H/T to Roger Henry for the link.
March 26, 2011
What Canada needs is an actually “conservative” party
Because right now, we’ve got so-called Conservatives wearing Liberal clothing (and Liberals pawing through the NDP’s cast-off pile). There’s no major federal party in Canada that actually pursues fiscally responsible government policies, no matter how much they may talk about the virtues of smaller government.
Shortly after his government’s defeat, Prime Minister Stephen Harper attempted to deflect focus back to Tuesday’s budget. The economy, he said, is the number one priority of Canadians and the budget was the key to the country’s economic future. Then he said: “There was nothing in the budget that the opposition could not or should not have supported.” True enough — but what does that say to Canada’s conservatives? Based on the budget, they are now called on to support a Conservative party that has presided over an extravagant full-scale national revival of big government by fiscal expansion.
Only a few days ago, it seems, Canadian politics was abuzz with the possibility of a new ideological era that favoured smaller government and lower taxes, with less waste, more discipline and a determination to cut taxes. There were signs of revolt in British Columbia, a shake-up in Calgary and reform in Toronto, where Mayor Rob Ford captured a staggering 47% of the vote in a town where The Globe and Mail is considered a right-wing propaganda sheet. Ford Nation, they called it.
There is no Harper Nation. After five-plus years in office, the Harper Conservatives have singularly failed to change the Canadian ideological landscape. Instead, Canadian politics changed the Conservatives. In power, they transformed themselves into another basely partisan party that willingly and even eagerly pandered to whatever the political three-ring circus put on display. This week’s budget, in which $2-billion in loose cash was promptly distributed to a score of special interests and political agendas, left in place a $40-billion deficit for 2010 and solidified a $100-billion increase in the national debt over five years.
There’s no threat on the right to force the Conservatives to actually live up to their talk, so they’re free to drift as far into Liberal territory as they like — and they seem to like it a lot — because small-C conservative voters have nowhere else to go.
20 years of Blizzard
This is the 20th anniversary of the founding of Blizzard, one of the most important gaming companies in the industry.
Twenty years is a long time, and to illustrate how long (and make you feel old in the process), let’s do a little retrospective. In 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev led the Soviet Union, James Cameron’s Terminator 2 and Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood ruled the box office, and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was flying off toy store shelves everywhere following its August release.
Also in 1991, a software company known as Silicon & Synapse started its life by working on ports for other gaming companies before re-branding itself as Blizzard Entertainment three years later.
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550th anniversary of the bloodiest battle in English history
Unless you were paying close attention in your history classes, you probably wouldn’t recognize the name:
It was one of the biggest and probably the bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil. Such was its ferocity almost 1 per cent of the English population was wiped out in a single day. Yet mention the Battle of Towton to most people and you would probably get a blank stare.
Next week marks the 550th anniversary of the engagement that changed the course of the Wars of the Roses. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 soldiers took part in the battle in 1461 between the Houses of York and Lancaster for control of the English throne. An estimated 28,000 men are said to have lost their lives.
But this bloody conflict is unlikely to remain forgotten for much longer. Archaeologists believe they will unearth what is likely to be Britain’s largest mass grave this summer.
Work is to begin in June, at a site 12 miles south of York between the villages of Saxton and Towton where the battle took place in snowy March weather. The locations of the graves were discovered by archaeologists using geophysical imagery and now, with funding in place, they are able to begin excavating.
And why is such a major battle so little-known? Perhaps because the “wrong” side won:
Very few records of the battle survive, which is one reason that so little is known about it. Historians believe this could be due to an early propaganda campaign by the Tudors.
Author and historian George Goodwin, who this month publishes a new book: Fatal Colours: Towton, 1461 — England’s Most Brutal Battle, said: “The Tudors did a tremendously good propaganda job in making Bosworth the key battle because that was the battle which ended the Wars of the Roses. They were the winners and they got to write the history books. Because Towton was a Yorkist victory that wasn’t really very useful to them.”
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This week in Guild Wars 2 news
I’ve been accumulating news snippets about the as-yet-to-be-formally-scheduled release of Guild Wars 2 for an email newsletter I send out to my friends and acquaintances in the Guild Wars community.
A very quiet week compared with the last couple of information-dense weeks.
Part 1: Discussion of previous news
- Melmoth registers strong disagreement with the Guild Wars 2 design team philosophy on armour styles.
- Eliot Lefebvre: “Talking about the representation of women in video games is usually an exercise in depression. [. . .] Comparatively speaking, MMOs deserve a medal for being remarkably open to both players and characters of both genders. And yet that’s damning with faint praise in the worst way. MMOs still leave a lot to be desired when it comes to how they handle women, in ways both subtle and searingly obvious. Female characters are generally expected to be in a state of perpetual undress, more often than not without a significant role in the storyline — and precisely because the genre is so far ahead of its contemporaries, complaints are often met with eye-rolling and derision.”
Part 2: Guild Wars news
- The game update announced last week was implemented on Tuesday. I didn’t check to see if there were any changes from the pre-announcement.
- An interview with Adam Trzonkowski, author of the Guild Leader’s Companion.
“When I started the book, there wasn’t much in print, and I felt like the whole concept was underrepresented. There weren’t a lot of outlets for people seeking advice on the internet, and few people thought to pick up a book on management to help them run their guild. You could find some good blogs, but in general, guild leaders didn’t have a lot of tools. There was also a lot of disinformation and what I call bad role models. People looked at Furor and said, “Now there is a good guild leader,” but was he really? If you modeled yourself after him, you might not necessarily succeed. I just didn’t see the right tools for the job and some of those tools felt pretty demanding. I wanted to include more general ideas and advice — general concepts that anyone can use.”
Part 3: Guild Wars 2 news
- “FUTUREPOLY, a digital arts training studio founded by ArenaNet artist Jason Stokes, is launching an eight-week long online master class on April 2 to help aspiring artists hone their craft with the help of seasoned professional artists.”
- Article about the Hylek. “Prolific and belligerent, hylek are froglike creatures that thrive in all types of water, but prefer to live in swampy areas. No matter where they claim their territory, hylek spawn in alarming quantities. Once reclusive and xenophobic, hylek can now be found farther and farther away from their spawning grounds. From the moment they’re born, hylek find themselves in a fierce competition with their brethren for food and shelter. Those who survive grow more aggressive as their bodies develop the toxins that they use to hunt their prey, protect their villages, and strike down their rivals. They are resourceful survivors, fierce warriors, and masters of poison. They are the hylek.”
- Eurogamer posts an extensive article about the Guild Wars 2 hands-on experience. “‘We don’t intend to be number two this time. We certainly have our sights set on number one.'”
“Can ArenaNet really deliver a mature MMO from day one, made to a higher standard than the market leader and not missing a single component? It’s hard not to be sceptical, but it’s also hard not to be impressed by the team’s ambition and execution. Guild Wars 2 is already polished, innovative and fun to play.”
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