Just because you're paranoid, it doesnt mean they're not out to get you.

- Catch 22

Learning To Speak Climate

Thomas Friedman of The New York Times

Sometimes you just wish you were a photographer. I simply do not have the words to describe the awesome majesty of Greenland’s Kangia Glacier, shedding massive icebergs the size of skyscrapers and slowly pushing them down the Ilulissat Fjord until they crash into the ocean off the west coast of Greenland. There, these natural ice sculptures float and bob around the glassy waters near here. You can sail between them in a fishing boat, listening to these white ice monsters crackle and break, heave and sigh, as if they were noisily protesting their fate.

You are entirely alone here amid the giant icebergs, save for the solitary halibut fisherman who floats by. Our Greenlandic boat skipper sidles up to the tiny fishing craft, where my hosts buy a few halibut right out of his nets, slice open the tender cheeks and cut me the freshest halibut sushi I’ve ever tasted. “Greenland fast food,” quips Kim Kielsen, Greenland’s minister of the environment.

We wash it down with Scotch whiskey cooled by a 5,000-year-old ice cube chipped off one of the floating glacier bits. Some countries have vintage whiskey. Some have vintage wine. Greenland has vintage ice.

Alas, though, I do not work for National Geographic. This is the opinion page. And my trip with Denmark’s minister of climate and energy, Connie Hedegaard, to see the effects of climate change on Greenland’s ice sheet leaves me with a very strong opinion: Our kids are going to be so angry with us one day.

We’ve charged their future on our Visa cards. We’ve added so many greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, for our generation’s growth, that our kids are likely going to spend a good part of their adulthood, maybe all of it, just dealing with the climate implications of our profligacy. And now our leaders are telling them the way out is “offshore drilling” for more climate-changing fossil fuels.

Madness. Sheer madness. [emphasis added - ed.]

Most people assume that the effects of climate change are going to be felt through another big disaster, like Katrina. Not necessarily, says Minik Thorleif Rosing, a top geologist at Denmark’s National History Museum and one of my traveling companions. “Most people will actually feel climate change delivered to them by the postman,” he explains. It will come in the form of higher water bills, because of increased droughts in some areas; higher energy bills, because the use of fossil fuels becomes prohibitive; and higher insurance and mortgage rates, because of much more violently unpredictable weather.

Remember: climate change means “global weirding,” not just global warming.

Greenland is one of the best places to observe the effects of climate change. Because the world’s biggest island has just 55,000 people and no industry, the condition of its huge ice sheet — as well as its temperature, precipitation and winds — is influenced by the global atmospheric and ocean currents that converge here. Whatever happens in China or Brazil gets felt here. And because Greenlanders live close to nature, they are walking barometers of climate change.

That’s how I learned a new language here: “Climate-Speak.”

It’s easy to learn. There are only three phrases. The first is: “Just a few years ago ...” Just a few years ago you could dogsled in winter from Greenland, across a 40-mile ice bank, to Disko Island. But for the past few years, the rising winter temperatures in Greenland have melted that link. Now Disko is cut off. Put away the dogsled.

There has been a 30 percent increase in the melting of the Greenland ice sheet between 1979 and 2007, and in 2007, the melt was 10 percent bigger than in any previous year, said Konrad Steffen, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, which monitors the ice. Greenland is now losing 200 cubic kilometers of ice per year — from melt and ice sliding into the ocean from outlet glaciers along its edges — which far exceeds the volume of all the ice in the European Alps, he added. “Everything is happening faster than anticipated.”

The second phrase is: “I’ve never seen that before...” It rained in December and January in Ilulissat. This is well above the Arctic Circle! It’s not supposed to rain here in winter. Said Steffen: “Twenty years ago, if I had told the people of Ilulissat that it would rain at Christmas 2007, they would have just laughed at me. Today it is a reality.”

The third phrase is: “Well usually ...but now I don’t know anymore.” Traditional climate patterns that Greenland elders have known their whole lives have changed so quickly in some places that “the accumulated experience of older people is not as valuable as before,” said Rosing. The river that was always there is now dry. The glacier that always covered that hill has disappeared. The reindeer that were always there when the hunting season opened on Aug. 1 didn’t show up.

No wonder everyone here speaks climate now — your kids will, too, and sooner than they think.

Robot Olympics

The video isnt playing for me, if you can fix it MD give it a shot.

For the rest of you, open the video by clicking at the top if it doesnt play.

Chariots of Fire playing in the background makes this video.

Yeah, it was kind of a slow news day in the gaming world. That, and Im going to play Dungeons and Dragons with a few old friends for the first time in roughly 15 years, so I dont have time to write anything. And I still havent sent MD this damn box of broken game controllers, or that guy on ebay his copy of Civilization Revolution.

Civ Rev isnt a bad game at all, I think maybe its the best possible way to introduce someone to Civ, but having played the PC version of Civ 4 and its expansions for years its hard to have so much user control over the play experience removed. Not being able to pick the map size and game speed is probably a good thing for newer players but I just cant help but feel like the default speed a a hair too fast. You go from having Knights to having Riflemen to having Tanks in a dozen turns if you spend all your resources on Technology.

Even with small maps, its easy for your army to become outdated by the time it reaches another civilization's distant capital city. Also, the AI is much more agressive than in ealier versions of Civ, unless you shower them with gifts and bribes, and give in to their every demand. Ghandi - who in the PC version plays a very peaceful, diplomatic AI routine, sent in his Knights after the slightest disagreement over some Tech that he wanted from me. Probably my fault for blasting his borders with massive amounts of culture, but the interactions with the AI still feels different enough from the PC version that my actions feel out of place. I guess if I wanted to really play Civ Rev and beat it on Diety setting, I would have to unlearn what I have learned form Civ 4. The problem is, its hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

R-Type Coming To XBLA

"The Bydo empire must be destroyed. Again. The Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification has rated a new title in the series, named R-Type Dimensions, for an upcoming Xbox Live Arcade release. The surprise announcement, dug up by GamerBytes, shows that Microsoft will publish, but that developer Tozai will handle all the coding wizardry.

Unfortunately, there's little else in the way of concrete info for R-Type Dimensions, such as whether it will be a totally new entry in the series or a HD remake of a previous entry. Whatever the outcome, we don't care. It's R-Type!"

-Michael McWhertor of Kotaku

I hate to be the one to say this, but I never really got into the R-Type series. I downloaded them via PSN, but after finding myself trying to memorize EVERYTHING in the levels into order to pass them, I was done. Pretty funny coming from a guy who's a self-proclaimed Ikaruga obsessor. I'm sure Chronic on the other hand is a fan of the series. Maybe this is my own chance to finally get into it.

Castle Crashers Gameplay

OK, so I have heard some significant hype regarding the upcoming XBLA game Castle Crashers, and I had no clue what it was all about. So, Ive checked it out, and it looks like this is going to be yet another winner for XBLA this summer. Its a hand drawn hack n' slash action RPG with upgradable weapons and skills, all playable with 4 person coop over Xbox Live, developed by Behemoth, the creators of Alien Hominid.

Check out these features:

* Intuitive combo and magic system: Unlock new combos and magical attacks as your character progresses through the game. You have an almost limitless amount of combos to perform alone, or with a group of friends.
* Arena mode: This mode allows players to battle each other head-on with four unique modes to choose from!
* Experience system: As you fight your way through the various levels of Castle Crashers, your character gains more experience points that will in return give you the option to adjust your four main stats -- Strength, Magic, Defense, and Agility.
* Weapons weapons weapons! Each player has the ability to unlock more than 40 weapons.
* Animal orbs: These little companions add enhancements to your attributes. Each pet has different abilities to benefit you, with various ways of unlocking each one. Defeat a boss and steal his companion, dig them up, or buy them at a store.
* Treasure hunt: Unlockable items, weapons, pet companions, and characters are buried throughout the various levels of Castle Crashers.
* Stores: Spread across the various worlds of Castle Crashers, every store has specific items to sell. Collect gold from killing enemies, finding treasures, or opening chests, then take your collected gold to these stores for some weapons, items, character unlocks, and more!

The Hardest Boss Ever

The Last True Boss from the Japanese arcade game Mushihimesama Futari by the developer Cave. The final boss from the original Mushihimesama on the "Ultra" difficulty mode was widely considered to be the hardest ever before this sequal came out. Not only is the screen completely and utterly drenched in overlapping bullet patterns, but the player is subjected to the unusual cruelty of completely draining the bosses health bar only to see it fill right back up and an even nastier form reappear. I can't even imagine what people playing this in the arcades felt like when they finally destroyed the boss after 3 minutes of pure torture, only too see it come cackling back with a mind boggling array of new, seemingly undodgeable bullet patterns. The player's only consolation is a hit box the size of a single pixel: the pilot's canopy.

Skate 2 Trailer

Amazingly, not even 11 months after the original game was released we are already hearing about Skate 2. Fortunately, the game looks to be just about everything you would want it to be: a totally revamped city, expanded trick set, the ability to get off your board and walk around, interact with movable objects in the world such as benches and tables, do handplants and hippie jumps, and play as a female character. The new game now runs at a liquid smooth 60 frames per second, incredible when you consider the increased texture work, lighting and shading. The developer has referred to Skate 2 as "epic" in breadth and depth, representing a geometric, exponential expansion of the game design rather than a linear progression which would have resulted in Skate 1.5

I think the original game is still fantastic and I play it regularly even though only 1 person on my friends list has it and I met him online in the game! Nobody else on my friends list took to it. The controls are totally unforgiving and it takes quite a while to get your head around them before you can interact comfortably with the world, and even then half the moves seem impossible to pull off with 100% consistency. But the whole things just looks, sounds, and feels so great you forgive the steep learning curve and just keep getting back on your board, broken ribs and all. It sure doesnt play like Tony Hawk - and thats why I keep coming back to it.

Skate is a great game but it never crossed over into the mainstream because it was bit too hardcore, but if they refinine the controls and the single player missions structure a bit differently, to ease the player into the world with a smooth learning curve rather than throwing them into the wilderness butt naked, and then top it all off with a massively mutliplayer persistent online world with a ton of stuff to do, EA could have a truly monster franchise and possibly one of the best console games of this or any generation.