Shadowrun Has Arrived?

I never got into role playing games like many of my friends from elementary school did.  (In fact, the first time I was invited to play D&D at a friend's house in grade five or six, I got into a fistfight and bloodied another guy's nose!  After that, rolling a D20 to determine if you hit someone is a bit of an anti-climax. )

One game that held my friends in particular thrall was called Shadowrun (which I think they still play to this day.)  This game is set a few decades in the future and contains themes of cyber-warfare, techo-terrorism and corporate vs. government power.

This game is fictional.  But recent news stories about the cyber-battles between the world's largest country and one of the world's largest corporations make you wonder how long until that's no longer the case?

The Most Used Cover Image in the World?

Very possibly.  (via Reddit)

Music Monday – "You must explain why this must be/Did you lie when you spoke to me?"

I'm going to reposition this song as our official SILS training theme!  

A Few Random Book Lists

What Three Books Should You Read To Better Understand Humanity?”  (via Reddit)

What's the Most Eye-Opening Non-Fiction Book You've Ever Read?” (via Reddit)

And if fiction is more to your taste, why not check out this list of “Best Books of the Decade” by Corey Redekop, my library school colleague who's also a book reviewer and published author (ie. he knows his stuff!.) 

Saturday Snap – "I Tuck"

Pretty funny to see this come around the corner.  Even funnier to hear the explanation…

Friday Fun Link – Fuck This Weather (January 8, 2010)

Appropriate for the first FFL of 2010 on a day where the mercury dropped to -48 with windchill (aka “hmmm, I did not realise that you could get frostbite there.”)

Born Again Evangelical Stephen Baldwin vs. Richard Dawkins

I would argue with Dawkins – I think Stephen “Balding One” is descended directly from apes.

States That Allow Same Sex Marriage vs. States That Allow First Cousins To Marry

Pretty much says it all about how messed up the US is on this issue.

The Most Pirated Movie of 2009 Is Also One of The Year's Most Profitable

Boldly contradicting themselves like they have many times before, movie execs cite the quickly shakey-cammed “Star Trek” as an example of how Internet piracy is devastating their industry – even as “Star Trek” is easily shown to be one of the most profitable movies of the year indicate that the movie industry is probably doing just fine, thank-you very much. 

It's that same logic that considers every Britney Spears song that's downloaded equal to one lost sale.   Right. 

Now I find “Womanizer” as catchy as the next person but I'm not ponying up a single loonie less a penny to buy a copy.  But that's not to say that a copy may or may not reside on my hard drive.  (I just looked – it doesn't actually.  Uhm, whew! )

I do understand the arguments that the movie industry is making.  Right now, it's really only a matter of tech know-how (and it's not that hard) and bandwidth speeds that prevents more people from downloading movies the way they currently download music.   But the solution isn't to cling to old business models and technologies but to innovate in ways big and small.  Because the pirates will always be one step behind them no matter what!

Music Monday – "can you see the old and lonely/walking through the park/pushing grocery carts/till the sun turns black"

(via The Bing Dynasty's List of the Top Ten Songs of 2009)