mimblr.com

"Ah, that’s the great puzzle."
Ten episodes in, four more to go. With the silly season of television finales straight ahead, everything seems to be falling into place for Lost’s three-part (!!!) end-of-season blowout following the most recent installment, entitled "Something Nice Back Home". Which is nice to see, because I’m not falling into place - a lot is going on with university at the moment, so you’re getting a concise and mostly jumbled recap this week. Let’s make with the quickness, then!
1. Jate is fate (but it’s also doomed from the start)
So, there we have it - Kate chose Jack.
But, seeing as this is Lost, it’s never ever that simple, seeing how Jack didn’t choose Kate. Jack, as always, ended up choosing Jack in his off-island life. What I mean by this is that Jack couldn’t really live a proper, satisfied life, plagued incessantly by both his time on the island and his soul-crushing relationship with his Drinky Doctor Dad (trademarks pending). Watch his face when he’s asking Kate for her hand in marriage - it seems as if he wants her to say yes just so someone will want to keep him about, as if he’s marrying for a sense of his own security. And his only way to get out of this conundrum… well, we saw the results of it in "Through the Looking Glass".
Y’see, Jack Shephard is very much a quintessential 21st Century Man. On the outside, he’s both an example of masculinity and honesty; the problem is he’s never really been honest with anyone other than himself, keeping everything stored on the inside. That’s why he thinks he knows best by watching his own appendix get removed (which was… yechhh). That’s why he has a massive savior complex. In the off-island future, he could have easily told Kate about his fears concerning his father - hell, any of the fears he has - but he ends up alone and back where he started. When he shouts "we have to go back!" to Kate in the season three finale, you can hear it in his voice, see it in his eyes: the man just wants to be wanted.

denofgeek.com

Now this is an odd one. Earlier today there WAS a review of Haze at Swedish gaming site GameReactor, awarding the game a score of a mere 6/10. But now, it seems to have disappeared.
When it WAS there, they weren’t too happy with things. The biggest criticisms went towards the sluggish and boring introduction, repetitive enemies, and weak AI of said opponents. Though they did praise the story, and the glorious looks. Obviously despite it not being in ‘true HD’.
The same site awarded Resistance exactly the same score. Hinting that Haze and the aforementioned Sony FPS are two peas in the proverbial pod. Which isn’t too shabby for Haze as Resistance is quite a decent title.
But, as stated, said review has now disappeared. Now hitting the review link simply gives you the following phrase. “Fel: Det finns ingen text med id 13866!” Which means absolutely bugger all to me. And I can’t be bothered to check, so shall we get the starting the rumour mill of the Haze publishers demanding the review is removed?

pspsps.tv

Nick Greiner’s remarks to a dinner marking the 20th anniversary of his government included the comment that NSW today is a national laughing stock and deserves a wooden spoon for, among other things, economic performance, infrastructure, health and planning. He could have added that it also is in the wooden spoon stakes when it comes to openness and transparency in the conduct of government functions.
Greiner should know about such things: he, as premier introduced freedom of information legislation in NSW, after years of prevarication by the Wran and Unsworth governments. Greiner saw a link between excessive secrecy and corruption. Within months of his election Parliament passed laws to create a legally enforceable right to access government information, and establish the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The rationale was that greater transparency would reduce opportunities for corruption; the commission would educate the public sector about the management of corruption risks, and investigate allegations of corrupt conduct.
The premier wasn’t just taking aim at corruption. His government told us that freedom of information laws would strengthen democracy, improve accountability, and lead to a more active citizenry involved in the affairs of their government. It would help us make more informed judgments at election time. The prospect of greater scrutiny would lead to better decisions by ministers and public servants in the day-to-day operations of government.
Achieving all this required a law that properly balanced the public right to access information, with safeguards to protect sensitive information about some government operations and individuals that needed protection from disclosure. It would also require strong, vigorous and continuing leadership to shift government culture from discretionary secrecy to compulsory disclosure of information.
Two years later it was clear the law itself had significant flaws. The then ombudsman, David Landa, told the government the act was overly complex with too many vaguely worded provisions that were being used to refuse access to documents. He also said not enough was being done to change the culture.

smh.com.au

Does your teen turn on the sarcasm when she’s kicked off the computer? Is your grade-schooler asking for more quality time with the TV?
It could be your kids are overprogrammed and overstimulated in these hectic, wired times, and your family could stand to be unplugged. Tossing the electronics, if only temporarily, provides your kids with something in short supply - your undivided attention.
So nix the phone, shut down the computer and turn off the television for a “family slowdown.” It may be hard to find the time, but it’s worth it, said Susan Linn, author of the new book “The Case for Make Believe, Saving Play in a Commercialized World.”
“Remember that your child is going to be grappling with electronic media and the things it sells for the rest of their lives,” said Linn, a psychiatry instructor at Harvard Medical School. “They’ll be better equipped to cope if they have lots of experience enjoying their own ability to make things happen, using their own curiosity as an impetus for actively exploring the world.”
Pamela Pensock, a working single mother of twin 12-year-old boys in Brooklyn, N.Y., couldn’t agree more. She provided a virtually TV-free, computer-free life for her boys when they were younger and says she can see the benefits now that they’re in sixth grade.

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