The Fake News Game

As to why one should play this game: This online game could be a 'psychological vaccine' for fake news

tl;dr: Play the game and learn the techniques people use to create fake news, to get it believed, and to shoot down rebuttals to it.

Whoever it is who's having a birthday today, here's hoping it's a good one!

A thread for those who almost died.

...other than by seeing Black Panther.  (Speaking of which:  Go.  See.  Enjoy.)

Based on the last few messages in this thread at the Eyrie Productions Forums, I ended up spending all last week watching a 47-episode Let's Play of Subnautica.  It's a freaking beautiful game, and I ended up actually signing up to Steam just to get it this weekend.  And then I played it for most of all day yesterday and then some, which is why I'm fried at work this morning, as I stayed up way too late.  Having watched the Let's Play all the way to the end, I know many of the game's twists and how it ends, and instead of diving right into straight gameplay I went instead into "creative" mode and have just been having a blast doing a little exploring and building a base (which is currently large enough that it's adversely affecting the frame rate; I'm probably going to have to trim it back a bit tonight).

Anyway, this is a game recommendation from someone who doesn't, as a rule, make game recommendations.  Check it out.

Oh, and here's a pic of my base at about halfway through all the work I did on it yesterday:

   

The Register: NRA gives FCC boss Ajit Pai a gun as reward for killing net neutrality. Yeah, an actual gun

Quote:Ajit Pai – chairman of America's broadband watchdog, the FCC – is the proud new owner of a handmade Kentucky long gun from the US National Rifle Association (NRA) – thanks to his brave stance in favor of lining the pockets of billion-dollar telcos.

The watchdog boss said he was surprised to receive the Charlton Heston Courage Award from the association at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland today. His reward, a showpiece gun, was not actually handed out on stage, quite possibly because CPAC has a no-weapons policy for its events.

Tenchi Masaki
Displacee
Westwinds Apartments
San Antonio, TX, USA

Not the element, but the original Plutonia, Roman-era gates that caused the death of sacrificial animals.  For some reason, I'm thinking of the Department of Mysteries.

Ryuugi is still on his Sailor Moon kick, this time with some Usagi as a Planeswalker snippets. So now we get to see some of his awesome Usagi characterization through the lens of Magic: the Gathering.

Quote:Emrakul and Usagi are both thieving magpies, just in different ways. Emrakul is a corruptive force that spreads through bodies and minds and twists them both until they're more like her. She's Colorless, a force that's so alien that it can honestly take control of others without realizing it, because she's not wholly certain that anyone else is real*. In terms of mechanics, this is perhaps best exemplified by her cards; she takes extra turns or she takes control of your turns; when she takes possession of things, it's a madness, a terror, and a loss of control.

Usagi's the opposite. She's a purifying, empowering force that makes people more of what they are--that turns them from base matter to persistent magical effects, until there's magic in every motion and deed. Where Emrakul's taken are a part of her in every way that matters, Usagi's are a part of her the way things you love are a part of you; separate in many senses, except several very important ones. She's not Colorless, she's every color. She's Red when she's freedom, passion, and love, and her Red spells, such as they are, aren't really about her temporarily taking control of someone, but rather giving someone the power or inspiration to temporarily resist the control they're already under. She's Blue when she's the clarity of mind and vision and dream, when she frees someone and saves them and gives them those things back in a permanent way. She's Black and White and Green when she stands before those who are lost and gone beyond saving, and saves them anyway, because it's what she wants, because it's right, because she gives them life. She knows everyone and they know her, and that's why they follow her. When she takes control of something, it's as a restoration, a realization, a second chance, and a return.

When they fought one another, it was a battle to see who could take--and keep--control of everything around them, up to an including themselves when Emrakul finally broke through and attacked in person. Usagi won that particular battle with time/mind shenanigans** and won the war by having lots of loyal subordinates that she protected from Emrakul's touch and who also weren't crazy. They shielded her in turn until she found what she needed to stop Emrakul for real.

*With the exception of Usagi, which is why she's so focused on her.

**My mental image of exact how that would or could have gone down in game terms is a bit amusing, at least to me. The idea is that Emrakul broke through and was all ready to take control of Usagi's mind and utterly demolish her on her next turn by doing everything wrong--and Usagi promptly going 'Taking turns is for pussies anyway'*** and casting Meditation and whatever she hadn't already cast from Awakening/Intruder Alarm, Leyline of Anticipation, and Burst of Speed, and just relying on that, Cryptolith Rite, and Tamiyo's emblem to play the rest of the game in Emrakul's turns with repeated Meditations. And just generally being a bitch with 'Until your next turn' effects like Chronomantic Escape, Comply, Conjurer's Ban, and Inaction Injunction until Emrakul was left frustratedly waiting for Usagi to just take her turn and die already and she just refused to.

***Which is kind of the equivalent of replying to someone saying "I'll control your thoughts." by saying "Then I'll just stop thinking!" And it working.

The Register: Bright idea: Make H when the Sun shines, and H when it doesn't

tl;dr: Use solar power in the daytime, and use more solar power to heat air to use for power in the nighttime.

The Register is reporting that Salon.com is giving people who use adblockers an option: turn off the adblocker, or mine cryptocurrency for them.

Which security hole do you want to open on your PC? Or would you rather stop reading salon.com?

I know what my answer is... but I never really read salon.com anyway, so I won't miss it.