While reading the book Automated Planning: Theory and Practice, I found out that planning systems have been used in Roterdam to coordinate the loading of containers in container ships, I came across a neat picture of a freighter called, and I kid you not, Ever Uranus! Now, that is really something to be included in an AI book. Out of tens of Ever Something ships in the same company, someone got to choose Ever Uranus...
Following my lunchtime relaxation session, I found this amazing episode of Futurama in which our heroes are stranded in a planet full of Amazons, and they are condemned to die by snu snu, which is an euphemism for sex. However, as it would be predictable, they are not as shocked by the prospect of dying through having too much sex. Well, I know I would not be, but they sort of regret the decision. Wimps! This first video is strangely funnier when dubbed to German...
Though this post is amazingly more funny for those who understand the language of Camões, just the imagery and the sweet music on the background should provide some laughs. You can see that Francisco, the owner of the dick shop, is always on the verge of bursting into laughter, and his wife, also the butt of dick jokes cannot contain her giggles. The reporter starts with:
This is the workshop of Mr. Francisco, with the hands of his family, there comes 300 pricks, ready to give joy to any home in need.
Many jokes follow, such as the reporter asking, what is the biggest prick you held in your hands?. Upon which, the shop owner stutters and says "I even choke with the size". Well, you get the picture...
As part of my daily lunch talks with my colleagues at the university, we wondered how it would work to travel the world in a container ship, or any other freighter, for that matter. So it turns out that up until the 80s, some people did offer themselves as a amateur sailors for a free trip to any major port around the world.
Nowadays, it turns out that many companies have specialized in offering travel on board cargo ships, such as Freighter Travel in New Zealand, or the similarly named Canadian company. Other companies include Freighter World, or the one whose name I liked the most, The Cruise People. Since some of these ships dock at Rio Grande, it may even be feasible for me to go home in Porto Alegre. That should be quite an adventure!
As expected, Bethesda released a teaser trailer for the future Fallout 3, with the actual game release scheduled for the fall of 2008. Also as expected, the video says absolutely nothing regarding the playing mode of this future version of the classic. Opinions in the web vary, but it seems to me that Bethesda will go ahead and do what many have feared, which is an Oblivion with (futuristic) guns. An indication of this is that, contrary to what the Marketing guy has stated a few months ago, the game will be ported to the Playstation 3 and the XBox 360, therefore, any other statement by this guy is worth more or less the same as a Zimbabwean dollar.
To complete this post, I linked a video of what Black Isle StudiosFallout 3 would have been, an isometric view (though 3D this time), allowing turn-based combat as well as real-time, following the formula from the previous games. Most specialized online magazines with a tradition of being sellouts, as well as fans of Oblivion, say that the classic Fallout formula is something old (soooo 90s). Such statements were also made regarding Castlevania, however, experience tells us that certain games are more appropriately played in certain formats, and that is something independent of available technology, since the versions of Castlevania in 3D that were released for the Nintendo 64 were a failure. As a final aside, for those interested in checking it out, it is possible to download an unofficial tech demo of the defunct Van Buren Fallout, and contrast it with whatever comes out from Bethesda.
Indeed, one can find all sorts of things in London, and this week I have found one of those things that I must check out, the Handlebar Club. This is a club for gentlemen with a hirsute appendage of the upper lip, with graspable extremities. Beards are out. Members meet at a pub in London to socialize and compete in various categories (the criteria for winning, though, are beyond me). Besides the club, it seems like there is an event called the Beard and Mustache Championship, which seems to take an international scope. Quite interesting stuff, I was even considering joining the competition, but I am afraid I have no chance against professional beardsmen.
