WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney had a heart transplant Saturday, after five heart attacks over the past 25 years and countless medical procedures to keep him going (source). Doctors now believe that Cheney's recurring cardiac problems were due to his heart being two sizes too small (diagram below).
Rick Astley and Chrono Trigger plus a nod to Star Fox 64. This will always brighten my day. I just feel sorry for people who don't know the source material here.
Awhile ago now, I came across a YouTube video called "Mega Man vs. Donkey Kong." The results were obvious yet inescapably hilarious:
Since then, an entire series has emerged based on this concept. Here is my favorite of the 13 episode First Season, entitled "Video Game Mashups: Contra vs. Paperboy."
Anyone who's played "Paperboy" can appreciate how frustrating this game is and how gratifying it feels to watch the soldier from "Contra" annihilate the entire neighborhood. The underlying visual rhetoric of this series is that videogames used to be pure, wholesome fun with genuine gameplay challenge... whereas modern games are crude, violent expressions of raw power and require little skill to complete. While not entirely true, this combination of pixelated slap-stick and satire is a worthwhile exercise, particularly as a celebration of post-modern retrogaming culture in Web 2.0.
Until a decade ago, filmmaking required cases of heavy equipment and many crew members. With the advent of compact HD video cameras, it became possible to make "backpack films" in remote locations and with minimal crew - often with stunning results. Filmmaker and ASC professor Danny Ledonne shares some of his recent work and reflects on the adventures behind the images from his travels to Alaska, Kenya, the Galapagos, and all around the continental US.
Ron Paul is the only anti-war 2012 presidential candidate, receiving twice as many donations from active duty military personnel as Barack Obama and ten times more than GOP front-runner Mitt Romney.
Today's demonstration by American soldiers should remind all Americans the heavy price this country is paying - in dollars and in lives - for continual military empire. To my mind, the largest area of government spending should also be the number one issue for voters - particularly as foreign policy dramatically affects the people of the entire globe and not merely the US.
A variety of divisive social issues have and will continue to be raised by campaign strategists in both parties to herd voters into predictable groups. Abortion, gay marriage, and government welfare programs. Yet until the US government gets its fiscal house in order and is no longer beholden to corporatism and the military industrial complex, these passionate debates about social issues will be meaningless in the face of crushing debt and immoral militarism.
