The Ephemeric

Another week goes by and Chelsea are still top of the league. But credit to Liverpool, they are keeping up so far. Meanwhile Arsenal and Man United continue to faff about without either one ever really looking the business just yet.

Chelsea's Anelka, despite never really looking particularly good, has somehow fired his way to the top of the goal scoring charts with 5 goals in the last 2 premier league games. Sounds like a man who's truly on top form right? Well all I can say is that anyone who has actually watched the games will think far less highly of Anelka than those who are just going by the stats. Don't get me wrong, his goal tally is excellent recently, and to be honest there's not a whole lot else you can ask of a striker, but the stats don't tell the whole story. Anelka, in any given game, misses a whole host of sitters and open goals and one-on-ones that most other premiership strikers would put away without a moment's notice. The fact that he is still managing to get a number of goals says less about his own ability, and more about how brilliantly the Chelsea team is playing behind him in order to give him so many chances.

Lower down in the league Tottenham look a whole new team under Harry Redknapp, having clawed their way off the bottom place in the table all the way up to 16th with 10 points from the last 4 games. Darren Bent now looks like a man who can't miss, and as much as I never thought i'd say this, must surely be forcing his way into the reckoning for an England squad place.

Newcastle, meanwhile, continue to be football's funniest tragedy, still underperforming and languishing in relegation zone. Now Tottenham fans can finally relax and start heaping scorn on those even worse off than them, and Newcastle is a fine place to start.

So where are things likely to go from here? Well I still think Chelsea will win this season. And that's not just me talking as a Chelsea fan, ask anyone and I was furiously pessimistic at this point last season, I am nothing if not a realist. United will hit form eventually, no matter how bad they look at times now, and so will probably finish the season in second place, sorry Liverpool, you're going down to third. The wild card in the top four this year is Arsenal, who at time look half decent, and at times utterly lost. Depending on whether or not Wenger can whip them into any form on consistency they will end up fourth and maybe lower, dropping out of the champions league qualification places. Personally I'm a big believer in the strength of status quo so I'm going to go for the former right now.

song of the day: "Spaceman" by "the Killers"
thing that makes me smile today: A page of new articles without the fanboy hate (fingers crossed).
pic of the day:

HOT:
Coldplay fan boys
Futurama
Anelka

NOT:
Oasis fan boys
the Cleveland Show
Drogba

Wannabe rock gods all over the world can rejoice, the newest iteration of Neversoft's iconic games series has been released, and this time you can bring friends too!

This year, Guitar Hero World Tour has ripped off Rock Band in that you can now form a full band with guitar, bass, drums and vocals and play with your friends as you rock out the entire world.



So how good this game is will depend on the strengths of a few key areas, the song list, the extra features and of course, the gameplay itself.

The song list is pretty good, featuring a diverse mix of 86 songs that covers many oldie classics as well as modern hits and the end result is something that is definitely the best guitar hero set list yet. It is even better when you consider that they have the online store now, which while it currently sports a limited selection of tunes, will be expanded in the near future, including an upcoming 'the killers' package that I am very excited about (who doesn't want to play mr brightside?).

The problem is, when you look at Rock Band's set list in comparison, they get all the songs from previous Rock Band games as well as the new songs and the staggering list of songs currently on the Rock Band store which comes out to many many more songs that Guitar Hero has, and indeed many of the best Guitar Hero songs are also in Rock Band. In this regard I have decided to have faith in Guitar Hero that when the store takes of we'll have a lot of really top tracks.

In addition to the main gamplay modes that I will come to in a minute, Guitar Hero sports a first in the genre, a music creation studio, as well as GHtunes, in which songs can be traded and rated online. I was skeptical at first, but after hearing that the studio was going to be very similar to Apple's impressive garage band I was hopeful that it would be something special. Sadly I was very disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice feature and a good first effort, one that I'm sure will be improved upon in subsequent installations in the series. But to be frank it's just a little too basic. There are a lot of really in depth things like different amps and the ability to customize the scale you're playing which are much appreciated, but then you only have 5 tracks, lead, rhythm, bass, drums and keyboard, and you can't vary volume at different points in one track (aside from drums). Also you can't change keyboard sounds from one point in the song to the next, which is just silly, and as such it's hard to get any real variation in songs that are created here. There also are not enough effects for guitars, like no acoustic sound effect that I was looking forward to using. Lastly I have had a number of crashes whilst using the studio. I mean i can't remember the last time i had a console game that actually crashed!

On top of which you can't record vocals, nor can you exceed a very strict 3 minute limit on your songs. The quality is also not great, with a lot of songs on the store sounding like tinny megadrive game soundtracks. All in all it comes out as less than satisfying for a lot of effort. Hopefully it will be improved in Guitar Hero 5.

One of the best features in the game is the level of customization possible. You can design your own rock star in excellent detail, especially when it comes to the instrument where you can pick and paint and mold it anyway you want right down to what type of strings you use. You can also create a band logo for your band and album covers for the songs you make in the music creation studio. It's really fantastic and one of the biggest strengths in World tour. There is only one big flaw with this which i'll mention in a moment when I get to gameplay.

Long time fans will be glad to hear that the gameplay is as perfect as ever, and still far more fun to play than Rock Band. The drum set and microphone are well made and work well. However this is where the positives end. At the end of the day, the 'revolutionized' career mode that has done away with the traditional list of songs you play through is nothing more really than a lot of little lists of songs that you play through at your discretion, with none of the bells and whistles, events, fans, merchandise, fame and all kinds of things are part of being a band these days, that Rock Band has.

As such you really can't help but feel like they could have done something a bit more here as it just gets old a bit quickly, especially if you're playing single player.

Which brings me to my next point, that single player is woefully under-appreciated. As I mentioned, customization is one of the best parts of the game, and I was quite looking forward to designing my own rock band. The problem is, when you play single player you just control one guy, and everyone else in the band is randomized with every song you play, which is just plain weird... even solo artists have designated backing bands. And this of course means that while you can craft your rock star with a specific look and instrument, you can play a gig with a bunch of weirdos who look completely at odds with your image and really ruin the look of the game. Another similarly glaring oversight is that you can't play your custom songs in this career mode. It seems the most obvious thing in the world that in a game where you can design your own band, and write your own songs that you should be able to put the two together and have your band play your songs, but you can't for some reason, you can only play the songs in quick play with a randomly generated band. It's pointlessly stupid little bad choices in game design that really hamper your enjoyment with this game.

Aside from these little niggles and issues however it is still classic Guitar Hero, and definitely better than old guitar hero games, though in many ways it has a lot of work to do to catch up with Rock Band, though indeed it also has its own benefits.

Verdict:

And so Oasis, one of Britain's best loved bands (10 years ago) has returned with a new album. The last effort was met with a bit of a lukewarm reaction. When you release 'lyla' as your key single you know you're in serious trouble I guess.

As such Oasis had a lot to prove with this release that they could bounce back to the big time and become one of music's biggest bands yet again, both in terms of critical reception and fan reception.



While the album is definitely an improvement on the last release, I find it difficult to recommend it to anyone as a really good album in itself, or when compared to the other albums released in 2008.

Their last album was a dirge. Largely due to half the songs sounding indistinguishable and generic to the point of absurdity, and of course there just not being any songs that were particularly good.

This album is still far too generic for it's own good. In an album of 11 songs there are 4 worth listening to. However these 4 songs are alright. 'The Turning' 'Waiting for the Rapture' and 'The Shock of Lightning' are half decent songs, and 'Im Outta Time' is a good song, one of the better songs they've done in a while. But aside from these the rest of the album is largely empty space and a bit of a shame.

The undeniable highlight is I'm Outta Time, a soft lennon-esque ballad and a real shining light amongst an album of murky sameiness, this stands out as something very different sounding. However it is not enough to save a fairly mediocre album. This does much to re-affirm the notion that Oasis are very much a band of the past that has struggled to live up to their old heyday of Don't Look Back in Anger. But as long as they keep playing that at concerts I suppose people will still go to see them.

Verdict:

Apparently one Coldplay album this year is not enough for us. Viva La Vida was a very good album too by the way, a vast improvement on the mediocrity that was X&Y. But even so I don't think anyone really expected they would release any more music this year, even a small half-album such as this, but credit to them.

I think it is a better idea to release music in small chunks rather than one big album every three years, it's too long to wait and then when it comes it's harder to appreciate all those new songs at once, I hope it's something that catches on, though I'm sure I'll be eating my words in a minute if this EP turns out to be crap, so without further ado here is my review of Prospekt's March.



Well I won't have to eat my words because it's pretty good. In fact I think a number of these songs are better than some of the weaker numbers on Viva La Vida, and I can't help but feel they should have put some of these on there.

Starting of with Rainy Day, this is a very nice song, vintage Coldplay, but it suffers from being, frankly, too similar to the song Viva La Vida and perhaps isn't the fresh sound we'd hope for from the first song on the album.

The title track Prospekt's March/Poppy fields is something pretty special. A somber and melodic tune full of emotion that yields to the second of Poppy fields, and does so, in my opinion, much more effectively than any of the two part songs in the proper album. This is certainly one of the key songs from this release.

Glass of Water is... decent, it builds up to a pretty satisfying conclusion, though much of it feels a bit throw-away compared to some of the other songs. It is still better than a number of the lesser viva la vida songs.

Life In Technicolor II is a song that had given me very high hopes, being billed as life in technicolor, one of the best songs in the viva la vida album, except fully fleshed out to a full length song with vocals. Sadly only half of that is true. This song basically turns out to be the same bit of music on repeat with vocals laid on top. Mind you that's not a terrible thing, it's a great piece of music, probably the best that Coldplay have written in terms of pure musical excellence.

Lost+ is a re-release of the song Lost, which I never much cared for, except with the rap stylings of Jay-z on top... which actually makes it a bit better, this works much better as a rap song than as a pop song and adds another kind of dimension to the music, good call on this one.

Lovers in Japan was one of the better songs from Viva La Vida, and so this Osaka Sun Mix is very welcome here. It is definitey the definitive mix, and skips out the rather redundant 'reign of love' segment attached to the end of it on the album release.

Postcards from Far Away is a song I can see a lot of fans not liking, but it's something I wish I would see the band do more often. Stop relying on electronics and pop synthesizers and return to the old coldplay style with real guitars and pianos, as they have done here A very pretty piece of music for sure, but not something that's going to be setting the charts alight any time soon.

The finale Now My Feet Won't Touch the Ground is a rather interesting new song from Coldplay, one of the most sparing in terms of instrumental depth which leaves the album ending on somewhat of a flat note, even if it is by no means a bad song it still seems a bit of an anti-climax.

So in closing, this is a welcome addition to my music library, brief though it is, but while these are pretty decent songs, I can't help but feel most of these are good enough to have replaced the filler on the viva la vida album, but perhaps not much better. There's nothing here that you'll remember ten years from now, but if these songs had replaced some of the dross from the big album then that really would have been one hell of an album, but alas.

Stay tuned for my next big album review, The Killers- Day and Age, i've not heard all the songs yet but it sounds like a scorcher.

Verdict:

song of the day: "Spaceman" by "the Killers"
thing that makes me smile today: Waking up to another glorious Barack Obama day.
pic of the day:

HOT:
Coldplay
Guitar Hero
Fallout 3

NOT:
Oasis
Rock Band
Fable 2

Well it happened. To be fair, in the past few months there has not really been a lot of doubt about who would win this election. Indeed amongst many people well versed in politics who had seen Obama's campaign in action there really hasn't been much doubt since Barack Obama won the nomination before the summer. When heavyweight Republicans like Rupert Murdoch and Karl Rover start predicting Obama landslides so early, you know that there's not a whole lot of hope in the Republican camp.

None of that dulled the excitement and energy on election night though. Nothing like this has ever been seen before, as voters turned out in record breaking numbers and even here in England many many people stayed up all night to watch the results come in. Never before has an American election been watched by so many people all over the world, which just goes to reflect how important this election has been.



Never before has spontaneous partying broken out in the streets all over America and even in other countries (and England) over the election of a President. There is no doubt about it, this is the result that the vast vast majority of the world was praying for.

At the time of writing Obama has 349 electoral votes to Mccain's 163, and it looks likely the totals will end up 364 to 173. Obama also has 53% of the popular vote, which might even go up. This is the highest proportion of the popular vote any democrat has ever had running for president.

So why is this such great news for most people around the world?


Many, many reasons. When Clinton left the white house America was respected and admired. We had been going through an unparalleled period of peace and the economy was in some of the best shape it has ever been. Eight years later and extended Republican control over the country has taken its toll, crippling the world's economy, plunging us into constant war in multiple countries at a time, and making our once proud country a complete joke around the world, hated for our arrogance, and laughed at for our ignorance.

This is one of the main reasons support for Barack Obama abroad and from expats was as high as 86%. People know America is the most powerful country in the world and we want a superpower we can admire and respect, and most importantly trust. In the past eight years none of these things have been the case.

History is full of big empires becoming fat and arrogant and then falling; the Romans, the Persians, and even the old British Empire. All signs in recent times pointed to the same happening with America. When you have insane leaders who base policy off the Bible and think we have a God given dominion over every other country in the world, who lie to their own people and defy the international community to wage illegal wars. Who ignore the plight of the environment, luddites who don't believe in healthcare or technology. It's been an unmitigated disaster, but fortunately Americans have proven themselves and triumphed in the face of defeat, declaring that they are intelligent enough to govern themselves and change things for the better. This is why Americans are so proud and happy right now, and why the World at large is looking at America with a newfound admiration once again.

There is also the absolutely massive milestone that has been reached here with the first ever African American President. Racism, prejudice, hatred have all been unpleasant hallmarks throughout American history, and this is clearly a massive indication that we are starting to put all that behind us, and thank God. It's a huge achievement and one that makes me very proud.

Remember that this is our generation who did this. Remember my article last week about the growing power of youth? Well youth made the difference here. Today's youth have grown up in an idealistic world where intolerance, hatred and racism is simply not allowed and now we're beginning to see the effect of this youth's growing influence and it is a good sign for the future of world politics. These are the people who will continue to run the world now and so far it's a vision of equality and hope. One where anyone can achieve anything and where the fear and hatred that dominated the past is resigned to the dark annals of time.

We've regained our pride. We've regained our faith in politics and our ability to affect change. Now we can make the world a better place.

This bright new world begins today, and THAT is why everybody is so excited right now.

So now the big question on many minds is how this happened. How did Obama come to score such a decisive victory? America is still a right-centre country, and the RNC took all the money they could get from special interests, lobbyists and the public financing system, all of which was rejected by Obama. So how did Obama manage to consistently outspend McCain and dominate this election?

The first obvious thing to point out is the terrible state of affairs our country is currently in. The Republican party has dominated the last 10 years and they've all but run our country into the ground and left it in tatters. Bush is seen almost universally as an abject failure and his administration is loathed by most people even in his own party.

There was serious controversy on how Bush first got elected. That he won a second time is one of the nation's great embarrassments. This time however the chances of the gop winning again was always going to be slim. Americans aren't as stupid as people think and they do learn from their mistakes, as they showed everyone today. Similarly Americans are determined to never again be manipulated by the fear and hate tactics that so characterized Bush's administration.

The McCain campaign never made a good argument for change. They never convinced the public that they would not just be more of the same, and this was crucial. At the end of the day the McCain campaign was just comically mismanaged from day one. The old John McCain from 2000 was a maverick, he really was, he was left leaning and a good man and good politician. That was his appeal and that is exactly why he won the GOP nomination this year because they felt only he could challenge the democrats. But then, inexplicably they squandered this appeal and shifted McCain to the far right that scares most voters, trying to rally the base at the expense of the centralist voters as well as at the expense of McCain's honor, dignity and reputation. It was a disaster and the message it sent to voters was 'do not fear, McCain is more of the same' as if completely oblivious that this is not what people wanted. It was as if the GOP tried to copy the Karl Rove playbook thinking it would somehow work again, except they handled it with a shred of the subtlety and intelligence that Rove did, and the most damning sign of this came when Karl Rove himself blasted McCain for taking attacks too far.

While it would be easy to keep hammering the GOP on this point and bring up the Palin pick, McCain's complete avoidance of the issues and the campaign's low-brow use of lies and hate mongering to try and bring in votes, I won't dwell on this point. That is because at the end of the day even if McCain had run a half decent campaign without selling his soul to the GOP, he still would have had a hell of a fight on his hands against what is undoubtedly one of the best run campaigns in American history.

Definitely the majority of the analysis post election will focus on Obama's grassroots campaign. Incredible effort from his volunteers, incredible organization, incredible reach across the country into every state, utilizing technology like the internet and text messaging to amazing and never before seen effect; the campaign was nothing short of genius in the way it managed to reach and inspire so many people, so much so that it raised far far far more money than even the McCain campaign, with all it's corrupt money and special interest donations. SO much credit goes to Obama's campaign staff, especially David Plouffe, Steve Hildebrand and Paul Tewes. Plouffe himself has done so much that he even gets call outs during Obama's speeches nowadays.

The Obama campaign is as ingenious and meticulous as Karl Roves campaigns, except this time it's been run on positive energy, hope and optimism, instead of fear and hate. Obama has shown that you can win an election by being positive rather than manipulative, and this is something that will have massive ramifications for the future of American politics.

So now the biggest thing on people's minds is what can we expect in the near future? Obama made a lot of lofty promises, can he possibly keep all of them? What about the various national crises we're currently facing?

I think that in order to answer this question we have to break into two main areas: the future of America and the world and the future of the Republican party.

As I've said, the country is in a dire state right now, with economic crisis and multiple wars and a serious energy crisis.

The economy looks bright with Obama now. It doesn't take a genius to see how much better the economy was under Clinton. It does however take a statistician to show that there is a quite significant trend in post election years for the economy to boom with a Democrat President.

With regards to war, Obama was one of the few candidates this year who voted against the Iraq war. He also showed unique prescience in predicting the conflict in Georgia before McCain or anyone else at a time when most Americans (and Palin) had no clue where Georgia was. On the other hand, neither Bush nor McCain even knows the difference between a Sunni or Shi'ite muslim, which is disgraceful.

Further more, any 11 year old preparing for an exam knows the benefit of working to a timetable, but apparently McCain did not, even when Iraq and even Bush and everyone else supported Obama's plan.

Time and time again Obama has shown he's best equipped to deal with these wars, and with our new and improved image and standing abroad he will be uniquely capable of handling these crises. America's enemies thrive on pointing out the 'fake' democracy of America, a country run by the 'white satan' who wants to conquer the world. How are they going to convince people that Barack Hussein Obama is a 'white devil'?

And with regards to energy. The GOP has long supported the 'moronic denial' position, refusing to acknowledge that fossil fuels are limited on this planet, likely because half their income comes from oil companies. Even more drilling will give us at most a few decades more oil at best, and we won't even see cheaper gas prices for many years. All the while we will still be largely dependent on the foreign oil that's forcing us to stay in the middle east in the first place.

The obvious solution (to Obama anyway) is that we need to put that money into developing alternative fuels. Not only will this help the environment, lower gas prices and remove our dependence on foreign oil, all without having to drill in our wildlife reserves; but we also HAVE to be the first to come up with this technology if we are to avoid becoming dependent on foreign energy again. That is why time is of the essence.

There is a paradigm shift in energy right now and we need to get their first. If we do then we will be the world's supply of this technology and rather than paying an arm and a leg for foreign energy, they will actually pay us! and create millions of jobs at the same time! This is the keystone in Obama's economy plan as well, it is crucial and one of the biggest reasons for voting for Obama. Let's just be thankful he got elected because we simply can't afford to put this off any longer.

But how quickly will all this come about? Obviously no crisis will just resolve itself over night. I imagine Obama will have to spend most of his first term fixing the country and returning us to the level we were at 8 years ago. The economy could pick back up within a year or two, especially with the typical boost that a democrat president brings to the stock markets. Tighter regulations on spending and reducing corporate greed will see markets pick up and debts reduced, money will flood into the middle class and upwards, rather than the traditional 'trickle down' scheme that failed so badly under Republicans. Expect this by 2010.

Healthcare changes and withdrawal Iraq will be sooner. 16 months for Iraq and likely near immediate change in the healthcare system. Taxes will be generally lower for most Americans which will obviously reduce the amount of cash Obama has, so he will need to pull off some clever restructuring of the financial system to get the funds he needs. That will allow us to focus on the bigger wars. Afghanistan needs to be dealt with, and likely Pakistan, Iran also needs attention if they can not be negotiated with. The hope obviously is that we can negotiate with Iran and Pakistan and then be able to focus all our efforts onto hunting terrorists. This will be a primary focus of the next four years, and hopefully by 2012 we'll have a better idea of how this is going to play out. Iraq will be done by then, hopefully Iran and Pakistan will have backed down by then.

Stem cell research, energy investment and massive education reforms are also in the works, but these things need money, and a lot of it. As such these will be the last things to come along, once the economy starts to pick up. If Obama gets a chance to devote time to these initiatives then it won't be until his last year probably, and definitely more of a project for his second term should he get re-elected. Energy research is the most likely one of these advanced projects to see in the near future, since it plays such a huge part in economy reform as well. If Obama serves two terms, we should have this alternative fuel industry set up in about 10 years, that will likely be Obama's big legacy.

Now as for the Republican party. Quite frankly they're dead right now. Out of the white house, a tiny minority in the house and senate and the most unpopular the party has ever been in its history. The one big legacy of the Bush administration is that no one will ever trust this Republican party again. They have come to symbolize hate and intolerance and fear and lies, dominated by the extreme far right, religious fanatics, rich spoilt elites from the oil companies, and quite frankly, the idiots in America, your joe six-packs think someone like Palin is a good thing for a national leader. Only amongst these nuts could the term 'intellectual' be a bad thing for a presidential candidate.

This is why the party is dying now and one of two things will happen. Either the Republican party will continue to live in denial and refuse to see what's happening and keep things running as they are now, which is actually surprisingly likely with these guys. Or they will see the massive changes that have come and that people simply won't tolerate their brand of politics and are scared by their religious fanaticism.

The fact is that the Republican party badly needs a complete overhaul. It needs to move more into the centre and completely cut out the far right extremists that dominate their image right now. It HAS to do this if it ever wants to win again, that's the fact of the matter.

Whatever rises out of the ashes of the old Republican party may not even go by the same name. It is entirely likely that the focus of the new party will be on fiscal conservatism and less on social issues. Many predict the party will re-emerge with more of a Libertarian flavor, and maybe in fact just be replaced by the current Libertarian party.

Either way it'll be a massive change, and it is highly likely that by the next election, or perhaps the one after that, we will see a political race with two credible political parties running on real substance and logic, with not a bible or fearmonger in sight. And THAT in itself is a massive massive victory for the Democrats, for Americans, and for people all over the world.

song of the day: "City of Blinding Lights" by "U2" - The official Barack Obama 2008 song.
thing that makes me smile today: guess
pic of the day:

Election Winners:
David Plouffe - the Brains behind one of the best campaigns ever run
Bobby Jindal - Indian Republican now being billed as the GOP response to Obama
The World - duh

Election Losers:
George W. Bush - a disaster, lame duck president, destroyed his party
The Bradley Effect - so much for that
Intolerance - your days are numbered

The Internet is a technology which has had a lot of promise over the years. The ability for seamless, easy and anonymous world wide communication between anyone and everyone, anywhere in the world has long held extremely apparent potential for bringing people together.

Every year it becomes even easier. First came chat rooms and instant messenger, then we all went to message boards and skype. Nowadays anyone with an internet connection can find a forum for extremely easy and uncensored discourse on anything in their minds on image boards like 4chan, websites like slashdot and social networking sites like Facebook. Websites like Wikileaks have struck a massive win for freedom of speech by allowing safe and uncensored dissemination of knowledge and documents from anyone.

It is in these websites and services that the true ideology of freedom and truth is alive and kicking. And it is here that the collective efforts of geeks and activists all over the world has spawned its own central identity. Young people are once again becoming more and more active in the world of politics and protest for what they believe in. It's like the 1960s, except with more lulz.



Groups like Anonymous have matured from a loose confederation of bored teenagers and hackers to fully fledged activists with a growing confidence that they CAN make a difference in the real world, that enough people standing together for a common belief, in this case the belief in freedom and truth, can make a difference. But the question is can they really?

To begin with, these protests remained in the same medium in which they originated, the internet. They started off small with protests against racism on website Habbo Hotel and moved onto fully fledged vigilantism, resulting in the tracking and eventual arrest of a very real pedophile.

More recently, online rallying has been moving on to even bigger stages. Thanks to the combined efforts of internet groups, we managed to Rick Roll the New York Mets during a live sporting event. Since then Anonymous has also pulled off the now famous hacking of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's email account, on which she was reportedly hiding her corrupt goings on by conducting sensitive business on personal email accounts where no official watchdog would see it, as opposed to her official government email. Indeed since then a judge has decreed that the findings from her email account must be examined for wrongdoing. Score one massive win for the internet.

Indeed there is every reason to make the claim that should Barack Obama be elected President next month, this will be remembered as 'the President the Internet elected'. It is through websites like Facebook that Obama first reached out to a Nation's youth and mobilized a powerful and idealistic base. This has since become his strongest demographic which he has used to propel himself towards victory, and the major x-factor in his campaign, resulting in record turnout amongst young voters. I repeat: Barack Obama could well be called the first President elected by the internet.

But this isn't enough for the internet. Anonymous wants to bring down an entire 'religion'. Of course i use the term lightly. Calling the Church of Scientology a 'religion' is like calling Al Qaeda a group of 'freedom fighters', naive in the extreme. Sadly we may not be far off from a PC-gone-mad world where we refer to them as just that, after reading about a peaceful protester who was arrested for referring to Scientology as a 'cult'. Pure madness.

Probably the biggest mobilization of manpower has come in this pursuit, where Anonymous has amassed an unprecedented number of young protestors from all over the world to go protest outside Scientology buildings, protesting for the right to freedom of speech, protesting the financial exploitation of church members, and increasing awareness of the egregious violations of human rights committed by the church. In their eyes, the 'Church of Scientology', ironically, goes against everything that 'scientology' actually means (the study of truth).

These mass protests lead to what you see in the picture above ^ hundreds of young people standing up for what they believe in. And all in good spirit too; those attending one of these protests, exclusively peaceful and civilized in nature, will encounter kids singing phrases such as 'the cake is a lie' and playing rick astley on boom boxes pointed squarely at the scientology buildings. These people don't want to fight or cause trouble, but similarly they will not stand by and let things like this go on.

Initally there existed the problem of anonymity. On the internet this is not a problem for obvious reasons, but with people protesting against Scientology there are inevitably repercussions, including claims of protesters being stalked, harassed and threatened. It is for this reason that they don the Guy Fawkes mask, inspired by cult film V For Vendetta in which the mask is used for similar purposes, letting the people stand up for freedom against a totalitarian government. Indeed the movie seems to draw many parallels with these protests, so it is very fitting that such masks are used.

And so; much like the final scene of V for Vendetta, where the failed attempts of the few to bring about change inspire the actions of the masses to take up the cause; we see now the internet growing in strength, bringing together young and idealistic activists, with an influence that grows ever larger as time goes on. Yesterday it's habbo hotel, today it's the church of Scientology and tomorrow the White House... who knows where this brave new political entity will find itself in ten years time?
This is my question to you.

But with this question comes a warning. Throughout history we've seen political movements that start with the most honorable of intentions, such as freedom, liberty, equality, much in the same vein as what we're seeing amongst the online youth today. If we as a group ever do succeed in these aims we would do well to heed the lesson of past revolutionaries, such as the French and Russians, lest it lead to the inevitable corruption of power and success, and we become no better than the people we stand against today.
As it is said, you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Well the show has finally made it's real debut. In fact there have been two episodes already and I have seen them both. Life on Mars is a somewhat risky remake of the absolutely sublime British original by the same name, and there has been a lot of critics bemoaning the decision to remake the series.



Many of you regular readers will remember my pained review of the absolute travesty that was the first pilot released back before the summer. Since then, my already pessimistic views on this remake were plunged to new depths, and it seemed highly unlikely that this show would last more than a few episodes, if it was ever broadcast at all, and certainly could never call itself fit to shine the shoes of its source material.

So believe me when I say that it is with a great sigh of relief that the final version of the show has come on leaps and bounds from the first one that was such an embarrassment. As a major fan of the original series it is very hard to write this without constantly referring back and comparing with the British version, which is not really fair to either show. I will try not to do this too often for the sake of the readers, who quite frankly would probably find it tedious of me.

I'll very briefly recap the general premise of the show for anyone who has never seen it and may wish to do so. Sam Tyler is a cop in present day New York who is in a car accident and wakes up in 1973. Surrounded by the politically incorrect and generally archaic police force of the era, Sam attempts to fight bad guys, 2008 style, whilst trying to figure out what has happened to him and how he can get back home. The Americans' first attempt at this was a disaster, how does this one fare:

To begin with, the Cast has had almost a complete overhaul. At first it seemed a strange decision to change everyone in the cast aside from Jason O'Mara, the actor who plays Sam Tyler in this version and was probably the worst of a very bad bunch of performances in the first pilot. Indeed I still have to say that he doesn't really look right for the part, but he certainly seems to be growing into it a bit, and the director has done a lot to make him look as much like John Simm (from the English version) as possible, most notably changing his hairdo so as to make him look smaller and less of a musclebound moron than he was in the first pilot.

It is also a delight to see the characters of Chris and Ray reintroduced into this iteration, who played a deceptively big part in the backstory and general ambience of the English original, so much so that they weren't deemed important enough for the first pilot. Here they make a comeback and look like they'll do the show proud (although Chris is far too handsome and competent looking to have the same effect as his British predecessor). Ray is bang on for the role, except he's perhaps not quite as repellent as he should be.

Annie is a big big improvement over the actress from the first pilot, who looked like such a modernized, confident feminist that she seemed an even bigger fish out of water than Sam Tyler. This new girl is still a bit too 'swimsuit model' attractive to really make the role credible and certainly doesn't carry the same entirely wholesome and real candor that her british counterpart Liz White had, but it is certainly an improvement.

Now on to the one and only Gene Hunt. This was certainly the hardest role to cast, as no one could ever hope to replace Philip Glenister's immortal performance in the original. However with Harvey Keitel they have done a far better job than frankly anyone could have imagine. The veteran tough guy actor of Mean Streets fame brings his own take to the role and carries it off with the brute force and unilateral confidence that is required of the role, whilst being a pretty good actor at the same time. The only issue is, one can't help but feel that at 69, Keitel may be a little bit too old to really look credible in the role. Watching him in a fistfight is like watching someone punch some poor old man (and then get the shit kicked out of him by said old man). Had Keitel been 10 - 20 years younger he'd have been perfect.

Thankfully the writing is also far better this time around. Really there's not much to say except that it's not as embarrassingly bad as it was before. It is perhaps a little heavy handed at times, but that's America for you. The humor and intelligence of the original certainly is present in small doses here, and very well adapted for the different culture and setting (the image of the world trade centre in particular is used to great effect). However it should be noted that the episodes so far have pretty much been carbon copies of the British original first two episodes. The real test will come when they start to write their own plots, which they will have to considering American seasons last 20 odd episodes compared to the 8 episodes in each of the British seasons of Life on Mars.

Further more the direction is certainly worthy of praise, with the pacing and artistic direction comparable with some of the best American tv shows, and a very well chosen soundtrack, well chosen for stylistic and mood related purposes. Again, I hate to keep mentioning the British show, but in this first episode there are a lot of camera shots that are really taken directly from the original, and some really feel a bit more flat here than they did before, which is a shame.

Overall I am very pleased with the improvement here and look froward to the next episodes with great optimism. It may not replace the original but it does an extremely capable job bringing it's own unique take to the premise, and in the end that is what will determine whether or not this show is a success for years to come.

Verdict:

song of the day: "Love is Noise" by "the Verve"
thing that makes me smile today: The official Church of Scientology's response to peaceful protests, claiming that they are part of a larger alien invasion force, whose warships are currently approaching Earth. Defeated, the 'Anonymous' group have confessed their crimes and even released design specs of their mighty warship, Longcat
pic of the day:

HOT:
Colin Powell
Anonymous
Free Speech

NOT:
Henry Kissinger
Co$
Totalitarianism

Another year has gone by, and that means we have another season of Fifa football games versus the competitor pro evolution soccer. Time was Pro Evolution was regarded as the clear victor, a paragon of footballing glory light years ahead of Fifa, a bloated, overfunded symbol of corporate greed, peddling an underproduced product. In recent years that idea has gone out the window. Few critics in the media still recognize pro evo as the top football game; EA has finally added some substance to all the glitz and glamour of their games whereas pro evo has largely stagnated in recent years. Especially the next gen versions, few people anywhere will claim that the next gen pro evo last year was better than fifa 08.

So now with another round coming up, Pro evo is fighting to regain its title, whereas Fifa looks to consolidate its position at the top and win over the remaining haters. So how is it then?
For the record, I played this game on the xbox 360 version.



To begin with the simple stuff, Fifa 09 excels in the same areas that Fifa always has. The presentation is second to none, with a kick ass soundtrack, top notch graphics and a generally impressive energy and atmosphere that in this department is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.

The package is extensive, with 500 teams, 30 leagues, and thousands of players, almost all of which have official kits and logos and the real names and faces. That is the biggest thing you get in fifa as opposed to pro evo, this exceptional layer of authenticity really does make a big difference when you play.

The real meat and potatoes for single player are the two different types of career mode, manager and be a pro. The former is your traditional fifa manager mode where you take a team and control them through the years in a bare bones manager style of game, signing players, dealing with the media and managing the team affairs. The latter is the brand new extension of the 'be a pro' mode from fifa 08, where you control one player on the pitch and attempt to play as a part of a team. In this mode you can take control of a real player, or design your own, and then play as them starting off in the club reserves and working your way into the first team and international team.

On top of this is an online multiplayer mode that is simply in another league from its competitors, featuring online leagues, club battle modes and online be a pro modes, all on EA Sports's sturdy and serviceable servers. Another new feature is Adidas live season, a service which updates player stats as the season goes on based on their current form in real life.

But while all this is well and good, what will really determine the success or failure of the game is the football itself.

In short, it's a massive improvement. The game is much more fluid than before, allowing some sexy one-touch football to be played. The physics is impressively accurate, giving the game a really authentic look and feel as players really do battle out there on the pitch. It all serves to create what is surely the most accurate videogame portrayal of football ever.

Further more there is a new tactics screen in team management which allows you to take a much more direct control over how your team plays.

However it is far from perfect. There are still far too many 'on-rails' moments where the in-game player moves independent of the human player's inputs. Far too often you will play a pass and be unable to move the receiving player into its path, instead losing the ball to a much more mobile computer controlled team. This was a major problem with fifa 08, one which was fixed in the euro 2008 game and one which i never saw even in the fifa 09 demo, so the fact that it's here in the final version of the game is mind boggling.

Also the commentary is still really annoying. Last season's iteration was notable for having repetitive commentary and of particular weirdness was its excessive fondness for certain bits of discussion about really pointless stuff, for example there were like eight different bits of dialogue describing how the ref decides how much added time there is and then tells the assistant ref, making a point of informing us that it was not the assistant manager who decided this. Well this year you will hear over and over again about how sideways tackles are fair as opposed to tackles from behind. This gets really annoying because the new foul system seems to depend entirely on what angle the tackle is made from as opposed to getting the man and not the ball, seemingly just so they can have an excuse to bring up their new favorite bit of dialogue. Again this is something I swear wasn't in the demo, so i don't know where it's come from.

On top of which the game is alarmingly prone to glitches. It's not enough to ruin the game but far more frequently than in previous games the ball will suddenly exhibit ridiculous physics or absurd computer controlled player movements, or insane ref decisions (twice in my time playing the game i've seen goals awarded for shots that went wide of the goal- i know it happened once recently in real life but come on).

Pro evo, you'll find, is a much less realistic affair, but one which is buckets of fun to play, so this all really comes down to a preference over what type of football game you want, arcadey fun or realism. It's a direct reversal over how the games used to be during the glory days of pro evo when it was known as the realistic one versus fifa's arcadey fare.

Fifa 09 is a very good effort, but there are still too many flaws in the football side of the game, especially since there were so few in euro 2008 and in the fifa 09 demo, i don't understand where they've come from all of a sudden!

Verdict:

John McCain has long since given up the right to call himself an honorable man in the eyes of the American people.

Don't get me wrong, he's a patriot and a hero and he has served us with distinction. However the real test of a man is how he acts when the chips are down and he knows he's done for. In this case John McCain has known for a while that this election was un-winnable for him. His response has been to adopt a 'win at all costs' attitude, and one which has seen him trade in his integrity and morals in a desperate attempt to score cheap points off of Barack Obama.

Simply turn your attention towards John McCain attempting to smear Obama's new education plan designed to protect against sexual predators, disgraceful. How about all this discussion about Obama's relationship with a respected professor who used to be a terrorist when Obama was 8 years old, and who also has also had as many dealings with Republicans?

With the biggest financial crisis in decades don't you think there are more important things to focus your campaign on? John McCain has had a devil of a time trying to explain why these rather tenuous smears are more relevant than the economy, foreign policy and health care. And it has left him in a worse position than he was before, with his honor and his reputation in tatters.

Just when you think it can't get any worse, however, the McCain/Palin campaign has hit all new lows this week. In a final act of desperation the campaign has turned to hate mongering.

In recent days, these campaign stops have become a source of racist intolerance, mind numbing claims of Obama being a terrorist and plain and simple violent threats.

All the while the Republican party has allowed this to go on, knowing that they can't officially condone it, whilst acknowledging the benefit of propagating hatred against your opponent. Worse still, Sarah Palin's inflammatory comments add fuel to the fire, prompting comparisons to George Wallace, a symbol of the hatred, intolerance and division that this campaign has come to rely on in such an appalling fashion.



The good news of McCain fans is, John McCain seems to have had enough. It has long been known that John McCain never really wanted Palin as his vice president and wanted Lieberman instead, until his party forced the VP pick. Now that relationship is more strained than ever before as McCain and Palin are locked in a power struggle in argument over how to run the campaign. It has transpired how furious Palin was over the decision to concede in Michigan, and now Palin, it seems, is largely responsible for the new hateful direction of the campaign as she looks to build her position for her future career, while John McCain has finally decided to take the high ground and demand respect and tolerance from his supporters. This has led to the aforementioned rift between the two.

So what can John McCain do? Well right now his campaign is a shambles, and a lot of that stems from the decision to pick Sarah Palin as his vice president, an ambitious, ignorant, arrogant woman with no discernable talent or positive quality, who has been mostly a source of embarrassment for what was, until then, a marginally respectable campaign.

The only decision John McCain has left to make is whether he wants to lose with dignity or dishonorably. It will completely destroy what remains of his campaign, but if he were to come out and publicly rebuke his running mate then at least he will regain a modicum of respect in the eyes of the American people, and be remembered for all the great things he has accomplished in his career, as opposed to all the terrible and sleazy things he has done in his presidential campaign.