Computer Game Banned

Ok this news is a bit dated but what can you do? So for the first time ever, the Irish Film Censor's Office has banned the release of a computer game, Manhunt 2, for being "bleak, callous, and encouraging visceral killing". It's also been banned the UK. Now first of all, balls to the censorship but that's another story for another day.

What I'd like to point out is the effect that banning this game could possibly have. First of all, I or anyone I'd spoken to on the subject, had never heard of Manhunt nevermind it's imminent sequel. So while banning this game may have stopped casual purchases of the game, I know it would have passed under a lot of people's radars had it not become a national story. But instead it's been featured in 4 separate stories on rte.ie which include numerous links to the developer's website, containing trailers et al. for the game.

Anyone who originally wanted the game will have no problem getting their hands on a copy, be it abroad or online. And now all the publicity received by the decision to ban the game will surely spur the interest of many parties, gaming nerds and yours truly included, and I'd dare say that the business received on the basis of this free advertisement may outweigh the business lost on casual purchases by banning the game. It serves the censors right, fascists.

Who was it that said there's no such thing as bad publicity? Give that man a can of coke.

My first ever second post

Every now and then I get these emails from Amazon, as I'm sure most people do, which recommend things for me to buy based on my previous purchases. Today I received one such email recommending 2 items.

1) Seinfeld Season 8 DVD boxset
Why? "...because you purchased or rated: Seinfeld Seasons 1-3 [1993], Seinfeld Season 4, Seinfeld Season 5, Seinfeld Season 6, Seinfeld Series 7"

Fair enough, the second item...

2) "The God Delusion" (book) by Richard Dawkins, described in one review as "...an acerbic polemic that argues that the Abrahamic religion, from which Christianity, Judaism and Islam are off-springs, are essentially at odds with and diametrically opposed to modern, educated, scientifically aware societies."
Why? "...because you purchased or rated: Philips SBC HP820 Headphones"

Am I missing something??

My first ever post

I'd been humming and hawing over starting one of these things because a) I don't really have anything (interesting) to say and b) I was pretty sure the novelty would wear off and I'd stop being up-to-date. So how come I started I hear you cry? Well, as you will see in my first ever second post, I came across something interesting to share, and couldn't think of a way to share it with everyone besides mass spamming, or by individual accounts, which never works because you always forget who you told and you end up repeating yourself and blah blah blah...so I decided to do this thing. That's reason 'a' covered! 'b' I can almost assure you is waiting in the wings. But alas, don't fret. Just stick my feed in your bookmarks so that when you least expect it, your day will be brightened by a dose of me and your life will be good again.

Finally, I thought "Random Musings" would be a nice tidy name for the blog, only to discover that half of the blogoverse (??) has had the same idea, so I'm going to have to be a bit more clevererer...