Microsoft to buy Blizzard.

The timing is impeccable: “Microsoft Gaming will acquire Activision Blizzard — the embattled video game publisher behind such hit franchises as Call of Duty, Warcraft, Overwatch and Candy Crush — in a $68.7 billion deal, the company said in a blog post Tuesday. The proposed price would make Activision Blizzard the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history, even as Activision Blizzard grapples with multiple lawsuits and claims of a toxic work environment.”

…Damned if I know why they’re doing it, aside of course from the fact that even a company as messed up as Blizzard is still a gateway into what is inexplicably (to me*, at least) being called the ‘metaverse’ now. There’s money in them thair pixels, and Microsoft likes money. Which has somehow become one of the less annoying corporate attitudes out there. At least they’re not yelling at me all the time…

Moe Lane

*I get that it’s probably a READY PLAYER ONE reference. Not gonna lie; I didn’t bother watching the movie. I’m already, you know, kind of in this Metaverse thing? Why would I watch something that’s just showing a more narratively coherent version of my normal operating environment?

#commissionearned

Blizzard warning for Hawaii*.

*The highest part of Hawaii Island, not the entire island chain. The ten-day forecast for Honolulu shows storms, with a high of about eighty degrees. But it’s still kind of neat, hey?

#rsrh You know, when GIULIANI was Mayor…

the trains ran on time:

Two days after slamming the tri-state, millions of people affected by a post-Christmas blizzard continue to dig out from a storm that shut down area airports, crippled commuter train and subway service and stranded thousands traveling during the holiday weekend.

The sixth largest snowstorm in the history of New York City dumped two feet of snow and left many, especially those living in the outer boroughs and small suburban side streets, feeling trapped or ignored as city resources went to dig out Manhattan.

“I’m furious at Mayor Bloomberg, he’s a rich man, so he doesn’t care about the little people,” said New Enrico’s Car Service livery driver Julio Carpio, speaking in Spanish. “I have to work, why aren’t people out there plowing? Why does the mayor always go on TV the night before to say, ‘We’re all set with a fleet of salt trucks,’? and then you never see a single truck. They always abandon Queens.”

That’s because Queens doesn’t have anything that interests Bloomberg.  If he could be just mayor of Manhattan he would be, and be quite cheerful about it, too.  Rudy, on the other hand… now there was a guy who could appreciate Brooklyn.  Hell, I even think that he kind of liked Staten Island, and that takes skill.

Moe Lane

(H/T Instapundit.)

Democrats in Congress: Carbon neutrality for you; not for us.

While it’s really, really easy to laugh at the fact that the environmentalists’ march on the Capitol Power Plant is being hampered by a heavy snowstorm – to blatantly steal from one of my cobloggers, I’ve just come in from shoveling eight inches of global warming off of my front walkway – it’s…

Hold on. I’m actually still laughing.

OK. Continue reading Democrats in Congress: Carbon neutrality for you; not for us.