Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Dead Seas Scrolls

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So I found out something I think is pretty interesting. With the help of Google the Dead Sea Scrolls have been digitized so you can see them on the internet. They go as far as an interactive scroll that you can zoom in on and read the english translation verse by verse. Accompanied on the site are videos that explain the different scrolls. With the age of the paper its amazing how well preserved it really is. I think its great that they have been able to put this online otherwise you would still have to go to the museum in Israel to get a peak. Anyway here is the link.

http://dss.collections.imj.org.il

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Its not the end, but you can see it from here.

In the wonerful world of politics and science!

Lets see the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad apparently used his speech time at the UN General Assembly to berate the United States for not bringing in Osama bin Laden to trial, instead of killing him and dumping the body in the ocean. As well as questioning the holocaust and the attacks on 9/11? As a result there was a mass walkout by foreign diplomats from thirty different countries while he was talking. Ahmadinejad continued attacking western nations for intervening in countries to weaken them through their military strength so they could plunder their resources causing them to be more dependent on the west. This was certainly bad timing for the Iranian president since tomorrow will decide whether Palestine will be a full or partial member in the UN. With hundreds of protests against Ahmadinejad at the UN in the streets of New York its no wonder the U.S.A. as well as Israel has stated they will veto the request by Palestine for UN membership. Its ironic that Mahmoud would attack the U.S. for its policies while constant stories come out with the way citizens are treated in his own country.





At Cern the location of the LHC(Large Hadron Collider) something starling has been found possibly a miscalculation but important all the same. They were testing subatomic particles called neutrinos sending them 732km toward Gran Sasso laboratory. And apparently they reached their destination slightly faster than the speed of light, by a few billionths of a second but faster nonetheless. Now this is not a official statement, they are now running extensive test to make sure of no errors in their calculations or experiments that could lead to a misunderstanding. But all the same if this is proven to be true a lot of scientific fact over the past century may be thrown out, if not reworked. But to my understanding the theory of how fast light travels was just that a theory, so breaking the bounds of our understanding doesn't shock me since that's what we have been doing since sience began. But I would ask, think of all the possibilities that can be opened up if this is true. At least the LHC has only possibly destroyed the theoretical world and not the real world like it was thought to do, why tear a black hole in the middle of the planet when you can do this right?

But to reiterate the death star is not complete.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Its been awhile...

So I have not really posted in almost a week. But I can explain, I've been on a trip with my family to North Carolina. The main reason was there see the Worlds Strongman Competition. Only they changed the date around and I was only able to see one day of the semi-finals with the actual finals going on Wednesday and Thursday. The rest of the trip was museums and beaches and my first time on a sardine packed airplane. All in all I have to say the trip was nice the stormy beaches especially nice the worst part was of course heading back to a dirt hole like Oklahoma. And now I can only get my computer to work by laying the tower sideways,,, I took the thing completely apart and reinserted everything to make sure nothing is loose and still if there is a slight movement it will not turn on. Luckily I keep all my stuff on an external hard-drive so if it never turns on I don't lose anything. Back to the competition the athletes had to pull a 26,500 pound firetruck 25 yards or so on an incline after it had just rained. The only guys able to pull it across the line were two Americans Brian and Josh, and the last with the fastest time from Iceland named Thor. Afterwards the was three rounds of dead-lifts with cars weighing 800 pounds. The first round was seeing how long they could hold it and the other two was how many repetitions in seventy five seconds. I have a lot of footage on it but its packed away and I plan to post it soon. The competition was great but ESPN was there and kept interrupting the flow of things for their interviews, I swear the lady changed her outfit ten times in two hours. Plus they kept asking the audience to cheer so they could have shots to edit. All I have to say is you try cheering on a wet race track cold as all get out, no thanks. Anyway look forward to some amateur shot videos of the world strongest men!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Hail Zeon!

So I don't know if anyone is interested but Sunrise Studios has decided to put the first three Gundam movies with english subtitles up on their YouTube site. Which I think is pretty awesome, although I've always liked the Zeon mobile suits and not the flashy gundams. I've always seen the gundams win by their machines advancements and the Zeon pilots only survived if they actually had skill. Although that never lasted long as the gundam pilots actually gained experience. But there was one battle on the MS 8TH Team near the end that has always been my favorite.
I love the tactics the Gouf Custom uses and even when he loses he actually wins. But back to the main topic the movies bring back a nostalgia and I think putting them up for free is a good way to get new viewers on such old movies and help bring new fans to the series. I'll have the link to the page below, and all i want to ask is whats your favorite mobile suit or gundam, mines the DC-51-Loto.
Anyways here is the link to the Gundam Movies http://www.youtube.com/user/GundamInfo#p/u/15/r9o7hgHLm7c

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Dead Island Dead On

So I've picked up Dead Island for the Playstation 3 and have been playing it since the day it was released. And I have to say its great, it has the feel of every zombie movie I've seen with the scenarios. The combat is great I love running around with brass knuckles duking it out with anything in my path. The driving is also surprising to me in this game, its very fluid and maneuvering around vehicles strewn from about the road is tedious, even more so with zombies at the car door trying to eat you, but the thud made when running over said zombies is very satisfying. I do have some qualms like looking down at my feet and rotating in place makes it look like I'm hovering since there's no animation. And the facial animation for npcs is well... wrinkly, but that may be the middle aged tourists fault for the leather faces. I also noticed that no matter how different the zombie is once you chop their head off they all snap to a basic model of bald mouth open ball even though it had hair like carrot top a second ago. Also the voices are great but I wish they would fit in context with the actual conversation instead of coming off as prescript-ed separate lines like an automated voice on the phone, however it doesn't do this all the time. It seems like I'm making the game sound horrible but I digress its is awesome the visuals are stunning and the beach is simply beautiful. Compared with the claustrophobic city with tight corners, or dark smokey sewers tighter than the city I dread but it changes the way you play drastically as your tactics change to deal with where your zombie is, what type it is, and if its going to charge like a bat out off... well you get the idea. Another great aspect is the weapons selection and modification a bat is great but why not spike it with nails or wrap it up with a cloth and set it on fire. Guns I'm just getting into and I only use those if I'm being shot at myself, bullets are priceless in the zombie apocalypse people! Another good bad thing for me is when loading a new area everything is reverted to a basic look with no definition or textures, but honestly it doesn't detract from the game to me, I get to see what this game would look like if it came out a long time ago and humbles me to the fact that we are so advanced in such little time since video games were first realized. Anyway I'm going back to playing as i left it paused and the music is creeping me out. Oh did I forget the music? It fully translates the feeling of the game from serene piano like the first trailer to something more dangerous and fast paced. I would rather have the piano though it lulls me into a false security but it doesn't make me think somethings going to pull me under like other times. Let me know what you think about the game so far, I know I haven't covered everything!
By the way here's the true dead island experience for anyone who has already played it.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

$150!!!...Worth it?

So I'm not sure if anyone knows the details on this awesome jrpg created by Level 5 who's made such titles as the Professor Layton series for the DS, is working with Studio Ghibli who's every movie is near perfection like NausicaƤ of the Valley of the Wind, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro ect. To make a game called Ni no Kuni: Shiroki Seihai no. With Professor Layton's art style in resemblance as some of Studio Ghibli's works i can see only good things to come. They already released a game in the same universe for the DS last year i don't really know if its made it to the U.S. if at all but i heard that it came with a book! How awesome is that most of the preorder stuff is pretty cheap in my opinion. like in Europe the special ed of Deus Ex: HR came with a Square Enix figure... the U.S. nothing like that. Who knows if the Ps3 game coming out on Nov. 17th in Japan will get anything on that level like is predecessor on the DS. One thing i do know  is that there will be a special ps3 edition console coming out on the release looking very nice in white and gold. But the kicker is that the price will be set at one hundred and fifty dollars! With the average going at sixty this is pricy but is it worth it? I mean Studio Ghibli's track record on style and amazing story i think the game will be forty hours of bliss, since with cinema they've been limited with two hours to emotionally invest you, think of that double decoupled! I think it is but i certainly don't want this price to be the norm unless games try and reach that level of quality, i know im talking in the future but i have hope for the gaming industry still.

Anyways heres the release trailer!