Link roundup

1. China is such a large market that its tastes will become more dominant in consumer items:
When Mercedes-Benz set out to design a new S-Class luxury saloon, to hit showrooms in 2014, Daimler flew 100 Chinese consumers to customer clinics in Germany and the US to ensure they had input in the car’s design.

But the Chinese car boom is shaping the look of some mass-market cars too.

When General Motors designed its LaCrosse saloon, the brand, which is popular in China, devised a roomy and plush rear seat of the kind that Chinese owners – many of whom have chauffeurs – prefer.
2. From a post about the upcoming tv show about Pan Am:
My mother often shared stories with my sisters and me about her training at an “Air Career School,” where students (all women) lived together in dormitories and learned how to become Stewardesses. It was when she exclaimed “And I always was able to eat the pecan pie!” that I understood how times have changed. Each Stewardess-In-Training was weighed every week, and if they gained any weight over the last week, they weren’t allowed to have any of the desserts that they prominently displayed at every meal.
3. Top mp3s are now only 69 cents (and come with free cloud storage) in Amazon's store.
READ MORE - Link roundup

Erik Wolpaw to play, speak about Portal 2



Sure hope this is going to be posted online:
Next Thursday, May 5th, the Game Center will be hosting a lecture by Erik Wolpaw. Erik Wolpaw is a video game writer currently working at Valve Software who has earned numerous awards for his work. He has contributed to well-known games such as Half-Life and Psychonauts and his work on the Portal series is widely considered to be a high-water mark of game writing and interactive storytelling. Before becoming a game developer, Erik was an influential game critic and humorist. As one of the co-founders of the legendary site Old Man Murray, he illuminated the absurdities of video games and video game culture with a thermonuclear wit.

The format for the evening will be a brief guided play-through of Portal 2 with Erik, followed by an interview and general discussion moderated by Game Center Interim Director Frank Lantz. The audience is encouraged to join the discussion. Please bring questions about Portal, game writing, criticism, narrative and the overall subject of games in general.

The talk will begin at 7:00 PM at 721 Broadway, Room 006 and is open to students, faculty, and the general public. We welcome everyone, whether your research and teaching is related to games or you are simply curious about this rapidly evolving field. Please come, and feel free to bring any interested NYU colleagues.
Via.

And speaking of Portal, here's a cool screenshot:



Via.

*Previously: Chell wallpaper.
READ MORE - Erik Wolpaw to play, speak about Portal 2

Link roundup

1. ESPN's main NBA blogger bet before the season that Darko Milicic would contribute more than Shaquille O'Neal. Darko had twice as many points and more than three times as many blocks, and dominated in all the other box score stats. So he must have contributed more, right?

2. Video shows off the Sith Warrior class in The Old Republic.

3. You can read 26 comics for free with Dark Horse's new digital app. (Which would be more exciting to me if I had a tablet. The companies are kidding themselves if they think $1+ an issue is a reasonable price.)
READ MORE - Link roundup

Ladies from the royal wedding


Princess Beatrice and her hat.



Grace Van Cutsem, also a meme.
READ MORE - Ladies from the royal wedding

Disturbing spider attack



Watch as a spider plays possum to lure an ant close, and then ties him up with a freakish burst of speed. And then something more disturbing happens. There's more spider videos at Vimeo, and spider photos at DeviantArt. Via.

*Previously: David Lynch's Spider-Man.
READ MORE - Disturbing spider attack

Archives