Feminism: still excluding working class women?

http://www.thefword.org.uk/features/2012/03/feminism_still_

Love and Suffering

The amount of suffering in one's life, is tied to the amount of desire one carries.
Complete apathy, leads to happiness. (because nothing is ever wrong).
The greatest suffering, comes from the greatest desires.

Love is desire. Who wouldn't want to ease the suffering of those they love?
A love that does not care about the suffering of others, isn't love.
To love, one must be willing to accept suffering. It is the price of caring.

The greatest love, is the greatest desire. It is the wish to ease all suffering. To aid all. To perfect everything. It is an impossible desire. It will doom any who bear it, to suffer.

For me, to love, is to suffer. If I sought happiness, I'd find it easily, by simply abandoning all care for the world. I would rather abandon my life, than abandon my love. What I seek, is not happiness.

I want to care. I want to care so much it hurts. So, I do.
Then people ask, "Why do you hate living?"
I never really know how to answer this question. I don't know how to explain it in a way they'd understand, and I'm not sure I'd want to. If they understood, they might suffer too. For me, it seems stranger that so many are able to live with so few concerns. To live in ignorance of all the suffering, is not something I'd want. I find it amazing, that so many are able and willing to do so.

How I Unwittingly Infiltrated the Boy’s Club & Why It’s Time for a New Wave of Atheism

http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/2012/08/how-i-unwittingly-infiltrated-the-boys-club-why-its-time-for-a-new-wave-of-atheism/

Infinite Relationships: Relationships without bounds or boundaries, love without limits

http://lawrence.filmsforaction.org/Blog/Infinite_Relationships_Relationships_without_bounds_or_boundaries_love_without_limits/

Fred Grimm: Stroke of luck prevented another horror

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/22/3153777/fred-grimm-stroke-of-luck-prevented.html

Plotters of school killings tend to tip off someone in advance

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-massacre-prevention-20121224,0,5399322.story?page=1

Anatomy of a Murder-Suicide

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/opinion/sunday/anatomy-of-a-murder-suicide.html

Study: When resources are scarce, most people forfeit the future

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/science/study-when-resources-are-scarce-most-people-forfeit-the-future-660243/

The Last Closet: Why I Won’t Be Home For Christmas

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/the-last-closet-why-i-wont-be-home-for-christmas/news/2012/12/23/57097

Men, It’s Time to Stand Along with Women

http://confrontinglove.com/2011/11/25/men-its-time-to-stand-along-with-women/

These Guys’ $5K Spending Sprees Keep Your Games Free to Play

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/11/meet-the-whales/all/

Love is Not a Cure For Dysfunctional Relationships

http://iwantclosure.com/relationship-issues/love-is-not-a-cure-for-dysfunctional-relationships/

Why Banning Violent Video Games Won’t Address Our Culture of Violence

http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2012/12/17/1343641/video-games-newtown/?mobile=nc

The Myth of Freud's Iceberg

http://www.mgiobbi.com/2012/02/myth-of-freuds-iceberg.html

anomalies

http://www.viruscomix.com/page567.html

Illiterate kids given sealed boxes with tablets figure out how to use, master, and hack them

http://boingboing.net/2012/10/31/illiterate-kids-given-sealed-b.html

Watery Symphony of Kai

www.youtube.com/watch?v=45zLxBV_A1Q

Buy It for Me: My Life As a Financial Dominatrix

http://nymag.com/thecut/2012/10/my-life-as-a-financial-dominatrix.html

Wow.

I find it rather sad that our society is producing people who want to be treated that way. It tells me that many people are living their lives in a way that is not fulfilling to them. 'tis another source of sadness for me.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

I think Bioware should take the class stories in their big MMO, and make single player games out of them. One game for each class, priced $40 each, and I'm sure they could make a bunch of money out of that. After trying and failing to play it when it launched, I'm no longer willing to play their MMO even when it's free. I'd be willing to buy a single player game though. I certainly enjoyed Mass Effect 1 and 2, and have been interested in some of the SW:TOR class stories after reading other people's opinions of them.

Why You Shouldn’t Bust Your Boundaries To Give Yourself A ‘Competitive Edge’ In Dating

http://www.baggagereclaim.co.uk/why-you-shouldnt-bust-your-boundaries-to-give-yourself-a-competitive-edge-in-dating/

Asking the Real Questions About Sexual Assault

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/sandra-hawken-diaz/victim-blaming_b_1901185.html

50 Actual Facts About Rape

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/50-facts-rape_b_2019338.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008

I am a lazy gamer.

I've observed that I am a very lazy gamer. The characters I enjoyed most in City of Heroes were ones designed to require minimal effort to play, often sticking to abilities that required no attention (Toggles mostly, PBAoEs were also nice). EVE Online and City of Heroes are the only MMOs I've played for long periods of time.

In EVE Online, my preferred combat style was to deploy drones and then just wait for everything to die. Defenders were my preferred class in City of Heroes, and I loved to grab the skills from the tertiary leadership set. With a bit of math, it wasn't hard to figure out how to pull my weight on a team with minimal effort.

With some effort I was able to figure out how to make a character in Champions Online I could play in a fairly easy manner, but whenever I go back to it, I find that the gameplay gets bogged down by inventory management. In fact, I find almost every MMO I play, inventory management becomes a major turnoff for me, and a hassle that I hate.

I'm beginning to believe that the main reason I so rarely enjoy MMOs is because so much time is wasted on inventory management, running around towns, or other tedium, instead of actually playing the game. CoH and almost no inventory management, and traveling around town with travel powers was a breeze (though travel before said powers were obtained was rather dull and bothersome). Why can't I find more games like that? Where there's thought put into character building, without the tedium of item bags and constant trashing of random loot.

No, you’re not entitled to your opinion

http://theconversation.edu.au/no-youre-not-entitled-to-your-opinion-9978

Suicidal Threads

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/345842/title/Suicidal_Threads

Here’s a Devastating Account of the Crap Women in the Games Business Have to Deal With. In 2012.

http://kotaku.com/5963528/heres-a-devastating-account-of-the-crap-women-in-the-games-business-have-to-deal-with-in-2012?

Body Image: An Apology to My Thinner Friend

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-fridkis/body-image-apology-thinner-friend_b_1832171.html

The main reason women care so much about their appearance, is simply because everyone around them cares so much about it.

Convincing Women in China They're Too Hairy

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-18/convincing-women-in-china-theyre-too-hairy

One of the problems of capitalism, is the tendency to create problems where none existed, just so they can sell a product that was never needed.

To Succeed, Forget Self-Esteem

http://lifehacker.com/5945018/to-succeed-forget-self+esteem

Artist Can’t Get Pirated Music Off iTunes, Google and Microsoft Stores

http://torrentfreak.com/artist-cant-get-pirated-music-off-itunes-google-and-microsoft-stores-121016/

Computer game to tackle depression

http://blogs.birminghammail.net/technobabble/2012/04/computer-game-to-tackle-depres.html

The fact that a video game is helping people with depression, implies that many people are sorely lacking in basic mental skills. All the video game can do is teach.

10 Ways to Open Your Mind

http://runicshamanism.com/archives/422

While I do like these kinds of lists, they suffer from a problem: In general, they only help people who already know there's a problem, and are trying to fix it. People who are convinced they're right, don't know how to listen or take in critique.

To really open one's mind, try viewing the world through the claim "Everyone is right." It leads to the corollary "Everyone is wrong." and trying to encompass both beliefs simultaneously is awkward (especially when one realizes they need to apply both claims to themselves too). Most people who attempt it will probably end up using the standard cop-out of throwing lots of "but"s around. The real challenge is to find the common thread that exists in all human viewpoints. (If I knew how to explain it in words, I'd do so, unfortunately, my own understanding remains weak.)

Welcome to Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFe9wiDfb0E

Al Roth: An economist who saves lives

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20004050

Walmart, the Most Powerful Company in the World, Admits that Protests and Strikes Lead to Wage Increases

http://www.alternet.org/labor/walmart-most-powerful-company-world-admits-protests-and-strikes-lead-wage-increases?akid=9532.1071541.tfV3-x

Code Geass AMV: "Finally Robotic Beings Rule the World"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01lxMedqbEo

3 Steps to Unlock the Power of Bad Feelings

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/eye-the-storm/201106/3-steps-unlock-the-power-bad-feelings

The US presidential debates' illusion of political choice

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/04/third-party-us-presidential-debate-deceit

Locksmiths Pissed Off At Geeks For Letting Out The Secret: Lockpicking Is Easy

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080717/1932251716.shtml

The Psychology of Hate

http://www.avoiceformen.com/misandry/the-psychology-of-hate/

Sadly, this article complaining about hate, seems to itself be full of hate. Hating hate doesn't make it go away. *sigh*

Ultimately, the main problem being pointed out is due to everyone's insistence in issuing judgement. The need to define everything as either right or wrong, combined with the need to be right, leads to hatred of anything that threatens their belief in their own rightness.

This Amazing Dad Wears A Skirt So His Son Can, Too

http://front.moveon.org/this-amazing-dad-wears-a-skirt-so-his-son-can-too

Why Industries Collapse

http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2011/10/why-industries-collapse/

Delete

http://www.creepypastaindex.com/creepypasta/delete

Cloned canine drug-sniffers are an amazing success in South Korea.

http://www.zmescience.com/research/cloned-canine-drug-sniffers-are-an-amazing-success-in-south-korea-big-leap-for-animal-cloning-in-the-future/

5 Mind-Blowingly Valuable Things Hidden in Everyday Life

http://www.cracked.com/article_20015_5-mind-blowingly-valuable-things-hidden-in-everyday-life.html

Cuil Theory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfdEdE96En0

10 Lesser Known Economic Issues

http://twoinformcanada.ca/10-lesser-known-economic-issues/

I must kill Roy Phillips

http://thebestgamesiteever.com/2012/06/i-must-kill-roy-phillips/

How Children Succeed

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/09/how_children_succeed_book_excerpt_what_the_most_boring_test_in_the_world_tells_us_about_motivation_and_iq_.single.html

Please Don't Tell Me I'm Beautiful

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-devin/beauty_b_1838040.html

When the Right to Resist Becomes the "Duty to Submit"

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=37975

What happens when you pour lava onto ice?

http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/what-happens-when-you-pour-lava-onto-ice-2012092/

The Best Birth Control In The World Is For Men

http://techcitement.com/culture/the-best-birth-control-in-the-world-is-for-men

My illegal abortion

http://www.salon.com/2012/08/27/my_illegal_abortion/

Usabilty always seems to go down

I greatly dislike being forced to use the new blogger interface. It's a lot less usable to me. Making posts requires a lot more effort and time than before, and everything just requires more clicks. Very frustrating. I encounter this problem a lot. Older stuff is almost always more usable than newer stuff, with very few exceptions. Every once in a while a company will discover some new UI concept that works well and gets copied a lot. Most of the time though, they think putting less on screen at once will make things more usable, when it really just means I have to spend more clicks to do anything.

Everybody Jump

http://what-if.xkcd.com/8/

Psychiatrist: I hate suicide but also understand it

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/21/health/raison-suicide-tony-scott/index.html

9 Insights On Life

http://truthmafia.com/archives/7253

How we confuse symbols and things

http://www.arachnoid.com/lutusp/symbols.html

Why Women Aren’t Crazy

http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/why-women-arent-crazy/

There's no such thing as a jellyfish

http://redux.com/stream/item/2131020/There-s-no-such-thing-as-a-jellyfish

There are some very strange creatures in the sea.

How much Force power can Yoda output?

http://what-if.xkcd.com/3/

Scientist: Pushing OxyContin addicts to heroin reveals ‘utter failure’ of drug war

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/13/scientist-pushing-oxycontin-addicts-to-heroin-reveals-utter-failure-of-drug-war/

Caroline Norton and the custody battle that changed the law

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2172010/Caroline-Norton-custody-battle-changed-law.html

Jedi-Ninjas

http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/12/16/jedi-ninjas-by-gakattack-and-team2x

This is Shavarsh Karapetyan

http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/2928636_460s.jpg

Why Storytelling Is The Ultimate Weapon

http://www.fastcocreate.com/1680581/why-storytelling-is-the-ultimate-weapon

The Inequitable Equity of MMOs

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9786-The-Inequitable-Equity-of-MMOs

Guild Wars 2 (opinion: First impressions)

My first impression of Guild Wars 2, is that it's an excellent game for explorers who want a world full of sights to see, places to discover, and events to stumble upon. It doesn't grab me as well as other games do, nor hold me in it as strongly. However, it has possibly the best immersion I've encountered in an MMO, with a very beautiful world and some of the best rewards I've encountered for exploring it.

PvP lovers will love the fact that it's possible to dive right into PvP without needing to gear up or level up first. Levels help, by unlocking utility skills and talents, but they aren't required.

The area where Guild Wars 2 seems weakest, is story. What story I see seems nice and pleasing. Unfortunately, it's rather spread out. I'll do a story mission or two, then have to run around doing random things to gain xp before I can continue the story. Exploring is great, PvP is great, but the story feels like it's in pieces, with large gaps in between where I'm forced to do something else before I'm allowed to continue. I think this is the main reason I find it so easy to put GW2 down and switch to something else.

If you want a big open world to explore and discover, Guild Wars 2 is excellent. If you want massive armies of players colliding in world vs world vs world PvP, Guild Wars 2 is excellent. If you want a story that grabs you and doesn't let go... The Secret World is excellent.

Okay, that's a total change in topic, but I think it is rather amazing how different The Secret World and Guild Wars 2 are. Pretty much everything The Secret World got wrong, Guild Wars 2 got right, and everything Guild Wars 2 got wrong, The Secret World got right. It's weird, and amazing. I hope both do well.

Things other games would do well to copy:

Guild Wars 2 has effective level adjustments to ensure people never outlevel content. It also uses this to help players be effective in PvP regardless of character level.

Having escort quests, defend area quests, and kill target monster/boss quests all be open missions is great. Makes a lot more sense, and helps keep everything immersive.

Why I was Pokemon’s Greatest Villain

http://kotaku.com/5923814/why-i-was-pokemons-greatest-villain

A Team Of Seven Is Making A Game That ‘Shouldn’t Be Possible’

http://kotaku.com/5938305/a-team-of-seven-is-making-a-game-that-shouldnt-be-possible

This is the power of community assisted game development. I really hope they succeed and show other companies the value of their development model.

The Secret World (opinion)

My first impressions of The Secret World, was that it was a WoW (World of Warcraft) clone, mainly due to the fairly standard system of going to the quest giver, taking on quest, doing quest, going back, getting new quest, etc... that so many MMOs have used every since WoW got so famous. However, it's the best darn WoW clone I've played (I don't like WoW, I do like TSW).

The voice acting is overall, very good. General immersion is excellent. The skill system is amusingly complex, yet simple enough to get started quickly. Overall, I've been quite impressed with The Secret World.

A few key things I think more games should copy:

The Secret World has group dungeons available very early. Each zone has one, even the beginner zone people start in after the tutorial. After the game's main story is finished, and the world is explored, what keeps people playing are the dungeons. So I think it's really valuable that they let people get a taste of them early. It always seems dumb to me when a game's key selling point is kept away from new players. When older players have to tell newer ones that it gets better later. Players shouldn't have to play a game for two days, to get to the good stuff. It should be good right from the beginning, all the way to the end.

The skill wheel (it's really a skill tree that's organized in a pretty way) is very well done. They have synergies built into it that makes for enjoyable theory crafting and rewarding optimization. It's fairly easy to understand (Blood Sport applies afflict when you hit an enemy, Salt in the Wounds deals damage when you apply afflict) and gives a lot of freedom in options (though a few severe imbalances do exist). I would very much like to see deliberate synergies and free-form build creation in games. Being able to pick 7 active skills and 7 passive skills from a large variety of options is great, especially when there's so many tricks, and synergies to find.

Last but not least: the dungeons follow a philosophy I think games should look into using more. They are essentially a series of boss fights, but seek to make the fights interesting enough to be worth doing over and over, and remain fun. Many of the fights offer challenges to player skill, requiring focus and attention. A few good fights, is better than lots of crappy ones.

Fire Captain Says:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/03/21/this-is-why-we-invest-in-science-this/#comment-497405

In 1973 when I first began my career in the Fire Department, high-pressure water application on structure fires was all the rage. There are basically two kinds of fire pumps on the fire engines. One is the main pump for large hoses, and the second is a booster or high pressure pump for the small rubber hoses on the reels. These smaller hoses are very capable of putting out structure fires as long as the fire doesn’t get too big. The key is optimal water application. We have known for decades that very little water can put out very big fires under just the right circumstances. I remember watching an old 16mm movie shot back in the 60′s on this very subject of high pressure water application on structure fires. This is not new stuff. Because NASA engineers get involved it is treated like no one ever thought of this before.

The fever in the fire service for limiting water damage was so hot in the 70′s they even came out with exclusive high pressure nozzles for fighting structure fires.

Well, as always happens, eventually someone got hurt. Fire and it’s relationship with the environment is very complex. High pressure application of water is not the answer for every situation.

Needless to say some Fire Chiefs with large egos jumped on the chance to make a name for themselves and called for a ban of these nozzles. Ignorant Fire Chiefs across the country began to demand that a minimum of an 1 1/2 inch hose line be used on all structure fires. For this hose line you get about 100 gallons per minute. Most fighters hate trying to fight a fire where you are maneuvering with a 100 gallons per minute flowing. This is a very unwieldy hose to handle. Ironically, the high pressure booster line can also generates as much as 100 gpm at higher pressures. Most Fire Chiefs are too dumb to understand hydraulics.

As the years went by and firefighters were carrying more and more equipment into fires, the Fire Chiefs thought let’s make it even tougher. By the late 90′s they were forcing firefighters to pull 1 3/4 and 2 inch lines into fires. Keep in mind this might be for something as small as a chair fire.

The second comical point of the high pressure study at Vandenberg, is that the engineers don’t understand politics. You think you can help relieve the tax payer by reducing the number of fighters it takes to put out a fire? Don’t kid yourself. There are ugly politics at play. Just ask about the 2 in and 2 out law that the International Association of Firefighters twisted arms of congressmen to push through. They used the guise of “safety” to force congress into creating a bad law to increase the numbers of fighters across the country just to help fatten up their bank accounts but causing great financial hardships on cities and communities nationwide. Not to mention many Fire Chiefs are empire builders. It seems that everyone wants to leave there mark in life and the fire service is frock with this phenom. I am fairly confident that high pressure extinguishing systems will come around again like it or not. Why? Because Fire Chiefs have egos.

They say there are four sides to a fire. Heat, fuel, oxygen, and the Fire Chief. Remove any one of them and the fire will go out.

Space Tech in Everyday Life: NASA Brings Inventions Down to Earth

http://www.space.com/11272-nasa-space-technology-spinoffs.html

Libertarian Paradise! (Parody)

http://www.stonekettle.com/2011/05/handy-man-special.html

Massivity: How Roleplaying Powers MMO Longevity

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria/1225272p1.html

A robot ballet before impending doom

http://fulltrending.com/a-robot-ballet-before-impending-doom/

Vital Signs Paralyzed by Faith

http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jun/07-vital-signs-paralyzed-by-faith/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C=

Meet pedophiles who mean well

http://www.salon.com/2012/07/01/meet_pedophiles_who_mean_well/

Sadly, people don't get to choose who and what they find themselves attracted to.

Skyrim: The Real Dragonborn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aKXNI7Hb80

Exclusive Interview with MIT Subway Hacker Zack Anderson

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/computer-security/4278892?page=1

Snowdrifter (2012) [HD] Original

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxxmtPsrZI8

Must One Risk Madness to Achieve Genius?

http://www.creativitypost.com/psychology/must_one_risk_madness_to_achieve_genius

This is the First Time I’ve Written About My Rape, and I’m Doing it For You, Todd Akin

http://www.xojane.com/it-happened-to-me/this-is-the-first-time-ive-written-about-my-rape-and-im-doing-it-for-you-todd-akin

Nina Conti: Ventriloquist

http://www.wimp.com/bestperformances/

Dear Coquette (Q&A)

http://blog.thedaily.com/post/23418673040/can-you-fall-out-of-love-with-someone-just-as-fast?

One Taxi Ride

http://loldaddy.com/top/week/pics/5074

Let’s Take These Games And Turn Them Into Dating Sims

http://kotaku.com/5910738/lets-take-these-games-and-turn-them-into-dating-sims

Pick Bachelor Number Three, A Pigeon, in Hatoful Boyfriend

http://kotaku.com/5886022/pick-bachelor-number-three-a-pigeon-in-hatoful-boyfriend

I found this to be a very amusing read.

What is Fuzzy Logic?

http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/24_folder/24_articles/24_fuzzywhat.html

6 Parodies That Succeeded Because Nobody Got the Joke

http://www.cracked.com/article_19419_6-parodies-that-succeeded-because-nobody-got-joke.html

Eben Moglen: The alternate net we need, and how we can build it ourselves

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gORNmfpD0ak

7 Famous 'Unsolved' Mysteries (Science Solved Years Ago)

http://www.cracked.com/article_19418_7-famous-unsolved-mysteries-science-solved-years-ago.html

Pleasure without learning leads to addiction

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AlexandreMandryka/20120518/170474/Pleasure_without_learning_leads_to_addiction.php

Your Breasts Are Trying To Kill You

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/05/history_of_breasts_by_florence_williams_reviewed_.single.html

Crayon Dragon

http://vimeo.com/41314639

Next-to-Normal-girl: Tumblr’s Overnight Fandom

http://www.themarysue.com/next-to-normal-girl-tumblrs-overnight-fandom/

Short Summary: Tumblr is where
can turn into

"The immediacy of hivemind creation surrounding this mini-phenom speaks to the incredible savviness fans have of how the creation of fandoms works. As a body, fans have become so good at the production of fanwork, the assimilation of ideas, the collective language surrounding their fandoms, and the overal apparatus of enthusiasm, that they don’t necessarily need a substantial canon to participate in the act of being fannish. Apart from being a fanthropologist’s wet dream, the overnight popularity of this ship definitely contains a hint of defiance. As user mephitztophel commented, “I think what I love most about the Creamsicle shipping is how it subverts the idea that girls have to be pitted against each other.”"

Genius: How Genetic Is It?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/trisha-gura/genius-genes_b_857094.html

Investors Claim Stargate Worlds Developer Misled Them

http://www.airlockalpha.com/node/9136/investors-claim-stargate-worlds-developer-misled-them.html

I guess I now know what happened to Stargate Worlds.

Shape-shifting dinosaurs.

http://www.wimp.com/shapeshifting/

Design Diary: Dice-y Issues

http://www.sandandsteam.net/2012/05/11/design-diary-dice-y-issues/

6 Scientific Discoveries That Laugh in the Face of Physics

http://www.cracked.com/article_19668_6-scientific-discoveries-that-laugh-in-face-physics.html

Google Builds Largest Database of Links to Pirated Media

http://torrentfreak.com/google-builds-largest-database-of-links-to-pirated-media-120717/

In which i discuss friendship … again

http://allfookedup.com/in-which-i-discuss-friendship-again/

Go to beach, make metal furniture like it's nothing.

http://www.wimp.com/metalfurniture/

2012 vs. 1984: Young adults really do have it harder today

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/2012-vs-1984-young-adults-really-do-have-it-harder-today/article2425558/

"Canadian Real Estate Association data show the average national price of a home in mid-1984 was $76,214. If houses kept up with inflation – and that would be a pretty good result all on its own – the average house would now cost $154,587. In April, the actual average was $369,677."

" Data from a 2011 Conference Board of Canada study on income inequality shows the average family after-tax income in 1984 was $48,500. In 2009, the latest date included in the study, income levels had risen to $60,000. In 1984, a house might have cost a family 1.6 times its annual income. Today, we’re looking at a multiple of something around six."

The Decline in Durability

http://www.alternet.org/visions/155238/Is_Your_Stuff_Falling_Apart?_Thank_Wal-Mart/

Bleach Amv "Move your Body"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQMX-61ozZE

Why NikolaTesla was the greatest geek who ever lived.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

Somalia: New gaming rage keeps teens off the street

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20120504/somalia-video-game-popularity-pros-and-cons-120504/

Rethinking (Instead of Eliminating) Recess at Low-Income Schools

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/05/rethinking-instead-of-eliminating-recess-at-low-income-schools/256679/

Tend and Befriend

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200009/tend-and-befriend

7 Basic Things You Won't Believe You're All Doing Wrong

http://www.cracked.com/article_19121_7-basic-things-you-wont-believe-youre-all-doing-wrong.html?page=full

Playing God: On Death, Motherhood and Creating (Artificial) Life

http://kotaku.com/5880635/playing-god-on-death-motherhood-and-creating-artificial-life

Rapid Cell Regeneration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m129fV_h9pk

Holding Birth Control Hostage

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/doctors-holding-birth-control-hostage

George Hotz, Sony, and Anonymous Hacker Wars : The New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/07/120507fa_fact_kushner

The Self-Made Myth

http://www.alternet.org/visions/155149/the_self-made_myth:_debunking_conservatives%27_favorite_--_and_most_dangerous_--_fiction_/

Copyleft?

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html

I find it rather frustrating when people arguing for greater freedom decide to be just as restrictive regarding distribution of their software as those arguing for control. Ultimately, both systems produce software that is useless to many businesses and entrepreneurs. If I want to make a game with the intent to sell it, I need software I'm allowed to sell, not something restricted to being used in free works. Such restrictions greatly hamper the spread of software tools, slowing down progress. (Copyright restricts distribution to owner permitted methods, Copyleft restricts distribution to free methods).

I much prefer the WTFPL.
If you intend to sell it, use copyright. Otherwise, just put it out there for all to use, so it can spread as far as possible. Copyleft is just another way of using copyright to set rules on how software and other works can be used.

P.S. Copyright laws in general need to be heavily reworked.

EVE Evolved: Building stronger communities

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/06/17/eve-evolved-building-stronger-communities/

Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html

E-mail needs this:

One thing I think emails need: a way for an email to tell the email server (like gmail) to request another login verification before allowing the person to view it. This could prevent a stranger from viewing certain emails if the owner forgets to log off when they leave the computer.

The Definition of Insanity is...

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-therapy/200907/the-definition-insanity-is

5 Ways Modern Men Are Trained to Hate Women

http://www.cracked.com/article_19785_5-ways-modern-men-are-trained-to-hate-women.html

Wait, what? Really? That's... scary.

Why We Have to Go Back to a 40-Hour Work Week to Keep Our Sanity

http://www.alternet.org/visions/154518/americans_are_worked_to_death:_how_going_back_to_40-hour_weeks_will_save_our_sanity,_health_and_productivity

DayZ – What have I become?

http://leviathyn.com/blog/review/dayz-review-what-have-i-become/

Not Okay

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/5436-Not-Okay

How I learned to stop worrying and love Anonymous

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-anonymous/article2366626/

Why Diablo 3 is less addictive than Diablo 2: a “scientific” explanation

http://www.alexc.me/a-scientific-explanation-why-diablo-3-is-less-addictive-than-diablo-2/417/

The 8-Hour Sleep Myth: How I Learned That Everything I Knew About Sleep Was Wrong

http://www.alternet.org/health/154424/the_8-hour_sleep_myth:_how_i_learned_that_everything_i_knew_about_sleep_was_wrong/

The Science of Happiness...

http://www.alternet.org/health/90411/the_science_of_happiness:_is_it_all_bullshit/

A Lengthy Analysis of D3 (specifically, it's flaws)

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5573701013

AI designs its own video game

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328554.900-ai-designs-its-own-video-game.html

Anonymous ‘Might Well Be the Most Powerful Organization on Earth’

http://www.virtualthreat.com/2012/05/18/anonymous-might-well-be-the-most-powerful-organization-on-earth/

Q: It seems like there’s a war going on between hacktivists or information activists and law enforcement. (At least 40 alleged members of Anonymous have been arrested around the world in the last year.) Who do you think is winning right now?
A: I think it’s a stalemate at the moment. I think eventually we’ll win. I’ve always believed that right will always prevail. But at the moment the arrests have had a chilling effect on the movement. For a 30-minute online protest I’m facing 15 years in a penitentiary. For the moment that’s the only indictment against me but I expect there will be more. And it’s not just about the potential penalty but it’s the trial itself for which they delivered a terabyte of discovery. That’s about 150,000 pages for a 30-minute protest. That means my trial will be two years long and during that time I’m under strict surveillance by the FBI. I can’t access Twitter, Facebook or IRCs (Internet Relay Chats)– I can’t contact any known member of Anonymous – who are about 50,000 people around the world.

So basically it shuts me down as an activist. Even if I prevail in court, I’m still shut down for two years.

...

Yes, Chicks Dig Jerks

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/292424/yes-chicks-dig-jerks-kevin-d-williamson?pg=1

How you can use metrics to predict when players will quit

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/170546/How_you_can_use_metrics_to_predict_when_players_will_quit.php

Rant: Even If No One Listens, Let The Diablo III Review Bombs Fall

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/05/rant-even-if-no-one-listens-let-the-diablo-iii-review-bombs-fall/

I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave

http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor

When Games Allow Mods, Beautiful Things Can Happen

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120516/09044318944/when-games-allow-mods-beautiful-things-can-happen.shtml

Anonymity, Darknets and Staying Out of Federal Custody, Part One: Deep Web

http://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/blog/anonymity-darknets-and-staying-out-federal-custody-part-one-deep-web-0133455/

Is YouTube Killing Music Piracy?

http://torrentfreak.com/is-youtube-killing-music-piracy-110605/

Why Patriarchal Men Are Utterly Petrified of Birth Control

http://www.alternet.org/visions/154144/why_patriarchal_men_are_utterly_petrified_of_birth_control__and_why_well_still_be_fighting_about_it_100_years_from_now

BitTorrent is the New Radio, Says Counting Crows Frontman

http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-is-the-new-radio-says-counting-crows-frontman-120514/

Japanese TRON light suit dance routine

http://www.wimp.com/suitdance/

Animal Crossing: A Touching Story

http://www.noddegamra.co.uk/animal-crossing-a-touching-story/114/comment-page-1/

If Modern Humans Are So Smart, Why Are Our Brains Shrinking?

http://discovermagazine.com/2010/sep/25-modern-humans-smart-why-brain-shrinking/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C

Gmail's Security Hole Could Lead to Mass Harvesting of Accounts

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27863/

This 28-Year-Old's Startup Is Moving $350 Million And Wants To Completely Kill Credit Cards

http://www.businessinsider.com/this-28-year-old-is-making-sure-credit-cards-wont-exist-in-the-next-few-years-2011-11?page=1

Family Secrets: What My Son's Diagnosis Revealed About Our Past

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/victoria-costello/post-50-time-to-unload-your-family-secrets_b_1274878.html

Chomsky: “Jobs aren’t coming back”

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/08/chomsky_jobs_arent_coming_back/singleton/

Emerging Drug of Abuse: OXI

http://www.addictionts.com/2011/12/11/emerging-drug-of-abuse-oxi/

[Portal 2] Want You Gone - Fan Music Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25ClYY5mwbc

Diablo III is doing partial free play wrong.

Diablo III has a Starter Edition (currently requires guest pass) that makes it possible to play a limited amount of the game for free: http://www.geek.com/articles/games/how-to-play-diablo-iii-for-free-20120515/

"As for what the Starter Edition includes: you get to play through Act I of the game up to the Skeleton King. You can’t take a character past Level 13, there’s no access to the Real Money Auction House, and matchmaking is limited to fellow Starter Edition players. Even so, this is just a (free) taster of the gameplay by the end of which you should know for sure if you want to buy the full version."

I call this doing it wrong. That's nothing more than a demo. Doing it right, is what Hellgate: Global does. They claim to be free-to-play, but that's only for the first half of the game. Halfway through, there's a paywall. However, it's possible to buy the needed pass with in game currency from other players. This is very similar to EVE Online's PLEX system, and makes it possible for people with more time than money to get access to the game for free, while also undermining the black-market gold sellers. It also can bring in lots of money.

D3 already has a real money auction house, so it seems silly to me to not allow free players to obtain real money in the auction house by selling goods, and then use that real money to buy the game. Locking them out of the real money auction house just makes it harder for fans to buy Diablo III.

The Best Way to Ruin Your Appearance

http://en.paperblog.com/the-best-way-to-ruin-your-appearance-65283/

The Secret World's Buisness Model

Update: My links died :( Fixed! I think...
http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=20339
http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=20339

"At the presentation we revealed that The Secret World will feature a traditional paid subscription model combined with micro-transactions through an in-game store."

This sounds like a really bad idea to me. Two other MMOs I'm looking forward to are Guild Wars 2, and Firefall. Guild Wars 2 is asking for initial box fee, and micro-transactions, but no subscription. Firefall is going with no box fee, no sub, only a micro-transaction store. The Secret World is competing with those two games for my attention and money, yet they are asking for box fee, subscription fee, and a micro-transaction store that is likely to have things I want (if it doesn't, then it's a crappy store). That's a lot of money to spend on one game, when there's other games I'm interested in that ask for a lot less. At that kind of price, The Secret World will have to somehow convince me that it's totally amazing, or I'm not gonna spend any money on it. It will have a hard time doing that if I never play it.

A post on the problem of mixing subscriptions and micro-transactions as well as some other random related things: http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showpost.php?p=532090&postcount=303 http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3vpMzy_SDXAJ:www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showpost.php%3Fp%3D532090%26postcount%3D303+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

P.S. I find it kinda weird how hard it was to find info on the business model they are using. Most MMO web sites have an F.A.Q. that's easy to find and answers the question of how they will be funding themselves. The Secret World didn't. I had to visit the forums to find out if they would have subs or not.

The Lengthening Arm of Uncle Sam’s ‘Pirate’ Justice

http://torrentfreak.com/the-lengthening-arm-of-uncle-sams-pirate-justice-120506/

Pathfinder Online Technology Demo

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675907842/pathfinder-online-technology-demo

My mom often said that it takes money, to make money. This is an example. They have potential investors who need to see some work done before they are willing to invest, and potential workers who need to see some money before they are willing to work. So they need to raise money to fund the work that will help them raise money.

Teachers urged to address porn factor

http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/teachers-urged-to-address-porn-factor-20120210-1sjtl.html

Worlds Apart – Portrayal of Women in Guild Wars 2 and Tera Online

http://geek.pikimal.com/2012/05/03/worlds-apart-portrayal-of-women-in-guild-wars-2-and-tera-online/

Busted: the politics of cleavage and a glance

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/busted-the-politics-of-cleavage-and-a-glance-20120211-1sy7e.html

Google May Face $10 Million Fine Over Safari Cookie Hack

http://www.webpronews.com/google-may-face-10-million-fine-over-safari-cookie-hack-2012-05

Google is failing at their motto of don't be evil.

Why Starbucks succeeds in China and others haven't

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2012-02-12/cnbc-starbucks-secrets-of-china-success/53040820/1?csp=34money

Megaupload Trial May Never Happen, Judge Says

http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-trial-may-never-happen-judge-says-120420/

The US is awfully fond of trying to apply its laws outside its jurisdiction.

6 Completely Legal Ways The Cops Can Screw You

http://www.cracked.com/article_18620_6-completely-legal-ways-cops-can-screw-you.html?wa_user1=5&wa_user2=Weird+World&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=recommended

Genetically modified crops' results raise concern

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/30/MN1O1O5SS0.DTL&feed=rss.pageone

Why caring for my aging father has me wishing he would die

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/daddy-issues/8890/?single_page=true

Move Over Diablo III, ArenaNet Unleashes Guild Wars 2 Beta

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/04/26/move-over-diablo-iii-arenanet-unleashes-guild-wars-2-beta/

“If you and I attack a creature, we both get loot and experience, which completely eliminates that feeling in a traditional MMO when you’re playing and someone steals your kills,” said Jeff Grubb, lore and continuity designer, Guild Wars 2. “We don’t think that’s what MMOs are about. You should be playing with other players, not alongside them. We reward players for playing together. You gain experience for resurrecting other players. We’ve seen with beta tests that players form groups where people work together and build a sense of community. We’ve seen these people who don’t know each other and might be annoyed if other players were around in other MMOs, actually like being around others and exploring this world together.”

This is what MMOs need to do more of. What makes MMOs differ from other games, is playing with other people. Devs need to do everything they can to encourage, enable, and assist teamwork and cooperation in MMOs. Otherwise, the players may as well just go play a single player game that doesn't need internet.

Another GW2 preview:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/9593-Guild-Wars-2-Preview

[update: adding more links]
"Guild Wars 2's map exploration is my new addiction":
http://www.gamezone.com/products/guild-wars-2/previews/guild-wars-2-s-map-exploration-is-my-new-addiction

"Exploring the beta and beyond in Guild Wars 2"
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/05/exploring-the-beta-and-beyond-in-guild-wars-2/

As I began to go through the typical RPG character creation process in Guild Wars 2, choosing my race, class, gender, hair color, etc., I reached a set of questions asking me about my parents, whether I was raised rich or poor, how I react to certain situations, and more.

For those who have had an opportunity to take part in the game's first pre-release beta weekend, these questions may still linger in your mind.

In making these decisions, it didnt really strike me that this was anything other than a way to work my answers into a shoehorned moment later in the game, but as I explored Guild Wars 2, I realized that the person playing the game next to me during a recent ArenaNet studio tour event was in a completely different area, despite us choosing the same race and class.

"When you create a character, you fill out this biography and your answers on that determine which set of the first ten hours you get," Colin Johanson, game designer on Guild Wars 2, explained. This ten hour figure seemed pretty hefty to me, so after a few hours, I restarted and chose different answers. I didn't see any of the same areas with my new selections. "Individualization is the one thing that players want the most. Two players shouldn't have the same story, both choices and instances should change the experience," Continuity and Lore designer Jeff Grubb said. It's an interesting experiment at providing players with a different experience every time.

Woah.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/05/01/guild-wars-2-beta/

I’ll be honest up front: I’m not an MMO player. Yeah, I dabbled in Champions Online, and I spent more than a few sessions puzzle-solving in Uru Live (a.k.a. Myst Online). But when an MMO-obsessed friend sent me a Guild Wars 2 (GW2) beta key, I gave in to curiosity and fired up the game. The first thing that went through my mind was, “These graphics are pretty decent.” The second was, “Ah-hah, I’m playing Dragon Age: The MMO.” The third was, “I wish I had more than an afternoon to power through this.”

Sexual Isn't Sensual: The Word I Want Back

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brenna-cammeron/sexual-sensual_b_1232515.html

New service lets you post to Twitter and Facebook after you die

http://www.webpronews.com/stay-active-after-you-die-with-deadsocial-2012-04

(Skyrim) Todd Howard DICE 2012 Keynote

http://www.gamespot.com/shows/gamespot-live/?event=skyrims_todd_howard_dice_keynote20120208

5 Gender Stereotypes That Used To Be the Exact Opposite

http://www.cracked.com/article_19780_5-gender-stereotypes-that-used-to-be-exact-opposite.html?

How To Be Mean To Your Kids

http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/09/how_to_be_mean_to_your_kids.html

What Your Klout Score Really Means

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/04/ff_klout

Something I fear, has already begun. The future is coming, whether we like it or not.

"even if you have no idea what your Klout score is, there’s a chance that it’s already affecting your life. At the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas last summer, clerks surreptitiously looked up guests’ Klout scores as they checked in. Some high scorers received instant room upgrades, sometimes without even being told why. According to Greg Cannon, the Palms’ former director of ecommerce, the initiative stirred up tremendous online buzz. He says that before its Klout experiment, the Palms had only the 17th-largest social-networking following among Las Vegas-based hotel-casinos. Afterward, it jumped up to third on Facebook and has one of the highest Klout scores among its peers."

Cooking Up a War? Don't Forget the Piss

http://www.vice.com/read/take-a-stroll-war-piss

The Web

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/state_web_spring

7 Things You Don't Realize About Addiction (Until You Quit)

http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-things-you-dont-realize-about-addiction-until-you-quit/

Dear Young Ladies Who Love Chris Brown So Much They Would Let Him Beat Them

http://therumpus.net/2012/02/dear-young-ladies-who-love-chris-brown-so-much-they-would-let-him-beat-them/

The Women Men Won't See

http://thefourthvine.livejournal.com/149532.html

The 7 Most Baffling Things About Women's Clothes

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-most-baffling-things-about-womens-clothes/

6 Real People With Mind-Blowing Mutant Superpowers

http://www.cracked.com/article_19661_6-real-people-with-mind-blowing-mutant-superpowers.html

Online piracy: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em

http://sinocentric.co.uk/?p=1618

False Equivalence

http://www.shortpacked.com/2011/comic/book-13/05-the-death-of-snkrs/falseequivalence/

Social Media And The Loss Of Uncorrelated Wisdom

http://www.fastcompany.com/1801214/the-downside-to-social-the-loss-of-uncorrelated-wisdom

Path of Exile

I discovered a game being developed called Path of Exile. One of it's most striking features is the Passive Skill Web. That thing is massive. It's like a gigantic puzzle that rewards taking the time to examine it and plot out a course for one's character to take through it.

The next key point, is the skill system. It's basically a more complex version of Final Fantasy 7's materia system, which was my favorite thing about Final Fantasy 7.

Combining a dark atmosphere, skills and spells picked up as loot, and randomly generated magic items, it reminds me a lot of Diablo 1 (I liked Diablo 1). Path of Exile is expected to enter an open beta in a few months and is something to look forward to if you like researching complex skill web layouts and plotting the destruction of worlds, planning out powerful combinations of skills and supports.

I actually gave them some money to get into the closed beta and try to break it before they launch it, but so far haven't had much success (at breaking it). I'd like to see them succeed, so I'm trying to help out. (I haven't been at it long, yet)

The Kids Are All Right

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MikeLanglois/20120204/9275/The_Kids_Are_All_Right.php

Wasting Hackers' Time to Keep Websites Safe

http://www.technologyreview.com/web/39521/page1/

If Men Had Periods, Women Would Know All About It

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yashar-hedayat/if-men-had-periods-women-_b_1241322.html

D&D 4e’s Out… And It’s Awful. Here’s Why

http://geek-related.com/2008/06/06/dd-4es-out-and-its-awful-heres-why/

This is rather old, and probably not very relevant so late after 4e's release. However, I really liked how he described what made an RPG an RPG, and what made DnD, DnD. Key points in his argument that 4e failed.

Shadow Workers of the World, Revolt!

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/02/03/Shadow-Workers/

Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bronnie-ware/top-5-regrets-of-the-dyin_b_1220965.html

Sugar May Be Bad, But Is the Alternative Worse?

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/artificial-sweeteners/

Adventures in Depression

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2011/10/adventures-in-depression.html

Link to part 2
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com.ar/2013/05/depression-part-two.html

Abortion saved my life

http://www.salon.com/2011/05/26/abortion_saved_my_life/singleton/

We tell boys not to cry, then wonder about male suicide

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/17/boys-cry-male-suicide-dean-windass?CMP=EMCSOCEML657

Not public property

http://thisiswheremovement.com/?p=1245

Keeping the Demons at Bay

http://www.vice.com/read/keeping-the-demons-at-bay

The NSA Is Building An Artificial Intelligence System That Can Read Minds

http://redicecreations.com/article.php?id=16155

On Playing Dance Central 2 While Male

http://kotaku.com/5876059/on-playing-dance-central-2-while-male

Piracy - Trying To Kill It Makes It Stronger

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/5308-Piracy-Trying-To-Kill-It-Makes-It-Stronger

7 Foods Even Food Safety Experts Won’t Eat

http://www.ecokaren.com/2010/02/7-foods-even-food-safety-experts-won-t-eat/

Fire in the Library

http://www.technologyreview.com/web/39317/

Zoologger: Unique life form is half plant, half animal

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21353-zoologger-unique-life-form-is-half-plant-half-animal.html

Hey, Google: Here's What Fragmentation Means

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398783,00.asp

Right versus pragmatic

http://www.marco.org/2012/02/25/right-vs-pragmatic

LET'S BE CLEAR, WE ARE LEGION, BUT IT WASN'T US. YOU ARE INCOMPETENT SONY

http://anonops.blogspot.com/2011/05/lets-be-clear-we-are-legion-but-it.html

Oddly, Anonymity which is often seen as a tool of secrecy, actually makes it easier to be transparent. Whistleblowers often don't want their identity known, for good reason. People often find it much easier to be honest, when no one knows who they are.

Inside a failed Anonymous attack: report

http://www.zdnet.com.au/inside-a-failed-anonymous-attack-report-339332608.htm

The Consistency/Relevancy Paradox & the Facebook User Interface Changes

http://www.jonathanroseland.com/web-a-marketing/210-the-consistencyrelevancy-paradox-a-the-facebook-user-interface-changes.html

Why Doctors Die Differently

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577243321242833962.html?fb_ref=wsj_share_FB&fb_source=home_oneline

Proof that Policies Informed by Evolution can Succeed where Other Perspectives have Failed

http://scienceblogs.com/evolution/2011/11/proof_that_policies_informed_b.php

Encryption and the law (in USA):

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/119855-us-appeals-court-upholds-fifth-amendment-right-to-not-decrypt-hard-drives

Satire: Democracy’s Most Unexpected Enemy

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/01/satire-democracy%E2%80%99s-most-unexpected-enemy/

Would We Have Drugged Up Einstein?

http://www.alternet.org/health/154225/would_we_have_drugged_up_einstein_how_anti-authoritarianism_is_deemed_a_mental_health_problem/

Ars Book Review: "The Pirate's Dilemma"

http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2008/05/book-review-2008-05.ars

Childhood Sexual Abuse: The Myth of the Vampire Bite

http://goodmenproject.com/ethics-values/childhood-sexual-abuse-the-myth-of-the-vampire-bite/

Kids, Minivans, and Drug-Dealing: How the Recession Pulls Ordinary Families Into the Weed Game

http://www.alternet.org/story/153586/kids,_minivans,_and_drug-dealing:_how_the_recession_pulls_ordinary_families_into_the_weed_game?akid=8079.306037.XkmKyj&rd=1&t=6

Here’s what I’ve noticed – a Social Phenomenon

http://pleasestopsmoking.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/heres-what-ive-noticed-a-social-phenomenon/

Ahri (League of Legends)

Started playing League of Legends again, and had the luck to enjoy an Ahri free week. She's a lot of fun to play. Unfortunately, she seems unfocused and difficult to play. Her main strength is probably in the short term mobility granted by her ultimate (three short range dashes) and her Charm skill which is a weak pull and decent stun combined.

Ahri feels like she has a scattered and unfocused skill set, with a passive that provides sustain, an AoE that has true damage (true damage ignores defenses), an uncontrolled homing attack, a single target pull, and a mobility granting ult. Each of these abilities is pretty awesome on their own, but together, they seem somewhat awkward, as each specializes in something different. The AoE skillshot is good at harassment and whittling enemies down. The Fox-Fires seem like a hybrid of single target nuke, and team fight sustained damage. The charm is pretty awesome, but as the only CC in the skill set, it doesn't work well to design a build around it. The Ultimate, can hit three targets three times, and/or be used to move around quickly. It is extremely versatile which also makes it hard to figure out what the best way to use it is.

In my efforts to make use of Ahri, my greatest success has been in staying at the edges of fights, harassing without committing fully. Ultimately, it feels like anything she can do, another mage can do better. She doesn't seem to have enough damage to be a proper mage, and not enough CC to be a tank/support. I've had the most success when I focus on CDR, to make the most of her true damage and Charm, as well as keep her ult available whenever I need it. I just don't feel like it works any better than it could on other champions.

One thing to note: I've mostly been playing Dominion, so I don't know how well she does in Laning. She may have some strength in the laning phase of SR that makes her good. However, she appears to have a weak team fight presence and lacks the burst power of other mages.

Update(2012-07-22): Based on what I've seen of her in tournaments, Ahri's greatest strength may be her ability to punish an opponent's mistakes. Her ultimate's mobility, and her short charm help her to capitalize on any opening an enemy gives her.

The crow paradox

http://www.wimp.com/crowparadox/

Loneliness...

The ache, the pain. A hole that will never be filled.
Believing that all things can be solved, if I just figure out how, I seek out knowledge.
Yet what I find, only makes the problem ever harder.
In my pursuit of perfection, I only end up ever further from my true goal.
I have lost a lot in my quest for knowledge.
Knowledge, and wisdom, isolate me. The hole was forged of loneliness. Yet my actions only make it bigger.
I am even more alone now, than I was at the start. Surrounded by people who cannot see the world that I see. A world that only continues to grow larger.
I seek ever greater knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, to bridge the gap. Yet doing so makes the gap even bigger.
The more I know, the more distant I become from everyone else.
Building a bridge, becomes ever harder.

All I can do is continue. Hoping that someday I will find a trick or secret that will let me share my world. A way of showing others, what my real life is.

Trans teens turn to YouTube

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/26/trans_teens_turn_to_youtube/singleton/

Physicists Seek To Lose The Lecture As Teaching Tool

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/01/144550920/physicists-seek-to-lose-the-lecture-as-teaching-tool

You are what you surf, buy or tweet

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/you-are-what-you-surf-buy-or-tweet-20120221-1tlol.html

19-Year-Old Improves Solar Power Capacity by 40%

http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/19-year-old-improves-solar-power-capacity-by-40.html?campaign=th_rss

IP laws have gotten messed up.

Part four of Everything Is a Remix examines the history and incentives that shaped current intellectual property laws, and how they are blocking, rather than promoting, innovation.

http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/253179/

How Trade Policy Cost The X-Men Their Humanity

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2011/12/29/are_mutants_human.html

Tearing Down Barriers: How to Bring MMO Players Together

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6710/tearing_down_barriers_how_to_.php

How Atari games showed me the power of a child's imagination

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/12/how-atari-games-showed-me-the-power-of-childrens-imagination.ars

The death of meritocracy

http://www.economist.com/node/21547239

Cracked...

http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-awful-ways-internet-tainting-everything-else_p2/

Zack Ryder. He was a nobody who had hung around the WWE for five years being completely unspectacular in every way. Until he found YouTube. Donning a bright orange and purple headband, he spiked his hair, sprayed on a fake tan, and adopted the personality of a Jersey Shore-style "bro." He then posted videos of himself, declaring that he was the WWE "Internet Champion" (complete with a toy championship belt covered in kids' stickers). Little by little, "Zack Ryder" signs started to pop up in the WWE crowds. He became a meme, to the point that his T-shirts started selling out without him ever appearing on the show.

That is an example of successfully using the internet.

Have Bees Become Canaries In the Coal Mine? Why Massive Bee Dieoffs May Be a Warning About Our Own Health

http://www.alternet.org/story/154039/have_bees_become_canaries_in_the_coal_mine_why_massive_bee_dieoffs_may_be_a_warning_about_our_own_health?akid=8246.20390.CRwLeS&rd=1&t=12

Pentagon Regrowing Soldiers’ Muscles From Pig Cells

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/regenerative-medicine-muscles?tXFd&mbid=su_ppc_Nov_170&tQZd

Save the Troy Library "Adventures In Reverse Psychology"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw3zNNO5gX0

Why health care competition won't work

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/27/opinion/etzioni-health-care-competition/index.html

Al Murray on the Twitter joke trial: 'Problem is, the law don't do funny'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/feb/11/twitter-joke-trial-al-murray

Porn Star Publicly Breastfeeds Her Baby, Gets Accused Of Promoting Pedophilia

http://jezebel.com/5831637/porn-star-publicly-breastfeeds-her-baby-gets-accused-of-promoting-pedophilia?popular=true

Why Going 'Back To Normal' Is No Longer An Option for the American Economy -- And Where We're Headed Now

http://www.alternet.org/visions/154056/why_going_%27back_to_normal%27_is_no_longer_an_option_for_the_american_economy_--_and_where_we%27re_headed_now

The Curse of Cow Clicker: How a Cheeky Satire Became a Videogame Hit

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/12/ff_cowclicker/all/1

6 Laws You've Broken Without Even Realizing It

http://www.cracked.com/article_19450_6-laws-youve-broken-without-even-realizing-it.html

Once Routine, Autopsies Now Scarce At U.S. Hospitals

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/12/15/143775369/once-routine-autopsies-now-scarce-at-u-s-hospitals

‘Tribler’ software makes Internet piracy impossible to stop

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/08/tribler-software-makes-internet-piracy-impossible-to-stop/

Why Women Need to Support Each Other. I’m Dead Fucking Serious.

http://www.smaggle.com/2011/09/19/why-women-need-to-support-each-other-im-dead-fucking-serious/

Thought: Do We Own Our Steam Games?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/01/thought-do-we-own-our-steam-games/

Ordering the vegetarian meal? There’s more animal blood on your hands

http://theconversation.edu.au/ordering-the-vegetarian-meal-theres-more-animal-blood-on-your-hands-4659

Moral Psychopaths: Blizzard's community policy is a sense-free zone

http://brindlebrothers.blogspot.com/2012/02/moral-psychopaths-blizzards-community.html

TEDxDartmouth 2011- Thalia Wheatley: How the Brain Perceives Other Minds - March 6, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKXRgbl4TtQ

At the end of the video, she discusses a discovery that seems very interesting, and potentially very important regarding how people of different races perceive each other.

Bonuses Are Good, But Clawbacks Make Them Better

http://www.businessweek.com/management/bonuses-are-good-but-clawbacks-make-them-better-02032012.html?hXFr&campaign_id=spnbw.invrel.mgmt.cap&hQZr

Vulnerability allows hackers to open prison doors, hiding activity from central command

http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/07/prison-door-hack/

Zap your brain into the zone: Fast track to pure focus

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328501.600-zap-your-brain-into-the-zone-fast-track-to-pure-focus.html?full=true

For one Kickstarter employee, Double Fine's project is literally a dream come true

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/40261/For_one_Kickstarter_employee_Double_Fines_project_is_literally_a_dream_come_true.php

Scientists say they’re getting closer to Matrix-style instant learning

http://io9.com/5867113/scientists-say-theyre-getting-closer-to-matrix+stw-?instant-learning

Why Being Sleepy and Drunk Is Great for Creativity

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/why-being-sleepy-and-drunk-are-great-for-creativity/

This Week in Poverty: James Q. Wilson Peddles Poverty Myths

http://www.thenation.com/blog/166052/week-poverty-if-its-sunday-its-myths-press

Insight from men who have worked as women

http://gender.stanford.edu/news/2011/breaking-down-barriers-women-workplace

"Portal 2" meets "The Nightmare Before Christmas" in fun music video

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504784_162-57368371-10391705/portal-2-meets-the-nightmare-before-christmas-in-fun-music-video

WikiLeaks: A tale of two worlds

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/12/201112884026597856.html

Inequality...

http://www.postfunz.com/this-is-what-the-99-are-talking-about-5292.html

The Hot Spotters

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/24/110124fa_fact_gawande?oXFy&mbid=su_ppc_98&oQZy

Governments are not content to mind their own buisness.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120124/11270917527/what-is-acta-why-is-it-problem.shtml

"Some European nations, for example, already have a history of seizing shipments of perfectly legal generic drugs in passage to somewhere else. For example, say that a pharmaceutical company in India is shipping drugs to Brazil that are legal in both countries. However, those drugs violate a patent in Europe. If, during transit, those drugs pass through Europe, customs agents may seize them."

Wtf.

What phantom limbs and mirrors teach us about the brain

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15938103

Rarity

In MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) a problem that many developers have run into is something that got called mudflation. It's when items which were ment to be rare and valuable, end up becoming easy and cheap to obtain on the player market.

A common solution to mudflation is to make items that cannot be traded or sold to other players after they've been equipped. This causes any item that players actually use, to disappear from the player market preventing the market from getting flooded with hand-me-downs.

I've started wondering if perhaps a game seeking to maintain a strong player driven economy, might be better served by instead examining the issue of rarity. If an item's market value gets driven down by how numerous they are, then perhaps it simply isn't rare enough.

Many MMOGs balance their loot drops using the same methods used by single player games. However, in a multiplayer game, a player driven market will be filled with items acquired by the many, many hours of gameplay already enjoyed by previous players. A single player game does not have this, instead the number of hours worth of loot acquisition is restricted solely to the hours put in by the current player. This drastic difference pretty much guarantees that a system designed for one game type won't work well in the other game. The standard system is to just have a % chance of a given loot item dropping from specific monsters. As the total number of monsters slain steadily increases over the life of a MMOG, this results in an ever increasing number of items in existence that were ment to be rare.

Alternate methods of creating rarity and value:

Limited quantity: In EVE online, there were some ultra rare items of which only a specific number were ever given out. Some might even be described as priceless. These items can be traded and often go for crazy high prices when compared to the price of other items with similar functional ability. Having the total quantity of certain items be limited based upon the size of the player base might be an effective way to keep certain items rare.

Increasing utility: A very basic way to increase value is to provide a way for players to make use of old gear. The most common method I'm aware of is to let it be broken down for parts to use in crafting. If the price of the good goes too low, people will start buying it for scrap. If the devs think an item's market price is too low, they can increase the amount of scrap it gives to raise it's value. This can also be a form of item destruction.

Item destruction: EVE Online makes heavy use of item destruction to keep rare items rare. Death in that game results in most of the gear which was in use, being destroyed. Thus, items which are most useful also end up getting destroyed frequently, keeping them from ever being too abundant. Personally, I think it might work to have games with two modes: normal without gear destruction, and a hardcore mode with gear destruction. Then if the two modes share markets, the destruction by the hardcore players can help drain the entire market of valuables. Not everyone wants to deal with gear destruction, but some people do like it, and letting them get stuff destroyed could help the games economy. An alternate form would be to have some regions with gear destruction, though it would be important to make it clear to players that entering such areas is dangerous, as anyone who lost stuff by accident would be rather upset.

Ultimately, the experience some games are trying to create doesn't fit well with an MMO environment: the idea of an item simply needing X hours of effort to acquire item Z runs into problems when people who have done it can give the item away to someone else. It's like trying to fit a single player game into a multi-player environment instead of trying to focus on what creating a living world full of players really means.

Nano Paint Could Make Airplanes Invisible to Radar

http://www.technologyreview.com/article/39238/

Sounds like a really neat technology. It also sounds potentially dangerous. What scares me most is the possibility that someone might use it to develop a stealth ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile) and then nuke someone thinking no one will be able to figure out who fired it. Hopefully enough resources will be put into better detection methods to thwart any efforts at creating a stealth ICBM.

MegaUpload: Pirate Party Registering Complaints Against U.S.

http://www.webpronews.com/megaupload-pirate-2012-01

Swiss Govt: Downloading Movies and Music Will Stay Legal

http://torrentfreak.com/swiss-govt-downloading-movies-and-music-will-stay-legal-111202/

The hidden problem of SOPA

“It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.” - Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA (http://mashable.com/2012/01/20/sopa-is-dead-smith-pulls-bill/)

That quote is where the real problem lies: Why does the American Government think it should have jurisdiction over what foreign companies do in other countries? If it has no presence within the US, it should lie outside our government's rule. America does not rule the world, and should not act like it does.

Many are acting like SOPA was a good idea done badly. It was a bad idea done badly.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120113/09184917400/us-to-extradite-uk-student-copyright-infringement-despite-site-being-legal-uk.shtml

Residents of other countries should not need to worry about US law when they aren't doing business with the US. The idea that America can impose it's laws upon other countries is absurd. Yet that is exactly what SOPA was intended to do: Force other countries to obey American laws.

Additional reading: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/if-the-feds-can-shut-down-megaupload-why-do-they-need-sopa.ars

5 Amazing Things Invented by Donald Duck (Seriously)

http://www.cracked.com/article_19021_5-amazing-things-invented-by-donald-duck-seriously.html

Megaupload wasn't just for pirates: angry users out of luck for now

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/01/megaupload-wasnt-just-for-pirates-angry-users-out-of-luck-for-now.ars

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/20/tech/web/what-is-megaupload/index.html

The Umbrella Man

http://theinconvenienttruth.org/archives/685

Most Businesses Don't Spot Hack Attacks

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/attacks/231900054?itc=edit_in_body_cross

Why Do Police Officers Use Pepper Spray?

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/pepper-spray-psychology?sXFc&mbid=su_ppc_Nov_57&sQZc

Chris Dodd’s paid SOPA crusading

http://www.salon.com/2012/01/18/chris_dodds_paid_sopa_crusading/singleton/

The Oatmeal vs. FunnyJunk: webcomic copyright fight gets personal

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/06/funnyjunk-vs-the-oatmeal.ars

Google search changes are bad for the internet, says Twitter

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/11/google-search-changes-internet-twitter

The chaos theory of evolution

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827821.000-the-chaos-theory-of-evolution.html?full=true&print=true

World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-august-18-2011/world-of-class-warfare---the-poor-s-free-ride-is-over?xrs=playershare_stumble

The case for piracy

http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2011/10/20/3344351.htm

SOPA might force choice to stop cyberspies, bank robbers and ID thieves or stop illegal MP3s

http://www.itworld.com/security/240789/sopa-might-force-choice-stop-cyberspies-bank-robbers-and-id-thieves-or-stop-illegal-

So why don't you just pay extra taxes? Hm?

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/11/egalitarianism

Conservativism, Compassion, and Cruelty: A Response to David Brooks

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/02-3

What Is A Game? An Excerpt From Imaginary Games

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6555/what_is_a_game_an_excerpt_from_.php

Sopa and Pipa: don't let big business break the internet

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/08/online-piracy-challenge-sopa-pipa

5 Logical Fallacies That Make You Wrong More Than You Think

http://www.cracked.com/article_19468_5-logical-fallacies-that-make-you-wrong-more-than-you-think.html

Anonymous imposters: hiding behind the AntiSec identity

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3749898.html

The Trouble With Bright Kids

http://www.businessweek.com/management/the-trouble-with-bright-kids-11212011.html?campaign_id=rss_topStories

Meet Telecomix, The Hackers Bent On Exposing Those Who Censor And Surveil The Internet

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2011/12/26/meet-telecomix-the-hackers-bent-on-exposing-those-who-censor-and-surveil-the-internet/

The Cost of ‘Manning Up’

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-the-wild-things-are/201110/the-cost-manning

Anonymous exposes 75,000 credit card numbers

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/anonymous-exposes-860k-stratfor-users-and-75k-credit-card-numbers/2011/12/30/gIQA5oXqQP_story.html

Hopefully this public spectacle will help the people of the world realize that there is a serious security issue online which needs to be addressed. A great many companies need to dramatically improve their security.

One man's life, summarized:

http://limoncello.soup.io/post/190258841/I-love-you-Lets-play-videogames-forever

Op-Ed: Poor way to recover

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/12/23/122311-opinions-column-poverty-maiello-1-2?utm_keyword=&vXFf&utm_campaign=TD_Paid&utm_medium=Media&utm_source=stumbleupon&utm_content=&vQZf

AMV: Safety Dance – AWA Master’s Entry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vElbh2Ox1dA

Mentally ill flood ER as states cut services

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/24/us-usa-health-psychiatric-idUSTRE7BN06820111224

New Act Could Fix the Military’s Fatally Flawed Handling of Sexual Assault

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/11/17/new-act-could-fix-the-militarys-fatally-flawed-handling-of-sexual-assault/