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.

...