they are merely brand extensions. It works the same for games and books made from original movie screenplays, they are the product of the fervent imagination of the brand extension manager seeking to squeeze every last cent out of the audience.
A real original movie has three acts four principal characters and an ending where good defeats evil. That is the artform it is one of the few original artforms uniquely American - apart from the musical.
Naturally, I am waiting with my breath firmly bated in full expectation of Duke Nukem - The Movie.

But I would observe that while the millstones of Mastercard et al may grind slowly they grind exceedingly fine. As my old Lutheran school teacher used to tell us about other stuff...

Should be the more appropriate headline here.

Guess I must have missed that, even though I am an (oft mentioned) resident of the Federal Republic. Hang on, when I am in Hugendubel (a big bookstore) later on this morning I will read Der Speigel (a magazine invented by the British armed forces post war) and feel myself filled to overflowing with outrage and indignation at what these dashed computer boffins are up to now.

The Germans love FUD

Der Speigel knows this.

The idea is to sell magazines.

Of course if you lived here you would know that what is really causing a "storm of outrage" was the behaviour of riot police during a demonstration of between 50,000 to 100,000 people (mileage varies according to source) against a new high speed railway in Stuttgart last week.
But then, that's First Life.

trapped in development hell..

you can afford, go for size over spec. You don't need a keyboard, mouse, monitor or other accessories. When you get it home take it out of the box, check the box for plastic or styrofoam and dispose of this safely. Then give the empty box to the child. Disposal of the big, expensive computer is at the user's discretion.
Breakfast cereal cartons are better and bigger.

where prostitution is legal and regulated I have some sympathy for those of you living in less enlightened parts of the world. However do try to remember that while many architects (for example!) use the services of prostitutes, few, if any prostitutes are clients of architects.
If your simplistic model of the sex industry is that of a cosy contract between customer and vendor you probably haven't been to edge of the world and looked over.
Otherwise you would be perfectly happy for your sons and daughters, brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers to pursue a glittering career in the opportunity-filled world of the sex industry. Perhaps put in a few shifts yourself, to balance your budget in these straitened times.
Or perhaps there is another reason why clients are called "tricks" or "Gingers" in the industry patois.

• 1: Sell advertising space
• 2: ?
• 3: Profit

Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.

Not quite making top of the news anywhere apart from tech sites scrapes of slashdot (or vice versa), 'cos any budding Kelvin McKenzie can call the investigation team up and ask them if it is true. The only source is an newspaper. Legal buck passing strategy. A hint: no mention of any real files or names, but lots of mentions of ground crew and pilot error.
You decide!

I refute the claim that it is impossible to create an "Asimovian Foundation" and call into evidence the entire social, political, economic and technical development of the human race in its present very, very brief period of existence through the efforts of a possibly unlistable number of men and women whose only wish was to make life better.

The tiniest effort of research will show that Charles Laveran (discoverer of the cause of malaria, Joseph Lister (discoverer of antiseptics), Alexander Fleming (et al discoverer of penicillin), Joseph Bazalgette (construction of the London sewer system) and John Snow (father of epidemiology) to name only the men I can think of that will mean something to slashdotters, saved the lives of untold millions and were directly responsible for the civilisation that exists today.

Somewhere, possibly in China or India (but really, who knows?) an investors spreadsheet contains a particular value that is incrementing every day and when that value reaches a particular number it will become financially viable to mine the asteroid belt, build a space mirror, populate the local moons and planets or any other grand idea.

The system requirements for this are: sufficient numbers of individuals, seeking to improve the quality of there lives and prepared to collectively achieve a common purpose.

And no, I haven't included the URL's to wikipedia because I don't doubt the curious reader's ability to look these up for themselves.

(Oscar Wilde)

John Paul Jones.

A big dog, preferably a shepherd. On the plus side, owning a dog (or a cat to be fair) improves the quality of your life and extends your life expectancy almost as much as getting married.
If you are really cheap, a big kennel in a highly visible part of your property with a big empty chain and two large stainless steel dog bowls. If you live in an apartment, omit the kennel and leave the bowls at your front door - one of them should be filled with fresh water. Oh, and you shouldn't bother with the marriage idea either.
Alternatively there is always a gaggle of geese, who are well respected in the security industry and have a long history in saving various empires including the Roman.
Empire that is.
Next!

Now I know why we pay half the price for our electricity from Yellow (German Nuclear Power) than we would if we bought it from SWU (Traditional Recyclable Tetrapak burning) or Eco(windmills, photo-voltaic, CH4 emissions from political parties).

No wait a minute, I read it wrong...

Were the monkeys given the remote control and what did they think of the SGU season finale?

Acupuncture gained its present foothold in the subconscious of fools shortly after Mao took over China in 1949. The Communist party of China had promised everyone health care, but were in fact unable to deliver proper science-based medicine to the vast population. "Bicycle Doctors" were encouraged to promote herbal and traditional Chinese medical treatments to save money and hide the absence of proper drugs.

Not only did this let a thousand flowers of nonsense bloom and condemn thousands of Brown Bile Bears to inhumane torture, it also convinced gullible Western visitors that the Chinese had some miraculous medical treatments unknown and unexplained by modern science. Pretty much like the gullible Western visitors who went to the Soviet Union shortly after the revolution and declared that they had been to the future and it worked. This research is just another example of flying-saucer-science intended to sucker people into believing that paying out heaps of money for snake-oil is a good idea.

So just to be clear: acupuncture is a cult, a pseudo-science without basis in fact, just like its home companions homeopathy, yoga and Reiki.

I'm not going to provide links since the muppets who reply to say that their great grandmothers survived World War One and Two, smoked liked a chimney, drank like a fish, had unprotected sex with 9 thousand partners, consumed vast quantities of lard, fast food and chips, never ate fruit and attributed their excellent health to homeopathy, acupuncture and Reiki, will do those for you.

the sun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_sun

and not the Sun http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ -

two entirely different things in those lands where one speaks the Queen's English and the word take is not extinct.