Posts by D. H. McKee

Tron 2.0 Preview

March 28, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Gaming

You could say that the film Tron did a good job of typifying the 1980s--it had frizzy-haired men, greedy corporations, a helicopter landing on a rooftop, and people throwing away hours of their lives each night on a new fad called "video games." It's been more than 20 years since the motion picture's premiere, and Monolith Productions and Buena Vista are now hard at work on a game-based follow-up to the movie. Tron 2.0 will be a first-person action game that will follow the motion picture closely, but will also have pretty much everything you'd expect from a first-person shooter, plus several unusual new features and gameplay modes, like the lightcycle racing and disc battles featured in the movie.
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After 20 years, the world of Tron returns.

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The Propaganda Remix Project

March 28, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Politics

Counter-Propoganda Posters in full color, perfect for protest signs or mass photocopying.
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Mr. Cranky Rates Iraq War Coverage

March 28, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Humour

Since this is what most people are watching these days anyway, let's catch up on how the television news networks are faring in week one of Gulf War II.

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The Flaw in Shock and Awe

March 28, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Politics

Officials from President Bush on down are scrambling to say they never claimed the war would be won quickly. But this was precisely the message from officers involved in planning the war. It was, in fact, the premise underlying the whole war plan.
On March 19, the day the airstrikes got under way, U.S. Air Force Col. Gary L. Crowder, chief of strategy, concepts, and doctrine for the Air Combat Command, told reporters that the war would be an "effects-based" campaign. "The effects that we are trying to create," he explained, will be "to make it so apparent and so overwhelming at the very outset of potential military operations that the adversary quickly realizes that there is no real alternative here other than to fight and die or to give up." Once the Iraqis realize this, Crowder added, "[T]here will be a greater likelihood that they might choose not to fight for the regime." (Italics added.)

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Follow That Story: The Nuclear Whodunit (Part 3)

March 28, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Politics

The CIA covers its ass today in both the Washington Post and the New York Times, further distancing itself from the forged documents the Bush administration forwarded to the United Nations to support its case that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium. News that the documents were forged has given succor to Bush administration critics, who accuse the government of ginning up evidence against Iraq to justify war.
The story behind the forged documents and how they made their way from the United States to U.N. inspectors is important because it suggests the Bush administration is 1) incompetent; 2) stupid; 3) corrupt; or 4) all of the above.

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Follow That Story: The Nuclear Whodunit (Part 2)

March 28, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Politics

Three days ago, this column asked: Who forged the documents the United States and Britain submitted to U.N. inspectors as proof that Iraq had purchased tons of uranium.presumably for nuclear weapons.from Niger? And what were the forger's motives?
The "Press Box" directive to his press corps colleagues to smoke out the forgers and their designs was prompted by a March 13 Washington Post article, "FBI Probes Fake Evidence of Iraqi Nuclear Plans." The story, which was underplayed on Page A-17, indicated that the U.S. government knew who had forged the Niger documents but wasn't telling. The Post also reported that the United States and Britain received the documents from a third country's intelligence agency, adding, "The FBI is looking into the forgery of a key piece of evidence linking Iraq to a nuclear weapons program, including the possibility that a foreign government is using a deception campaign to foster support for military action against Iraq." [Emphasis added.] The third country in the handoff was not Israel, CNN reported on March 14.

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Follow That Story: The Nuclear Whodunit (Part 1)

March 28, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Politics

The Bush administration could bake an omelet large enough to feed a small city with the egg deposited on its face in the last week.specifically, news that the United States was duped by poorly forged documents that allegedly proved Iraq's nuclear ambitions. The administration and the British government presented the documents to U.N. inspectors as proof that Iraq shopped in Niger for uranium, presumably for a bomb. The inspectors noisily dismissed the docs as crude forgeries.
Forged by whom? And for what reason? That's the story I'd like to see the pack chase.

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Skeptical professor tracks paranormal

March 27, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Skeptic

Bob Carroll always knew he was a skeptic. His skepticism started when he was young, with a disbelief in Santa Claus, and it has led the professor of philosophy to spend more than three decades studying the psychology of deception and self-deception, questioning most things supernatural and paranormal and explaining the principles of sound logical reasoning to others.

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Hagelin proposes new U.S. government

March 27, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Skeptic

The man who lost to Pat Buchanan in a struggle for Reform Party presidential campaign funds in 2000 has announced plans to start a second U.S. government: the U.S. Peace Government.
John Hagelin, a physicist based at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, said he is not talking about secession.

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Blowing Up the Moon.s Conspiracy Theory

March 27, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Skeptic

Phil Plait, 38-year-old astronomer and skeptic, was on the California State University, Northridge, campus Friday, punching holes in the tenacious myth that American astronauts never landed on the moon.

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