Month: September 2005

A pair of Japanese scientists have, for the first time, photographed a live giant squid in the wild, one of the most mysterious creatures of the deep-sea.

The Japanese scientists led by Tsunemi Kubodera, from the National Science Museum in Tokyo, tracked the 25-foot long Architeuthis as it attacked prey nearly 3,000 feet deep off the coast of Japan’s Bonin islands.

‘We believe this is the first time a grown giant squid has been captured on camera in its natural habitat,’ said Kyoichi Mori, a marine researcher who co-authored a piece on the finding in the Royal Society Journal, a leading British biological publication.

Ever heard of the game World of Warcraft? It’s a massive multiplayer online game, basically hundred of thousands people playing against each other in a huge fantasyworld. The developers, Blizzard Entertainment, decided to create a new boss which infected a plague on nearby players, the plague was intended to stay within controlled areas, but managed to escape and infecting almost every player on the server(s).

Often the best parts of a videogame are moments you don’t see coming, and sometimes the developers can’t even anticipate them! Personally, i think this is absolutely great. This is an element of gameplay that even if unintended, which might not be the case, can have far-reaching consequences.

Blizzard has already released a patch which cured the world, unfortunately, it was limited to the game-world only.

So, i turned 25 last Friday (2 September) and that called for some celebration. Problem was that i wasn’t allowed to plan anything because my friends obviously planned something – i had strict orders to be standing well-dressed in the center of Gothenburg at 16.00 sharp, not a second late.

We (Jezper had his birthday on one week earlier, so this was a co-venture) got there at 15.55 and found my girlfriend, my mother and my sister. They handed over some flowers and presents, then we went to a Chinese-restaurant to grab something to eat. After the dinner my gf said, “well then, it’s time” and got 2 pairs of napkins and sound-proof headphones our of her bag.
(more…)