Monthly Archives: February 2014

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“A Twist in the Myth” by Blind Guardian

“A Twist in the Myth” was released in 2006 by the German power-metal band Blind Guardian. It is the eighth album in the Blind Guardian collection, featuring 51 minutes of original music, with the addition of commentary. As the name suggests, “A Twist in the Myth” pulls influence from literature and mythological lore. Speed guitar reference tales varying from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to ancient Nordic bard songs.
Blind guardian is a heavy/power metal band that was founded in 1984. Originally called Lucifer’s Heritage, the band agreed to change the name to avoid false connections to Satanism as well as to separate them from the emerging death metal genre. Blind Guardian is considered the pioneer of power metal, using progressive guitar riffs and heavy backing vocals as the backbone of their music. The band tours worldwide, and has recorded soundtracks for several movies and games, including “In the Name of the King.” Although cycling through several members, the band retains the majority of their musicians and all of the spirit of their art.

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Flap No More: Creator Takes Down Viral Game

In tweets Saturday, February 8, Don Nguyen, creator of the insanely popular game app “Flappy Bird,” revealed his intentions to take the game off app stores. The Hanoi based developer has been programming for ten years, but never thought the game would take off like it did. Said Nguyen on Twitter, “…I will take ‘Flappy Bird’ down. I cannot take this anymore.” He also does not intend to sell “Flappy Bird,” despite its popularity and social media attention. “People are overusing my app,” tweeted Nguyen. “I can call ‘Flappy Bird’… a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it.”

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Comic Corner: “Justice League: Rise and Fall”

“Justice League: Rise and Fall.” There are plenty of poorly written comics and plenty of potentially great stories that fall into the hands of mediocre writers, but rarely does one see a story with such potential fail so hard at living up to what it could have been. There was a good premise here. The main players were well-established and interesting characters. There was some excellent history behind all of the motivations in the story. This should have been a compelling, dramatic epic of a story, focusing on the relatable struggles of dealing with personal demons and the impotence of being to fix someone else’s problems, even for those who can see exactly where the troubles are headed. Instead, it comes off as a lackluster, sloppy piece of work thrown together by a writer who started with an outline of where the story needed to go and did not progress much beyond that point. But, before tossing this work aside as the sloppy and frankly insulting drivel that it is, readers and fans should actually take a look at this comic’s story.

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Geek of the Week: Erik Charrier, Graduate Student, PhD, Mining Engineering

Plenty of Mines students go through the school with a goal of running through their academic gauntlet as quickly as possible. Others take a bit longer to leave this haven of geeks, either by choice or by trial and error. However, only a privileged few can claim the honor of knowing the campus as well as Erik Charrier, who, after wresting both a Bachelor of Science and a Master’s degree from Mines, continues to do battle with the school in pursuit of a PhD in Mining Engineering.

Snow Review

As the students of Colorado School of Mines have all undoubtedly noticed, there has been a little bit of snow lately. While snow can be pretty to look at, surely everyone can but in agreement that is hasn’t been the nicest thing to trudge through on the way to class. Anyone who has experienced pulling off wet freezing socks in a futile attempt to save a couple frostbitten toes should know that they aren’t the only student on campus to endure then; others can commiserate and share in the pain. The ice is cold, wet, annoying and yet for some reason it is still possible to love it a little bit (well some of us do), for no other reason than the wind seems to disappear while it is snowing.

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Gear Review: YakTrax

With snow all around, life has become a little more exciting and a little more dangerous. With the ground icy or covered in slippery packed snow, everyone is forced to take a little more care unless they want to end up flat on their back, staring up at the sky. One solution for the slick ground is YakTrax. These remarkable inventions are like tire chains for shoes, and provide extra traction against the ground to prevent slipping and falling. They are incredibly useful for when there is ice or packed snow but they also help when walking across loose gravel. Additionally, they also make really cool foot prints that look like criss-crosses.

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Game Review: “Psychonauts”

They engage the enemy in his own mentality. They chase his dreams, fight his demons, and live his nightmares. They are international secret agents. They are the Psychonauts. “Psychonauts” is a 2005 platformer from the deranged and brilliant mind of Tim Schafer. It introduces the player to a world where the greatest battles and adventures take place in the mental realm and the experts in such battles are part of an elite psychic force known as the Psychonauts. The player enters the story as a young psychic boy named Raz who sneaks into a summer camp for Psycadets (Psychonauts-in-training). Players are given free reign to explore the camp and are shortly introduced to the game’s other levels: the minds of those around Raz.

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“Frozen” Warms the Heart

While Disney has closed down their animation department, that does not mean the end of the delightful fairy tales they have long been known for. The latest Disney feature is a CGI musical set in eighteenth-century Scandinavia, starring two sisters, a love triangle, a reindeer, and a talking snowman. While the plot has a few unresolved holes (to be discussed momentarily), the overall story is good and the characters are likable and fun. Supposedly the film is based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale of the Snow Queen, but those familiar with the (rather dark) source material will not recognize any of it in this cheerful, wholly un-depressing picture.

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Movie Review: The Butler

Lee Daniels’ “The Butler” is a 2013 historical film directed by Lee Daniels and starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, and John Cusack. The Butler is a fictionalized version of the life of Eugene Allen (Cecil Gaines in this film) who acted as head butler for the White House between 1952 and 1986. The film paints the story of Cecil and his family within the backdrop of the changes to the political and racial landscape between this time period.

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