Tim Pawlenty's tax cut proposal

(Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

Do you think the Bush tax cuts came near to bankrupting America? Just look at Tim Pawlenty's tax cut proposal. As TPM notes, it's Bush's plan on steroids!

An independent analysis found that it would cost the Treasury over $11 trillion over the course of a decade -- nearly three times the cost of the Bush tax cuts -- most of which would benefit the wealthiest Americans.

Crazy, isn't it? How can the Republicans still be pushing this kind of thing, given how disastrously the Bush tax cuts have already exploded our budget deficit?

And how can Republicans continue to push such giveaways to the wealthiest of the wealthy, without paying a penalty at the ballot box from the other 99% of us? It's just incredible, don't you think?

Not a smart way to evolve

From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Today, our most fearsome natural enemies aren't big, fierce animals. They're microscopic invaders, with names like O104:H4. Their weapon is evolution.

O104:H4 is the label given to the strain of E. coli responsible for the food-borne outbreak currently sweeping through Europe. The organism is so good at infecting us that a deadly case could start with just 10 to 50 cells. Once ingested, this new E. coli multiplies into the billions, using various tricks to evade the immune system.

A benign form of E. coli inhabits all of us, but unlike these friendly bacteria, the new strain forms clumps that adhere to human intestines, where it secretes a deadly substance called Shiga toxin. In the worst cases, the toxin invades the bloodstream, where it massacres blood cells and eventually destroys the kidneys.

I was just thinking that this isn't a smart way to evolve.

Of course, evolution isn't directed. There's no goal, not for bacteria and not for us. And nothing shows it better than this.

If bacteria were intelligent, if they planned their evolution, they wouldn't become deadly at all. The "smart" strains of E. coli are those benign forms. They thrive without giving us any reason to attack them. Indeed, when we accidentally kill off our intestinal bacteria, as a side-effect of medication, we often take deliberate steps to repopulate them again. That's because they're not just harmless, but beneficial.

That's the way bacteria would evolve, if they were smart, and if evolution were directed in the first place. A deadly form of bacteria gets our attention. For our own survival, we must fight our hardest to destroy it. But even before we had the capability to fight with science, when we were still in the same boat as other animals, being deadly was not a smart move for bacteria, not in the long run.

The more deadly a bacteria, the quicker its host will evolve defenses - or go extinct, entirely. Neither is good, from the point of view of the bacteria. Ideally, you'd want to help your host survive and reproduce, because then you'd do well, too. At the very least, you should hope to do no harm.

But evolution isn't like that. Evolution isn't a guided process, and it doesn't look at the long term. Evolution will take life down a dead-end path if that's what works over the short-term, at every step along the way.

Bacteria can't look at the long-term, and can't choose, one way or another. Human beings can do that. We have the capability to look at the long-term, to even sacrifice over the short-term for our long-term benefit.  We're smart enough to have that ability. We're not smart enough to actually do it, normally, but we could.

It's a shame, isn't it? Unlike bacteria, we have the ability to make smart choices. But all too often, we don't. We have the ability to recognize global warming and the ability to do something about it, but we simply refuse to do either. It's easier, over the short-term, to follow the path of least resistance.

It may be a path that leads to disaster - it's certainly not the path to an optimal result - but we take it anyway, because we don't choose to use our intelligence. Evolution brought us to the point where we can make conscious decisions, so it's up to us now. We even have the ability - or will have it, shortly - to guide our own biological development - not natural selection, but self-directed artificial selection.

But will we make the right decisions? Will we make any real decisions at all? Bacteria don't have this choice. No other life on Earth has this choice, just human beings. So it really seems a shame to squander it, to automatically do what's easiest over the short-term, despite having the capability to do otherwise, don't you think?

Bacteria are tough competitors, but I wouldn't bet on this new strain of E. coli. I'd bet on human scientists, instead. Some humans will die, but we'll likely defeat these new enemies in the long-run. This is not a smart move for them. But there's nothing willful about it. They simply don't have a choice.

We do.

Maybe I should stop feeding them?

(from Cute Overload, via the Lincoln Journal Star)

No, this isn't one of my squirrels, but I don't know why not.

Great Games #5: Pool of Radiance

Pool of Radiance (1988) was the first of SSI's classic "Gold Box" games, and the first computer adaptation, apparently, of TSR's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

I loved it. I never completed the game - I rarely complete any game - but I played the early part of the game several times over the years. And the CRPG Addict's recent play-through brought it all back. (Note that the posts are shown in reverse order there, with the last post on top. To read them through, start at the bottom.)

The above video is his, too, and shows a very tough battle early in the game. I remember it well, since I had to fight it several times before finally winning. But before I get to that, let me first explain the setup:

This is a party-based, turn-based RPG. When the game begins, you create up to six characters of your choice of race, gender, and class. I always liked that, creating just the party I wanted from scratch, since there's a lot of strategy involved in it. Unfortunately, that kind of game is getting harder and harder to find, these days.

[Ironically, better computers have been a big part of the problem. When game developers spend a fortune on detailed graphics, they need to know what the characters will look like. When they spend a fortune hiring actors to speak lines, they need to know which characters will appear in a game, and what their personalities are like. So big-budget games become more like movies, where gamers passively accept the developer's vision, rather than actively choosing these details themselves.]

Your characters in Pool of Radiance are rank beginners, answering the call for assistance from Phlan, along with other adventurers who also hope to make their fortunes in the city. There are a couple of things I like about this. First, I like the fairly mundane assignments, since it seems more plausible that a city would hire random mercenaries for such things (and that my characters would accept odd jobs while working for them).

But second, I really like starting at the very bottom in an RPG. Low-level characters generally need everything they can find, so even the most minor loot is valuable and very welcome. Everything matters to low-level characters, which makes it all great fun. And when they do level-up (that's how you increase skills in this game), or just find better equipment, it makes a huge difference, since they're starting from such a low baseline.

High-level characters usually only improve incrementally. A better weapon is usually only slightly, not significantly, better than what they had before. And better skills don't make such a big difference, either - not as they do for low-level characters.

Anyway, your first assignment in Pool of Radiance is to clear the monsters out of the slums, part of Phlan's project to restore the town. The above video shows part of that. There are fixed battles in most of the rooms there, and the monsters don't re-spawn afterward. There are also random battles, as your characters proceed through the area, but only to a certain extent. Once you've fought enough of them, they don't occur again in that area.

You really are clearing the slums here. That's exactly what it feels like. And when you've finished, the whole area is safe. You can walk through it, or even camp there, without risk. (Unfortunately, that's the only result you see. I'd always hoped that the townspeople would start moving in, once I'd cleared the slums for them. But that never happened. In fact, it almost never happens even in modern games. That's always a disappointment.)

As you can tell from the video, the corridors and rooms look completely bare. When you first enter a room, you generally get a good description of it, but you never see any of that (and you only get the description once). Well, that was one of the limitations of computer games back then (basically the result of limited processing power). Graphics and sound are very basic.

The battles, though, felt like a huge advance from earlier games, because tactical positioning was so important.. Unlike games that just abstracted all that, Pool of Radiance set the battle in your current location, and tactical positioning was critical. And that kind of combat is still my favorite.

The above battle, for example, was fought in a long corridor. That meant that heavily-armored fighters could keep the enemy from getting to your more vulnerable characters in the rear. And those trolls in the back, without ranged weapons, couldn't attack at all until they could move up, after some of their number had died. In a more open area, the heroes might have been surrounded.

As I say, this was a really tough battle for low-level characters. Notice how both sides kept missing? Well, low-level characters do miss a lot, and you really need the monsters to do the same. When trolls or ogres did hit, they hit hard. And their opponents went down, because none of the adventurers had many hit points yet.

The CRPG Addict was lucky enough to put an ogre to sleep right away, when his mage cast a spell. Sleeping creatures are sitting ducks, easily killed with a single strike from any weapon. And he was lucky enough - or skilled enough - to finish the fight before the trolls started regenerating. (After awhile, if you take too long, they'll stand up again, with full hit points!)

Notice how the last two trolls tried to run away? Running creatures are easy to hit, and if they turn and run from a character, that character gets a free melee strike. Again, the terrain matters here. If the trolls could have run to the edge of the screen, they would have escaped. But they were in a dead-end corridor, so they were quickly killed.

Obviously, the graphics and the sounds seem very primitive these days, but that doesn't affect the gameplay. The worst thing about the game, certainly by today's standards, is the awkward interface - not just during battles, but afterward (especially when needing to heal your characters), too. Well, games have improved in that respect.

But games have diminished in other respects. "Real-time" games can be fun, certainly, but I still prefer these old party-based, turn-based games. There's a lot of strategy involved, in selecting and preparing your team, and the combat is very tactical. And as the CRPG Addict points out, turn-based combat lets you see everything that's going on. That's lots of fun.

It's slower, true. And in these really old games, it's slower than it should be. Really, the interface is not great. And I get tired of nothing but combat, anyway. It's not just this game, but all of them ("real-time" games, too). They're fun at first, but I tend to get bored after awhile. I'd really prefer less combat and more exploration, I think.

So I never did finish Pool of Radiance, though I still have fond memories of it. But, heck, it's a game! It's supposed to be fun - and it is fun - but I have no interest in turning such things into a chore. When I get a little bored, I move on.

If you're curious about the rest of the game, check out the CRPG Addict's play-through. He does a great job with it. It certainly brought back a lot of great memories for me.

Strawberries

My strawberries are ripe, and this week, I've been spending hour after hour on my knees in the hot sun (temperatures approaching 100°F) picking them - and then until midnight each night cleaning and preparing them in freezer bags.

Well, they're worth it. I don't pick them until they're dead ripe, and they're absolutely delicious! And they're a lot less work than most of my fruit. But still, I'm glad it's raining today, because I really need a break!

Strawberries are one of the easiest fruits to grow here, requiring no spraying at all. I have to net them, to keep the birds off, but I have to net everything. And strawberries are easier to net than anything else I grow. I've got a low-powered electric wire to keep the squirrels out of them, and although that doesn't work well for anything else (squirrels quickly learn to avoid the wires), it does work for strawberries, at least so far.

You see, I put strawberry juice on the wires. They seem to learn pretty quickly from that. Heh, heh. So even when squirrels get into the yard, they don't touch the strawberries, not anymore. (Sadly, this tactic doesn't work for peaches or any of the other fruit I grow. I don't know why.)

I give away the early strawberries, since they're always the nicest. I give them to friends, relatives, neighbors, and even sometimes to people just walking past, when they express interest. After that, I like to freeze the rest, so I can eat strawberries on my oatmeal all winter. (I finally used up the last of last year's strawberries in April.)

I tried growing ever-bearing strawberries to extend the period when I'd have them fresh, but a long bearing period doesn't work for me on any fruit. It's hard to keep netting up for such a long time, and when birds do get inside the net - which happens occasionally, no matter how good a job you do - it's helpful if there's too much for them to eat all at once. Also, insect damage keeps increasing the longer fruit is available.

So I grow June-bearers (Earliglow is the exact variety), and they've been great. True, this year, one of my strawberry patches didn't do too well - the berries, right from the start, were really small, and that made them an even bigger job to pick and to pick through. I'm wondering if I didn't water them enough last summer - strawberries are very shallow rooted, and it's hot and dry here in the summer. I don't know. I guess we'll see what happens next year.

I do tear out half of the rows each year, after they finish bearing, and let runners fill it in with new plants. So far, that's worked well. My newer patch is along the north side of the house. Unlike most plants, strawberries will fruit well in partial shade - not as abundantly as they would in full sun, but still quite well. And they don't dry out as quickly there.

It looks like a poor year for the rest of my fruit, though. I had apricots - for only the second year ever, since they bloom too early here - but the squirrels destroyed the whole crop more than a month before they would have gotten ripe. (They don't eat the fruit of the apricot, but they chew them up to get the pit.) And I didn't spray enough this spring, so my apples, pears, and plums look horribly, disgustingly infested with bugs. Well, that's entirely my fault.

But some things just didn't set on fruit. For some reason, I don't have a single nectarine on the tree this year, and one of my pluots (a plum/apricot cross) doesn't have fruit, either. And only a couple of my gooseberries have fruit, and not nearly as much as usual. My peaches look OK, but I had to cut out a lot of dead branches this year. And I had a lot of winter kill on my black raspberries, though I still should get a good crop.

Admittedly, the grapes still look very good. Like strawberries, grapes seem to be very easy to grow here, even without spraying. Most of the year, I can just ignore them. (But they do have to be netted, and that's a real pain!)

Well, I just give away the vast majority of what I grow, so even in a bad year, I'll have plenty of fruit for myself. But strawberries are always the first fruit of the year - unless you consider rhubarb a fruit - and one of the most welcome. And since I try to freeze a bunch of them, a good strawberry crop can make up for lots of disappointment elsewhere.

Plus, they're really, really tasty.  :)

Corporations moving into our public schools

From The Washington Post:

In the mountains of southwestern Virginia, Gequetta Bright Laney taught public high school students this spring about a subject of keen interest to the region’s biggest employer: the economics of coal mining.

“Where there’s coal, there’s opportunity,” Bright Laney told her class at Coeburn High School in Wise County.

Her lessons, like others in dozens of public schools across the country, were approved and funded by the coal industry. Such efforts reflect a broader pattern of private-sector attempts to influence what gets taught in public schools.

We already have corporations controlling our political system - increased immeasurably by last year's Supreme Court decision legalizing unlimited, anonymous corporate contributions to political campaigns. Now corporations are moving into our schools, too.

Well, with the constant mantra of tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts, and the disinterest of Americans in actually paying for their children's education - or anything else, apparently - money talks louder than ever. And since Republicans are actually proud that corporations hold their strings, politicians in many states are actually eager to see children taught the corporate message.

I guess we shouldn't be surprised by this, although it does surprise me that anyone still votes for the GOP. Jeebus, why?

“We’re talking about catering our public school curriculum to those who can pay for it,” said Josh Golin, program manager at the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, based in Boston. “It raises questions about the foundation of our public education system.” ...

... critics say the energy industry often goes much further than the typical school donations. Groups with a stake in oil, gas or coal frequently train teachers and shape lesson plans on controversial subjects.

In the Appalachian mining communities of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, the Coal Education Development and Resources foundation, known as CEDAR, offers small grants to teachers whose lessons dovetail with its industry-driven mission.

Jeff Perry, the Wise County superintendent, gave teachers permission to apply for the grants.

“With our ever-dwindling revenue, we’re very appreciative of the coal industry’s contribution,” Perry said. “They’re providing opportunities for teachers that would otherwise never exist.”

This is scary stuff. We've already got corporations dominating our political system, as well as spending a fortune on TV advertising. Now, we've got them teaching our children the corporate line in our public schools. What's next, corporate religions?

Sarah Palin's "gotcha" question

(Tom Toles)

Heh, heh. I posted about this yesterday, but just for the record, here's that "gotcha" question that Sarah Palin flubbed:

"What have you seen so far today, and what are you going to take away from your visit?"

How dare they ask hardball questions like this, questions clearly designed to trip up America's Alaskan Barbie! It makes your blood boil, doesn't it? That's even worse than asking her what newspapers she reads!

From now on, she'd better stick with Fox, where they'll treat her right and not ask "gotcha" questions like this!

Sarah Palin's history lesson

My brother says that this is a lot like Palin's famous "all of them" flub when asked what newspapers and magazines she reads, and I agree. Just note that deer-in-the-headlights look, and the flustered way she attempts to reply while clearly having no clue.

Honestly, this is just astonishing, don't you think? Wouldn't she expect some questions about these places she's visiting? Wouldn't she prepare for that, just a little bit? She's already labeling this a "gotcha" type question, but obviously, it's not. It's even less so than asking her what newspapers she reads, since she's the one choosing the places she's visiting on this bus tour of hers.

So why wouldn't she prepare just a little bit? Heck, I can't imagine that it would take too much preparation, since this is nothing more than grade school stuff. But wouldn't she expect questions about Paul Revere? But no, apparently not. And now she complains that it's a "gotcha" question! Heh, heh. It's almost too crazy to believe, even for her.

And now, Sarah Palin's fans are busy trying to rewrite Wikipedia to agree with her version of history. Yeah, that's all we need. Rather than expecting our leaders to know something about America's history, we'll just change our history to agree with whatever dumb things they say. Well, that's the approach in Texas, I guess.

My brother expects to see this on Saturday Night Live, with Tina Fey once again using Palin's own words to humorous effect. So the final piece in this hilarious situation is Fox "News" mistaking a picture  of Tina Fey spoofing Sarah Palin for Palin herself. Heh, heh. Could it get any funnier than that?

After all, Palin works for Fox "News." Well, yeah, most Republican leaders work for them, but Sarah Palin is actually getting paid - and lavishly, too. Basically, they pay her to run for President, and in their eyes, she can do no wrong. So you'd think they'd know what she looks like, wouldn't you?

Unfortunately, another Democrat - and a good one, too - has been thinking with his penis, so this will probably all get lost in that mess. It never fails, huh?

Well, when it comes to sex, even smart men do very dumb things. (That's not an excuse, just an observation.) Personally, I couldn't care less about the sex lives of our political leaders. I think their knowledge of the issues - and of our history - is far more important, but I seem to be in a real minority on that, don't I?

Homeopathy

(Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal)

Academagia: The Making of Mages - initial impressions

I'd never even heard of Academagia: The Making of Mages until I read that it was half off at Impulse this weekend. But it sounded intriguing, and for $12.47, I was willing to take a chance.

Academagia is "a whimsical fantasy life simulation and role-playing game" where you're basically Harry Potter spending his first year at Hogwarts. No, it's not called "Hogwarts," and Harry Potter is nowhere to be seen (unless that's how you name your character), but those trademark issues aside, that's the game.

You're lucky enough to get an invitation to attend the Academy of Magic in Mineta and, with no more idea what to expect than Harry Potter had, you start your first year absolutely clueless and nearly overwhelmed with options. You must pick your college - no Sorting Hat here - and your classes, get to know your fellow students, and struggle to learn what's presented to you in bits and pieces.

Note that I've only had the game two days, so these are merely my initial impressions. (I wanted to post something while the sale at Impulse was still on.) But the game is almost unbelievably complex, with countless options at every turn. And you really won't have a clue which options are optimal.

It's also slow-moving to the point of tedium. But it's still intriguing. I haven't been tempted to stop playing, even though I don't seem to be really getting anywhere. (Well, better skills do start to make a difference after awhile.) But let me warn you that this is really a niche product. I'm quite sure it won't appeal to most people, and I'm not even sure that it appeals to me,... but I think it does. So, how's that for a recommendation? Heh, heh.

OK, let me start at the beginning. It took me almost two hours just to create my character. There are just so many, many options for that! And while you can read about each one - there's a lot of reading in this game, often in very tiny type - that's not as helpful as you might think.

Frankly, I think that's deliberate. I think that discovering all this stuff is part of the game, that you're supposed to be clueless. Furthermore, I think you can play the game no matter what choices you make. In a typical RPG, you want to know what does what, so you can create a capable character. But in this one, you just need to play your character, whatever he (or she) might be like. Because there are so many different ways to accomplish things, there is no "best" way.

And there's no possible way you can choose everything in this game, not even close. In fact, I'm already wondering what my experiences would be like playing a different character. I created a magic nerd, basically - a boy who's smart and studious, but not strong, not charming, not lucky, and certainly not rich (unlike most of my classmates, I've broken off all relations with my family, so I don't even get an allowance).

But I could have played a rich bully, if I wanted. Or a charming, lucky social butterfly. Really, you just need to play whatever character you create. (I do recommend that you have some idea in mind, whatever it might be.) There are also hundreds of skills in the game, and 17 different classes to choose (of which you can actually attend only six). So you can't possibly learn everything on one play of the game, not even close. But it's still rather overwhelming, even for me (and I like complicated games).

My character started with a decent level in "reason," for example, which sounds good, but I have no idea what it really does. And how does it differ from "logic," which is another skill? Well, sometimes there's an option to use "reason" and sometimes an option to use "logic," but there are always other skills you can use, instead, and those will work perfectly well, too - provided you're skilled enough. If you expect to understand this stuff, it's just frustrating. But if you just go with the flow, it's fun.

Anyway, I created my character, got my familiar (an owl is one option, but I chose an exotic animal and got a howler monkey, of all things), chose my college and my coursework, and moved into my room. Each weekday is separated into morning, afternoon, and evening, and you're scheduled to attend classes most mornings and afternoons.

So you've got one period each day where you can either study or explore the school or rest (which is often necessary) or train one skill (out of hundreds) one step higher or sit in detention (required, if you've gotten into trouble with a professor) or any of the myriad other things that you really need to do all the time. You can cut classes occasionally - how often is one of those things I just don't know - but there's never enough time for everything, especially since you often have to try something just to see what it's all about (and if you fail, you can usually try again until you succeed).

On the one hand, that's really frustrating, and it makes the game move at a snail's pace. But on the other hand, it's kind of neat that you have to make real choices all the time. There is not anywhere near enough time for everything, so you have to choose carefully. And you're never sure - or at least I'm never sure right now - that you're making the right choice.

I'm not even sure there is a right choice. As I say, I'm beginning to think that you just have to play your character. My character isn't charming, so he's not concentrating on glamour spells or making friends, but if he was charming, he probably would.

My character is smart and studious - and poor - so he's working hard at being the best mage he can be. But as a first-year student only a couple of months into his classes, he clearly has a long way to go. And not all of his classes seem to be directly related to magic. Two of his six classes, the two required by his particular college, are in Arithmetic and Zoology. Yeah, this is a school, if a weird one.

There are adventures I can choose (in my extremely scarce free time), and there are also random incidents that occur while going to class. You can get through each of these in many different ways, depending on your skills. So you don't have to learn - you can't learn - all of the hundreds of different skills in this game. You need a broad selection of skills - and you often have to fail at something before you can even begin to learn the skill at all - but you also need to become good at a few of them.

How much to specialize... well, that's another thing I don't know. But I like the fact that, though I choose to specialize in some skills - partly as a result of how I created my character in the first place - others are entirely a result of chance. I seem to be getting rather skilled in traps, for example, and that's entirely a result of random incidents.

The idea behind this game is really neat, but I'm not so sure about the execution. Part of it, I think, is that the game is designed to be different from what you normally expect in an RPG. As I mentioned before, I think that being completely clueless is actually a design choice. I think you're supposed to be clueless and to struggle to learn in this game. That's certainly an interesting gameplay element, but it always threatens to be frustrating instead of fun.

Really, there's a lot about this game that's right on the edge. This is a turn-based game, and everything takes place on that screen in the image above. And you don't see any of it happening, but just read about it. That's fine with me, at least in theory, but the image doesn't expand to fit my widescreen monitor, and the type is often very small (the tiny italic type in the shops is almost completely unreadable for me).

You can increase the size of some text in the game, but not all of it. And it's all in a very tiny text area, so you have to scroll or page down to read it all. (Infuriatingly, some text scrolls down line by line and some page by page, so you can't just use your mouse wheel without thinking about it, and checking, every single time.) And then, when you switch subjects and start reading about something else, it often starts at the bottom of the text, not the top. In a really terrible interface accident - I assume - you have to remember to scroll up again after you finish reading something.

Really, the interface isn't the best. There's a really neat game in here somewhere, but it's not presented very well. And oddly enough, attending a school of magic isn't nearly as much fun as you'd think, either. This really isn't Hogwarts. You know that's the intention, but there's almost more tedium than fun here - it's a lot like a real school in that respect, I guess.

I expected to have fun incidents in my Zoology class, but that doesn't happen. Things don't ever happen in class. Random incidents just happen whatever classes you happen to be taking. So I encounter magical creatures sometimes, but it's always just a brief encounter, all in text, and it has nothing to do with my classwork. And they're such incredibly minor incidents, with creatures I never hear from again, that they seem completely inconsequential.

Well, that's the problem with random incidents. So far, there doesn't seem to be any continuing storylines, no thread connecting isolated incidents. I haven't made any friends yet - I don't even know how to make friends - and the game doesn't seem to make much use of house rivalry (not like, er, Hogwarts). Yeah, we "compete" against the other colleges, technically, but it's all extremely remote and bloodless. It never feels like a competition.

And yet, and yet, it's an intriguing game. I really like the idea behind it, and I don't just mean the college of magic part (although that's certainly a great idea, too). I like games with tons of options. I like games with hundreds of different skills to learn. I like complicated games that make you think. This game is interesting enough to keep me coming back, though I do think it could be more fun.

But the biggest problem, other than the interface, is probably just that the game doesn't make it clear how different it really is. Before you start the game, you need to know that being clueless is a design choice, that you're not supposed to know what's going on. (Or, at least, that's my current assumption.) You need to know that there aren't really any right or wrong choices, that you just need to play your character as you've imagined him.

Figure out what kind of student you want to play, and then create him - attributes, skills, interests, background. Then play that student. Is he studious, friendly, tough? Does he come from the top of society or the bottom? Is he a hero, a practical joker, a bully? What motivates him? I suspect right now that any kind of student, with pretty much any set of skills, can work in this game.

But I don't really know that. So far, this game has been fun - well worth the money - but it's also been very close to frustrating and very close to tedious. I believe that Black Chicken Studios is expecting to make sequels taking your "Harry Potter" through year two, three, four, etc. of this magic school, and I'm very interested in seeing that play out. But I'm worried that this game won't be successful enough to continue with that.

Frankly, although I'm enjoying the game, I can't think of anyone I'd recommend it to. Partly, that's because of its flaws, but partly, it's just because of the kind of game it is. This is a niche product, and I wonder if the niche is big enough.

Well, I'm glad I bought the game. It's not perfect, but it's really different. And I love to see really different games. There's also a lot that appeals to me here. It needs work, but it's a fascinating beginning. If you think it might appeal to you, too, give it a try.

But if you think it just sounds tedious and boring, it's almost certainly not for you. This is not a game that will appeal to everyone - and most likely, not even to the majority of gamers.

Dancing on the debt ceiling

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Dancing on the Ceiling
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This is all political theater, yes, but they're playing with fire. It's a big deal to default on your loans. For most of our history, the full faith and credit of the United States of America has been as good as gold. The U.S. dollar is the standard of international commerce, and for good reason.

When things get scary, people worldwide flock to the dollar. And we can fund that massive debt (brought to us by Republicans, I might remind you) because our borrowing costs are so low. That's what having superb credit does for us. But let this become a political football and that will change.

So this really is playing with fire. But Republicans have two bases of support. First, they've got ignorant Tea Party yokels fired up on Fox "News." Thanks to constant rants about the deficit (since they're desperately trying to pass the blame onto the Democrats), they've got to pretend they're going to do something about it - and without raising taxes. (It's right-wing dogma that taxes are always bad.)

But their Wall Street base, which normally demands only deregulation and continuing tax cuts for the rich, knows what a complete disaster failing to raise the debt ceiling really would be. So Republicans have to assure them that this is just political theater.

OK, this is dishonest, of course, but that doesn't bother me. It's the GOP, after all. What do you expect? What's scary is that political games can easily get out of hand.

I'm sure the Republicans expect Democrats to fold. After all, they always have. (Please note, Democrats, that you're in a terrible position for negotiating when you've got a reputation for never standing up for anything.)

But playing chicken is dangerous. It really is. Really! Even when you're playing with Democrats. After all, you've just told the Democrats - and everyone else - that this is just political theater, that you don't really intend to block raising the debt ceiling. I know it's unlikely, but maybe even Democrats will develop a spine after that.

Jeebus, aren't there any adults left in the GOP?  This is complete insanity! They are playing political games with America's entire economy!

Maybe if a tornado wiped out a rich neighborhood?

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"When it comes to helping Joplin, Missouri, residents, actual elephants are more useful to them than the GOP. That's just insane!"  No kidding!

Crazy, isn't it?  We can give tax cuts to the rich without worrying about the deficit, but disaster relief is another story? How can anyone still support the Republican Party these days?

I mean, they were a complete disaster the last time they held power, with every single Republican policy failing horribly, leaving us with two ongoing wars, Osama bin Laden still free (until Barack Obama took care of that), record-breaking budget deficits (no, tax cuts for the rich do not pay for themselves), and the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression.

After a performance like that, you'd think the GOP - if it continued to exist at all - would be more careful. But no, they're getting crazier than ever, proposing to end Medicare and refusing to fund disaster relief, all to continue giving tax cuts to the rich. It's just incredible, don't you think?

"But the good news is that Dad's car is getting a new laser cannon." Think that was just an idle joke?  Not at all. Remember that six-month spending bill Republicans made a big stink about in April? Remember how they were demanding spending cuts before they'd pass it?

Well, it turns out that their bill increased federal spending by $3 billion, thanks to an increase of $7.5 billion for defense programs. Yeah, I guess spending seven times as much on defense spending as our nearest rival - at a time when our only enemy is a rag-tag band of religious nuts - isn't enough.

Does anyone really think Republicans will cut spending if they take power again?  Oh, sure, they'll cut Medicare and Social Security, they'll cut disaster relief, they'll cut scientific research, but spending in general is likely to go up, just as it did during the Bush years. And thanks to continued giveaways to the rich, the deficit will skyrocket, just as it has because of their policies then, too.

Tell me why anyone still votes Republican? It's hard to imagine why, isn't it?

Will Clarence Thomas recuse himself?

From Mother Jones:

Following a time-honored Washington tradition of dumping required but embarrassing information on a Friday night before a major holiday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas finally released the details of his wife's income from her year or so working for the tea party group Liberty Central, which fought President Obama's health care reform law. His new financial disclosure form indicates that his wife, Virginia, who served as Liberty Central's president and CEO, received $150,000 in salary from the group and less than $15,000 in payments from an anti-health care lobbying firm she started.

The disclosure was apparently prompted in part by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who had been needling Thomas (including on Twitter) for months to disclose how much money his wife earned from Liberty Central. That's because challenges to Obama's health care reform law are likely to end up before the Supreme Court sooner rather than later, and if Thomas and his wife benefited from her income working against the bill, the justice has an enormous conflict of interest in hearing any legal challenge. Thomas had failed to disclose Virginia's income on his financial disclosure forms for 20 years; under pressure from Weiner and others, he had recently amended old disclosures to reflect hundreds of thousands of dollars she had earned working for the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that also opposed Obama's health care plan.

The Thomas family gets big bucks from opposing health care reform. How can this not be a conflict of interest? Unfortunately, Supreme Court Justices are expected to police themselves., so Clarence Thomas can do anything he likes.

And Thomas isn't a judge as much as he's a right-wing political activist. Well, we're still paying for past years' mistakes. Past Republican Presidents are gone, but their Supreme Court picks live on for decades. This court, in addition to other crazy decisions, has decided that corporations are just people, too. What's next?

The wildly successful Bristol Palin

Who would have thought that getting knocked up in high school was such a great career move? Candie's Foundation, which promotes abstinence-only sex education - and has hired the world's most famous failure of abstinence-only sex education as its figurehead - has released its tax information for 2009.

These tax forms show that Bristol Palin was paid $262,500 in 2009. Yes, more than a quarter of a million dollars in one year for demonstrating to sane people what a failure abstinence-only sex education really is. Nice work, if you can get it.

This "non-profit" foundation spent another $165,000 on advertising, including that hilariously inept video of Palin and "The Situation." But guess how much money actually went to pregnancy prevention? Only $35,000. Yeah, they paid Bristol seven and a half times as much as they spent on what was supposedly their purpose.

This whole foundation - which is tax-free, remember - seems to be nothing but a promotional vehicle for Bristol Palin, the perfect role-model for young girls.

Yes, little girls, you, too, can make the big bucks and join "Dancing with the Stars." All you need to do is get pregnant while in high school. Oh, and have Sarah Palin for a mom, too. But maybe if you just change your last name to "Palin," that might do well enough. Your fans won't be too bright, after all.

Bristol Palin is a perfect example of the shallow end of the gene pool in America. She's a celebrity - basically, someone famous for being famous - and that's all it takes. She has no talent and little education. But like her mother, she's a relentless self-promoter.

Think about it. She's a highly-paid spokesperson for abstinence-only sex education, despite being a perfect example of the failure of abstinence-only sex education. But none of that matters, since she's a celebrity - and, frankly, because the abstinence-only sex education movement isn't actually about teen pregnancy. No, it's all about the "culture war" in America.

The fact that abstinence-only sex education doesn't work is completely immaterial. This is a faith-based project, and it's supported by the same ignorant hicks who cheer wildly at Sarah Palin rallies. Bristol Palin has the right name, and she's a celebrity because she's a celebrity. Apparently, that's all it takes.

And like her mother before her, Bristol Palin is milking it for all she can get. Sadly, that's a lot. She's actually moving into televangelists' kind of money. Well, there's a sucker born every minute, I guess.

The Lyin', the Witch, and the Wardrobe

John Cole at Balloon Juice has been collecting potential titles for the new Sarah Palin movie. Here are a few of my favorites:

From Here to Inanity
Citizen Vain
Red Yawn
The Aleutianist
The Scum Also Rises
Chariots of Liar
From Within Sight of Russia With Love
Not-Hur
The Devil Wears Mukluks
Swindler’s List
John McCain’s a Series of Unfortunate Events
The Lyin’, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Driving Miss Crazy
Inarticulate Proposal
Chariots of Bile
Jackass 4
The Lying Game
The Woman Who Knew Too Little
True Grift
Clueless
Fahrenheit All of Them
12 Million Angry White Men

Read the rest of them here (note the comments, too).

Or check out #palinfilmnames on Twitter. Some of my favorites from there:

Honey I Refudiated the Kids
It Came From Wasilla
Every Which Way but Moose
Nones With Guns
Half-Baked Alaska
Flaws
The English Challenged Patient
Million Dollar Barbie
Raging Bullshit
Attack of the 50-IQ-point Woman

Funny, huh? Maybe I should try. Hmm,... I'd suggest "Psycho" or "The Hustler," but I think they've been taken. So how about "It's a Wonderful Lie"?  :)

Fox News forgets the First Amendment

Spring flooding

(Ed Stein)

Terraria

I've been playing the PC game Terraria recently, so I thought I'd post a bit about that. The above video is the first of a whole series on YouTube, and they got me interested enough to buy the game myself. (There are many other YouTube videos about Terraria, too, of course - here is another series I've enjoyed.)

I hesitated, because the game seems to have stolen a lot from Minecraft. Well, we knew that was going to happen, right? And this is a side-scroller, so the gameplay is quite different. Besides, I sort of like to see games borrowing from Minecraft (and Dwarf Fortress, which I've seen happen, as well), since those games contain features which I'd love to see become more common.

I also hesitated, because Terraria is available only on Steam. Frankly, Steam is my least favorite gaming platform. I particularly dislike the fact that I have to start Steam, and connect with their servers, before I can play even a single-player game. But Terraria was only $10, and I figured I'd go ahead and try it anyway.

At first, I thought I'd made a huge mistake. I'm really, really bad at this kind of game. Those videos make it look easy, and it probably is for most people - but not for me. But I did get a little better as I continued, and it is fun. Still, I think I almost prefer watching those YouTube videos of other people playing. Heh, heh.

Well, not really. I won't ever get very far in the game, but it's already been worth the money. I'm easily bored, so I tend to jump from one game to the next, without getting very far in any of them. But if it wasn't fun, I wouldn't do it.

I should, however, note a huge design flaw in Terraria: There's no way to pause the game! Isn't that crazy? Was the game made for eight-year-olds who, presumably, can play entirely without interruptions? For the rest of us, that's nearly impossible, don't you think? Heck, I'm better off than most, since I live alone. But what about when the phone rings, or when someone comes to the door?

But this is still a great game. Like Minecraft, you start on a new world in the morning, and you have to build a shelter before nightfall. So, just like Minecraft, the first thing you need to do is chop down trees to get lumber. You start with a copper axe and a copper pick (for digging through dirt and rock). And you can make everything else you need (again, like Minecraft).

In Terraria, though, you're not safe even during the day. Even when you first arrive on your new world, slimes will come from both directions. They're not actually aggressive, not if you don't hit them. But since this game is entirely two-dimensional, they will hit you - and hurt you - while they're traveling through, unless you actively avoid them.

But you need to kill some of them anyway, since you get gel from slimes, and you need gel to make torches (gel plays the role in Terraria that coal and charcoal play in Minecraft). Torches are needed for light, at night and underground, though they don't stop monsters from spawning (solid walls, placed as a background, do that). And yes, at night, zombies and demon eyes appear.

Terraria is a side-scroller, and you can move right or left along the surface of the world. But the biggest part of the world is underground. You can mine pretty much anywhere, through rock and soil, but you're better off finding a natural cavern. There are caverns extending far, far underground, and they get more dangerous the further down you go.

But there's treasure down there, too. You can find some copper and iron on the surface, but there's more underground. And there's also silver and gold. And gems. And treasure chests. And the monsters all drop loot when you kill them.

For someone as inept as I am, the neat thing about the game is that you can play at your own pace. No, there aren't any difficulty settings. But I can decide when and where to go underground, and I can decide when to leave my secure little home at night. Plus, death isn't much of a setback.

When you die, you just reappear at your spawn point (where you initially started the game, unless you've made a bed and set your spawn point elsewhere), with your entire inventory intact. You do drop half of the coins you were carrying, but you can go back and pick them up again. And if you store your more valuable coins in a chest in your house, you won't lose any of those.

Death is rather common. Well, it's a dangerous world. If you're a long way from home, you'll probably hate dying, since it will be such a long trip back. But it's not all that significant, either. And this encourages exploration. Especially when you're underground, the temptation is just to keep going a little further. That can keep you playing for hours. So maybe dying occasionally isn't so bad, especially if you need to get some sleep at night.

Terraria really is a great little game. I don't normally play side-scrollers or platformers. (That might be why I'm so bad at this.) But Terraria takes from Minecraft two features that really make a difference. The first is crafting. In both games, you can make a wide variety of furniture and equipment. And you can make homes, too. That constructive part of these games is important to me, since I get really bored just killing things.

And second, you can completely re-arrange the terrain. You can dig anywhere and put the rock and soil anywhere you want. You can completely level a mountain, or build one. You can cut down trees and plant them. Minecraft is 3D, while Terraria is more like living in an ant farm. But in both cases, that freedom to re-make the world is a really big part of the gameplay.

There's no demo of Terraria, but there are a lot of YouTube videos showing how the game works. And it's only $10, so it's not a big investment, even if you don't play it much. If you do buy it, you might need to check the Terraria Wiki sometimes (there's a link on the Terraria website, too).

But it's really not that complicated. Pressing the escape key opens up your inventory and shows you what you can make out of what you're carrying. If you click on an item in the crafting area, it will show you exactly what components it will require. And if you stand near a forge, a workbench, an anvil, or an alchemy table, you'll have even more crafting options.

You can see, in most of those videos, gamers figuring out these things. They often miss some things - for example, that a hammer can remove what an axe or a pick cannot - but that's just part of the learning process. If you get confused, just check the wiki. But you probably won't need to do that very often.

I can see why Terraria has become such a big hit. Well, Minecraft was an even bigger hit. That should tell game developers something. Meanwhile, if you like to waste a little time playing computer games, like me, you could do far worse than Terraria.

QOTD: Abortion saved my life

Quote of the Day:

There's this lawmaker out of Kansas, Rep. Peter DeGraaf, who has a lot to say about abortion. He's currently best known for saying that women should plan ahead in case of rape and not expect their regular insurance to cover an abortion after an assault. And I could spend a lot of time discussing the flaws in his logic, or even hashing out when life begins, but what I'm really concerned about is the idea that anyone besides a pregnant woman should have a say in what she does with her body after finding out she's pregnant.

I'm a mom, and I love my sons more than anything. And it is because I love them that I had an abortion at 20 weeks. ...

I was taking an afternoon nap when the hemorrhaging started while my toddler napped in his room when I woke up to find blood gushing upward from my body. Though I didn't know it at the time, I was experiencing a placental abruption, a complication my doctor had told me was a possibility. My husband was at work, so I had to do my best to take care of me and my toddler on my own. I managed to get to the phone and make arrangements for both of my children before going to a Chicago hospital.

Everyone knew the pregnancy wasn't viable, that it couldn't be viable given the amount of blood I was losing, but it still took hours for anyone at the hospital to do anything. The doctor on call didn't do abortions. At all. Ever. In fact, no one on call that night did. Meanwhile, an ignorant batch of medical students had gathered to study me -- one actually showed me the ultrasound of our dying child while asking me if it was a planned pregnancy. Several wanted to examine me while I lay there bleeding and in pain. No one gave me anything for the pain or even respected my request to close the door even though I was on the labor and delivery floor listening to other women have healthy babies as the baby I had been trying to save died in my womb.

A very kind nurse risked her job to call a doctor from the Reproductive Health Clinic who was not on call, and asked her to come in to save my life. Fortunately she was home, and got there relatively quickly. By the time she arrived, I was in bad shape. The blood loss had rendered me nearly incoherent, but she still moved me to a different wing and got me the painkillers no one else had during the screaming hours I'd spent in the hospital. ...

Later I found out that the doctor had taken my husband aside as they brought me into surgery. She promised him she would do her best to save me, but she warned him there was a distinct possibility that she would fail. The doctor who didn't do abortions was supposed to have contacted her (or someone else who would perform the procedure) immediately. He didn't. Neither did his students. Supposedly there was a communication breakdown and they thought she had been notified, but I doubt it. I don't know if his objections were religious or not; all I know is that when a bleeding woman was brought to him for treatment he refused to do the only thing that could stop the bleeding. Because he didn't do abortions. Ever.

My two kids at home almost lost their mother because someone decided that my life was worth less than that of a fetus that was going to die anyway. My husband had told them exactly what my regular doctor said, and the ER doctor had already warned us what would have to happen. Yet none of this mattered when confronted by the idea that no one needs an abortion. You shouldn't need to know the details of why a woman aborts to trust her to make the best decision for herself. I don't regret my abortion, but I would also never use my situation to suggest that the only time another woman should have the procedure is when her life is at stake. After my family found out I'd had an abortion, I got a phone call from a cousin who felt the need to tell me I was wrong to have interfered with God's plan. And in that moment I understood exactly what kind of people judge a woman's reproductive choices. - Mikki Kendall

QOTD: Physics and the immortality of the soul

Quote of the Day:

Claims that some form of consciousness persists after our bodies die and decay into their constituent atoms face one huge, insuperable obstacle: the laws of physics underlying everyday life are completely understood, and there's no way within those laws to allow for the information stored in our brains to persist after we die. If you claim that some form of soul persists beyond death, what particles is that soul made of? What forces are holding it together? How does it interact with ordinary matter?

Everything we know about quantum field theory (QFT) says that there aren't any sensible answers to these questions. Of course, everything we know about quantum field theory could be wrong. Also, the Moon could be made of green cheese.

Among advocates for life after death, nobody even tries to sit down and do the hard work of explaining how the basic physics of atoms and electrons would have to be altered in order for this to be true. If we tried, the fundamental absurdity of the task would quickly become evident.

Even if you don't believe that human beings are "simply" collections of atoms evolving and interacting according to rules laid down in the Standard Model of particle physics, most people would grudgingly admit that atoms are part of who we are. If it's really nothing but atoms and the known forces, there is clearly no way for the soul to survive death. Believing in life after death, to put it mildly, requires physics beyond the Standard Model. Most importantly, we need some way for that "new physics" to interact with the atoms that we do have.

Very roughly speaking, when most people think about an immaterial soul that persists after death, they have in mind some sort of blob of spirit energy that takes up residence near our brain, and drives around our body like a soccer mom driving an SUV. The questions are these: what form does that spirit energy take, and how does it interact with our ordinary atoms? Not only is new physics required, but dramatically new physics. Within QFT, there can't be a new collection of "spirit particles" and "spirit forces" that interact with our regular atoms, because we would have detected them in existing experiments. Ockham's razor is not on your side here, since you have to posit a completely new realm of reality obeying very different rules than the ones we know. ...

Nobody ever asks these questions out loud, possibly because of how silly they sound. Once you start asking them, the choice you are faced with becomes clear: either overthrow everything we think we have learned about modern physics, or distrust the stew of religious accounts/unreliable testimony/wishful thinking that makes people believe in the possibility of life after death. It's not a difficult decision, as scientific theory-choice goes.

We don't choose theories in a vacuum. We are allowed -- indeed, required -- to ask how claims about how the world works fit in with other things we know about how the world works. I've been talking here like a particle physicist, but there's an analogous line of reasoning that would come from evolutionary biology. Presumably amino acids and proteins don't have souls that persist after death. What about viruses or bacteria? Where upon the chain of evolution from our monocellular ancestors to today did organisms stop being described purely as atoms interacting through gravity and electromagnetism, and develop an immaterial immortal soul?

There's no reason to be agnostic about ideas that are dramatically incompatible with everything we know about modern science. Once we get over any reluctance to face reality on this issue, we can get down to the much more interesting questions of how human beings and consciousness really work. - Sean Carroll