Big Link Roundup, November 2010
This is going to be pretty big, so I apologize in advance. Just check out whatever catches your eye. I'll organize it by category:
GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION (aka intimidating/depressing flowcharts)
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2010/09/atl_wall_chart.jpg - Defense Department acquisition flowchart. Speaks for itself.
http://www.dianahsieh.com/images/blog/immigration-764383.jpg - Legal immigration flowchart. And you wonder why we have 10 million illegal immigrants!
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/08/u-s-officer-in-afghanistan-mows-down-powerpoint-rangers/?intcid=postnav - Defense Department Afghanistan stability flowchart, plus a human interest story that isn't super compelling.
http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB&topic_id=1&topic=Ask+E.T. - Edward Tufte
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/us_interactive_guide - A graph of the US for an awful lot of metrics, from unemployment to politics to ethnic groups. The Economist generally has an interesting graph every day.
http://www.whatwepayfor.com/default.aspx? - Breaks down the federal budget by your personal income, which is a fantastic idea. Not strictly a graph, but it does give you an idea of how much you are "paying" for each individual policy. Great for beating people over the head when they say we should balance the budget with foreign aid and earmarks.
WEIRD NEWS
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/police-courts/courts/article197063.ece - Female sex predator on World of Warcraft, kind of a “man bites dog” story. There seems to be a reality distortion field going on here: they told each other they were 20 and 21 but turned out to be 38 and 15!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20017344-247.html - The Emergency Bra turns into two radiation-filtering masks. The concept is hilarious, but realistically, nobody is going to need to filter out radiation at a moment's notice.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/seeing-meat-calms-you-down-study-says/article1793519/ - Yes, seeing meat calms you down. I don't know why, the researchers don't know why either. Throw it out at cocktail parties.
GAMING / GEEKERY
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&pagewantedall - Games in the classroom, one of my favorite subjects, is given a good treatment by the NY Times.
http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/superhero-or-supervillain-which-lurks-inside-you# - A sensationalist angle on a study about whether power corrupts. Short version: For most people, yes, but some actually see power as increased responsibility and develop a stronger moral code. See, you can learn from DC Comics! :-P
http://kotaku.com/5656943/the-gamer-i-really-am - Leigh Alexander, gaming’s foremost female writer, explains social single-player gaming. She is at the top of her form here, and the discussion may be a little technical but the concept is definitely way more common than the press it gets, and it's some of my fondest gaming memories, so I wanted to draw a little attention to it.
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/132053-on-design-centric-game-criticism/ - A great summary of how to write about game design. Really, you don't need to read this one, it's for my personal benefit.
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/04/god-of-war-3-2/ - The best analysis of God of War 3 on the Internet. The only thing it’s missing is the villainy angle.
http://gas13.ru/v3/tutorials/sywtbapa_almighty_grass_tile.php - Great introduction to pixel art. (This one's for you, xyg49.)
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/stolen-pixels/8286-Stolen-Pixels-241-The-Gaming-Afterlife - Shamus Young does not usually make funny comics, but this is a great exception. Only gamer geeks will get this, but it's a send up of the old Europeans joke where in Hell, the British cook, the Italians govern, et cetera.
PHILOSOPHY
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/7878_Revelations_of_a_Magic_Writer.html - This article is ostensibly about Magic: The Gathering, but really it's about coming to terms with Huntington's Disease and deciding how to live your life if you know when you will die.
http://www.origins.org/articles/plantinga_intellectualsophistication.html - Plantinga’s technical philosophic argument that it is rational to believe without evidence in some cases. My go-to copy-and-paste for atheist trolls on the Internet.
RELATIONSHIPS
http://www.slate.com/id/2268709/ - An in-depth study of platonic friendship. (This one's for you, princessemilia.)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_TEENS_TEXTING?SITE=ALOPE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT - Teens who text 120 times a day or more (!) are more likely to be engaged in other transgressive behaviors. Is this because they’re not as engaged with school? Or is it a measure of susceptibility to peer pressure?
LONG ARTICLES I HAVE YET TO READ
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/09/100809fa_fact_baker - Painkiller Deathstreak, the annals of Nicholson Baker’s video game odyssey.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=dcbooks;;idno=5682627.0001.001 - Jim Rossignol’s This Gaming Life
GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION (aka intimidating/depressing flowcharts)
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2010/09/atl_wall_chart.jpg - Defense Department acquisition flowchart. Speaks for itself.
http://www.dianahsieh.com/images/blog/immigration-764383.jpg - Legal immigration flowchart. And you wonder why we have 10 million illegal immigrants!
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/08/u-s-officer-in-afghanistan-mows-down-powerpoint-rangers/?intcid=postnav - Defense Department Afghanistan stability flowchart, plus a human interest story that isn't super compelling.
http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB&topic_id=1&topic=Ask+E.T. - Edward Tufte
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/us_interactive_guide - A graph of the US for an awful lot of metrics, from unemployment to politics to ethnic groups. The Economist generally has an interesting graph every day.
http://www.whatwepayfor.com/default.aspx? - Breaks down the federal budget by your personal income, which is a fantastic idea. Not strictly a graph, but it does give you an idea of how much you are "paying" for each individual policy. Great for beating people over the head when they say we should balance the budget with foreign aid and earmarks.
WEIRD NEWS
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/police-courts/courts/article197063.ece - Female sex predator on World of Warcraft, kind of a “man bites dog” story. There seems to be a reality distortion field going on here: they told each other they were 20 and 21 but turned out to be 38 and 15!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20017344-247.html - The Emergency Bra turns into two radiation-filtering masks. The concept is hilarious, but realistically, nobody is going to need to filter out radiation at a moment's notice.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/seeing-meat-calms-you-down-study-says/article1793519/ - Yes, seeing meat calms you down. I don't know why, the researchers don't know why either. Throw it out at cocktail parties.
GAMING / GEEKERY
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&pagewantedall - Games in the classroom, one of my favorite subjects, is given a good treatment by the NY Times.
http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/superhero-or-supervillain-which-lurks-inside-you# - A sensationalist angle on a study about whether power corrupts. Short version: For most people, yes, but some actually see power as increased responsibility and develop a stronger moral code. See, you can learn from DC Comics! :-P
http://kotaku.com/5656943/the-gamer-i-really-am - Leigh Alexander, gaming’s foremost female writer, explains social single-player gaming. She is at the top of her form here, and the discussion may be a little technical but the concept is definitely way more common than the press it gets, and it's some of my fondest gaming memories, so I wanted to draw a little attention to it.
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/132053-on-design-centric-game-criticism/ - A great summary of how to write about game design. Really, you don't need to read this one, it's for my personal benefit.
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/04/god-of-war-3-2/ - The best analysis of God of War 3 on the Internet. The only thing it’s missing is the villainy angle.
http://gas13.ru/v3/tutorials/sywtbapa_almighty_grass_tile.php - Great introduction to pixel art. (This one's for you, xyg49.)
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/stolen-pixels/8286-Stolen-Pixels-241-The-Gaming-Afterlife - Shamus Young does not usually make funny comics, but this is a great exception. Only gamer geeks will get this, but it's a send up of the old Europeans joke where in Hell, the British cook, the Italians govern, et cetera.
PHILOSOPHY
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/7878_Revelations_of_a_Magic_Writer.html - This article is ostensibly about Magic: The Gathering, but really it's about coming to terms with Huntington's Disease and deciding how to live your life if you know when you will die.
http://www.origins.org/articles/plantinga_intellectualsophistication.html - Plantinga’s technical philosophic argument that it is rational to believe without evidence in some cases. My go-to copy-and-paste for atheist trolls on the Internet.
RELATIONSHIPS
http://www.slate.com/id/2268709/ - An in-depth study of platonic friendship. (This one's for you, princessemilia.)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_TEENS_TEXTING?SITE=ALOPE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT - Teens who text 120 times a day or more (!) are more likely to be engaged in other transgressive behaviors. Is this because they’re not as engaged with school? Or is it a measure of susceptibility to peer pressure?
LONG ARTICLES I HAVE YET TO READ
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/09/100809fa_fact_baker - Painkiller Deathstreak, the annals of Nicholson Baker’s video game odyssey.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=dcbooks;;idno=5682627.0001.001 - Jim Rossignol’s This Gaming Life