Reply by Lomax :: EQ2 Mounts
Legend of Norrath ingame items screenshots (Armored Warg mount)
Ah cheers, I did see the ten ton hammer one there too, while its updated though its missing so many now, the New Mount Guide is the most complete I’ve seen so far with pictures, although the text one gives everything so far I think (its missing the flaming carpet kottonmouth mentioned for sure).
While the flaming carpet has a nice touch to it I’m still tempted by a more old school spirit steed style mount, but especially for the warden I’d love to get Fitzpitzel’s Hover Platform, but seeing that it needs a whole x4 raid at level 70 is needed it would be a tall order to get it. The mob himself looks easy enough though Fitzpitzle. I love their level rating there of “fun” 
Worth keeping EQ2 raid mobs as a link.
Another question then EQ2 raids, how do they work when you out level them? Can you go in say 10 levels above say an X2 raid and do fine with a party of six? I see the bosses all have levels there so will at least be low level to attack, that’s one difference with WoW where a boss mob is always your level +3 for hitting etc.
Although in WoW the gear and character levels are so steep a difference that a level 80 character can solo a 40 man level 60 raid (Onyxia’s Lair).
Age of Conan anniversary contest prizes include lifetime subscriptions
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Contests, Forums, News items
We mentioned an Age of Conan event in passing recently but we’d like to point out a bit more about the AoC Anniversary Contest, “Find the King’s Seals“. It’s an easter egg hunt of sorts, where players are given a list of game sites which contain silver seals. There are 25 silver seals to be found for each language (English, French, and German, although only 10 for Spanish), which are collected in the form of codes, found among the Age of Conan articles on the various MMO sites.
Funcom states: “There is also one golden seal hidden somewhere on one of the listed webpages. If you also manage to find that one together with the 25 silver seals for your language, you get the chance to win the grand prize… a lifetime subscription to Age of Conan.” If you’re interested in entering the contest, you’ve got until midnight (Central European Time) on May 31st. You can see the full Age of Conan Anniversary Contest rules and prize listings on the game’s official forums.
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Having fun in Conan’s homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age! |
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A Federal Bailout For Black Radio? Under What Conditions?
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By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
News has surfaced that powerful members of the Congressional Black Caucus are asking for a bailout of minority broadcasters, specifically black radio. But black radio, like the rest of commercial media, has long dodged any hint of the public service obligations to which it is legally bound. Is the crisis of black radio a chance to finally impose real public service obligations upon broadcasters?
Our thanks to Davey D for this video…
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A Federal Bailout For Black Radio? Under What Conditions?
By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
There’s a hilarious Direct TV commercial which takes place in the boardroom of a giant cable TV corporation. The not-too-bright suits at the table acknowledge that Direct TV is killing them, but one has a solution. “Two words,” he says. “Federal. Bailout. Read a paper. Everybody’s doing it.” They all concur and nod in unison. A May 19 article in The Hill by Silla Brush confirms that reality has overtaken satire.
High-ranking House Democrats are urging the Treasury Department to prop up minority-owned broadcasters suffering from a lack of capital and lost advertising revenue amid the economic slump.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) is leading an effort to convince Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to take “decisive action” by extending credit to this sector of the broadcasting industry.
Clyburn and other senior members, including House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), argue that minority-owned broadcasters are sound businesses, but that the recession could undermine the government’s efforts to diversify the airwaves.
A number of members from the Congressional Black Caucus signed the letter, too.
So nobody is laughing. One of the most powerful congressmen on Capitol Hill wants bailout money allocated to black radio. Why? To start with, Radio One and the other leading African American owned broadcasters are pitifully small compared to Clear Channel, CBS and the big boys. Black radio is indeed suffering, and the reasons have nothing to do with the so-called “free market.”
“Free markets,” in fact, have never had anything to do with how the U.S. broadcast industry operates. The broadcast airwaves were not invented by some smart engineer or clever entrepreneur, they are part of the electromagnetic spectrum, along with gamma radiation and sunshine. The radio-TV broadcast spectrum is thus a limited public resource. Broadcast licenses are monopoly licenses awarded by the government to a select few wealthy individuals and corporations from which those wealthy few reap tens of billions in annual profits. Though licenses are supposedly awarded on the condition that broadcasters operate in the public interest, no broadcaster in U.S. history has ever had a license revoked for flunking this test.
If a public interest test for broadcast licensees were ever administered, few if any commercial broadcasters would pass. That certainly includes black radio. Where a generation ago black radio deployed local news gathering organizations in dozens of cities across the country, with black journalists ferreting out local news, there is not a single urban radio station standing with a news gathering operation. Journalism on black radio has been dead so long that no adults under 45 can recall what it looked or sounded like. The premiere black-owned radio chain, Radio One pioneered the cutting of newsrooms and their replacement with cheaper and more profitable talk shows, mostly about celebrities and relationships.
It’s not as if black owned radio stations manage to serve the public on the artistic end either. As Davey D points out on Jared Ball’s Jazz And Justice, the playlists for white owned stations aiming their programming at black audiences are the same as Radio One’s. The corrupt regime of payola rules the airwaves on black owned stations, just as it does on white ones, depriving audiences of the opportunity to hear newer and local artists. A recent study by the Future of Music Coalition indicated that up to half the songs played on the top four radio chains are oldies. Radio One was not among the chains audited, but their playlists differ in no other discernible ways from their white owned competitors.
HR 848, the so-called performance rights legislation will doubtless further disadvantage black radio station owners because it will, in effect, legalize payola, and give the biggest chains more leverage in dealing with labels than smaller ones. Under HR 848 as presently written major chains like Clear Channel will be able, as Davey D points out, to cut deals with labels that ban airplay on competing stations. Radio One founder Cathy Hughes may not be entirely wrong when she predicts the end of commercial black radio.
Still it is impossible to justify a federal bailout of any commercial broadcaster when none of the commercial broadcasters are honoring their public service obligations. News departments on black and white radio, and on TV for that matter were dumped because, as Dr. Robet McChesney has pointed out for about a decade, entertainment is more profitable than news.
The crisis of black radio is an opportunity for African American communities, and for all Americans. It’s one of our best, and maybe one of our last chances to impose stiff news and public service requirements upon broadcasters, requirements that they have successfully evaded since the FCC was founded more than seventy years ago. If leading House Democrats and the Congressional Black Caucus are really interested in reviving and revitalizing the institution of black radio, they need to lead and participate in a public discussion of how news coverage affects communities, how payola shuts down the careers of local artists, and what the public service obligations of broadcasters really should be.
Since radio broadcasting has never been and never will be a “free market” and the principle is well established in law that broadcasters hold their licenses on the condition of public service, the arguments about government “not picking winners” are just nonsense designed to protect the ill-gotten and irresponsible gains of those who run our airwaves for their private profit today. If a bailout of broadcasters is contemplated, there must be congressional hearings that explore what the public service obligations of broadcasters are, and stiff measures instituted to strip the licenses of those who fail to meet them. Should every station with gross revenue of say, $1.2 million annually be required to field a news department covering school boards, local issues and local politics? Should stations be required to play new and local artists in every market? What rights will the public have to police and enforce the service requirements of broadcasters?
If members of the Congressional Black Caucus are serious about saving black radio, they will need public support. They won’t get and don’t deserve it without a public discussion, without hearings in cities like Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia. Before any bailout of broadcasters, black or otherwise is contemplated, we have to have this conversation. BAR reached out to the office of Congressman Clyburn early this week and received no response. We will continue to call Rep. Clyburn’s office on this subject.
Freedom Rider Phony Terror and Black America (Part II)
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by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
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“Muslims should probably not mention hating America or Israel to a new friend. That friend may need to create a terrorist to keep himself out of jail.”
“The defendants were duped into carrying what they thought were actual bombs and missiles.”
Big Oil on Trial For 1995 Nigerian Executions
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A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford 
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Obama Out-Bushes Bush on Preventive Detention
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A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford 
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Obama Out-Bushes Bush on Preventive Detention
Racist Symbolism Or Memorial Day Tradition? Obama Honors Confederate Dead
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A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
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Who Killed Black Radio? — Journalist’s Roundtable at Jared Ball’s Jazz & Justice, WPFW-FM in DC
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Every Monday afternoon at 1PM on WPFW, Baltimore-DC listeners can hear a fine example of The Other Black Radio — Jared Ball’s Jazz and Justice. This week the first hour featured HipHop historian, producer and entrepreneur Davey D, Black Agenda Report’s Bruce Dixon and longtime radio analyst Paul Porter, now of Industry Ears discussing the state of commercial black radio, and whether it’s worth saving.
Tap the flash player below to listen to or the mic to download the show. About 60 minutes, and worth it.
Find more of Dr. Jared Ball’s work at voxunion.com. The latest headlines from voxunion.com are always available right here in the right hand margin of BAR’s front page.
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Shell. Guilty.
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Almost a fifth of the oil imported by the U.S. comes from Africa, and in the decade to come this percentage will rise. The eastern part of Nigeria, from which Big Oil has pumped more than a trillion dollars worth of black gold since the 1960s, remains the poorest part of the country, and one of the most ravaged and polluted on earth. Thousands of gas flares have burned for decades, generating acid rains that have poisoned fisheries and crops. The land is crisscrossed by thousands of miles of leaking pipes and dotted with oil slicks. The air is unbreathable, cancers are endemic, there are no schools or hospitals and life expectancies are among the lowest on the African continent. Shell Oil is on trial in a New York courtroom, accused of hiring the Nigerian government to murder its own citizens for protesting the pollution of their environment and demanding a share of oil revenues be spent where the oil is extracted.
Need to know more? Check out http://shellguilty.com.
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New Orleans New Black Media Makers
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by Jordan Flaherty
The Black New Orleans-based communications collective "2-Cent" counts as its icons Huey Newton and Gil Scott Heron. "Other generations marched, and we march too. But in this age we have a whole new range of weapons…. I think Martin Luther King, Jr. would want to be on YouTube, to have his speeches distributed that way." 2-Cent spokesperson Brandon "B-Mike" Odums rejects the idea that promoting ignorance is cool. "We say it’s hot to stand up for yourself and speak for yourself."
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New Orleans New Black Media Makers
by Jordan Flaherty
”I think Martin Luther King, Jr. would want to be on YouTube, and Malcolm X would love to make mixtapes.”
The video grabs your attention immediately. Young people in the Lower Ninth Ward hold up signs that read: “looter,” “we’re still here,” and “America did this.” Amid empty lots and damaged houses, poet Nik Richard delivers this message: “Hurricane Katrina was the biggest national disaster to hit American soil, and nearly two years later, this area is still devastated. But you know what? We made sure we preserved it strictly for your tourism. For about $75, you can take one of these many tour buses.”
Tourists drive by and people with cameras gawk. Richard looks directly at the camera and says, “It looks like there’s more money to be paid in devastation than regeneration. If y’all keep paying your money to see it, should we rebuild it?”
The short film New Orleans For Sale, which has garnered several awards, was made by 2-Cent Entertainment, a group of young Black media makers in New Orleans. The group, which currently has 10 members, made New Orleans for Sale to convey the frustration felt by many New Orleanians as the city has become a national spectacle and a backdrop for countless national politicians, while the aid the city needs to rebuild still hasn’t arrived. In 2008, the film won several awards including an NAACP image award in a competition, called Film Your Issue, which featured a high-powered jury with the likes of news anchor Tom Brokaw and media executives from MTV Networks, Lionsgate Entertainment and USA Today.
”2-Cent members also seek to pass their skills onto the next generation.”
Working at the intersection of art and justice, as well as entertainment and enlightenment, 2-Cent has attracted a wide and growing audience. In New Orleans, they’ve also collaborated with the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund, produced shows on local television and radio stations, and created mix CDs and scores of short videos. Beyond creating inspiring programming, 2-Cent members also seek to pass their skills onto the next generation, and have taught and presented their work and in New Orleans high schools and colleges.
“Huey Newton said the young people always inherit the revolution,” says Brandan “B-Mike” Odums, 2-Cent’s founder. “And that’s what 2-Cent is, it’s how our generation responded to that call.”
Positive Images
The collective formed in 2004, when Odums gathered a group of friends (most of them fellow students at the University of New Orleans) to produce a TV show with a message.
“A lot of TV promotes a monolithic way of thinking, saying there’s only one way to be, or promoting ignorance as cool,” says Odums. “We say it’s hot to stand up for yourself and speak for yourself.”
The group was still newly formed when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, and in the aftermath of the storm, with 2-Cent members spread across the United States, they nearly disbanded. “Katrina made us realize that this is what we want to do,” says Odums. “We’d done two episodes before the storm. Everybody was scattered. We had to decide if this is something we really want to do. Katrina forced us to make the decision.”
The collective briefly relocated together to Atlanta, then made the decision together to return to New Orleans.
Kevin Griffin, another of the founding members of 2-Cent, joined because he shares Odum’s desire to change the images and messages delivered to today’s youth. “We were seeing the images that BET and others were putting out,” Griffin says. “And we wanted to do something different, more positive.”
Griffin is not just a media activist; he is also one of the leaders of a citywide movement spearheaded by the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, an organization whose mission is to close the Youth Studies Center, the city’s youth prison. The group has led campaigns to shut down other youth prisons around the state including the notorious youth prison in Tallulah, Louisiana, and they are also working to create more options for young people beyond jail.
”We were seeing the images that BET and others were putting out, and we wanted to do something different, more positive.”
For Griffin, these struggles have personal meaning. “At the age of 10, I was sent to the Youth Studies Center,” Griffin explains. “A year later I was moved to Tallulah, which was known as the worst youth prison in the country. I was 11. The next youngest person was 17, so I was a child among adults. And I was there for five years.”
When he was released, Griffin was determined to turn his experience into something positive. “I could have stayed on that path that was laid out for me,” says Griffin. “But I didn’t want to become that.” He credits his family for helping support him when he got out.
Griffin now works full-time at WBOK, a Black-owned talk radio station (their slogan is “Talk back, talk Black”). Art also runs in his family. His cousin Mannie Fresh, the music impresario of New Orleans’ Cash Money record label, produced much of the music that made New Orleans hip hop famous.
Humor and Style
2-Cent videos are notable for both humor and great production values. “We liked a lot of the messages you would see on Public Access TV,” explains Griffin. “But we wanted to make something with better production.” This combination of form and content, and a mix of serious and comic, defines the 2-Cent style.
“We take education and comedy and we mix it all together,” says collective member Manda B, who writes and acts in many of the group’s videos. “We can trick people into learning. We built it off a foundation of edutainment. Even with our most crazy and bizarre scripts, we have a meaning.”
“We can trick people into learning.”
The group seems to have limitless energy and ideas, and they bring new angles to their subjects, finding humor in unexpected places, and bringing ideas to young people by using that humor. Their piece on Jena, Louisiana, is filmed at the September 20, 2007 protests in Jena, when tens of thousands of young people converged in what was called the birth of the 21st century civil rights movement. But the 2-Cent video intercuts with one of their members—an effortlessly humorous young performer named Stiggidy Steve—wandering confused on Jena Street in New Orleans and wondering where everyone is.
“Older folks may try to put out similar ideas,” says Manda B. “But it’s like they’re preaching. I think we know how to connect with our generation.”
These young media activists praise Gil Scott Heron, who said the revolution will not be televised, but for 2-Cent, media is a tool to be taken and used for the mission of social change.
“Other generations marched, and we march too,” says Odums. “But in this age we have a whole new range of weapons, and we’re trying to use those weapons. I think Martin Luther King, Jr. would want to be on YouTube, to have his speeches distributed that way. Malcolm X would love to make mixtapes, have those out on the streets. The same reasons they boycotted and had protests in that era are our reasons too. We’re coming from that same mindset, but we’re using new tools, trying to get our inheritance.”
”2-Cent, media is a tool to be taken and used for the mission of social change.”
After nearly five years together, the group has survived Katrina and all the connected stresses of living in New Orleans during this time, and their bonds become stronger and closer. When asked what aspect of their work they were most proud of, various 2-Cent members expressed the same sentiment as Manda B, who explained, “For me, the best element of all this is that we’re family.”
For a large collective, 2-Cent seems to have no problem working together, creating new content every week, and continually expanding the range of work they do and the audiences they reach. “We’re all together like family,” says Griffin. “And we can’t imagine not staying together.”
Jordan Flaherty is a journalist based in New Orleans, and an editor of Left Turn Magazine. He was the first writer to bring the story of the Jena Six to a national audience and his reporting on post-Katrina New Orleans shared a journalism award from New America Media. His work has been published and broadcast in outlets including Die Zeit (in Germany), Clarin (in Argentina), Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, and Democracy Now. He is also co-director of PATOIS: The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival. He can be reached at neworleans@leftturn.org.
More about 2-Cent: http://2-cent.com
