Hardcore Gaming

I occasionally encounter people on gaming forums who talk about “hardcore gamers” as if there’s some kind of accepted definition of the term. You know: “hardcore gamers are gamers who play more than 25 hours a day and who only drink Red Bull intravenously” or something like that. The problem with such ‘definitions’ is that they rely heavily on vague concepts, which means it’s very easy to play with your interlocutor’s head by recursively asking them for definitions, complaining that their terminology is imprecise. That rhetorical technique is the real reason they killed Socrates.

[Read more…]

Administrivia

I’m going to Lavecon in Northhamptonshire, and spending a couple days in London at the V&A and the Brit. So my posting frequency will drop slightly. If you’re a new commenter, or want to argue with me, you may experience some delay but I promise you a full measure eventually.

Normal ranting and raving will resume after the 19th.

I will delete this posting upon my return.

Another Story of Shit

Did you realize that raw sewage still goes into the Hudson River?  As recently as the 90s. And guess who was one of the premier proponents of pumping poo?  The Donald! From the Daily Beast:

How Donald Trump Tried to Cash In by Dumping Sewage Into the Hudson River

Trump had two choices with a billion-dollar West Side project: build a sewage treatment plant or bow out. But there was a third option: flood the Hudson.

Slate has an article about the sewer opening off the Florida

Outflow off Hollywood

Outflow off Hollywood

coastline. It sounds horrible, and I agree: don’t eat the grouper.

The ancient Romans had The Cloaca Maxima, which worked basically the same way: throw stuff in and it eventually winds up in the Tiber and goes downstream and you can forget about it. Bacterial bloom? What are bacteria?

Am I about to become Freethought Blogs special rapporteur of fecal content?

6×9

For some reason this is not getting a lot of attention over here at the US. I can’t imagine why.

Chelsea Manning is apparently in the hospital following a suicide attempt. Solitary confinement is used as a torture technique in US prisons, and can be applied for the most trifling of reasons (“did you look at me?”  “hey, look at me when I’m talking to you!”) or supposed gang membership. In some cases, like Manning, or Jose Padilla, it’s applied out of sheer nastiness.

[Read more…]