By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

ROCKY RIDGE, Navajo Nation — It is a story that the United States does not want to be told. Now, with authentic images and story, a young Navajo woman is telling it. Camille Manybeads Tso was 13 years old when she wrote and directed the film “In the Footsteps of Yellow Woman.” She tells the story of her great-great-great grandmother Yellow Woman, as told to her by her grandmother Mae Tso.

Mae Tso tells how the young Navajo women, with their babies, were constantly on the run from the Calvary in the 1860s, hiding in the caves and rocks of Black Mesa. Then captured and forced on the Longest Walk, they were driven at gunpoint across the swift Rio Grande. Babies and elderly were swept away. Eventually after the harsh imprisonment at Fort Sumner, N.M., Navajos returned to their homeland.

In this brilliant work of film, a young Navajo woman has come forward to reveal the genesis of Hitler’s concentration camps.

Hopefully, her art of storytelling with film will give birth to a new generation of filmmakers, Native youths telling their histories with clarity, passion and excellence.

“In the Footsteps of Yellow Woman,” is a honorable memorial to the thousands of Navajos who died on the Longest Walk and during the cruel imprisonment at Fort Sumner. It is a testament to the courage and fortitude of the young Navajo women who survived with their children, and the Navajos who continue to struggle to protect and defend Black Mesa today.

With music by Blackfire, Brent Michaels David and Radmilla Cody, the film is a moving tribute to the legacy of survival.

Camille Manybeads Tso, in an eighth-grade project and trained at the Native youth media project ‘Outta Your Backpack Media,’ has produced a film that is authentic and a hallmark for our times.

Photos: The making of “In the Footsteps of Yellow Woman” courtesy Camille Manybeads Tso. Photo 2: Navajo woman and baby at Fort Sumner. Photo 3: Navajos with their shelter at Fort Sumner. Fort Sumner photos courtesy of New Mexico State Monuments.

Contact Camille Manybeads Tso:
halneeproductions@gmail.com
http://oybm.org/
More photos and film screenings:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2009/11/navajo-youth-filmmaker-in-footsteps-of.html

BLACK MESA, La Mesilla, New Mexico: For my money, this is the best course in New Mexico, and one of the best in the nation. It’s in an eerie desert landscape (if you like desert scenery, it’s so beautiful that it seems like a mirage), and for all of it’s difficulties, quite fair. Only finished in 2002, it ranks in the top 40 of Golf Magazine’s “Top 100 Courses You Can Play” list already. This is a Baxter Spann design. La Mesilla is near the larger town of Espanola, where there is plenty of food and lodging. RATINGS: 73.9/141 COST: $82-$87 including cart

Visit my website here.

The environmental groups were recently kicked out after asking the EPA to study the impact of the Navajo Generating Station. This may have led to an economic loss for the coal industry, especially if unexceptable polluting is found. The leaders of the Hopi and Navajo tribes even banned their own citizens from protesting the coal company on the reservation.

via Conflict between Navajo, Hopi, and Big Coal: environmentalists banned.

[Here's another day special I'll do every Friday where I show YouTube vids I dig up.]
Vids:
School orch. fail-http://bit.ly/z3gtf

Left4Teletubbies-http://bit.ly/35kA9

“Millionaire?” awkwardness-http://bit.ly/3HNbC

Hitler’s iPhone=broken-http://bit.ly/36zHjB

A gun song-http://bit.ly/2aJzQ

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2001 A Space Odyssey titles school performance

Here’s a video to start the first YouTube Vids Friday: the title sequence from the old movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey.” I’ve seen it, but it was incredibly boring. If only they used this school’s orchestra, then I would be laughing at every time they play.

From yogosegal [SUBSCRIBE TO yogosegal]

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Left 4 Teletubbies

“Left 4 Dead” is one of THE greatest zombie games in history. It has a very dark tone, just like Black Mesa back in Half-Life (made by the same guys who made L4D, Valve). Though, putting some technicolor into it really makes it even more enjoyable, like the colors of the famous toddlers’ show. It actually makes it less scary.

From flameknight7  [SUBSCRIBE TO flameknight7]

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Who Wants a Horny TV Quiz-Show Host?

“Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” just got to it’s ?th season(year? I forget.). If they were to show one of those “moments” montages, where they look back at the past seasons, they might want to have this clip in mind.

From RebelBubba [SUBSCRIBE TO RebelBubba]

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FUNNIEST – Hitlers iPhone Broken

There are many of these “translated” Hitler videos, mostly about video games, like the one for Portal, where Hitler didn’t know cake was a lie and Hitler getting banned from Xbox Live, both HILARIOUS. Although this certain one stands out from the most, somehow.

From adamlindsay [SUBSCRIBE TO adamlindsay]

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Ballad of Black Mesa

Let’s end this YTVF! with a bang, shall we? Or rather, hundreds of them. This vid is a piece of machinima (okay, here’s the Wiki page for it, if you don’t know) that is one of my favorites. I know it’s not much, but I love these kinds of minimalist videos, like typographies. “Ballad of Black Mesa” isn’t set in Black Mesa back in the original video game, Half-Life, but instead set in it’s sequel, Half-Life 2. Wish they had a download for the video’s audio…

From Ronaldthecock [SUBSCRIBE TO Ronaldthecock]

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Okay, so that’s it for this YTV Friday. Tons more YTV Fridays to come, as I have an ever growing “Favorites” list on my YouTube channel. Looking forward to the next one! Ta ta, for now.

My channel: YouTube.com/danielign9

there was great news coming from the united nations the other day, but like the goldstone report, unless there’s teeth to back it up it will fall by the wayside. it seems that finally the united nations is not going to treat the zionist entity with kid gloves any more when it comes to their war crimes and when it comes to their nuclear arsenal. or, this could just be mere hot air. that remains to be seen. in any case, here is what al jazeera reported:

The UN nuclear assembly has called for Israel to open its nuclear facilities to UN inspection and sign up to the non-proliferation treaty.

The resolution, which was passed narrowly on Friday, marked a surprise victory for Arab states and others who have pushed for the move for the last 18 years.

The non-binding resolution voiced concern about “Israeli nuclear capabilities” and urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, to tackle the issue.

Israel vowed it would not co-operate, saying the measure singled it out while many of its neighbours remained hostile to its existence.

“Israel will not co-operate in any matter with this resolution which is only aiming at reinforcing political hostilities and lines of division in the Middle East region,” said David Danieli, the chief Israeli delegate.

‘Glorious moment’

Israel is one of only three countries worldwide – along with India and Pakistan – outside the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and is widely assumed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal.

It has never confirmed nor denied that it has nuclear weapons.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the Iranian ambassador, whose country’s disputed nuclear programme is under IAEA investigation, said the vote was a “glorious moment” and “a triumph for the oppressed nation of Palestine”.

Speaking later to Al Jazeera, Soltanieh said: “All like-minded, peace-loving countries have always called for a resolution to take measures to push Israel to stop their nuclear weapon programme and adhere to the NPT and put every nuclear installation under the IAEA.

“All countries in the Middle East are party to the NPT – the only non-party is Israel … the resolution was addressed to the only non-participatory [state] in the Middle East.

Tehran was one of the 21 countries sponsoring the measure.

Iran absorbed a setback later when its bid to make legally binding a 1991 resolution banning attacks on nuclear sites failed to win a consensus from the bloc of Non-Aligned Movement developing nations and so was not brought up for a vote.

UN Security Council members Russia and China backed the Israel resolution, passed by a 49-45 margin by the IAEA’s annual member states gathering. There were 16 abstentions.

Western states said it was unfair and counterproductive to isolate one member state and that an IAEA resolution passed on Thursday, which urged all Middle East nations including Israel to foreswear atomic bombs, made Friday’s proposal unnecessary.

Western backing

Before the vote, Glyn Davies, the US ambassador, said the resolution was “redundant … such an approach is highly politicised and does not address the complexities at play regarding crucial nuclear-related issues in the Middle East”.

Canada tried to block a vote on the floor with a “no-action motion”, a procedural manoeuvre that prevailed in 2007 and 2008, but lost by an eight-vote margin.

Diplomats from the non-aligned movement of developing nations said times had changed with the advent of the US administration of Barack Obama, the US president.

“People and countries are bolder now, willing to call a spade a spade. You cannot hide or ignore the truth, the double standards, of Israel’s nuclear capability forever,” the Reuters news agency quoted one diplomat as saying.

“The new US administration has certainly helped this thinking with its commitment to universal nuclear disarmament and nuclear weapons-free zones.”

The non-binding measure was last voted on in 1991, when IAEA membership was much smaller, and passed by 39-31.

the next step should be to force the united states to submit to the iaea as well. and then to destroy all of these nuclear weapons for the potential threat they pose as well as for the environmental and health consequences for those who live in the midst of these weapons. and, of course, as a part of the ongoing genocide of american indians, the united states has made sure that such weapons are placed closes to american indian reservations and communities. brenda norrell has an interesting article in counterpunch on the subject:

When Paul Zimmerman writes in his new book about the Rio Puerco and the Four Corners, he calls out the names of the cancers and gives voice to the poisoned places and streams. Zimmerman is not just writing empty words.

Zimmerman writes of the national sacrifice area that the mainstream media and the spin doctors would have everyone forget, where the corners of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet, in his new book, A Primer in the Art of Deception: The Cult of Nuclearists, Uranium Weapons and Fraudulent Science.

“A report in 1972 by the National Academy of Science suggested that the Four Corners area be designated a ‘national sacrifice area,” he writes.

Then, too, he writes of the Rio Puerco, the wash that flowed near my home when I lived in Houck, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation in the 1980s. The radioactive water flowed from the Churck Rock, N.M., tailings spill on down to Sanders, where non-Indians were also dying of cancer, and it flowed by New Lands, Nahata Dziil Chapter, where Navajos were relocated from their homes on Black Mesa. They moved there from communities like Dinnebeto. Some elderly Navajos died there in New Lands, not just from the new cancers, but from broken hearts.

Zimmerman points out there was plenty of evidence of cancers from Cold War uranium mining and radioactive tailings left behind, but few studies were commissioned to document it. In the early 1980s, I asked the Indian Health Service about the rates of death around the uranium mines and power plants. No studies were ever conducted, according to the IHS press officer. I was shocked. Fresh out of graduate school with a master’s degree in health for developing nations, I really could not believe it.

This week, Zimmerman released a chapter of his new book to aid the struggles of Indigenous Peoples, after reading about the Havasupai Gathering to Halt Uranium Mining in the Grand Canyon.

As I read his chapter, I am flooded with memories, memories of people dying, radioactive rocks and the deception and censorship that continues on the Navajo Nation.

In the 1990s, USA Today asked me to report on the uranium tailings and deaths at Red Valley and Cove near Shiprock, N.M. In every home I visited, at least one Navajo had cancer and their family members had died of cancer. In some homes, every family member had cancer. In one home, an eighty-year-old Navajo woman looked at the huge rocks that her home was made of. She said some men came with a Geiger counter and told her the rocks were extremely radioactive. Then, on another day, I walked beside the radioactive rocks strewn in Gilbert Badoni’s backyard near Shiprock.

The dust we breathed at Red Valley and Cove was radioactive. When the Dine’ (Navajo) in the south and Dene in the north mined uranium without protective clothing, the US and Canada knew they were sending Native American miners to their deaths.

“Declassified documents from the atomic weapons and energy program in the United States confirm that official secret talks on the health hazards of uranium mining were discussed both in Washington and Ottawa. In 1932, even before the Manhattan Project, the Department of Mines in Canada published studies of the mine at Port Radium, warning of the hazard of radon inhalation and ‘the dangers from inhalation of radioactive dust.’ Blood studies of miners confirmed that breathing air with even small amounts of radon was detrimental to health,” Zimmerman writes.

When I moved to the Navajo Nation in 1979, I was a nutrition educator with the Navajo Hopi WIC Program. I had no intention of becoming a news reporter or an activist. Later in the 1980s, as a news reporter, I reported on Peabody Coal and its claim that it was not damaging the land or aquifer on Black Mesa.

Louise Benally, resisting relocation at Big Mountain said, “These big corporations lie you know.”

No, I didn’t know that then. But I know that now.

Earl Tulley, Navajo from Blue Gap, said something that changed my life. Tulley told me about the multi-national corporations, how they seize the land and resources of Indigenous Peoples, not just on the Navajo Nation, but around the world.

But it wasn’t until I covered federal court in Prescott, Arizona, as a stringer for Associated Press, that I learned of how it all continues. Covering the Earth First! trial in the 90s, I realized that federal judges and federal prosecutors are on the same team. The FBI can manipulate and manufacture evidence, even drive people to a so-called crime if the guys don’t have a ride.

During the federal trial of former Navajo Chairman Peter MacDonald, it became obvious: If you are an American Indian, you can forget about justice. Later, during the trials of American Indian activists it was clear: Federal prosecutors can just write a script and send people to prison.

There are parts of the American justice system concealed from most people: Distorted facts and planted evidence. News reporters seldom learn of the witnesses who receive federal plea agreements and lie on the witness stand. Few people except news reporters, ever sit through these long, and tediously dull at times, federal trials which can go on for months.

A three month trial of American Indians, or environmentalists, will smash any romantic myth about justice for all in the US court system. The bias and politics embedded within the justice system, and the back door deals of Congressmen with the corporations who bankroll them, seldom make the evening news.

Arizona Sen. John McCain and company brought about the so-called Navajo Hopi land dispute, which was actually a sweetheart deal for Peabody Coal mining on Black Mesa. When they emerged from the back door deals, they swiftly went out to throw candy to Native Americans in the parades, claiming they were the best friends of Indian country. Money is the reason the Navajo Nation Council went along with coal mining on Black Mesa. The revenues from coal mines, power plants and oil and gas wells pay the salaries and expense accounts of the Navajo councilmen and Navajo President.

While I was on Mount Graham in Arizona at the Sacred Run, I learned of another part of the story. I learned about Skull and Bones, the Yale secret society. Former San Carlos Apache Councilman Raleigh Thompson told me of the meeting with Skull and Bones. Thompson was there. Thompson told how the Skull and Bones members, including President George HW Bush’s brother Jonathan Bush and an attorney, tried to silence the San Carlos Apache leaders. The San Carlos Apaches were seeking the return of Geronimo’s skull, during meetings in New York in the 1980s. Geronimo had asked to be buried in the mountains on San Carlos.

The more I read from the book Secrets of the Tomb, the more it became obvious that the Skull and Bones members weren’t just seizing money. Their desire was for power. They wanted world domination.

So, now years later, I see the Skull and Bones Society rear its head again in the Desert Rock power plant deal on the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners, protested by Navajos living on the land in the longstanding protest Dooda Desert Rock. Follow the money at Sithe Global and it leads back to Blackstone and a member of Skull and Bones.

Skull and Bones members controlled production of the first atomic bomb, according to Alexandra Robbins, author of Secrets of the Tomb. Zimmerman writes of this time, “The Manhattan Project is inaugurated, physicists are secretly recruited, clandestine outposts spring up in the wilderness, and a fevered race against time ensues to transform abstract theories into a deliverable weapon.”

The proposed Desert Rock power plant would be in the Four Corners, the same “national sacrifice area,” where the Cold War uranium mines, coal mines, power plants and oil and gas wells are already polluting and causing disease and death. The air, land and water are contaminated and the region is desecrated. It is the Navajos sacred place of origin, Dinetah, a fact voiced by Bahe Katenay, Navajo from Big Mountain, and censored.

Navajos at Big Mountain, and the Mohawk grandmothers who write Mohawk Nation News, make it clear: The government initiated tribal councils are puppets of the US and Canadian governments.

Several years before Dan Evehema passed to the Spirit World, relaxing on his couch after protesting in the rain backhoes and development on Hopiland, at the age of 104, he shared truth, speaking through a translator.

Evehema said the Hopi Sinom never authorized or recognized the establishment of the Hopi Tribal Council, a puppet of the US government.

In the early Twentieth Century, Hopi were imprisoned at Alcatraz for refusing to cooperate with the US. In the latter part of the century, when the threat of forced relocation of Navajos was great, traditional Hopi, including Evehema and Thomas Banyacya, stood with and supported Navajos at Big Mountain. Mainstream reporters don’t like to report these facts, since it deflates their superficial coverage, based on corporate press releases.

As I was being censored out of the news business (at least the type that results in a paycheck) Louise Benally of Big Mountain once again revealed the truth of the times. When she compared the war in Iraq to the Longest Walk of Navajos to Bosque Redondo, she spoke of the oppression and deceptions of the US colonizers, comparing the torture and starvation of this death walk to what the US was doing in Iraq. Benally was censored.

It was more than just a censored story. It was a statement of the times we live in: Hush words too profound to be written. The times had come full circle. Indian people once oppressed by US colonizers were now serving as US soldiers for US colonizers, killing other Indigenous Peoples. Victims had become perpetrators.

During much of the Twentieth Century, Indian children in the US, Canada and Australia were kidnapped. Stolen from their parents, these children were placed in boarding schools. In Canada, the residential schools were run by churches. In all three countries, young children were routinely abused, sexually abused and even murdered.

On the Longest Walk in 2008, while broadcasting across America, we saw the marsh at Haskell in Kansas. Here, there are unmarked graves of the children who never came home. At Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, we read the tombstones in the rows of tiny graves, the names of the children who never came home.

In the US, Canada and Australia, children were forbidden to speak their Native tongue, which carried their songs and ceremonies. Indian children were beaten, locked in cellars, tortured and raped. Many died of pneumonia, malnutrition and broken hearts. Some were shot trying to escape.

At Muscowequan Catholic residential school in Lestock, Saskatchewan, Canada, a young girl was raped by a priest. When she gave birth, the baby was thrown into the furnace and burned alive in front of child survivor Irene Favel (http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/ .)

In the US, the young boys who survived were militarized, made into US soldiers. Zimmerman writes that Australia, like Canada and US, carried out a holocaust of Aboriginal peoples. “What occurred in Australia is a mirror image of the holocaust visited on Native Americans. When the British claimed sovereignty over Australia, they commenced a 200 year campaign of dispossession, oppression, subjugation and genocide of Aboriginal peoples.”

Indigenous Peoples around the world targeted by uranium mining, including the Dene in the north, linked to Dine’ (Navajo) in the south by the common root of the Athabascan language. From the Dine’ and Dene and around the earth to Australia, there was a recipe for death for Indigenous Peoples by the power mongers.

The US policy of seizing the land and destroying the air, water and soil is clear in Nevada and Utah. While Western Shoshone fight the nuclear dump on their territory at Yucca Mountain in what is known as Nevada, Goshutes at Skull Valley in Utah are neighbors with US biological and chemical weapons testing.

Zimmerman writes, “Dugway Proving Ground has tested VX nerve gas, leading in 1968 to the ‘accidental’ killing of 6,400 sheep grazing in Skull Valley, whose toxic carcasses were then buried on the reservation without the tribe’s knowledge, let alone approval. The US Army stores half its chemical weapon stockpile nearby, and is burning it in an incinerator prone to leaks; jets from Hill Air Force Base drop bombs on Wendover Bombing Range, and fighter crashes and misfired missiles have struck nearby. Tribal members’ health is undoubtedly adversely impacted by this alphabet soup of toxins.”

Zimmerman makes it clear that the genocide of Indigenous Peoples was not an accident. Indigenous People were targeted with death by uranium mining and nuclear dumping. Indian people were targeted with destruction that would carry on for generations, both in their genetic matter and in their soil, air and water.

One ingredient in the recipe for death is division: Divide and control the people and the land. This is what is happening at the southern and northern borders on Indian lands. Just as the US continues the war in Iraq and Afghanistan for war profiteers and politics, the racism-fueled US border hysteria results in billions for border wall builders, security companies and private prisons.

It comes as no surprise that the Israeli defense contractor responsible for the Apartheid Wall in Palestine, Elbit Systems, was subcontracted by Boeing Co. to work on the spy towers on the US/Mexico border. Militarized borders mean dollars, oppression and power.

The US Border Patrol agents harass Indian people at the US borders, even murder people of color on the border at point blank range. More often than not, the murdering border agents walk away free from the courts.

Meanwhile, the US under the guise of homeland security, seizes a long strip of land — the US/Mexico corridor from California to Texas –including that of the Lipan Apache in Texas. As Indigenous Peoples in the south are pushed off their lands, corn fields seized by corporations, they walk north to survive, many dying in the Southwest desert.

Another ingredient in US genocide in Indian country is internal political division and turmoil: Distract the people with political turmoil, to make it easier to steal their water and land rights. If that doesn’t work, put them in prison. In Central and South America, the mining companies have added another step: Assassinate them.

The US made sure that Latin countries were able to carry out torture and assassinations by training leaders and military personnel at the School of the Americas. Even Chiquita Bananas admitted in court that they hired assassins to kill anyone who opposed the company, including Indigenous Peoples and farmers, in Colombia.

So, when Zimmerman writes of uranium and the sacrifices of Indigenous Peoples, those are not just empty words. They are words that mark the graves, words that name the cancers, words that mark the rivers and words that give rise to names.

To give voice to a name is to break the silence.

Machinima diye bir olay var dünyada. Bildiğin film yaratmaca ama kamerayla değil, bilgisayar oyunlarıyla. Bilgisayar oyununu modlar yardımıyla istenilen şekle sokup ya da normal oyun esnasında kaydedilmiş görüntülerle film yapmaca kısaca. Nedir ne değildir diyenlere “Machinima for Dummies” kitabını öneriyorum. Adamlar kitabı sadece satmıyorlar internette yayınlıyorlar da. “for Dummies” dediysek de bayaa komplike bir olay anlatıyor, hakaret eder gibi değil.

Ve benim en beğendiğim machinima eseri, “Freeman’s Mind”. Half-Life serisinde dünyanın ihtiyacı olan MIT mezunu profesörümüz işe geç kalırsa ne olur?

Episode 1 http://www.machinima.com/film/view&id=23919 linkinde.

Sağ tarafta diğer bölümlerin linkleri de var.İyi seyirler.

This year’s E3 has hosted another bastion of gaming stuff for PC and consoles alike.

We’ve had our share of interviews, articles, trailers, gameplay footage and things like that.

Assassin’s Creed 2 brings us a new  hero, this time, not in the Holy Land, but in Italy. More precisely, in Venice. From the videos we’ve seen, it’s awesome. It’s breathtaking. It’s much more improved. This game takes sandbox  games to a new level. Not only does our hero have new combat moves, new weapons, new assassination methods, but he can also climb, shimmy and jump on just about anything there is ! You can climb the highest tower in Venice and see the whole city ! The possibilities are endless !

I believe that this game is going to refine the flaws of its predecessor, and with its upgraded top-notch graphics, it’s going to be a bomb of pure awesome.

Another anticipated title, and one of my favorite, is Modern Warfare 2. Oh yes ladies and gents, we’ve covered it over, and over, and over, and over, and over again here on our blog. Personally, I think this game is going to get a 10.00/10.00. There are lots of sites that go extremely deep into the game, predicting its success and leaking features. I’ve seen everything there currently is to see about the game : and it’s going to be great ! First there was the nerve-etching teaser, then the trailer, then the E3 footage. Modern Warfare 2 takes the first of the sequel’s story and kind of continues it in an indirect way. Lots of new weapons, traits, missions, features, the most anticipated being the co-op mode. I have full confidence that it’s going to be an awesome game, if not the best FPS game there ever was.

Then there is BioShock 2. Not much is known about the game. We’ve seen the trailer, the gameplay footage, some interviews, and we think that it’s going to be extremely refreshing. In BioShock 2 you play as the first Big Daddy ever, protecting.. or killing the ‘lil sisters for the ADAM. While the game does look better than the first one, and some new stuff has been added, could the players possibly stand going back to Rapture again ? Are the clichés too overwhelming ? We’ll see.. but I just hope it has a success.

And now we talk about the revered Beyond Good and Evil 2. I loved the first of the series, and I just hope it’s gonna be way better. I mean from the teaser that we’ve seen, the graphics are back to modern standards, but little if not almost nothing is known about the story, where it’s taking place etc. Then there’s this possible gameplay footage (scroll down a bit) on youtube, which looks like it’s real.. but it’s not known yet if it’s just concept art. Some say it’s a trailer.. but Ubisoft didn’t comment anything about this. Anyways, I can’t wait for more information. Once we get it, we’ll definitely post !

The anticipated Diablo 3 announced at Blizzcon looks spectacular. New classes have been introduced, and who doesn’t miss bashing countless monsters and picking up stuff from Diablo and Diablo 2 ? I personally never played them, for I am not attracted to games with early graphics. However, I am looking forward to playing this.

We’ve talked a little about Mafia 2, and we’ve put it head to head with the already released Godfather 2. Apparently, The Godfather 2 put up a poor display and EA released yet again another flop. But we shall see how this game will fare ! From what we’ve seen, it looks cool. Don’t know much about it, but appearances can be deceiving ! I sure hopes it kicks EA’s butt !

Blizzard is famous for it’s Starcraft, and Starcraft II has been announced. I can’t really remember where or when I played Starcraft, but I did enjoy it. I’m looking forward to playing this one.

Finally there’s Black Mesa, a drastically improved version of the original Half Life. Graphics are way better, but we once again play as Gordon Freeman, a scientist in a secret complex where something went terribly wrong. We’ve played almost all Half Life games, and we sure as hell can’t wait for this one.

All the trailers can be found on our ‘cinema’, the Videos page.

Overall, 2009 and 2010 are gonna be big years for the PC. Let’s hope they’re all gonna be awesome !

Stick around our blog for more info on them coming soon !

Si tras haber jugado al Half Life y a sus expansiones Opposing Force y Blue Shift sientes que todavía echas de menos el complejo Black Mesa y quieres volver a recorrer sus gigantescas instalaciones llenas de centrales nucleares, laboratorios y alienígenas, tienes una excelente oportunidad de la mano de este mod llamado Life’s End, creado de forma independiente por Daniel Squire.

Como siempre me gustaría empezar a enrollarme y hablar sobre todo el universo de Half Life, desde los juegos de palabras con los nombres de los juegos hasta la tecnología de los portales. No será por ganas, pero lamentablemente a dos días vista tengo un examen de criptografía y luego dos más así que prometo extenderme en verano.

El juego comienza como cualquier otro aburrido día de la vida de Luther Johnson, un ciéntifico del departamento de Matemáticas Temporales. Para no faltar a la costumbre, vuelve a llegar tarde, y encima ha perdido su tarjeta llave del laboratorio. Su jefe, bastante harto, le despide unos pocos segundos antes de la frecuencia de resonancias causada por Gordon Freeman (Gordon al introducir la muestra de cristal procedente del mundo fronterizo Xen en el espectómetro de antimateria provoca que la materia pueda existir en dos realidades a la vez). En el fondo, Luther sabía que hoy era mejor no haberse levantado de la cama.

En este juego se introducen novedades interesantes. Ahora es posible leer textos que aparece en pantalla (en inglés) al “usar” notas y papeles, así como nos cuenta la historia a través de este sistema, para mí bastante acertado. El siguiente nuevo aspecto es el toque de aventura que aporta el tener que buscar llaves y baterías para abrir cerraduras o utilizar diferentes equipos.

A lo largo de la partida, recorremos nuevas instalaciones repletas de enemigos tales como áreas de observación de especímenes, acuarios, oficinas, zonas de superficie, sectores sellados, laboratorios o el mundo alienígena. Aparecen detalles graciosos como una alucinación (hay dos) tras respirar gas en la que creeremos ser el capitán Kirk del Enterprise en mitad de una batalla. También se presentan otras situaciones familiares, por ejemplo tendremos que activar un prototipo de teletransportador de la misma forma que en Blue Shift pero con un desenlace diferente. En concreto acabaremos con medio laboratorio en el mundo alienígena. Además de todo esto podemos encontrar muchos pequeños objetos como fotos de Leeloo Dallas, Enterprises, Games Boys, PsOnes, etc.

¿Un Zerg? Como se puede ver en el dibujo inferior, creo que es un hidralisco Zerg del universo StarCraft, un juego de estrategia muy conocido.

El parecido es bastante razonable:

Otro aspecto muy elaborado en el juego es el uso de la mecánica temporal y dimensional. ¿Por qué tratar de escapar ahora que Black Mesa está infestado de extrañas formas de vida, marines con muy mala leche y comandos negros, pudiendo hacerlo antes de que ocurra la catástrofre?

Un intercambiador dimensional capaz de llevarnos a universos paralelos donde podremos encontrar una tarjeta llave que en nuestro universo está partida en dos pedazos.

El tiempo necesario para completarlo ronda las 4 horas tomándolo con tranquilidad, aunque esto puede variar mucho dependiendo de la habilidad del jugador y de si decidimos simplemente pasar de los enemigos o aniquilar todo lo que se mueva. La dificultad es similar a la del Opposing Force (creo que después de haberme pasado tantas veces todos los juegos, no soy el más apropiado para valorar el nivel de dificultad). Hay muchos y variados enemigos esperándonos.

Es fácil sentir un escalofrío al imaginar lo que va a ocurrir tras entrar en este pasillo.

El juego no está libre de bugs ni mucho menos. Es muy sencillo atascar algunas puertas con los cadáveres de los enemigos. Existen zonas en las que podemos meter la gamba y no poder continuar el juego, por ejemplo si empujamos al agua un contenedor que necesitamos para trepar y algunas caídas a zonas de las que no podemos volver a subir. Y lo más importante, podemos pasarnos el juego sin el traje de trabajo en ambientes peligrosos (sin linterna y sin indicadores).

En resumen, es un mod altamente recomendable, que me ha hecho revivir después de tantos años la ilusión por volver a Black Mesa. Es divertido y tiene encanto. Sin embargo, su final es demasiado, no sé, diferente por decir algo.

• Más en inglés con nuevas capturas de pantalla.
• Para descargar el juego (descomprimir en la carpeta half life del steam).
• Video con las alucinaciones.

Nota del autor: Creo que me he pasado con el peso de las imágenes, pero como ahora todo el mundo tiene tantos megas y megas de bajada no creo que importe demasido. Otro detalle es que creo que ya había jugado hace varios años, pero como tengo memoria pez, no me acuerdo.

Turning and turning in the highly-pressurised centrifuge,

The lab-rat cannot hear the technician’s hysterical laughter.

Things fall apart; fire-retardant pants cannot hold.

Alright.  I was told today that this video is clearly a mashup of the Half-life and Lost mythologies, and most likely not an official production by valve or the makers of Half-life but just some elaborate special effects reel like initially speculated.  I never really understood Lost that much.  Generally, things produced by J.J Abrams make me queasy.  J.J Abrams productions are one of the few things on Earth that merit the use of emoticons, because when I watched Cloverfield I was very :’(.  In other news, I am alone.  Thanks a lot ya jerks!

O.K, so first, a warning.  This post many not be interesting to most humanoids, but for me it is Christmas morning.  A while back, a mysterious video showed up on youtube called “What’s in the box?”  It was basically nine minutes of first person steady cam action set during some sort of futuristic catastrophe.  Some speculated the video was just a high budget special effects reel.  Others, mostly virginal nerds like myself, recognized that many elements from the Half-life video game franchise were present in the (awesome) video, and sensed hoped for a connection.

Now, I didn’t want to jump to conclusions before, but, upon watching the video again today, I realized that it is infact a piece of intense viral marketing for Half-life, probably for the third installment of the franchis, a production that has been under heavy wraps since The Orange Box was released in 2007.

The video, which plays out from a first person point of view, as if the viewer were the character (the same technique utilized in the video games where the gamer so intensely assumes the role of Gordon Freeman that the character Gordon speaks no dialogue), mentions Babel Research several times.  So, a quick google search on Babel Research revealed a neat little website for a fake tecnologies firm [ http://babel-research.eu/ ]…with both Black Mesa and Aperture logos appearing at the bottom.  Fans of the Half-life universe will recognize Black Mesa as the facility where Gordon Freeman worked, and Aperture as the setting for the mind-numbingly awesome game Portal.

That’s it folks, cased closed.  “What’s in the box?” is a peek at Half-life 3 to give nerd turds like myself preemptive boners, and to make sure we store sixty bucks to buy it upon release.

Evidence and boner material, after the jump.

Black Mesa (Half-Life), Aperture (Portal), and the mysterious Hanso (unknown?) logos

this is bullshit

-gibbons

Предполагам вече всички сте гледали, филмчето “What’s in the Box?” Ако не сте, веднага се насочете насам (клик). Днес отворих сайта на продукцията (www.whatsinthebox.nl) и видях, че въпросният е бил ъпдейтнат… От тогава не мога да си намеря мира…

Сайта в момента изглежда така:

Кръгчето има четири части. Едната зарежда няколко изрезки от вестници на сайта, другата показва новинарска емисия която съобщава за инцидента, а най-долната (когато сложите мишката върху нея) джурка някакви кодове (4.2.F.F.0.0 примерно) и има поле за въвеждане на парола (?). Опитах да въведа някой от кодовете но получавам само съобщението:

uh uh uh, you didn’t say the magic word

Естествено се опитах да напиша и “моля” (вълшебната думичка) но получих:

who are you, Dennis Nedry?

Ако нямате спомен кой е Dennis Nedry – клик.

Най-горната част на кръгчето води към babel-research.eu/witb/stream/ където можете да видите филмчето от първият пост (има съвсем леки промени). Както се досещате, по-голям интерес представлява сайта babel-research.eu. Въпросният btw е изписан и в сорс кода на www.whatsinthebox.nl.

Както ще видите на сайта, той е бил проект на Babel Group, който въпросният са спрели да поддържат след инцидента на 6-ти август (филмчето).

На сайта има инфо за различни продукти на Babel, включително и “Computer Brain Interface” който можем да видим във филмчето. Ровенето из сорс кода даде интересен резултат. В него доста очевадно се вижда код съдържащ “hidden.mp3″ в себе си.

След кратка консултация с ishi стигнах до извода, че това е коментар и някъде по сайта има файл hidden.mp3

Логичният завършек беше babel-research.eu/snd/hidden.mp3

Гледайки множество шпионски филми, и предвид факта, че се счупвам да играя игри веднага след като чух въпросния файл, си го дръпнах и го обърнах на обратно. Ето какво се получи: hidden_reversed_by_stangera @rapidshare – ако някой има идея къде другаде мога да го ъплоудна да казва

Според мен казва 20 ноември, само дето нямам никаква идея, какво означава…

В края на кода пък има коментар “WASITACATISAW”. Очевидно е, че ако сте вгледате внимателно, ще прочетете изричението “Was it a cat i saw” (ако го прочетете на обратното, пак ще видите същото). Интересно става обаче, ако просто гугъл сърчнете думата. При гугъл сърч, се достига до тук Heinz Fiction [myspace] Въпросният профил е доста обезпокоителен, но в него има нещо много любопитно.

При подробно разглеждане на профила, се забелязва един клип, който въобще не се вписва с нещата пръснати из него. Става въпрос за интервю с Ron Gilbert от края на 2007 г. в което се говори за Monkey Island, адвенчъри и гейминг като цяло:

Аз лично (чисто спекулативно) твърдя, че Ron Gilbert има нещо общо с проекта, но разбира се може да е чиста проба съвпадение (дааа бе) =)

Писах на Gilbert дали би потвърдил или отрекъл участието с в проекта, и ще ви уведомя ако получа отговор.

Най-лудото нещо обаче е факта, че в долната част на babel-research.eu има три лога. Първото е на Black Mesa (Half-Life), второто на Aperture Science (Portal), а третото на Hanso Foundation. И точно това е проблема… Защото Hanso Foundation е част от LOST вселената, и тъй нареченият “Lost Experience“… Аз лично смятам, че това с LOST е за заблуда, но е факт, че ако напишете числата (4 8 15 16 23 42) в www.whatsinthebox.nl ще ви излезе съобщението:

SYSTEM FAILURE

При всички случай обаче, на babel-research.eu бъка от следи. Пробвайте се например, да кликнете върху цветните кръгчета на сайта в следната последователност: 5 1 2 7 9 4 3 6 8

Следа като го направите, ще ви се появи това:

… В общи линии, нямам абсолютно никаква идея кой стой зад този проект. Преди време Valve официално заявиха, че нямат нищо общо (клик).

От друга страна обаче, ми изглежда малко… нереалистично, абсолютно всичко да е дело на двама Холандци (TimSmiT и Thibaut Niels). Не че се съмнявам в уменията на момчетата, но всичко е твърде добре изпипано

BTW от тук, можете да си свалите самото филмче с доста прилично качество.

Иначе аз в търсенето си на инфо по-въпроса, се натъкнах на форума www.facepunch.com където се заформи прилична дискусия по-темата

Ако имате желание, можете да гласувате за този материал тук. 10х

UPDATE: Тук – wikibruce.com има много подробен анализ, на всички намерени до момента следи, така че ако имате интерес, задължително хвърлете едно око

Ако babel-research.eu не ви се отваря, причината е в “леко” повишеният интерес към сайта

UPDATE 2: В интернет се появиха снимка на някакви списания част от рекламната кампания на LOST от далечната 2007г.:

Само дето, въпросителният знак е част от “What’s in the Box?” мистерията. Ако не ми вярвате, припомням как изглеждаше www.whatsinthebox.nl преди да бъде ъпдейтнат (клик). Забележете, че на корицата на бялата книжка, освен логото на Oceanic Airlines (долу в дясно) също има един “?” знак!!!

Дали това означава, че J.J. Abrams (LOST, Cloverfield, Fringe) има нещо общо с проекта?! Или просто авторите на мистерията са вързали нещата твърде добре! Не знам за вас, но аз искрено се надявам J.J. да е набъркан!

Heeyaaa!  Like Bruce Lee.  Say it out loud like you got some badass martial arts skills.  Just picture it: a group of would-be attackers surround you leaving your favorite restaurant.  OK, your favorite bar.  You’ve had a few to drink but not enough to write home about.  Basically you’re feeling good, perhaps even a bit springy because it is April.

Boom! Splat! Whisk! Begosh! Yikeees!

They keep stepping closer, sniveling and snorting like hyenas.

Get your Mufasa on.

Heeeyaaa!  Except now it sounds like a roar and you’re no longer Simba the cub.  Nah-uh, my friend because you are now a king standing there on that street corner just waiting for a reason to reign.  Poised to pounce as you are, the hyenas look to one another wondering how to proceed.  They are only hungry but you are starving just salivating at the thought of splattering hyena brain all over the sidewalk.

It won’t be much, don’t worry.

—

Don’t know where the Lion King tangent came from, or this story as a whole to be honest.  I was going to start telling you about my new writing project that I began last week and the next thing I know you are a king outside of a bar prepared to strike hyena brains on the concrete because you are a feline Bruce Lee.

Your litter box of hyena brain stains the sidewalk.

—

[Disclosure] This is a kind of long post, so here’s a song to listen to that will hopefully make your day.

This is a band called The 6ths, headed by Stephen Merritt from The Magnetic Fields.  The pic looks like it’s going to lead to pron, but it’s just that image throughout the song.  Kick back, close your eyes and let yourself wander… it’s a great way to spend a Tuesday afternoon.  Wait, maybe don’t close your eyes, that won’t help you with the whole reading thing I’m selling.

—

What I really came here today to write about is my fledgling screenplay/novel/collection of short stories.  I’m not exactly sure what form it will take in the end, but I have blisters from the pen to prove it – and even in a place I have never had one before – the inner side of the middle on my pinkie -  I am kind of sort of proud of this newfound blister as it represents the fierce battle scars that the writing profession exacts on its loyal subjects.  Or something.

Alas, I am getting ahead of myself.  I am not a professional writer.  Wait, I am actually a professional writer but I’m not going to count that for now because it is somewhat embarrassing and they are late paying me again so they don’t deserve the saucer.

That being said, for the first time in a long time I have a dream to believe in that is within the realm of possibility.  Oh sure I’ve had dreams before.  NBA Hall of Famer, Olympic hero, multi-billionaire, etc… but this one trumps them all.  Well maybe not really, but it definitely is right up there.  And like I said, this is somewhat attainable (or believable, at least to me at this point).

And yes, I know hardly anyone actually reads anymore, at least not books and shit, but some people do and I like them.

And yes, the publishing industry is in a state of existential crisis and nobody really knows how it’s going to play out in the future.

So you know what I say to all that?

Heeeyaaaa hyenas, heeeyaaa!!!

—

(Yeah I saw that last heeyaa coming too, sorry for that.)

—

Like I said, I freehanded my new amoeba project.  It takes a different focus to execute it that way and I am not sure if it is better or not.  I do know that I am not looking forward to typing it all up tho, but at least that will allow another round of editing to iron out the details and grammar and spelling and that whole mess.  It’s hard to write something of this length and keep everything straight.

Thankfully I had my own kind of writing workshop last week thanks to a house sitting gig in the mountains of Northern New Mexico that allowed me a straight week of hardly any interruptions and unlimited time to pursue this launch.

I have tentatively called it Not the Autobiography of Olivia Jack? Don’t steal it, I think I like it.  Olivia Jack came to me in the form of two cats, brothers, Oliver and Jack.  They kept me company during the week and became the inspiration for the name of our lead heroine.  I knew I wanted to have the name Jack as part of the main character, but I didn’t want it to be the stereotypical alpha-male first-name Jack personae.  Instead I pulled a gender reassignment of sorts on Oliver and turned him into Olivia.  He still likes me tho, he told me before I left.

So the first line goes something like, “I was king for a moment in my castle.”  I hope nobody has written that before, especially as an opening line.   I should probably Google that sucker just to make sure.  And also to check the cybersphere for any Olivia Jack that might take offense.  Actually, it’s just fiction, so I don’t really care about that, nevermind.

The story is organized around a night, That Night, when Olivia Jack left this world.  The circumstances surrounding the death are of course up for debate, and they are examined from a variety of perspectives that were present That Night.

So far I have about 25-30 pages at around 375 words a page.  Lowballing it that gives me about 9,000 words last week.  I haven’t done much now that I’m back in Santa Fe again, I’m hoping to get back at it tonight after I knock out six pages for two clients over at the ‘ol term paper mill.  One is about comparing Hellenistic and Etruscan art and the other has something to do with analyzing some interior designer.  I’ve been putting them off all day and this blog seems to help me with that.  In college I was a notorious procrastinator – nothing like a tight deadline to get the juices flowing after a night of bingers and beer.

Damnit!  Sorry, what was I talking about??

Oh yeah the gambit.  So my instinct tells me that I should have been able to write more, but at the same time inspiration is a tough thing to quantify.  I am mostly pleased with the quantity of the quality parts, there are only a couple of sections that need to be re-aligned tighter to the arc.  Anyway, when I wrote the first five pages I was ecstatic and then I went back the next morning and wrote for a handful of hours – it was great to lose track of time, not even really paying attention to the passing of days and just being immersed in another realm up in the mountains by the Black Mesa away from the everyday hustle in the city.

Out there they had a TV but no signal and also no internet access so I was able to unplug from the world at large for most of the week.  My only outlets were some DVDs (Bottle Rocket, Almost Famous, The Life Acquatic, Superbad, The Dark Knight) and the radio.  The only station that came in was NPR and they were doing a fundraising campaign all week so I didn’t listen as much as I probably would have.  That being said, the people I was house sitting for had a great music selection on CDs – some that I’d heard  and others that were new to me.  I listened to a lot of The Postal Service, A Tribe Called Quest, Bob Dylan, The Replacements, some Clash – London Calling Live, old-school Modest Mouse, and others I can’t remember right now.  Oh yeah, some Beck too.

The thing I listened to most tho was the wind.  It was fierce all week and it seriously ripped, roared, whistled and did all the other noises wind makes.  The place was literally shaking at times.  I found the setting to be fitting and it was an apt atmosphere for my first serious attempt at doing literature.  There was one day that wasn’t insanely windy and the sun was out.  I went for a probably 3-4 hour hike (my watch doesn’t know what time it is).  I walked down to the arroyo (a mostly dried up riverbed) and scavenged for a walking stick and enlightenment.

I penned a few lines to some poems while I was out there picking up rocks and getting stoned.  I sat for awhile on this smooth as eggs log that had no business being so perfectly linear and comfortable.  It was my own little sofa sitting on this little ridge in an isolated area backed by the treeline.

I scribbled my signature on it before I left just in case I make it out that way again and it is still there – I will be able point at it and reminisce and that’s about it – not quite as entertaining or as romantic as I envisioned in hindsight, but at the time it seemed appropriate.

So in the upcoming days, weeks, months (?) I may have something tangible to show people what I’ve been doing with my life.  I was at a going away party on Saturday and a long lost friend asked me what I was up to.  I told him I was a writer and that I was working on my masterpiece.  No, actually I just told him I was a writer but that was the first time I’ve told somebody that.  It felt true to me and I was impressed at how fluently I could talk about my vision.

As I’m thinking this through, I’m realizing you probably don’t care about all of this so I apologize if I’m boring you.

—

So why should you care about Olivia Jack?  I can only tell you what I know.  Here’s an off-handed pitch:

Not the Autobiography of Olivia Jack? acts as a suspension of a drama being played out in the memories of those witnesses that attended the party That Night.  It was hosted by the supermodel, JLB, in a stunning red dress and you were there but not necessarily with me.  In the closet of an unsupervised upstairs bedroom there was a jacket covered in plastic, on the bar in the kitchen was a frog in a fishtank.  In the hands of Olivia Jack was a black gun – we are not sure if it was shiny and slick, or if it was rusted and heavy, we have conflicting reports.  What we do know is that Olivia Jack is dead.  Do you know what sweaty palms smell like?

It is ultimately a story of intrigue, deception, and death that is not afraid to admit that even with all of the obtainable facts, the true life of Olivia Jack remains elusive.

(Or something like that, I’m sure some editor can come up with something better to make more enticing copy.)

—

Well then that’s about it, it needs a ton of work and more clarity as to how to structure the sequencing, but it’s starting to make more sense to me and I wish I didn’t have to turn paper tricks this afternoon so I could pick JLB’s red dress up off the floor of my cerebellum and smell it.  It doesn’t smell like sweaty palms, I can tell you that much.

Wow, if you’ve read this far I probably owe you for your time, but I’m broke so I’ll just take my leave before you decide to collect.

Since the release of “The most original in recent days”, the World Of Goo, I didn’t find a original game play.

Two days earlier I got a chance to play Valve’s Portal. A very very very original game. Though it was released it was few days early, I enjoyed playing it.

Well, a review is worthless after all these days.

The game is short if you can understand the game. I took 6:30 hours at my first game play. The credits also were pretty beautiful, with the weird song!

The thing I like most in the Half-Life like games is the inhuman environments, and virtually absolute silence and solitude of the game character. Portal is a Half Life type game, it has some connection to Black Mesa in the story, which is a Rival Lab of Aperture Sciences (The Lab where the Game starts). Level design is very powerful, attractive, and you will feel brave when you play the game. And the story has a non-ending end.

You will have to use your innovative ideas to get the things done. And the enigmatic AI guide voice, will sometimes be your misery and source of motivation. I don’t think there is a need of a screenshot. Google it, and you will find a lot. And don’t forget to play it!

It is a treat!

Благодарение на култовият блог Rock, Paper, Shotgun, попаднах на това (задължително гледайте в HD):

Какво знаем до сега?
www.whatsinthebox.nl

Проекта се казва “What’s in the Box?” и се прави от някакви Холандци
Естествено очевидно е, че филма черпи вдъхновение най-вече от Half-Life поредицата (дори някой от звуците са взети от там). За тази теория допринася и факт, че в клипа можете да мернете съобщението:

“Millions feared dead … no news from disaster area … Largest single collapse in history since Black Mesa”

В търсене на още инфо за проекта попаднах на няколко интересни факта, но бих искал да чуя и вашето мнение преди да ви ги дам на готово
А финалният вариант на “What’s in the Box?” определено се чака с интерес!

За тази “статия” можете да гласувате тук. 10х

Black Mesa Source is a conversion mod for Half-Life 2 that recreates the entire first Half-life using the Source engine. Following is a video of in-game footage of Black Mesa Source (also known as BSA), enjoy!

The title should actually be “What I’ve learned and actively remembered this week”.
Now for the explanation. Any regular visitor would have probably noticed my posts come at very irregular times. Sometimes I do a post every day, or sometimes it takes a week or two, or even a month. So I’ve decided to get a weekly feature, something to motivate me to regularly post. The theme for this feature is very simple: since people learn new stuff every day, it shouldn’t be too hard to list out the interesting things I found out during the last week. So, here we go:

1. Little Big Planet is coming to the PSP somewhere around Fall 2009 (I’ve actually acknowledged this two weeks ago, but I still wanted to say it).
2. One of Black Mesa’s speculated release dates is is within two months. This date is the 5th of May, because of this.
3. On W3Schools, I’ve learned HTML up to tables. This is because I realised what benefits come with creating most of my documents in HTML from now on. These being: It looks the same on every computer (regardless of OS), people don’t need certain software to open it (except for a browser, but who doesn’t have one on their computer?) and as long as there is a plain text editor available (which also is about always the case), I can edit my stuff. I actually already know HTML, but my knowledge of it is old and full of holes, so better start over then.

Well, guess that’s it for this week. Anything not in the list wasn’t important enough, or I’ve just forgotten about it. Hopefully see you next week!

Foi postado uma entrevista com Carlos Montero, lider do projeto Black Mesa, no site TheAge. A entrevista tem alguns pontos interessantes mas o principal é a confirmação de que o Mod sai ainda este ano.

Se você não sabe o que é Black Mesa, veja aqui no blog:

Black Mesa

Half Life: Fan Made

Black Mesa extends from Mesa de Maya in Colorado southeasterly 28 miles (45 km) along the north bank of the Cimarron River, crossing the northeast corner of New Mexico to end at the confluence of the Cimarron and Carrizo Creek near Kenton in the Oklahoma panhandle. Its highest elevation is over 5,700 feet (1,737 m) in Colorado; in New Mexico it attains 5,239 feet (1,597 m); and in Oklahoma, it reaches 4,973 feet (1,516 m), the highest point in that state.

The summit is believed to have formed many millennia ago when black lava rock coated the top.

In Oklahoma it is home to Black Mesa State Park and Black Mesa Nature Preserve.

This brought back memories.

—————————————Reading back on this i realise that this may seem like it’s from the mind of a true computer nerd. You can think that if you want, but if you have any problems with the tiny details go find a very high cliff to jump off because i dont give two shits if you know more than me.. a monkey knows more than me…these are just memories————————————————————————–

I can nearly still smell the varnish on the wooden floors of my best friends dining room, where, like a great big paper weight the almighty IBM personal computer sat humming like a beehive. Everything was massive…the disks were massive, the buttons were massive, the pixels were massive…all except for the screen, which by todays standards would be fairly tiny!

The old 8″ floppy disks were by no means compact and barely had enough space for even todays smallest word documents. But for the two of us, still only 6 or 7, these plastic cards meant incredible amounts of fun even if we hadn’t a clue what we were doing! I distinctly remember one game, Digger  - fairly close to the graphics of pacman or there abouts. We would only be alowed play however when the older siblings were there to set it up, and then again only if they even let us have a go!

This is the very first memory i have of computers…. next to come was my brothers Atari ST and wonderful games like “Super Hang on“, “Rainbow Island – The Story of Bubble Bobble“, “Dizzy” and a simple painting and typing application that barely ever worked. Between, the Nintendo in constant use at my friends house, and their brand new Gateway 2000 with windows 95 my life was set to revolve around computer technology for many years to come as it still is today! While the Nintendo was providing the two of us with such treats as Mario 1 to 3 and the included Duck Hunt (With the collest bright red gun …EVER) and other games like “Goal!”, “California Games” and “Top Gun”…. the PC was altogether a whole new kettle of fish to the two of us. 

It amazes me now to think of how capeable we were as computer users nearly 13 years ago. Regardless of our age, anyone who remembers loading anything on the first windows PCs will recall the knowledge required to boot certain games. “C: ….C:Worms ….C:worms run…” and if you were lucky the little white flashing dot would dissapear and our favourite childhood game would play its forever hillarious introduction video. Barely ten years old we were starting to explore the PC and try things without ever knowing what we were doing. We must have absolutely destroyed that poor computer, nothing was too important to delete or too broken to be fixed.. if something went wrong we knew how to fix it, or at least we knew how to hide it! 

I don’t think we had a computer in our house until my Dad finally gave in a couple of years later.. i was probably about 10 years old and it was a good old Siemens with Windows 95 that gave me an opportunity to explore at home. It is amazing to think just how interesting a computer can be to a 10year old. These were the days when the Internet was just a “did you know” article at the back of the Sunday newspaper… so while it may seem now that i was restricted to “just a PC” , to me that PC would forever have a room i had not gone into, a corner where i had yet to check for something “cool”.

The “cool” things would include “Hover” and a video of a Weezer song on the Windows 95 cd… i cant remember how many times i played those two things, always felt new. Microsoft golf would provide the catchphrases of my child hood with phrases like “oooo that’s on the beach” being belted out in our best “American twang “at every apropriate moment. 

Among the most memorable of PC games from this period was Daggerfall. I remember my brother convincing my dad while out buying presents one dark  Christmas Eve, that the Skeleton with rotting flesh that was jumping out from the cover of the box was nothing to worry about, and that it was just a harmless game. My dad buckled and Christmas day my brother installed one of the games of my childhood. Daggerfall Elder Scrolls Vol. II  was to me the most incredible feat of computer game production ever. While i never did finish the game the opportunity to create a completely new individual and exist in an endless world of characters and adventure was always truly appealing. For years me and my friend would fall in and out of love with this game..rediscovering it every so often on a rainy day.  Bethesda Softworks have continued to add brilliantly to the Elder Scrolls name and have brought it into the world of modern game-play, maintaining its quality and unique character. 

Along with this would sit the almighty “Sid Meier’s Civilization“. There is something invaluable about a game which both entertains and teaches.. but of course we were unaware of the teaching part. Not until I started studying history in Secondary School did i realise that i already knew of the Crusades and Sun Tzu’s War Academy.. and of the natural progression of the historical ages and developments in technology. Of course i was aware that Babylon’s Hanging Gardens did not in reality automatically provide every Babylonian city with a granary but the basis was there… and now that i think of it, that is fairly invaluable.

Need i mention Warcraft II…..pure brilliance!

And so time moved on, Nintendo developed to SNES and on to the N64, while Windows 95 grew to 98 and 2000. The games came and went also, the Kings Quest series developed nicely though the ages and Kings Quest VI would often find itself being reinstalled as the lack of a manual meant Alexander could not go any further (this would be fixed later in life) “Eee gaz is that cold!” … On the SNES “Secret of Mana” was the perfect challenge, while extremely difficult it was possible to finish it in time, and the co-op option was a real first for us. This game would prove to rear its head often in my life and will again in the future i am sure! Along with SOM on the SNES came Rock and Roll Racing “Ivan is in another time ZONE!!” and all the other obvious classics! Sensible Soccer provided a constant frustration for me while the Apache series was always a bit of fun. With the Nintendo 64 came the unbeatable, and in my opinion the best shoot-em-up of its time, “GoldenEye“! The idea of four players and a forever smooth game-play and realistic graphics made this simply the most playable game of its time. Even today in the days of physics engines and intense reality in shoot-em-up games, GoldenEye would be able to capture the attention of anybody young or old. It was simply fun. And if you ever got bored there was always MarioKart 64 battle mode which was simply perfect and endless fun.

I never owned any of these consoles and my experiences were always thanks to my friend and his brother who would religiously update their Nintendo at every opportunity. The never did invest in playstation or Sega, those games never really did feature in my childhood except for those that were also on PC and this was and is often the case. There was always a slight animosity towards the other games console…you were either Nintendo or Sega, Playstation or Nintendo.. and this still exists today to an extent. However i feel that Nintendo has maintained a constant individuality that forever cemented its commercial value.. Mario cannot be found anywhere else, and today with the Wii they have even isolated much of the game-play and interaction with the games…thus there is only one way to really play Mario Galaxy…and thats on a Wii.. i dont believe Playstation have this quality. 

I could always buy those games on PC anyway.. and while there were many many games, certain ones stand out. I was getting older and thus had less time for games, but in a way the games began to grow with me. “Quake” I, II and III were beyond anything i had experienced with blood and gore… while the first “Grand Theft Auto” introduced me for the first time to drugs and crime on a computer game..the cars were cool and fast and anything seemed possible! Other games were just ridiculous, “Carmageddon” was fairly evil but provided hours of mindless fun, while “Theme Hospital” would always seem appealing until you remember just how hard and annoying the second level was! Then there were the franchise games that made an effect, while there have always been games to back up the movie or popular TV programme of the time, most of these were truly awful and just badly made…those that i remember being fairly good include “Earthworm Jim” and “Star Wars:Jedi Knight II“, the latter being a bit of a jump into the future i know but it was such an enjoyable, well made game i think it needed a mention here. 

One cannot forget to mention the EA sports series of sports games here.. personally for me, that would mean Fifa ‘97 and Fifa ‘00 which really showed great leaps in football simulation and proper graphics (mainly Fifa 97 because Ginola was the MAN!).

While there are so many games worth a mention, especially as we get closer to todays quality, i think there is only one more that truely had an effect on me and was able to properly surprise me. 

I think “Half Life” truly reminded me of how far computer games had come. A friend of mine who passed away recently gave me the game for free when he told me that he was not allowed play it because it was too violent and detailed. This of course interested me hugely. It was no lie. The games unique intro sequence as your character enters the Black Mesa complex by train was just the first in a series of brilliant story telling and unique qualities to this game. Extremely intelligent AI and realistic game-play and interaction with the environment meant you were hooked in seconds…that is of course if you had a computer strong enough to play it. It took me time to get one of them. Half Life II, while lacking in story and uniqueness did introduce for the first time a truly staggering detail in graphics and the now renowned physics engine that reflect a true interaction with nearly everything in the game. 

It is amazing how a visit to the Computer museum at the Grand Arch of Paris would prompt such a response from me but i guess some things in your life are hard to forget, and some you just don’t want to. It would be ignorant of me to deny that any of the games mentioned above or any of the tens of others that i have not mentioned, did not have a great effect on my life and my ability to do the things that i do today…. the life between the tips of my fingers and my laptop is based entirely on a giant 8″ disk being slotted into a giant IBM computer with a tiny screen on a dining room table in my best friends house 15 years ago..

.. i better not get started on the effect of cartoons….perhaps ill do that another day!

Otherwise today i took a lot of photos of modern architecture! How refeshing  here in paris to have a touch of modernity, i will be back there. hope my photos work out in dublin. good luck to all the TAF people of trinity next week and every body go check it out!

So that’s Grissom gone then?

I’m not sure how good it will be with Katherine leading the team and and Laurence Fishburne as a newbie. I think they should just call it a day on CSI, then wrap up Miami next year with Horatio Kane being murdered by Dexter, good show crossover appeal.

[edit] forgot to say that they went to Black Mesa in this epsiode too and there was no sign of the one free man or any aliens from Xen.

Facebook readers: click here for the full story and to watch the videos.

So, we all know Gordon Freeman, the ever-silent physicist who single-handedly saves the world over and over in the Half-Life franchise. But what is he really like? Find out after the jump. 

Dr. Gordon Freeman, physicist extraordinare employed in the Anomalous Materials lab  at the Black Mesa research facility in New Mexico. The video game character who overnight made being a geek, wearing really, really bad glasses and sporting face furniture awesome (I’m kinda happy about that) and made us realise that, in all probability, if some disaster was to befall the human race it would most likely be that shy, quiet and kinda nerdy guy that you always try to avoid at the staff Christmas do that would save us all. We think of him as the all-knowing, sure-footed and smart survivor. Able to take on crazy monsters from alternate dimensions, opressive regimes, zombies and really really dumb puzzles involving crates in numbers greater than the actual real world population of such storage containers, he seems the true silent protagonist. 

However, it seems in reality the Free-man is actually more of an everyman. Pissed off because his colleagues are jerks, his employer is “retarded”, rebellious because he doesn’t wear an opressive tie like eveyone else at work, and very, very annoyed at the shoddy construction contractors hired to design and build Black Mesa itself.

He thinks robots are cool, and he is really, really upset by badly-made catwalks.

The following machinima are the start of a crackingly funny series that adds Freeman’s inner dialog to the original classic, Half-Life. I spat fruit juice out of my nose when he came across a faulty door, got it to open half way, celebrated his awesomeness and then with no belief that the door would remain open ran through saying “oooOOOOodon’tkillmedon’tkill me!”

There are seven so far, and I can’t wait to see the rest. Check ‘em out. Facebook readers click here to see the vids.

By Bahe Katenay
Navajo from Big Mountain
Sheep Dog Nation Rocks
Published with permission

FLAGSTAFF — When the Dineh resisters at Big Mountain declared their independence in 1977 they further declared they would submit their conditions beyond and bypass the Navajo Nation or the BIA. They would present their conditions directly to the UN Commission on Human Rights.
What am I talking about? Well, they held this Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission hearing in Flagstaff (in December) and I wonder how can a governmental organization be intent on hearing such conditions?
However, it’s kinda kool that a Hopi person eventually reminded everyone about the real situation of human rights violations on Black Mesa. I don’t know what this Navajo Nation commission seeks, but at the United Nations level, the Dineh have presented the conditions of violations committed by institutionally-designed policies of racial and genocidal practices.
Excerpt the article, “Human Rights Commission hears testimonies of ‘racism,’” by S. J. Wilson in the Navajo-Hopi Observer, December 31, 2008
FLAGSTAFF — Four of the five members of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission recently visited the communities of Winslow and Flagstaff to hear public testimony regarding race relation issues in areas including housing, education and civil rights …
Bob Lomadafkie, a longtime citizen of Flagstaff and a member of the Hopi Tribe, spoke about the effects of relocation on members of the Navajo and Hopi tribes, and the allegiance held by many traditional Hopis against the relocation of their Navajo neighbors.
“We were opposed to relocation; we feel it was wrongfully imposed on the Dine’,” Lomadafkie said. “We also addressed the pow wow in Flagstaff; there was a lot of negative talk that put Native Americans in a bad light.”
Lomadafkie is on several boards for Flagstaff organizations and is involved in issues such as homelessness and the recruitment and retention of Native American students at Northern Arizona University (NAU) – where he finds that one of every four students is Native American – predominantly Dine’.”
Read article in Navajo Hopi Observer:
http://navajohopiobserver.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=7454
Signed by Sheep Dog Nation Rocks:
That Annoying Sheep Dog
“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducated the person who learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours!”
–Cesar Chavez, (activist & educator)

From CounterPunch:

Two days before Christmas, officials from the U.S. Office of Surface Mining (OSM) have granted a permit to Peabody Coal Company to expand their mining operations on Navajo and Hopi lands, despite opposition from local communities and problems with the permitting process including lack of adequate time for public comment on a significant revision to the permit, insufficient environmental review, and instability in the Hopi government preventing their legitimate participation in the process. OSM’s “Record of Decision” (ROD) is the final stage of the permitting process for the proposed “Black Mesa Project,” which would grant Peabody Coal Company a life-of-mine permit for the “Black Mesa Complex” in northern Arizona.

Black Mesa Water Coalition, a Navajo and Hopi citizens organization working on indigenous sovereignty and environmental protection, has vowed to stop Peabody from causing further harm to Black Mesa. “We are looking into our options for how to stop this process from moving forward, including legal action. The permitting process was flawed and clearly rushed through before President Bush leaves office,” said Enei Begaye, Co-Director of Black Mesa Water Coalition.

Wahleah Johns, Co-Director of Black Mesa Water Coalition said, “This decision will uproot the sacred connection that we have to land, water, and all living things on Black Mesa. Black Mesa is a female mountain, sacred to the Navajo people, and has been brutally scarred from over 30 years of coal mining activity and the resulting loss of 60 percent of our only source of drinking water. Our ancestors fought hard to retain our homelands, but even now in 2008 we are up against the same battle to protect our homelands. The abuse to mother earth needs to stop.”

This announcement is consistent with the Bush Administration’s history of releasing controversial decisions on Friday evenings and before holidays. Samantha Honani, a Hopi Tewa tribal member, said, “This is the worst kind of Christmas present. The Hopi Tewa people will not be in holiday bliss this Christmas but in deep thought and contemplation of where we are as a tribe and people without a Tribal Leader given this devastating Record of Decision.”

Two weeks ago, a delegation of 40 Navajo and Hopi tribal members, including Hopi Tribal Chairman Ben Nuvamsa, met with the U.S. Office of Surface Mining (OSM) at their Denver headquarters in hopes of delaying OSM’s decision. For three hours the Navajo and Hopi representatives met with OSM officials and presented documents and petitions ratified by their communities that urge OSM to suspend their decision. Their unified statement read, “Although we represent two different tribes, we come today united to protect our shared land and water. Water is the life source to both our peoples, and Peabody has failed to understand this connection. If the Office of Surface Mining grants a permit to Peabody, our way of life and spiritual balance will be severely disrupted and altered. Currently, we are already suffering the damage this industry has caused over the past 30 years. We believe OSM has been negligent in fulfilling the NEPA process, and if OSM issues a “Record of Decision” that would be a breach of the Federal Trust Responsibility. United we ask the Office of Surface Mining to stop the “Record of Decision” process.”

This decision comes in the midst of Hopi political turmoil. Chairman Nuvamsa came to represent the Hopi and Tewa people in the battle to protect the water and lands from further coal mining in Black Mesa, AZ. “Due to lack of representation on the Hopi Tribal Council, the Village of Tewa was never afforded the opportunity to participate in any discussion of the Draft EIS as it applies to Hopi people and land,” stated Chairman Nuvamsa.

Navajo and Hopi citizen’s were given 45 days to comment on a revised “Black Mesa Project” Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and were never offered a public commenting period. Requests for commenting period extensions were denied by OSM as well as requests for OSM to come to Navajo and Hopi lands for question and answer meetings.

Two months ago, Arizona Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva wrote to Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne to suspend further consideration of Peabody’s permit. “At present, OSM is rushing to approve a life-of-mine permit, first without making the permit revisions sufficiently available for public review, and then without adequate environmental review…Mining at Black Mesa has caused springs on Hopi lands to dry up and jeopardized the sole source of drinking water for many Hopis and Navajos. The Secretary, as the trustee for Native American tribes, must ensure that mining is done responsibly on tribal lands and that tribes actually want mining to occur. This project does not meet that test.”

Black Mesa Navajo and Hopi residents are concerned about how this decision will impact the future of their homelands given the history of Peabody’s unwise use of the Navajo Aquifer. “For decades coal and water from our lands have been taken to power Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Yet, we have have suffered the loss of our sole source drinking water to accommodate the over consumption of these areas,” says Wahleah Johns, Co-Director of Black Mesa Water Coalition.

Black Mesa is the ancestral homelands to thousands of Navajo and Hopi families and is regarded as a sacred mountain to the Navajo people and plays an integral role in the cultural survival for the future generations of both the Navajo and Hopi people.

Elsa Johnson is a member of the Forest Lake Chapter of the Navajo Nation.

Today is Code Pink, Muntadar al-Zaidi and Judy Ackerman Day at Censored News
A call for whistleblowers: Cyclops in the Closet
By Brenda Norrell
Photo 1: AP/Washington Post; Graphic for Censored News by ‘Another Walker on the Good Red Road’
Photo 3: Shoe-icide video
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

In Washington outside the White House, the Code Pink ladies were throwing shoes at a Bush effigy on Wednesday, while a lone woman, Judy Ackerman, 55, was getting arrested in El Paso for defending the Rio Bosque Wetlands from the destruction of the US Border Wall construction.
It was a day for eagles.
We can only hope that more eagles in the form of whistleblowers will step forward before another dirty coal mine, Desert Rock, becomes a reality on the Navajo Nation, and Peabody Coal is allowed to expand its genocidal tentacles into the heartland of Black Mesa.
Like a morbid octopus, Peabody wants to usurp everything that does not belong to the coal-chewing monster. Like a thirsty cyclops, Peabody wants to drain the pristine waters of the Navajo and Hopi aquifer, with its one eye focused on more dirty millions.
If the highly-paid spin doctors have their way, there will be more Navajo relocation to make way for the Peabody Coal dragon. There will be more lies in the media and more Navajo elderly will die from broken hearts.
Through the years there have been many whistleblowers on the Navajo Nation, exposing the dirty backdoor deals of Navajo politicians and corrupt corporate spiders.
Today, the Censored News blog calls on all those whistleblowers who are home biting their nails to come out and tell the world about the sleazy deals behind the Desert Rock scheme and Peabody Coal’s latest parasitic coal mining plan.
Already, the sex and cocaine of the US Mineral Management Service in Denver with the Big Oil daddies has been exposed.
We would like to hear from the whistleblowers of the Office of Surface Mining in Denver. We would like to hear about the cash that is flowing to keep people silent in corporate offices and what is going on in the US Interior closets.
We would like to hear about the lush meals and lavish hotels aimed at keeping American Indian politicians voting for dirty power plants in tribal council sessions. We would like to hear about the advocates who receive scholarship dollars to speak out in favor of digging into the Earth Mother.
We would also like to hear from whistleblowers at the BLM and elsewhere within the Bush Family. We would like to hear more about how President Bush Sr., before leaving office, cleared the way for Barrick Gold mining to lease lands in Nevada. Once he was out of office, Bush Sr. then went to work as a senior consultant for Barrick. Barrick tore out the trees and bulldozed the area of the Western Shoshone’s sacred Mount Tenabo in the past two weeks, as it prepares to core out the mountain for gold mining and poison the water with cyanide leaching.
We would also like to hear from the whistleblowers in the Cheney ring of private prison thieves, who profiteered from imprisoning migrants and all people of color. Surely there are whistleblowers in the US military torture schools and the private mercenaries for profit empire.
Meanwhile, there are the shoes to consider.
With more than 8,300 online articles now in Google Breaking News, Muntadar al-Zaidi — the shoe-throwing journalist who called Bush a “dog” and remembered the dead, orphans and widows — has become one of the most famous people in the world.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said of al-Zaidi, “What courage.”
Today’s AP article on the Code Pink shoe throwers outside the White House says, “The U.S. Secret Service stood by during the protests; however there were no conflicts with authorities and no arrests were made.”
How could anyone have a conflict with what the reporter Muntadar al-Zaidi did in Iraq. There is no way to bring back the dead women, children and elderly of Iraq. The mass murders in Iraq can only be considered an act of US genocide. The US kidnappings and tortures were violations of the Geneva Conventions.
Today is Code Pink, Muntadar al-Zaidi and Judy Ackerman Day at Censored News. VIDEO: ‘Code Pink Shoe-in at the White House’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yOC4ckof04
VIDEO: ‘Shoe-icide at the White House’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju0VpP4oUyM