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Wal-Mart threatened by Eminent Domain…whee!
Well, this should be interesting…a city in California is going to take land back from Wal-Mart after they refuse to meet the city’s requirements for construction.
Now, the details aren’t too clear and this might be a simple case of Wal-Mart promising to build a store of less than 64,000 square feet and coming back with one that was more than twice that size. Or it could be the case where a developer brought Wal-Mart in after the initial agreements were made, hoping that nobody would look too closely when Wal-Mart built a store more than twice the agreed amount…
The funny quote is by the Wal-Mart representative who says:
"We’re disappointed that the city of Hercules is playing politics with the future of Hercules rather than looking at the big picture," Loscotoff said Thursday. "Many residents are anxious for this much-needed retail project to move forward."
The ‘big picture’ is probably that the residents really want a grocery store…not necessarily a Wal-Mart. And if there were a really big vacant lot in my neighborhood, then I’d be anxious for something to happen…but not necessarily a Wal-Mart. And if the politicians are doing this, it’s pretty likely they are doing it because holding Wal-Mart to the original deal will win them votes, meaning there’s no apparent love lost for Wal-Mart.
So, yeah. Mr. Loscotoff is trying to get people to (a) feel pity for poor downtrodden Wal-Mart, (b) believe that the people want Wal-Mart and (c) blame politicians for messing things up. I’m all for (c) all the time, but (a) is silly and (b) is a rarity.
Urban Dead
There’s a fun little browser based game called "Urban Dead" in whcih humans fight zombies…and I’m addicted to it. It’s best described as ‘turn based’, it allows you to take the side of either a human or zombie, some 300,000 people play it, and if you saw the recent movie Shaun of the Dead then you’ll understand the ‘world’ that the guy writing the game is aiming towards.
There’s a wiki for the game that explains how it’s played, if you are interested. The basic mechanics are easy to grasp and there are a good range of options (skills, tactics like where to hide or hunt brains, etc) that develop as your character gets experience.
The graphics are ultra-lean (tables and text) and the descriptions of places and things are a half-step away from Zork…but considering it’s a free web-based toy, Urban Dead is pretty cool.
Tosh Photos
Tosh posted a few more photos of Oslo, Hokkaido, and Cleveland in the last few weeks…
The translation page, via Google, is also available….
