Thirteen is my lucky number...

    Today is Friday the 13th, a conjunction of date and day traditionally associated with misfortune and really crappy slasher movies. In fact, any month beginning with a Sunday will have a Friday the 13th. Personally, I've always considered 13 one of my luckiest numbers. I enlisted in the Army on Friday, 13 September 1985, and I graduated from Infantry OSUT (One Station Unit Training) on Friday, 13 December 1985. On my first day, the bus taking us to Fort Benning from the Atlanta airport broke down. On my last day, the outdoor graduation was rained out, necessitating a hastily arranged indoor ceremony. Needless to say, I was already convinced not to re-enlist by that point, and considering all the dumbbells I encountered during my scant 2 years of active duty and 1 year of National Guard service, it's a good thing I didn't re-enlist.

    Today's featured Call of Duty vid is the reveal for the Call of Duty: Black Ops 'Prestige' edition. Turns out that the bonus toy is a radio controlled car with video and audio surveillance capability, much like the roving RC car bomb in the multiplayer game. As pointed out in one article, anyone who owns the Modern Warfare 2 'Prestige' edition 'night vision goggles' and gets the Black Ops RC snooper car can turn themselves into the Ultimate Stalker PDQ. The second vid is another Black Ops multiplayer teaser analysis, this one by YouTuber BrassMonkeigh. Moving on...

 

• Call of Duty: Black Ops includes RC 'surveillance car'. Much, much better than a pair of goggles.

• Bioshock: Infinite officially announced.
• Bioshock: Infinite previews: Joystiq; GameSpot; CVG; USAToday; VentureBeat.
• Joystiq interviews Ken Levine on Bioshock: Infinite.
• Metro 2033 patch breaks achievement system; THQ investigating.
• Desktop PC platform: Killed by overclocking.
• iPhone games based on current events have untapped potential.
• Op-ed: DRM doesn't work because it doesn't increase profits.

• Robot joins ISS crew for menial labor. Cue the robot slave uprising in 3, 2, 1... 
• Chunk of 'original Earth' found in Canada.
• Tool use by humans started earlier than previously thought. And ended with the generation of robotic slave labor.
• Apple releases iOS 4.0.2, fixes PDF vulnerability. Also, the update prevents you from painlessly jailbreaking your phone.
• And 2 hrs later: Jailbreak for iOS 4.0.2. how-to guide.
• How to improve your Android phone's battery life.
• Sony Ericsson to introduce Android 3.0 gaming platform.
• The FCC's crusade to keep the internet free.
• The Seven Greatest Internet Hoaxes. YMMV as to the actual 'greatness' of these. They appear to be in reverse order of cleverness...