy baseball pitching staff:

1. Dontrelle Willis - Florida
2. Barry Zito - San Fran
3. Daisuke Matsuzaka - B0 Sox
4. Rich Harden -Oakland
5. Brad Penny - Dodgers
6. Cole Hamels - Phillies
7. Scott Kazmir - Tampa Bay
8. Chad Gaudin - Oakland

All that and I’m in 9th friggin’ place? Seriously, what does it take to bust out of the cellar?

Of course the big names on that list aren’t necessarily having the greatest year. Dontrelle is not the same pitcher this year and old man Zito is living the good life now that he’s making A-Rod money. Harden is always hurt and Kazmir really, won’t have a chance to really shine until he gets traded to a good team. Still, Dice-K, Gaudin, Hamels, and Penny have been fantasy studs.

Still, it feels like that pitch in the nuts.

Salon.com has a great article about the U.S. government’s control over the mainstream media:

It’s a curious thing that, over the past 10 - 12 days, the news from Iraq refers to the combatants there as “al-Qaida” fighters. When did that happen?

Until a few days ago, the combatants in Iraq were “insurgents” or they were referred to as “Sunni” or “Shia’a” fighters in the Iraq Civil War. Suddenly, without evidence, without proof, without any semblance of fact, the US military command is referring to these combatants as “al-Qaida”.

Welcome to the latest in Iraq propaganda.

The media continues to dine blindly from the Bush Administration’s  smorgasbord of propaganda.  Pandering to the power just keeps America ignorant and in the dark.  How can we really get angry if we can’t get the truth?

I listen to a lot of music. While I tend to steadily revolve around artsy rock with a certain twinge of anger I appreciate the occasional well-written lyric. Like him or not, Jeff Tweedy can put pen to paper. The new Wilco album (Sky Blue Sky) isn’t as forward thinking as their previous 2 efforts but it is growing on me.

Track #2 is You Are My Face. The structure of the lyrics and the use of complimentary discriptors to bring a visual element to each stanza is just so well done. It’s not the greatest song ever written, it’s not even the best example of Wilco’s work, but damn is it well done. Maybe their next album will return the Wilco who pushes boundaries but for now this will do fine.

Listen to the track on Wilco’s Website and follow along:

Read the rest of this entry »

This is an amazingly high resolution photo taken from an airship after the 1906 earthquake.  The damage to the city is overwhelming when the image is viewed at full size.  It’s an amazing technical photo for the time.  Click the link below to view the image:

1906 San Francisco Earthquake

Source 

Click the pic to enlarge