Playing at Slavery: Modding Colonization for Authenticity | Play The Past

A look at how gamers address deficiencies in games through modding, in this case figuring out how and if to address the slave trade in Civ IV Colonization.

The San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank releases a game that lets you ruin the economy. - Kill Screen

Chariman is a timely reminder of how complicated and irrational the American economic system has become—a healthy reality check in advance of the coming tidal wave of easy fixes and shallow campaign promises headed our way.

A very important movement. You might ask how to pay for all of the services offered now without the current method, but things will work out. Scholars want and need to share their research, and a way will be found under whatever new framework comes to exist.

arlpolicynotes:

Sign the petition today at wh.gov/6TH

(Source: vimeo.com)

Joe Smith: How to use a paper towel | Video on TED.com

Initially I was skeptical, even though Daring Fireball linked to this. But then others echoed that it worked. So I watched the video, and hey it looks like it should work.

The Worst Phones You Can Buy

These are horrible phones - not even smartphones, and they cost money! However, they might not make you pay for a data subscription.

“It’s just a matter o time until we see the same meltdown in traditional college education. Like the real estate industry, prices will rise until the market revolts. Then it will be too late. STudents will stop taking out the loans traditional Universities expect them to. And when they do tuition will come down. And when prices come down Universities will have to cut costs beyond what they are able to. They will have so many legacy costs, from tenured professors to construction projects to research they will be saddled with legacy costs and debt in much the same way the newspaper industry was. Which will all lead to a de-levering and a de-stabilization of the University system as we know it.”

Yeah, more depressing talk on student loan debt.

The Coming Meltdown in College Education & Why The Economy Won’t Get Better Any Time Soon « blog maverick (via infoneer-pulse)

Disruption in the Field Session notes

So I ran this nice session at THATCamp Museums New York 2012 on disruption theory. My aim was to tentatively introduce the idea and then explore the issues that arise for museums and libraries when dealing with disruption in the tech sphere, the obsolescence of purchased devices for example. My other goal was to see if and how practitioners were looking for or observing possible disruptive replacements for museums and libraries.

The session went great, and I got some interesting feedback on my presenting, as well as the topic. While others were talking, I took some notes of my own and I’ve decided to post them here. They are really, really raw, and others took better notes than I did (I assume), so look elsewhere for those. Here’s the link the notes on dropbox.

It's time to play, Scout!

This is amazing. What wonderful news this is.

johnkaufeld:

The Boy Scouts recently announced a new “game design” merit badge, which will roll out during 2013.

This is tremendously cool news for the Scouts out there and for the specialty tabletop game industry as well.

Board Game Figures, Creative Commons LicensedThis merit badge is a tangible way to connect Scouts with the growing world of Eurogames to develop all kinds of key mental abilities, including:

  • critical thinking skills
  • strategy skills
  • system thinking skills
  • process design skills
  • general creativity

As I found out more, I’ll pass it along. 

I’ll just echo this thought as well. johnkaufeld: My thoughts exactly.

I’ll just echo this thought as well.

johnkaufeld:

My thoughts exactly.

(Source: cartrunkent)

Yeah… Nope. skidder: AdWeek requires you to share certain stories in order to finish reading them. Why would I want to share something I can’t read? And is there anything more desperate a publisher can do? Gross. Update: This is allegedly bug, Google tells Nieman Lab. But I’m not sure how the headline “To continue reading this page please share it” being entered into the code somewhere would be a bug. Alas, let’s hope it goes away.

Yeah… Nope.

skidder:

AdWeek requires you to share certain stories in order to finish reading them. Why would I want to share something I can’t read? And is there anything more desperate a publisher can do? Gross.

Update: This is allegedly bug, Google tells Nieman Lab. But I’m not sure how the headline “To continue reading this page please share it” being entered into the code somewhere would be a bug. Alas, let’s hope it goes away.