On April 17 Houghton Mifflin will publish The Children of Húrin, a “new” work of fiction by J.R.R. Tolkien:
My knowledge of physics and engineering is shaky enough that sometimes I forget that stuff like neutron stars and superconductors is actually real and not made-up. (If Slaver stasis fields are real and not made-up, somebody needs to tell me.) Scheduled to cross the fiction/non-fiction barrier shortly is a commercially available quantum computer. The British [...]
I remember being assigned a review of Manhunt with the warning that it would be the next great hyper-controversial lawsuit-engendering game, a la Grand Theft Auto. And it is pretty brutal, what with, you know, the slitting of throats with stray shards of glass and such. But as with Bully, it never actually generated much [...]
Somebody hooked up a big industrial arm to a Wiimote, then gave it a sword.
People who work at Bungie are happier than you. Somehow it seems wrong that 4×4 Halo 3 matches are being played somewhere in the world, and I am not at that place. All I can do is press my nose against those smeared-out .jpegs and whine like a whipped puppy.
I don’t know if anybody but me followed this story arc in Doonesbury, or indeed whether anybody besides me under the age of 50 reads Doonesbury anymore. Anyway, Trudeau seems to be paying more attention lately to Mike’s nerdy daughter Alex, who goes to MIT. Granted, the whole Battlebots-esque scenario is about 9 years out [...]
“Ankles” being Variety slang for “bails.” According to Whedonesque, and subsequently every entertainment trade outlet in the ‘verse, Joss Whedon is off the Wonder Woman project. Let’s see, how much can I legally quote?
Is it just me or is there a serious lack of non-Super Bowl counter-programming? I know there are a lot of people out there who are really excited about the bone-crunching matchup of [plural noun, animal] vs. [plural noun, animal], but honestly, I just couldn’t care less. (Jock-on-jock violence? Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown)
I’ve refrained from commenting on the whole Mooninite invasion of Boston, the city that I am, I’m embarrassed to say, from. It’s been admirably covered and commented upon elsewhere, notably by my colleague Jim Poniewozik on his blog. The whole incident kind of reminds us of the hermetic nature of nerd culture — the fact [...]
Isn’t it cute when famous people try to play video games? Warning: too-short tennis outfit alert.
This really is pretty cool: Kratos vs. Giant Gold Guy With Blue Glowy Eyes. Especially given that it’s on PS2. Pulse-pounding previous-gen action! Some further notes on the battle here.
