An English engineer solves the mystery of Pisa’s leaning tower’s lean, and finds a way to stabilize it. Not all Italians are happy.
Jonathan Cohn thinks Obama’s a success and gets annoyed with liberals who don’t see that, because they undermine the cause. “Truth be told,” he says, “a Democratic member in a Republican district probably benefits more from higher Obama approval ratings than an ad buy from Moveon.org.”
Some people, almost certainly young men under forty, worry that in the future we won’t be able to play old video games.
And a reviewer ponders a book on video games that doesn’t dare look at the “the strange species of hopped-up man-boy whose compulsions find both their spur and their outlet in the hyperactive cartoon worlds rendered in meticulous detail on high-definition screens.”
An Oxford physicist says that radiation isn’t as dangerous as we thought, and that “Given the availability of carbon-free nuclear power, this makes a sea change in our view of radiation rather urgent.”
The alternative Anglican group in Canada voted overwhelmingly (the clergy unanimous, the laity almost so) to begin to establish an Catholic Ordinariate in Canada.
Ruth Franklin argues that Amazon isn’t responsible for the problems of the publishing industry, and that “The real trouble with Amazon, it seems, is that nobody truly believes we were better off without it.”
From 1924, Rose Macaulay (later a Christian) reviews H. G. Well’s novel/tract The Dream, which now looks very quaint.
Finally, more liturgical puppetry, this time at the opening service of the Presbyterians’ General Assembly.
July 29th, 2010 | 3:19 pm
Video games being rendered obsolete by new technology is something I have to deal with every time I upgrade my system. The tragedy of course is that many of the better games (read: none of the games in that book in the following link) aren’t popular enough to make it emulations or whatever.
Some of these games I treasure.
Grim Fandango, for example, had some of the best art direction I’ve ever seen in just about any motion picture medium, but is virtually unplayable on most modern systems.
Here’s some of the concept art for that game (which is brilliant in all other aspects too, if any of you ever encounter it.) It mixes art deco with the Mexican Dia de Los Muertos.
http://www.grimfandango.net/pages/showimage/index.php?showimage=/concept/3.jpg
http://www.grimfandango.net/pages/showimage/index.php?showimage=/concept/6.jpg
http://www.grimfandango.net/pages/showimage/index.php?showimage=/concept/10.jpg
July 29th, 2010 | 3:39 pm
I think that the New republic review is correct in characterizing games as somewhat immature, but that is just the state of the art today, rather than a fault of the book.
Film was once criticized for being nothing more than an amusing and novel diversion. And it was was just that, in the early days, which consisted of little more than footage of things like car races or whatever.
As in the early world of film making, there is a lot of potential in the interactive medium, although most games today are, yes, rather childish. (They are, in my opinion, still worth playing for the strategic puzzles and the music and lushly rendered landscapes.) The possibility of exploring moral choice is one avenue for development. Many titles in the role-playing game genre, for example, draw from the paradigm of Camus’ The Plague, where a disease (often characterized in games as a demonic invasion) has taken hold of the country, and you can respond in a number of ways.
For a more detailed exploration of the possibilities in interactive media, Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace by Janet Murray examines what the state of the art is and is not.
July 29th, 2010 | 5:28 pm
Bulletin announcement re: the puppet procession. There will be a fitting for millstones for all adults in the fellowship hall immediately following the service.
July 29th, 2010 | 8:52 pm
I’m confident Love-De-Lic and others will be exhumed by whatever premium archivists exist in the future. Our art video games will be saved!
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