…Hasbro’s Brian Goldner points to the success of toys Transformers and G.I. Joe, claiming that audiences have “shown a great desire for films that bring to life everything that has made these franchise properties stand the test of time. The strategic thinking and the tactical gambles that players must take in the game are what make RISK a classic, thoroughly engaging game. Those elements translated into an action-packed, thrilling story are what will make this a uniquely exciting movie.”

Read the full story here >>.

Wow. It never ceases to amaze how risk-averse (no pun intended) Hollywood is becoming – at least in theory. In Lala-land it seems that anything whatsoever that can be connected to an “existing franchise” is worth a shot. I mean, making a movie about world domination might not attract audiences, but if you slap a “trusted” brand-name on it (i.e. Transformers, GI Joe) then surely they’ll come out in droves. So far it seems to it work well enough.

The most popular movies this year reached back into the 80s toy-chest with big results; so perhaps this is an attempt to go back even further into the collective geek consciousness by dusting off the oh-so compelling narratives of yesteryear’s board games. And if “Risk: the Movie” is successful can a Hungry, Hungry Hippos movie be far off? Operation could be adapted into something quite terrifying if you let the right people do it; and Ants in the Pants has comedy gold written all over it.

But anyone that’s played Risk knows that the real action isn’t on the board anyways –  it’s sitting around the table watching grown men act like rabid maniacs, occasionally breaking down in tears, exchanging blows, and strutting about like boastful cocks. Go ahead and try to remember that “its just a game” the next time you lose Europe those 5 extra armies.

I take that back, I recommend trying them all except for “apple” beers. Fuck off apple beer brewers, I used to work in a cleaning products factory, that god awful green apple flavour/scent is the exact same as we put in cleaning supplies. I hate your fake apple products.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hahaha. I love cats.

Members of Sasquatch Watch of Virginia went camping in the rugged Allegheny Mountain highlands of the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area with GPS navigators, cameras, voice recorders and plaster of Paris to make casts of huge footprints, West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported…

…The group took plaster casts of suspicious prints but didn’t spot the creature during the expedition last weekend.

Full article here >>.

The explosion of relatively inexpensive and powerful consumer gadgets has been called a major boon in the “democratization” of media technology. Things (films, games, music, books, software, experiments, prototypes, investigations, etc.) that once required tens thousands of dollars and crews of trained professionals can now be produced in a basement or backyard with only a few hundred bucks, some spare time, and a half decent computer.

Perhaps no other “industry” has felt this impact more than professional seekers of the paranormal. For only a relatively small amount of cash (or credit) and access to a Best Buy you can too can get yourself enough equipment to call yourself a “pro” mystery hunter and perhaps even get a reality t.v show while you’re at it. Personal Voice Recorder, err I mean EVP monitor? Check. Apparition Image Capture Device AKA a digital camera? Check. GPS? Fuck, you don’t wanna get lost in a haunted house do ya? Check!

However, can we really pass this shit off as “going high tech” anymore? You’d hope that by now the bar for “high tech” would have been set higher than mp3 players and cell phones. Not that I don’t appreciate how useful, productive, and even liberating these technologies potentially are; the fact that I can bitch with a straight face about how banal and ubiquitous they’ve become is actually something quite incredible. I’m just getting a bit tired of hearing “golly gee-whiz that’s so high tech” about anything that’s got more functionality than a potato peeler. A personal organizer/portable gaming system is simply not on the cutting edge anymore.

And to top it all off in true “paranormal investigator” reality t.v. show style, after playing around with all their “high tech” gear for hours, the only thing these wannabe yeti wranglers were able to successfully collect any sort of “evidence” with turns out to be the plaster of Paris cast – which is about as “low-tech” as you can get.

Always easy to make fun of Walmart, but good on them. Funeral related costs have always been an area of high margins where unscrupulous retailers take advantage of vulnerable, uneducated consumers (how many of you know how much a casket should cost?). I hope they move into matresses next.

An obscure blogger unearths some pages of President Obama’s college thesis. The report supposedly comes from big-time journalist Joe Klein of Time magazine. And the thesis has some real gems: like Obama’s disdain for the Constitution.

The whole thing was nothing more than a satirical post on a humor blog. But Rush Limbaugh, who quoted from the supposed thesis on his radio show, sure wasn’t laughing. Here’s how it went down.

An unknown blogger picked up on a made-up post meant as a joke, which claimed that Joe Klein had gotten his hands on 10 pages of student Obama’s college thesis. Rush Limbaugh jumped on it, which immediately sparked Web searches on “obama thesis.”

Supposedly titled “Aristocracy Revisited,” the excerpt revealed the president had “doubts” about the “so-called founders.” Juicy. Except not true. Limbaugh discovered halfway through his show that he’d been had, but defended himself by saying basically the thesis felt true.

Read the rest here >>.

Now, I’m sure that whipping Rush Limbaugh into a hysterical frenzy is probably easier than shooting fish in a barrel; and guys like him are always looking for the next morsel of “scandalous” flame-bait for their audience. This directive often overrides any sense of journalistic integrity they may have, so you can expect this sort of thing to happen every so often.

But while it might feel good to see ol’ Rush played for a fool it points to another disturbing trend. The 24/7 news-opinion media is a voracious machine and it’s really expensive to feed, so having all this “free” information online at less than arm’s length away  is really tempting – sometimes too tempting. As the news media continues to rely more heavily on easy, cheap, and unregulated sources of information we should expect to see more such hoax’s being passed off (initially) as news – followed of course by the “real media’s” indignant whining every time the work of some “charlatan” exposes their news departments as being the lazy, opportunistic, and sometimes just under-funded beasts they are.

Oh, and notice how often in this crazy new world information that can’t be proven, or even flat-out wrong, is increasingly justified on the basis that it simply “rings true” with the reader – as Rush’s response to being “had” makes abundantly clear.