Gaming Vilification and Fear-Mongering for Fame and Profit

Won't someone think of the children? By this I mean, of course, won't someone keep the children from reading newspapers that spread stupidity and fear?

There is an article in today's Ottawa Citizen (I'm not linking to it, it's rubbish) that hoots and hollers about how scientists have proven, PROVEN that playing one game of Pacman will cause you to have a psychotic break and devour everything in your path, while making strangely hypnotic 8-bit sound effects.

Wait...no, they proved that a person playing a game will have an emotional response. What's that?! Being involved in a form of entertainment engages the emotions?! Truly, these scientists must have godlike powers of perception.

This was front-page "news", folks. With a big, scary, bloody screenshot from Half-Life 2 (how about some pictures of what's happening inside Guantanamo, bitches?). After revealing this "discovery", the article took a startling turn! It implied a link between playing aggressive games and being an aggressive person. I'm just going to say this once: Coincidence does not imply causality. Here's a link for you, O Men of Science: is it not possible that people who have aggressive tendencies will seek out games that involve aggressive behaviour?

OK, I'm done. Just needed to get that off my chest. I even sent a Letter to the Editor (second time in my life! First one was about beanie babies, I don't wanna talk about it), an act which might be just about the most futile thing a person can do. At best, it makes the writer cry a little. At worst, they print it, a big foo-fa-rah ensues, generating a higher readership for the Citizen. I don't want to provide the Citizen with more money, I want to kick it in it's tiny jounalistic gonads.

Gah and Feh.

Can't Explain

I think this speaks for itself.



More insanity awaits.

via Boingboing

But With the Blast Sheild Down...ah, forget it

This thing is, I think you'll agree, the bees knees. It's a basically a floating camera for use on the shuttle and such. And jedi training, but you already knew that.



Found via Fark

Because My Job Is Boring

Here are the number of hits Google returns for each term (with SafeSearch turned on, since I'm doing this from work).

Love: 142,000,000
Hate: 31,000,000

Good: 427,000,000
Evil: 29,700,000

Right: 443,000,000
Wrong: 74,400,000

Right: 443,000,000
Left: 240,000,000

Over: 731,000,000
Under: 516,000,000

Above: 301,000,000
Below: 434,000,000

And: 3,360,000,000
Or: 2,140,000,000
Not: 1,270,000,000

Boy: 49,500,000
Girl: 56,100,000

Black: 179,000,000
White: 285,000,000
Grey: 21,300,000

Pete: 17,100,000
"Not Pete": 7,990

I leave it as an excercise for the reader to make wild speculations about the nature of mankind, language and existence.

Clowns: Usually Evil, Sometimes Hilarious



Brilliant design from Threadless. I love the Threadless concept, tho they don't seem to have a way to bookmark your favourite shirts for later purchase. Then again, I am lazy and probably haven't fully explored all my options. Regardless, it's a great place to see modern art (in the literal sense; if "Modern Art" has an offical art-history definition, I don't know what it is).