Vivendi Games and Activision declared they were joining forces in a deal valued at $18.9 billion to create the world’s biggest independent game publisher. The new company, called Activision Blizzard, will remain publicly traded on the NASDAQ market in New York under the symbol ATVI.

This is some big news for the gaming community and the millions of World of Warcraft players out there may be wondering what this means. The long and short of it is: nothing. Blizzard promptly put up an FAQ which says nothing, as in nothing will happen. Check it out here.

So, who do you think is the biggest powerhouse? EA? Blizzard Activation? (or whatever their name is going to be!) or maybe Nintendo? I’m sure EA wants to own Ubisoft outright after this news.

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Consisting of two separate pieces – mount and device clip – ProClip ensures that all of your gadgets are conveniently and safely positioned in your vehicle guaranteeing easy access. Simply navigate the ProClip website, select the make and model of your vehicle, then select the device that you wish to mount within your vehicle. Personally, I believe that ProClip is the best solution available for car owners to keep their gadgets within safe arms reach. Unfortunately, it looks like both pieces that I would need – iPhone mount kit for VW R32 – are currently on backorder.

Check the site out if you’re looking for an aesthetically pleasing device mount. Stay away from using suction cups on your windshield!

That four wheeled pride and joy sitting in your driveway – due for a car wash – will probably stay dirty unless you take it to a drive through car wash. Cities across the country are debating the idea of denying homeowners the privilege of washing their own vehicles outside their own house(s).

In King County, Wash., local officials are mulling a move to prohibit residents from washing their cars on the street over concerns that the runoff is sloshing into Puget Sound. In Fairfax, Calif., fearing similar runoff pollution, officials have proposed a ban on washing cars in front of one’s home, with citations and possible imprisonment for violators.

Read more on the Wall Street Journal. It’s for the fishes right? Keep your cars dirty for the sake of helping our eco-system stay healthy. What are your thoughts?

NEW YORK – A $10,000 reward is being offered for a parrot that talks with a Brooklyn accent.

Leigh Ann Frankel says her 18-year-old African gray parrot, named Franklin, disappeared from a Manhattan pet boarding facility the day before Thanksgiving.

She and her husband, Lee Frankel, are offering the reward for the bird’s safe return.

I wish my parrot could talk a little more. If any of our NY readers happen to find him, before getting the reward, teach him to say UNEASYsilence.com please.

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If you, like me, have been waiting for Gmail’s chat to get some features everyone else already does then you can feel good in knowing we’re getting there, slowly. Now when logged into Gmail chat you can do group conversations. Why it has taken this long to happen is beyond me. The other update is with emoticons. You can now choose graphical emoticons to go along with the text ones you had to use when using the chat.

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Google Reader, my feed reader of choice, has added drag and drop-ability to feeds. Google Reader featured a clunky way of organizing feeds, so being able to drag and drop is a really welcome addition. Google Reader also has a feed discovery page that will offer you suggestions of new sites based on what you’re reading now, along with data from your Web History. Don’t worry, Dan, it’s all automated.

What’s your Reader of choice? Google Reader seems to be king, though I have been digging the speed of the Bloglines Beta. I prefer web-based solutions so I can read anywhere.

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I know. You hate those freaking forwarded emails and delete them as soon as you get them. Believe me when I say I am no email forwarder! With that said, I came across this and decided to share, because among all the “forward to 13 ppl or ur crush will hate you forever” mail are some actual nuggets that may actually teach you something, or at least regain a perspective you might have forgotten. This is supposedly the philosophy of Charles Shultz, the guy behind the ‘Peanuts’ comic strip. It’s not long, take the time to read it and see if you may appreciate his words.

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While I have had a Nintendo DS for well over a year now, I was always looking to do more with it. For the last 6 months I had been thinking about a DS-XTREME, yet the price for a 2GB card cost as much as a new DS- so it didn’t seem cost effective. Googling around, I found the CYCLODS Evolution which basically did the same thing, yet allowed the user to use removable MicroSD (Tansflash) cards instead of having internal memory, and was more than half the price of the DS-XTREME.

The card arrived in the mail today. The box contains the DS cartridge, a MicroSD to USB dongle and instructions (which was absent from my box…). Adding backed up games of mine to a MicroSD card was as easy as drag and drop. Similarly, select videos and music worked when I just dragged them to the flash card and put them in the cartridge.

Some of the real benefits to using this cartridge I have seen are:
+Ability to Adjust LCD brightness during game play (NDSLite only)
+SlowMotion mode which can be used to slow down game play
+Supports the MicroSDHC specification, allowing for new high capacity memory cards (so far up to 4GB)
+Seamless saves in-game

There are a ton more features that I have yet to try out; ebook reader, cheat codes and booting straight into the last game used.

This is a great product in my eyes, and has helped to breathe new life into my DS.

[Product Page-ConsoleSource]

Pike County sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call of a lion “attacking” vehicles on U.S. 23 Monday and found a man trying to capture a 550-pound feline near Wakefield.

Terry Brumfield told officers that his lion named Lambert had broken out of its pen in nearby Piketon, about 90 miles east of Cincinnati. The owner was able to get the animal back into the cage without anyone getting hurt.

Brumfield and his wife have two lions. Vicki Brumfield said raising them has helped her husband through a bout of depression. She said they are tame, like great big house cats.

Also, they’re lions.

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This is the part where you try clapping and realize how inadequate you are at it.