June 14, 2012
Valve Economics: the challenges of virtual economies at Valve
“I’m the president of a videogame company (www.valvesoftware.com).” I thought to myself: Oh, not another “business proposal” from a crackpot… However, something in my head stopped my finger from pressing DEL while my eyes pondered the next line: “We are running into a bunch of problems as we scale up our virtual economies, and as we link economies together. Would you be interested in consulting with us?”Valve has hired economist Yanis Varoufakis to work on their virtual economies. Valve Economics is Varoufakis's recently launched blog where he explains his background and how he came to work at Valve. [more inside]
"And by the way, your kid's stroller sucks."
The Mommy-Fight Site. What does it mean to raise a child in "America’s highest-income, best-educated Census area? D.C. Urban Moms and Dads might be as close as it gets to a field guide to parentis Washingtonianis" [more inside]
The Bouncing Basque
How Jean Borotra won 19 Grand Slams, escaped a Nazi prison, and stole a Davis Cup.
"She hadn’t seen an orange in years"
Our Man in Great Neck: 'In June 1982, my grandparents, Murray and Helene Cohen, traveled to the Soviet Union as part of a secret mission headed by the Great Neck chapter of the long island Committee for Soviet Jewry in order to pass information and contraband goods to Jews attempting to leave Russia.'
If they are going to legislate my anatomy, I see no reason why I cannot mention it.
"And finally, Mr. Speaker, I'm flattered that you're all so interested my vagina, but 'no' means 'no.'" After this pointed observation, Michigan Representative Lisa Brown (D) was subsequently barred from speaking on a bill about the retirement of school employees.
Twitter responds.
Meanwhile, many remember a similar kerfuffle over the word "uterus" in Florida last May.
La République Islaïque de Tunisie
This week's riots (WaPo) in Tunisia started last Saturday, when a mob of hardline Salafists, after trying to disrupt an art exhibition deemed offensive to Islam, were booed off ("dégage!") by the crowd. They came back a few hours later to destroy the works: here are the artworks, before and after the attack at the Abdellia Palace in La Marsa, Tunis.
[insert foley of post being written: keyboard buttons, mouse clicks, office chair creaking, etc.]
Jack Foley was the first Foley Artist. A Foley Artist's job is to physically create the subtler sound effects for most of the action in a film — usually, everything but the dialogue. Sometimes that involves smearing peanut butter on someone's face and recording the sound of a cow licking it off. • Here's the split-screen classic short, Track Stars: The Unseen Heroes of Movie Sound, and its Doppleganger, plus a similar tribute, replacing the sounds on a 1962 public domain film. • A couple of Porn Foley parodies [NSFW of course] and a murder-filled parody • Here's the process in detail for marking, recording, and editing Foley for 35mm film: Part 1 (excerpted), Part 2 • Technically, Foley only covers sounds you can tailor-make in the recording studio; other sounds (engines, explosions, etc) are the domain of the Sound FX person. If you don't have your own means, though, Sounddogs.com has an extensive collection of samples.
This mold that I was not made into
Benji Schwimmer, the winner of So You Think You Can Dance's second season, is a West Coast Swing choreographer and dancer, serves as artistic director for LeAnn Rimes and Paula Abdul, and co-choreographed US figure skater Jeremy Abbott's short routine. Raised in an observant Latter-Day Saints household, Benji served a two-year mission in Mexico. On May 30, Benji recorded an interview lasting nearly 5 1/2 hours in which he described his attempts to reconcile his sexual identity with his faith and, for the first time, stated publicly that he is gay. [more inside]
preventing people from accumulating useful skills
An op-ed in today's New York Times promotes replacing public loans for university students with private equity contracts, wherein funding firms would receive a percentage of graduates' earnings. [more inside]
“So if we continue voting like this in the (House of Commons), there’ll be no b-day for me this year?” tweeted NDP MP Hoang Mai.
It is still June 13 for the Parliament of Canada, where voting has continued overnight on the "omnibus budget bill" (previously), due to 159 separate amendment votes that have been forced by the opposition. None are likely to pass, but the arduous process is meant to function as a protest against legislation which many critics have argued goes far beyond the scope of a traditional budget. [more inside]
Nuclear Waste
Matt Stroud, Wrote an amazing article on The Verge: Wasteland: the 50-year battle to entomb our toxic nuclear remains
Bloomberg Privatizing Parking Meters in NYC
Sand sculpture artist JOOheng Tan
Yeah, I'm pro-cat-saving, too.
Alex Pappademas and Sean Witzke over at Grantland have a long, detailed, super geeky film-nerd discussion of the Alien franchise. "It's important to note here that this is a nuke-it-from-space kind of conversation in which just about every aspect of the original "Alien Quadrilogy" is spoiled, as are some fairly crucial plot points from Prometheus. The Alien vs. Predator movies are neither spoiled nor discussed, because that would mean acknowledging their existence. Some people will undoubtedly view this as curatorial negligence on our part, but we welcome their scorn. "
The IE Tax.
"I was somethin'!"
Bessie Stringfield rode across the US alone, 8 times. In the 20's, 30's and 40's, women didn't ride motorcycles and black women didn't travel alone, especially in the South. But Bessie rode until she died, for the US Army, based on a penny toss, wherever she wished.
The Computer Tree
The Computer Tree from Electronic Computers Within the Ordnance Corps. More computer chronology, including this list of fictional computers at Wikipedia.
More Stand-Your-Ground, More Murder
In addition to removing the duty to retreat when outside the home, Florida's 2005 "Stand Your Ground" law removed the civil liability to offenders who had acted within the law and added a presumption of reasonable belief of imminent harm necessitating a lethal response. These three elements were present in over 20 other state laws similar to Florida's. The following NBER working paper by two Texas A&M economists provides new statistical evidence that these laws caused a 7 to 9 percent increase in homicides and non-negligent manslaughter. Consider this post a companion to this previously, as well as this previously. [more inside]
Behind-the-scenes Makeup Photos from Prometheus
The Dino-Tomato connection
the scientist, the poet, the primitive seer, the watcher of fire and shooting stars
Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit relayed some information about photographic techniques used to achieve the images: “My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then ‘stack’ them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.”
"Actually, not so great, Thurston..."
Venue sound guys are also DJs. And yes, they take requests. Approach them at your leisure, but it’s best to do it when the band is sound checking because that’s when sound guys have nothing to do.Oh My Rockness give us some Show Etiquette Tips (Part 2.)
The American Diet in One Chart
The American Diet in One Chart: "American eaters have gotten a windfall from the the era of cheap meat that dawned in the early '80s. Meat prices tumbled as small farms shuttered, to be replaced by massive factory-scale farms that stuffed animals with cheap, subsidized corn and soy and kept them alive and growing to slaughter weight with daily doses of antibiotics. ... Consumers put some of the savings into eating more meat, and shifted some out of the savings out of food purchases altogether ... But what what they mostly did was shift cash that once went to meat into processed food."
Sea. No Evil.
"If your science gives you a result you don't like, pass a law saying the result is illegal. Problem solved." [more inside]
Private Communications
Internet Hall of Fame member Phil Zimmerman (previously), creator of PGP, has announced a new venture providing secure communications. [more inside]
Radio Free Gunslinger
Radio Free Gunslinger is a music podcast by the blog If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats (previously)
A guided tour through the chthonic regions of 20th century Western culture and the society it reflected. At least that's what it says on the wrapper.
99p Stores vs Poundland
The Earth goes around the Sun-- every day!
Khan Academy and the Effectiveness of Science Videos is an 8 minute video by Derek Muller that offers some skepticism as to the usefulness of science videos that only teach the facts without investigating existing misconceptions. TL;DW? Here's a 1 minute 29 second version. Too brief? Here's his PhD thesis.
Hello, I’m back, finally! I said I would be.
Sin Titulo (to page 1) is a webcomic by Cameron Stewart. Mentioned and recommended previously on Metafilter a few times in the comments, it is now being updated regularly after a long hiatus, which makes right now a promising time to start following the story. It is a mystery thriller and it contains occasional depictions of violence, so it is not suitable for all audiences. [more inside]
The Sounds of Gaming
A Brief History of Video Games - A music video made using the audio from games. [slyt]
Da da da duuum DA!
Short stories, short films
Goodbye, Thursday productivity. Hello, 10 wonderful short films based on famous short stories.
You can play hard, but play it safe.
If you see anything that looks like those, don't touch them. This PSA, featuring the Say Hey Kid warning American youth of the dangers of blasting caps, made a huge impression on pretty much everyone I know that was born in the mid-to-late 50s. [more inside]
Massive "Game of Thones" Spoilers A-Head
Game of Thrones creators issue semi-apology for depicting George W. Bush's head on a spike SPOILERS AHEAD Do not watch the embedded video on the linked page if you haven't seen Season 1. Needless to say, HBO are not amused. They have issued a rather strongly worded rebuke/apology. [more inside]
« Previous day | Next day »