Europe's dinner tables are increasingly supplied by global fishing fleets, which are depleting the world's oceans.
read more |
digg storyLabels: culture, digdug, environment, world
Fish populations have been decimated along northwest Africa's coast, fueling a surge of migrants braving the seas to reach Europe.
read more |
digg storyLabels: culture, digdug, environment, world
Warning - creating your
own city can be very habit forming. But visiting is easy. You can visit as many cities as you want. Every city can be visited once per IP address per day. You can go more often than that, but only the first visit "counts" -- that is, it's the only one that effects the city score. Going to the
main site presents a search dialog, and also allows you to create your own city.
By default, a visit increases the population by 1 citizen. Once the population reaches 50, industry is enabled, which creates jobs. This is done by visiting $CITY.myminicity.com/ind; here's a
link for my city, and the corresponding one for the
Ars Technica city. Other options are made available as the city grows: to improve the transportation network (/tra), increase security by adding police stations (/sec), improve the environment by building parks (/env), and increase commerce (/com). If you want to help out a city, but aren't sure what they need, go to $CITY.minicity.com/xml (such as
mine :D), where you'll see a text version of the XML markup that describes the current city conditions.
So how do you get visitors? By visiting other cities and leaving a note telling them the name of your city, and any particular needs. Most active "players" will quickly return the visit in the hopes of establishing a continuing reciprocal arrangement.
So join the addiction!
Labels: culture, fun
If your only exposure to
Scott Adams is through his
Dilbert comic, then you've been missing out. I urge you to take a gander at his
blog. I know, it contains Dilbert in the title, and the comic strip is an occasional topic, but there is much more. Not that I'm a
fanboy, or advocating (or agreeing with) everything that he writes (it is a blog after all), but he does bring some fresh perspectives. And you may even stumble onto some gems.
In particular, his most recent entry (
Yay! Both Sides Won!) talks about the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah conflict. A very worthy read, and something to think about.
Also, if you haven't yet, I urge you to grab a copy of
God's Debris: A Thought Experiment. Read it with an open mind, as a work of fiction and an exercise in
experimental philosophy. It probably won't (and shouldn't) change your world view, nor does it attempt to. And yes, at times it reads like a teenager studying philosophy. But still, I highly recommend it.
Labels: culture
