This is an interesting article on Salon:

[quote]Who killed Miss Norway?
Five years ago, the news that a beauty pageant participant had died in a car crash stunned her virtual world friends. But was it really an accident?[/quote]

link: [url]http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/04/14/who_killed_miss_norway/ [/url]

requires Salon subscription (or viewing of ad for 15 seconds) too read the whole thing.

More on Sony and "Shock and Awe"

Shock, Awe and Retreat (www.frictionlessinsight.com)

After a barrage of criticism, Sony has dropped its prospective
trademark registration for the phrase "Shock and Awe" which it had
intended to use as a video game title. That phrase was used by the American military to characterize a particular segment of its war plan in Iraq. According to a Sony Computer Entertainment of America spokesman, "It was an exercise of regrettable bad judgment in that it disregarded the context in which the term has been used. SCEA will withdraw this application. Steps will be taken to heighten awareness throughout the Sony Group so as not to repeat such issues."

Sony has trademarked the term "Shock and Awe" for future use in video games.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/marketingandpr/story/0,7494,933239,00.html

Elonka wrote:
] ] U.S. officials have pointed to Khazraji, widely respected
] ] among the Iraqi armed forces for his role in the
] ] Iran-Iraq war, as a candidate for a leadership position
] ] in an Iraq without Saddam.
]
] The ex-Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Army (1987-1990) goes for a
] walk near his current home in Denmark, and disappears. Was he
] kidnapped (or worse) by Iraqi Intelligence? Did he flee the
] country from fear of a war crimes trial, or did something else
] happen? Stay tuned...

It looks like this guy might have been spirited away by the CIA and killed in Iraq along with the Shiite cleric. From Arab News

http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=25014

Got this from the Agonist:

http://agonist.got.net/

Don't know where he got the whole "spirited away" thing.

RE: Top Iraqi defector disappears

Elonka wrote:
] ] The Secret Of Psalm 46 was first presented on 23
] March 2002
] ] at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose,
] ] California. It was accompanied by a digital video of a
] ] total solar eclipse, synchronized to a harpsichord
] ] recording of JS Bach's Art Of Fugue.
]
] Brian Moriarty is a brilliantly-gifted speaker (and a heck of
] a game designer). This talk that he gave at GDC 2002 was a
] work of art. Inspiring, moving, and thought-provoking, and I
] will never forget it. I'm glad that a transcript is on the
] web, though I don't think that reading this can even come
] close to the "performance art" that was the talk itself.
]
] I'm also meme-ing this because he spoke of some codes and
] messages hidden in music. If you're interested in
] cryptography, or conspiracies, or the history of the game
] industry, this is worth a read.

I saw this at GDC 2002, as well. I had no idea what to expect, but I was looking for something a bit less focused and a bit more entertaining than the lectures and roundtables I had been going to all week long. I got that in spades. Although not specifically game related, this performance piece was, by far, the best hour I spent during the entire conference.

I agree with Elonka, the text does no justice to the performance. Of course, I was sitting in the front row, looking at Moriarty's face eerily illuminated by the podium's little reading light as he pontificated on the mysteries of Shakespear and Bach. A very powerful performance, indeed.

RE: Brian Moriarty | Lectures | The Secret Of Psalm 46 (2002)

Elonka wrote:
] ] Russian military advisers have told Iraqi President
] ] Saddam Hussein and his government that the main Allied
] ] drive on Baghdad will not take place until mid-April and
] ] will then come around the west of the city, Russian
] ] journalists and analysts with strong links to Russian
] ] military intelligence now claim.
] ]
] ] Strikingly, the Russian analysts, whose work appears on
] ] the iraqwar.ru Web site, believe that U.S. and Allied
] ] forces are still overwhelmingly likely to win the war and
] ] that they are performing in a highly impressive manner.
] ] The reports are described as "based on the Russian
] ] military intelligence -- the Main Intelligence
] ] Directorate or GRU -- reports."
] ]
] ] A March 31 report on the site revealed that Iraq was
] ] receiving analytical advice from Russian officials.
] ] "Russian military analysts are advising the Iraqi
] ] military command against excessive optimism," it said.

More info on this at the guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,931084,00.html

RE: United Press International: Analysis: Russia advises Iraq on U.S. plan