Links of the Week

Lego Super Star Destroyer
Lego has announced that they are going to release a 3,152 piece set that re-creates Star Wars' Super Star Destroyer. The set will retail for $399.99 and come with Dengar, Admiral Piett and IG-88 minifigs.

Weiner Resigns, GOP Wins Again
Once again the GOP successfully proved that they do not have to be held to their own standards. Under mounting pressure from the typically spineless Democratic leadership, Anthony Weiner resigned his seat in Congress. This is despite the fact that while he flirted online, GOPer David Vitter was caught breaking the law by cheating on his wife with prostitutes and fellow GOPer John Ensign was caught breaking Congress rules by covering up that he cheated on his wife with a staffer. Sure Ensign resigned but not because of the cheating but because of breaking the rules was going to get him kicked out. Keep in mind that while the press was relentless for nearly three weeks to cover this, ignoring everything else in the process, they barely gave more than a few days coverage to the other two for much more egregious behavior. The double standard lives on and now the Democrats have proven that it’s ok for Republicans to declare open season on them. Why kill em with better policy if can do it with a tweet or two? I do agree with Crook and Liars, I honestly don't care what all three of them did. I dislike the hypocrisy of the two GOPers since they ran on family values but overall who they cheat on or with isn't my concern. Those actions don't affect me. What policy and laws they propose do. I wish that is what the press would spend their time covering but given a choice between the story of wieners that doesn't affect us and the story of things that do, they will also go for things that don't matter.

E3 Video Game News and Announcements

The big three of the video game industry has held its press conferences at the Electronic Entertainment Expo that is being held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Microsoft announced a fleet of games for the XBox 360, Sony announced their new handheld called the PS Vita while Nintendo introduced their next console the Wii U with touchpad controller. Read on for more details; hit the title link if interested in watching entire video of their keynotes.

Nintendo
Nintendo was last in the press conferences but not least as it presented a strong lineup of games and a new console that may allow them to once again compete with the others. The keynote started with a symphony playing Legend of Zelda tunes to a montage of Zelda games as a homage to the franchise's 25th Anniversary. Sadly no special collection is being planned, instead they are simply releasing a few past games like Link's Awakening along with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) for Christmas. In other words just business as usual. Games in the pipeline for the 3DS include Super Mario Kart 3D, Star Fox 3D, Super Mario 3D, Kid Icarus 3D, and Tetris 3D. Most expected to be released by end of the year. Kirby Wii was also announced but the Wii was not the focus.

Links of the Week - With Stupid Edition

Weiner Admits to Picture
The underwear picture heard around the world finally has its guilty man. New York Representative Anthony Weiner finally admitted the picture was his and apparently one of several he has sent out to woman over the internet the years. He admitted to the behavior but says he never had sex or even met the woman he was flirting with online. The GOP, of course, is asking for his head on a platter. Ignoring the fact that they stridently defended previous leaders like John Ensign among others that actually did take the step of cheating of getting laid by someone other than their wives. In the case of Ensign he broke the law multiple times to try and cover it up. Andrew Breitbart, he actually "broke" the story by buying the photos from one of Weiner's online woman, felt this "proved" he was a real journalist. After all in Republican land, if a "liberal" makes a mistake his entire career should be flushed down the toilet (see Dan Rather) but is a conservative makes nothing but mistakes (fake Black Panther story, fake Acorn story, fake Sherrod story, etc) then getting one right undoes all those others.

Apple's WWDC Introduces iOS 5

Today Steve Jobs held the key note address for Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 that did not introduce the iPhone 5 as hoped but instead introduced iOS 5 with iCloud. The emphasis on the update is to try to put data "in the cloud" so easily accessible from any iOS device (iPad, iPhone, etc). iOS 5 is being released sometime this Fall.

The key new feature is the replacement of the now defunct MobileMe called iCloud. The idea is a hub to store all data might use on an iOS device such as music, videos, photos, etc. It sounds a whole lot like Dropbox with an auto sync feature. All users will get 5GB free, not sure how much it costs for more. However, if you have music, Apple is introducing something called iTunes Match that will have you "upload" your music collection to iCloud and does not count to the 5GB limit. The reason for the quotes is it’s not really uploading your music but matching your music library to iTunes. This works for music already purchased from iTunes or music ripped from CD collection. If like me and didn't rip your collection at a good bit rate, this is a solid way to "upgrade" your collection to 256 kbps AAC files without going through the trouble of re-ripping everything. Just note that ACC is not as universally accepted a format as mp3.

Links of the Week

DC Comics Rebooting 70 Year History
DC has announced that it is rebooting its universe almost from scratch after their current "Flashpoint" story arc end. The relaunch will have 52 #1 titles come out that month starting with Justice League #1 (to left is the cover). The origin story, back story, events, costumes (including more clothing for the woman) and more will be altered to "modernize" the characters. While DC is being silent on specifics, it seems that the goal is to simplify the universe and make it easier to adapt to movies, television and video games. An example is from the art here which shows Green Lantern Hal Jordan using the ring to create a Gatling gun. Until the movie, that would have never done that, created preferring hitting hit opponents over shooting them. The tendency for creating guns was left to former Marine, Green Lantern John Stewart. Another example is Superman being de-aged to late 20s and more than likely no longer married, again aligning with the upcoming movie. The examples will probably continue with characters losing more complicated or "messy" portions of their past like deaths, marriages, offspring, and more. I am betting the directive is if the story arc or character can't be explained in less than two minutes, then that aspect will be removed from DC's new continuity. If you are a long time reader of comics, this news is probably bad but if you are looking to try them out (or hop off the collecting merry go round), this is good news. As a long time collector familiar with DC Comics history, I find the idea full of story potential but DC's execution over the years has been sloppy at best as Warner Bros executives ultimately make the big decisions and that often doesn't lead to good storytelling.