La dernière oeuvre avant de rentrer dans le vif du sujet avec le top ten. Une belle entrèe en matière faut le dire avec ce roman que vous avez classé en position numéro 11 avec 226 points.

Lolita- Vladimir Nabokov. (1899-1977)
Première parution : 1955
Langue originale : Anglais

La passion érotique violente qu’éprouve le protagoniste et narrateur du roman, Humbert Humbert, pour Lolita, douze ans, ainsi que leurs relations sexuelles demeurent profondément choquantes aujourd’hui, particulièrement dans une culture qui se soucie des abus faits aux enfants et de la façon dont on les sexualise.

Ecrit dans le style impeccable et habituel de Nabokov, ce roman violent pose de fascinantes questions sur le rôle de la fiction.

Est-il possible de trouver de la beauté et de l’humour dans un récit répugnant d’un point de vue éthique?

Peut-on suspendre son jugement moral en faveur de l’appréciation esthétique d’une phrase joliment tournée ou parfaitement équilibrée?

Les réponses demeurent incertaines, mais en opposant le fond et la forme, en maintenant un équilibre aussi ténu entre l’éthique et l’esthétique, Nabokov invente un nouveau genre de fiction littéraire. La façon dont Humbert enlève Lolita et traverse les Etats-Unis avec elle dans une tentative folle pour échapper aux autorités fait de ce roman la première oeuvre postmoderne, ainsi qu’un genre de road movie avant l’heure. Humbert appartient à la vieille Europe, c’est un amateur de Rimbaud et Balzac qui ne trouve pas sa place dans l’Amérique des années 1950, et demeure en extase devant une Lolita qui mâche du chewing-gum et boit des sodas. L’histoire de cette rencontre entre un âge vénérable et une jeunesse maladroite, entre l’Europe et l’Amérique, l’art élitiste et la culture populaire, a inspiré de nombreux romans et films.

Sans Lolita, il serait difficile d’imaginer Vente à la criée du lot 49 de Pynchon ou Pulp Fiction de Tarantino.

Après autant d’imitations, le fait que ce roman soit toujours aussi troublant, neuf et émouvant témoigne de son originalité et de sa force et quelle grandeur d’âme.

Une large avance sur son époque.

A lire ou relire.

Alors qu'on pensait qu'après les accords de l'Élysée et le vote d'Hadopi, les ayants droit allaient trouver un pont d'or en fin de mois, le ministre de la Culture a annoncé hier qu'il allait s'attaquer au problème de la rémunération de ces acteurs : ...

Toujours pour son baptême d'Hadopi, le ministre de la Culture l'a affirmé hier après midi à l'Assemblée, lorsqu'il a détaillé rapidement l'agenda : les premiers courriers d'avertissement partiront cet automne.

Le tout chaud ministre de la Culture Frédéric Mitterrand va attaquer son poste rue de Valois avec un dossier à point : le projet de loi antipiratage, que le gouvernement a été contraint de ficeler en quatrième vitesse après la censure d'Hadopi par ...

via http://www.juxtapoz.com/

Two weeks worth of comics that are better than what Megan Fox reads. I think I’ll go to San Diego and shove them in her face whilst laughing at her inferior taste, making her cry in a pile of money and rich guys as a result.

Oh yeah, I should probably tease the reviews. I’m sticking with grouping everything in categories, and I’m starting with some Batman comics you may not have heard of. If you are new to comic book blogs, at least.

Reborn, Reschmorn; I’m Just Here For The Creative Teams- Batman and Robin #2 and Detective Comics #854

These are both worth it for the art. I like Morrison’s story better (I hope no one died of shock over that one), but Rucka’s was solid. Nice to see Batwoman get some character development, although that’s really faint praise, given all we knew about her before now was that she is Renee Montoya’s socialite ex-girlfriend. Also nice to see Rucka and Cully Hamner doing the Question, even if that was one hell of an abrupt ending.

Obligatory praise of Morrison and Quitely. In the spirit of reader participation, I’ll let you all fill in the blanks. What else do you need to say besides “this was a comic by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. It is drawn well and is interesting.” Well, okay, I did really like Alfred’s pep talk and the way he gave Dick his motivation to be Batman. That’s an underutilized part of Dick’s character (says the guy who was read a total of zero issues of Nightwing). That’s worth mentioning.

But really, I’m with these creative teams, I’m very happy to plunk down cash on these, even if they lack honest titles. I guess The Temporary Replacement Duo and Masked Lesbian Vigilante Two In One Don’t roll off the tongue.

Also, an interesting debate broke out in the comments of Douglas Wolk’s post about ‘Tec in regards to following creators vs. following characters (well, sort of). Oh, and some guys says JH Williams III’s art sucks. Don’t see that every day.

Grant Morrison Wrote This One, Too- Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #3

So, yeah, that sure was the end of that story. Unlike a lot of Morrison written comics that I enjoy on a superficial level, I’m really not sure if there is much beyond the surface here (which is why people calling the first one unintelligible always bugged me; this is practically the most straightforward thing he has ever written!). I don’t know why that bugs me, but it does. Although I’m not a decoder of his work, I do like knowing there’s more below the surface. Of course, if there is, I’m probably ignorant of it here. Too bad other bloggers don’t excessively delve in to his

That said, this was a very good comic book that I am glad I purchased, and I’m down for more adventures whenever Morrison, Cameron Stewart, and DC want to put them together. Where else am I going to see a tiny mad scientist riding a skeletal T-Rex? And, as always, Chubby Da Choona breaks my heart. I could also live with this as the ending, though. Maybe that’s why it played out the way it did.

Marvel Team Books I Enjoy: Agents Of Atlas #7, Uncanny X-Men #512, Exiles #4, Secret Warriors #5

I’m going lightning round on these:

Agents- The recap pages alone makes this better than 99% of everything Marvel publishes. Nice that we got a back up without being taxed, and that Derek Khanata’s back.

Uncanny- This is a jumping off point for me, at least until the crossover with Dark Avengers is over. It may be a good place for the rest of Fraction’s run entirely, because I’m not sure he’ll ever be able to top this, unless he gives us more stories with Steampunk Sentinels, thinly veiled Nikola Telsa, and the 19th Century’s Hellfire Club. Or just throws Mark Twain in there and makes it a blatant sequel to the Five Fists of Science. I’d buy 8 copies of that every month.

Exiles- More pop culture references and a new artist, but otherwise, this is the same fun team book it was in Jeff Parker’s* opening arc. I liked the swerve with the android coalition. I miss Salva Espin, but Kelley Jones and Karl Kesel are good replacements.

Secret Warriors- This reminded me a lot of GI Joe: The Movie. The original one. Unless someone announces that Sitwell’s okay in a hastily thrown in caption next issue, I’m guessing that wasn’t intentional.

And The Two Solo Marvel Hero Comics I Buy In Singles: Immortal Iron Fist #27 and Incredible Hercules #130

Iron Fist- This is a good way to end this volume. It’s a pretty good jumping off point, really. I like the idea of an Immortal Weapons comic, especially with Jason Aaron involved, but I’ll probably wait for the trade on it.

Incredible Herc- I hope Aegis winds up being resurrected. I like he and Cho as a duo. Zeus’s trial has its moments, but it’s probably my least favorite single issue of this run. That said, that’s no bad thing. It’s like being my least favorite hot actress who has terrible taste in comics. You’re still a hot actress who is better than me at everything (I should really drop this now, shouldn’t I?). Also, this is probably the best use of Uncle Ben since he died.

Licensed Comics: Buffy Season 8 #26 and Ender’s Game: Recruiting Valentine One Shot

Buffy- It’s probably a bad sign that I enjoyed this issue because the plot is finally moving, which means I’m closer to being able to finish the run. I hate being That Guy, but I am on board with this until they finish Season 8. That said, this was a legitimately good issue, with some laugh out loud moments (including a call back to Buffy’s bi-curious moment) and a Seth Green variant cover. We need more of those.

Ender’s Game- I got this for free. I came in not knowing much about the property (or its creator, beyond his views on homosexuality). So, I didn’t know what to expect.

What I got was a perfectly okay if dull story about a little girl manipulating her teacher in to being less of a hard ass with his grading. In the future! This isn’t representative of the stuff people swear by from Card, is it? At any rate, nice to see Timothy Green II, who really impressed me when he was drawing that Annihilation: Dirty Dozen With Rocket Raccoon mini. His work here is less impressive, but really, he doesn’t get a lot to work with.

Beautiful Looking Viking comics With Stories I’m Not Entirely Sold On, But I will Buy Anyway Because Of The Novel Format And $2.99 Price Tag- Viking #2

Viking- That was the whole review up there.

Every Comic Book Blogger Is Required By Law To Review This- Captain America Reborn #1

When the recap ends and the plot begins, this gets good. And hey, I appreciate the sop to accessibility, even if it seems optimistic that a ton of people who don’t know The Death of Cap storyline inside and out are going to be picking this up. This towed the line between being an event comic and a $4 issue of Brubaker’s Cap well, and that’s all you can ask. That, and my not feeling any cognitive dissonance when Hitch drew Captain America and he wasn’t an a-hole make me glad I picked this one up.

*Full disclosure: Jeff Parker is my friend.*
**On Facebook. So are Jay Garrick and Chris Sims.

2 Comments

• At July 1, 2009, logomatic wrote:

  Just speaking personally, I haven't been following the adventures of BuckyCap all that closely, so I enjoyed the recap.

• At July 1, 2009, logomatic wrote:

  oo, I meant re-CAP.

  Bwahaha.

Une très belle vidéo qui donne une autre image de la marque Vuitton. Malgrés un beau pic de viralité il semble que ça visibilité s'essoufle mais bon en ce moment à part des vidéos de Michael Jackson personne ne regarde plus rien sur le web:

Source : freetux (s'abonner)

Explorer : Culture, Michael Jackson, Musique, Rhythm and Blues

Le tout chaud ministre de la Culture Frédéric Mitterrand va attaquer son poste rue de Valois avec un dossier à point : le projet de loi antipiratage, que le gouvernement a été contraint de ficeler en quatrième vitesse après la censure d'Hadopi par ...

Source : PC INpact (s'abonner)

TONIUM : LE PACEMAKER 3 EN 2010 Tegra, encore et toujours... Après les smartphones de ce matin, évoquons l’élan, ce netbook signé Mobinnova...

P1000 : UN BALADEUR AUDIO CHEZ CUBE Quand Cube ne donne pas dans la miss dégingandée, le constructeur asiatique planche sur de nouveaux baladeurs. Le P1000 est donc une nouveauté... 

TOSHIBA : LE TG01 CHEZ ORANGE ?
Nous devrions pouvoir goûter aux joies du TG01 en France : la rumeur court que le smartphone de Toshiba serait en effet disponible chez Orange à partir d’aujourd’hui ! AUSSI DANS L’ACTUALITÉ Suisse : grosse baisse de la taxe sur la copie privée Jabra : des kits mains-libres grand luxe L’interface Sense et le multi-points sur le G1 Nationite : le NaNite N1 en photos JAPAN EXPO 2009 : 10ÈME ANNIVERSAIRE Du 2 au 5 juillet se déroulera au parc des expositions de paris nord Villepinte le plus gros salon dédier à la culture japonaise en Europe.
UN NOUVEAU LOGO POUR LES ACCESSOIRES PLAYSTATION Sony a fait le choix de mettre en place un nouveau logo pour les accessoires de ses consoles afin de mettre en valeur les produits de “qualités”.

Copyright L8RMEDIA 1998-2009 - Tous droits réservés - L'intégralité des articles est à consulter sur generationmp3.com

Selon le Parisien, Frédéric Mitterrand, nouveau ministre de la Culture et de la Communication, a accepté l’invitation à déjeuner que lui a lancée Patrick de Carolis. Il se rendra vendredi au siège de France Télévisions avec des membres de son cabinet. Patrick Carolis devrait être entouré [...]

Le Pays de Galles a lancé le projet " Grassohol " qui vise à transformer les plantes fourragères (ray-grass) en production d'éthanol destiné aux véhicules.

Ce programme de recherche a pour objectif de mettre au point des procédés commercialement et économiquement viables permettant de fabriquer de l’éthanol à partir de ray-grass pluriannuel, la plante fourragère la plus communément semée au Royaume-Uni et habituellement destinée à être pâturée ou ensilée.

Le ray grass est généralement cultivé en association avec du trèfle blanc, qui fixe l’azote dans le sol et agit comme un engrais naturel, et permet de ce fait de minimiser les coûts de production, tout en réduisant les émissions de gaz à effet de serre générées par la fabrication d’engrais de synthèse. Les chercheurs s’attacheront à mettre en évidence les meilleures méthodes d’extraction et de fermentation des sucres, ainsi que les techniques permettant d’obtenir des rendements et des taux de production d’éthanol maximum.

D’après Joe Gallagher, de l’IBERS, le ray-grass constitue une solution beaucoup plus durable, qui ne remet pas en cause les intérêts de l’industrie alimentaire. "Le ray-grass est parfaitement adapté à nos conditions climatiques et à nos sols. Sa culture d’affectera ni les paysages écologiquement sensibles ni la biodiversité, et il a une teneur élevée en hydrates de carbone extractibles. Toutes ces qualités associées en font une plante très intéressante pour la production de bioéthanol, d’un potentiel supérieur à nombre d’autres candidats. Si un nouveau débouché rentable est trouvé pour l’herbe, les agriculteurs pourront augmenter leur production pour répondre à la demande. Techniquement, une même parcelle pourrait servir aussi bien au pâturage des animaux, à la production d’ensilage et à la production de carburant."

Selon Joe Gallagher, la production britannique de biocarburant est très limitée et l’essentiel du bioéthanol entrant dans la composition des carburants vendus actuellement au Royaume-Uni est importé. Ce bioéthanol est produit à partir de cultures qui ont avant tout vocation de nourrir la planète, comme le maïs, le blé ou la canne à sucre, ce qui représente un risque pour la sécurité alimentaire mondiale.

Au Pays de Galles, 1,04 million d’hectares, soit 62% des terres disponibles, sont occupés par des prairies permanentes et constituent donc une source de matière première, qui peut être récoltée sur plusieurs mois.

A titre d’exemple, un hectare de prairie pourrait produire jusqu’à 4 500 litres d’éthanol. Des raffineries pourraient être créées au niveau local, dans les exploitations, un peu comme cela se passe actuellement pour les coopératives vinicoles.

During the city of Washington, D.C.'s crowdsourced Apps for Democracy 2 project, one of the top requested apps was a GPS notification system for public transportation.

For those of you who've not had the pleasure of residing in our nation's capital and the outlying cities and suburbs of Virginia and Maryland, public transpo is a large part of commuter culture. So, based on the Apps for Democracy feedback, the D.C. Department of Transportation got together with the Office of Planning and the office of the city's CTO to develop Where's My Bus? It's a mobile application (that works on the web, as well) for getting users real-time GPS information on buses along the five-route D.C. Circulator system.

Sponsor

By way of background information, Apps for Democracy is a result of the D.C. government's having a boatload of civic and municipal information in their Data Catalog, which is basically an API for the entire city. The information it contains - everything from police feeds and building permits to poverty indicators and test scores, some of it available in real-time or with geographic indicators - had the potential to be highly useful for the citizens, visitors, businesses and government agencies.

So the city launched a contest for developers to use the data to solve some of the city's problems, allotting $50,000 in prize money. The first year's results included 47 mobile, Facebook, and web apps with an estimated value of more than $2.6 million. Smart town.

Here's more on this year's contest, dubbed the Community Edition:

In the first phase of the project, problems and issues were identified through a crowdsourced, open gov-type site, and developers were challenged accordingly in a second phase. App submissions for this year's projects end at 11:30 tonight. We wish we'd heard about it earlier, because this sounds like the kind of thing every city could undertake with great results. It might even scale for a state or national level contest.

Anyhow, the Where's My Bus app was developed by government offices to respond to citizens' stated need for real-time public transportation information. The app data is also being made available to the public to encourage private developers to improve on the model and release their own, even better apps.

According to an email we received from the app developers, "Harriet Tregoning, director of the DC Office of Planning, and Gabe Klein, director of the DC Department of Transportation see it, giving people up-to-the-minute information on where their next bus is, in the palm of their hands, has the potential to transform the experience of using public transit."

Here are a few screenshots of the dead simple app in action:

Kudos to the city for initiating Apps for Democracy and for taking the first step to modernizing and mobilizing public transportation. We can't wait to see how private developers will expand on this application.

Discuss

La Japan Expo, édition 2009, débute aujourd’hui au parc des expositions à Villepinte. Cet évènement qui se déroule jusqu’à dimanche 5 juillet, fête cette année ses 10 ans. 10 ans de réunions de fans du Japon, de manga, jeux vidéo et autres cultures pop ou traditionnelles, plus généralement asiatiques. Pour l’occasion, 10 ans d’archives photo ont été mises en ligne. Félicitations aux organisateurs, car il en faut du travail pour passer d’une association de fans d’animés à un salon qui attend en 2009, 150 000 visiteurs et 400 exposants.
Je vous invite à retrouver le programme, très riche, sur le site de la Japan Expo. Et vous, vous y serez ?

Partager : Tags:japan expo
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• Interview de Pixiz (8)

Earlier this week, we brought word that the Chinese Government has tried to ban gold farming the reported $500 million gold farming industry.

Officially, China's Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Commerce said that in-game monies "will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services."

According to a release from the two bodies, "using virtual money for gambling will be punished by public security authorities, and minors may not buy virtual money." Sure, the Chinese government hopes to curb gambling and illicit trade, as well as money laundering via virtual money, but this ruling is not a ban.

Professor Richard Heeks of The University of Manchester explains:

This is a government restriction on the use of the quasi-Paypal-like currencies (mainly QQ coins) that are used extensively in China to pay for virtual game stuff. As announced they can now only be used to pay for virtual stuff, and you can't buy real things with them as game companies were allowing to happen, nor can you gamble. This therefore is not about what gold farming clients do: use real money to buy these virtual currencies; it's the mirror image. And it's not about the major trade in gold farming such as World of Warcraft, which relates to other types of virtual currency. And it's not about buying/selling in-game items. And it's not about the power-levelling of avatars. Bottom line: it's not about gold farming.

China Bans Gold Farming!! ... Er ... But In Fact It Hasn't [ICTs for Development via IncGamers]

Dix ans déjà que Japan Expo se veut le festival référence en matière de culture et de loisirs japonais. Petit salon est devenu grand et, ce week-end, le Parc des expositions, à Paris, en verra de toutes les couleurs. Voici notre sélection.

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

The first I heard of Michael Jackson's death was six minutes before he was pronounced dead. That's saying something, because I'm not exactly the expert on pop culture, so my ability to have prognosticated the near future, based on something a little bird told me, on the subject of a fellow I seriously believed was still living in Tokyo, would normally be suspect. But there it was, in one of my IM feeds at about 5:20 Eastern time last Thursday, "Michael Jackson died."

My friend and colleague Angela Gunn suggested last Friday that something changed in the fabric of online journalism that day -- a high water mark had at last been reached. And indeed she may be correct, because if this Internet thing is capable of predicting the future even six minutes down the road, then I may want to get into the stock trading business.

Something obviously shook and rumbled as far as Internet fabric is concerned. As early as a quarter to five that day, all of us at Betanews who keep up with one another remotely via IM reported that our messages were not getting through. At first, I assumed we were all testing the latest Trillian Astra beta, which had been responsible for several Vista crashes here. My office's Comcast connection was knocked off about three times, and during one such episode, our bypass Verizon Wireless connection would not operate either.

The reason for all of this, engineers suspect, is that Internet services were not prepared for the excessive spike in traffic, from folks like me who received messages from a hole in the space-time continuum, and were searching for verification.

Having been through spells like this several times before over the years, my first impulse is to check CNN. Not the Web site, the TV channel. Back in the day, CNN used to carry a live stream of constant news over a wired connection originally conceived as a carrier for softcore porn. It was over this ancient form of streaming video that I first heard that Chinese tanks were running over the country's own civilians in its public square. This was before the channel was replaced with a substitute stream of anchor banter and unfounded opinion.

At the particular moment I tuned in last Thursday, CNN's Wolf Blitzer was speaking with a State Dept. official, a congressperson, and a correspondent about something that must have been far less important at the time, like the possibility of rioting in the streets of Iran over a rigged election. Just another revolution. Eventually, the old media guys got around to interrupting this boring diplomatic discussion, to confirm the news that Jackson had been rushed to a hospital.

As this minute-by-minute SEO blog details, TMZ.com was able to post the news of Jackson's death a full hour before CNN. St. Petersburg Times media columnist Eric Deggans wrote, "The [TMZ] scoop provides also another strong argument for the usefulness of reliable outlets which normally traffic in tales of public intoxication by celebrities. It also raises yet another challenge for traditional news outlets, still scrambling to keep pace with a younger pop culture press moving quicker to break and advance the hottest show business news."

That's a nice compliment for Harvey Levin, born 1951, the former attorney who now serves as the editor-in-chief of TMZ. Of course, Deggans' assessment overlooks the fact that TMZ and CNN -- the old media institution it presumably scooped -- are both owned by the same corporation: Time Warner, about as "new media" as my VCR.

So you have to wonder what it would have taken for one arm of the company to call up another arm of the company. Using a telephone, or whatever it is the young, pop culture press uses nowadays. "Hi, Harvey? Wolf. Hey, we saw a tweet from Six Minutes Into the Future saying Michael Jordan had died. Oh, I'm sorry, I meant Jackson. Did you see that same tweet by any chance?"

On the other hand, perhaps CNN was using the telephone at the time. In-between Middle Eastern revolutions, someone may have been calling the hospital, the family, Tito Jackson, Jesse Jackson, not only for confirmation but for a voucher that the next of kin had all been adequately notified. You remember journalism, don't you? Or is that too much "old media?"

Meanwhile, while the left hand of Time Warner was scooping the other left hand, the public at large was apparently desperately trying to confirm the same news. We know this because for a half-hour period in the middle of the afternoon, Google -- the institution that is asking everyone to entrust their personal data to its cloud -- failed to function properly for at least a half-hour period last Thursday, as mentioned in this CNN.com story which features a sweet little cartoon for the deceased.

Google. Now, folks, there's a scene in the movie Patton where the general tells his adjutant how he knows the Germans are losing the war: He notices they're using ox carts to move their dead. As a journalist, I'm a little something of a detective. And my good senses reveal that when a global population, seeking confirmation of an important news story, turns to Google, it's not a sign that we're winning this war.

When an earlier generation, seeking news on the bombing of London, turned to Edward R. Murrow; their descendants turned to Walter Cronkite for news on the assassination of John F. Kennedy; and this generation, for the death of a pop culture star, turns to Google...that is an indication of something very telling about the true state of electronic journalism. People turn to Google to locate answers when they don't know where the answers will come from. They don't know what the source will be -- whether it's TMZ or CNN or IMDB. If they're going to Google -- not just thousands of them, but tens of millions -- then there is no authoritative voice for news, no single obvious source of validation. We're all just relying on our plurality to verify and validate what we think (or some of us may secretly hope) the facts are; if enough people ask, "Is Michael Jackson really dead?" then it must mean he's as good as dead. And won't that be an item?

For news of the death of Michael Jackson, the volume of people turning to Google, from the perspective of everyday online users, appeared to "break the Internet." For this, SEOMOZ.org blogger Danny Dover blames...Google, for not being prepared to handle a global emergency of this magnitude. Now, I'm old enough to remember the day when terrorists flew planes into big public buildings. Back then, the Internet didn't break because we had CNN (the TV channel). If the millions who would have watched CNN or any kind of news authority are instead scrambling online over a failing connection for tweets, blips, or beeps to validate their suspicions with more suspicions, then the Internet has no reason to congratulate itself this week.

That's not Google's fault. And it's not yours either.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009

Le fraîchement nommé ministre de la Culture souhaite que le projet de loi doit Hadopi 2 passe rapidement son examen au Parlement, et annonce une concertation future pour débattre de la rémunération des créateurs.

La Japan Expo ça commence demain au Parc des Expositions Paris-Nord Villepinte et cela jusqu'au 5 juillet inclus. Pour ce salon mettant à l'honneur la culture japonaise sous toutes ses formes, et donc celles du jeu vidéo, SEGA sort l'artillerie lourde et proposera sur son stand en première mondiale...

Qaiku's twitter-like API has been one of the first major contributions I've made to the project, and it is great to see some first applications start to use it. Here are some examples:

Mauku is a microblogging client for Maemo. The new Fremantle version supports Qaiku nicely:

Gwibber is a Linux desktop microblogging client. Qaiku support is now available in the development version:

There is also an XMPP bot that we're going to launch soon for wider use. This enables you to monitor your mentions or some channels and post via any Jabber client:

If you're doing something cool with the API, please let me know! The #Qaiku-api channel is good for usage questions and ideas.

Every now and then people ask me why we're doing Qaiku instead of "just using Twitter". Here are some points why Qaiku just works better:

• Qaiku culture and features promote more meaningful and threaded discussion - in general, people comment much more than start conversations which is a good sign
• Qaiku has language tagging and filtering meaning that when I post in Finnish it will not bother my international friends
• Messages and comments are proper Markdown, reducing ugliness typical of tweets
• Features like feed import and image sharing are built-in, removing need for external tools
• Channels, and especially private channels enable us to do workstreaming in Qaiku

If you want to comment, you'll anyway find me both on Qaiku and on Twitter.

Technorati Tags: mauku, gwibber, qaiku, xmpp

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Nearly 55 million Americans visited an entertainment news site in May 2009, representing a 7 percent increase over the previous year, according to a new report from comScore.

Online video has also played an increasingly important role for content in the category, with the number of videos viewed growing 53 percent in the past year.

"With more than one out of every four U.S Internet users visiting an entertainment news site each month, it's clear that following entertainment and celebrity culture has become a popular online pastime," said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president.

 

"What's also interesting is that Americans are feeding their hunger for celebrity gossip by 'snacking' on these news updates throughout the workday. In fact, nearly half of all time spent on entertainment news sites comes from work computers."

Overall, Americans spent more than 893 million minutes or 15 million hours on entertainment news sites, with 44 percent of the total time spent during work.

More than a quarter of Internet users visited an entertainment news site in May. omg!, Yahoo's celebrity focused site, proved most popular with 20.6 million visitors, nearly doubling its audience in the past year. TMZ landed in the second position with 9.9 million visitors (up 7% over a year ago), followed by People with 8.2 million visitors.

Significant gains were seen by Usmagazine.com, up 325 percent to 6.5 million visitors, Entertainment Weekly, up 64 percent to nearly 4 million visitors, and The Insider, which grew 215 percent to 2.5 million visitors.

"May was one of the heaviest months on record for entertainment news consumption, but it will almost certainly be surpassed in June with the shocking news of Michael Jackson's death driving high volumes of traffic to these sites," added Mr. Flanagan.

"While most entertainment news sites will see gains in June, TMZ is primed for an especially big month as the first outlet to report the news, which generated thousands of inbound links to the site."

In April 2009, 34.8 million videos were viewed on entertainment news sites, an increase of 52 percent compared to a year ago. TMZ led the category with 2 million video viewers and 10.3 million videos viewed. More than 1.7 million viewers watched 3.8 million videos at omg!, while ETOnline attracted 1.5 million viewers who watched 3.9 million videos.

Gwyneth Paltrow has deigned to speak to us peasants once again! This time she’s not trying to teach us fat morons how to make a sandwich, thank God. But you know that as she was being interviewed she was thinking to herself “I bet this common hillbilly knows nothing about vegetarian bacon. He probably tried to butter his forehead.”

For this interview, Gwyneth has decided to condescend to tell us how Spain is so much cooler than wherever we’re living. She raves about the “history” of Spain and how much she enjoys “the way people live over there... They enjoy time with the family. They don’t always have their Blackberries on.” Oh, for Christ’s sake. Some of us have jobs, Goopy! We have stuff to do. We don’t have the luxury of waltzing around a film set a couple of months a year and stashing away a seven-figure salary for our trouble.

I think the interview is being done to promote two of her projects - first, this vanity food thing with Mario Batali called Spain... On the Road Again. The second is something very, very special. Wait for it... wait... ¡Goop En Español! That’s right. Gwyneth is launching her Goop monstrosity in Spanish. Dios mio...

Gwyneth Paltrow speaks almost perfect Spanish _ and she does it with an Iberian accent.
The Oscar-winning actress says she traveled to Spain as a teenager, fell in love with the country, and embraces the culture to the point that she visits at least once a year and makes sure her young children, Apple and Moses, also speak the language.

“When I was 15, I went to a small town outside Talavera de la Reina and I had the most wonderful experience. It really changed my life,” Paltrow said in fluent Spanish during a recent interview.

Paltrow said Spain “became a second home.”

“It is so different from the United States. It seemed to have a history, and the buildings are years and years and years old. Here in the United States an old building is about 17 (years old), and over there it’s from 500 B.C., it’s incredible,” she said.

“Also, the way people live over there. They seem to enjoy life a little bit more. They aren’t running around as much as in New York. They enjoy time with the family. They don’t always have their Blackberries on.”

Paltrow remains close to the family she lived with in Spain, calling them “my Spanish mother” and “my brothers” from Spain. Her success as an actress, she says, hasn’t impressed them.

The 36-year-old actress, who is married to Coldplay’s Chris Martin, says she talks to her children in Spanish.

“Moses speaks a little bit, but understands everything. Apple speaks a lot,” she says.

Paltrow shot “Spain … on the Road Again” with chef Mario Batali, cooking expert Mark Bittman and actress Claudia Bassols. They traveled throughout the country, sampling traditional foods and praising the virtues of Spain, its people and cuisine.

She’s also writing a book on U.S. cuisine with Spanish influence that is due out next year.
” … I love food, I love to eat,” she says. “I can’t go on diets. I have to do a lot of exercise.”

Paltrow recently launched a Spanish-language version of her Web site, GOOP.com, a weekly bulletin in which she writes on topics ranging from health advice and travel to fashion and cooking. Contributors include Madonna, Steven Spielberg and Deepak Chopra.

Has she considered acting in Spanish?

“I would love to. I haven’t found the script yet, but the first (movie) would have to be a small role, not very important, because I imagine I would have to get used to acting in Spanish,” she says.

Paltrow says she’d like to work with Spanish directors Pedro Almodovar and Alejandro Amenabar and Mexico’s Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. And she says she would like to work again with Mexico’s Alfonso Cuaron, who directed her in 1998’s “Great Expectations.”

She is now shooting “Iron Man 2,” in which she reprises her role as Pepper Potts.

“We’re all back together: Robert Downey, Jon Favreau, the director. And Scarlett Johansson is with us, Mickey Rourke. … It’s a phenomenal group, we are having a great time.”

[From The Associated Press via Huffington Post]

After she said the part about acting in Spanish, I bet Penelope Cruz’s eyes rolled out of their sockets. Doesn’t this interview remind everyone of that alleged Paltrow interview from a few years ago? The one where Goopy claimed she was “misquoted” when she was talking about how great “the English lifestyle” was because “it’s not as capitalistic as America. People don’t talk about work and money… they talk about interesting things at dinner.” How does one say “little sanctimonious b-tch” en Espanol? Las Goopitas, perchance.

Here’s Gwyneth at the photocall for “Two Lovers” at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19th. Images thanks to Mavrix.

The Open Library hopes to unite the net and the printed word by creating a web page for every book. Bobbie Johnson talks to the audacious project's leader

The internet's relationship with books, it is fair to say, has been a tumultuous one. Ever since the digital revolution started changing our relationship with information, the printed word – one of the most successful technologies in history – has been on the back foot.

Amazon has altered the face of the industry twice – first in the 1990s by changing the way books are sold and then, more recently, the way they are consumed, with its Kindle electronic book reader. Google has caused its own earthquake in the print world with its Book Search scheme – a plan to suck the text of millions of books into its search engine that has raised the hackles of publishers and authors alike.

Talk to workers at either of these technology companies and there is a feeling of technological inevitability: that the printed book is a stepping stone in the evolution of information, and now lies ready to be devoured by its hi-tech successors.

Not everybody thinks that way, however, including the Open Library – a project with an audacious goal that it hopes can bring the web and books closer together.

The scheme is to create a single page on the web for every book that has ever been published; an enormous, searchable catalogue of information about millions of books. It is still in beta, but already more than 23m books are in its system, drawing information from 19 major libraries and linking to the text of more than 1m out-of-copyright titles.

That is admirable work for just a handful of staff at the library, an arm of the non-profit Internet Archive (which itself has the vast objective of trying to keep a historical record of the web for future generations). But with information about books already being processed by hugely popular websites such as Google and Amazon, the question remains – why bother?

George Oates, the newly installed project leader, says it's a way to preserve book records for history and, crucially, make the information usable by anybody.

"It's remarkably difficult to unify this information," she says, when we meet at the Internet Archive building in San Francisco's leafy Presidio park, a former military outpost that is, rather aptly, historically preserved. "As much as the libraries attempt to have similar standards and orders, there are always gotchas and nooks and crannies that have to be worked out."

The locus position

More than simply bringing together cold lists of books from isolated libraries, however, she also believes OL can breathe life into books by grabbing information from around the internet.

"Imagine books more as a networked object, rather than a single entity," she suggests. "We start with this kernel and then we see what we can pile onto it ... it's a locus for all the information about a book that's on the wider web."

In a way, it's like a Wikipedia for printed material (indeed, it runs on wiki software, allowing anyone to add their own notes on different books or editions). And Oates, who took over the project this year, is hoping to turn it from a skilful attempt to ingest vast amounts of data into something that is useful to ordinary people.

The site can potentially pull information from all over the web – retailers, reviews, book clubs, forums and enthusiast sites – as well as from social networks that already exist for bibliophiles, such as LibraryThing or GoodReads.

"It is about sharing as openly as possible – and that's really liberating ... we're almost a non-threat to the rest of the web, because we're not keeping the property."

Oates knows a thing or two about sharing objects online. For the past few years, the Australian was one of the leading lights at the popular photo website Flickr – spending four years as lead designer, before moving to a role that included projects such as the Commons: a scheme to use Flickr as a window on publicly held photography collections.

Journey of discovery

The lessons from her previous work are carrying through to the project in obvious ways – a redesign is being mooted to make more palatable to those who don't have a degree in library science. But she is also hoping to introduce some of sense of serendipity or exploration to the records.

"Right now it's about search and retrieve, and there's no sense of browsing or skipping around," she says. "In the future we can start to do queries like 'show me all the popular subjects that were written about in 1934'. You can start to trend that over time, look at peaks and troughs in areas of interest. The data's all there, but it's about making connections that are inferred by the data itself – I'm really excited by that."

Propagating that idea could be made more difficult by Google, which last week revamped its book search to make it a more sleek and social experience. Oates says she doesn't see that in adversarial terms, however.

"The book search on Google is awesome – they've thrown a shitload of computing power at it, and you can see books that mention things, websites that mention those books and books on a map. It's useful, but it's really clinical." Oates won't say any more about Google, but her colleagues are less reticent. Peter Brantley, the archive's director of access, has been a vocal critic of the company's plans – even going as far as calling Google's attempt to gain exemption against future copyright claims as "disgusting".

There is certainly a tension between the two schemes, partially because their intentions are so similar while their approaches are so different. But, while Google has the backing of many publishers, who see the chance to make some extra cash in the deal, one crucial ally for Open Library may be the academic world.

If the scheme gives researchers and students the chance to use Open Library in their work – referring to an OL page as a citation source, or building a bibliography using its tools – they could get a core audience that spreads the concept. Plus, of course, the idea is that Open Library will remain just that – open – for ever. "The longevity of the work that we're doing is a bit of a culture shock, and a really curious solution to provide," she says. "How do we write stuff to disk that's going to be retrievable in 1,000 years? This is a very new problem for my brain – not that the systems I've worked on before would go up in smoke, but this is designed explicitly not to."

Neutral success?

Still, regardless of long-term vision, the scheme's success is not clear cut. Despite its meek appearance, the library world is big business – and it is not clear that big libraries are particularly keen on giving away the keys to anyone just yet. Organisations such as the British Library have their own projects to archive their vast collections for the web.

Still, Open Library is hoping that it can succeed by being a neutral space, without agendas or commercial imperatives.

"I want it to be a place where people can love books and contribute information about books," Oates says. Perhaps, in the face of the onslaught of digital information, the printed word has found a new way to evolve.

• Internet
• Google
• Amazon.com
• Wikipedia

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The Haçienda and Pure Culture proudly present
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@ Trakai Castle, Trakai, Lithuania
FAC 51 Special Guests: Sasha and John Digweed (Back To Back)
With Jon Dasilva (The Haçienda)

Saturday 1 August 2009

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Yes, that's Sasha and John Digweed back to back supported by Jon Dasilva in a stunning 14th century Lithuanian Castle. It's the fifth anniversary of the do which is limited to 4,000 people.

Summertime is here, and it's time to hit the beach, splash in the waves, and bask in the sun with a little ultra-portable gaming, courtesy of Kotaku's 2009 Summer Reading List.

While video game publishers aren't quite as afraid to release new titles during the summer months as they used to be, there is still a dry period between the last games of spring and the beginning of the fall holiday season. Just because there aren't quite as many games to play doesn't mean you can't still immerse yourself in your favorite titles. We've compiled a list of quality reading materials to keep you steeped in game culture throughout the hot days of summer and beyond.

Fiction
What makes a great work of video game fiction? Strong writing helps, but it's the more supportive nature of gaming fiction that makes a title stand out. The author must not only tell a compelling tale, but tell it in such a way that, when the reader returns to the game, they find the nature of their relationship to the title has changed. Whether it enhances familiarity with one of the title's characters, or deepens our understanding of the game world, video game fiction excels when it changes the way we experience what we play.

Here is a list of some titles that excel at adding depth to the games they are inspired by, as well as a few that have inspired games on their own.

The Divine Comedy
Author: Dante Alighieri
Publisher: Various
First Publication: 1300's

Thanks to Electronic Arts there is a 14,000 line poem on Kotaku's Summer Reading List. If you are going to play and hopefully enjoy the loose video game adaptation of Dante's Inferno, you may as well familiarize yourself with the source material. It may be a dense, allegorical vision of the Christian life and afterlife, but it's also considered to be one of the greatest works of world literature, and being able to discuss such things really impresses the opposite sex at fancy dinner parties.

Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne
Author: David Gaider
Publisher: Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC
Pub. Date: March 2009

Who better to pen a prequel novel to an upcoming role-playing game than the lead writer for the game itself? David Gaider of BioWare has lent his writing talents to such classic games as Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and his work translates quite well onto the printed page, as evidenced by his first novel, Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne. The book tells the story of a Maric, the son of the Rebel Queen, seeking to reclaim the throne of Ferelden following his mother's murder. The story is compelling and entertaining, setting the tone for the upcoming game quite nicely.

I really appreciate it when the lore comes before the game, letting the player step into the action feeling as if they have a deeper understanding of the world they are about to experience.

Ender's Game
Author: Orson Scott Card
Publisher: Various
First Publication: 1985

What's a science fiction novel from 1985 doing on Kotaku's Summer Reading list? Aside from the fact that Chair Entertainment is working on a downloadable title based on the novel, Ender's Game is one of the ultimate video game-themed novels of all time. The story centers on Ender Wiggins, a young boy who is part of a class of students at Earth's Battle School, where they train gifted children to take command positions in humanity's war against the alien Formics. The children are trained using simulators - high tech video games that place them in the midst of virtual battles, commanding fleets in what could be the ultimate real-time strategy game. Woven into the science fiction plot is a poignant coming-of-age tale, making Ender's Game a book that delivers on multiple levels. If you've not read it you should, and if you have read it, shush.

Gears Of War: Aspho Fields
Author: Karen Traviss
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Pub. Date: October 2008

Author Karen Traviss was at her best when she wrote the Star Wars: Republic Commando novels, and now she takes that same understanding of both combat and camaraderie and applies it to the Gears of War universe, telling the story of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago in a way that the games never could. Her book takes them from childhood to the battle of Aspho Fields, where they must face a dark secret about Dominic's brother Carlos. Traviss seems to understand the bonding of brothers in battle better than most male writers who tackle the same sort of subject matter, making for an entertaining read no matter how you feel about the series itself. Traviss revisits Gears in late July, picking up where the second game left off with Gears of War: Jacinto's Remnant.

Halo: Contact Harvest
Author: Joseph Staten
Publisher: Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC
Pub. Date: October 2007

Wait, isn't the latest Halo novel The Cole Protocol? Yes it was, and that's why I am recommending Halo: Contact Harvest. If you want a novel that tells a compelling story set during the early days of the war between humanity and the Covenant, you'd be better off avoiding Tobias S. Buckell's The Cole Protocol and reading or re-reading Contact Harvest. As Staten did with Sergeant Johnson in Contact Harvest, Buckell tries to develop Captain Jacob Keyes in The Cole Protocol. Wile he succeeds in telling a multi-layered story with well-developed characters, they aren't likable characters that you'd want to know the story behind. On top of that, I'm not even that hardcore a Halo fan and I noted several inconsistencies between the game and the book. In Contact Harvest, Bungie writer Joseph Staten takes a character that isn't more than a caricature in the game and develops him in a way that changes how you'll view his appearances in the Halo series.

Halo: Uprising
Author: Brian Michael Bendis Artist: Alex Maleev
Publisher: Marvel Enterprises, Inc.
Pub. Date: June 2009

While I hate to use the phrase "must-have", this hardcover collection of the four issues of Marvel's Halo: Uprising comic book series is indeed just that, bridging the gap between Halo 2 and Halo 3 with a compelling story and some fantastic artwork.

Hellgate: London Trilogy - Exodus / Goetia / Covenant
Author: Mel Odom
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Pub. Date: June 2007 - August 2008

Simon Cross never believed in demons. Despite the fact that his father raised him in a hidden underground commune belonging to the Templar, an organization training in secrecy to defend mankind against a prophesied invasion from the infernal, Simon lacked the faith of his fellows. He left the commune in hopes of finding a normal life. But when the gates of hell do open, Cross finds himself drawn back to London to lead a desperate battle to save humanity. Mel Odom treats Hellgate so much better than the game deserves to be treated. If the game contained just a small portion of the personality Odom gives his characters it would still be operational in North America today. The third book is a bit of a letdown, feeling rushed, possibly due to the game's impending failure, but getting there is one hell of a ride. Forget the bad game. This is a series of good books.

Mass Effect: Revelation / Ascension
Author: Drew Karpyshyn
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Pub. Date: May 2007, July 2008

The Mass Effect novels, Crecente's contribution to the Kotaku Summer Reading List, are more prequel than companion. They add to the already-rich lore of the Mass Effect universe. With BioWare's own resident novelist and lead writer for Mass Effect Drew Karpyshyn penning the stories, you can expect a level of detail that no outside author could hope to deliver.

Metal Gear Solid
Author: Raymond Benson
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Pub. Date: May 2008

Given that the author has written James Bond novels, one has to overlook Raymond Benson's Bondification of Solid Snake in this adaptation of the first Metal Gear Solid game. The book follows the plot of the game closely, adding little details that should please fans of the series. It fleshes out some of the character's motivations quite nicely. The only issue is the characterization of Snake himself...which one has to admit wasn't all that deep in the game. Benson takes a few liberties with the character, giving him Bond-like quips that don't quite jibe with Snake as we know him today. Still a good read, and with Benson busy penning the novelization of the game's follow-up, Sons of Liberty, we might as well get used to his writing style.

Nova: StarCraft Ghost
Author: Keith R.A. DeCandido with an introduction by Chris Metzen
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Pub. Date: November 2006

The tragic and often heart-wrenching story of Nova, Emperor Arcturus Mengst's most deadly Ghost operative. When her parents are murdered by a rebel militia, young Nova lashes out with her devastating powers, killing hundreds in the blink of an eye. She finds herself alone in the streets of Tarsonis, pursued by a special agent tasked with hunting her down. Definitely a book that deserves to be read. DeCandido's portrayal of Nova's plight touches all the right chords, and the tragedy of the situation is made all the more poignant by the fact that this is a novel based on a game we may never see.

Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel
Author: A.B. Sina with Art by LeUyen Pham and Alex Puviland
Publisher: First Second
Pub. Date: September 2008

The Prince of Persia isn't a person, but rather an ideal or spirit that certain Persian princes embody. This is the theme that poet A.B. Sina presents in this lovely graphic novel inspired by the video game series. The book follows the story of two princes, separated by time but entwined by fate, with Sina's words texturing the canvas on which artists Pham and Puviland practice their craft. A bit hard to follow at first, once the separate story threads are braided together the tale truly takes off. As an added bonus, Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner provides a brief history of the game series in the volume, neatly counterbalancing the more artistic take on the legend.

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy
Author: S.D. Perry
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Pub. Date: October 1998

This one goes way back, but when I asked for staff recommendations for the list, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy was the first thing out of AJ's mouth, and so here it is. She claims the first book is the best in the series, with the quality slowly dwindling thereafter. That's a bit odd, because I remember reading an Aliens series by S.D. Perry that followed that exact same pattern - a strong start followed by diminishing returns.

StarCraft: Dark Templar Series - Firstborn / Shadow Hunters / Twilight
Author: Christie Golden
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Pub. Date: May 2007 - June 2009

Archaeologist Jake Ramsey, hired to explore an unearthed Xel'Naga temple, finds himself bonded to the spirit of a long-dead Protoss mystic. Driven by the mystic's memories, Jake sets off on a journey that spans the universe. The three book series sees its protagonist pursued by the Zerg, hounded by a powerful Dark Aarchon, and taking a good, hard look at humanity's role in the universe. Author Christie Golden has penned a large number of licensed novels in her time, and there's a good reason she is constantly tapped for said duty. While other adaptation authors simply familiarize themselves with their subject matter, Golden seems to fall in love with each universe she visits, and that love shines through on every page.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Author: Sean Williams
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Pub. Date: August 2008

Sean Williams takes the already-compelling tale of Darth Vader's secret apprentice and fleshes it out in vibrant detail, creating an excellent companion piece to the video game. It's a great example of a novelization that adds a layer of depth to the source material.

Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning: Empire In Chaos
Author: Anthony Reynolds
Publisher: Games Workshop
Pub. Date: August 2008

The battle between the Empire and the forces of Chaos escalates in this solid companion to the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. It's basically a classic fantasy tale - a band of characters from different backgrounds find themselves thrust together against a backdrop of war. You've got your innocent maiden who finds herself in possession of tremendous power; your tough-as-nails anti-hero; an enigmatic elf struggling to overcome the language barrier; and a dwarf who takes the grumpy dwarf routine to a new level. A bit formulaic, but a solid read.

World of Warcraft: Arthas: Rise of the Lich King
Author: Christie Golden
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Pub. Date: April 2009

Yes, it's another Blizzard book by Christie Golden, but as I mentioned previously, there is a reason she is tapped to pen some of the most important stories in video game fiction. The story of Arthas' transformation from paladin of the Silver Hand to evil lord of the undead is one of the most classically tragic tales in Azeroth. Golden handles the details with an expert pen, building up Arthas Menethil's world and then slowly tearing it apart.

Non-Fiction
While some of prefer their video game reading to tend to the fantastic, others prefer to take time during the summer months to brush up on their facts, get a little bit of back story, or wax philosophical on their favorite titles in preparation for the busy fall forum flaming season. Here's a handful of more-grounded gaming reads.

Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan's Game Centers
Author: Brian Ashcraft
Publisher: Kodansha International
Pub. Date: January 2009

Didn't think I'd miss this one, did you? Written by our own Brian Ashcraft, Arcade Mania takes us deep inside the arcades of Japan, exploring not only the games themselves, but the colorful people who play them, presenting both history and culture in equal servings. I enjoyed the quirky page layouts almost as much as I enjoyed the actual words, and while I would have preferred a bit more lead in and lead out, all in all it's one heck of a good read.

Guinness World Records Gamers' Edition 2009
Compiled by Guinness World Records
Publisher: Guinness World Records Limited
Pub. Date: February 2009

Because we have to use the bathroom in the summer as well.

Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games - And What Parents Can Do
Authors: Lawrence Kutner, Cheryl K. Olson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Pub. Date: April 2008
You've probably seen quotes from the husband-and-wife writing team and references to this book on Kotaku before, and you'll more than likely see them again. The pair studied some of the habits and behaviors of some 1,300 middle-school gamers in Pennsylvania and South Carolina, and their findings are some of the most balanced ones I've seen. Many violent video game studies feel like they have an agenda, be it to condemn video games or exonerate them. Grand Theft Childhood moves the focus away from that debate and directs parents' attention where it should be anyway - their own children. High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, Second Edition
Authors: Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Pub. Date: 2nd Edition, December 2003

This one was Ashcraft's suggestion, but I couldn't agree more that High Score! deserves a place on any video game reader's list. DeMaria and Wilson take on the history of the video game industry, from its humble beginnings as dots moving on a screen to the coming of the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox. They break things down by company, era, and geographical region, making it the perfect book to just open up to any random page and begin reading, or as Ashcraft puts it, "Great to pick up and put down whenever you are on the throne."

The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy
Editor: Luke Cuddy
Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company
Pub. Date: November 2008

If you think far too much about the Legend of Zelda series, then here is a book for you. The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy is a series of essays that explores topics both confined to the game, as in Rachel Robison's "Shape Shifting and Time Traveling: Link's Identity Issues", to more all-encompassing philosophical fare, which we see in Paul Brown's "Hyrule's Green and Pleasant Land: The Minish Cap as Utopian Ideal". It's equal bits absurd and insightful.

This first edition of the Kotaku Summer Reading List presents a rather broad range of titles, from fantasy and science fiction to philosophy and scientific study. Hopefully you'll find something worth a sunny afternoon read somewhere amongst the selection. Of course, this certainly isn't the end of this list. You are all part of Kotaku as well, so now that we've shared some of our favorites, it's your turn to share some of your own. After all, the only thing better than reading a good book is sharing a good book.

Joyau du patrimoine cistercien, ce « centre culturel de rencontre » organise, du 5 au 19 juillet, des « traversées » musicales, temps forts de sa nouvelle orientation

2009 Game Developers Conference China Stands as first and only approved game development event in China by the MOC.

Pixar and everything else - them's the breaks when it comes to judging computer-animated fare these days. Although Pixar has rightfully earned themselves the lead among studios, and by a significant margin, it's all too easy to then marginalize the performance of others.

DreamWorks has certainly raised their game beyond pure pop-culture recitation with the inventive and entertaining likes of Over the Hedge, Kung Fu Panda, and Monsters vs. Aliens (and Aardman or no, I'd even include the winning Flushed Away among their finer efforts). For every Open Season, Sony has given us a Monster House (okay, so that's just one-for-one at the moment). And every time that Fox bequeaths to unwilling audiences something like Space Chimps or Everyone's Hero, Blue Sky has nothing to do with it.

Fox/Blue Sky, however, is the precise pairing that gives us the visually engaging and moderately amusing outings like Robots, Horton Hears a Who!, and the Ice Age films, with the latest of which -- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs -- falling right in line with that modest-yet-reliable tradition.

Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Theatrical Reviews, 20th Century Fox, Family Films, Summer Movies

Continue reading Review: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

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photo credit: d e r r i d a !

I recently ran across what I think are some very wise and helpful tips for restaurant owners on Inc.com, because lets face it in today’s economy we could all use a little help no matter what our business is.

Make sure you buy wisely.

As chefs discovered savings, they began to add more supplies to the group-buying bucket. “Saving 2 percent here and 3 percent there adds up to a lot, especially in a business with razor-thin margins,” Meyer says. “And it has preserved our culture of bottom-up leadership.”

Stay close to all of your staff. Have you ever heard that expression “only one woman per kitchen” ? It’s basically the same rule of thumb, if there is more than one “chef” toes could get stepped on from time to time. So stay close and know when there is a problem arising so that you can allow them to hash it out and move on.

Make sure there is room for expanding within your business. You may increase your customer volume and find yourself needing to expand the kitchen, the stock purchases, employees, insurance and so on, so always make sure you save room for growth.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Le ministre de la Culture veut également "lancer très rapidement une vaste concertation avec tous les acteurs de la culture".