The Inane Asylum

In today's issue of "these guys have WAY too much time on their hands" we feature this amazing recreation of the classic Mario Brothers video game

For those looking for her Pamela Rogers' Myspace page, it's been taken down but is archived here and here.

Ex-Teacher Rearrested in Teen Sex Case

A former elementary school teacher who spent six months in jail for having sex with a 13-year-old student was arrested again, this time for violating probation by apparently communicating with the victim.

Pamela Rogers, 28, was arrested Tuesday and released on $10,000 bond. A judge Wednesday ordered her to appear at a July 12 hearing.

Last August, Rogers reached a plea deal to serve nine months on an eight-year sentence, allowing her to avoid a trial on 28 charges of sexual battery and statutory rape. She was released from jail in February for good behavior.

Under terms of the plea deal, she was, among other things, ordered not to contact the victim or his family and not to use the Internet.

Authorities said she violated probation by establishing a Web site through the online social networking hub MySpace.com. The site features a blog that included what authorities said was communication between Rogers and the victim's 17-year-old sister.

Rogers is also accused of issuing a cryptic message to the victim through the Web site by addressing his basketball jersey number, saying he was her hero and that she would not fall in love again for three years.

The Web site also features several pictures of Rogers in a bikini...

via poplicks

From these shots, it looks like you can play as Stewie, Brian, Quagmire and even Death. A lot of the quirky adult humor also remains intact.

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Greatest use of the Internet since fantasy baseball. This guy has re-enacted the 9th inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series using RBI Baseball.

from yahoo.com:

Professional Video Gaming Set for TV Debut

Professional video gaming is set to debut on cable television later this year, potentially paving the way for the kings and queens of game controllers to become as familiar to American households as the faces of Johnny Chan or Annie Duke in televised poker.

Major League Gaming, the world's largest organized video gaming league, on Monday will announce a programming deal in which USA Network will air seven one-hour episodes in the fall, featuring the pro circuit and its players.

...

The upcoming televised series will aim to engage viewers with not only with the game play itself — featuring top players of "Halo 2" on
Xbox and "Super Smash Bros. Melee" on Nintendo — but also sports-like commentary and profiles of the players.

Among them: Bonnie Burton, also known as "Xena," a 15-year-old from Pennsylvania who is the only female in the pro league and one of the best "Halo2" players in the world; and Tom Taylor, who's known as "Tsquared," an 18-year-old from Florida and budding entrepreneur whose Gaming-Lessons business has already helped hone the video-gaming skills of numerous celebrities and star athletes.

"I'm excited to compete on TV in front of an audience. This will take video gaming to the next level," Taylor said.

Taylor, who gained more fame after he was recently featured on MTV's documentary series, "True Life," takes his sport seriously — from keeping a healthy diet to daily practice sessions of three to four hours a day. He's also ended habits that could harm his hands, such as letting his pet dog routinely nip at his hands and using a knife to pick the bread out of the toaster.

"It is an extreme sport," he said. "It's about quick reflexes and also outsmarting people."

Some top players earn winnings in the range of a couple hundred thousand dollars a year, and the tournaments by MLG usually draw thousands of spectators at its arena venues and thousands more online, said Michael Sepso, MLG's chief executive and co-founder.

from kotaku.com:

Brother Kills Brother Over Game Console

In Nagasaki over the weekend, two teenage brother brawled over a video game console, leaving one dead. Close to midnight, the siblings (13 years old and 15 years old) fought at home about putting away the video game console. The young brother kicked and punching his older brother repeatedly and knocked him unconscious. He died hours later at the hospital. A classmate was quoted as saying, “I didn’t think the relationship between the two brothers was bad.”

Tragic.

Jennifer Lopez and John Travolta are starring in a new movie version of Dallas, directed Gurinder Chadha of "Bend It Like Beckham." This columnist named Scott Rosenberg is upset about it, for reasons that make no sense to me whatsoever:

Dallas the movie irritates me!

This journo is confused. Maybe even a little pissed off.

What is a director known for her “Brit-Asian” films doing helming an all-American icon pic like ‘Dallas’?

Now does anyone else see anything wrong here or is it just me?

No ethnic barbs being thrown here – hell, this journo has lived outside the States for over 20 years. But the 1980’s soap opera was (is) a truly American story...

Now, 20th Century Fox is going to have John Travolta play J.R., a role Larry Hagman so aptly made his own. So much so that in 1980, an estimated 83 million TV views tuned in to find out who shot J.R. in the previous season’s cliffhanger finale.

Also raising hackles of movie fans on web boards across the Internet is the pending talks for Jennifer Lopez to reprise the part of J.R.’s wife Sue Ellen, originally played by (sex-kitten) Linda Grey.

But I suppose what irks this journo the most is having ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ helmer Gurinder Chadha behind the camera, pulling everything together to propel us back to the good ‘ole days of ‘Dallas’.

Chadha, who was born in Kenya but grew up in the UK, first came into the limelight ten years ago, with the release of what was seen as the first Brit-Asian movie, ‘Bhaji on the Beach’ which was followed by “Bend It’ and in 2005 ‘Bride and Prejudice’. Chadha is presently working to adapt another American TV classic to the big screen, ‘I Dream of Jeannie’, which she will helm and has announced, will release in September this year.

"I am obviously delighted that the (‘Dallas’) deal has been confirmed after so much enthusiastic speculation. Directing a film with stars like John Travolta and J.Lo is fantastic, and shows that the market of Brit-Asian films has huge credibility and respect in Hollywood," Chadha is being reported as saying.

But ‘Dallas’ is America in all its crowning best (and worst!). It is NOT a Brit-Asian film – and that is what pisses this journo off!

Huh? Dude, you do realize that big movie last year with the cowboys was also directed by an Asian guy? This is not unusual.

from yahoo.com

Scientists Probe the Use of the Tongue

By routing signals from helmet-mounted cameras, sonar and other equipment through the tongue to the brain, they hope to give elite soldiers superhuman senses similar to owls, snakes and fish.

Researchers at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition envision their work giving Army Rangers 360-degree unobstructed vision at night and allowing Navy SEALs to sense sonar in their heads while maintaining normal vision underwater — turning sci-fi into reality.

The device, known as "Brain Port," was pioneered more than 30 years ago by Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita, a University of Wisconsin neuroscientist. Bach-y-Rita began routing images from a camera through electrodes taped to people's backs and later discovered the tongue was a superior transmitter.

A narrow strip of red plastic connects the Brain Port to the tongue where 144 microelectrodes transmit information through nerve fibers to the brain. Instead of holding and looking at compasses and bluky-hand-held sonar devices, the divers can processes the information through their tongues, said Dr. Anil Raj, the project's lead scientist.

In testing, blind people found doorways, noticed people walking in front of them and caught balls. A version of the device, expected to be commercially marketed soon, has restored balance to those whose vestibular systems in the inner ear were destroyed by antibiotics.

All I have to say about this one is, "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN"

from yahoo news:

'Lost' Actress Chooses Jail Over Service

"Lost" actress Michelle Rodriguez pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a single count of driving under the influence, choosing to pay a $500 fine and spend five days in jail rather than do 240 hours of community service.

Rodriguez, who portrays police officer Ana Lucia, and cast member Cynthia Watros were both charged with drunken driving after they were pulled over Dec. 1 in separate cars within 15 minutes of each other.

On Tuesday, a judge gave Rodriguez the option of jail time or community service.

She was to surrender to authorities at Kaneohe District Court later in the day.

Watros, who plays Libby on the ABC castaway drama, pleaded guilty to drunken driving in January and was fined $312, ordered to undergo an alcohol assessment and 14 hours of counseling. She also had her license suspended for 90 days.

Both Rodriguez and Watros were spotted weaving on a road in Kailua, on the island of Oahu, where "Lost" is filmed. Both failed field sobriety tests.

Rodriguez recorded a blood-alcohol level of 0.17, more than twice the legal limit of .08. Watros had a blood-alcohol level of 0.10.

In 2004, Rodriguez pleaded no contest in Los Angeles to three traffic violations, including drunken driving. She completed a three-month alcohol program and is serving a three-year probation term.

Taking advantage of a new program by Google, the campaign, called Explorer Destroyer, pays users $1 for each referral to Firefox made through Google Toolbar, according to the group's Web site.

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