Yes We Can

I was listening to Sense.FM and this track came on. Holy shit.

Consider my mood lifted.

The Banana Argument

This is not new, but I just discovered it for the first time:

And to think, they really can’t figure out why atheists call religion “irrational”.

(By the way, it’s actually easier to open a banana from the bottom; that whole “tab on the top” thing is totally misleading. So much for “intelligent” design, I guess.)

Fallout… 4?

MTV Multiplayer reports today on Bethesda Executive Producer Todd Howard’s opinion on what they learned from Fallout 3, and what they’ll do better next time:

“Greatest lesson? Don’t let the game end, and don’t have a level cap,” said Howard.

Those are nice. I would suggest instead: “Don’t make Fallout 4.”

If Bethesda wants to do the post-apocalyptic RPG thing, more power to them. But the Fallout name, like any franchise, carries a certain reputation. Fallout 3 betrayed that reputation, and that’s a fact, regardless of whether or not it was a good game in its own right.

Sometimes, great stories should just be allowed to end.

From Private Clubs to Big Brother

The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting this morning on a proposal by Sen. John Valentine (R-Orem) to replace Utah’s outmoded private club system with statewide ID scanners and patron databases:

Under his plan, everyone entering a club, whether they’re 21 or 101, would have to swipe their identification to verify it is genuine. The patron’s name, address, driver license number and date of birth would be logged into the database, along with the time and place they were drinking. [...]

Valentine said the scanning would help cut down on underage drinking and could give investigators a tool, if a patron leaves the bar and causes an accident, to show where and when the person was drinking.

It could also be used in traffic stops. If an officer suspected a driver might have been drinking, the officer could run the license and determine if the driver was coming from a bar.

(Emphasis mine.)

In Salt Lake, you can’t drive 100 yards after midnight on the weekend without seeing a police car. It seems clear they’re out in force to catch drunk drivers, and that tends to mean a lot of other people getting caught in the dragnet.

Imagine you’re pulled over for going five-over on the freeway. Normally it wouldn’t be that big of a deal: you’d get your ticket (or warning) and have done with it. But let’s say you were on your way home from Port O’ Call, where you had met some friends. Maybe you didn’t drink anything at all, but the officer runs your ID and finds out, “Oh, this guy’s coming from a bar, he might be drunk.” Now you have to take the “drunk test” (not exactly convenient), jumping through hoops to convince the officer you’re not a DUI case. You can thank Big Brother for that.

And to add insult to injury, you’ll be paying for this inconvenience out of your own pocket:

The database and its management would be paid by a fee assessed to bar owners, which they could recoup through a cover charge or by raising prices, Valentine said.

You can argue, “Well, don’t speed!” and that’s fair enough, but it misses the point, which is that Sen. Valentine’s proposal is a massive, unwarranted invasion of the privacy of bar and club patrons.

Note to Utah legislature: Abolishing our private club system is about giving people more freedom, not less. We are adults. Please treat us as such.

Wolfire’s Design Tours

David Rosen of Wolfire Games is keenly observant. I just finished watching his World of Goo design tour, and he picked out all kinds of little non-obvious things that nevertheless have a huge impact on the game experience. It’s enlightening stuff, and you should go watch it.

(Apparently he has one up for Knytt Stories as well.)