Interesting Links for 17-01-2012

[andrewducker]

• In Praise of Binge TV Consumption
  (tags: tv )
• Defriending My Rapist
  (tags: facebook rape )
• Influence The Future Of Science Fiction For A Mere $50! (Or For Nothing!)
  (tags: scifi writing books fandom conventions hugo . )
• Labour MP Godwins himself and has to resign
  (tags: labour politics scotland independence )
• Israel and Nick Clegg seem to be having a slap-fight.
  (tags: israel nickclegg palestine )
• Looks like we might get a step close to answering the West Lothian Question
  (tags: scotland uk politics )
• In shocking news, it appears that things can have both good and bad effects on our health
  (tags: health smoking pizza alcohol food music sex )
• Massively Multiplayer Games: Free To Play, Generated Content and Star Trek
  (tags: mmorpg business startrek )
• What is it like to be asexual?
  (tags: sex asexual )

Comments

[dalglir]

Witnessed similar experiences to the STO going F2P, with LotRO:

Been playing LotRO for about 2 years now (? that long ?) and the last year of that has been as a F2P model with an in game store containing heaps of cosmetic items and stuff that is generally grindable in-game. Fortunately, Codemasters sold off a fuck-ton of Life Subs for a one-off flat flee, just before selling it back to Turbine (who run it in the US) who introduced the F2P model. The core quest line is F2P all the way through, I think, but you have to pay for area maps and quest packs of you want to do anything else - there are also a number of restrictions that encourage you to take out a sub or buy upgrades.

Anyway. It hasn't been so bad for me as a 'Lifer' as I get all that good shit thrown in. But I haven't heard any complaints from kinnies (guildies) who play the F2P and subscription models.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Godwin thing: what the hell was he thinking??

Israel: huh so Clegg does have balls. Could he apply them at home too perhaps?

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Having a "slap-fight" with a country with nuclear weapons is almost too many balls :)

[andrewducker]

I find it unlikely that Israel will nuke London :->

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

I don't think they have anything with enough range to be a threat... maybe if they rigged one to an F-15, but NATO's been practicing how to handle scenarios like that for over fifty years.

-- Steve thinks the Knesset needs to be reminded every now and then that it ain't infallible... better by its friends than its enemies, no?

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Don't be ridiculous, if Israel had nuclear weapons they'd have to sign up to treaties and possibly even face an inspection and they haven't done those, so they can't possibly have any!

Oh, wait.

It was a pity he also pathetically claimed to be a friend of Israel too rather than just flat out saying "You're being dicks, stop it. Seriously, it's not cool, bro."

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Godwin thing: what the hell was he thinking??

FWIW, the article doesn't really make it clear, but I think it says it was created in the image of a specific meme about modifying a specific video (if it's what I think it is, I've seen examples which were quite funny if you can overlook the "hitler" aspect), which is an understandable thing to do, even if I think it was unpardonably stupid not to realise that creating a video portraying another politician as Hitler, for any reason, would be a career-ending disaster.

[andrewducker]

Oh, it's the Downfall video, which can be hilarious. And if SNPHater76 had made it then it could have gone viral and people would have laughed at it. But politicians should know better.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

You'd think he could have slyly passed it onto a friend of a friend or something... That's what they'd have done in the West Wing.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it looks like he did a Downfall video. Which everyone has done. Which everyone has *had* done to them. But the difference is that he's a politician... and comparing another politician to Hitler... I'm just shaking my head now at the sheer stupidity.

[andrewducker]

Godwin - yeah, I know. There are things that anonymous people can get away with that politicians cannot. You'd think he'd have known that.

Clegg - the problem is that we're unlikely to know for ten years what happens inside cabinet meetings, and Collective Responsibility means that every member of the cabinet has to collectively support government decisions. I've seen Cameron say that the Conservatives would be a lot more right wing without the Lib Dems, but we'll never know what would have happened with a pure Tory government.

[fub.livejournal.com]

We do the binge TV watching thing, and for us too, it's the only way the fly. We cut the cable more than five years ago, and have been watching downloaded stuff (mostly fansubs) ever since.
Whenever a new season starts, we check out the first episode of every series. Those that make the cut, we collect until we have all the episodes -- then we blaze through 'em at the rate of one season per week (2 episodes per night). It's amazing how much volume you can watch, and still have plenty of time left for other things.

[dreema.livejournal.com]

we do something similar here. Surprising the number of new series that get canned after the first seasons (or indeed mid way through a season)

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I watched the final three seasons of The Wire in about a week and a half, and it worked really well. For things that have a lot of characters, a relatively complex plot and don't really have standalone storylines in individual episodes, I think the experience of watching the show really suffers sometimes if you watch episodes at weekly or greater intervals, since the great writing and acting goes to waste while you frantically check the internet to see who the hell some of these people are and what happened two seasons ago that you don't quite remember.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

I only ever watch TV this way. The last time I did otherwise was BSG, making me a victim of the Finale disaster. That was enough to utterly convince me that waiting for episodes is a mug's game.

Currently churning my way through Supernatural. Formulaic as all Hell, but still pretty good fun.