If you've ever played "Final Fantasy VII", this 40-minute video made at Babson College is worth watching. It's primarily a satire based on the game, but also has several other pop culture themes, from South Park to "Wizard of Space and Time" and 70s pop music, to "Star Wars," "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," and "Napoleon Dynamite," with some (college liberal) political humor thrown in to boot.
Vatican paper article says 'intelligent design' not science
Topic: Society
7:42 pm EST, Jan 19, 2006
The Vatican newspaper has published an article saying "intelligent design" is not science and that teaching it alongside evolutionary theory in school classrooms only creates confusion.
This was a great year. I'd venture a guess that 80% of the time I had a smile plastered across my face. Everyone involved with running the convention did an amazing job. Everyone there was having a wonderful time. Everything I can think of to say about how things went this year does not do it justice.
Conventions such as these are uniquely beautiful events. A group of people comes together to share in some esoteric common purpose or goal. Time passes. At its end, the group ceases to exist and becomes a historical curiosity. In the case of a strong group, it develops a sort of ideology that lives on in the absence of the group's cohesion, allowing it to effortlessly rise from the dead in its next phase. It takes on a life of its own. A living thing that breathes art in and culture out.
In general, I highly enjoy people watching. I'm one of those folks that likes to be extremely attune to my surroundings. At a convention like DragonCon, I find this trait to reap great rewards. In every direction, there is some type of madness to take in. People in amazing costumes are everywhere. Cute girls are everywhere. Everyone is friendly. Conversations lite up like gas fires and everyone fire walks. Its impossible to be bored, the only risk is fatigue. There is no way to leave without feeling slightly sad.
Elonka Dunin, a game designer at Simutronics, invited fans to demo the company's latest MMORPG, Hero's Journey, in her hotel room . . .
Elonka is clearly our most famous MemeStreams user. Not only is her page among the most often hit here, but she is always popping up in the news. In addition to getting a demo of Hero's Journey, which I found to be extremely impressive, I attended her Kryptos talk. (again) I found it inspiring. (again) Next time she gives it I'll attend (again), and I'll keep doing it until she breaks the damn 4th part of the code. Hear that Elonka?! Quit playing those video games and hack the CIA's cafeteria courtyard! I'm going to keep "encouraging" you... :)
A list of several countries, with a paragraph summary by each one, listing their stance on gay marriage. It looks a bit out of date, and may only be current as of late 2002. It definitely doesn't cover some recent developments in France (a gay marriage occurred earlier this year, and then was annulled by a court about a month later). I'm still meme-ing it as a reference though.
March 2004: ] (AP) Three years after Amsterdam's mayor officiated at ] the Netherlands' first gay wedding, the gay marriage rate ] is falling, the first divorces are being registered and ] the issue has disappeared from the political agenda.
Torture at Abu Ghraib | Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker
Topic: Society
1:15 pm EDT, May 4, 2004
American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up does the responsibility go?
This seems to be a very thorough account of the data thus far about the horror at Abu Ghraib.
On the downside, the incidents there were not isolated ones. On the upside, the issues were identified months ago and steps seem to have been taken to try and address them.
I'm still fuzzy on timelines though. Were the pictures we saw from the incidents that occurred last year, that have since been stopped? Or were these new activities? From the report, it looks like the main problems were from October - December 2003. Officers were suspended months ago, and the trials are already underway on some -- it just wasn't public knowledge.
] Recently, much attention has been lavished on the ] pornography industry--as a business--and many have ] claimed it is large and profitable, especially on the ] Internet. Many of the claims are cut from whole cloth, ] but are accepted without question by the legitimate ] press.
I was having a discussion with someone today about the size of the porn market v. mainstream. We disagreed strongly on respective market sizes and went looking for numbers to back up our claims. This article has a lot of good data on the subject.
Today I went through my address book and invited a bunch of people who I thought might be interested (if I missed you, please accept my apologies and drop me a line, and I'll get you invited).
Oh, and one of my friends lives in Finland. When he got my invite, he got a hearty laugh out of it. Evidently in Finnish, the word "orkut" means "orgasms"! :)
He said:
I can hardly wait for the proper launch of orkut in Finland. I could pay something to be able to make the commercials.
About orkut: "Orgasm is an online community website designed for friends. The main goal of our service is to make your social life, and that of your friends, more active and stimulating. orgasm's social network can help you both maintain existing relationships and establish new ones by reaching out to people you've never met before. Who you interact with is entirely up to you. Before getting to know an orgasm member, you can even see how they're connecting to you through the friends network.
orgasm makes it easy to find people who share your hobbies and interests, look for romantic connections or establish new business contacts. You can also create and join a wide variety of online communities to discuss current events, reconnect with old college buddies or even exchange cookies recipes.
To join orgasm, simply click on the link in the email you received and follow the instructions for creating a user name and password. If orgasm doesn't sound like it's for you, feel free to delete your invitation. If you change your mind in the future, don't worry! We'll still be here.
If you haven't yet received an invitation to join, please be patient. We'd love to immediately include everyone who wants to participate; however, we're also trying to ensure that orgasm remains a close-knit community. Over the next few weeks, hopefully, the network will grow to a point where everyone who wants to join has the opportunity to do so.
It is our mission to help you create a closer, more intimate network of friends. We hope to put you on the path to social bliss soon.
