Mar 31, 2011

Doctor Who Series 6 Full Length Trailer


Doctor Who is one of my all-time favourite television shows, so naturally I'm very excited about the upcoming new series. The full length trailer for the new series was released yesterday with numerous clips from the series. The clips were a bit fast and frequent to make a proper judgement but the FX look pretty impressive. However, I'm not sure how I feel about the seemingly prominent role of River Song, as I've never really warmed to her. Either way, I can't wait!!

Mar 30, 2011

Pokémon, What Happened To You?


I've been subscribed to Nerimon for a few months now, but I only just came across this video when I somehow ended up on his Last.fm page.

This song perfectly reflects my opinion on the Pokémon franchise. Whilst I love it and start randomly playing it occasionally (I was playing Crystal recently... until it decided to break today ;_;), I really think it should have died after the second generation. From the second generation onwards the sheer amount of Pokémon, their designs, and their names have steadily declined in quality. Just looking at Black & White there are numerous Pokémon with ridiculous names that are quite clearly named after a certain feature or are a play on the word of what real life animal they resemble. Although I will admit that the new features introduced have of course improved the game, the Pokemon we are left with are just terrible.

Mar 27, 2011

Anime Song Guitar Medley


Once again there is a severe lack of posts lately. I'm finding it really difficult to find time for full length news posts, so for a while it'll probably just be YouTube videos of trailers and various other things, anime posts (Winter 2011 End-of-Season Impressions will be next week) and maybe mini news posts.

Now for todays video. I saw this whilst lurking in a K-ON!! General Thread on /a/ and was quite surprised with how many songs I recognised before seeing the list, it sounds pretty damn good as well.

The songs featured are:


1. K-ON! - Cagayake!Girls
2. Digimon Adventure - Butterfly
3. Shakugan no Shana - Joint
4. Durarara!! - Complication
5. Ojamajo Doremi - Ojamajo Carnival!!
6. Neon Genesis Evangelion - Zankoku na Tenshi no These
7. Macross Frontier - Lion
8. To aru Kagaku no Railgun - Only My Railgun
9. To aru Kagaku no Railgun - Level 5 Judgelight
10. Digimon Tamers - Biggest Dreamer
11. Bakemonogatari - Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari
12. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Lost My Music
13. Slam Dunk - Sekai ga Owaru Made Wa
14. K-ON!! - Tenshi ni Fureta yo!

Mar 17, 2011

Trouble in Libya - UN Security Council Air Strike Vote

Britain, France and the US, along with several Arab countries, are to join forces to throw a protective ring around the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi as soon as a UN security council vote on military action is authorised, according to security council sources.


Follow proceedings here.

Mar 13, 2011

Japan - Tsunami Wave Spills Over Sea Defences


This is one of the latest videos to come from Friday's tragedy, showing the tsunami wave as it spills over the sea defences of the Japanese town of Miyako, taking out everything in it's path. Possibly one of the hardest hitting parts is the short glimpse at 0:47 of a number of cars attempting to drive away.

Mar 11, 2011

Earthquake/Tsunami Devastates Japan - Tokyo Magnitude 8.9

Sorry for the significant lack of posts over the last week, but I've been rather busy and quite honestly I was getting a bit bored of doing nothing but reporting the various revolutions in the Middle East.

The earthquake struck at 14:46 Local Time off the east coast of Touhoku. The earthquake, measuring at a magnitude of 8.9, is the largest to hit Japan and fifth largest in the world since records began. 8,000 times more powerful than the recent New Zealand quake, buildings rocked 235 miles away in Tokyo and there are even reports of the shock being felt as far away as Beijing. The resulting tsunami has been reported to have been 10 metres high, devastating cities along the north coast, with Sendai being one of the worst affected. Along with the tsunami, the earthquake also caused numerous fires and even a nuclear emergency.


Four of the country's nuclear power stations were automatically shut down following the earthquake, with another already shut down for a periodic inspection. However, electrical problems caused by the earthquake prevented one of the cooler pumps for Reactor 1 of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant from working. Because cooling pumps are needed to remove residual reactor heat, a nuclear emergency has been declared, the first to ever be declared in Japan. In order to reduce the building pressure (1.5 times that which is considered normal) slightly radioactive vapour may be released, but the radioactive element in the vapour will apparently not affect the environment or human health. Due to this 3,000 residents have been evacuated from the surrounding area. At the time of writing there are also reports coming in that Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant has lost cooling to three of it's reactors, with Fukushima Daini plant also being added to the government's emergency list.


The earthquake triggered tsunami alerts and evacuations across the Pacific region, with Russia, the Philippines and Hawaii all moving vulnerable citizens to higher ground and low-lying islands, Latin American countries and the western coast of the United States all braced for waves. Being closest to the earthquakes epicentre, the north-east coast of Japan was worst affected, with 10-metre high waves surging inland, turning black with dirt. Scenes of the tsunami waves smashing through houses and through fields, carrying debris along with them, were caught by news stations. Up to 300 bodies were found in the coastal city of Sendai which bore the brunt of the waves. Cars were swept across the city's airport runway where people gathered on the terminal roof for safety, trapped by the water all around them. About 140 people, including children, were trapped on top of an elementary school.

Aftershocks of varying degrees have been felt periodically since the earthquake.


Unless something big happens concerning the nuclear power plants or anything else, my next post will probably be in two or three days when the chaos has calmed and many more facts are known.

Tsunami Hits Japan - Possible Nuclear Crisis


I'm going to try and make a proper news post some time tonight, but until then here's some simple information in sxephil's latest video.

Mar 3, 2011

Trouble in Libya - March 2nd-3rd


On March 2nd, Al Jazeera reported that rebels based in eastern Libya were preparing to march on Tripoli with over 5,000 volunteers, who have been trained to use weapons in recent days by defected and retired soldiers and officers. In an attempt to put more pressure on Gaddafi to step down the US increased their offshore presence. Concern is also developing over the issue of Libyans fleeing to Tunisia as lack of resources to handle the mass emigration threatens to cause a humanitarian crisis. Early in the morning four large explosions went off in close succession in central Tripoli, however, security forces and Gaddafi supporters prevented journalists and onlookers from approaching after the blasts, which they described as originating from an oil tanker truck. The day also saw significant conflict as forces loyal to Gaddafi seized the town of Marsa El Brega in Cyrenaica, killing 14, and were launched a counterattack against anti-Gaddafi forces in eastern Libya. According to rebels using Twitter, they had fought back against two jets bombing positions near Ajdabiya and a column of at least 100 vehicles transporting pro-Gaddafi troops, reportedly shooting down one war-plane. Despite pro-Gaddafi attacks the rebels managed to regain control of Brega. In a nearly three hour long speech, Gaddafi insisted no attacks had been launched against rebels, whom he again claimed were al Qaeda operatives. During this speech reports starting to appear of another airstrike against rebel positions near Brega, where Al Jazeera reported 250–300 pro-Gaddafi fighters were routed by revolutionary forces. At least 14 people were killed in what has been dubbed the 'Battle of Brega'. At a summit in Cairo, the Arab League rejected direct military intervention as an option in Libya, but suggested it could establish a no-fly zone over the country, possibly in conjunction with the African Union.


The next day a rebel website posted a "distress call" allegedly from "the people of Brega" warning that mercenaries had reinforced forces loyal to Gaddafi at Hrawah and calling for immediate reinforcements in case Gaddafi's fighters attacked Brega again. The Dutch government said three Dutch marines were captured by pro-Gaddafi forces after landing near Sirte as part of a rescue operation to evacuate Dutch workers trapped in the country, with Dutch and Libyan authorities now reportedly in negotiations over the marines' fate, with the Netherlands seeking the immediate release of the captured servicemen into Dutch custody. It has been reported that at least two of the workers the marines were attempting to evacuate have left the country. In the eastern Mediterranean, US warships passed through the Suez Canal on their way to waters off Libya.  Forces loyal to Gaddafi again marched on rebel positions, hitting Brega and Ajdabiya again from the air while advancing overland, although the strength and aggressiveness of the loyalist ground forces is unclear.


Mar 1, 2011

LITERAL Dead Island Announcement Trailer


I haven't posted in a few days because I've been kinda busy, but I just watched this again and thought I may as well share it so there's at least one post this week.

If you have any interest in games whatsoever the odds are that you've seen the emotional announcement trailer for the upcoming zombie game Dead Island. My all-time favourite youtuber Toby Turner/Tobuscus/TobyGames does literal trailers for many various film and video game trailers, and despite the humorous lyrics the music to the trailer manages to just make it sad.