A distant, icy rock whose discovery shook up the solar system and led to Pluto's planetary demise has been given a name: Eris.
The christening of Eris, named after the Greek goddess of chaos and strife, was announced by the International Astronomical Union on Wednesday. Weeks earlier, the professional astronomers' group stripped Pluto of its planethood under new controversial guidelines.
Occasionally, Wikipedians lose their minds and get into edit wars over the most petty things. This is to document that phenomenon. This page isn't comprehensive or authoritative, but it is designed to show the 'worst-case' result of people attaching so much importance to some trivial detail that they are willing to engage in the lame pastime of edit warring over an even lamer cause.
Fans of Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM) will be thrilled to learn that the 3rd Edition of this award winning role playing game will be released by ArtHaus in January 2007.
Previously published by Guardians of Order, BESM is designed to be a multi-genre anime and manga game and can accommodate nearly any setting or time period. The rules are simple to use and thus do not include an overwhelming amount of specific detail, with the task resolution system and combat engine designed to capture the fast-moving nature of anime and manga action. This element is one of the central strengths of the game, making BESM ideal for either the novice or experienced role-player.
Television star Steve Irwin has been killed while filming an underwater documentary in Queensland.
The 44-year-old, who was dubbed 'The Crocodile Hunter', was killed by a stingray barb through the chest while diving off Port Douglas.
Local diving operator Steve Edmundson said: 'Steve was hit by a stingray in the chest. He probably died from a cardiac arrest from the injury.'
Police confirmed that paramedics were flown to nearby Low Isles, where Irwin was taken to be treated, but he died before they arrived.
Irwin, who runs the world famous Australia Zoo, is survived by his wife Terri and their two young children Bindi Sue and Bob Clarence.
Speaking to Sky Television, Queensland Tourism Minister Margaret Keech said: 'It's a dreadful loss for the tourism industry and for nature conservation.'
'Everybody who met Steve was impressed with his energy and his enthusiasm,' she said.
Irwin made almost 50 'Crocodile Hunter' documentaries, which earned him worldwide acclaim for his dare-devil stunts with animals.
From indie comics icon Brian Wood (Demo, Channel Zero, GLOBAL FREQUENCY) and up-and-coming Italian artist Riccardo Burchielli (John Doe) comes the first volume of DMZ, collecting the first 5 issues of the series about the ultimate embedded war journalist trapped in a most unlikely war zone: the streets of New York City.
In the near future, America's worst nightmare has come true. With military adventurism overseas bogging down the Army and National Guard, the U.S. government mistakenly neglects the very real threat of anti-establishment militias scattered across the 50 states. Like a sleeping giant, Middle America rises up and violently pushes its way to the shining seas, coming to a standstill at the line in the sand — Manhattan or, as the world now knows it, the DMZ.
Matty Roth, a naïve young man and aspiring photojournalist, lands a dream gig following a veteran war journalist into the heart of the DMZ. Things soon go terribly wrong, and Matty finds himself lost and alone in a world he's only seen on television. There, he is faced with a choice: try to find a way off the island, or make his career with an assignment most journalists would kill for. But can he survive in a war zone long enough to report the truth?
An animal found dead in the United States may be the mysterious creature that has mauled dogs, frightened residents and been the subject of local legend for half a generation.
The animal was found near power lines along Route 4 near Turner, Maine, on Saturday. It had apparently been struck by a car while chasing a cat.
The carcass was photographed and inspected by several people who live in the area, but nobody is sure exactly what it is.
Sorry about my late posting for the final day of Gen Con. Anyone who's gone knows that the post-Gen Con crash can be brutal, and mine was no exception.
Here’s a trivial summer project to keep me and you occupied. Take a picture of bottled beverages, include where I was drinking, and blog them. I like to drink different kinds of drinks, and bottled drinks are usually 100 yen to 170 yen. There are varieties and they’re cheap enough to try all these different varieties. I’ll make a post with five drinks each.
Studying intellectual property and the internet has convinced me that we have another cognitive bias. Call it the openness aversion. We are likely to undervalue the importance, viability and productive power of open systems, open networks and non-proprietary production. Test yourself on the following questions. In each case, it is 1991 and I have removed from you all knowledge of the past 15 years.
By the third day of Gen Con, the fatigue is really starting to show for some folks. But for most, it's a happy sort of fatigue, a daze offset by the combined momentum and energy of tens of thousands of other people still meeting, gaming, exploring, and having fun.
We’ve got plenty of more coverage from today, but let’s go to the big topic first: without further ado (a phrase I have heard many times in the past few hours), I’ll give you your 2006 ENnie winners.
I know, I know...it's been nearly a week since I said that I would write about my trip to Wizard World Chicago on here. So enough of this waiting around shit...
Well, Day One of Gen Con Indy draws to a close, and what a day it was! We’ve got plenty of pictures (more of which will be added quite soon--don't worry we've got plenty more from today) to share with those of you who couldn’t quite make it (captions to come later), and a nice recap of the day’s events.
"When great thinkers think about problems, they start to see patterns. They look at the problem of people sending each other word-processor files, and then they look at the problem of people sending each other spreadsheets, and they realize that there's a general pattern: sending files. That's one level of abstraction already. Then they go up one more level: people send files, but web browsers also 'send' requests for web pages. And when you think about it, calling a method on an object is like sending a message to an object! It's the same thing again! Those are all sending operations, so our clever thinker invents a new, higher, broader abstraction called messaging, but now it's getting really vague and nobody really knows what they're talking about any more. Blah.
To those not in the know, Onigiri is a rice ball with some sort of goodie bundled up inside (in this case, Tuna Mayo) and then wrapped with a thin sheet of dried seaweed. The packages are cleverly designed so that the seaweed is kept separated from the rice until the red tab at the top is properly pulled down, allowing the seaweed to wrap around the rice ball in a crispy and delicious combination that you couldn’t dream of for less than 105 yen.
Pudding Parfait. We all know what pudding is, but do we all know what parfait is? According to wikipedia, there is American Parfait and French Parfait. This being Japan, it’s fair to say that it could have come from either one. But wait! Wikipedia has the answer there too! They say that Japanese parfait is essentially an ice cream sundae. Regardless, this one is just the right mix of sweet n’ smooth, with bits of cookies and cream mixed in, dollops of whipped cream on the top and chocolate swirled throughout, they definitely got it right on this one.
So what if it all goes to my thighs? I NEED IT! ...I can’t be sure but this doesn’t seem so seasonal, so it’s probably available year-round. Those of you who aren’t gonna be able to make your trip out to Japan until autumn or winter probably aren’t gonna be hurting if this one was high on your list of "must trys"
This claims to be Heidi of the Alps, but I’m pretty sure that’s Paul Bunyon over there on the left. I don’t really know what Heidi or Paul would have to do with selling drinkable yogurt, but nevertheless, there they are.
My gods, I have no idea where to begin.
Yes ... effective more-or-less immediately, Guardians Of Order has ceased operations.
First, an apology. I am terribly sorry that George Martin broke the news about our situation. That is certainly not how I wanted the information to be released, and I had thought that my frank conversation with him about A Game of Thrones-specific issues was in confidence. This is the second time now that someone other than me releases very important news about Guardians Of Order, which leaves me frantically trying to patch the holes. The polite and proper thing for me -- as President of the company -- to do would be to contact all of our creditors (which includes some great freelancers and industry associates) FIRST and explain the situation to them. I was working on that process when my efforts were derailed by one simple website post. So I am very sorry that someone else took it upon himself to release this information. It's not how I was proceeding to handle things.
But yes, the end result is the same. GoO is no longer.
This was a very sad decision that I had to make, but it wasn't really a difficult one when I took a long, hard look at the facts. The company simply accumulated too much debt, with little hope of paying it off within the next decade, and my recent plans to get the company back in shape didn't materialise. When I kept my emotions in check and simply analysed the facts of the company's financial forecast, the only course of action was very clear. There were a combination of factors that contributed to the ultimate inability of the company to maintain fiscal health (which I have outlined several times in other posts over the years) -- the extreme softening of the RPG sales market, the drastic shift in USD/CDN exchange rates, etc -- but external circumstances are not entirely to blame. Simply put, I did not have the business acumen to run the company profitably when the going got tough. I'm going to steal a John Nephew analogy for a brief explanation.
I've been driving down the gaming industry highway in my GoOmobile since 1997, with a coffee in the cup holder and a muffin on the passenger's seat. For many years of driving, the highway was a straight path with very little traffic on it. Consequently, if I swerved a little as I ate my breakfast while driving, it wasn't a big deal ... the situations on the road were very forgiving and it was easy to keep on driving. Unfortunately, when the road started getting very crowded around 2003 and started making many twists and turns, I didn't have the foresight to put down the coffee and muffin, place both hands firmly on the wheel, and pay very close attention to the road. I just kept on driving like before, assuming everything was the same. Ultimately, the GoOmobile swerved into the path of an incredibly powerful semi-truck called "Exchange Rate Fluxuation," causing a terrible wreck and writing off the vehicle.
I'm not making light of the situation, but I thought that John's analogy was a perfect fit. Running the company when things were peachy was easy, but I faltered when the going got tough. For my lack of knowledge and experience, I sincerely apologise to our many thousands of consumers and fans, our creditors and freelancers, and to my many friends who put their faith in my dream. I failed, and I'm sorry I couldn't do better.
So where does that leave things now? I don't have all the answers yet -- I was trying to line them up before making this announcement -- but here's what I can say at this time:
- BESM Third Edition is finished and ready for press. Another company will be publishing it and providing future support. It's the most elegant version of BESM and the Tri-Stat System that I have put together and am very proud of it. If you pre-ordered the book from us, more information will follow.
- Advanced d20 Magic is back from press and will be hitting stores in August. Customers who pre-ordered directly from us will be receiving their orders.
- We are still attempting to place the A Game of Thrones RPG with another company. Of course, this requires GRRM's approval and we are still working out details. AGOT is a fantastic game, and we will do our best to see it continued.
- All outstanding orders will be fulfilled. If we are unable to ship you the order for some reason, you will have the option of having a refund sent to you. We are no longer taking any orders directly from our web store.
- Our products will remain for sale as both print books and PDFs as long as the stores will carry them. We are arranging for our products to be transferred to another company. I have no information regarding their future publication.
- Our Tri-Stat/brand licenses remain in effect for as long as indicated in the contracts, and licensees may still publish products under the terms of such licenses. Obviously, the Magnum Opus imprint will cease to operate.
- Our creditors (which includes freelancers and friendly investors) will be contacted directly in the coming weeks. There is still much to do on this end, and I ask for your patience while we get things in order and communicate with you.
Some people have inquired about my personal future, so I'll be brief. I am leaving the gaming industry. I need to concentrate on recovering financially from the collapse of the company and on rebuilding the strength of my family, which unfortunately suffered over the past couple of years. I am now working as a real estate sales representative in Guelph, and find the work a refreshing change of pace. My health is great, my family is very understanding, and I look forward to what the future will hold.
There are so many people to whom I am grateful for all their help, advice, and support over our 9-year run. Please forgive me if I forget anyone:
- my wonderful wife, Karen, for ... well ... everything
- my parents for always giving me their best wishes and telling me how proud they are of my accomplishments
- Adam Jury, who stuck with the company and with me until the end
- Jesse Scoble, for sharing so very many awesome experiences under the guise of "work"
- Jeff Mackintosh, for accepting that job offer initiated in the Columbus bar
- David Pulver, for putting BESM 2e on the map
- Ryan Dancey, for always being just a phone call away; sweet, dude
- John Zinser, for showing and mentoring me in the Hard Way
- Cindy Rice, for befriending this little guy in New York many years ago
- John and Michelle Nephew, for keen insight, support, and friendship
- Alex Fennel, for working with this fellow foreigner for several years
- Joe Saul, for always shooting straight and giving me the US perspective
- Erick Wujcik, for giving me the opportunity to carry the torch, even if I couldn't follow through
- Derek, who offered to help an old friend in need
- Andy, Todd, Jules, Lindsey, Ken, John, and Lowell for lending a helping hand
- Steve, for helping make deals happen
- The Hero Games crew, for making advertising a lot of fun
- Marcelo Figueroa, for his eternal offers of assistance; and of course
- our customers, fans, and supporters -- without whom running Guardians Of Order would have been impossible. You have my sincerest gratitude.
Hello and goodbye, as always.
Mark C. MacKinnon
President, Guardians Of Order, Inc.
Guelph, Ontario
July 31st, 2006
