The ESRB Shocks Us All

Yesterday's post didn't turn out as short as I thought, but hopefully this one will because I have to study for my first test in History II. The most striking piece of news today was ESRB's decision to make Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas the first Adults Only game ever. Take Two has halted the manufacture of the game to take out the hidden content and the ESRB will distribute AO stickers to retailers who wish to continue selling the game. I literally jumped in my chair when I first read the headline. I didn't think that they would cave, but I guess they had to do something. I think they might make a modified version of the game rated M again, but no explicit mention of that so far. Why am I afraid that this is too little too late for the religious watchdog groups? It's like a teenager helplessly trying to wish away a car accident by assuring his parents that the car isn't in too bad a shape. Could this mean that more games will be rated AO now? What will the distinction be between M and AO? The Guy Game was canned because of its lascivious content, but could it pass as ok with an AO rating? I'm sure that we can expect more developments very soon.

To start the techie news there's the high profile grand opening of Google Moon, which is commemorating the anniversary of Apollo 11 (the first moon landing). It's just a satellite map of what data we have so far of the moon, and when you zoom in real close it would appear that the moon is made of cheese (or at least at the time of this post). Apple has finally decided to revamp the iBook after nearly a year, and the buzz is that it'll be widescreen. I keep getting PowerBook and iBook mixed up so hopefully this new release will set me straight. Bank of America is trying to reinforce their website security with SiteKey, a free service that will require you to answer 3 questions in addition to your password and may also have you identify an image (as you do when registering for most message boards nowadays). The 3 questions may be a little too much, but at least they're trying. If you're enamored with RSS then you may want to consider the possibility that its growth will be more important for companies than bloggers. What I'm more worried about is possible security exploits. Lastly, take a look at Humanoid Robot HR-2.

The movie news today really is short and sweet. Fox is moving forward with a biopic on the Notorious B.I.G. and I think that it's definitely an appropriate time to give it a try. With The Island just around the corner, IGN spoke with Michael Bay and Scarlett Johansson and it makes the movie sound more and more palpable. Even better, Yahoo! Movies has most of the "Freeway Escape" scene. That's definitely not the last of the video footage today though. We finally have some footage from the upcoming Transformers movie, and I'm happy to report that it's starting to look pretty good. We still have a long time to wait yet though. IGN got an exclusive trailer for a movie called The Chubscrubber, which sounds like part of the recent trend of really deep teen movies that could go either way really. If you're interested in foreign films there's a trailer in French for Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist and I can't understand what's going on it. Lastly, we also have a neat international trailer for Serenity about a teenage girl in space with a big secret, and everything I've heard about this one so far has been great so it should be worthwhile.



Before I conclude I just have to share my distaste for Congress's motion to extend Daylight Savings Time by 2 months. Who's lobbying this stuff?! Farmers don't really care about it anymore. It's so hot here that it sucks to have to wait until like 8:00 PM if I want to jog outside (which I don't do anymore as a result).

Now for some Wednesday Mind Humping:

01. The humped up version of those famous words spoken on the moon would be, "One small hump for man, one giant hump for mankind." Choose a historically important quote and hump, hump, hump it up!
"Ask not what your country can hump for you, but ask what you can hump for your country!" Very compelling words, indeed.

02. It's story telling time! Have you ever been mooned or have your ever mooned anyone?
Not that I can recall, but the ladies should feel free to moon me!

03. When the moon is bright and full, what sort of creature of the night might you transform into?
Hmm, maybe Optimus Prime? If I'm lucky though, maybe Fabio or even Brad Pitt.

04. Indulge in a bit of lunacy -- complete the following moon quotes:

When the moon is not full ... some people may flip out.
May you have a full moon on a dark night and ... a shiny sun on a gloomy day.
Love is like the moon, it ... is big, mysterious, and freaky.
I'd rather be a dog and bay at the moon than ... be Lacey on Real World: Austin.