Doom is the Mother of all first person shooters – the root of all games that are blamed when kids go postal.

I still think that MOST games in larger doses are bad for young brains, because too much gaming has similar effects like being a drug addict. Plus games offer only a reduced set of "solutions" and "interactions" – so the human brain trains the same simple patterns again and again. Like all bad habits repetition is bad for you.

Our minds are built for problem solving and pattern recognition. When you play a game too much you brain keeps playing the game, even when you stop doing it physically.

There is no ultimate explanation for people going on the ultimate killing spree, but we should also watch the "smaller" effects of games on young people.

It’s easy to blame the money lenders, bankers, stock brokers and other fat cats, but what kind of economic system is not "evil"?

Barter systems only work on a small scale and communism (as charming as it sounds to share everything with everyone) simply doesn’t scale up and is simply unfair to those who work hard.

Plus the financial markets are needed for a modern economy.

Protestors and especially anti-globalization activists should look at the details and not simply blabber angrily against the "system".

Criminal activity and excessive inbreeding of financial products are bad – no doubt about it. But lending is a good thing, stock markets help companies and workers, venture capitalists help new ideas to get off the ground.

It’s all about balance: money markets need sensible direction as well as social systems do. Neither should be allowed to run amok.

Good citizen and good government should understand the need for both. It’s of no use to protest against failures when it’s too late – especially when you enjoy the fruits of "rich overblown markets" before.

Just watching this hurts … a lot! Wanna see some closeups? Click here! Wanna know what this madness is all about? Click here! And you can even visit the local website with loads of images here …

I love the Brits for their weird traditions, but I also applaud them for still allowing such dangerous stuff. People should be able to kill themselves for the amusement of others …

Business Week: The Great Ethanol Scam

Turn food and greenery into fuel seems to be a loosing idea. Food prices have risen thanks to biofuels and too much other important resources are used to produce it (water and fertilizer – also made from oil):

Not only is ethanol proving to be a dud as a fuel substitute but there is increasing evidence that it is destroying engines in large numbers.

Ouch!

Found a mate? Check.

Found a place? Check.

Start multiplying.

It’s so easy and tempting to follow your basic instincts and societies fool proof models. But is it really you? Are you mostly driven by your biology or your so called personality? Are you perpetuating just the species or do you have a "real life"?

Nature – in it’s ruthless efficiency – has created so much beauty without compromise. Beauty based on practicality is the best kind. Japanese design combines this often to great effect.

Some freakish collectors relish the joy of collecting especially ugly or disfigured animals or "things". So other equally ruthless "breeders" create this creatures for profit. I only wish we could magically transform the owners into their own possessions, so they can suffer from over breeding, like weak bones and unusable noses.

What I always love about Mapplethorpe is his clarity and respect for the viewer. He simply selects a view and leaves it to the viewer to make up his / her own mind. No flashy moments, no spectacular angles.

Therefore her proves to be a great artist and patient enough with his audience to "dig deeper" – and not pushing them ahead.

Our psyche loves simple solutions to nagging problems and insecurities. Mythology and fairy tales are full of miracle cures and magic items that solve any problem.

Like little kids we hunger for the Überfather or Übermother to fix the universe for us. Once we grow up many project their childhood inability to cope with reality onto a mystical being or deity and ask them to fix life for them.

Because we mere mortals can’t connect to the heavens and the gods we hope for magic items that are blessed by our imaginary friends in high places. Magic amulets or pants that protect us from harm, bones from saints and all that kind of rubbish.

It’s wishful thinking and idol worshipping at it’s best.

And if a magic item didn’t work as advertised we blame ourselves for being not "worthy" enough to invoke it’s powers.

Humans once said they are the only ones that use tools. That has been debunked – many animals use tools. Humans once said only they had "real" language. That has also been debunked. Humans once said they are only ones that create art. That has been debunked by painting elephants and monkeys.

Now those creepy animals even use "our" toys!

“Nazi Porn” is one of the search keywords that bring quite some hits from Google. So I felt obliged to offer all those “poor souls” looking for NAZI PORN a posting that  actually offers some …

Are you getting excited?

I can actually recommend the video “Caligula reincarnated as Hitler”! Great camera works, excellent soundtrack and the acting … just magnificent …

Look she is a Medic, a Nazi and a Slut in one package!

You should be pretty excited by now?!

Here some hot SS-Studs … that should help?

Honestly, who are these people looking for Nazi porn on my bloody blog anyway?

I know it’s a bit late and outdated, but still worth watching and highly entertaining – if you have a dark soul like me.

Thanks Mr Brooker!

BBC News: Women ‘fight off disease better’

So we guys are indeed poor little bunnies, need a lot of care and medicine to get back to full macho power:

Men really do have an excuse for supposedly being wimpy about coughs and colds – their immune systems are not as strong as women’s, research suggests.

A Canadian study indicates that the female sex hormone oestrogen gives women’s immune systems added bite at fighting off infection.

Oestrogen seems to counter an enzyme which blocks the inflammatory process.

BBC News: MPs’ expenses in detail, Speaker quits ‘for sake of unity’ and A guide to what the expenses furore is all about 

British Members of Parliament have abused an all to willing expenses system to enhance their wages. In recent weeks more and more of the abuses have come to light and all big parties tried to come clean … somehow.

Now the more or less honourable Speaker of the House was forced to resign, because he was head of the expenses system and (ab-)used it as well. He was hardly the most serious offender …

Once again it shows that politicians can’t "oversee" themselves. Even reasonable checks and balances don’t work if it’s done by people within or to close to the "system" they should control.

Citizens and the Press are required to stick their noses into the affairs of the so called elites. There is no system that can make it all perfect, sooner or later loopholes are found or installed.

People in power have to be watched. Not because they are all bad, but because power and money are always too tempting for some. But most important: it’s the job of the voters to watch those they voted into power.

Democracy is not a nice automatic process – it’s constant work for all. Only an active electorate guarantees "clean politics".

In Britain there will be a big ruckus, some changes, some ghastly figures will disappear (and reappear in other positions).

Is it 20 years already? Wow! Nice video from the EU and a nice reminder that Freedom is not "free".

Finally WolframAlpha has been released and I am deeply impressed by it’s genius.

Most reviewers so far have been impressed or wondering what the hype is all about. Usually Alpha gets compared to Google, which is a big mistake.

Google is a basically a search engine – Alpha is a "computational knowledge engine". It’s not meant to find pictures of your favourite celebrity pr0n or lookup an address to buy Lederhosen in your town.

Alpha is like a smart research robot, it can compare and compute numbers in all shapes, sizes and forms.

With Google you can find the population size of Germany, France and Italy – but only Alpha can compare them for you, make a nice graph and sort them accordingly.

So that tagline "computational knowledge engine" has to be taken literally and seriously. If your question is not about computing or comparing anything then don’t use Alpha.

Most of us mere mortal don’t have any such questions for Alpha, but for researchers, students, engineers, journalists and doctors Alpha will be a Godsend. Look here for many excellent examples what Alpha can do.

Alpha is pretty young, so it doesn’t have data on everything so far –and we users are new to this great tool. I am sure it will be phenomenal as Wikipedia in it’s area.

When this Mini-TV was introduced everybody thought it’s a stupid idea. Small transistor radios sold well, but nobody believed in the idea of "portable television".

Today the screens on iPods, cell phones with video and other portable video devices are hardly bigger, but people are mad about watching clips, TV episodes and whole movies on such tiny screens.

Madness!

But once again the quality technology is not important, as long as it is convenient and the content is good. People are willing to put up with technological limits if they are captured by good shows and stories.

Bigger screens, THX and all that nonsense is simply an added bonus, but not the most important thing about listening to a good song or watching an excellent video.

Star Trek has been remastered and rereleased for eager Fans to consume. It is amazing to me how "real fans" will buy the same movie or TV series again and again, just because a tiny aspect has been changed.

Blade Runner – a great movie I adore – has been released in a gazillion forms. George Lucas has reedited his own saga way to many times. But each time the fans bought the "new" edition.

It is amazing how dumb "real fans" are, especially they know each episode by heart and recite the damn show without seeing it anyway.

BBC News: Q&A: Sri Lanka conflict

The Sri Lankan Civil War has raged for over 25 years and has devastated the country. Both sides committed terrible war crimes.

Civil war is always a terrible thing – sometimes a fight is necessary to overthrow evil Regimes (like the ones in Burma, which hardly will leave simply because of public protest). But in the case of Sri Lanka there is still no solution in sight – and many believe that the war will start again sooner or later.

Bringing different people together to form a state is sometimes almost impossible. Let’s hope that the blood of this Revolution will bring all sides together and forge a better future.

Once again every shitty country in Europe sent it’s "best" songs to compete with each other in the Eurovision contest.

And like every year the songs were mostly terrible and the voting was as idiotic as ever. Slavs voted for Slavs, Nordic countries for fellow Nordic countries. The Turkish Diaspora produced a high rank for their nations terribly tittie twisting song – Turkey could put someone like Mr Methane on stage and still score a Top 5 position.

The winning Norwegian Song is mediocre at best and I am sure all of Europe’s 12 year Girls must have voted for that charming übergifted little shit.

I hated it and will so until I die.

Of course I will watch next years Eurovision. I love to hate the trashy competition. And I will once again hate the winner, since only bad songs win – not really good ones. But everyone expects that anyway …

As recent events have shown: Beauty and Brains rarely come in one package. And all the time spend grooming and presenting yourself is lost time to educating yourself. That much peroxide can’t be good for the brain either …

BBC News Video: Russia displays its military might

Sure, Russia celebrates each March it’s glorious victory of Nazi Germany. But it also shows how much Russia loves it’s militaristic fantasies.

But it’s all a big fake. Russia’s military is badly managed, has extremely outdated material and logistics, moral is low and the image of the armed forces is bad. It certainly needs modernization and Russia spends only a tiny fraction of it’s GDP on defence (compared to the obsessed and paranoid Americans).

Russia still is a shrinking country, which is crazy since it’s rich in land and resources. Shame on you Russia for letting yourself go and indulge in stupid imperial fantasies. Build more roads and a better society, curb the rampant capitalism and learn what it means to be a Democracy.

And stop blaming the West for your own Fuckups.

Cars used to be much smaller and used a lot less petrol. Compared to SUVs these old Autos look like toys, but they were much less thirsty.

Today’s cars spend most fuel on moving themselves forward – the passengers weight make hardly a difference.

The 1967 VW Beetle weight a mere 840 kg and a Toyota Prius NHW20 Hybrid 1,317 kg. Just for fun: the Hummer H2 weighs an amazing 2903 kg.

Each kg saved makes a difference and especially today we have so many tough , but amazingly light materials. So lighter cars should be no problem at all.

There is no shortage of Big Media Boobs and way too many women think some added silicon and beauty operation will grant them fame.

Your breasts might get famous, but you will only be another sleazy C-List Star. And many never and bigger oversized fertility princesses are waiting to take your place.

Some Fashion choices are just wrong, but at least they kept us safe in the dark.

So the porky Doomsday has been postponed. Humanity will live another do – and so will the Press. Mass Media loves hysteria and with Swine Flu they found another small fire to pour oil into.

The flu is dangerous, but during the Mexican Swine Flu panic more people died of the "normal" flu compared to Übervirus. Death is always relative – and so are pandemics.

But I am happy that this happened: it was basically an exercise for the real thing. It’s good to know that the medical establishment and government actually do care and do something about it. It might not be perfect, but such almost-pandemics keep our emergency systems on their toes.

Love that T-Shirt, it’s such a nice play on Hello Kitty and male primal instincts. Thanks to Edosan for sending this one …