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Archive for November, 2009

Unrevealed Places: Review of Alaska

Posted by CarissaL On November - 25 - 2009 View Comments

Diana Szeinblum’s Alaska, at On the Boards, was perhaps one of the most startling dance performances that I have ever seen. Visceral is the word that best describes it, and the word that I keep revisiting as I write this review. Having attended a master class with Diana Szeinblum the day before, I fortunately had some idea of what to expect. Her style is based upon the experience, rather than the appearance of the dancers. According to the program notes, in her choreography, she is “appealing to the memory of what was lived to find in the body the experience of what has not been revealed”. Essentially, Ms. Szeiblum uses the physical memory of the body to access new experiences, and the result is as nontraditional as her methods.

The movement quality was furious and repetitious. Although repetition can sometimes be monotonous, the unique approach of the dancers ensured that the movement stayed interesting. The dancers applied their current emotions and feelings, in order to create a different dynamic each time they performed the same phrase. One dancer rocked her torso over her hips as if she were one of those novelty drinking birds. The rocking was so intense and long lasting that I feared she might might the program with a severe case of whiplash. Much of the movement was like this, seemingly harsh and abusive, like the dancers were trying to exorcise their experiences from their bodies.

The interaction between dancers was sometimes dehumanizing, and at other times surprisingly sensitive. During a lengthy section three dancers carted around the fourth dancer, undressing and dressing her as if she were a catatonic doll. They positioned her body like she was an abstract sculpture, and result was fascinating. The dancer became an object, yet because of the intimacy of the theater, the audience somehow also became more intensely aware of her as a flawed human.

My favorite part of the performance was a sort of action sequence, where the dancers took turns leaping into the air superhero style to be caught by the other dancers. This section served as a relief from the heavy assault of emotion laden content. It was likely my favorite part because it was the most “dancey” section. Actually, most of the performance was not so much dance, but a genre known as tanztheater, which is a combination of dance and dramatic elements concerned with the expression of experiences. Diana Szeinblum studied under one of the most well-known pioneers in this art form, German choreographer Pina Bausch.

Alaska was an experience. It was like the dancers, or interpreters as Diana Szeiblum calls them, immersed the audience in their exploration of unrevealed places. It was unlike anything that I have experienced, and I was glad that I went. This performance left a significant impression on me, because the movement was so resoundingly visceral and enthralling.

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Review on Fallout 3

Posted by Benjamin Taylor On November - 23 - 2009 View Comments
http://www.stephenschappler.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/fallout3_boxart.jpg

Review: FALLOUT 3


The history of Fallout 3 is a long and troubled one. It was originally being made by Black Isle Studios, the creators of the Icewind Dale series, Planescape: Torment, and the Fallout Series. It was going to take place in Utah and Colorado, and some surrounding areas, and used a 3D-game engine, and a heavily modified game engine. But, due to poor decision-making skills from their higher-ups, Interplay, it never came to be. At its cancellation, the engine was nearly complete, many of the game’s resources, such as character models and and locations were more than halfway done, and the story was pretty much completely written.In 2004, the single-player rights to the fallout series were sold to Bethesda Softworks, the creators of the popular elder scrolls series, for about 1.175 million dollars. Though development of Fallout 3 technically began in 2004, it was just pre-production at that stage, and the production of the game actually started around 2007, after Oblivion and its expansion, the shivering isles, were released.
Now, Bethesda has a lengthy history of angering their existing fanbases. Morrowind angered the fans of Daggerfall, who claimed that they “dumbed-down” the series, Oblivion angered the fans of Morrowind, for the same reason. And now, they’ve angered the “glittering gems of hatred” known as the fans of the Fallout series, for making Fallout 3 like Oblivion.

So, is Fallout 3 good? Well, you probably already know the answer to that by now. It was released over a year ago. So, why am I writing a review of a game that is over a year old? Because this game is very divisive. How you feel about this game defines what kind of gamer you are, and what communities will trust you. So, here’s my review.

THE GOOD
CHOICE
A defining characteristic of the RPG genre is choice. Not those wishy-washy BioWare choices that only amount to “Save the world as a hero” or “Save the world as a jerk”, ACTUAL choices. Like save the world, or join the bad guys and take over the world. And unlike many games, Fallout 3 actually has some of these.
While most of them are fairly black and white, like “blow up megaton or not”, some of them have a sort of gray area. Like “Let the ghouls into tenpenny tower, which ends up with them killing all of the previous inhabitants of tenpenny tower,” or “Kill the ghouls for the racist bastards living in tenpenny tower”. No matter what, someone dies, and no outcome is inherently better than the other.
WIDE OPEN WORLD
Bethesda games are known for letting the player explore a wide-open sandbox world, and Fallout 3 is no different. There are literally hundreds of locations for you to discover, and none of them are quite the same. This is a major improvement over Oblivion’s copy-and-paste environments, which became tiresome after the third time you explore the same cave.
Another improvement over Oblivion’s locations is that the places actually look like they may have served some purpose before the great war obliterated them. Near the exit of the vault, there’s a small town called Springvale, where many of the descendants of the people living in the vaults probably would have come from, which is nearly completely wiped out by the bombs. Near that town is a school, where the kids would have gone to before the war. In the other direction is a grocery store, where the inhabitants of Springvale would’ve gotten their food and other supplies. If you walk down the road some more, you’ll find a subway station, where the adults would’ve gotten on trains to get to and from work.
Not every location in fallout 3’s large game world makes as much sense as the area surrounding Springvale does, but it’s still far, far better than Oblivion’s “Hey, look, some abandoned ruins! Why is it there, you ask? ‘Cause it is,” mentality.
DIALOGUE
In Oblivion, and many other recent RPGs, dialogue, for the most part, is static. You may get a choice to respond as a jerk, but it won’t affect anything, though you’ll get some nice flavor dialogue. You’re pretty much railroaded through the whole thing. Though the main quest in Fallout 3 also falls victim to this, the side quests generally don’t. If you act like a jerk to someone, they may withhold information from you. But if you pass a skill check, you can make them tell you it anyway. Someone might be lying to you, and if you pass the speech/skill check, they’ll tell you the truth, and the quest may become radically different.
FACE MODELING
In Oblivion, the faces looked pretty bad. They looked like they were sculpted out of clay. Everyone looked the same age, and everyone of the same race had the same complexion. This has been fixed in Fallout 3, the faces look somewhat realistic, and you can actually tell if the person you’re talking to is old or not. They have a fair amount of detail to, like dirt and stuff. Though the faces are a far cry from Mass Effects’ faces, they look good enough.
CHARACTER CREATION
One problem with RPGs these days is that the character creation systems are… lacking. Usually, all they amount to is choosing a name and choosing a face. And maybe a class. Well, in Fallout 3, you create a somewhat unique-ish character (as unique as they let you) using the SPECIAL (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, Luck) character creation system. You choose the values of your seven attributes (above), which then effect your starting skill levels, and also effect derived attributes like “HP” and “Carry Weight”.
It’s not as in-depth as the previous versions of the SPECIAL system, but it’s still one of the best out there for Sci-Fi role playing games. And it’s certainly more in-depth than mass effect’s very simple system, and is far less awful in comparison to oblivion’s poorly implemented skill system.
VOICES
Remember the days when only some characters had voice actors, the rest were just written text? Good times. Full voice acting, as it is, is never really as effective as the voice/text combination. Having less voice files clogging up your disk allows for more dialogues. But, full voice acting is here, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be going away any time soon. And Fallout 3 does a fairly good job with the voice acting. It’s not up to mass effect standards, but it’s far more varied than Oblivion’s six voice actors. If only they could get more of the skilled actors like Liam Neeson to voice their characters.
LENGTH
If there’s one thing that Fallout 3 does better than it’s predecessors, It would be that Fallout 3 is a much, much longer game. Though you could argue it’s a quality over quantity type thing, you can’t deny that Fallout 3 is really, really long. If you are the kind of gamer that only likes to invest in games long enough to justify the $60 admission price, this is the game for you. Have I mentioned how freakishly long this game is yet?
GORE
Bethesda Softworks made it clear that they wanted the gore to be over the top in Fallout 3, and that it is. It may not be realistic, a lot of the time the enemies explode into glorious piles of gore when killed, but it sure is satisfying. It does temporarily break the immersion, but for the most part, it’s an acceptable break. It’s also some of the most detailed gore in years, instead of the enemies exploding into non-descript gibs, there’s actually legs, arms, eyeballs, and so forth. It’s a very cool effect.
THE BAD
COMBAT
Role-playing games are defined by their combat system. It’s why there’s a character creation system in the first place. It’s what separates them from choose your own adventure stories. And, well, Fallout 3’s combat… leaves something to be desired. This could be caused by the games’ choppy, fast, jumpy animations. Or the path-finding A.I. that moves faster than you can turn, and randomly. Or the artificial intelligence in general, it’s more like artificial stupidity. Sometimes, you’re above a raider, on a grating or something, and he just swings his knife at you in a vain attempt to get at you, instead of, you know, going up the stairs leading to you. Or their seeming inability to jump. It’s probably a combination of all these flaws that add up to more than the sum of their parts.
STUPID
Hey kids, did you know that a laser pistol is no more powerful than a regular old pistol? Or that guns somehow become more powerful, not more accurate, the better you are at using them? Or that radiation can last over 200 years without getting even slightly less deadly? Or that 200 year old food is perfectly good to eat? It’ll restore your health, just radiate you a little! Or that nuclear blasts put things in the wackiest places (Tires and toilets in storm drains, tin cans in mailboxes)? That’s what Fallout 3 wants you to believe, anyway.
KARMA
The Karma system in Fallout 3 has a very christian view of morality, something that is as un-Fallout as light bloom. Killing is almost always bad, like if you kill a scientist who through his experiments killed an entire town by accident, without showing any sort of remorse. Instead, he tells you to help him do more experiments. You get negative karma for doing that. Killing people in the virtual “tranquility lane” world also gets you negative karma, even though you’re actually ending their endless torment by Dr. Braun by doing so. I’m not advocating killing here, I’m just saying that there should be a little gray area in between, where you neither gain or lose karma. Stealing is also treated in the same way.
CONSEQUENCE
Remember how much I was talking up the game’s choices before? Well, yes the game has choices in it. A lot of them, actually. But, the problem is those choices have no consequence to them. Besides blowing up megaton, anyway. Enslave the robot? Three dog tells you how much of a jerk you are. Let the ghouls into tenpenny tower? Three Dog (the Galaxy News Radio guy) tells you how nice you are. Complete the Blood Ties quest? Three dog tells you that you completed the Blood Ties quest, with no differing messages based on how you completed it. Nothing ever effects the game world in any way, shape, or form. Just gives you some flavor dialogue here or there.
LEVEL SCALING
Level scaling is the process by which the game makes enemies scale to the players level. It is considered worse than the plague in many circles, for reducing the feeling of character progression. Fallout 3 has level scaling. Not as bad as Oblivion’s, but it still has it.
MAIN QUEST
While the side quests in Fallout 3 are great, the main quest is pretty bad. It starts out with your character searching for his or her father in the wasteland, gathering clues and learning more about his past, but once you find him, it quickly degrades into a series of fetch quests. It also loses all of it’s originality, becoming a quest to purify the water (Fallout 1) and defeat the enclave (Fallout 2). And then there’s the ending.
The ending consists of a slideshow, that slightly differs based on your choices. In the original Fallouts, the endings varied greatly based on your in-game choices, the announcer describing how they affected the game world in the future. In fallout 3, the announcer gives you a different speech based on your karma level, tells you what decision you made for the final main quest-quest, and gives you a slideshow of your accomplishments. It’s underwhelming to say the least.
BUGS
Bethesda has a perfect track record of making buggy games. From Daggerfall’s infinitely spawning guards crashing the game, to Oblivion’s floating paintbrushes, they have always been extraordinarily buggy, sometimes even game-breakingly so. Fallout 3 is no different. Sometimes, character models will stretch out towards the sky. You can also escape the vault as a baby, if you know how. Or, you could end up having to restart the game when VATS fails to make your character shoot. Or, you can climb over the walls of say, megaton, and end up in a vast, invisible wasteland, with no way out besides fast travelling, or using the door, backwards. Then there’s Nova’s head spinning vertically into her body when she’s talking to someone. Or the fact that the wooden box can be used to effortlessly pick up NPCs due to the broken physics. And the list goes on and on. Don’t worry, they’ll never be fixed. Bethesda prefers to make new games instead of supporting their previous ones.

CONCLUSION
Overall, Fallout 3 is a good, but flawed game. It’s a definite step up from Oblivion, and is one of the best mainstream Role Playing Games released in years. It doesn’t live up to the impossibly high expectations set by it’s predecessors, but that’s to be expected, because Fallout 1 and 2 are arguably the best role playing games ever created. On a side note, The down loadable content for this game feel like rip-offs, and if you didn’t buy the recently released game of the year edition, I wouldn’t recommend you buy them, unless you really like fallout 3. If you liked oblivion, you’ll love Fallout 3, But if you’re a fan of the originals, you’ll probably be sorely disappointed by it.

GAMEPLAY
VISUALS
AUDIO
VALUE
FUN
OVERALL

FAIR

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Take the Speak Up 2009 Survey on Technology!

Posted by Leila Cheung On November - 20 - 2009 View Comments

If you’re very opinionated about technology and the discussions surrounding it, you might want to look into taking the Speak Up 2009 survey.

Speak Up is a program that polls students, teachers, and parents about their views on technology, and specifically, what roles technology should play in education and in the classroom today. These issues are closely related to the “cell phones in class debate” going on at Nova right now. Speak Up is one of the few survey programs that bothers to ask the students’ opinions, so take advantage of that.

The survey for high school students (9th to 12th graders) is 34 questions long and asks questions about things such as your access to computers and the Internet, what sort of technology you typically use for schoolwork, and what you wish you had access to at school. Different surveys are available for teachers, parents, and administrators, and surveys are also available in Spanish.

To enter the survey, you need the school password, “nova” (all lowercase, case sensitive). If you’re interested in taking the Speak Up 2009 survey, follow the links at the bottom of this article!

The survey is open until December 18, 2009, after which a follow-up article will be coming to the Nova Knows technology section with a summary of our school’s results. Even if you don’t have reason to help the Speak Up organization, you can take the survey for fun, and to help paint a better portrait of where views on technology lay in the Nova community.

Take the survey here: http://www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2009/
View a .pdf file of the questions here: http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/speakup_surveys.html

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PNB’s Director’s Choice

Posted by CarissaL On November - 20 - 2009 View Comments

Nov. 5-8 and Nov. 12-15

Pacific Northwest Ballet presented a varied program of contemporary ballet, modern, and even musical theater with Director’s Choice at McCaw Hall. The choice of pieces presented was lacking, and failed to highlight the strengths of the PNB Company.

My favorite piece of the evening was Petite Mort, largely because of its amusing use of props and its seamless partnering sequences. In the beginning, the male dancers balanced and flipped fencing foils, while at times the female dancers peered out from behind stand alone dresses. The alternating use of lines and right angles made the choreography very strong. Perhaps my only criticism is that the billowing black fabric used for transitions seemed to stop the flow of the piece. The ending was an amusing and surprising treat, when the dresses whisked out to stand alone onstage.

The following piece, Mopey, from the repertory of the Artistic Director’s previous company, Peter Boal and Company, was a low point of the evening for me. I personally believe that only the world’s greatest dancers are entitled to solos lasting more than five minutes. This piece lasted far longer than five minutes, and I found my attention wandering accordingly. The soloist, Jonothan Porretta, entered wearing a black hoodie, in a manner resembling a knuckle-dragging ape to the contrasting sounds of a cello. His movements were eccentric, performed mostly facing away from the audience, and included a fair amount of twitching fingers and flopping hands. However, the frenzied movements and body percussion made far more sense when the music transitioned from a classical cello solo to the rock sounds of The Cramps. Despite Mr. Porretta’s strong physicality, I found the piece too disjointed and bizarre to appreciate it much.

West Side Story Suite, a small collection of dance numbers from the well-known musical theater adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet”, was another poor choice on the part of the Artistic Director. The redeeming point of the suite was the all female number, “America”, in which the dancers sparkled and appeared to be having a blast. Unfortunately, the relatively easy choreography wasted the amazing technique and facility of the Company. The dancers executed the steps flawlessly, but the live chorus singing was muffled and unclear, likely because the PNB dancers are not highly trained singers. The dancers also looked distinctly uncomfortable and awkward during the ensemble singing, leading me to conclude that West Side Story Suite was a piece better left to those on Broadway.

The Director’s Choice performance failed to meet the high expectations that I set for PNB. Petite Mort was most definitely the highlight of the evening for me, followed by the beautiful recreation of The Seasons (not described in this article). Unfortunately, the absurd solo Mopey and the West Side Story Suite seemed a poor fit for the primarily neoclassical company. However, the good outweighed the bad in Director’s Choice, and I found it fairly worthwhile.

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Cool Things Around Town

Posted by Jordan M On November - 18 - 2009 View Comments

Links to Local Arts Websites

Dance

UW Dance Department Performances

UW Arts World Series

Cornish Dance Performances

Pacific Northwest Ballet Season

Theatre

Intiman Theatre

The Paramount and Moore Theatres

Seattle Repertory Theatre

Visual Arts

Frye Art Museum

Henry Art Gallery at UW

Seattle Art Museum

Music

Seattle Symphony

Seattle Opera

Other Performing Arts

Meany Hall

On the Boards

Seattle Center

Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival

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To Infinity, and Beyond!

Posted by Marina On November - 16 - 2009 View Comments

The walls of Nova are a constant topic of complaint this year. Although the energy of our school is within the same realm it was last year, the bare white walls and bright blue lockers of the main hallway fail to reflect what Nova is. Mia Perez realizes the potential of these canvases, and in true Nova fashion, decided to do something about it. She gathered a group of kids to help kick start a new committee, Infinity and Beyond, to make a change that will last as long as the name implies.

Why did you start this committee?Infinity & Beyond 2

I was really inspired to continue the atmosphere of the art program last year. I remember always feeling like I was part of something important and that everything I was doing was going down in history. At this new building I was really put off. I wasn’t surrounded by my peer’s work and had to actually search for the art instead of being able to just walk in the building and envelop myself in it.

What’s the story behind the name?

The official name of this committee is Infinity and Beyond. Like I mentioned before, I always got a feeling whenever I was in class last year like I was doing something important and that it will go down in history. We had such a big theme of infinity and immortality and it was one of the most inspiring experiences I’ve had. Plus there was our Abec Infinity crew that fit into that. So, I guess our name is just saying that we did our time with Infinity and now it’s gone, so we’re gonna carry this legacy out and go Beyond. We’re going to make something special and invent our own legacy as students and as artists.

What is your goal?

I’m really determined to get that art back up on the walls of the school and help student’s realize that they can do anything with their art and it will always be beautiful and remembered.

So, what is everyone currently working on?

Well, right now we’re still getting things off the ground. We’re getting together a logo and at the moment I’m getting together a list of materials we want and we’re gonna try to fundraise to be able to to get them all. Once we get things more together we’re each gonna do our own version of the logo and put them up around the school.

Until we’re allowed to paint on the walls, what are you going to do get art in the halls?

We’re planning to go to Day to Day and see if we can get these things installed in the walls that allows us to change the pieces without having to re-drill wood into the walls or use up a lot of tape. But I don’t know too much about that. That was all Eric Lane’s idea.


Infinity & Beyond

Why should people go?

People should really go if they’re interested in embracing the changes our art program is going through and making it work for us as a community and as individual artists. I feel like its gonna be a really good learning experience.


Is it just you running it?

Everyone is really helping. We all

have an equal say in what goes down. I guess I’m running it only in the sense of organizing it but really we all have a big part on the committee.

When can people come check it out?

Tuesdays and potentially Fridays.

Again, everything is still in the works and there’s talk we might takeover Wallspace since, right now, it’s pretty much the same crowd. Always in Karen’s room.

Anything else you want to say?

I would really appreciate it if people came! I feel like if we had more people we could be more productive. I feel like there’s something really special about this committee and with some help I believe we could achieve some pretty amazing things. I would like to add also that we’re NOT trying to reinvent what happened last year or the previous ones, that this is something of our own and we’re trying to work with our new surroundings and have the art program, an extraordinarily important part of Nova, have more student drive and input in its creation.


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Neptune Open Mic Night

Posted by pokahi On November - 13 - 2009 View Comments

-4-2At approximately 7:30p.m. on November 3rd, 2009, near the corner of 85th and Greenwood, Mr. Gyros is preparing to close, and one can observe any amount of people from young adults to thirty somethings pile into Neptune coffee house. Every Tuesday at this time they have one of the most glorious open mic nights I have ever been to and will definitely go to again. Anyone from and/or currently in the northern Seattle area has the chance to play music, sing poetry, or even possibly (though I haven’t seen it yet) do some stand up. This is one of the best ways to introduce the many unexposed and extraordinarily talented people in Seattle to the public. Having been there plenty of times before, I know that Neptune is a great place with an even greater atmosphere. The Neptune coffee house is home to many different types of artists. The moment you walk through the door of the Greenwood coffee shop you can instantaneously feel an artsy, comforting vibe. Ever changing paintings and photographs by local artists hang on the walls. Posters for concerts, festivals, and coffee, create an atmosphere that would be welcoming to many Nova artists and students alike. You get a range of sounds, from a young trio doing rock songs, to poetry and one woman a cappella, to an older woman showing off her freestyle tap dancing skills.Even a good friend of mine, and his band played three amazing songs. This past week there were more people and performers than there have been in any of the previous weeks. Regulars showed up, as well as newcomers, who are sure to soon become steady goers. In fact, some of the bands that played there made a deal with Neptune to perform a concert. This way their family, friends, and fans can go see them for a more unique experience. The barista who started it all opens and closes the performances. She jams out on her baritone ukulele with her morbidly depressing, yet some how amazingly hilarious songs, most involving a bad relationship. Plus, of the many talented who perform, many of them get free drinks, one of anything that they like. It is definitely something that I know everyone should experience. I know that I’ll be there next week and all the weeks thereafter, and damnit Nova I hope you will too.

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Review on Battlestar: Galactica the Board Game

Posted by picarter On November - 13 - 2009 View Comments

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/io9/2008/10/bsg.jpg

Review on Battlestar: Galactica, the Board Game

Battlestar: Galactica the board game is a great adaption from the Galactica universe, having said that you do not need to be familiar with the show to enjoy this game.  I have a very limited knowledge of the series and after my first play-through I was hooked.  This game could have been easily made without the BSG theme and it still would have been fun.

The game has most of the players cooperating against the board and the cylon or cylons. The cylon players try to stop the humans from wining by making them run out of resources, invading the Battlestar or destroying it all together. The human players try to make Faster Than Light, “jumps” in order to reach their destination before any of the cylon objectives are completed.  At the beginning of the game a face down loyalty card is dealt to each player. The loyalty cards determine who will be a cylon and who will be a human. Half way through the game another round of loyalty cards are dealt out. This way you might not even have cylon player for the first half of the game. If you do become a cylon you still play like a human but secretly try and sabotage them. This makes a setting of paranoia that gives the game a great atmosphere.

BSG takes about half an hour to learn and about three hours to play. it supports three to six players although I would recommend having five or six for the best experience. Each player takes on the role of one the characters from the series. Each character has the roll of either pilot, political leader, military leader, or support.  Each player will also have a unique ability that he can use multiple times, an ability that he can use once per game and a weakness. This provides lots of variety and a new experience every time you play.  Pilots fly around the outside the Galactica and shoot at enemy ships, military leaders try and destroy ships from inside the Battlestar, political leaders try and regain resources that have been lost and expose the hidden cylons.

The board is laid out well with a top view of Galactica, in the center surrounded by the different parts of space. On the top of the board are the resource trackers the FTL jump track, and Colonial One. Each location has a certain action that you can perform while there to help the humans in their struggles.

There are elements of luck in the form of die roles and certain cards but they help provide a balance and a sense of suspense and impending doom. The co-op mechanic works very well and most of the characters work well together if you use the right strategies. This is certainly complex and it might take awhile to fully get the hang of it but the rules are easy to learn and turns flow well and don’t take very long.

This game is pretty hard to win for the humans but it’s not impossible. As long as you find the secret cylon quick and work together you stand a very good chance at succeeding. This game provides hours of fun and is great if you have an afternoon or evening to spend. Be sure to work together though, because if you don’t, it’s frakking impossible.

five raptors out of five.
Carter “picarter” Allen
Gaming and entertainment.

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The Ongoing Debate: For or Against Net Neutrality?

Posted by Leila Cheung On November - 13 - 2009 View Comments

I have a quick this-or-that question for you. Would you rather have your Internet usage regulated by your ISP (Internet Service Provider), or the Federal Communications Commission? Okay, allow me to elaborate. Would you rather your ISP have the power to block sites, determining what networks or sites you can or can’t use? Or would you prefer the FCC have the power to legislate over the Internet?

This is the debate (or one of them, anyway) that is currently dividing Congress, as well as many Internet users–and even companies. John Lilly, the CEO of Mozilla, voiced support for the proposed “net neutrality” rules in a recent editorial for the Wall Street Journal (footnote 1). Sites such as SaveTheInternet.com have sprung up in recent weeks, some, including the above, collecting digital signatures for a petition to send to Congress in favor of net neutrality. In the meantime, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (of Tennessee) is presenting a House bill that would prevent the FCC from making any regulations regarding Internet services, arguing that allowing FCC to be imposed over the Internet will lead to the same regulatory level of censorship that is present in TV and radio (footnote 2).

Most of Nova is familiar with what a “non-neutral” Internet looks like. Anyone who uses a school computer (as this reporter is doing while writing this article) has probably experienced the frustration of the site you want to access being blocked. Now, at Nova, this is the filtering imposed by the Seattle Public Schools district. This may be an editorial comment, but I think most people can agree that students at a public school probably shouldn’t have access to all content of the Internet on a computer for school use. (There are some sick weirdos out there, you know.)

But imagine your personal Internet connection, at home, having “filtering,” or access blocked to certain sites. Imagine if AT&T, AOL, Comcast, or whatever ISP you use, had the power to block you from accessing sites of competing companies, or legal but generally frowned upon clients such as BitTorrent. Legally speaking, an ISP could do that right now (footnote 3). But is legislating that they can’t block access a protection of free Internet usage, or is it an imposition on the business rights of the ISPs?

I must jump in here and say that it isn’t really my job as a journalist to tell you which is right. The issue is pretty significant, though, to all frequent users of the Internet, which is most high school students today.

How does the Nova community feel about net neutrality? And, while we’re at it, the increased filtering that has been put upon our school computers this year? (Okay, that’s probably a different article.) I’d really like to start a serious debate in our Nova Knows comments section, so if you have your own thoughts on net neutrality and how much power ISPs or the FCC should have over your personal Internet usage, take a minute to leave a comment on this article!

Footnotes (sources cited):

1. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355059,00.asp

2. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2354611,00.asp

3. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2354611,00.asp

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Cell Phones at School: Unnecessary Distraction or Undeniable Freedom?

Posted by dakotae On November - 9 - 2009 View Comments

Cell Phones at SchoolIn our world here at Nova, we’ve grown comfortable with the idea of self discipline. We have been allowed the freedom at school to make our own choices in so many facets of our daily lives, one of those choices being how we use our cell phones. This topic has become a point of conflict with the teaching staff. We have never been a school where the practice of confiscation of personal belongings has been instituted, but now that students have brought socializing into the classroom in a way that is proven to detract from their learning, teachers have requested an adjustment. At what point is it okay to be lead by a minority like this? While our teachers have an undeniable case for change, is it their right to enact it?

In the most recent meeting of day to day committee, our principal opened the discussion to bring an end to this cell phone use. Mark Perry  has suggested that the topic initially be broached in coor, with a culminating all-school vote on the subject looming. Chances are good by the tone of Mark’s argument and the general agreement by at least the teaching staff present at the meeting, that privileges as they are now will not be an option. Teachers present claimed they’ve often taken the interruption of cell phones in their classes to be a disrespectful slap in the face, and there was total agreement that they are always a distraction.

Joe Szwaja commented that, “I don’t take it as a sign of disrespect, but when you’re multitasking with your phone and your work, I don’t believe you’re producing at the same quality you could be otherwise.”  There is certainly plenty of evidence to back up Joe’s theory. In fact, such topics have been the cover article of Time magazine (see the online article), and the consensus opinion is that multitasking produces mediocrity.

Students at the meeting, were not willing to simply accept the validity of these concerns at face value. Isobel Bradbury proclaimed that “I use my cell phone in class, and I don’t think its ever been a big deal.” She however went on to say that, “while I can think of a bunch of reasons I need texting for myself, I don’t see a good reason for the school as a whole.” Personal reasons have been cited in the past as an invalid argument when advocating change in Nova’s policies.

Mark’s goal is that we can get behind the idea of turning our cell phones off before every class. This strong stance was not well received, but a chord of compromise was struck with some students. “I leave my phone on vibrate when I’m in class,”  shared Shaniquequa Eakin, “It isn’t a distraction, and I can be discrete about it.”  This option, and adopting a policy of setting phones to the “all sounds off” setting were sacrifices students seemed willing to make.

This issue is deeply controversial and represents a monumental step in changing the lifestyle of the 21st century student. the deteriorating attention spans of a generation are the result of this multimedia multitasking, but with each personal freedom our school takes away, we become more and more like the authoritarian mainstream education institutions we avoided by coming here. In the end, our school is still a democracy, and you the students will have the final say as to how this topic is resolved.

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NovaKnows.com is a journalism website created and maintained by students at Nova Alternative High School. Nova is a small community-orientated alternative program that is part of the Seattle Public School system.

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