Every time there’s a tragic school shooting or mass killing, we hear about video games. We hear that they’re ‘killing trainers’ and need to be regulated and controlled because they are dangerous and poisoning the minds of our youth. Studies show all violent media consumption desensitizes us, but that is very different than making us killers, as the image shows. Image Source – QuickMeme
You might have heard of the Grand Theft Auto games, which are either the cause of all evil or just a video game depending on your perspective. The fifth entry (or 7th counting Vice City and San Andreas) was just released – and has already sold over $800 million during its first 24 hours of retail and digital sales. Wow. By comparison, GTA4 sold 3.6 million copies for $310 million on launch day – 2K games isn’t telling how many units of GTA5 were sold. And in the UK GTA5 replaced Call of Duty: Black Ops as the fastest selling…
Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day, and once again Facebook is getting on the action. Last year they introduced the option to change your language to ‘Pirate’ – and they have brought back the option this year! Go to Settings, then Account Settings, and Language. Once you’re done and ready to go back, access ‘Ye Ship’s Rigging’ to change!
Along with a rather anemic product announcement keynote, Tim Cook reiterated the upcoming release of iOS 7, and with it iTunes Radio. While some have called Apple ‘late to market’ with iTunes Radio, I would say they are launching at the perfect time. Some of the reasons include the established user base of iTunes, and profit struggles of streaming services. Here are ten reasons to get excited for iTunes Radio: iTunes Integration: If I am listening to something in iTunes and want to go to Slacker, I have to stop, exit, flip pages and launch. With iTunes Radio you just…
Media Critic Anita Sarkeesian made her name primarily by shedding light on the treatment of women in video games. After YouTube videos on the subject, she sought Kickstarter funding to produce a professional series. Asking for $6000 she got nearly $160,000! The third in the ‘Damsel in Distress’ series was recently released, and it is worth checking them all out. You can also check out her Feminist Frequency site and Tumblr page for more info. Here is the series in order: For me one of the saddest things has been the vile and violent responses to these videos, and that…
Every fall high school seniors start looking at colleges to attend. Part of that is deciding what major to pursue. For many that is a practical matter of employability, for others more a pursuit of passion. But regardless of your motivation, there are clearly some majors destined to make more or less money than others. NPR broke it all down. It was interesting reading some of the comments … or perhaps sad, as many would conflate earnings to overall value to society, which seems like something no one would really believe at this point. You can get the complete report…
Do you watch Game of Thrones on HBO? Kev and I love the books by Gorge R. R. Martin as well as the television series based on them, so an added bonus to our recent trip to Dubrovnik (arguably one of the most beautiful cities in the world) was that we knew we might recognize some of the locations from the show. Are you a fan? Then this post is for you! Dubrovnik’s Old Town is a medieval walled city located on the coast of Croatia, and since season two it has been used for various locations in Game of…
Are you watching this season of “Breaking Bad”? If not, you’re missing out on some great television. But if you are all caught up, and you need something to brighten your life before the resolution to last Sunday’s cliffhanger, check out this cameo-filled spoof called “Joking Bad” from Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Warning: Multi-season spoilers are spoofed. Via Slate
In 2010 nearly 40,000 people died from overdoses, which is more than either car accidents or gun deaths. Of those, more than 75% were accidental and about 60% of them were related to prescription drugs. An additional 26,000 people died of alcohol-induced causes. But one drug you won’t find on the list of overdose deaths? Marijuana. In fact, you can look at some of the bizarre things people overdosed on – such as Monster energy drink, No-Doz caffeine pills, aspirin, Tylenol and Advil, and even near-death overdoses of soy sauce and brussel sprouts! Most overdoses come from prescription painkillers, but…
For years we’ve had a routine – get a new car when we’ve exhausted the current one, donating that one to charity. Our oldest car was a 10 year-old Subaru we donated it and got my now 7 year-old Escape Hybrid. But apparently these cars are fairly young, as the average age of a car is now 11.4 years old. Hanging on to older cars has become a trend, with this year marking the highest average age since data collection started! The average age has increased nearly a year just over the last few years! And at the same time…
Reading a post at Medium reminded me how far we have to go on every level of race relations. The post was from a college student child of a black man and white woman visiting the historic Touro Synagogue in Newport when someone made an assumption based on the variety of skin colors and asked, “What organization are you with?”
My family stayed up late watching the Video Music Awards (VMA) on MTV to unwind after a busy weekend; my wife and sons had people they wanted to see. What struck me was how in a world full of diverse music and musicians, there were only a dozen or so in a narrow brand of accessible pop music on display. If you look at the list of winners below, and you noted who was in the very small ‘stars seating area’, you will notice tremendous overlap. Pink, feat. Nate Ruess 30 Seconds to Mars Selena Gomez Janelle Monae feat. Erykah…
At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly, I can’t help but rant about the creeping specter of textspeak in everyday communications. With smartphones and full keyboards, there’s no excuse to not spell out your words! I have a big fear about the future of the written word. No, I’m not about to give you an anti-eBook screed; you’ll never see me parting from my beloved Kindle. And I think Jeff Bezos buying the Washington Post is very intriguing. Rather, I am terribly afraid for the literal words, as more and more textspeak is making its way into everyday and professional contexts….
I just wrote about the announcement show on the BBC for the 12th Doctor, which was ‘must see TV’ for my younger son. But unlike when my wife and I sit down to watch TV, where we set our phones on the end tables or coffee table; for him the first thing my son does is grab his phone and open up Twitter. Once there, he gets involved with pre-show chatter, right into the announcement itself, and then post-show follow-up. According to a new Nielson study reported at TheNextWeb, this is exactly the sort of situation where ‘Twitter Chatter’ helps…
Aside from the major jazz releases I try to cover, I also collect other new music and try to do ‘overview’ reviews of several albums when possible. I had one in progress, and the ‘highlight’ release for the set was DreamWeaver from George Duke. The album was released three weeks ago on July 16th, and it is one of the best recordings of the year, as well as one of my favorites from Duke. Dreamweaver mixes mainstream jazz, funk, pop and fusion elements in a very tender and intimate way, and showcases Duke’s vocal, compositional and most of all his…
This past weekend, we took a half hour away from the normal chaos in our house to tune into BBC America at 1700 hours GTM (i.e. 2PM EST). Doctor Who is a show I watched as a kid in the mid-70s, and Tom Baker will always be ‘my Doctor’. My younger son is a much bigger fan than me; he’s grown up loving the David Tennant and Matt Smith incarnations, and more recently working back in time. As you would expect during a 30 minute announcement show, the first 25 were all about retrospective and chatting up Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith….
What did your first job pay? I vaguely remember my first “real” job (i.e., not babysitting) at Borders during summer break from college, where I was thrilled to be making $6.25ish per hour. Fast forward to when I worked as a supervisor for Borders, post-college, with a degree, where I started at $8.75 an hour. Even with roommates, it was tough to stretch that every two weeks. So I have a lot of sympathy for the current fast food workers’ strike, where they’re fighting for a raise, specifically to a significant level above the current average rate of $7.25 per…
Much as the pensioners romping around playing Quadrophenia to absurd ticket prices have long since forgotten their pledge to clear off before becoming caricatures of themselves, so does Jay-Z’s celebrating the 10th anniversary of his ‘final’ album by releasing yet another mediocre effort drip with so much irony. The contrast with Kanye West’s recent release, ‘Yeezus,’ is so stark that I was reminded of Cole Porter’s song ‘Night and Day’. It isn’t just that the focus of each release is different—one is pure crass corporate factory ‘product,’ and the other is finely crafted artistry—it is also that Yeezus is just…
UPDATED!!!!!! It is a big day here at Gear Diary as we welcome the newest member of the Gear Diary Team into the world. Yes, you read that right, Carly and Sarah have just become parents for the first time. Their son made his debut late this afternoon. He is gorgeous and everyone is doing great. So… Please join us in wishing the three of them our very best!!! But wait… there’s more baby news from Gear Diary since, early this morning Judie and Kevin became grandparents for the third time. Please join us in wishing THEM the very best. …
Superman Returns often feels like an homage rewarding viewers of the previous four Superman films with many references, inside jokes and related scenes. Man of Steel is a re-focusing of Clark’s personal journey growing up (mostly through flashbacks during his often traumatic experiences) while revealing his detailed background from his home planet, Krypton. Audiences get lots of alien activity in serious, intense tone with three small moments with subtle humor through character dialogue.
The ‘bigger is better’ filmmaking mantra works as this monstrous action-racing film series keeps upgrading with Fast & Furious 6 (a.k.a. Furious 6). The featured film gear this time is a special device called the “Nightshade”, which can disable power in a large area. Other featured gear in the film include special electronic discs (relating to the “Nightshade” technology), specially customized F1-style “flip cars”, modified cable guns, BMW M5s, a Navistar MXT truck, a rare 1973 Jensen Interceptor, and a custom-made Dodge Daytona for Vin Diesel…the perfect acting name for this successful film series. In this sixth film installment, Dominic…