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I have never understood how the Government could get the death penalty for Moussaoui on the theory that he was responsible for the 9/11 deaths not through his participation in the plot but through his failure to tell authorities what he knew so it could be stopped.

It seems the Judge today had the same concern.

“I must warn the government it is treading on delicate legal ground here,” U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said at the conclusion of the day’s testimony, after the jury had left the courtroom. “I don’t know of any case where a failure to act is sufficient for the death penalty as a matter of law.”

xoip writes “A Recent CBC report says that Vonage Canada has filed a complaint with Federal Regulators over a New $10.00 per month Quality of Service Premium that Broadband Internet provider, Shaw Cable has begun charging customers of VoIP. Noted Internet Legal expert Michael Geist has written an excellent review of the complaint Vonage made to the CRTC and highlights the point made in the Vonage filing, ‘that not enough is known at this point about the Shaw service in order to formulate an appropriate regulatory response.’”

Thursday’s upset win over No. 1 UConn all but sealed Syracuse’s ticket to the NCAA Tournament. But as Andy Katz writes, the loss may have helped the Huskies almost as much as the win helped the Orange.

In a few weeks a brand new game for the Nintendo DS is going to be released named Cooking Mama. In the game you play a female chef who has to prepare food, perform various actions such as slicing vegetables and tenderizing meat, cook your food, make sure not to over/undercook the food, and then serve it. And, well, that’s about it really. That’s right, it’s a cooking simulation game on the DS … and it sounds freaking awesome!

Of course … this game is only coming out in Japan and there is only a small chance that this game will ever be released in the States. Like so many other “oddball” games which are released in Japan only a very small portion of those games ever end up getting a US release. And once again I’ll have to buy an import copy of this game and try to figure out all the Japanese text.

What I don’t understand is why are so many other countries continuously developing so many of these cool/crazy games? Why does Japan develop such great games such as Katamari Damacy, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!, Seaman, Phoenix Wright, as well as countless others while we get to look forward to the 20th version of Tony Hawk?

But in this version of Tony Hawk the graphics are just a little bit better than last time! You can actually see your skater’s fingers! Go buy it right away!!!

It’s almost as if games like Cooking Mama have to be released in Japan before they can even be considered for release in the States. I can only imagine what the discussions are like at publishing houses…

Developer: “Let’s make a game with blocky graphics and crazy music where you have to roll up everything you can find in the world using a huge sticky ball! And these balls will be used to recreate all the stars in the universe after your father destroyed them all in a drunken bender!”

Publisher: “What the heck are you talking about? Are you freaking insane? Get the hell out of my office!”

Developer: “Well, they just released the same game in Japan…”

Publisher: “Those Japanese gamers are so crazy! I love it! Let’s publish it!”

Why do we have to continuously wait for games like this to be translated and released in the States? Why can’t an American publisher try something just a little bit risky, create a few smaller “oddball” titles each year and see what happens?

True there is always risk in creating a new game property, but we’re not talking about creating the next Half-Life here. I’m talking about creating the next Nintendogs, a fairly simple title which can be created using a small development team and in a short amount of time. The movie industry follows a similar strategy and to great success.

Each year all the movie studios release a couple of “major” releases every year (you know, all those $200 million “event movies” like King Kong and War of the Worlds). However, in addition to these monster movies the studios also release a couple of “independent” pictures as well. Often these movies cover topics not normally examined by larger movies, have much smaller budgets, and take risks (Brokeback Mountain anyone?). Their thinking is that they can often make several of these smaller independent movies for the price of just a single “event” movie and if just one of them “hits” it is more than worth the investment.

Take a movie such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding. That film only cost $5 million to make and it grossed $368 million worldwide, that is good return on investment. And that is why movie companies will always make indie pictures: relatively small risk and a possibly huge financial reward.

So why can’t the American game industry try this approach? True, Valve is making headway releasing games such as Darwinia and Rag Doll Kung Fu, but more publishers need to step up and start taking these sorts of risks. Not every game needs to be a sequel or a licensed property. The Nintendo DS is almost made to create unique titles, but yet instead of a Cooking Mama we get to see yet another The Sims title released on the DS.

It’s almost as if these “oddball” games have to be created overseas first and only then can they be brought over to the States. But I’ll tell you right now, if a game like Cooking Mama was made by EA or Activision for the DS I would purchase that game in a second. I don’t need a fancy license (how many Lord of the Rings games can EA possibly make?) or amazing graphics, I am just looking for a good, fun, original game.

Could that possibly be why the Nintendo DS is selling so well? Could it possibly be that people are starting to get tired of the same-old-same-old and looking for a new gaming experience? Who’s to say, but I can’t wait to cook with Mama on my DS! Get with the program American game publishers!

AP - Twelve down, 12 to go. The popular talent show "American Idol" axed four more contestants Thursday night, slimming the competition to 12 aspiring singers.

More than 250 doctors around the world have joined a harshly worded criticism of the U.S. over the force-feeding of Guantanamo prisoners. Their letter has been published in the medical journal, The Lancet.

The open letter in the Lancet was signed by more than 250 top doctors from seven countries - the UK, the US, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Italy and the Netherlands. “We urge the US government to ensure that detainees are assessed by independent physicians and that techniques such as force-feeding and restraint chairs are abandoned,” the letter said.

The doctors said the World Medical Association - a world body representing physicians, including those in the US - specifically prohibited force-feeding. They also recommended that those participating in the Guantanamo force-feedings be disciplined by their professional organizations.

Filed under: Drama, FOX, OpEd, The O.C.

src="http://www.tvsquad.com/media/2006/03/oclogo.jpg" alt="oclogo" />The O.C. is back after taking an
Olympic hiatus and things are as crazy as ever in Newport Beach. Ryan embarks on a road trip with Johnny’s new-to-town
cousin, Sadie. He and Sadie are attempting to track down Johnny’s deadbeat dad for unpaid child support. I’m not
exactly sure how I feel about this Sadie girl. Chili was a bizarro Seth, and it seems as if Sadie is a bizarro Theresa.
She looks like Theresa and she acts like Theresa. She has that whole nice girl from the wrong side of town vibe. I’m
just not buying it. How is she that overly polite, but still ready to kick some deadbeat dad ass at the drop of a hat?

Plus, why is Johnny’s mom suddenly losing the house now? What kind of bank forecloses on a house right after a child
dies? Would she have been able to afford the house if Johnny was still alive? I know that she’s waiting for the
insurance money, but how was she paying the monthly mortgage before? I’m so confused. I think the writers were really
stretching to create a reason for Ryan and Sadie’s impromptu road trip. It was all an elaborate plot to get them into a
hotel room together to play strip poker. It’s very similar to Ryan and Marissa’s first road trip together to Tijuana,
back in season one. Remember how they got stuck in that hotel room? Yeah, but it was better then. I find this Ryan and
Sadie romance sort-of lame. They just don’t seem to have too much chemistry together. Ryan and Marissa had a lot of
chemistry, but nothing to talk about. I’m not gonna get too bummed about their break-up because their eventual reunion
is in the stars.

The Johnny suicide/murder plot was also a surprise, although it didn’t really go anywhere. But
I was glad that we finally got to hear what was in Marissa’s letter to Johnny. But writing, "I don’t love you, and
I never will" is sort of harsh. Geez. She couldn’t give him the old "I love you, but as a friend" line?
Someone should teach her how to write a better (un)love letter before somebody else gets killed. You know, I
just thought of something. At first, I was thinking that Marissa was crying at the end of the episode because she and
Ryan broke up. But maybe she was crying because she wished that she’d have picked Johnny over Ryan? Then he’d
be alive and she’d have a boyfriend. Hmmmm, perhaps?

I absolutely adore Julie Cooper and Dr. Roberts together.
They are the new Seth and Summer. Julie finally has someone she can "play" with (who isn’t the
ex-boyfriend of her daughter, of course). Her dressing like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct was hysterical.
This is a woman who always gets what she wants. It was a lot like Summer dressing up as Wonder Woman for Seth. I’m sure
that Summer will eventually come around. She can’t hate Julie too much for being a materialistic bitch because remember,
that’s how Summer use to be. She just needed a super nerd to show her the way. And Dr. Roberts can be Julie’s super
nerd of love.

I’m so glad that they are finally going somewhere with this Sandy Cohen work thing. I thought they
were going to run around in circles forever. But like Kirsten, I’m a little bit confused at how suddenly Sandy has
embraced the Dark Side. All those years of Caleb’s pushing and he never once did he crack…until now. I’m interested
to see where this is going.

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by TChris

Apart from the legal and moral objections to detainee abuse, the need to maintain credibility should have deterred the administration from mistreating prisoners. China announced today that it isn’t interested in lectures on human rights from a government that wiretaps its citizens and detains uncharged prisoners indefinitely.

The Chinese government’s report, issued a day after the State Department slammed China for “numerous and serious” human rights abuses, attacked the United States for failing its citizens.

And China isn’t alone.

Iraq hanged 13 insurgents Thursday, the first time militants have been executed there since the U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein nearly three years ago, the government said. In other violence, at least 16 more people were killed in blasts. [CBS News]

AP - Conan O'Brien may be a talk-show host in America, but he's a god in Finland.

AP - City officials say there's no substitute for the original when it comes to producing a movie version of the long-running "Dallas" television series.

WeLikeRoy writes “A serious problem in the use of GPG to verify digital signatures has been discovered, which also affects the use of gpg in email. It is possible for an attacker to take any signed message and inject extra arbitrary data without affecting the signed status of the message. Depending on how gpg is invoked, it may be possible to output just faked data as several variants of this attack have been discovered. All versions of gnupg prior to 1.4.2.2 are affected, and it is thus recommended to update GnuPG as soon as possible to version 1.4.2.2.”