(I am posting this early so you have some good reading material during the Christmas break! Please enjoy it.)
Over on BoardGameGeek, I shared a geeklist where I discussed my thoughts on cheating in games. It explores how people behave when the stakes are low or non-existent.
If you have read HPMOR, you will likely appreciate this next link. It describes HPMOR as a Disney Movie about a Serial Killer. Be warned, it contains many spoilers for the story.
Monte Cook, a well-known designer of role-playing games, has started a
A lawyer who was furloughed from the IRS opened a hot dog stand and gave it a clever name: Shyster’s. An article calls it “The Only Honest Ripoff in DC,” and it includes a photo and a short blurb about the business.
The writer known as Zvi shared his thoughts on Artificial Intelligence during the Winter Solstice. His post is titled “We will win,” and it offers an optimistic perspective on the future of AI.
Scientists are asking a big question: Was there a second starting point for life on Earth? This would have been 2 billion years ago and created 1 cm long beings that eventually died out. As always, Betteridge’s law applies here, but the topic is still fascinating.
Here is a thought-provoking quote: “Imagine that you are much smarter than me, and I also party all the time and abuse drugs while you live a completely sober lifestyle. If I end up more economically successful than you are, you need to look inward and ask what you are doing wrong. That is the situation of East Asia relative to the US and Europe.” This comes from an article titled “Human Capital, Not Industrial Policy.”
Dave Barry has released his 2025 Holiday Gift Guide. This is always a funny and entertaining read for the holiday season.
A remarkable 4th Chinese Poem was constructed in a 29×29 grid of characters. It is similar to a magic square and is a palindromic poem. This structure allows it to produce 4,000 sub-poems that rhyme and make sense, depending on how you read the sections. It was written—actually embroidered—by a 21-year-old woman to try and win back her husband, who had left her for a concubine. The center character was left implied but unwritten: 心 (xin), meaning “heart.” Later copyists added it, but in the original, the meaning was even more beautiful: 4,000 poems all orbiting the space where her heart used to be.
There is a Wikipedia Page for this work called the Star Gauge.
Astronomers have found a runaway supermassive black hole. It is moving at an incredible speed of 2.2 million miles per hour near something called the Cosmic Owl.
The Feral Historian discusses a Soviet science fiction novel that was published after Perestroika. The video uses footage from the movie Dark City because they share similar themes. In fact, after watching the video, it seems that Dark City clearly took inspiration from The Doomed City’s “Experiment” and motifs, though Wikipedia does not show a direct link between them.
I watched a video game trailer on a whim and was delighted to find it gave off strong “Iron Giant” vibes. It looks like a beautiful and emotional game.
Regarding birds: There is a movement claiming they are not real. However, there is also video evidence suggesting otherwise.
An interesting experiment happened where an AI was put in charge of a vending machine. The result was that profits collapsed, but morale soared. A business journalist successfully staged a boardroom coup against an AI chief executive.
In the world of Sumo wrestling, a wrestler named Aonishiki has risen astonishingly fast. An article from the Japan Times explains that his elite technique is the reason for his success.
