Catholic missionaries have always trekked to dangerous parts of the Earth to spread the word of God — now they are being encouraged to go into the virtual realm of Second Life to save virtual souls.
In an article in Rome-based Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, academic Antonio Spadaro urged fellow Catholics not to be scared of entering the virtual world which may be fertile ground for new converts wishing to better themselves.
“It’s not possible to close our eyes to this phenomenon or rush to judge it,” Spadaro said. “Instead it needs to be understood … the best way to understand it is to enter it.”
The internet just got a whole lot more dangerous! No longer will the insane Christians be warning against the predators on the internet, but now the reasonable; logical; people will have to shield people from the internet so they aren’t converted by the church.
Yeah, like that would ever happen. Let’s keep religion where it’s supposed to be… buried in the pages of history.
“Is there (cyber) space for God?” Spadaro aaka in his article which says there are already virtual churches and temples serving countless religions. He quotes a Swedish Muslim who says his avatar prays regularly as he prays in real life.
Spadaro warns the uninitiated that “the erotic dimension is very present” in Second Life, that people can buy genitalia for their avatars in a world that is “open to any form of erotic stimulation from prostitution to pedophilia”.
So the Church is going to try and clean up the internet? On google there are 2,130,000 results for “Jesus Porn”; I wish them good luck!
While the virtual world might be a refuge for some people seeking to flee the real one, it is also full of people seeking something more from life, including, possibly, religious enlightenment, he said.
“Deep down, the digital world can be considered, in its way, mission territory,” he said. “Second Life is somewhere where the opportunity to meet people and to grow should not be missed, therefore, any initiative that can inspire the residents in a positive way should be considered opportune.”
I see what the Church is thinking, instead of trying to save bums holding wine bottles on the street, they are going to try to convert loners who spend all their time on second life (most of them must be drunk, like the bums, since Second Life is in no way fun)
I find it a bit insulting that they attempted to pass Clare off as a man in episode 16 of Claymore.
It is just a bit ridiculous, really. Maybe if they actually made her look like a man; but they decided to go for the Sailor Moon effect.
Let’s see if anyone reading this can tell the difference:
Clare normal:
Clare trying to pass as a man:
Honestly I was waiting for the inn keeper to offer her to go into the Hot Spring where she had to somehow hide her nakedness from the rest of the men in some hilarious fashion.
Dear Claymore,
You are not Love Hina!
Love,
The Gundampilotdspaz
Other than this, Claymore is a great show and everyone should check it out. Although, a show with so many strong female characters and no lesbians can’t be perfect
Super Smash Bros. Brawl has plenty of surprises in store it seems, and this is one of them: a new mystery gameplay mode that appears to allow you to fight with trophies.
Fans of the previous game will remember the several dozens of trophies that were awarded for completing certain tasks in the game. But in Melee, they were nothing more than ornamental collectibles.
Game creator, Masahiro Sakurai, only partly explains what happens in the new mode, which he files under ‘???’ on the official site. “In this world, trophies fight,” he says. “Those are the rules of this world. But… when someone… or something… breaks those rules, the world will pay a terrible price…”
Whatever he means, this mode promises to be something special because the principle of Smash Bros. is that you smash opponents off the stage – where they fall to their death – but the stadium pictured below has no edges, and so nowhere to fall. Interesting…
I’m just happy to have some Smash Brothers news! New feature sounds very cool, and will probably add 100 or so hours to my time with it. Damn you Nintendo!
Here’s a gallery of a 59-feet-tall 1:1 Gundam robot, lying down in its base at Mount Fuji. I know the world is entranced by Transformers right now, but please excuse my enthusiasm when I say… “it’s full-scale Gundam! A REAL GUNDAM! Look at those pics! LOOK AT THAT DETAIL! OMFG!” OK, much better now. We told you about the project before, but as you can see now it is a reality. And you can even get inside the cockpit while you play in the interactive Gundam Crisis attraction that surrounds it.
There isn’t much to say about this other than to observe how cool it is. I’d spend the only to go to japan just to see this baby. Seeing the people next to the Gundam is amazing, it just fills me with geekish glee.
A torrent containing a text PDF file of the first ten chapters of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” has started to appear on torrent sites all over the web.
We first spotted it on mininova, when a reader tipped us off. It has also shown up on several other BitTorrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, whose admins have refused to take down any of the “Deathly Hallows” torrents, despite admirable efforts by J.K. Rowling’s publishers.
According to the reader, who chose to remain anonymous, the torrent contains a PDF of the first ten chapters and a text file with a message calling for assistance in transcribing the book from the photos:
We are looking for help in finishing the book. With enough people it goes quickly. Please contact harry7pottah@hush.com to get in contact with us. No skills beyond reading and writing are required and help would be greatly appreciated.
It seems rather ludicrous that this is happening mere days before the book’s release. Why bother typing out the entire book from photos when it will hit bookshops all over the world in less than a week? The only plausible reason seems to be a trait of rabid fanboyism only seen among Harry Potter readers and users of Apple’s Macintosh computers.
But it looks like some people aren’t even ready to believe the book has actually been leaked! MTV blogger Jennifer Vineyard claims that the book’s a fake:
First of all, there are multiple versions that contradict one another. One table of contents, for instance, calls chapter 10 “Kreacher’s Tale,” while another table of contents calls the same chapter “The Reflection in the Mirror.”
We will only know whether the leaked photographs are photoshopped or not when the book is released a few days from now, but for argument’s sake I’m going to point out that “The Reflection in the Mirror” is the 10th chapter in a fake fan fiction torrent of the book that has been floating around the Internet for days, if not weeks. In the leaked photographs, the 10th chapter is “Kreacher’s Tale”. It looks like the MTV guys have been downloading torrents. For research purposes, of course.
You have to admire the dedicated to their fandom that these people are showing, but at the same time I feel lucky that I’ve never done this far to absorb content. It comes out tomorrow, and yet I’m sure these people are still typing away.
The funny part is, they might be transcribing a fanfcition!
Thank you, Harry Potter fans! You have just rose the bar of geekdom.
News that the newly discounted PS3 would be discontinued in the coming months left many gamers slightly frustrated on Friday, but Sony will likely stick with its $499 price point when 60GB inventory depletes says analyst Micheal Pachter.
“Although we think that Sony’s public relations gaffe was unfortunate, we do not believe that the company has ill intent, and we expect the $499 price point to be maintained until early next year, when the 80GB model will likely by cut again to $399,” Pachter said.
Just yesterday, Sony told GamePro that 60GB PS3s should be available for “months and months,” even suggesting new pricing once the 60GB models have been diminished.
“We have ample supply to last us for months and months, so any upheaval over the stop in manufacturing of this model is ill-placed. As we said on Friday, we won’t be making any further announcements regarding our PS3 model hardware strategy in North America until the 60GB model is exhausted and market conditions are evaluated,” a Sony spokesman told us.
Now what Sony did is making sense, they are improving their manufacturing process and cutting costs and the drop of $100 on the 60GB PS3s was just a way to clear inventory so they can start shipping these cheaper units with larger harddrives.
It might be that Sony should have just waited another year to release PS3, since even at this point they can’t manufacturing them cheaply and they have very little software. But it seems they are getting the console in order and will be ready to take on the market with a $400 80GB model by next year. That is when I’ll get one, and I’m sure millions of people with the same mindset are sitting on the sidelines waiting for that day.
On the LucasArts website promoting their new Star Wars game, publicity shots show images of an unseen controller with the Sony branding. In this redesign, the left analog stick has been swapped with the D-pad (in a similar fashion to the 360 and Gamecube controllers). So is it real? At E3, Kotaku received confirmation on rumble returning to the PS3 controllers from an unnamed third-party publisher.
We posted Sony responding to the rumorhere. If Sony were to give rumble back to their customers, it would also seem like the only good time for a controller layout adjustment, since packaging the redesigns together would prevent a potentially hazardous third SKU on the market. So logically it could be real, but if this shot is actually a leak, we’re calling it intentional.
I really hope this rumor turns out to be false. One of the selling points for the PS3, to me at least, was the fact they kept the same controller design that has served well for the past ten years. It was a perfect design! Classic look, comfortable, awesome for fighters and with the analogue sticks it was great for shooters (of course I can’t see playing shooters on a console) as well. Everything in between from RPGs to strategy to adventure this controller was perfect.
Now because they are behind in sales they want to emulate the clumsy design of the xBox controller? This is anothe in a long line of mistakes for Sony.
Wow. We never thought about it this way before, but if the web still looked like this, you wouldn’t need an iPhone with Safari to surf the web on your phone.
Remember back when the web was basically text and an occasional logo or product picture on a plain background? And remember when the idea of buying and selling things online was new and kind of scary?
This promotional video from 1994 does beg one question though. If this company was trying to promote itself, why does it tell viewers to email for more information at the end? Shouldn’t they have an amazing web site of their own?
Confirming Internet reports from late last week, Sony Computer Entertainment America has officially confirmed the company will be dropping the price of the 60GB PlayStation 3 SKU to $499, effective Tuesday. Additionally, Sony will be introducing an 80GB SKU in August for $599 bundled with a copy of MotorStorm.
So far, the price drop is only for North America. Stay tuned for more details as E3 begins next week.
This is a bit of a surprise, but I guess Sony might be getting desperate. But will the middle of the summer be the right time? Gamers with part-time jobs have money and might be willing to shell out $500, but not in the numbers that could be seen this holiday season. Maybe another drop before Christmas?
Who knows how this will effect the market, price doesn’t effect me as much as a strong game library. Which so far, the Playstation 3 doesn’t have and won’t have for a while.
Catherine Tate accepts proposal to star in fourth series.
Catherine Tate is set to return to the TARDIS for the complete 13 week run of Series Four of Doctor Who.
Award winning comedian Tate will reprise her role as Donna, the runaway bride from last year’s Christmas special, despite turning down the Doctor’s invitation to travel with him at the end of that adventure.
When Catherine was asked if she would like to become The Doctor’s new companion at the press screening of The Runaway Bride, she replied, “I would love to, but no one has asked!” Well, now they have.
“Catherine was an absolute star in The Runaway Bride and we are delighted that one of Britain’s greatest talents has agreed to join us for the fourth series,” announced Doctor Who’s executive producer and head writer, Russell T Davies. “Viewers can expect more ambitious storylines and a whole host of guest stars in 2008.”
Catherine Tate added : “I am delighted to be returning to Doctor Who. I had a blast last Christmas and look forward to travelling again through time and space with that nice man from Gallifrey.”
Freema Agyeman who has played Martha Jones, The Doctor’s companion throughout the critically acclaimed third series, will return to the show to join The Doctor and Donna mid series.
I’m not sure what to think about this, Catherine Tate’s role as companion wasn’t great during “The Runaway Bride” but she had a personality the conflicted with the Doctor and they seemed to compliment each other. She was also capable of showing great compassion, so there might be a lot of her character left to explore.
Doctor Who season 3 was a triumph, close to the best season so far (the first hasn’t come close to being beaten) and hopefully the show will continue on strong and know when to end before growing stale, like the approach that Battlestar Galactica is takin.
