Quote:Eiji Aonuma, Nintendo's main man for the Zelda series has confirmed to the South American official Nintendo magazine that a next-gen title in the series is on the way. "[Nintendo president] Satoru Iwata has assigned to me the task of doing a Zelda game for the upcoming platform," he stated.
While it was pretty much certain that one of Nintendo's most popular franchises would be appearing at some point upon their next console, its reassuring news to know that work has already started, despite the game's launch still being a while off.
In the meantime, Nintendo fans can look forward to The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, which debuts across the world this November.
<!-- END HEADLINE --> <!-- BEGIN STORY BODY --> By VALERIE BAUMAN, Associated Press Writer 23 minutes ago
Inspired by the documentary "Super Size Me," Merab Morgan decided to give a fast-food-only diet a try. The construction worker and mother of two ate only at McDonald's for 90 days — and dropped 37 pounds in the process.
It was a vastly different outcome than what happened in the documentary to filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who put on 30 pounds and saw his health deteriorate after 5,000 calories a day of nothing but McDonald's food.
Morgan, from Raleigh, thought the documentary had unfairly targeted the world's largest restaurant company, implying that the obese were victims of a careless corporate giant. People are responsible for what they eat, she said, not restaurants. The problem with a McDonald's-only diet isn't what's on the menu, but the choices made from it, she said.
"I thought it's two birds with one stone — to lose weight and to prove a point for the little fat people," Morgan said. "Just because they accidentally put an apple pie in my bag instead of my apple dippers doesn't mean I'm going to say, 'Oh, I can eat the apple pie.'"
Spurlock, who turned his surprise-hit movie into a TV show on the FX network, isn't talking about Morgan or the many other McDieters who have criticized his film and found success losing weight by eating healthy foods off the McDonald's menu, said his agent, David Magdael.
One person went so far as to make her own independent film about dieting at McDonald's. "Me and Mickey D" follows Soso Whaley, of Kensington, N.H., as she spends three 30-day periods on the diet. She dropped from 175 to 139 pounds, eating 2,000 calories-a-day at McDonald's.
"I had to think about what I was eating," Whaley said. "I couldn't just walk in there and say 'I'll take a cinnamon bun and a Diet Coke.' ... I know a lot of people are really turned off by the whole thought of monitoring what they are eating, but that's part of the problem."
As might be expected, McDonald's also objected to the impressions left by Spurlock's film. Walt Riker, the company's vice president of corporate communications, said Oak Brook, Ill.-based company is pleased — but not surprised — that some customers have lost weight eating only at the fast-food giant.
Spurlock's film "really spurred a backlash based on common sense," Riker said.
Morgan used nutritional information downloaded from McDonald's Web site to create meal plans of no more than 1,400 calories a day. She only ate french fries twice, usually choosing burgers and salads. Those choices are a stark contrast with those made by Spurlock, who ate every menu item at least once.
At the end of the 90 days, she had dropped from 227 to 190 pounds.
"It feels great," she said. "Because, the truth of the matter is that beauty is power, and if you're fat, or your overweight, then people don't really take you seriously."
Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, agreed that a low-calorie, McDonald's-only diet can help people lose weight but said it may not offer enough long-term variety. Whatever an individual does to lose weight, they need to do for the rest of their life, she said.
Morgan said she hasn't decided if she will stick with the McDonald's-only plan to reach her goal of 150 pounds. But she does have one complaint about McDonald's.
"If I could suggest anything to McDonald's, I would suggest the McMargarita," Morgan said. "Dine-in only, of course."
It's about time someone finally injected some common sense into the equation.
If you participate in the test, you'll get a neat little bonus from Nintendo.
Nintendo has been pretty quiet about how their upcoming Nintendo Wi-fi Connection service will work. Aside from reports about a special PC USB adaptor to make the transition to wireless, not much else is known about it. While Nintendo hasn't announced anything new about the service, they are asking for the public's help to make sure it hits the airwaves in tip-top shape.
The Nintendo of America website has a new page up that asks registered My Nintendo members to participate in a Internet connection survey and test. The test requires that participants download and run a small program, answer a few questions about the type of Internet access and router setup the user has, and then wait for about 10 minutes as the application runs some tests in the background. Once completed, the program displays the data collected and asks you to submit the info, which appears to go directly to Nintendo in Japan.
The program isn't just for analyzing a computer's setup, though. As a special present for participating in the test, you'll score a sweet Animal Crossing desktop clock. It looks just like the clock and calendar combo always displayed on the screen while playing Animal Crossing!
If you want to help Nintendo make sure their wireless DS network is ready to go, make sure you're registered at Nintendo.com, then hit this page and score your nifty Animal Crossing clock.
Quote:Court Justice Worried About Criticism By GINA HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 9, 6:52 PM ET
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said Tuesday that rulings on difficult subjects like gay rights and the death penalty have left courts vulnerable to political attacks that are threatening judicial independence.
Breyer urged lawyers to help educate people about court responsibility to be an independent decision-maker.
"If you say seven or eight or nine members of the Supreme Court feel there's a problem ... you're right," he told the American Bar Association. "It's this edge on a lot of issues."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., who was speaking with Breyer, said: "The politics of judges is getting to be red hot." He said Supreme Court rulings on the Pledge of Allegiance and Ten Commandments have captured the public's interest and polarized Democrats and Republicans.
"There's nothing that's not on the table," former Solicitor General Theodore Olson said of the court's work, which this fall includes issues like abortion, capital punishment and assisted suicide.
Breyer said the nine-member court is focused on constitutional limits on major fights of the day. "We're sort of at the outer bounds. And we can't control politics of it, and I don't think you want us to try to control politics of it," he said.
Congressional leaders including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, have criticized justices in recent months. DeLay was particularly critical of the court's refusal to stop Terri Schiavo's death and at a death penalty decision that cited international cases.
Breyer defended using overseas legal opinions as a guide only, adding, "It has hit a political nerve."
Breyer, Olson and Graham were discussing the future of courts on the final day of the ABA's annual meeting in Chicago.
Also Tuesday, the group was debating whether to endorse federal protection for journalists who refuse to reveal their sources to prosecutors. Passage of such a measure would authorize the organization to lobby Congress, where "shield law" proposals are pending.
Judicial independence has been a major theme at the meeting of the ABA, a 400,000-member group.
The group's policymaking board passed a resolution urging elected officials and others to support and defend judges. New group President Michael Greco of Boston said judges have faced physical threats, and threats of impeachment from Washington political leaders unhappy with court decisions.
"If we do not protect our courts, our courts cannot protect us," Greco said.
On another subject, Greco defended the ABA's role in checking the background of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts and other federal judicial nominees. The committee has spent the past two weeks reviewing Roberts' work on an appeals court and interviewing people who have worked with him.
"The ABA does not, and we will not, protect the interests of any political party or faction, nor the interests of any ideological or interest group," said Greco, who previously oversaw the judge review committee.
Breyer told the group that the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor is a personal loss and loss for the nation.
Most of this is really peripheral but one part stands out, that being the second paragraph.
Quote:Breyer urged lawyers to help educate people about court responsibility to be an independent decision-maker.
This really is the element of what's wrong with the Supreme Court. The Court is NOT an independent decision-maker. It was not intended to be. When the Founders wrote the constitution, they set up the political triumvirate and the system of checks and balances to prevent exactly this. If you have one branch that can act independent of the other two, you open the door for total control and abuse of power, and that's what we're beginning to see from the Court at times.
I think it's laughable that any member of the Court would complain about interference, when a position on the court is by great leaps and bounds the most secure political position in the entire Federal Government. Justices are appointed for life. They never once have to worry about the opinions of the people whose decisions they directly affect.
This is why I think it's time to think about bringing some aspects of the Court into modern times, to retool it. It's time for direct elections of Justices. It's time to remind said Justices that they are part of the system, not above it.
ESRB Adversary and Lawyer Targets Killer 7
Jack Thompson says Capcom's psycho-thriller deserves an Adults Only rating and that if the ESRB won't do it, it should be dismantled.
by Matt Casamassina
August 5, 2005 - Outspoken Florida attorney Jack Thompson, whose legal crusades against violent and sexually explicit videogames and the organization that regulates them has garnered more and more media attention, is back in the public eye. This time Thompson is petitioning the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to change its M (Mature) rating to an AO (Adults Only) rating for Capcom's Killer 7, a stylized psycho-thriller for Nintendo GameCube and Sony PlayStation 2.
The ESRB evaluates and assigns videogames ratings based on their content. A game suitable for all ages will likely receive an E for Everyone while titles with stronger themes and violence will probably fall under the M umbrella, which caters to the 17 years-old and up crowd. The AO rating was created to recognize games developed specifically for gamers 18 years-old and up. Games not rated by the ESRB go ignored by major retail chains across the United States, which is why most publishers work with the organization.
Thompson recently sent an e-mail to Patricia Vance, president of the ESRB, explaining his position. He also forwarded the e-mail to media and various government officials, including Senator Hilary Clinton and Senator Joseph Lieberman, both of whom have been outspoken critics of sex and violence in videogames.
Killer 7, released by Capcom on July 7, challenges players to become seven deadly assassins. The game, which was developed in Japan, features stylized cel-shaded graphics and a story drowned in adult themes, spoken profanity, violence, and sexual situations. The game was rated M by the ESRB for "blood and gore, intense violence, sexual themes and strong language."
In the e-mail, Thompson cites IGN.com's review of Killer 7 and its description of "full-blown sex sequences" as a primary reason why the game should receive an AO rating. Major retailers including Wal-Mart do not sell AO-rated games, which would mean that such a rating might have an adverse impact on sales of Killer 7.
"There is no question in my mind that a videogame containing 'full-blown sex sequences' cannot be rated anything other than 'AO' rather than 'M,'" Thompson writes in the e-mail. "The [IGN.com review] says that this game's 'M' actually means something, and [it] says it twice for emphasis."
Thompson has for years campaigned against the ESRB's rating system, which he believes is ineffective. In fact, he has publicly called for the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which governs over the ESRB, to upend its president Doug Lowenstein, describing the executive as a "thug" who "...never met a pixelated prostitute he didn't like." These comments came in response to the ESRB's initial M-rating for the notoriously violent and profane action series, Grand Theft Auto. Thompson's side has gained high-up supporters ever since the ESRB failed to catch the "Hot Coffee" hack in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which unlocks inappropriate sexual content.
Elaborating in his e-mail to Ms. Vance, Thompson writes: "There are those who would say that people such as I are 'prudes' who have no problem with violence but get uptight about sexual content in games. That is a disingenuous charge, and you know why. I have been on national television programs, as early as the week before Columbine, complaining about 13-year-olds being enabled by the ESRB to violent 'M' games. But it is your sister organization, the Entertainment Software Association, that is in court right this second in Illinois trying to prevent the extension of the 'sex' argument to the 'violence' argument. It is your industry, then, that thinks violence is okay for kids but that sex, given state laws already on the books, is not okay.
"Well, the Killer 7 game underscores the fact that your organization and the industry it fronts for appear to try to get away with anything that is harmful to kids, whether already illegal or not. What it also means is that if jurors in a criminal prosecution were asked whether Killer 7 contains 'sexual material harmful to minors' in violation of statutory standards, then, based upon the above enthusiastic review at IGN.com, the answer to that question would probably be 'yes.'
"That answer would put the Entertainment Software Rating Board, in my opinion, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy to distribute sexual material harmful to minors in violation of criminal statutes. This is not a situation in which the ESRB has been blind-sided by hidden or embedded content, Ms. Vance. You all have known that the 'full-blown sex sequences' are patently present in the game, yet you chose to put an 'M' rather than an 'AO' rating on it. Big mistake.
"If I were you, Ms. Vance, I would immediately ask the makers of this game, and all retailers, to pull it from store shelves. If you don't, expect for others to use this latest scandal, which I am hereby officially kicking off, to call for a dismantling of the ESRB. The fox has guarded the chickens long enough. Killer 7 seems to prove it."
Thompson's campaign seems based solely on the description of Killer 7 in the IGN.com review -- a description that is open to interpretation. In fact, Killer 7's so-called "full-blown sex sequences" could appear tame when compared to those in some of today's movies. The sexual scenes in question showcase a fully clothed wheelchair-bound man pleasuring a straddling woman, who is also fully clothed. Although she moans, indicating a sexual orgasm, neither nudity nor intercourse is illustrated in the cut-scene. The same scene in a movie today might warrant only a PG-13 or, worst, R-rating.
Which raises another issue: are videogames and movies being judged by the same standards or is explicit content in software being scrutinized simply for being so drastically different from the days when Pac-Man reigned supreme?
The ESRB argues that its rating system has established laws and guidelines to regulate the sale of suitable software to consumers, and Senator Joseph Lieberman agrees. He has called the ESRB the most comprehensive of any entertainment ratings system.
IGN contacted Capcom Entertainment for further comment, but the company had none.
E-mails to the ESRB were not answered before publish time.
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There's no actual sex in the game but that's besides the point. As far as 17+ I think that's fine but I see alot of people buying M games in alot of age ranges. If it said "AO" it would make sure that only adults would get the game since most stores want your ID when purchasing anything that says adults only.
But here's the thing, GTA has been pulled from shelves, you cant find it at Blockbuster because they dont carry it anymore and it probably wont be re-released until it gets the AO rating. I fear the same fate for Killer 7 so, who here has the game? I dont have it yet but it's been on my list. I've been debating between Killer 7 or Geistbut I definitely want to nab 'Ver. 1' before it's butchered.
I think we're about to see the ESRB go kaplooey or reform their structure. Film ratings would work great for video games but unfortunately there are strict copyrights that someone would have to pay for in order to use the ratings.
At any rate, Killer7 just got the distinguished collectible-ism so lets make sure we have the 'real' versions!
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