Scraps: Charitable donations (10/14/08)

My local NPR station has been running one of their pledge drives today. Thankfully, they’re a little more considerate than in some markets that I’ve heard and try to limit the length of the drive to as brief a period as possible. This time, it was a single day. I wonder how effective that sort of thing is, what with people waiting until the very last minute in some cases to make a donation of some kind.

Of course, all of this is really just an excuse for me to mention SingSterling again. I’ve made my donation. How about you? Are you going to cough up some green to see if Sterling winds up coughing blood? If that’s not a worthy cause, I challenge you to find me a better one.

Here are some of the stories which didn’t make the front page today:

• Game stocks bounced back a bit on Monday. Seems like people are freaking out a little bit less when it comes to the global economic crisis. [GamesIndustry] 
• Kojima believes that Japan is losing their edge and western gaming companies are producing better products. Oh, and he might announce a new game at TGS next year. [Kotaku]
• The NYPD’s union boss, who apparently moonlights as an expert in child psychology, has condemned Saints Row 2. [GamePolitics]
• Blizzard swears that the Activision partnership played no role in their decision to release Starcraft 2 as a trilogy. In an act of rare optimism, I’m inclined to believe them. [Edge]
• Australian police have arrested two men who attempted to smuggle 3,400 ecstacy tablets in a gutted PS2. “Live in your world, Roll in ours?” [GamePolitics]