This saying was offered in a creative writing class that Jean and I attended when we were living in Payson, Arizona. It came to me spontaneously as I started today's post. Because feeling what is going on around us is the only way to write it, to share it, to bring it to the attention of all.
There are these three guys in Warsaw, Poland — Gustaw, Artur and Jakub — and they call themselves ‘Acid Wizard Studio‘. They’re developing a game called ‘Darkwood’ for the PC, Mac and Linux. They need help. And I’m not talking about the psychiatric kind.
If you remember Alone In The Dark (the scary first one, in particular) then you might be tempted to encourage them… before it’s too late!
Here’s what the Acid Wizards have to say about the Darkwood project on indiegogo:
Darkwood is not a game for the faint hearted.
It’s a game about mystery and adventure, with deep gameplay.
Darkwood is set in a mysterious forest. You don’t know how you got here, and can’t tell if you’re lost in a nightmare or are losing your sanity. Something is terribly wrong with almost everyone and every thing around you. Your only friend is an orphan who seems to know about your past…
Darkwood is old school hard. In recent years games have lost the sense of accomplishment older games evoked. We want to return to these roots and make you work hard just to survive. We strive to find a true balance between horror and survival, forcing you to constantly be on the edge of your seat by exploring the realm of psychological fear.
Features:
Challenging gameplay
Think, learn and adapt. Behave recklessly, fail to prepare for the night: you will not survive.
Permadeath
Dying is a part of the game, you have no extra lives. But not all is lost; some things continue in your next incarnation.
Satisfying exploration
All locations and events are randomised, making each visit to Darkwood unique.
Perks and abilities
Improve your character with skills that may help against your enemies.
Crafting
A flexible crafting system lets you experiment with loot to create items, build barricades or traps, and improve your gear.
Twisted atmosphere
You will start to question your sanity as the line between reality and nightmarish fantasies begin to blur.
Thanks to my brother, I’ve been introduced to Muse.
Night 2 at the O2 Arena, London.
Muse performing ‘Unsustainable’.
All natural and technological processes proceed in such a way that the availability of the remaining energy decreases.
In all energy exchanges, if no energy enters or leaves an isolated system, the entropy of that system increases.
Energy continuously flows from being concentrated, to becoming dispersed, spread out, wasted and useless.
New energy cannot be created and high grade energy is being destroyed.
An economy based on endless growth is Unsustainable
You’re unsustainable.
The fundamental laws of thermodynamics will place fixed limits on technological innovation and human advancement.
In an isolated system the entropy can only increase.
A species set on endless growth is Unsustainable
Somehow I don’t think that light show — not to mention the transport fuel used to get the crowd there — was generated by renewable energy.
Irony, much?
In other news, I’ve just supported the Ginkgo umbrella at indiegogo, and am looking forward to receiving my very own 100% recyclable Ginkgo before long. Well, before the Autumn rains, I hope.
Supply Shock debunks the widely accepted myths held by politicians, economists, and Wall Street that limitless economic expansion is the Holy Grail, and that there is no conflict between growing the economy and protecting the environment. We are in fact navigating the end of the era of economic growth, and the only sustainable alternative is the development of a steady state economy.
Supply Shock leaves no doubt that the biggest idea of the twentieth century—economic growth—has become the biggest problem of the twenty-first. Required reading for anyone concerned about the world our children and grandchildren will inherit, this landmark work lays a solid foundation for a new economic model, perhaps in time for preventing global catastrophes; certainly in time for lessening the damages.
The first US$5,000 in royalties on the sales of ‘Supply Shock’ go to support the work of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE), AKA (also known as) steadystate.org.
Remember: you first read about it here! — or, maybe, you first read about it, um, somewhere else…
[ A heads-up after the event: Gail (of Wit's End) immediately leapt in with what I think is crucial input as soon as this post was published. So please do read the comments section below, too! ]
I’ve recently been introduced to two things that demonstrate (to my satisfaction, anyway) that the universe is much stranger than I first thought. Mind you, my first thought was quite some time ago, now.
One of those things is that it’s possible for two very, very large — like, huge — bodies of water to coexist without mixing. Now, I’ve had a tequila sunrise (or nine) and it’s no surprise to me that liquids with different specific gravities interact in that way when they’re in a cylindrical container. But, this… ?
Cape Leeuwin (latitude 34°22′S, longitude 115°08′E) marks the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. At various times of the year the differing ocean currents, waves and swell patterns are evident in the waters around the Cape. This can create unusual conditions in the nearby waters. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current circles Antarctica west to east, between 40 degrees and 70 degrees south. Its northern edge turns north and heads up along the western Australian coast. From May to September each year the Leeuwin Current transports warm tropical water southwards around Cape Leeuwin and along Western Australia’s southern coastline.
Award yourself a gold star and a tick-vg if you spotted that the words in that last paragraph weren’t mine.
The other one of those ‘strange universe’ things is something that I find even more surprising: after decades of eating meat, an hour watching just one film has persuaded me to reconsider the habits of a lifetime.
A TED talk highlighted yesterday over on 350orbust (well worth watching — thanks, Christine) included a reference to the film Vegucated. Intrigued, was I, so I trundled off to watch it, and returned a changed man. Well, maybe that’s a bit ambitious, but I do now feel motivated to think more about what I eat, why I’m eating it, and to actively seek out vegan alternatives — something that I have never considered before.
More meat = more disease
Vegucated reinforces the betrayal of a society that has sold us all on the idea of having ‘consumer choice’ — but continues to withhold from us the information necessary to make informed choices. And on that point: don’t just take my word for it that this is a film well worth watching: there are many other reviews and quotes about it.
Einstein deliberated, and chose a vegetarian lifestyle
Our world is changing, and, one way or another, we must change with it. I believe that films like Vegucated are essential to help us to choose to move in the direction of a healthier, happier world.
If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian. — Paul McCartney, some time ago
Does ‘slaughterhouse’ really contain ‘laughter’? — Me, just now
The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere will likely hit 400 parts per million (ppm) this May. That will be the first time in at least three million years.
That clip was just in case you don’t know what is meant by the term ‘Schrödinger’s cat’. Moving on, then…
… let’s do a quick species jump, to dogs (from whom, I’m reliably assured, we can learn a lot). And over on Learning from Dogs the other day, I learnt a little about snow leopards. (And we’re back to cats.) Though I can recommend clicking that link yourself, I came away very sad, because these marvellous beasts are ‘endangered’ — a euphemism for ‘all but extinct’. And why is that?
So… they don’t want us to see this here. Why is that?
When I visited Learning from Dogs and clicked on the embedded video clip, expecting it to begin to play, I didn’t see any snow leopards, I saw a message “Embedding disabled by request — Watch on YouTube”.
Whether embedding is allowable is a user-configurable setting of the YouTube account hosting the video clip. It’s entirely possible that whoever uploaded that clip made a simple mistake: or perhaps it’s intentional, to try to encourage visitors to their YouTube account. (Some people seem to believe that it’s desirable to trap eyeballs. I don’t, myself; but then, I am a bit odd.)
The first five seconds are taken up by a title screen, parading the name of the fine folk who filmed the scene. Afterwards, we’re presented with a whole fifteen seconds of a snow leopard mother and her cub… and she’s looking up at the interfering human only a few scant feet away (rather dejectedly, I thought). Oh, and look, a copyright symbol on the lower right.*
Why are these superb felines ‘endangered’?
Simple. It’s because we humans don’t give them any room to breathe.
And the Schrödinger connection is: while they may be currently alive they are, to all intents and purposes, at the same time very really dead.
* (Some people patent genes, too. And other people let them get away with such bizarre behaviour — usually for a benefit involving bits recorded in a computer system. And I think I’m odd?).
The last time I checked, bees were not pests. On the contrary, bees are essential to our survival, as they and other insects pollinate the crops upon which we rely for our food. And yet our economic system refuses to recognise their unpaid labour. When was the last time you were invoiced by a bee?
Across the world, bee populations are crashing. Bees are dying in record numbers.
On Monday 29Apr2013, the UK government is all set to vote against — not for! — a European ban on these pesticides. It plans to side with the chemical industry, against sanity. Yet again, the politicians are showing that they value business more than life.
In this video presentation, Dan Gilbert presents four features that threats must have for humans to react to them decisively and instantly. These are:
a face
violation of moral sensibility
clear and present danger
fast rate of change
We don’t recognise climate change as something to fear because it isn’t a grinning pervert rushing at us with a hatchet. And it’s at times like this that I wish I had a talent for cartooning.
