I know the world's a broken bone

George Orwell once wrote eleven ways to brew a perfect cup of tea. There are indeed some very controversial points--one I particularly disagree with is that tea should be bitter, though I will agree that for some teas, strong is preferred over weak.

In the meantime, why aren't more women employed in the gaming industry? This article goes a fair way towards explaining why.

In a bizarre turn of events, in hunting down various online avatar generators (having net access only on a wee netbook, as the fans on my main comp are still dead), I discovered Linkin Park has a generator online. Yes, that Linkin Park. It's kind of cute, actually, though there aren't a ton of options. Still, it stands out from most of the other generators, due to its utter simplicity.

So what exactly is "clickbait"? It's pretty much the online equivalent of Fox News (only less malicious and political, for the most part). It's essentially any online headline designed to draw people in to a link that will generate ad revenue; not coincidentally, they're largely written by staff writers hired by the ad companies in question. They're anything from video links to cute cat photos to top ten lists to presumably "shocking" things, right or wrong, they're going to make you think you need to know.

Sites like Buzzfeed and Upworthy are the best examples of this trend, mostly because they've hired writers and researchers who do their best to surf for interesting content to pass on, for the most part. But there are far more unscrupulous sites out there, who toss an attention-grabbing photo and some chosen words of hype into a pre-generated template in the hopes that it will fool people long enough to get those ad revenue coins into the site owner's pockets.

The creators of Headlines Against Humanity are beyond fed up with this practice, so--based on the popular game Cards Against Humanity--they've created an online web site to address this growing issue. Can you identify the real clickbait headlines from the fakes? (Sadly, there are many, many occasions where both choices are true.)

I want to scream for everything to stop, 'cos I'm not in charge of anything

Came across a bright blue fellow in Wentworth's Consignments, in City of Heroes. He had a very steampunk-esque backpack on, spitting blue steam, and was a level 35 technology controller. I pulled up his profile:

It is not uncommon for Spirit Masters to go on earthly adventures for wisdom and courage. This particular Stormbearer went into an unknown cave filled with sapphire, one of the rarest gems in the world because it is created using just oxygen which gives the blue. Storm bearer was amazed at the amount of gem the cave had. A stream of sapphire also took place and so he followed it deeper in to the blue cave. He came upon this clanking machine creating the crystal cave, and the sapphire water and took it. He has lived to this day with the machine on his back still producing stormy weather but also bringing greed seekers to their demise.

And I could not let that go. So, I dropped a note his way:

[Tell] -->Sapphire Stormbearer: Just as an aside, sapphire gets its blue color from titanium and iron, not oxygen. Otherwise very cool hero.
[Tell] Sapphire Stormbearer: i am not a scientist im a weather controller otherwise ppl love me for my backpack

At which point I smiled, complimented his backpack--because it was a nifty thing of gears and dials and aged blue steel--and backed away. Because really, there's just no further talking possible.

"The Zombie-X rifle was created by DoubleStar as a more effective tool for dealing with the imaginary apocalypse of the undead that's never going to happen." Okay then.

Also, almost a year ago there was speculation about a UFO on the ocean floor. Did they ever find out what that was?

From the Department of WTF Happened, a Hollywood-based lobbying group announced it needed SOPA to shut down Megaupload...five days after Megaupload was shut down, and a couple days after SOPA was stalled in the shallows (maybe permanently; Senator Lamar Smith has withdrawn the bill on the list of bills he's now sponsoring).

And you thought SOPA, PIPA, and now ACTA were bad? And your head is still reeling from PCIPA? Well, meet TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. What's involved in that one? And I quote from the relevant section regarding intellectual property provisions:

"TPP countries have agreed to reinforce and develop existing World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) rights and obligations to ensure an effective and balanced approach to intellectual property rights among the TPP countries. Proposals are under discussion on many forms of intellectual property, including trademarks, geographical indications, copyright and related rights, patents, trade secrets, data required for the approval of certain regulated products, as well as intellectual property enforcement and genetic resources and traditional knowledge. TPP countries have agreed to reflect in the text a shared commitment to the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health."

To break that down, the United States, along with Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, and Vietnam (and possibly Japan and Canada, should they wish to join in, but intriguingly enough, not Mexico) will all be agreeing to support intellectual property rights on trademarks, geographical locations, copyright issues, patents, preservation of trade secrets, internal testing and regulation, including scientific study, empirical findings, and genetically-modified seed crops (and/or clones)--at least within those seven (to possibly nine) countries, and will be fighting back against non-member countries who try to dilute those copyrights, studies, findings, genetic modifications, and chosen locales.

Even worse?

"The Obama Administration has developed a policy on transparency for the TPP negotiations which apparently does not involve any commitments to sharing the text with the general public, even after it has been given to all member countries in the negotiation and to hundreds of corporate insiders on the USTR advisory board system."

Well, wonderful. And yes, that means what you think it does--information on the TPP is very sketchy, and it's highly likely that the (leaked) documents we have of the phrasing may be several drafts back from the final form to be passed.

Meanwhile, the folks now running Minecraft have decided that, in addition to the utterly useless addition of wolves, we're now going to be able to tame so-called "ocelots", which, when tamed (with fish, not pork), turn into...housecats. Not kidding. All ocelots start off spotted, and when they are tamed, they turn into striped orange tabbies, Siamese, or black and white cats.

Let me repeat that, because it sounds vaguely important. The new ocelot "mob" type looks like a blocky, spotted ocelot-like thing when untamed, and when tamed--with a fish--they spontaneously transform into three different potential varieties of squared-off, blocky housecats completely randomly. Because that's what feral animals do when domesticated, you see.

I realize it's Cubeworld, and I'm getting hung up on the transformation of a pixel thing into another pixel thing, when I don't bat an eye that you can dye two sheep, breed them, and have the baby sheep show up with that color of dyed wool. I can't explain it, but my brain is going nononono, the hell, that's not even POSSIBLE.

(from the Minecrafting album. Seriously. Not possible.)

(And yes, there are cat toys in Minecraft 1.2. The gods help us all.)

In news from a different direction, H&M apparently thinks that being inspired to copy someone else's design is radically different from actually copying it, which amuses me greatly. People, it's the same design, just give in already.

I'm a backer for Mother Henriot's Elixir, an actual, herbal-derived, absinthe tea. They need to raise slightly under ten thousand dollars in just slightly over a month. I have faith in them. Consider a donation if you have folding green; their benefits are generous and most come with at least a sample of the tea, if not enough for a full pot!

Paula Deen's developed diabetes (no surprise there); a circuit court says it's okay for cops to discriminate based on intelligence (that explains a lot); Tor Books offers up a lovely little run-down of speculative fiction takes on works of art; Echo Bazaar develops the Radical Okapi; and Anina Bennett and Paul Guinan seem to have done it again, debuting an 'autobiography' of famed steampunk explorer Frank Reade...who, like Boilerplate before him, never existed.

Goodness, I think that's everything, and I still have too many windows open! No wonder Chrome keeps crashing on me.

up and down my spine go shock waves now, tumbling heels over head

Monday, November 14, 2011 While most of the issues contained in our Known Issues list (http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=271603) are scheduled to be fixed with the build going live on Tuesday, November 15, we wanted to make you aware of one that may be affecting you if you have a supergroup or villaingroup base. Please note that base defense items will be attacking you whether you have a supergroup or a villaingroup base equipped with any defense item. The issue affecting their behavior has not yet been resolved and now affects either type of base. As a temporary work-around, you can remove defense items until this issue has been addressed. We appreciate your patience in this matter and thank you for your continued support! The City of Heroes Freedom team

Gah! Are they kidding?!?

So, basically, since I'm IN two supergroups, but don't actually own either one, I can't disable any base defenses. So I just have to not go to my own bases. Argh.

Samsung recently acquired a new technology, and they're going to be putting out flexible computer devices in a very short time. (There's an actual prototype picture attached to that separate article, since the first article's photo is broken.)

Pondering things to eat in Skyrim? Gus Mastrapa's done the dirty work for you. Apparently, the answer is everything.

More Skyrim news: in addition to people wearing baskets, gyroscopically frozen polar bears, and dragon-riding horses, there are now detective chickens.

And that's leaving out all mention of the horses that defy all known laws of physics and the many amusing ways to die.

(For anyone who's interested, the How to Die in Skyrim series is likely going to be a long one, so in addition to part two, above, there's also part one, three, four, five and six.)

In other news, who remembers ATLUS' giant crane game, back when they had their own sim? Now there's a way to duplicate that...sort of. Gizmodo's set up their own giant crane game, in their gallery, but there's a catch--people near it can't play it, just people online.

If you choose to play, and you actually win a prize, it will be dropped down the chute of the physical game, and whomever's closest gets to grab it. If you win a specially-marked ball, the prize will both be dropped down the chute, and sent to your home. Try it if you want, but remember, there are long wait lines, so be as patient as you can.)

And if you're one of the Minecraft players reading along, you will understand the pain of this player. (Of course, me, I'm wondering why she was wandering around with all those diamonds in the first place...but I'm known to build chests on the fly and drop things in them walking through forests.)

More randomly, some owls like to be petted. Who knew?

And Blizzard reports that their flagship MMO, World of Warcraft, has lost 800,000 subscribers, and they're blaming that loss on the players. Yeah, great way to win people back, Blizzard. Are you sure you didn't hire any former Lindens to write that press release?

And I'll end this with an elegantly hostile teapot. That definitely would add an intriguing tension to the question, "More tea?"