You guys may know of the console war - Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii being the two main competitors currently. But what of Sony? What of that behemoth of video gaming who released the best selling console of the last generation of gaming, the Playstation 2? Well, my friends, I hate to say this (*giggle*) but Sony is on the way out. You probably aren't aware of Sony's numerous cock-ups (you can see a 92-page account of what's gone wrong at http://forums.derwenthoward.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=3881&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0, another forum I frequent), but their PlayStation 3 is floundering in the markets it has been released in - America and Japan. We're not due for it until sometime in 2007, but before then, here's just a taste of what you can expect, taken from an independent gaming news service, http://www.destructoid.com/playstation-3-kiosks-freezing-up-on-purpose--28860.phtml -

Have you ever spent any time in a Best Buy, EB Games, or GameStop playing their PlayStation 3 demo unit and have it freeze up on you? No, you haven't... or so I was told by a Sony rep a few days back. Read on to find out more.

Just before the launch of the PlayStation 3, I walked into a local EB Games and noticed that they had finally (three days prior to launch) received their demo kiosk. Problem was, it was turned off. Right next to the hulking beast of a setup, two teenagers were wailing on "You Really Got Me," the Guitar Hero II demo, and the PlayStation 2 was in full force.

Curious, I asked the annoyed, bored-looking clerk why anyone would dare do something like turn off a PlayStation 3 (The penalty for such an offense? Death, in some states).

"Well," he sighed, "it's locked up on us about five times. And we got it this morning."

He explained to me how when the machine would freeze, he would have to unlock the kiosk and hard reset the machine -- every time. It was easier, he said, to just leave it off and let people drool all over the protective plastic that housed what appeared to be an empty shell of a PlayStation 3 -- if you don't know, the actual unit is housed below the kiosk and is not visible. This, to me, was a fine explanation, and not surprising considering reports I've heard of units freezing at trade shows; and hey, the damned thing is cased in metal with little or no ventilation. I'll let it slide.

Cut to a busy Christmas Eve: The same EB Games is bustling with last minute shoppers; a child knocks over a World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade promotional display; frantic mothers blather on about games they can't remember the names of; and in the middle of it all I spotted a Sony PlayStation retail rep frantically cleaning off the very same kiosk I had mentioned earlier. I wasn't going to let him get away.

"Happy Holidays," I said.

"Oh, hi! I'll be done here in one second and then I'll turn on the unit so you can get a glimpse of the future."

"Oh, I know all about it," I said, trying not to laugh. "I have the future at home. In my closet. Still in the box. Trying to sell it. No takers."

After a short, awkward silence, I decided to go in for the kill.

"So dude over there," I said pointing to the busy clerk, "says he keeps the kiosk off because it keeps freezing up."

"Nope. No it doesn't."

"Well, actually, yeah. It does. I've seen it happen myself."

"No. It doesn't. We did that on purpose," he said.

"You make the entire console lock up on purpose because ... why?"

"We do that so that people won't play it all day long," he explained. "Specifically during Motorstorm, we made it freeze up a lot."

I'm totally confused at this point, completely stunned at what I'm being told because it's the stupidest thing I'd ever heard. I let him rattle on for a while, trying to convince me (and probably himself) that yes, Sony went out of their way to have their consoles lock up so that the masses will not spend hours upon hours basking in all its glory.

He went on about how a PlayStation 3 shouldn't be hard to get now, and how they're shipping them out of Japan daily. I waited for him to spill the beans on the Cell processor powered, mechanized laser-breathing dragon they use to import the consoles to the States, but he revealed nothing.

When the Sony rep was done and finally turned on the future, I decided to stick around and play some Motorstorm (which is pretty damned awesome). Didn't freeze up on me once.

Later, I was told by a Best Buy employee that they were told the same thing -- the locking up and freezing was intentional. So, if you're sitting at home and your console locks up on you or your Bluetooth controllers aren't performing the way they should be, don't worry about it. It might be on purpose.

Check THIS out.
It's a new Anti-Rape condom (that the woman wears) designed in South Africa where rape is rife.
It has lil hooks inside that make the experience rather unpleasant for the would-be rapist - he can't get it off.

From the Sideswipe of todays Herald. Yet AGAIN the ******* cops revenue collecting for the Govt.

A reader writes: "My husband was returning from the tip with an empty trailer - apart from a small string cargo net which had been used to secure the load. En route the cargo net slipped off the back of the trailer and landed on the side of the motorway. Returning to pick it up, my husband was intercepted by a traffic cop who had also stopped to pick up the net. Owning up to the indiscretion, my husband was advised that he would be fined for an insecure load. Three days later we got a fine for $600. The net is only worth $20."

B*stards.
I'd take 'em to court.

freerepublic.net is the greatest website ever.

Hate gays? Read about the homosexual agenda!

Love Bush? Pray for him at the suggested website links!

Pro-life? Denounce women's rights here!

A quote as an example of the type of posters:

I guess they are talking about the corrupted meaning of gay.

It is impossible for a human to marry a human of the same sex, an animal or a tree stump just because the ITS can have an abnormal form of sex with the above listed same sex, animal or tree!

The most it could do is corrupt the meaning of marry or marriage.

It is just another attack on real family values.

Read the comments, they are the best part.

Kirsten laughs off pregnancy rumours

Washington, Dec 8 (ANI): Hollywood star Kirsten Dunst has laughed off rumours that she is pregnant. The Spiderman star left Hollywood watchers speculating about her impending motherhood after she was not only spotted wearing baggy clothing and ordering big boxes of sweet chocolaty treats, but also overheard complaining of lower back pain and nausea during filming of 'Spiderman 3'. Adding fuel to the fire was also Dunst's reported interest in actor Toby Maguire's newborn daughter, as well her curiosity about how Maguire's fianc‚e, Jennifer Meyer, dealt with morning sickness. However, her spokesman was adamant that Dunst was not expecting her first child. "Kirsten is not pregnant," ContactMusic quoted her,as saying. The actress had been linked with actor Andy Sandberg earlier this year, and reportedly dating Orlando Bloom from October after her split up with her long time boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal. Dunst will soon be seen on the big screen when she reprises her role as Mary Jane Watson opposite co-star Toby Maguire in 'Spiderman 3'. (ANI)

Here ya go - more to flame me with
I tell ya, I ain't giving my kids soy stuff. From WorldNetDaily.com

Soy is making kids 'gay'
Posted: December 12, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

There's a slow poison out there that's severely damaging our children and threatening to tear apart our culture. The ironic part is, it's a "health food," one of our most popular.

Now, I'm a health-food guy, a fanatic who seldom allows anything into his kitchen unless it's organic. I state my bias here just so you'll know I'm not anti-health food.

The dangerous food I'm speaking of is soy. Soybean products are feminizing, and they're all over the place. You can hardly escape them anymore.

I have nothing against an occasional soy snack. Soy is nutritious and contains lots of good things. Unfortunately, when you eat or drink a lot of soy stuff, you're also getting substantial quantities of estrogens.

Estrogens are female hormones. If you're a woman, you're flooding your system with a substance it can't handle in surplus. If you're a man, you're suppressing your masculinity and stimulating your "female side," physically and mentally.

In fetal development, the default is being female. All humans (even in old age) tend toward femininity. The main thing that keeps men from diverging into the female pattern is testosterone, and testosterone is suppressed by an excess of estrogen.

If you're a grownup, you're already developed, and you're able to fight off some of the damaging effects of soy. Babies aren't so fortunate. Research is now showing that when you feed your baby soy formula, you're giving him or her the equivalent of five birth control pills a day. A baby's endocrine system just can't cope with that kind of massive assault, so some damage is inevitable. At the extreme, the damage can be fatal.

Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the peniis, sexual confusion and homosexuality. That's why most of the medical (not socio-spiritual) blame for today's rise in homosexuality must fall upon the rise in soy formula and other soy products. (Most babies are bottle-fed during some part of their infancy, and one-fourth of them are getting soy milk!) Homosexuals often argue that their homosexuality is inborn because "I can't remember a time when I wasn't homosexual." No, homosexuality is always deviant. But now many of them can truthfully say that they can't remember a time when excess estrogen wasn't influencing them.

Doctors used to hope soy would reduce hot flashes, prevent cancer and heart disease, and save millions in the Third World from starvation. That was before they knew much about long-term soy use. Now we know it's a classic example of a cure that's worse than the disease. For example, if your baby gets colic from cow's milk, do you switch him to soy milk? Don't even think about it. His phytoestrogen level will jump to 20 times normal. If he is a she, brace yourself for watching her reach menarche as young as seven, robbing her of years of childhood. If he is a boy, it's far worse: He may not reach puberty till much later than normal.

Research in 2000 showed that a soy-based diet at any age can lead to a weak thyroid, which commonly produces heart problems and excess fat. Could this explain the dramatic increase in obesity today?

Recent research on rats shows testicular atrophy, infertility and uterus hypertrophy (enlargement). This helps explain the infertility epidemic and the sudden growth in fertility clinics. But alas, by the time a soy-damaged infant has grown to adulthood and wants to marry, it's too late to get fixed by a fertility clinic.

Worse, there's now scientific evidence that estrogen ingredients in soy products may be boosting the rapidly rising incidence of leukemia in children. In the latest year we have numbers for, new cases in the U.S. jumped 27 percent. In one year!

There's also a serious connection between soy and cancer in adults – especially breast cancer. That's why the governments of Israel, the UK, France and New Zealand are already cracking down hard on soy.

In sad contrast, 60 percent of the refined foods in U.S. supermarkets now contain soy. Worse, soy use may double in the next few years because (last I heard) the out-of-touch medicrats in the FDA hierarchy are considering allowing manufacturers of cereal, energy bars, fake milk, fake yogurt, etc., to claim that "soy prevents cancer." It doesn't.

P.S.: Soy sauce is fine. Unlike soy milk, it's perfectly safe because it's fermented, which changes its molecular structure. Miso, natto and tempeh are also OK, but avoid tofu.

And -

A 1997 Lancet study showed that soy has plant-based chemicals that mimic oestrogen, displaying a wide range of hormonal activities. The daily exposure in infants who consumed soy formulas was 6 to 11 times higher than in adults who consumed soy foods. In fact, the blood concentrations of these hormones in the children were 13,000 to 22,000 times higher than oestrogen levels normally found in the blood!

So apparently Kirsten Dunst is pregnant.

But she doesn't know if the father is Jake Gyllenhall (spelling) or Orlando Bloom.

It'll be a hot baby either way, but geez Kirsten!

Move along people nothing to see here

Pinochet, former Chilean dictator, has died.

He was known from being a right wing dictator, who crusaded against communism.

He is also known for gross human rights abuses and ran torture camps and murdered most of his political rivals.

Simple times, simple times.

From a post by Gooner over at Sir Humprhey's (I hope he doesn't mind my posting a part of it here).
He's talking about how he likes to talk to cab drivers here and learn their stories -

Last night I had a bried conversation with the Iraqi man I had driving me from the viaduct to Ponsonberry. It turned out I didn't need to go to Ponsonberry after being in the cab for 30 seconds so he did a U turn and headed back to the viaduct. A journey of about three minutes. The brief conversation went like this:

Gooner: So, are you from Iran or Iraq?

Driver: Iraq.

Gooner: It must be good to be in a safe country with your family.

Driver: Yes, very nice here. Like it much.

Gooner: Does your family like it here too.

Driver: It is just me.

Gooner: Oh.

Driver: My family are dead.

Gooner: Oh no that's dreadful. I'm so sorry to hear that. What happened.

Driver: Saddam Hussein kill them all. My wife. My brother. My mother. My three children. Saddam murdered them all. His party do it.

Gooner: *Stunned silence*. Welcome to our country. You'll be safe here mate.

Driver: Thank you. No pay me (it was only $3.76).

Gooner: Here, have twenty bucks. That's the least I can do. Merry Christmas.

Driver: Merry Christmas.

Absolutely, positively, saddening.

People like to p!!ss on the US for liberating (oops, I mean 'invading') Iraq, but stories like this let you know what it's really all about.