Category: Games
Somebody’s culture, I am not sure whose
Last week, restaurant in Edinburgh, Scotland, held a competition to eat the extra-hot Kismot Killer curry. Some of the competitive eaters were left writhing on the floor in agony, vomiting and fainting.
According to reports, two British Red Cross workers overseeing the event at the Kismot Indian restaurant in Edinburgh but became overwhelmed by the number of casualties and ambulances were called. Half of the 20 people who took part in the challenge dropped out after witnessing the first diners vomiting, collapsing, sweating and panting.
It turns out that eating a few pounds of the stuff probably can kill you; hat tip goes to Steve Silberman.
From yesterday’s New York Times
They are experimenting with different models of human behavior, here is from Modern Love:
At first his behavior was endearing. He constantly gave me attention, lavishing me with compliments, calls and sometimes gifts. But one morning when I slid out of bed from next to him, things felt different. All his wooing suddenly repelled me.
I crawled back in and tried my best to pretend things were O.K. He showered and dressed. I clenched my teeth when it was time to kiss goodbye, then shut the door behind him, sighed and wondered if he had any idea.
We learn from this same column that butterflies can see with their genitals. And from the NYT Sunday Magazine, here is a Death Row love story:
“I knew you were going to say your favorite color is blue,” he wrote. “It belongs to you. My favorite colors are black and crimson. I love deep, dark red things made of red velvet.”
Dutch auction bleg
When and why was the first Dutch auction tried? This question seems surprisingly difficult to research. Please tell us what you know, thanks in advance.
Blast from the past
Greece threatened on Tuesday to veto longstanding plans to admit Spain and Portugal as members of the European Economic Community unless the organization agrees to pay poor South European farmers up to $5 billion in aid.
That’s from 1984.
Toward a theory of autocracy
The Russian head of the World Chess Federation said he spoke Tuesday with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and that he remains in Tripoli and defiant.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has known Gadhafi for years. His visit to Tripoli in July was among the last times the Libyan leader was seen in public after NATO airstrikes began.
…He said Gadhafi sounded full of vigor and told him he was “certain we will win.”
Ilyunzhinov said he also talked to Gadhafi’s son Mohammed, Libya’s Olympic chief, who said his father’s forces would “drive the rats out of
the city.”
The link is here, via @JamesCrabtree and Natasha. Of course I also could have titled this post “Toward a theory of the World Chess Federation.”
Washing Away Sin
Attendees at a nationalist, right-wing concert in Germany were duped into wearing souvenir T-shirts…the t-shirts originally read “hardcore rebels” and sported a skull and nationalist flags. However, once the garment had been washed, the shirt revealed a new message:
“If your t-shirt can do it, you can do it too — we’ll help you get away from right-wing extremism.”
Hat tip: Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic.
Markets in everything
In the UK, I have heard they prefer cricket, yet on Amazon sales of aluminum baseball bats are robust.
For the pointer I thank Chris F. Masse.
Job markets in everything
It’s the economy, stupid! Drive players to invest in our game economy by analyzing the subtleties of behavioral economics and pondering the pitfalls of specialization and free trade. Theorize why people make irrational economic choices and use the tricks you’ve learned to ensure players only make the irrational choices you want them to. Create an economic system that will fulfill a player’s needs just as much as shooting an alien in the face.
The Economy Designer at Bungie will develop a robust and rewarding game economy that drives player behavior toward intended goals and validate those systems through intense simulation, testing and iteration. You’ll design the systems and mechanics which drive in-game trade, satisfy the players’ need for possessions and wealth whilst ensuring rewards retain their intended value despite attempts to exploit or grief the system. You will determine what data is necessary to mine, ensure we have all of the hooks necessary to gather that data, and come up with all of the interesting metrics and questions we should ask of that data. You will run simulations of these mechanics based on expected player behavior and test these simulated results against actual player behavior; tuning the live system accordingly.
Are chess players getting better over time?
Mostly. Kenneth W. Regan and Guy McC. Haworth analyze games move-for-move, using chess-playing computer programs. The result:
…we conclude that there has been little or no ‘inflation’ in ratings over time—if anything there has been deflation. This runs counter to conventional wisdom, but is predicted by population models on which rating systems have been based…The results also support a no answer to question 2. In the 1970’s there were only two players with ratings over 2700, namely Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov, and there were years as late as 1981 when no one had a rating over 2700 (see [Wee00]). In the past decade there have usually been thirty or more players with such ratings. Thus lack of inflation implies that those players are better than all but Fischer and Karpov were.
The game
Democrats hate tough budget votes — as evidenced by the Senate’s failure to even bring up a budget for so long. And Republicans love tough-sounding votes but often fix the deck so they lose and can score political points without having to live with the results.
That’s why the debt ceiling presents such a quandary: It requires both parties to take a tough vote — and it must pass.
From Politico, here is further analysis. With this and the euro crisis, in the next few weeks (days?) “the world” is going to have to step up to the plate in a big, big way. Stay tuned. If you’re not afraid, you haven’t been paying attention.
Take the deal, people
Here is Bruce Bartlett on the legacy of Margaret Thatcher. And David Brooks is exactly right. Take the deal, people.
Megan McArdle comments.
The next Fed nominee
1. Should have spent a lot of time talking to Republicans.
2. When meeting with Ron Paul, the following should come to his mind: “I have great respect for the proponents of hard money and I view them as one reason why America became great again, in the 1980s. I know you think the minimum wage is worse than we at the Fed do, so please let me bring one argument to your attention. Unemployment is very high now, perhaps in part because the minimum wage has raised forty percent in the midst of a downturn a few years ago. But those statists in Congress simply will not vote to lower or abolish the minimum wage, damn them. We can, however, surreptitiously lower the minimum wage in real terms with a bit of loose monetary policy. I know you are not with us on this monetary issue, but if you find yourself having to strike a compromise of some kind, at least rest assured that a budge from your side would be liberating millions of lower-income Americans from slavery. It could get us off the Road to Serfdom.”
The Fed governor doesn’t have to believe that, and may not wish to say exactly that, but a speech of that nature should come rather quickly to his or her mind. If not, he or she is probably not the right nominee in the first place. The Fed staff can figure out the rest.
Addendum: Matt Yglesias offers relevant comment. Alternatively, Felix Salmon may be correct that there is no deal to be made with the Republicans. In that case, a) Diamond would not have mattered anyway, and b) we still should base the choice upon the scenarios where the choice stands a chance of making a difference. Furthermore, the Republican reps. do not have the same incentives as the Presidential candidate, so a deal may be possible after all.
Glasgow markets in everything
A parking fine in Glasgow is £30 if paid promptly, £60 otherwise. Our entrepreneurs have other ideas. They’ll sell you a used parking ticket with a specific time on it for a tenner, which you can send to the council to “prove” that you were wrongly fined.
Here is more, pointer via Greg and also Yahel. The intro to the story is this:
If you park your car or walk through the Osborne St car park near my flat, you are quickly approached by one or more rough looking types asking if there is any time left on your parking ticket. They’re rude and slightly threatening, so most people give up their used ticket. If it’s valid for any significant amount of time (ie. you’ve paid for the whole day or a several hour stretch and there is time remaining) they will stand by the ticket machine and sell your ticket on to the next punter. They’re not the type of people you say no to so they no doubt do a roaring trade.
But that’s not all. If you protest that your parking ticket is about to expire and is therefore useless they’ll demand it anyway. Why? This is where it gets interesting.
When the parking inspectors come past the thugs keep a keen eye on which cars they catch. On a driver returning to their car and discovering that they’ve been fined the thugs move in.
Economist Alarm Clock
From Mashable, seems to be a concept only…such an alarm clock could be illegal.
Single serving levees, the modern medieval world
That is via Jason Kottke.