Have read a new Dan Simmons book called Flashback.

It is set in post financial meltdown USA after Israel has been nuked. It's sort of a detective story set around a drug called Flashback that allows you to re-live memories again and again.

I have read other books by this author and all are good. This one is only 1 book. If you like this, I would go on to recommend the Hyperion quadrilogy. Probably his best work.

I thought this was amusing.

QuoteA Danish television channel admitted yesterday it mistakenly used a screenshot from a computer game in a news report about Syria.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2291674/Assassins-Creed-Danish-TV-channel-apologises-using-image-game-news-report-Syria-conflict.html

While waiting on the remaining parts for the computer to arrive, I decided to check out one of the new games I got as a bonus for buying the vid cards, and that game was Tomb Raider.

First off, I have to admit here that I'm not the gamer that I used to be, and because of that, I'm used to the quality of graphics that you see in Unreal Tournament GOTY Edition, which is to say far from today's standards. So when I saw the opening credits (just the credits, mind you, not the initial cut scene), I was impressed. Then I get an eyefull of the first cut scene...

OH! MY! GAWD!!!!!

To say I was blown away is so much an understatement that it's like... like... Well, there's just no way to even give an accurate analogy. Sure, I've seen the YouTube videos from Witcher, and Assassin's Creed, and those were truly phenomenal, relative to my previous experiences, but compare those videos to Unreal Tournament, and that's the difference I saw between the Tomb Raider cut scene and the Assassin's Creed vids. It was just THAT good! I think I'm slipping away, back to the "dark side" of gaming... But I don't think I want to be saved.

This made me laugh

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/wild-animal-bites-footballer-causes-chaos-100809047.html

...of a somewhat different kind.

We have a Comet on it's way that should be visible in the western night sky subject to visibility. However, if you miss this one there is another later in the year that should be brighter.