Judge bans sale of some Wii controllers
A judge yesterday banned the sale of Wii Classic and GameCube controllers because Nintendo violated a patent on analog joysticks used in their controllers. Apparently the patent is owned by a Texas company, Anascape Ltd. This isn't a killer for Nintendo since the standard Wii controller and the associated nunchuck are still on the market, but the Wii Classic and GameCube controllers are used to play many of the games on the Wii's Virtual Console (a place to buy downloadable games, many of which are games that came out for older systems such as the SNES). More than anything else, it's a public relations fiasco for Nintendo. It's unlikely the customers will be unable to get these controllers for long as they're available in much greater supply than the Wii itself. Furthermore, the amount of money Nintendo will end up paying Anascape (if any) is likely to be a fraction of what they've made on the Wii so far. So mostly they just have to deal with a lot of articles in the news about how they violated a patent and how it will now be impossible for consumers to find these controllers. Of course, Nintendo could get really lucky and have those news stories drive more people to buy these controllers now, further increasing Nintendo's revenue, making the lawsuit effectively backfire. But that's just too ridiculous to ever actually happen.
What does Maliki's endorsement mean?
On Saturday, the news broke that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki agrees with Obama that getting US troops out of Iraq by 2010 is the right thing to do. I think it's hard to stress how important this is. For weeks the only thing we've been hearing from John McCain is that the surge has worked and we need to keep troops there. The conventional wisdom and the story that's been in the media is that McCain is the foreign policy expert and that that is one of Obama's biggest weaknesses. This obviously doesn't completely turn that around, but I think it's pretty significant that the leader of Iraq has explicitly said that the troops need to go home and name Obama's plan in the process....more.
Melon Movie: King Corn
When Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis decide to journey to
Iowa to grow an acre of corn and document their experience, they end up biting
off a bit more than they can chew…sigh. Actually the movie produces far more
than an acre of corn and bad puns.
The film begins with Ian and Curt discovering that
their hair is made up of mostly corn particles.
From there they show us (or rather they are shown) how corn is produced
for the mass market, ammonia spray, pesticides and all baby. Corn, according to famers interviewed in the
film, is produced not for quality but quantity.
This means lower nutritional value for consumers. As it turns out, golden corn is not even
edible until it is processed.
...more.
ARTS UPDATE
Thought I should provide my community (constituents is far too strong a word) with an update regarding the state of Pierce County's Arts Community.
THE BUDGET
The budget crisis continues to be at the forefront of our efforts, though without massive public support it is clear we will not be able to stall drastic cuts (25% or greater) to our ever dwindling budget. This will likely be our 15th year of cuts to our budget, which will make it increasingly difficult for us to serve any meaningful purpose in Pierce County’s arts community. Please write your respective county representatives and ask them to make funding public arts and arts outreach projects a major priority.
...more.Gay Bashing Out in Tacoma
Greetings True Believers! Who killed the gay pride proclamation? Shawn Bunney!
RR Anderson's latest political cartoon inspired by the recent attempt by organizers of the gay pride festival to get an proclamation or official recognition of the OUT IN TACOMA event from the pierce county council. Now for those who don't know proclamations are given away like salt water taffy on a fourth of July parade. Hell you can fill out a form and have your model railroading hobbyist jubilee officially recognized for no other reason than to make the council members seem less detached from real boots-on-the-ground citizens. So what's the big deal about getting your gay pride festival some recognition? How about election time. You see the pierce county council is mostly republicans elected by god fearing hillbillies--which to keep from FREAKING THE FUCK OUT it seems the gay pride proclamation was KILLED.
...more.
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