Sunday, November 16, 2008
Sacred geometry
Anthony North: Sacred geometry is an ancient system of design and building based upon the harmonic relationship between man, nature and the universe. Virtually ignored by modern architects and designers, it was central to most ancient societies. The practice concerns a worldview of pattern recognition, producing religious patterns and structures involving space, time and form. By working with such forms, insight can come regarding the nature of all. It often involves mathematics.: Pythagoras realized the importance of this, and also showed how such harmonies work also with music. Hence, sacred geometry is a holistic practice. Even in ancient cave art, it is now known that pictures were drawn at ideal places for sound amplification. These principles seem to have been instinctual in ancient times, but science is also discovering such harmonies. Indeed, it has led some to wonder at the incredible coincidences of exact balance that led to the universe in the first place. Sacred design is therefore a reflection of the universe.: In this sense, perfection is vital to the process. Originally found in man's expression of his relationship with Mother Earth, we find the earth mound. Later, math led to greater perfection in the pyramid, or other construction that aligned with the solstice dawn. However, an understanding of this harmonic relationship can often cause too much complication in just what sacred geometry is about. I say this because ancient man seemed to realize such relationships, and design accordingly, through instinct. The urge to perfection was just as great.
: But such perfection was more about symbolism than mathematical design. It seemed to be more a physical representation of the spiritual, as is seen even today in the 'form' of a church. Shaped as a cross, when you walk into a church, you actually walk into the body of Christ. Bearing this in mind, could it be that there is a far more important psycho-sociological understanding to be had from sacred geometry? I think there is -and an understanding that can tell us a great deal about ourselves, even today.
Full Article
: But such perfection was more about symbolism than mathematical design. It seemed to be more a physical representation of the spiritual, as is seen even today in the 'form' of a church. Shaped as a cross, when you walk into a church, you actually walk into the body of Christ. Bearing this in mind, could it be that there is a far more important psycho-sociological understanding to be had from sacred geometry? I think there is -and an understanding that can tell us a great deal about ourselves, even today.
Full Article
Israel to display the Dead Sea Scrolls on-line,
In a crowded laboratory painted in gray and cooled like a cave, half a dozen specialists embarked this week on a historic undertaking: digitally photographing every one of the thousands of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls with the aim of making the entire file — among the most sought-after and examined documents on earth — available to all on the Internet. Equipped with high-powered cameras with resolution and clarity many times greater than those of conventional models, and with lights that emit neither heat nor ultraviolet rays, the scientists and technicians are uncovering previously illegible sections and letters of the scrolls, discoveries that could have significant scholarly impact.The 2,000-year-old scrolls, found in the late 1940s in caves near the Dead Sea east of Jerusalem, contain the earliest known copies of every book of the Hebrew Bible (missing only the Book of Esther), as well as apocryphal texts and descriptions of rituals of a Jewish sect at the time of Jesus. The texts, most of them on parchment but some on papyrus, date from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D.Only a handful of the scrolls exist in large pieces, with several on permanent exhibit at the Israel Museum here in its dimly lighted Shrine of the Book.
Most of what was found is separated into 15,000 fragments that make up about 900 documents, fueling a longstanding debate on how to order the fragments as well as the origin and meaning of what is written on them. The scrolls' contemporary history has been something of a tortured one because they are among the most important sources of information on Jewish and early Christian life.
Full Article
Most of what was found is separated into 15,000 fragments that make up about 900 documents, fueling a longstanding debate on how to order the fragments as well as the origin and meaning of what is written on them. The scrolls' contemporary history has been something of a tortured one because they are among the most important sources of information on Jewish and early Christian life.
Full Article
FLYING CARS!
http://www.moller.com/
Passengers:
4
Top speed @ 13,200 ft:
375 mph
Cruise speed @ 20,000 ft:
275 mph
Maximum rate of climb:
6,000 fpm
Maximum range:
750 miles
Payload excluding fuel:
750 lbs
Operational ceiling:
36,000 ft
Gross weight:
2,400 lbs
Engine power (2 min. rating):
1,200 hp
Fuel consumption:
approx. 20 mpg
Fuel:
Ethanol
Dimensions (LxWxH):
19.5' x 8.5' x 7.5'
Takeoff and landing area:
35 ft dia
Noise level at 500 ft (Goal):
65 dba
Vertical takeoff and landing:
yes
Emergency parachutes:
yes
Passengers:
4
Top speed @ 13,200 ft:
375 mph
Cruise speed @ 20,000 ft:
275 mph
Maximum rate of climb:
6,000 fpm
Maximum range:
750 miles
Payload excluding fuel:
750 lbs
Operational ceiling:
36,000 ft
Gross weight:
2,400 lbs
Engine power (2 min. rating):
1,200 hp
Fuel consumption:
approx. 20 mpg
Fuel:
Ethanol
Dimensions (LxWxH):
19.5' x 8.5' x 7.5'
Takeoff and landing area:
35 ft dia
Noise level at 500 ft (Goal):
65 dba
Vertical takeoff and landing:
yes
Emergency parachutes:
yes
The Most Alien-Looking Place on Earth
Socotra Island: you have to see it to believe it
We covered some otherwordly places before (see, for example, Bolivian Salt Lake, or The Richat Structure), but this island simply blows away any notion about what is considered "normal" for a landscape on Earth.
look here:
The Most Alien-Looking Place on Earth
We covered some otherwordly places before (see, for example, Bolivian Salt Lake, or The Richat Structure), but this island simply blows away any notion about what is considered "normal" for a landscape on Earth.
look here:
The Most Alien-Looking Place on Earth
God Hates Religion
A survey of the Scriptures reveals that there is one category that God hates above all others. God hates religion! Many will be confused, if not offended by such a statement, for they have identified God with religion. Religion, therefore, needs to be defined and differentiated from the Christian gospel.
The English word "religion" is etymologically derived from the Latin word religo, meaning to "bind up." Religion binds people up in rules and regulations or in ritualistic patterns of devotion.
Christianity, on the other hand, was never meant to be a religion. Christianity is the dynamic spiritual life of the risen Lord Jesus indwelling the spirit of man so as to create functional behavior to the glory of God. Granted, men have attempted to force Christianity into the molds and forms of religion. That is evident by all the steeples and sanctuaries and ecclesiastical programs that dot the landscape of our society.
It is the propensity of man to formulate religion to take that which is of the invisible God and attempt to make it visible, tangible and controllable. Man-made religion! The apostle Paul refers to it as "self-made religion" (Colossians 2:23), and goes on to indicate that it is of no value against fleshly indulgence. In essence, Paul is saying that "religion is of no value against man's sinfulness." In fact, religion is a co-dependent enabler of the sins of mankind. It is itself an addiction.
Religion is essentially idolatry. Men worship their man-made formations and structures their ideological idols formed in the concrete of inflexible minds. When the apostle Paul came to Athens (Acts 17:22), he observed their idols and exclaimed, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects." The Greek word that Paul used for "religious" literally means "to have great respect for demons."
To document that God hates religion, note the following passages of Scripture:
"...every abominable act which the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods." (Deuteronomy 12:31)
"I have had enough of burnt offerings...Bring your worthless offerings no longer...I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts; they have become a burden to Me... So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you... I will not listen..." (Isaiah 1:10-15)
"I hate, I reject your festivals; nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies...take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps." (Amos 5:21-24)
These passages bear out the fact that God hates religion, and all of its procedures and programs; rituals and regulations.
Religion is inevitably the result of man taking that which is of God and forming it, formulating it, in such a way that men end up "playing God." Men can form idols out of wood or stone in an attempt to represent God, or they can formulate ideological idols (belief-systems, doctrinal definitions, theological theses). The men who thus form and formulate become the "chief priests" of the new religion because they are regarded as knowing the most about what God is like, and well they should for they formed "it."
There are three features which seem to be basic to all forms of man-made religion. Religion involves absolutism, authoritarianism and activism. Now there is nothing wrong with absolutes, authority or activity. God is absolute, authoritative and active. But when any man or group of men attempts to establish themselves as the arbiters or regulators of God's absoluteness, authority or activity, they then begin to "play god," and religion is the result as they impose their perspective of absolute, authority and activity on others.
Absolutism
God is absolute. All other absolutes are derived from His absolute character. But when any man, or grouping of men, think that they have determined the absolutes of God absolutely and set about to impose them absolutely on others, then you have the absolutism of religion.
It is the natural propensity of man to want to get everything figured out. We have a "lust for certainty." We want everything to be "cut and dried," black and white, right and wrong, with no loose ends. We do not like paradox, antinomy or dialectic.
Most men cannot accept that the Infinite God is bigger than their finite ability to understand. So we set about to reduce God to fit within our rationalistic and intellectual reasonings. We reduce God to fit within our mental "box," then we nail it shut, construct our creed, and absolutely affirm that we have God figured out. We have reduced God to no bigger than our cranial cavity.
Religion advocates the absolutism of a particular belief-system. We formulate our doctrine, our theology, and demand that others affirm it absolutely as we do no variation; no freedom of thought or opinion; no doubt (for doubt would indicate that one does not believe it absolutely.)
Such absolutism is the basis of "fundamentalism." Fundamentalism is a religious idolatry that tends to worship a particular formulation of fixed fundamentals of faith. These fundamentals usually include both the detailed doctrines of a belief-system, as well as the meticulously prescribed behavior patterns of an ethical-system.
Religion employs the absolutism of a particular and prescribed moral law, a closed-system of ethics. These behavioral laws (judicial, theological or sociological) are comprised of dos and don'ts, "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots," rules and regulations, and codes of conduct. They are legalistically applied with rigid inflexibility and with perfectionistic expectations of absolute obedience.
Such absolutism in belief and behavior leads to the absolutism of exclusivism: "We are absolutely the only ones who have found truth; Ours is absolutely the only way." Thus religion begins to employ the rejective "tests of fellowship" which demand acceptance of their belief-system and conformity to their behavior patterns or else they will disallow you to be a part of their socialistic group identity. They disallow individualism and freedom of thought. Identity is found in the whole. Any deviations are met with condemnatory judgmentalism and guilt manipulation unto conformity. Severe forms of corrective social "discipline" are employed to keep people "in line," subscribing to the absolutism. Threats of excommunication from the authorities in charge are used to create absolute conformity and absolute obedience.
Authoritarianism
God, because He is absolute, is authoritative. But when any man, or group of men, claim to be the designated instruments of God's authority and attempt to express such authoritatively, especially in an autocratic or totalitarian way, you then have the authoritarianism of religion.
The bulk of mankind are followers, who will follow a leader like sheep. There always have been and always will be some men, therefore, who set themselves up as leaders and authorities claiming to represent God and to speak authoritatively for God. They often claim to have a special "in" with God, a "hot-line" with God, or they claim to have a special vision, a special "calling," a special understanding, or a superior spirituality. Some people inevitably follow such people and regard them as religious authorities – gurus.
The well-known proverb states, "Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely." The selfish propensities within men cause them to abuse power and use people to their own ends as they lead. Such results in authoritarianism. It may be but a subtle emphasis on "pastoral authority" or the spiritual authority of an elder or a "shepherd," or it may be a special esteem granted for those in exalted positions of so-called "clergy" or priests, ministers, preachers, presbyters, etc. These are then developed into an hierarchical order of ecclesiastical positioning and politicizing.
These self-designated religious authorities often foster a dependency attitude of the people upon themselves. Directly or indirectly they encourage loyalty and commitment to the organization they lead, or to themselves. As incentive for such they often convey the idea that they hold the eternal fate or spiritual destiny of others in their hands, in their power.
The sense of personal equality before God is lost. People are expected to learn their "place" and told not to "get out of order." "Do not ask questions; do as you are told." "We will do the thinking and the feeling for you." "We will do the Bible study and the praying – the relating to God." "We speak for God, and we will tell you what is true." What is this but mind-control propaganda, advocating blind, unquestioning submission and obedience. It is an undemocratic system of non-equality wherein the religious authorities have no accountability to the people they serve.
Such religious authoritarianism creates a "fantasy-bond" of the people toward their so-called "priests." There is a projected idealization of the authorities as being especially close to God -- almost "gods" themselves. The religious authorities then exploit the people, utilizing superstition and fear to control people's thinking and behavior by shame, guilt and threatened loss of identity or eternal destiny.
Religious authorities must create a sense of direction and momentum for the people; a sense of doing something and going somewhere. There must be a program of activity that will keep people "involved," feeling that they are meaningfully expending their lives and energy for God's "cause." This is also fueled by the self-serving purpose of financing and perpetuating the religious system.
Activism
God is an active God, and He wants to act in us by the expression of His character and ministry. But when any man, or group of men, claim that they are the directors of God's activity and that they have discerned what God wants to do in you, how God wants you to act, beware of religious activism.
Religion is perpetuated by the activism of the people. People want a sense of meaning, a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging, a sense of identity, a reason to be. These are God-given desires. Religion offers a false-fulfillment of these desires. Religion repeatedly encourages people to become more involved, more active. Involvement, commitment, dedication, consecration -- these are the hallmarks and the "passwords" of religion. Religion fosters a fixation, a compulsion, an obsession, an addiction to religious activities, explaining the absolute necessity to be thus engaged in the activities in order to please God, and for the good of the whole -- never admitting that it is primarily for the good of the religious authorities!
Activism seems to become an end in itself within religion: the activism of financial giving, the activism of keeping all the rules, the activism of church attendance, the activism of participating in all the ordinances and rituals, the activism of recruiting others to the "cause." Such activism is a not-so-subtle form of "works" salvation, which leads to physical fatigue and exhaustion and other forms of addiction.
Religious activism sometimes takes the form of social protest. People are enjoined to stand up for God's absolutes in political activism. Sometimes they go so far as to engage in criminal and terrorist activity even wars. In the midst of such they usually develop a persecution-complex: "It is 'us', the good guys of God's army, against 'them', the army of humanism or satan; and only by our ardent activism will God win!"
So often religion defines spirituality by the amount and intensity of one's activism. "If you are really going to be 'spiritual' and close to God, you must be doing what God wants you to do," i.e. our proscribed form of activism.
Much of religious activism is perpetuated by people simply as an escape from reality, an escapism from the day-to-day functionality of life. It is much more difficult to stay right where you are and be the father or mother, husband or wife, employer or employee that God intends you to be, than to carry a sign and chant choruses or to busy oneself in the program of a religious organization.
Religion results in dysfunctional socialization. It will never produce the functional loving community of mankind that God desires. Religion is unloving and self-serving. What religion offers is a pseudo-love, an addiction to the sense of belonging, an addiction to the sense of being cared for and sought after, an addiction to the sense of meaningful existence and purpose and identity.
This expose of religion is in no way designed or intended to impinge upon the reality of Christianity. Careful distinction between religion and Christianity must be made. As stated in the beginning of this article, Christianity is the dynamic spiritual life of the risen Lord Jesus indwelling the spirit of man so as to create functional behavior unto the glory of God. Religion is the man-made aberration that attempts to impose absolutism, authoritarianism and activism upon other men.
The English word "religion" is etymologically derived from the Latin word religo, meaning to "bind up." Religion binds people up in rules and regulations or in ritualistic patterns of devotion.
Christianity, on the other hand, was never meant to be a religion. Christianity is the dynamic spiritual life of the risen Lord Jesus indwelling the spirit of man so as to create functional behavior to the glory of God. Granted, men have attempted to force Christianity into the molds and forms of religion. That is evident by all the steeples and sanctuaries and ecclesiastical programs that dot the landscape of our society.
It is the propensity of man to formulate religion to take that which is of the invisible God and attempt to make it visible, tangible and controllable. Man-made religion! The apostle Paul refers to it as "self-made religion" (Colossians 2:23), and goes on to indicate that it is of no value against fleshly indulgence. In essence, Paul is saying that "religion is of no value against man's sinfulness." In fact, religion is a co-dependent enabler of the sins of mankind. It is itself an addiction.
Religion is essentially idolatry. Men worship their man-made formations and structures their ideological idols formed in the concrete of inflexible minds. When the apostle Paul came to Athens (Acts 17:22), he observed their idols and exclaimed, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects." The Greek word that Paul used for "religious" literally means "to have great respect for demons."
To document that God hates religion, note the following passages of Scripture:
"...every abominable act which the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods." (Deuteronomy 12:31)
"I have had enough of burnt offerings...Bring your worthless offerings no longer...I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts; they have become a burden to Me... So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you... I will not listen..." (Isaiah 1:10-15)
"I hate, I reject your festivals; nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies...take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps." (Amos 5:21-24)
These passages bear out the fact that God hates religion, and all of its procedures and programs; rituals and regulations.
Religion is inevitably the result of man taking that which is of God and forming it, formulating it, in such a way that men end up "playing God." Men can form idols out of wood or stone in an attempt to represent God, or they can formulate ideological idols (belief-systems, doctrinal definitions, theological theses). The men who thus form and formulate become the "chief priests" of the new religion because they are regarded as knowing the most about what God is like, and well they should for they formed "it."
There are three features which seem to be basic to all forms of man-made religion. Religion involves absolutism, authoritarianism and activism. Now there is nothing wrong with absolutes, authority or activity. God is absolute, authoritative and active. But when any man or group of men attempts to establish themselves as the arbiters or regulators of God's absoluteness, authority or activity, they then begin to "play god," and religion is the result as they impose their perspective of absolute, authority and activity on others.
Absolutism
God is absolute. All other absolutes are derived from His absolute character. But when any man, or grouping of men, think that they have determined the absolutes of God absolutely and set about to impose them absolutely on others, then you have the absolutism of religion.
It is the natural propensity of man to want to get everything figured out. We have a "lust for certainty." We want everything to be "cut and dried," black and white, right and wrong, with no loose ends. We do not like paradox, antinomy or dialectic.
Most men cannot accept that the Infinite God is bigger than their finite ability to understand. So we set about to reduce God to fit within our rationalistic and intellectual reasonings. We reduce God to fit within our mental "box," then we nail it shut, construct our creed, and absolutely affirm that we have God figured out. We have reduced God to no bigger than our cranial cavity.
Religion advocates the absolutism of a particular belief-system. We formulate our doctrine, our theology, and demand that others affirm it absolutely as we do no variation; no freedom of thought or opinion; no doubt (for doubt would indicate that one does not believe it absolutely.)
Such absolutism is the basis of "fundamentalism." Fundamentalism is a religious idolatry that tends to worship a particular formulation of fixed fundamentals of faith. These fundamentals usually include both the detailed doctrines of a belief-system, as well as the meticulously prescribed behavior patterns of an ethical-system.
Religion employs the absolutism of a particular and prescribed moral law, a closed-system of ethics. These behavioral laws (judicial, theological or sociological) are comprised of dos and don'ts, "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots," rules and regulations, and codes of conduct. They are legalistically applied with rigid inflexibility and with perfectionistic expectations of absolute obedience.
Such absolutism in belief and behavior leads to the absolutism of exclusivism: "We are absolutely the only ones who have found truth; Ours is absolutely the only way." Thus religion begins to employ the rejective "tests of fellowship" which demand acceptance of their belief-system and conformity to their behavior patterns or else they will disallow you to be a part of their socialistic group identity. They disallow individualism and freedom of thought. Identity is found in the whole. Any deviations are met with condemnatory judgmentalism and guilt manipulation unto conformity. Severe forms of corrective social "discipline" are employed to keep people "in line," subscribing to the absolutism. Threats of excommunication from the authorities in charge are used to create absolute conformity and absolute obedience.
Authoritarianism
God, because He is absolute, is authoritative. But when any man, or group of men, claim to be the designated instruments of God's authority and attempt to express such authoritatively, especially in an autocratic or totalitarian way, you then have the authoritarianism of religion.
The bulk of mankind are followers, who will follow a leader like sheep. There always have been and always will be some men, therefore, who set themselves up as leaders and authorities claiming to represent God and to speak authoritatively for God. They often claim to have a special "in" with God, a "hot-line" with God, or they claim to have a special vision, a special "calling," a special understanding, or a superior spirituality. Some people inevitably follow such people and regard them as religious authorities – gurus.
The well-known proverb states, "Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely." The selfish propensities within men cause them to abuse power and use people to their own ends as they lead. Such results in authoritarianism. It may be but a subtle emphasis on "pastoral authority" or the spiritual authority of an elder or a "shepherd," or it may be a special esteem granted for those in exalted positions of so-called "clergy" or priests, ministers, preachers, presbyters, etc. These are then developed into an hierarchical order of ecclesiastical positioning and politicizing.
These self-designated religious authorities often foster a dependency attitude of the people upon themselves. Directly or indirectly they encourage loyalty and commitment to the organization they lead, or to themselves. As incentive for such they often convey the idea that they hold the eternal fate or spiritual destiny of others in their hands, in their power.
The sense of personal equality before God is lost. People are expected to learn their "place" and told not to "get out of order." "Do not ask questions; do as you are told." "We will do the thinking and the feeling for you." "We will do the Bible study and the praying – the relating to God." "We speak for God, and we will tell you what is true." What is this but mind-control propaganda, advocating blind, unquestioning submission and obedience. It is an undemocratic system of non-equality wherein the religious authorities have no accountability to the people they serve.
Such religious authoritarianism creates a "fantasy-bond" of the people toward their so-called "priests." There is a projected idealization of the authorities as being especially close to God -- almost "gods" themselves. The religious authorities then exploit the people, utilizing superstition and fear to control people's thinking and behavior by shame, guilt and threatened loss of identity or eternal destiny.
Religious authorities must create a sense of direction and momentum for the people; a sense of doing something and going somewhere. There must be a program of activity that will keep people "involved," feeling that they are meaningfully expending their lives and energy for God's "cause." This is also fueled by the self-serving purpose of financing and perpetuating the religious system.
Activism
God is an active God, and He wants to act in us by the expression of His character and ministry. But when any man, or group of men, claim that they are the directors of God's activity and that they have discerned what God wants to do in you, how God wants you to act, beware of religious activism.
Religion is perpetuated by the activism of the people. People want a sense of meaning, a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging, a sense of identity, a reason to be. These are God-given desires. Religion offers a false-fulfillment of these desires. Religion repeatedly encourages people to become more involved, more active. Involvement, commitment, dedication, consecration -- these are the hallmarks and the "passwords" of religion. Religion fosters a fixation, a compulsion, an obsession, an addiction to religious activities, explaining the absolute necessity to be thus engaged in the activities in order to please God, and for the good of the whole -- never admitting that it is primarily for the good of the religious authorities!
Activism seems to become an end in itself within religion: the activism of financial giving, the activism of keeping all the rules, the activism of church attendance, the activism of participating in all the ordinances and rituals, the activism of recruiting others to the "cause." Such activism is a not-so-subtle form of "works" salvation, which leads to physical fatigue and exhaustion and other forms of addiction.
Religious activism sometimes takes the form of social protest. People are enjoined to stand up for God's absolutes in political activism. Sometimes they go so far as to engage in criminal and terrorist activity even wars. In the midst of such they usually develop a persecution-complex: "It is 'us', the good guys of God's army, against 'them', the army of humanism or satan; and only by our ardent activism will God win!"
So often religion defines spirituality by the amount and intensity of one's activism. "If you are really going to be 'spiritual' and close to God, you must be doing what God wants you to do," i.e. our proscribed form of activism.
Much of religious activism is perpetuated by people simply as an escape from reality, an escapism from the day-to-day functionality of life. It is much more difficult to stay right where you are and be the father or mother, husband or wife, employer or employee that God intends you to be, than to carry a sign and chant choruses or to busy oneself in the program of a religious organization.
Religion results in dysfunctional socialization. It will never produce the functional loving community of mankind that God desires. Religion is unloving and self-serving. What religion offers is a pseudo-love, an addiction to the sense of belonging, an addiction to the sense of being cared for and sought after, an addiction to the sense of meaningful existence and purpose and identity.
This expose of religion is in no way designed or intended to impinge upon the reality of Christianity. Careful distinction between religion and Christianity must be made. As stated in the beginning of this article, Christianity is the dynamic spiritual life of the risen Lord Jesus indwelling the spirit of man so as to create functional behavior unto the glory of God. Religion is the man-made aberration that attempts to impose absolutism, authoritarianism and activism upon other men.
Facial scars can help win a woman's heart
Faced with picture of men with and without different scars, women rated the scarred faces as better looking, but scars did not enhance women's attractiveness to men.
"This is the first study to demonstrate that under certain circumstances post-traumatic scarring may increase a person's perceived social worth,'' say the researchers from the universities of Liverpool and Stirling.
"Our results suggest that under certain circumstances scars may advertise valued information about their bearers, and that the idea that scarring universally devalues social perceptions can no longer be assumed to be true."
In the study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, around 220 people were asked to look at pictures of men and women, some of which had been manipulated to have different scars.
Results show that scarring enhances women's ratings of men's attractiveness for short-term, but not for long-term, relationships. Men's ratings of female attractiveness were unaffected by scarring.
Exactly why women favour scars is not clear, but one theory is that they provide visible evidence of past trauma and may also communicate information about the man's history and personality, as well as affect their attractiveness.
It has also been suggested that scarring associated with violence may signal to a woman that the man has a risk-taking personality or above average masculinity, both of which might appeal to women for short term relationships. Because of that, scars may indirectly be a sign of good genes or a strong immune system that also appeal to women for short-term relationships.
The scars that are rated attractive are those that appear to be associated with post traumatic events or violence of some kind.
"Scars that indicate past illness like chickenpox, acne, or surgery scars, and which therefore suggest a weaker immune system, may be viewed more negatively than other types of scarring," says the report.
"This is the first study to demonstrate that under certain circumstances post-traumatic scarring may increase a person's perceived social worth,'' say the researchers from the universities of Liverpool and Stirling.
"Our results suggest that under certain circumstances scars may advertise valued information about their bearers, and that the idea that scarring universally devalues social perceptions can no longer be assumed to be true."
In the study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, around 220 people were asked to look at pictures of men and women, some of which had been manipulated to have different scars.
Results show that scarring enhances women's ratings of men's attractiveness for short-term, but not for long-term, relationships. Men's ratings of female attractiveness were unaffected by scarring.
Exactly why women favour scars is not clear, but one theory is that they provide visible evidence of past trauma and may also communicate information about the man's history and personality, as well as affect their attractiveness.
It has also been suggested that scarring associated with violence may signal to a woman that the man has a risk-taking personality or above average masculinity, both of which might appeal to women for short term relationships. Because of that, scars may indirectly be a sign of good genes or a strong immune system that also appeal to women for short-term relationships.
The scars that are rated attractive are those that appear to be associated with post traumatic events or violence of some kind.
"Scars that indicate past illness like chickenpox, acne, or surgery scars, and which therefore suggest a weaker immune system, may be viewed more negatively than other types of scarring," says the report.
101 game facts that will rock your world
41. The Original Devil May Cry was originally intended to be the next chapter in the Resident Evil series. The gun juggle move was a glitch, but became part of Dante's move set.
42. Alien Hominid, a hardcore PS2 shooter, was originally a popular Flash internet game. It was downloaded more than 6 million times before being brought to the PlayStation 2.
43. In the NES era, Nintendo had strict licensing rules in an effort to maintain quality control (hence the gold Nintendo seal of quality badges on the cartridges). They only allowed third-party publishers to release 5 games a year for their systems.
44. Final Fantasy VII was originally designed for the Nintendo 64, but Square cancelled the project and moved to the PSone because of the lack of space in the console's game cartridges. FFVII would've filled 13 cartridges.
45. To create the gruesome Necromorph monsters in their game Dead Space, the devs at EA Redwood Shores studied photos of car wreck victims. They also watched hundreds of horror movies to get ideas for in-game scares.
46. Final Fantasy got its name from the fact that it was supposed to be Square's last ever game. They were struggling to become popular with dodgy games like Rad Racer and World Runner 3D, and were going to bow out of the industry gracefully.
47. Sixty percent of all Americans age six and older, or about 145 million people, play computer and video games. The average age of a gamer is 28 years old.
48. Captain Commando was a sci-fi superhero who served as Capcom's mascot in its early days, but was replaced by Mega Man after the Captain proved unpopular with gamers.Capcom's original name was Capsule Computing.
49.The name Kratos - as in, God Of War's angry hero - is taken from the Greek word 'cratos', which means power.
50. The first game to feature multiple endings depending on how you played the game was Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest on the NES.
51. If you bought Shenmue 2 on Xbox, you'll remember the Shenmue Movie DVD that came with it, containing all the major cut-scenes from the first game. Well, in Japan, this was actually shown in some cinemas, such was the popularity of Yu Suzuki's epic series.
52. Midnight Club: Los Angeles is the first game to feature branded trophies/achievements. One's shamelessly sponsored by T-Mobile.
53. Sonic The Hedgehog has appeared in four TV series; Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic Underground, The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog and Sonic X. He's also appeared in a comic book series. None of them are as good as the games.
54. F-Zero X has an unlimited amount of courses. If you take part in the X Cup, the game will randomly generate tracks. They're mostly awful, but sometimes you'll get a good one.
55. The Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972, contained 40 transistors and no microprocessor. The newest Pentium 4 microprocessor contains 42 million transistors on the chip itself.
56. The Nintendo N64 marked the first time that computer graphics workstation manufacturer Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) developed game hardware technology.
57. The Nintendo GameCube's proprietary disc can hold 1.5 gigabytes of data - 190 times more than what an N64 game cartridge can hold.
58. In the 1980s, a service called Gameline allowed users to download games to the Atari 2600 over regular phone lines. It was a commercial failure, but eventually formed part of the foundation for America Online, the world's largest Internet service provider.
59. Silent Hill 4 wasn't originally a Silent Hill game, but rather a separate franchise being developed by Konami simply titled The Room. When SH producer/composer Akira Yamaoka came across it, he decided to make it part of the official series.
60. In its heyday, the Dragon Quest series was only ever released on weekends in Japan, because mid-week launches would see thousands of people pulling sickies to go and play it.
61. The Atari Jaguar proudly boasted that it was the first 64-bit console, but in reality it was two 32-bit chips stuck together - so not truly 64-bit. Those liars.
62. It's only humanly possible to press a button on a controller 16 times per second. This record was set by Toshuyuki Takahashi, a Japanese gamer.
63. A game called Malice starring singer Gwen Stefani as the titular lead character was supposed to be a big-budget system-seller for Xbox. After years of delays it was finally released at a budget price on the console, and on PS2. Gwen Stefani's recorded dialogue was never used, nor was the planned 'No Doubt' soundtrack.
64. There's a full book you can read in Deus Ex. It's called The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton and shares some plot similarities with the game. The chapters were spread throughout the game in datacubes.
65. If you cheated while playing the Sega 32x version of Doom, after the game ends you're taken to a fake DOS prompt. You can't quit out of it, and the only way to escape the screen is to reset the console. If you didn't cheat, you get an extra cutscene.
66. In the French localisation of Final Fantasy IX, Zidane was renamed Djidane because of the similarity to the country's most famous footballer, Zinedine Zidane.
67. Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokemon, got the idea for the worldwide Game Boy phenomenon after collecting caterpillars as a child and watching them change into butterflies.
68. The voice of Shodan, the insane AI in the System Shock series, was performed by the wife of the audio director at Looking Glass. Cheaper than an actor, eh?
69. Duke Nukem 3D was one of the first games to employ a real-time audio effect to its sounds. If you went underwater, a calculated reverb was applied to sounds being played to make gunfire sound muffled and gurgly.
70. In the underground facility in Resident Evil 2 there's a locked room containing a dead Nemesis. Resident Evil 2 takes place after 3, which suggests Umbrella released more than one into Raccoon City.
71. In World Of Warcraft there's a dungeon called Uldaman where you can find and recruit three 'lost dwarves', who look very similar to characters from The Lost Vikings on SNES.
72. The first Fable was originally going to have a multiplayer mode. Four players (one hero and three sidekicks) would be able to work together to complete unique quests. This feature was cancelled in March 2004 due to time constraints.
73. Super Mario World for the SNES took 29,000 hours to program. Luckily, it went on to sell 17 million copies and was the best-selling game of its generation.
74. In the loading screen for the original Ridge Racer on PSone you could play a Galaxians-style minigame. If you destroyed all the enemies you'd unlock 8 additional vehicles.
75. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 was one of the first ever games to have a simultaneous, worldwide release date. This was known amongst gamers as 'Sonic2sday', as it appeared in shops on a Tuesday. November 24, 1992 to be exact.
76. Ico was originally meant to be released for the PlayStation, but the development was halted and then continued for the PlayStation 2. In the early version, Yorda had horns on her head, not Ico. You can find early concept footage of this on YouTube.
77. The first Broken Sword game's theme tune was composed by Barrington Pheloung, also known for writing the theme to grannies' favourite Inspector Morse.
78. Fans of Master System classic Alex Kidd In Miracle World will remember the former Sega mascot munching a hamburger at the end of each level. Originally, this was a Japanese rice ball, or onigari. It was changed because rice balls aren't as recognisable outside of Japan.
79. Violent, pedestrian-squishing racer Carmageddon was only allowed to be released in the UK with zombies instead of people roaming the streets. In the Indian version, the cows were removed, and it was banned altogether in Germany.
80. The music for the first Jak & Daxter game was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, a member of cult '80s band Devo, and composer of all of director Wes Anderson's films including The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic.
81. If, for some strange reason, you still have a Madden NFL 06 save game on your memory card, a special Madden van will be unlocked when you start up Burnout Revenge on PS2.
82. The Metroid series doesn’t take place in any kind of order, so the plot can be confusing. Chrologically, Samus’ adventures take places as so: Metroid (NES), Metroid Prime (GC), Metroid 2: Return Of Samus (Game Boy), Super Metroid (SNES) and Metroid Fusion (GBA). Make sense now?
83. In the first Max Payne, Max’s face was digitised from series writer Sam Lake, but in the second game they used an actor called Timothy Gibbs, who starred in ladies’ favourite Sex And The City.
84. At the end of a game of Civilization IV, players are rated based on their performance by a comparison to one of 10 world leaders. The lowest rating compares the player to former US Vice-President Dan Quayle, who is legendary for such wisdom as "If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure".
85. PC hit Grim Fandango was originally titled ‘Deeds Of The Dead’, but was changed because LucasArts didn’t want a reference to death in the title. In a game primarily about death, the afterlife and the grim reaper. Yes.
86. The Secret Of Monkey Island came with a code-wheel copy protection system, in which you had to mix and match pirate faces and assemble their names. It was taken out of future releases as it proved too annoying.
87. In Japan, insanely difficult shoot-‘em-up Ikaruga came with a DVD of the country’s top players completing levels with unbroken chain combos and beating the bosses in record times.
88. In Germany, copies of Medal Of Honor: Frontline had to be reprinted because there was a swastika on the back cover. The developers also had to go back into the game and take out all the Nazi flags and other paraphernalia.
89. In the first Fallout, if you create your own character with less than 4 intelligence you can't converse with anyone; your only dialogue options are various grunts or other guttural noises. This makes the game insanely difficult to finish.
90. The secret boss Kurt Zisa in the first Kingdom Hearts was named via a contest held by Squaresoft in the US to promote the game.
91. Brutal PC FPS Kingpin featured a boss called The Jesus, named after the character from The Big Lebowski. He even repeated some of the lines from that film, including the immortal “Nobody f**** with the Jesus!”
92. A commercial for horror game Siren was pulled in Japan after complaints from parents. The advert featured a girl knocking on a window from the outside, begging her parents to let her in. The view then switches to the inside and shows the terrified parents, in fear of their daughter, who is revealed to be a bloody zombie. Sony said that the fear factor made people uncomfortable.
93. There’s a difference between the Japanese and US versions of Resident Evil 4. It occurs whenever Leon is killed by Mr Chainsaw. In the US version, his head is chopped off by the ‘saw. However, in the Japanese version, it cuts off part of Leon's face, exposing half of the front of Leon's skull and a single eyeball.
94. The first game to go online with Sony’s terrible PS2 network adapter was SOCOM: Navy Seals.
95. One of the player forms you can unlock in Rez for the Beyond’ levels is simply Morolian. This is the name of the alien invaders from UGA's previous game, Space Channel 5.
96. Thanks largely - we hope - to being bundled with a Wii-mote, Wii Play has sold around twice as much as Halo 3, shifting some 16 million copies.
97. Many of the in-game sounds and even the main font in Streets Of Rage for the Mega Drive were lifted directly from Revenge of Shinobi, and the special attack police car was ripped directly from E-SWAT: Cyber Police. How lazy.
98. More German censorship, this time Command And Conquer: Red Alert. Hitler (who is key to the plot) was removed from the intro cutscene, and all the soldiers were replaced with cyborgs.
99. Starcraft is the first computer game to have ever physically made it into space. It was sent aboard Shuttle mission STS-96 on May 27, 1999 by Mission Specialist Daniel T. Barry , who is also a Starcraft fan.
100. If you select a sheep four times in Warcraft 2: Tides Of Darkness (keep clicking it with the left mouse button), the sheep will say “bo-ram-u”. This is the sheeps’ password from the 1995 movie Babe.
101. In the original Japanese version of River City Ransom, the characters wore schoolboy jackets and belonged to high schools instead of gangs. This was changed in the American version because the jackets could be mistaken for bath robes and beating up evil gang members seemed like a more worthy cause.
42. Alien Hominid, a hardcore PS2 shooter, was originally a popular Flash internet game. It was downloaded more than 6 million times before being brought to the PlayStation 2.
43. In the NES era, Nintendo had strict licensing rules in an effort to maintain quality control (hence the gold Nintendo seal of quality badges on the cartridges). They only allowed third-party publishers to release 5 games a year for their systems.
44. Final Fantasy VII was originally designed for the Nintendo 64, but Square cancelled the project and moved to the PSone because of the lack of space in the console's game cartridges. FFVII would've filled 13 cartridges.
45. To create the gruesome Necromorph monsters in their game Dead Space, the devs at EA Redwood Shores studied photos of car wreck victims. They also watched hundreds of horror movies to get ideas for in-game scares.
46. Final Fantasy got its name from the fact that it was supposed to be Square's last ever game. They were struggling to become popular with dodgy games like Rad Racer and World Runner 3D, and were going to bow out of the industry gracefully.
47. Sixty percent of all Americans age six and older, or about 145 million people, play computer and video games. The average age of a gamer is 28 years old.
48. Captain Commando was a sci-fi superhero who served as Capcom's mascot in its early days, but was replaced by Mega Man after the Captain proved unpopular with gamers.Capcom's original name was Capsule Computing.
49.The name Kratos - as in, God Of War's angry hero - is taken from the Greek word 'cratos', which means power.
50. The first game to feature multiple endings depending on how you played the game was Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest on the NES.
51. If you bought Shenmue 2 on Xbox, you'll remember the Shenmue Movie DVD that came with it, containing all the major cut-scenes from the first game. Well, in Japan, this was actually shown in some cinemas, such was the popularity of Yu Suzuki's epic series.
52. Midnight Club: Los Angeles is the first game to feature branded trophies/achievements. One's shamelessly sponsored by T-Mobile.
53. Sonic The Hedgehog has appeared in four TV series; Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic Underground, The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog and Sonic X. He's also appeared in a comic book series. None of them are as good as the games.
54. F-Zero X has an unlimited amount of courses. If you take part in the X Cup, the game will randomly generate tracks. They're mostly awful, but sometimes you'll get a good one.
55. The Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972, contained 40 transistors and no microprocessor. The newest Pentium 4 microprocessor contains 42 million transistors on the chip itself.
56. The Nintendo N64 marked the first time that computer graphics workstation manufacturer Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) developed game hardware technology.
57. The Nintendo GameCube's proprietary disc can hold 1.5 gigabytes of data - 190 times more than what an N64 game cartridge can hold.
58. In the 1980s, a service called Gameline allowed users to download games to the Atari 2600 over regular phone lines. It was a commercial failure, but eventually formed part of the foundation for America Online, the world's largest Internet service provider.
59. Silent Hill 4 wasn't originally a Silent Hill game, but rather a separate franchise being developed by Konami simply titled The Room. When SH producer/composer Akira Yamaoka came across it, he decided to make it part of the official series.
60. In its heyday, the Dragon Quest series was only ever released on weekends in Japan, because mid-week launches would see thousands of people pulling sickies to go and play it.
61. The Atari Jaguar proudly boasted that it was the first 64-bit console, but in reality it was two 32-bit chips stuck together - so not truly 64-bit. Those liars.
62. It's only humanly possible to press a button on a controller 16 times per second. This record was set by Toshuyuki Takahashi, a Japanese gamer.
63. A game called Malice starring singer Gwen Stefani as the titular lead character was supposed to be a big-budget system-seller for Xbox. After years of delays it was finally released at a budget price on the console, and on PS2. Gwen Stefani's recorded dialogue was never used, nor was the planned 'No Doubt' soundtrack.
64. There's a full book you can read in Deus Ex. It's called The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton and shares some plot similarities with the game. The chapters were spread throughout the game in datacubes.
65. If you cheated while playing the Sega 32x version of Doom, after the game ends you're taken to a fake DOS prompt. You can't quit out of it, and the only way to escape the screen is to reset the console. If you didn't cheat, you get an extra cutscene.
66. In the French localisation of Final Fantasy IX, Zidane was renamed Djidane because of the similarity to the country's most famous footballer, Zinedine Zidane.
67. Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokemon, got the idea for the worldwide Game Boy phenomenon after collecting caterpillars as a child and watching them change into butterflies.
68. The voice of Shodan, the insane AI in the System Shock series, was performed by the wife of the audio director at Looking Glass. Cheaper than an actor, eh?
69. Duke Nukem 3D was one of the first games to employ a real-time audio effect to its sounds. If you went underwater, a calculated reverb was applied to sounds being played to make gunfire sound muffled and gurgly.
70. In the underground facility in Resident Evil 2 there's a locked room containing a dead Nemesis. Resident Evil 2 takes place after 3, which suggests Umbrella released more than one into Raccoon City.
71. In World Of Warcraft there's a dungeon called Uldaman where you can find and recruit three 'lost dwarves', who look very similar to characters from The Lost Vikings on SNES.
72. The first Fable was originally going to have a multiplayer mode. Four players (one hero and three sidekicks) would be able to work together to complete unique quests. This feature was cancelled in March 2004 due to time constraints.
73. Super Mario World for the SNES took 29,000 hours to program. Luckily, it went on to sell 17 million copies and was the best-selling game of its generation.
74. In the loading screen for the original Ridge Racer on PSone you could play a Galaxians-style minigame. If you destroyed all the enemies you'd unlock 8 additional vehicles.
75. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 was one of the first ever games to have a simultaneous, worldwide release date. This was known amongst gamers as 'Sonic2sday', as it appeared in shops on a Tuesday. November 24, 1992 to be exact.
76. Ico was originally meant to be released for the PlayStation, but the development was halted and then continued for the PlayStation 2. In the early version, Yorda had horns on her head, not Ico. You can find early concept footage of this on YouTube.
77. The first Broken Sword game's theme tune was composed by Barrington Pheloung, also known for writing the theme to grannies' favourite Inspector Morse.
78. Fans of Master System classic Alex Kidd In Miracle World will remember the former Sega mascot munching a hamburger at the end of each level. Originally, this was a Japanese rice ball, or onigari. It was changed because rice balls aren't as recognisable outside of Japan.
79. Violent, pedestrian-squishing racer Carmageddon was only allowed to be released in the UK with zombies instead of people roaming the streets. In the Indian version, the cows were removed, and it was banned altogether in Germany.
80. The music for the first Jak & Daxter game was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, a member of cult '80s band Devo, and composer of all of director Wes Anderson's films including The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic.
81. If, for some strange reason, you still have a Madden NFL 06 save game on your memory card, a special Madden van will be unlocked when you start up Burnout Revenge on PS2.
82. The Metroid series doesn’t take place in any kind of order, so the plot can be confusing. Chrologically, Samus’ adventures take places as so: Metroid (NES), Metroid Prime (GC), Metroid 2: Return Of Samus (Game Boy), Super Metroid (SNES) and Metroid Fusion (GBA). Make sense now?
83. In the first Max Payne, Max’s face was digitised from series writer Sam Lake, but in the second game they used an actor called Timothy Gibbs, who starred in ladies’ favourite Sex And The City.
84. At the end of a game of Civilization IV, players are rated based on their performance by a comparison to one of 10 world leaders. The lowest rating compares the player to former US Vice-President Dan Quayle, who is legendary for such wisdom as "If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure".
85. PC hit Grim Fandango was originally titled ‘Deeds Of The Dead’, but was changed because LucasArts didn’t want a reference to death in the title. In a game primarily about death, the afterlife and the grim reaper. Yes.
86. The Secret Of Monkey Island came with a code-wheel copy protection system, in which you had to mix and match pirate faces and assemble their names. It was taken out of future releases as it proved too annoying.
87. In Japan, insanely difficult shoot-‘em-up Ikaruga came with a DVD of the country’s top players completing levels with unbroken chain combos and beating the bosses in record times.
88. In Germany, copies of Medal Of Honor: Frontline had to be reprinted because there was a swastika on the back cover. The developers also had to go back into the game and take out all the Nazi flags and other paraphernalia.
89. In the first Fallout, if you create your own character with less than 4 intelligence you can't converse with anyone; your only dialogue options are various grunts or other guttural noises. This makes the game insanely difficult to finish.
90. The secret boss Kurt Zisa in the first Kingdom Hearts was named via a contest held by Squaresoft in the US to promote the game.
91. Brutal PC FPS Kingpin featured a boss called The Jesus, named after the character from The Big Lebowski. He even repeated some of the lines from that film, including the immortal “Nobody f**** with the Jesus!”
92. A commercial for horror game Siren was pulled in Japan after complaints from parents. The advert featured a girl knocking on a window from the outside, begging her parents to let her in. The view then switches to the inside and shows the terrified parents, in fear of their daughter, who is revealed to be a bloody zombie. Sony said that the fear factor made people uncomfortable.
93. There’s a difference between the Japanese and US versions of Resident Evil 4. It occurs whenever Leon is killed by Mr Chainsaw. In the US version, his head is chopped off by the ‘saw. However, in the Japanese version, it cuts off part of Leon's face, exposing half of the front of Leon's skull and a single eyeball.
94. The first game to go online with Sony’s terrible PS2 network adapter was SOCOM: Navy Seals.
95. One of the player forms you can unlock in Rez for the Beyond’ levels is simply Morolian. This is the name of the alien invaders from UGA's previous game, Space Channel 5.
96. Thanks largely - we hope - to being bundled with a Wii-mote, Wii Play has sold around twice as much as Halo 3, shifting some 16 million copies.
97. Many of the in-game sounds and even the main font in Streets Of Rage for the Mega Drive were lifted directly from Revenge of Shinobi, and the special attack police car was ripped directly from E-SWAT: Cyber Police. How lazy.
98. More German censorship, this time Command And Conquer: Red Alert. Hitler (who is key to the plot) was removed from the intro cutscene, and all the soldiers were replaced with cyborgs.
99. Starcraft is the first computer game to have ever physically made it into space. It was sent aboard Shuttle mission STS-96 on May 27, 1999 by Mission Specialist Daniel T. Barry , who is also a Starcraft fan.
100. If you select a sheep four times in Warcraft 2: Tides Of Darkness (keep clicking it with the left mouse button), the sheep will say “bo-ram-u”. This is the sheeps’ password from the 1995 movie Babe.
101. In the original Japanese version of River City Ransom, the characters wore schoolboy jackets and belonged to high schools instead of gangs. This was changed in the American version because the jackets could be mistaken for bath robes and beating up evil gang members seemed like a more worthy cause.
101 game facts that will rock your world
Fact: We love facts. And the world of gaming is absolutely littered with astonishing/pointless/obscure trivia to cram into your brain. So, not-so-hot on the trail of last year's tepidly received 101 things you didn't know about games, we bring you another staggering list of game-related info detritus for your consuming pleasure. Memorize both gargantuan lists and become the ultimate know-it-all gamer.
01. Sonic The Hedgehog isn't only the name of Sega's speedy mascot, but also a gene on chromosome 7 of the human genome. Well, it was until recently when the science community decided to ditch all of its 'comedy' names for genes. Party poopers.
02. Matt Damon refused to appear in the recent Bourne Conspiracy game because he thought it was too violent. Not fussed by the violence in the films then, eh, Matt?
03. Ever wondered what happens to Leon's cool leather jacket in Resident Evil 4? It inexplicably disappears after the scene in the village. Well, on the PS2 version, go through Ada's side-quest and one of the Ganado villagers will be wearing it.
04. In the early stages of its development, Half-Life 2 featured a friendly alien that would follow Gordon Freeman around, feasting on the bodies of his fallen enemies. It was taken out when Valve discovered that the AI would be too difficult to convincingly program.
05. In 1986, Nintendo released a special Disk System peripheral for the NES in Japan. Among its features was a microphone in the controller, which certain games used, including an updated version of the original Zelda. You could only destroy a certain enemy by shouting into the mic.
06. The famously awful E.T. game for the Atari 2600 actually sold more than its most famous game, Space Invaders. E.T. sold 1.5 million, while Invaders only shifted a million.
07. A boss character called Binbag was removed from Rockstar's Manhunt early in its development. He was a psychopath wrapped in black refuse sacks. Lovely.
08. Rockstar also removed a character from Grand Theft Auto 3, although this time it was said to be because of the terrorist attacks on September 11th. He was called Darkel, a homeless guy who'd get you to rig buildings with explosives.
09. In the video game sequel to John Carpenter's seminal sci-fi horror film The Thing, the legendary director made a cameo appearance as a character called Doctor Faraday. He also oversaw the production of the game to make sure it was faithful to his original vision.
10. In Pilotwings 64, the character Lark is actually the mascot for famous American games magazine Nintendo Power, Nester. His name was changed at the last minute, probably because PAL gamers wouldn't know who he was.
11. Oscar-winning actor Marlon Brando recorded dialogue for EA's Godfather game shortly before he died, but it was deemed unusable due to the bloated thesp's ageing, mumbly voice. Instead, they hired in a sound-alike. What a waste of money, eh?
12. Vivendi's underrated Scarface game also featured a sound-alike, but this one was personally chosen by Al Pacino himself, hence the spot-on likeness. His name is Andre Sogliuzzo and he's a veteran video game voice actor.
13. DJ Atomica, the (some would say) annoying announcer in Burnout Paradise, is the same guy who provided the commentary for SSX 3. In Paradise, he makes reference to SSX several times, suggesting it's supposed to be the same character.
14. The Little Sisters from BioShock didn't start their life as little girls at all, but rather tiny mole-like creatures who scuttled around Rapture collecting Adam. Early concept art also shows them as retro '50s-style robots, too. We think they made the right choice.
15. UK Radio One DJ, Chris Moyles, was an enemy in the game spin-off of hit TV show 24. He played an Eastern European terrorist, who Jack Bauer found himself fighting at the end of an early level. It was only his face however; the voice was provided by another actor.
16. Another unlikely celebrity cameo is UK chat show host Jonathan Ross, who 'starred' in Halo 3. He supplies the voice of one of the marines who helps Master Chief, although it's very rare that one of his lines comes up -it's a totally random, and rare, occurrence.
17. In The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening, the advisor from the SNES version of Sim City, Dr Wright, appears in a house. He's named after Will Wright, the creator of the Sim series.
18. In Fallout 2, there's a hidden room in Junktown, in the Cafe Of Broken Dreams, where you can find Dogmeat, the Vault Dweller from the first game's faithful hound.
19. In the original Super Smash Brothers Melee, the Princess Daisy trophy had a mysterious third eye on the back of its head. Unfortunate glitch? Or something more sinister?
20. Sony's beautiful monster-toppling adventure game Shadow Of The Colossus was originally going to feature groups of characters on horseback working to take down the colossi cooperatively. This proved too taxing for the PS2's hardware, sadly.
21. There are currently over 100 million Game Boys in the world; both the original and the colour variant. 32 million of them are in Japan, and there are 44 million in America.
22. Before they settled on its unique, painted look, the developers of Okami, Clover, originally intended the game to look realistic. You can unlock a concept video of this by finishing the game. It was changed because the PS2's hardware wasn't sophisticated enough.
23. Online gaming isn't as recent a development as you may think; in the '90s, a modem peripheral called the Satellaview was released for the Super Nintendo. It let gamers download gaming news and specially-designed games. They were mostly remakes of retro classics.
24. Early iterations of Nintendo's failed Virtual Boy console included a gun you'd set vertical on a flat surface that would project a 3D image into the air.
25. GoldenEye's famously brilliant multiplayer mode originally contained three Bond actors as playable characters; Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton. Their data was left on the cartridge, but you couldn't select them without using a cheat device.
26. Namco developed a special PSone controller to be used with Ridge Racer Type 4. It was called the Jogcon and had a wheel in place of the analogue sticks.
27. In critically panned crime caper Driv3r, there was a Hawaiian shirt-wearing character called Timmy Vermicelli - a clear parody of the star of GTA: Vice City, Tommy Vercetti. The character wore swimming bands, poking fun at the GTA hero's inability to swim.
28. In Grand Theft Auto 3, one mission saw you chasing a "badly animated" (in the words of Asuka) character called Tanner, who bore more than a passing resemblance to Driver lead character of the same name.
29. The PSone was originally planned as a Nintendo console, with Sony set to design its electronic components. When Nintendo ditched the project, Sony decided to make a console anyway.
30. The death screams of the bad guys in the original Golden Axe are digitized from screams used in the films First Blood and Conan The Barbarian.
31. Star Fox Adventures originally started life as Dinosaur Planet, a game developed entirely by Rare. It starred a blue fox called Krystal, who later became part of the Star Fox crew.
32. The damsel-in-distress that Mario rescues in the original Donkey Kong is called Pauline. In the Japanese version she was known simply as 'Lady'.
33. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith wasn't the wrinkly rockers' first videogame appearance. In 1994 they starred in an on-rails shooter called Revolution X where you had to rescue the band from kidnappers in a dystopian future. No, really.
34. In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty, a scene was removed from the final game where Snake is chased through the sinking tanker by a rush of water. Kojima said it looked good, but wasn't fun to play. Footage still exists of this in early trailers.
35. The first western-developed Xbox 360 game to break into the top 10 of the Japanese game chart was Gears of War. It made its debut at number seven after selling 33,000 copies. It charted in January 2006, over two years after the Japanese launch of the console.
36. Attacking the fat, black pig on Outset Island in The Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker will eventually cause it to attack.It's 100% invincible, though, so watch out.
37. Mega Man is known as Rock Man in Japan. This was changed in America because 'rock' is well-known slang for crack cocaine, and the name stuck.
38. The name Atari comes from the Chinese game Go. 'Atari' refers to a situation where a stone or a group of stones is in imminent danger of being taken by another player; a state Atari ironically found themselves in when the brand was bought by French company Infogrames.
39. The Xbox was originally named DirectXbox, as it was initially designed to show how Microsoft's Direct X graphics technology could benefit the console market.
40. The Texas TI-83 calculator has more graphics processing power than the Commodore 64. Amazingly, some basic C64 games can even be programmed into it.
01. Sonic The Hedgehog isn't only the name of Sega's speedy mascot, but also a gene on chromosome 7 of the human genome. Well, it was until recently when the science community decided to ditch all of its 'comedy' names for genes. Party poopers.
02. Matt Damon refused to appear in the recent Bourne Conspiracy game because he thought it was too violent. Not fussed by the violence in the films then, eh, Matt?
03. Ever wondered what happens to Leon's cool leather jacket in Resident Evil 4? It inexplicably disappears after the scene in the village. Well, on the PS2 version, go through Ada's side-quest and one of the Ganado villagers will be wearing it.
04. In the early stages of its development, Half-Life 2 featured a friendly alien that would follow Gordon Freeman around, feasting on the bodies of his fallen enemies. It was taken out when Valve discovered that the AI would be too difficult to convincingly program.
05. In 1986, Nintendo released a special Disk System peripheral for the NES in Japan. Among its features was a microphone in the controller, which certain games used, including an updated version of the original Zelda. You could only destroy a certain enemy by shouting into the mic.
06. The famously awful E.T. game for the Atari 2600 actually sold more than its most famous game, Space Invaders. E.T. sold 1.5 million, while Invaders only shifted a million.
07. A boss character called Binbag was removed from Rockstar's Manhunt early in its development. He was a psychopath wrapped in black refuse sacks. Lovely.
08. Rockstar also removed a character from Grand Theft Auto 3, although this time it was said to be because of the terrorist attacks on September 11th. He was called Darkel, a homeless guy who'd get you to rig buildings with explosives.
09. In the video game sequel to John Carpenter's seminal sci-fi horror film The Thing, the legendary director made a cameo appearance as a character called Doctor Faraday. He also oversaw the production of the game to make sure it was faithful to his original vision.
10. In Pilotwings 64, the character Lark is actually the mascot for famous American games magazine Nintendo Power, Nester. His name was changed at the last minute, probably because PAL gamers wouldn't know who he was.
11. Oscar-winning actor Marlon Brando recorded dialogue for EA's Godfather game shortly before he died, but it was deemed unusable due to the bloated thesp's ageing, mumbly voice. Instead, they hired in a sound-alike. What a waste of money, eh?
12. Vivendi's underrated Scarface game also featured a sound-alike, but this one was personally chosen by Al Pacino himself, hence the spot-on likeness. His name is Andre Sogliuzzo and he's a veteran video game voice actor.
13. DJ Atomica, the (some would say) annoying announcer in Burnout Paradise, is the same guy who provided the commentary for SSX 3. In Paradise, he makes reference to SSX several times, suggesting it's supposed to be the same character.
14. The Little Sisters from BioShock didn't start their life as little girls at all, but rather tiny mole-like creatures who scuttled around Rapture collecting Adam. Early concept art also shows them as retro '50s-style robots, too. We think they made the right choice.
15. UK Radio One DJ, Chris Moyles, was an enemy in the game spin-off of hit TV show 24. He played an Eastern European terrorist, who Jack Bauer found himself fighting at the end of an early level. It was only his face however; the voice was provided by another actor.
16. Another unlikely celebrity cameo is UK chat show host Jonathan Ross, who 'starred' in Halo 3. He supplies the voice of one of the marines who helps Master Chief, although it's very rare that one of his lines comes up -it's a totally random, and rare, occurrence.
17. In The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening, the advisor from the SNES version of Sim City, Dr Wright, appears in a house. He's named after Will Wright, the creator of the Sim series.
18. In Fallout 2, there's a hidden room in Junktown, in the Cafe Of Broken Dreams, where you can find Dogmeat, the Vault Dweller from the first game's faithful hound.
19. In the original Super Smash Brothers Melee, the Princess Daisy trophy had a mysterious third eye on the back of its head. Unfortunate glitch? Or something more sinister?
20. Sony's beautiful monster-toppling adventure game Shadow Of The Colossus was originally going to feature groups of characters on horseback working to take down the colossi cooperatively. This proved too taxing for the PS2's hardware, sadly.
21. There are currently over 100 million Game Boys in the world; both the original and the colour variant. 32 million of them are in Japan, and there are 44 million in America.
22. Before they settled on its unique, painted look, the developers of Okami, Clover, originally intended the game to look realistic. You can unlock a concept video of this by finishing the game. It was changed because the PS2's hardware wasn't sophisticated enough.
23. Online gaming isn't as recent a development as you may think; in the '90s, a modem peripheral called the Satellaview was released for the Super Nintendo. It let gamers download gaming news and specially-designed games. They were mostly remakes of retro classics.
24. Early iterations of Nintendo's failed Virtual Boy console included a gun you'd set vertical on a flat surface that would project a 3D image into the air.
25. GoldenEye's famously brilliant multiplayer mode originally contained three Bond actors as playable characters; Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton. Their data was left on the cartridge, but you couldn't select them without using a cheat device.
26. Namco developed a special PSone controller to be used with Ridge Racer Type 4. It was called the Jogcon and had a wheel in place of the analogue sticks.
27. In critically panned crime caper Driv3r, there was a Hawaiian shirt-wearing character called Timmy Vermicelli - a clear parody of the star of GTA: Vice City, Tommy Vercetti. The character wore swimming bands, poking fun at the GTA hero's inability to swim.
28. In Grand Theft Auto 3, one mission saw you chasing a "badly animated" (in the words of Asuka) character called Tanner, who bore more than a passing resemblance to Driver lead character of the same name.
29. The PSone was originally planned as a Nintendo console, with Sony set to design its electronic components. When Nintendo ditched the project, Sony decided to make a console anyway.
30. The death screams of the bad guys in the original Golden Axe are digitized from screams used in the films First Blood and Conan The Barbarian.
31. Star Fox Adventures originally started life as Dinosaur Planet, a game developed entirely by Rare. It starred a blue fox called Krystal, who later became part of the Star Fox crew.
32. The damsel-in-distress that Mario rescues in the original Donkey Kong is called Pauline. In the Japanese version she was known simply as 'Lady'.
33. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith wasn't the wrinkly rockers' first videogame appearance. In 1994 they starred in an on-rails shooter called Revolution X where you had to rescue the band from kidnappers in a dystopian future. No, really.
34. In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty, a scene was removed from the final game where Snake is chased through the sinking tanker by a rush of water. Kojima said it looked good, but wasn't fun to play. Footage still exists of this in early trailers.
35. The first western-developed Xbox 360 game to break into the top 10 of the Japanese game chart was Gears of War. It made its debut at number seven after selling 33,000 copies. It charted in January 2006, over two years after the Japanese launch of the console.
36. Attacking the fat, black pig on Outset Island in The Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker will eventually cause it to attack.It's 100% invincible, though, so watch out.
37. Mega Man is known as Rock Man in Japan. This was changed in America because 'rock' is well-known slang for crack cocaine, and the name stuck.
38. The name Atari comes from the Chinese game Go. 'Atari' refers to a situation where a stone or a group of stones is in imminent danger of being taken by another player; a state Atari ironically found themselves in when the brand was bought by French company Infogrames.
39. The Xbox was originally named DirectXbox, as it was initially designed to show how Microsoft's Direct X graphics technology could benefit the console market.
40. The Texas TI-83 calculator has more graphics processing power than the Commodore 64. Amazingly, some basic C64 games can even be programmed into it.
The Dark Knight Probably Not Going To Win All The Oscars Now
The Dark Knight is a sensation - the second-biggest movie of all time and easily the best film about a gimp punching a clown ever.
So, come Oscar night, you’d expect that The Dark Knight would wipe the floor with the competition - especially since the competition seems to be a million underperforming films about gloomy people from 35 years ago - but you’re wrong.
It’s just been announced that The Dark Knight can’t win the Oscar for Best Score because it was composed by too many people. That’ll be disappointing for the crew of The Dark Knight, but they’ll get over it - not least because the 2009 Oscars will introduce categories for Best Irredeemably Bleak Summer Movie and Silliest And Most Indecipherable Voice Employed By A Lead Actor, which The Dark Knight is already a dead cert for.
Even before it was released, there was a heavy Oscar buzz surrounding The Dark Knight, and it was all down to Heath Ledger. By a) giving possibly the performance of his life as The Joker and b) dying young, Heath Ledger was guaranteed at least a nomination for Best Supporting Actor from the get-go.
But then The Dark Knight was released, and it seemed like Best Supporting Actor would be the tip of the iceberg. The script was dark and thematically complex, the cinematography was brave and experimental, the box office numbers were galactic, the costumes were pretty and - most importantly for Oscar voters - the film went on for about an hour longer than it should have done and featured endless scenes of a frowning man gazing into the middle distance.
To the casual observer, it looked as though The Dark Knight would win every single Oscar that it put itself in for, but already that’s not the case. The bleak, creepy score for The Dark Knight has been ruled ineligible for the Oscars, and it’s all thanks to the number of people who worked on it.
Apparently, Academy rules state that only the primary composer of a film’s score should be included on the cue sheet, but for The Dark Knight the names of everyone who added pieces of music to the score were added, and now it’s been disqualified. MTV reports:
Although the five people listed as composers on “The Dark Knight” — including Zimmer, [James Newton] Howard, music editor Alex Gibson, ambient music designer Mel Wesson and composer Lorne Balfe — signed an affidavit stating that Zimmer and Howard were the primary composers, the majority of the Academy sided against the duo’s eligibility.
Now, being disqualified from the Oscars for a minor technicality like that is bound to sting, but it’s not the end of the world for The Dark Knight. Here’s why:
1 - By adding Gibson, Balfe and Wesson to the cue sheet for The Dark Knight, Hans Zimmer has ensured that they’ll all receive royalties from the score’s use, so at least he gets the moral high ground.
2 - The Dark Knight is still pushing hard in the Best Picture category - the only Oscar that people actually care about - and at this point it’s hard to see how it could lose.
3 - Does anyone go and see a movie for the score? No they don’t. A win in this category isn’t exactly going to boost DVD sales, is it?
4 - This is the main reason. If The Dark Knight has been disqualified for entering its score into the Oscars, then it means none of it can be performed in one of those interminable musical interludes that bloat the Oscars ceremony out. And you know what that means? More avant garde performances featuring Latvian women dressed as little Dutch girls singing in a made-up language and hitting bicycles for percussion. Yay for that!
So, come Oscar night, you’d expect that The Dark Knight would wipe the floor with the competition - especially since the competition seems to be a million underperforming films about gloomy people from 35 years ago - but you’re wrong.
It’s just been announced that The Dark Knight can’t win the Oscar for Best Score because it was composed by too many people. That’ll be disappointing for the crew of The Dark Knight, but they’ll get over it - not least because the 2009 Oscars will introduce categories for Best Irredeemably Bleak Summer Movie and Silliest And Most Indecipherable Voice Employed By A Lead Actor, which The Dark Knight is already a dead cert for.
Even before it was released, there was a heavy Oscar buzz surrounding The Dark Knight, and it was all down to Heath Ledger. By a) giving possibly the performance of his life as The Joker and b) dying young, Heath Ledger was guaranteed at least a nomination for Best Supporting Actor from the get-go.
But then The Dark Knight was released, and it seemed like Best Supporting Actor would be the tip of the iceberg. The script was dark and thematically complex, the cinematography was brave and experimental, the box office numbers were galactic, the costumes were pretty and - most importantly for Oscar voters - the film went on for about an hour longer than it should have done and featured endless scenes of a frowning man gazing into the middle distance.
To the casual observer, it looked as though The Dark Knight would win every single Oscar that it put itself in for, but already that’s not the case. The bleak, creepy score for The Dark Knight has been ruled ineligible for the Oscars, and it’s all thanks to the number of people who worked on it.
Apparently, Academy rules state that only the primary composer of a film’s score should be included on the cue sheet, but for The Dark Knight the names of everyone who added pieces of music to the score were added, and now it’s been disqualified. MTV reports:
Although the five people listed as composers on “The Dark Knight” — including Zimmer, [James Newton] Howard, music editor Alex Gibson, ambient music designer Mel Wesson and composer Lorne Balfe — signed an affidavit stating that Zimmer and Howard were the primary composers, the majority of the Academy sided against the duo’s eligibility.
Now, being disqualified from the Oscars for a minor technicality like that is bound to sting, but it’s not the end of the world for The Dark Knight. Here’s why:
1 - By adding Gibson, Balfe and Wesson to the cue sheet for The Dark Knight, Hans Zimmer has ensured that they’ll all receive royalties from the score’s use, so at least he gets the moral high ground.
2 - The Dark Knight is still pushing hard in the Best Picture category - the only Oscar that people actually care about - and at this point it’s hard to see how it could lose.
3 - Does anyone go and see a movie for the score? No they don’t. A win in this category isn’t exactly going to boost DVD sales, is it?
4 - This is the main reason. If The Dark Knight has been disqualified for entering its score into the Oscars, then it means none of it can be performed in one of those interminable musical interludes that bloat the Oscars ceremony out. And you know what that means? More avant garde performances featuring Latvian women dressed as little Dutch girls singing in a made-up language and hitting bicycles for percussion. Yay for that!
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