All about god - Matoumba

Windows Phone 7: Microsoft's exercise in self restraint

- 1 days ago

Quote: An adventure game like no other.

Explore and walk down the streets of Gold. Access the Pearly gate as it opens to let you see the trees of life. Look for the names of the Apostles on the outer wall of the new Jerusalem. You'll see and explore Heaven just as it's written about in the Book of Revelation.

Explore and play 6 levels of Heaven.
Level 1: Paradise Island: Your journey begins on Paradise Island - a floating tropical paradise island with beaches and waterfalls. Here you will meet Axis - your guide through Heaven - discover her true identity.

Level 2: The Golden Streets : Explore the Golden streets and walk amongst the tower walls of Heaven. Solve the Angel Ring mystery and raise the Crystal Bridges.

Level 3: The Spinning Lenses: Make it trip back to Paradise Island to get a closer look at the Outer wall of the Heavenly city to see the foundations of Precious stones. Look for the Apostles names carved into the 12 foundation layers.

Level 4: The Crystal Forest: Solve the Colored ball Obstacle then raise the Crystal Island and play the Musical Trumpets. Finally take a magical flight aboard your white stallion named Star as he takes you on a flight about the pearly gate - just remember to get off at the right spot.

Level 5&6: The days of Creation and the Pearly gate: See how God created everything in 6 days, then open a watery passage way to the Pearly Gate. Once at the Pearly gate, you will have to make the most important decision of your life.

Breathtaking cinematics and never before scenes and recreations of the Book of Revelations view of Heaven. Hollywood veterans concept artist Stephan Martiniere and Dylan Cole (Star Wars Revenge of the Sith, I-Robot, Knowing, The Lord of the Rings, and Narnia) concept artists bring Heaven to life as no one can. You'll see the Lion, Bull, Man and Eagle creatures as described in the Book of Revelation. http://www.heaventhegame.com/

(Trailer on the homepage, I couldn't find one anywhere else to in-line post)

==

I'm posting this because it hasn't been yet.

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6,4,1,3,2

Final Fantasy and Tetris top PSP's sales charts for 2010 (so far)

Iphone Release - Adam & Eve Pick Up Lite! (games)

Sony, Jaffe wins God of War copyright infringement case

Macedonia: If There Was No Internet

Global Voices Online

- 1 days and 5 hours ago

Macedonian bloggers and other new media users offered their own responses to the question “How internet changed your life?”, posed in an article [MKD] on BBC's Macedonian language site.

Darko Buldioski of Komunikacii.net applied a style figure reminiscent of Slavic antithesis to rephrase the question into “If I had no internet…” and posted the following answers:

I would not have…

…been able to write on my blog, in which I invested much and got much in return :)
…known that BBC covers this topic, as I don't listen to radio news, I read it all online
…met a bunch of excellent people with whom I regularly communicate about different subjects
…ordered various trinkets that my brother transports for me when he comes from America (it's supposedly cheaper there)
…worked on what I do now, because my work is about Internet.

Linking to the relevant South Park episode - “Over Logging” - Buldioski also invited others to share their thoughts.

Dozens of Twitter users offered their opinions via the hashtag #danemaseinternet [MKD] or “If there was no Internet”…

…I would have to carry a notebook with me like [the author] Venko Andonovski to record my thoughts [- Sead93]
…by God I would have dealt with scientific research and as a result I would have found evidence to disprove the Theory of Relativity [- goranmitev]
…I would never have discovered what life on a farm is like [- lazyvlad]

…and a number of them blamed the internet for not being in shape, lack of muscle mass or excess fatty tissue.

Marjan Zabrcanec considers his blog Golemata slika (The Big Picture) and his Twitter and Facebook profiles his “loudspeakers” for exercising his right to the freedom of speech. He explained [MKD] that he opened his first e-mail account 15 years ago, and that without internet he would not have known “which topics and arguments are used by debaters from all over the world. Research would have been tremendously hard. Now, there's Debatopedia,” and would not have been able to effectively manage his NGO, or offer cheap but powerful internet marketing campaigns for the clients of his current employer.

Vasilka Dimitrovska reckoned [MKD] that without Internet she would have never learned how to blog and use new media to “detect, present and protect cultural heritage,” and influence the public opinion, including appearing on TV.

…I would have remained just one more archeologist in the sea of unknown and anemic archeologists in Macedonia without any attention from the society, and with even less respect.

Ribaro (The Fisherman) responded via a vlog post, with audio in Macedonian and English subtitles.

Viktor Arsovski wrote [MKD] that without Internet he probably would have continued to teach English, and not take part in the founding of IT.com.mk, and…

I would take our media “for granted,” and not read information from other sources.
I would have never known that some things in the society can improve.
I would not get frustrated by watching football (soccer) on [Macedonian TV] Sitel. Now by watching online streaming I know there are quality anchors who explain about the sport instead of talking nonsense. Therefore, even though it sometimes makes me nervous, at least I know that the Internet offers me a choice!

Bloggers who posted on this subject also included Kihu Potru [MKD], who emphasized the Internet's importance in sharing art and establishing connections between artists - from visuals to haiku; Kuzmanov [MKD]; Martin [MKD]; and Dzaman [MKD].

Finaly, some people responded through comments on blogs of others, like Oksimoron, who said [MKD]:

If there was no internet… I would have walked around more, I would have been a better housewife, and would not look silly laughing alone in front of the monitor :-)

Nadezhna said [MKD]:

- I now read more books, and they are much cheaper :)
- Someone listens to my voice (reads my blog).
- The Internet helped me to get a job.

PRoom noted [MKD] that without Internet:

…would not have enrolled into post-graduate studies (found over the Internet)
- I would not have stayed awake till 5 in the morning
- I would not have known many of my current friends
- I would not have been able to book a hotel in Nice
- I would not have been able to surprise my loved ones who are far away with gifts
And for certain I would not have known that one day the Internet will die [MKD] ;)

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freedoms,freedom,facebook,how tos,medias

Ooops! God of War III glitch lets you skip Hermes

Devine qui vient prendre sa pâtée ce soir ?

Journal d'un avocat

- 1 days and 6 hours ago

Mon cÅ“ur mon cÅ“ur ne t’emballe pas,
Fais comme si tu ne savais pas
Que l’Anglais est revenu !

Mon cÅ“ur arrête de répéter
Qu’on va venger l’affront de l’an passé
De l’Anglais qui est revenu !

Mon cÅ“ur, arrête de bringuebaler
Souviens-toi qu’il nous a déchiré,
L’Anglais qui est revenu !

Mes amis ne me laissez pas !
Dites-moi, dites-moi qu’il y a de la bière au froid
Maudit Anglais, puisque te v’là !

Le crunch ! France - Angleterre, avec un parfum de revanche du match de l’an passé (34-10, avec un essai assassin de Mark Cueto au bout d’une minute et une équipe de France stérile toute la première mi temps).

Ce sont nos pires amis, ou nos meilleurs ennemis, comme vous préférez, qui débarquent ce soir : la terrible, orgueilleuse, et perfide Angleterre. Quelle joie de la retrouver !

Drapeau de l'Angleterre

Voici donc le drapeau anglais, dit drapeau de Saint George. Il vous dira sans doute quelque chose : il rappelle en effet celui de la Géorgie, que nous affrontâmes lors de la dernière coupe du monde.

La croix rouge sur fond blanc est un emblême très répandu dans la chrétienté, Saint Georges étant le Saint Patron, outre de l’Angleterre et de la Géorgie, de l’Aragon, de la Catalogne, du Canada, de l’Ethiopie, de la Grèce, de la Serbie et du Montenegro, du Portugal, de la Russie et même de la Palestine, ainsi que des villes de Beyrouth, Barcelone ou Moscou. C’est ainsi que le symbole du club de footabll de Barcelone, le fameux Barça, comporte la croix de Saint George. FC Barcelone

Ce symbole remonte aux Croisades, où il était le symbole des chevaliers et soldats français, le pape ayant décidé que les anglais porteraient une croix blanche sur fond rouge, les germains ayant une croix bleue et jaune, devenue le drapeau suédois. Les Anglais ont néanmoins adopté le croix rouge sur fond blanc, et la croix de St George est ainsi devenue le symbole des croisés dans leur ensemble, étant à son tour adoptée par les Templiers. Lors de la Réforme, tous les drapeauxs représentant des saints ont été abandonnés en Angleterre à l’exception de celui de St George. Dans la Navy, le drapeau de Saint Georges indique un navire amiral.

Le drapeau du Royaume Uni s’appelle le drapeau de l’Union, ou Union Jack dans la marine (“Jack” indiquant un pavillon de marine), car il est composé de la réunion des drapeaux des trois couronnes réunies sur la tête des rois d’Angleterre, chacun représenté par une croix liée à un saint : la croix de Saint George pour l’Angleterre, la croix de Saint André pour l’Ecosse, et la croix de Saint Patrick pour l’Irlande. Cette union s’est faite en deux temps : en 1606, quand James VI d’Ecosse devient roi d’Angleterre sous le nom de James Ier, les croix de Saint George et Saint André sont réunies Naissance du drapeau d'Union

pour faire le premier drapeau d’Union. Puis en 1801, la croix de Saint Patrick est ajoutée quand l’Acte d’Union (Acte désignant une loi) fusionne les royaumes d’Angleterre, d’Ecosse et d’Irlande pour former le Royaume Uni, dénomination encore officielle de nos voisins d’Outre Manche. Le pays de Galles n’est pas représenté dans ce drapeau car il ne s’agit pas d’un royaume mais d’une principauté, dirigée par les héritiers du trône d’Angleterre (actuellement le Prince Charles, Prince de Galles, le titre de princesse étant vacant nonobstant le second mariage du prince).

L’équipe joue ainsi isolément car le Royaume Uni n’a pas de fédération de rugby. A la place, chaque royaume a sa propre fédération, reconnue par l’IRB. Il en va de même au football, d’où le match d’ouverture Brésil Écosse lors de la coupe du monde 1998.

Le symbole du XV d’Angleterre est la rose rouge. RFU

Il s’agit d’une allusion à la rose rouge des Lancastre, famille opposée à celle d’York au cours de la guerre des Rose, qui aboutit à la chute de la maison des Plantagenêts, dont Lancastre et York étaient deux branches, au profit de la maison des Tudor. Je ne crois pas que la fédération anglaise prête allégance à la maison des Lancastre cinq cent ans après la fin du conflit, mais le maillot de l’équipe d’Angleterre étant blanc (couleur royale, comme le maillot du Real Madrid, que je me devais de citer ayant mentionné le Barça afin d’éviter une autre guerre civile), une rose blanche ou la rose des Tudor (rouge et blanche pour marquer la réconcilation du royaume) serait peu visible sur le maillot.

L’Angleterre n’ayant pas d’hymne officiel propre, c’est bien le God Save The Queen qu’entonne le XV d’Angleterre, qui est pourtant l’hymne du Royaume Uni. Une scène fort cocasse a lieu quand l’Angleterre joue contre l’Ecosse à Murrayfield, quand l’hymne (lui aussi non officiel) écossais, Flower Of Scotland, est entonné, car on voit la Princesse Anne, fille de la reine Elisabeth et Duchesse d’Edimbourg, chanter de bon coeur cet hymne nationaliste célébrant la victoire des Ecossais contre les Anglais à Bannockburn en 1314 (la bataille qui clôt le film Braveheart). Au Royaume Uni, le pragmatisme est la vraie religion d’Etat.

Mais en réalité, le XV à la rose a un hymne non officiel, qui galvanise autant les Anglais qu’une Marseillaise fait oublier la fatigue aux Français.
Priez, mes amis, priez pour ne point entendre résonner cet hymne païen (même si c’est un gospel) près de la basilique qui accueillit l’Oriflamme…

Le Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, la kryptonite universelle.

Swing low, sweet chariot
Coming for to carry me home
Swing low, sweet chariot
Coming for to carry me home

L’histoire de cette chanson se confond avec l’histoire de notre vieille rivalité rugbystique qui nous oppose à nos cousins d’Outre Manche. En fait, une vieille rivalité oppose l’Angleterre à un peu tout le monde, et c’est une des équipes les plus cordialement détestées, chacune de ses (trop rares) défaites étant savourée d’un hémisphère à l’autre, mais la France jouit d’une position de détestation cordiale privilégiée. Un adage écossais dit ainsi “I support two teams : Scotland and whoever is playing England” : je soutiens deux équipes : l’Écosse, et celle qui joue contre l’Angleterre, quelle qu’elle soit.

Tout d’abord, l’Angleterre n’a accueilli la France dans le concert des nations rugbystiques qu’avec réticence en 1910. Le sport de l’aristocratie anglaise était en France pratiquée par les paysans rugueux du sud, et l’Anglais n’aimait guère se mélanger. Il faut dire qu’au début, la France a tout fait pour lui donner raison. En 1913, la foule envahit le terrain pour assommer l’arbitre de France-Ecosse. La France est exclue du tournoi, mais sauvée si j’ose dire par la première guerre mondiale qui suspend le tournoi, qui reprend en 1918 toutes rancoeurs oubliées au nom de la fraternité d’armes. En 1927, c’est la première victoire contre les Anglais (le pays de Galles résistera jusqu’en 1948). En 1931, la France est à nouveau exclue pour son comportement violent jusqu’en 1939. En fait, deuxième guerre mondiale oblige, la suspension durera jusqu’à la reprise du tournoi en 1947. En 1952, l’Angleterre accuse la France de professionnalisme des joueurs (ironie de l’histoire, l’Angleterre sera la première à passer au professionnalisme dans les années 90 : en Angleterre, le pragmatisme est religion d’Etat) et des joueurs français sont définitivement exclus de la sélection pour apaiser les Anglais. Voilà donc le terreau de la rivalité. La fleur éclora à la fin des années 80.

En 1988, le XV d’Angleterre était en train de traverser une des plus mauvaises passes de son histoire, battu notamment par la France plusieurs années de suite, y compris sur son sol sacré, à Twickenham. L’Angleterre jouait face à l’Irlande, et avait perdu 15 de ses 23 derniers matchs du Tournoi des Cinq Nations, tournoi qu’elle n’avait plus gagné depuis 1980. En deux ans et demi, les supporters de Twickenham n’avaient vu qu’un seul misérable essai marqué par les Anglais. A la mi temps, l’Irlande menait 3 à 0. Et puis comme cela arrive parfois au rugby, l’espoir changea de camp, le combat changea d’âme, et tout à coup, rien ne semblait plus pouvoir arrêter les Anglais, qui gagnèrent 35 à 3, dont trois essais marqués par Chris Oti, qui faisait ses débuts de jour là. Les collégiens d’une école bénédictine de Woolhampton qui assistaient au match entonnèrent alors un gospel en l’honneur d’Oti, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, que la foule reprit en choeur.

Ce fut le signal d’une résurrection, et d’un nouvel âge d’or pour le XV à la rose, l’époque de Will Carling et Brian Moore, époque qui se construisit sur le dos de l’équipe de France. Pendant sept ans, nous ne gagnerons jamais, et toujours pour la même raison : être poussé à la faute par les Anglais, de préférence à 20 mètres en face de nos poteaux, ce qui donnait trois points aux Anglais, et faisait résonner le Swing Low. Le clou était enfoncé par Will Carling qui félicitait les Français vaincus d’un “Good game” dont l’évocation fait encore monter les larmes aux yeux des joueurs de l’époque. Il faudra des années pour que le XV de France vole aux Anglais leur sang froid, et il est encore fragile : la propension des Français à garder le ballon au sol, à le talonner à la main, quand ce n’est pas distribuer des baffes sous les yeux de l’arbitre est pudiquement appelée “le jeu latin” des Français. C’est la défaite assurée quand il pointe son vilain nez.

Cette rivalité prendra fin brutalement, du jour au lendemain, lors de notre inoubliable victoire en petite finale de la coupe du Monde en 1995 (19 à 9), où enfin, la série noire prendra fin, et au plus beau moment, la Coupe du Monde. Les joueurs Français sont tous allés serrer la main de Will Carling abattu en lui disant un “Good game !” chantant avec l’accent du sud ouest. La partie s’est en réalité terminée le lendemain à l’aube, les joueurs des deux équipes s’étant donné rendez vous pour faire une fête de tous les diables jusqu’à l’aube, enterrant définitivement la hache de guerre. Cela sera aidé par le virage vers le professionalisme, des Anglais venant jouer en France et des Français allant jouer en Angleterre (Sébastien Chabal a joué cinq ans dans le club de Sale, près de Manchester), ce qui comblera un peu le fossé d’incompréhension, les Anglais allant jusqu’à recruter un entraîneur français, Pierre Villepreux en 1995. Il fut naturellement tondu à son retour, rassurez-vous.

Cette époque a laissé une tradition, une rivalité qui fait que vaincre l’autre équipe est un plaisir sans nul pareil, mais la terrible tension 1988-1993 a disparu. On la rejoue pour s’amuser. Il n’empêche : piétiner les Anglais est toujours une coupe d’ambroisie. Un petit point sur ce Tournoi qui, déjà, touche à sa fin. PositionNationPartiesPoints
Tableau des PointsJouéesGagnéesNullesPerduesMarquésEncaissésDifférenceEssais1

France440012359+641382

Irlande43018672+14963

Méchants42117864+14554

Pays de Galles410380107âˆ’27725

Italie410359104âˆ’45426

Écosse40136080âˆ’2021

La France l’a quasiment gagné, l’Angleterre, avec ses deux défaites, l’a déjà perdu. Seule l’Irlande pourrait nous le voler sous le nez, en écrasant l’Écosse, à condition que l’Angleterre nous écrase elle aussi, de façon à remonter les 50 points d’écart sur le goal average. Peu probable. L’enjeu essentiel de ce match est la récompense suprême, le Grand Chelem, 5 matchs, 5 victoires, 10 points tout rond au tableau du score. Ce serait le premier de l’ère Lièvremont - N’tamack - Retière, et le premier pour Sébastien Chabal, qui n’avait pas été retenu dans l’équipe de France en 2002 et 2004, date de nos deux derniers Grand Slami. Et à un an de la Coupe du Monde, ça ferait le plus grand bien à cette équipe si jeune et qui se construit encore. Ceux d’entre vous qui le souhaitent pourront suivre mes commentaires éclairés en direct sur Twitter, sur le compte spécial @EolasRugby.
Alors, plus que jamais… ALLEZ LES BLEUS ! ! !

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3,sweets,tradition,traditions,james

The perils of shooting on location

Guardian Unlimited

- 1 days and 6 hours ago

Ahead of the release of Shank, which was met by protests from locals during filming, a look at some other location shoots that went bad

Question: if you peaked out your window, and noticed a ragtag gang of knife-wielding teens storming past, what would you do? Call the police, of course. That's exactly what residents of the Heygate Estate in Elephant & Castle did, only to find their estate was actually the film set of dystopian thriller Shank, where knife-wielding gangs roam free, starring Kaya Scodelario (Effy from Skins), Kidulthood's Adam Deacon, and oddly, Tim Westwood. "I can see," offered the director Mo Ali, "how residents might get the wrong impression".

Long gone, of course, are the days of parking your entire film in the MGM lot and making do with a plastic tree and the contents of the fire bucket to make Elvis look like he's in Hawaii. But with the credit crunch, more places than ever are eager to take the film companies' dollar. David Boice â€“ who runs BeforeTheTrailer.com, a fansite that tracks location shoots â€“ points out that previously unlikely locations are now tripping over themselves to give generous tax breaks and entice film crews, with Michigan leading the way. The result? "In the past year the city of Detroit has filled in for Washington [for Red Dawn]. Rather than filming 'on location', they just film where there's the best incentives."

Last April, the LA Times reported that LA-based location shoots had fallen to their lowest level since records began. Put another way: everywhere is anywhere now. But with more locations, come more problems. The films that have been protested about because of the nature of the film are too numerous to mention â€“ from Brick Lane due to perceived prejudice against the Bangladeshi community to Basic Instinct, which, well, take your pick â€“ anti-woman and anti-gay were the main ones.

But, like Shank, what about the effect on the locals? And what, more importantly, about the house prices? You can forgive the residents of London's Kentish Town (Zone 2, tube, nice pubs), for instance, for being concerned when filming commenced on Nick Love's hooligan film The Firm, as they prepared for a brawl scene involving 140 actors, stuntmen, extras, and with dire warnings of "noise and swearing". That wouldn't do. That wouldn't do at all. With Timmy listening! The locals protested, and filming was soon moved to Hackney. "Residents of Hackney were happy for the fighting to take place on their streets," reported a London freesheet, who declined to mention if the residents actually noticed the difference.

Still, brawling in the UK is one thing. When location shoots go global, it can be far worse. Of course, we all know the foreign shoots that went south â€“ Terry Gilliam's aborted crack at Don Quixote, Coppola going cuckoo during Apocalypse Now â€“ but at least those two can say one thing: they didn't bar people from the Almighty. Last September, Julia Roberts was on location near Dehli filming the Brad Pitt-produced Eat, Pray, Love, in which she plays a woman who finds God via food and Hindu spirituality. All well and good. The only problem was, no one else could find God, as their temple was shut. Villagers hoping to celebrate the beginning of Navratri â€“ a nine-day Hindu festival of worship and dance â€“ found their temple sealed by Roberts's security team, which featured the small matter of 350 guards, bulletproof cars, and a chopper. It was a security detail that essentially said: We have your God now. He's shooting a movie. And he's not available for comment. One villager threatened a break in: "I am going to barge in for the evening aarti [ritual]. Let's see who stops me. What is it that they are shooting that we cannot even enter our own temple?"

Of course, upsetting the faithful is one thing. But won't someone, please, think of the dangerous criminals. Not, it seems, Mel Gibson. For his latest, How I Spent My Summer Vacation, in which he'll star as a career-criminal sent to a harsh Mexican prison, 300 real-life inmates were made to relocate from their prison in the Gulf coast city of Veracruz this January to make way for the film crew, causing not just demonstrations by relatives, angry at having to travel further to visit their incarcerated ones, but a full-scale prison riot. "Mel Gibson, it's your fault they want to take away our relatives," read a banner of one of protesters, who clearly wasn't big on irony.

Yet if you can't find it in your heart to feel for the muggers and murders crushed under Hollywood's unfeeling foot, at least spare a thought for the prostitutes. When Ed Harris-starring drama The Third Miracle was filming in Ontario, Canada, in 1998, they unwittingly became the third consecutive production to shoot in the red light districts of Sherborne and Carleton, causing out-of-pocket street workers to protest about lack of earnings.

Yet sometimes, it's not even that their home has been disrupted, trampled on and destroyed. It's that they're not getting enough credit for it. When filming A Quantum Of Solace in the small town of Baquedano, Bolivia, local mayor Carlos Lopez took matters into his own hands by jumping in his car, nearly hitting two police officers as he sped through the barricades, storming the set, and coming to a skidding halt between Daniel Craig and the cameras. The reason? Bolivia was being used to represent local rivals Chile, and that wouldn't do at all. He was swiftly taken into police custody. But as for Bond himself? Not just shaken or stirred it seems, but, according to Lopez, a full-scale pants disaster. "He fled in terror!" he said after being released. "When he saw me, James Bond ran off!" 007, really ...

Still, protests from the locals are what you expect. While filming Australia â€“ the Baz Luhrmann multimillion pound movie/tourist board infomercial â€“ the protests came from closer to home. Extras were appalled when actors climbed upon a first world war memorial in the tiny town of Bowden during a cattle stampede scene, and lobbied to ensure the actors stood their ground and took the marauding 2,000lb beasts like men. Rumours that another memorial was needed for the fallen thesps are, as yet, unconfirmed.

There's even been the odd occasion where it wasn't the filming itself that caused the disruption, but what those filming asked the locals to do. When a crew was about to film aerial scenes for The Dark Knight in Hong Kong, they sent letters to building residents requesting they keep their lights on to present the city in its full illuminated glory. For six days. From 7am to 11pm. Unsurprisingly, they declined. "Producers are able to create the same effects through post-production," argued Gabrielle Ho at Green Sense, "but instead they are asking us to turn on so many lights, wasting so much energy."

Though there is one thing to be said about all these disruptions: they ended once the filming did. The crew of The Beach not only got permission to film in what was part of a protected national park in Thailand â€“ Maya Bay on Phi Phi Le island â€“ in 1998, but also to make it even "more" of a paradise, uprooting trees, removing natural vegetation that held the sand formations together, levelling sand dunes, and adding 100 non-native coconut palms. Fox promised to put everything back the way it was, but there was erosion, and in 2006 Thailand's Supreme Court upheld an appeal court ruling that the environment had been harmed. Still, Leo had had a look, and it seemed OK to him. "From what I see with my own eyes, everything is OK," the self-described environmentalist said in a statement. "I have seen nothing that has been destroyed or damaged in any way â€“ I cannot tell you the reasons why people have been saying the opposite. It is beyond me." It's beyond us too, Leo. Those inconsiderate, unfeeling bastards.

Shank is out on Friday

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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2,love,james,nationals,bastards

Round-Up: Gamasutra Network Jobs, Week Of March 19

GameSetWatch

- 1 days and 6 hours ago

In our latest employment-specific round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from SCEA Santa Monica, WB Games and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

Gameloft: 3D Graphics Programmer
"As a member of our engineering team you will be part of the full development cycle of 3D video games for iPhone from start to finish, primarily focusing on 3D graphics. Duties could include: Analyze existing 3D functions in the engine and adapt them so they are compatible with current conventions; Support 3D functions and systems conceived for the production; Work with Game Developers, as well as Design teams to determine the different constraints of the game and put all the elements together."

Guerrilla Games: Senior Game Designer
"Guerrilla Games is looking to add a battle-hardened Senior Game Designer to its ranks for an upcoming project. If you're recruited, you will play a pivotal role in formulating the game design and guarding the game's vision. You will also act as a mentor, problem solver and source of bravery and inspiration for your fellow troops."

Rockstar North: Graphics Programmer
"Rockstar North, one of the world's leading video game developers, is a community of creative individuals from a variety of backgrounds. We are based in Scotland out of modern, spacious, purpose-built studios at the heart of Edinburgh. We develop original game titles and are proud to be the developer of the phenomenally successful Grand Theft Auto series. Rockstar North has been part of the Rockstar family since 1999."

Sony Computer Entertainment America Santa Monica: Senior Combat Designer
"Join the God of War team! Be a part of the most exciting and innovating computer entertainment in North America. Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) markets the PlayStationÂ@ family of products and develops, publishes, markets, and distributes software for the PS oneâ„¢ console, the PlayStationÂ@2 and PlayStationÂ@3 computer entertainment systems and the PlayStation Portable (PSPâ„¢)."

WB Games: Art Development Director
"The Art Development Director develops art content staffing plans and monitors resource load and schedule for the external outsource teams as well as the insourced teams. In addition, he or she monitors content creation tasks in collaboration with production staff and art leads handling communication and feedback between the external partners and the internal game teams."

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How killer heels conquered fashion

Guardian Unlimited

- 1 days and 8 hours ago

He turned shoes into fetish objects, brought back the stiletto and counts Lady Gaga, Madonna and Oprah Winfrey as fans. But does he really think Barbie has fat ankles?

God forgive me, I interviewed Christian Louboutin while wearing a pair of trainers. Not fancy sci-fi ones either, but properly old and grimy ones. Louboutin is one of the most famous shoe designers in the world and officially the most prestigious, according to independent ratings company Luxury Institute, which has named Christian Louboutin as the most desirable shoe brand in the world for the past three years. He is also the man who is credited, or blamed, for bringing the stiletto back into fashion. So wearing trainers to meet him is a little like suggesting to Jamie Oliver that we meet at McDonald's for lunch.

But then â€“ whaddyaknow â€“ Louboutin turns up to his tiny and stiletto-filled office wearing trainers himself. (Although where mine say Converse, his say, in a discreet logo on the side, Christian Louboutin, which, presumably, would come in handy should he forget his name.)

"Your trainers are nicer than mine," I say as we settle on the striped sofa against the wall.

"Oh non..." he drawls in a tone that says, "Oui, oui, oui, oui, oui."

But he assures me that he does not judge women by their shoes. Well, not exactly.

"I look at the face first. And when I look at the face, I try to see the personality and, from that, guess what kind of shoes this girl would have."

"So what shoe would my face suggest?" I ask.

He stares at me very intently for about five seconds before answering: "A DM boot."

Perhaps he was just tired. He had flown in that morning from Dubai where he is about to open his 20th boutique â€“ with another 13 planned this year â€“ and did not sleep on the plane "at all". And once he warms up and we turn the conversation away from strict business chat, he is really good fun, making dry remarks and then smiling quietly afterwards. At one point I ask if, having shod pretty much every celebrity in the world, from Madonna to France's first lady Carla Bruni, there is anyone left he'd like as a customer. His eyes skirt around the office, settling at last on a pair of particularly high black stilettos, studded all around with silver spikes. He turns back and replies, po-faced, "The Queen of England."

For a long time, perfume sales powered the fashion world. Then it became jeans. Now, more than ever, it's shoes and bags, and it is no coincidence that Louboutin arrived in the 90s when this switch began. He, Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo's Tamara Mellon are the Holy Trinity of the luxury footwear market, having helped turn shoes from something you put on your feet to avoid splinters into fetish objects for women. Louboutin is now at the top of that triangle.

Where Manolo Blahnik shoes are either plain or quirky, and Jimmy Choos have the distinct sheen of Eurotrash to them, Christian Louboutin shoes say one simple word: sex. Everything about them â€“ from their disco styles, to the aggressive thrust of the shoe's curvature, to the almost pornographic red sole, flashing observers from behind as the lady walks away â€“ shouts sex.

Seemingly every celebrity under the paparazzi sun, from Lady Gaga to Victoria Beckham, has proclaimed their love of the man. But Louboutin himself proves to have remarkably little interest in the international celebrity scene. Was he starstruck when, say, Madonna was photographed wearing his shoes? No, he wasn't. But he was a little excited when he found out that the first Mrs Johnny Hallyday was a fan â€“ "Hallyday is a big singer in France, you know."

Louboutin also recently received the highest honour a shoe designer can receive these days: his shoes are to be featured in the new Sex And The City film. This is not only a major plug, but a potentially controversial one, as Manolo Blahnik shoes were such a mainstay of the TV series that the term "Manolos" entered the lexicon. But is Louboutin excited? Bof.

"I think it's a good thing because people tell me it is. I don't have a TV, you see," he says with a shrug.

Any awkwardness between him and Blahnik? Another baffled shrug.

He even refused to go on the Oprah Winfrey Show when she did a whole episode about how much she loves his shoes, which is as close as you can get to being knighted in America. "They filmed the first part of the show in Paris and made me stand outside in the cold â€“ so of course I got sick," he says, still outraged by the cheek of it. "So then when they said, 'Come to Chicago' [where Winfrey films her show], I said, 'Are you crazy? I'm sick, my God!'"

Instead, Louboutin prefers his hobbies: landscaping (there are often plant details on his shoes), trapeze (he has a swing in his studio) and, occasionally, dancing. He recently made a film of himself tap dancing for Simon Fuller's fashion website, Fashionair, which is a vision of unselfconscious joy (and, yes, he made the shoes).

Is he a regular tap dancer? "Well," he says with a hint of understatement, "I've got rhythm."

He has also been redesigning his Paris apartment for five years. "It's not that I'm a perfectionist," he says, before launching into a seven-minute anecdote about how he's made the builders redo the windows three times to get the angles right.

Most of all, he works: supervising the factories, having meetings around the world and then, twice a year, he will isolate himself in one of his four country houses (Egypt, Syria, France, Portugal) while he designs the new collections.

When we meet it's the first day of Paris fashion week, a prospect that does not suffuse his face with joy. "I never was interested in being part of the fashion world â€“ I just wanted to design shoes. I didn't even know Vogue existed when I was growing up. Vogue, what is that?" he protests.

A few years ago, Louboutin was offered the job of designer at a major fashion label, though he won't say which one. "And I really was almost offended," he says, still sounding it. "I mean, the shoe â€“ there is a music to it, there is attitude, there is sound, it's a movement. Clothes â€“ it's a different story. There are a million things I'd rather do before designing clothes: directing, landscaping. Designing clothes?" His face indicates his opinion of that.

Louboutin was born in 1963 and raised in Paris. His father was a carpenter and his mother was "definitely not" a high heel fan. His four sisters liked "cork wedges", he remembers, with no fondness. "Pretty much the opposite of what I do now."

Yet his taste was established in his childhood. When Louboutin was 13, he and his friends would sneak out of school to go to Le Palace, a Paris nightclub, but while his mates looked at the girls on stage, he just looked at their shoes. "Some of the shoes I make today are still inspired by the Palace â€“ the disco look, the metal, the glitter."

He never went to fashion or design school and instead got his training working for, among others, Charles Jourdan, Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. However, he had an unfortunate tendency to get fired: "It's because I was a terrible assistant. An assistant is supposed to assist â€“ I always wanted to do my own thing."

He is adamant that he never had any career plan or ambition to own his own company, which I don't wholly buy. It is very hard to be successful without wanting it very badly, particularly in the fashion business, and Louboutin, for all his Gallic nonchalance, does play the game. He once decided to miss a flight back to Paris from America so he could spend two more hours in a department store autographing his shoes. "To my favourite hot housewife," Time magazine claimed he scrawled on one customer's shoe.

Today, Louboutin shoes are known for two things: price and height. A pair of Louboutin high heels can easily cost $700 (£465); boots can go up to $2,000 (£1,325) and more. Nor are his the only ones: all designer shoes seem to have increased in price by at least 50% in the last decade, which Louboutin blames on the euro â€“ "Everything got more expensive, even bread" â€“ as opposed to designers simply jacking up the prices when they realised people were willing to pay them.

As well as being in the vanguard of higher prices, Louboutin is also at the forefront of higher heels, bringing stilettos back into fashion, together with all the contradictions that come with them. Jennifer Lopez once told Harper's Bazaar magazine that Louboutin's shoes "kill you. But they're the sexiest shoes around." How can immobility be sexy?

At this point Louboutin starts talking about "the construction of the shoe" and "the direction of the weight" and all the usual noises people make when trying to claim that a high-heeled shoe can be comfortable. But the fact is, no matter what the construction, the woman is hoicked up on her toes. The argument about whether or not high heels empower women is fruitless and, after all this time, a little tired. But even Louboutin seems stumped by the contradiction. When I ask if comfort is an important factor in designing his shoes, he ums and ahs a tad: "It is important because a woman doesn't look good if she's not comfortable. But I wouldn't take it as a compliment if someone looked at one of my shoes and said, 'Oh, that looks like a comfortable shoe'," he says with distinct scorn. When asked if there is such a thing as a too-high heel, he replies, "There is a heel that is too high to walk in, certainly. But who cares? You don't have to walk in high heels."

Germaine Greer recently wrote, citing Louboutin in particular, "While feminists have been struggling to set women free, high heels have conquered the world."

"I haven't heard that kind of idea since the 70s. Thank God that childish idea has vanished. Who said that?" he asks sharply.

Germaine Greer. "Who's that?"

A feminist academic. She wrote a very famous book in 1970... "There you go, she's a 70s feminist. She's keeping her bases covered," he interrupts, settling the matter. For the defence, Louboutin cites one of his heel-loving customers, Madonna â€“ "And she's pretty independent."

Last year, Louboutin signed a deal to make a special Louboutin Barbie. He agreed on one condition: they would have to slim down the doll's insufferably fat ankles.

"Did you really tell them to make Barbie's legs thinner?" I ask, expecting him to deny it.

"Yes," he replies without a blink. "The ankle was a bit straight and there's nothing more pretty than a very curved ankle. So I said to them, the one thing that could really give her perfection is to give a curve to her ankle." He smiles. "It's not like she's going to suffer for it."

Hadley Freeman guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Vatican in crisis over abuse claims

Guardian Unlimited

- 1 days and 8 hours ago

Child abuse by German cleric among claims causing crisis for Vatican

For Father Rupert Frania it seemed the best way. His parishioners in the Bavarian spa town of Bad Tölz had just learned a terrible secret.

It had been reported that one of their curates was a convicted paedophile, Peter Hullermann. The curate who had officiated at the children's mass. The one who had been with their sons and daughters the year before at a campsite in the mountains over their medieval town.

Frania decided to tackle the issue from an angle. In his sermon at the main mass last Sunday morning, he began with the parable of the prodigal son â€“ and was stopped dead in mid-sentence.

"I cannot listen to that," shouted a man who was soon to have been married by Hullerman. "You just cannot dodge the issue any longer," he continued as other parishioners broke into applause and some began shouting "shut your mouth" at their parish priest.

It was a raucously rebellious start to a week in which the disclosure of hundreds of cases of alleged clerical sex abuse in the Roman Catholic church's European heartlands shook the allegiances of millions and forced their pastors to make unprecedented admissions of guilt and mortification.

In Armagh on St Patrick's Day the primate of All Ireland, Sean Brady, told the congregation in his cathedral that the clergy should admit "the full truth of our sinfulness".

Brady, who in 1975 was involved in the swearing to silence of two young victims of Ireland's most notorious clerical paedophile, was one of scores of prelates bowing their heads in disgrace in the Netherlands, Austria, Germany and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy.

So far almost 700 new cases have come to light. It was a week of unmitigated calamity for Benedict XVI, who became pope pledging to shore up Christianity in an increasingly secular Europe.

"It is such a big story because everything about it is extreme," says the religious affairs author and journalist Clifford Longley. "It is the worst crisis for the Vatican since the middle ages."

Longley believes the Catholic church is embedded in European history like nothing else. "It claims divine foundation. The pope's title of Vicar of Christ means he still claims to represent supernatural power. It has been loved and hated, with passion and sometimes loathing. It dominated the middle ages, launched the Crusades, triggered the Reformation; the Enlightenment was a direct reaction against it."

The topic of child sexual abuse provokes strong emotions, even more so when people learn of the steps taken to conceal it. Nowhere has this veil of secrecy been lifted higher than in the Irish Republic, the focus of three reports since 1994.

At the start of the millennium the Catholic church in England and Wales commissioned Lord Nolan to investigate priestly abuse. It resulted in measures to improve child protection policies and reporting procedures, but did little or nothing to address or repair the damage of past abuse.

The 2007 Cumberlege commission reviewed the church response to the Nolan report, but only two of its 72 recommendations dealt specifically with historic cases. This oversight is something support groups are all too aware of and there are demands for a UK inquiry.

Graham Wilmer, who runs the Lantern Project which has helped hundreds of sexual abuse victims since 2003, said: "The psychological and emotional damage has affected them throughout their lives. Until they made contact with us, they have had little if any help in dealing with the aftermath."

Wilmer was sexually abused by a teacher at a Catholic school and spent years trying to bring his tormentor to justice. He wants the British government to establish a truth and reconciliation commission to address the issue.

Longley says the scandal "brings into contrast the priest as man of God, symbol of purity and holiness and the sexual abuse of children as the ultimate betrayal of innocence, representing unspeakable evil. And conspiracy in high places to hide the scandal. No novelist could have invented such a plot."

In spite of earning outright condemnation for its clumsy attempts to sweep matters under the carpet, the church will probably overcome these difficult times. Unlike the Anglican Communion, which buckles under the weight of polarised opinion on homosexuality, the Catholic church always emerges, not entirely unscathed, from adversity.

Longley says the church survived nazism, fascism and communism and will outlast the EU, the UN, the US. "Bad though this crisis is, it has survived much worse. At the start of the 16th century the Vatican was little better than a shit-hole."

The question remains why this situation should be judged so grave when the numbers involved are smaller than in the US, where a 2004 report found evidence in support of almost 7,000 allegations.

One possible answer is the cumulative effect of abuse in so many countries. The crisis has spread from the US to Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and now the German-speaking heart of Europe. Not the least of the difficulties is financial. The church has already had to find some $5bn (£3.3bn) in compensation and now faces the prospect of having to fund more compensation, settlements and legal fees at the same time as disgusted Catholics stop their contributions.

Giancarlo Galli, the Italian author of Finanza Bianca, a study of the Vatican's finances, said: "There is nothing less transparent than the accounts of the church. It is known that with all the troubles in the US, the church was very much looking north, across the Alps, and above all to Bavaria, for support."

It has even been suggested that some of the cardinals who elected the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as pope cast their votes with one eye on the material benefits of having a German pontiff.

This is scarcely the first crisis involving what an Australian victims' group, Broken Rites, has termed black-collar crime. But never before has a scandal cast doubts on the judgment and authority of a pope.

So far the debate has focused on his role in the Peter Hullermann affair. Hullermann was transferred to the Munich diocese when Ratzinger was archbishop, ostensibly for therapy. Though known to be a paedophile, he was moved to a parish where he was convicted of abusing another child.

Christian Weisner, the spokesman for the lay movement, Wir sind Kirche, said that in Munich: "People are asking: 'What did [Benedict] know? What did he do?'" Many Catholics in Bavaria and elsewhere were ready to accept the diocese's version â€“ that the decision to reassign Hullerman was made by Ratzinger's deputy. But Weisner added: "The pope is asking for transparency. So he too should be transparent and ask his successor to open the archives for people to see exactly what happened."

The issue of Benedict's responsibility goes far beyond Munich to encompass his subsequent role as pope.

Weisner argues that this pope "learned more about clerical sex abuse than any other bishop or cardinal and has done more to fight it than any other cardinal or pope".

But there is a sharp distinction between his attitude while a cardinal and his activities as pope that could yet leave an indelible stain on the reign of Benedict XVI.

In 2005 he was elected days after declaring that the time had come to sweep "the filth" from his church. By then he had read â€“ and was disgusted by â€“ files on more than 3,000 clerical abuse cases that were channelled to his department by a decree issued four years earlier by John Paul II.

Most of the cases dealt with by the Vatican department in recent years resulted in the accused being removed, if not defrocked.

The problem for Benedict is that, as in many other theological respects, he changed his mind. The US Vatican-watcher John Allen this week published in National Catholic Reporter an extract from the transcript of a conference in Spain that showed that, as late as November 2002, Ratzinger dismissed the American abuse scandals as the result of a "planned campaign" in the media.

By 2002 the then cardinal had signed what critics claim was an incitement to the obstruction of justice. A letter he circulated to bishops the previous year reminded them that internal church inquiries into certain serious offences were covered by what is known as papal secrecy, for which the penalty is excommunication.

"The question is whether Ratzinger's past may trump Benedict's present," wrote Allen.

Riazat Butt John Hooper guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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When Netflix Isn't Enough

Cinematical

- 1 days and 12 hours ago

There used to be two independent movie rental places in my neighborhood, with one just a few blocks further away offering a seemingly endless array of movies - blockbusters, esoteric indies, extreme horror, sexploitation and grindhouse, triple X features, and even dubiously dubbed impossible to get films like the infamous Skidoo, Preminger's LSD freakout featuring a stoned Groucho Marx as God.

Since rents have skyrocketed and Netflix has appeared on the scene, these brick and mortar stores have been wiped out like the T-Rex, and if I don't like my Netflix offerings at home or if I need to find a movie for research, well, my choices are Blockbuster (which does have some surprising DVDs to rent) or the rental place that's squeezed into the corner of a pizza joint.

For what it's worth, I love Netflix. Love it. I love rating films and seeing what it comes up with, and I love getting those little envelopes in the mail. I love seeing what my friends have rated. My queue is topped out, and I have started bookmarking movies I need to Netflix. Streaming to my Xbox is great, and new films are being added at an alarmingly awesome rate.

At the risk of sounding like a younger female Richard Corliss, I do miss browsing my local video store - a good one, mind you. I could examine each shelf for ages, looking for the perfect movie to suit my mood that night, or getting something on a whim because its cover catches my eye or because it's an employee pick I'd never heard of, in the same way I visit my favorite book store and peruse the books they have handpicked to display in the shelves at the front.

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