Podcast: This American Life

This American Life is an amazing Public Radio show and weekly Podcast that uses a combination of journalism, editorial, memoirs, short fiction and interviews to share the diversity of American life (though it is anything but Americentric). From the madness of Patent Law, to a profile of an Obama lookalike to week with a High School on the edge of gang violence. Ii is highly informative, deeply insightful and often very moving.

Some episodes focus on a single person, situation or event; others present a diverse range of articles around a single theme.

A great place to start is their recent 500th episode which gives a good overview of what the show's about. Otherwise you can check out the archive, subscribe in iTunes for the latest episodes or even watch the T.V. Show which ran for two seasons.

Adobe: 5 Reasons We Killed The Creative Suite

If you haven't heard, Adobe is moving from a Software model to a Cloud. On Co.Design, here's 5 reasons why.

Icon Times

A news website with fantastic dedicated iconography to represent the articles. Great!

Disney Buys Lucasfilm

The court is still out on this one as to whether it will be a good thing or bad thing for the Star Wars universe, but I'm coming down on the side of the positive; even if I'm extremely wary of a new trilogy being hacked together in two years...

The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm and is already planning "Star Wars: Episode VII", the first of a new trilogy, for release in 2015.
Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Lucasfilm and its operating businesses in live action film production, consumer products, animation, visual effects, and audio post production.
This includes all its subsidiary offshoots beyond Lucasfilm Ltd. itself including LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic, and Skywalker Sound. Lucasfilm employees are expected to remain in their current locations.

Red Bull Stratos

Reading about this in the lead up I pretty much wrote this off as a stunt, but godamn if this wasn't pretty incredible. Check out the site for more.

Goodbye THQ Oz

I've spoken before about the implosion of the Australian video game industry and now, my former employer, after a first round of international redundancies earlier this year (resulting in my own departure from THQ) has announced the closure of my previous office.

I made a very difficult decision to leave one of the best jobs I've ever had at Infinite Interactive to join THQ and my time there was equally one of the most rewarding experiences of my career both personally and professionally.

I don't know the exact details at the time of writing this, but from my current account it looks like everyone at THQ Asia Pacific will be losing their jobs. I just want to send my thoughts out to all effected and hope you all can move on to the success you deserve.

Good luck!

The Daily Show... Now in Oz

If like me, your heart was ripped apart when the ABC stopped screening The Daily Show and Colbert Report (because you can't actually view episodes from Australia without finding an often unreliable pirate streaming site) then check out this link, and then get viewing!

All Songs Considered: Ethics & Music

Letter to Emily White at NPR All Songs Considered.

"Recently Emily White, an intern at NPR All Songs Considered and GM of what appears to be her college radio station, wrote a post on the NPR blog in which she acknowledged that while she had 11,000 songs in her music library, she’s only paid for 15 CDs in her life. Our intention is not to embarrass or shame her. We believe young people like Emily White who are fully engaged in the music scene are the artist’s biggest allies. We also believe–for reasons we’ll get into–that she has been been badly misinformed by the Free Culture movement. We only ask the opportunity to present a countervailing viewpoint."

Full Article

R18+ Passed Through Australian Parliament

Jason Clare, the Minister for Home Affairs has just announced that R18+ for games is set to become a reality, after legislation successfully passing through the Federal Parliament, having just gone through the Senate without amendment.

Check out the full link on Kotaku

RIP Maurice Sendak

As you probably know by now, legendary author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, known of course for such children's books as Where The Wild Things Are and his unique, dark but wonderful expressions of childhood has passed from us... Enjoy his hilarious and sharp final 2 part interview on the Colbert Report.

R.I.P. Moebius

“Jean Giraud, an enduring figure in European comics whose fantasy and sci-fi work — which he signed with his alias, Moebius — deeply influenced alien-world imagery throughout pop culture, has died. He was 73.” More

Russia To Update The AK-47

"Moscow announced plans on Tuesday to modernize the Kalashnikov, giving a new lease of life to the Soviet-era assault rifle that is the mainstay of the Russian army and weapon of choice for paramilitaries and gangsters around the world."

More...

How Many Stephen Colberts Are There?

How Many Stephen Colberts Are There? By CHARLES McGRATH

I say not enough...

"There used to be just two Stephen Colberts, and they were hard enough to distinguish. The main difference was that one thought the other was an idiot. The idiot Colbert was the one who made a nice paycheck by appearing four times a week on “The Colbert Report” (pronounced in the French fashion, with both t’s silent), the extremely popular fake news show on Comedy Central. The other Colbert, the non-idiot, was the 47-year-old South Carolinian, a practicing Catholic, who lives with his wife and three children in suburban Montclair, N.J., where, according to one of his neighbors, he is “extremely normal.” One of the pleasures of attending a live taping of “The Colbert Report” is watching this Colbert transform himself into a Republican superhero."















And his testimony before the House immigration subcommittee.

The State of the Australian Games Industry

Here's a great article on Kotaku AU concerning the state of the Australian games development industry.

Tribute Wall

After the appalling U.K. riots, some local ‘victims’ decided to make their thoughts known in this poignant tribute on the wall of a looted store.

Bye Bye Blue Tongue

As some of you know, THQ has closed two of its development studios in Australia. This is just more devastating news for an already imploding local games industry and my thoughts go out to the some 200 employees who have lost their jobs. 

To me, as a veteran of Australian video games development, Blue Tongue had always been one of the bastions of the the local industry and its demise is a great shame.

But I would like to share this simple, classy farewell image that appears when you link to the website from what was one of Australia’s biggest studios.