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The region of Bergslagen, where this moon-mine would be situated, is historically famous for its production of iron. There are recorded accounts of minerals being extracted from these sites as early as the 12:th century, but most of the visible remains today come from the very end of the  era, late 17th century.  We took a guided tour from one of the mines in the area, and the recorded history of the place is really fantastic.

Now of course the situation is different. We talked with the municipality of Nora some years ago, and it became pretty clear to us that they would be open for pretty much anything that would give the  region a boost. This is pure speculation of course, but it is this how a project this far-fetched could get the ok?

Fig 2: Idea plan

So here is what i gathered from project moon-mining so far.

• The project aims to establish a self-sustainable habitat in the mine, to simulate the enviroments of a habitat on the moon.
• The project has been given some kind of all-clear from the municipality. It seems that some kind of access to the actual mine has been granted.
• They do NOT yet have the permit to pump the water out of mine. I’m not sure why this is such a big deal, but we spoke to some people that diregarded the whole project as being “a fantasy” and hoped that the water would remain in the mine as it is now.
• Taking water from the mine in question Storgruvan, would also drain the adjacent Lockgruvan, interfering with Lockgruvans current touristic activities.
• The pumping of water is scheduled to begin july 20 2009.

So what do you think? Great entrepeneurial spirit or madman delusions? As a sci-fi nerd I love the project, but reading on the official web is not comforting. Some kind of focus on Hergés Tintins adventures on the moon? Extraction of ore from the mine “for domestic use”?

Yes its easy to disregard this one as a madman and a nutcase, but let the man with his own moon-base throw the first stone says I.

Here are some links

Swedish press about the project: http://www..ingenjoren.se/Sidor/6nov2008.aspx

Official page and source of images: http://www.moon-mine.com/

In the credits of their new exercise program My Fitness Coach, you can read that it is “Inspired by an idea from ResponDesign”. This is what could be called the understatement of the year, what Ubisoft means by “inspiration” is using the graphics, the music, the textures, the animation from the game Yourself! Fitness.  Yes its a port of an old PS2 game, and boy does it show. No anti-aliasing for you.

Also for some reason they decided to ugly up the model of maya by about 80%, so where she before looked completely natural, she now looks like a character from the zombie game House of the Dead. What I miss the most, and the feature I was really looking forward to was the simple change to metric units in the weight charts. But no, its as untouched as the rest of the game. A couple of the workouts are different, but in essence the same game that looked ok on the xbox 1 now comes to your Wii, blooming out into all-out ugly.

Of course the game is not about it looking good, but about making YOU look good. And in this area the game delivers big time. When you get tired of Wii Fit, this is the real deal. It is still a great product despite getting no love at all from Ubisoft.
So go buy it and get to work!

With just days left until the American election we have heard and seen more than enough of the candidates, and it is high time for reflection. For me at least it seems impossible how McCain / Palin can still be in the race at all.  The fenomenon Joe the plumber.. frequently adressed by McCain as a victim for Obamas tax tactics, depite not named Joe, not a plumber and in a tax range that would make him benefit from the Obama plans. Or what about Palin, After a bi-partisan investigation in her home state Alaska established that she was guilty of using questionable ethics, and abusing her powers of state in a personal affair, Palin starts to talk in her rallies “how great it is to have been cleared of all charges of wrong-doing”.

While we wait for outcome, why not sit back and relive one of last years greatest gaming memories: One of the best episodes of the great Sam n Max series sees the duo taking care of an out-of-control head of state. Grab and enjoy, these episodes are sold for 8 bucks, but the kind people from Telltale give you this one for free.

Telltale Games – Abe Lincoln Must Die!

Update

Another related thing,  7-11 have been polling the Americans during the month of October by letting them choose what cup they want with their morning coffee, the Obama cup or the McCain cup.  This way they have predicted the last two elections accurately, and the current result is pretty striking:

http://www.7-election.com/