Today the BBC leads with the dire economic circumstances in Spain. A few of the stories they choose to lead with are, “Spain jobless passes five million”, “What’s the matter with Spain?” and “Young Spain a ‘lost generation”. Not a pretty picture.
This is a photo of the South Carolina police clearing unarmed Occupy Chapel Hill protesters from an abandoned building in November and this article on Salon does a pretty good job of explaining why our police now look (and act) like soldiers. In a country that loves to proclaim itself the center of freedom and liberty in the world, this is nothing short of a total disgrace. On a number of occasions I’ve experienced how intimidating it can be to be surrounded by hundreds of cops in full body armor. It takes strong will and courage to stand up to these assholes. My hat is off to younger generations who are willing to brave this sort of intimidation to exercise their right to speak and protest against injustice.
Some people are open to any possibility, and honestly examine all evidence in a rational manner to come to a conclusion, followed by a moral evaluation. Others start with a desire for a specific moral evaluation, and then work backwards assembling any fact that supports them, and dismissing any fact that does not.
Knowing is half the battle.
Here’s a game about sweeping dust and it looks awesome. Behold Dustforce!
I am completely on the fence with this Modern Warfare 3 ad. On one hand its a pretty entertaining inside joke for gamers and reminds me a lot of what its like to be a Noob (eg. newbie, someone who lacks experience). Having recently gotten my ass kicked by 12 year olds to the point of hating Battlefield 3, the experience is fresh on my mind. On the other side the ad ends by declaring “There’s a soldier inside us all” and makes war look like a grand ol’ time. Oooof, my inner contradictions are laid bare. A friend once told me I’m the most “violent pacifist” he knows and I constantly struggle with this.
Here’s two takes on the ad, one from the generally trustworthy The Atlantic and one from the more gamer-centric Ars Technica.
Most amazing kung fu attack ever.
The Last of Us is a new game from Naughty Dog, the developers of the Uncharted series, and its looking pretty tight! These guys know how to write characters you care about and put them in stories that keep you interested. Quite an achievement considering we’re talking about games here. 90% of the multi-million dollar films I’ve watched in recent years don’t even come close to the level of character development and storytelling they manage to achieve on a lowly PS3. Shitty big budget film directors take note!
What if they ended a war and nobody cared? I’m afraid this short article on Salon explains a very sad and sobering truth about my country.
The end of the internet sales tax loophole
Awhile ago I wrote a post about how expensive it is to shop online in Europe, especially when compared to the United States. The disparity had less to do with the exchange rate and more to do with the fact that virtually no one pays sales tax on internet purchases in the states…. but, it looks like that tax loophole is about to be closed. Recognizing that defeat is inevitable, Amazon has switched sides and is now a proponent of collecting sales tax from companies that have ANY kind of physical presence in a state, so distribution centers count, as does R&D.
So there you go. End of cheap internet shopping… and I’m inclined to not complain. Many states are flat out broke, hopefully they’ll use the extra cash to fund social programs that were slashed in recent years.
doublenifty
