Dalai Lama finds inspiration in all faiths

I find the Dalai Lama's view of the religions of the world inspiring. It's how I like to think about humanity.

Bleeping's not good enough for Parent Television Council

Well, the @#$($*s at the Parents Television Council aren't satisfied with bleeping, apparently. They're protesting a new show because it has an obscenity in its title. Even though the obscenity is bleeped, or obfuscated by punctuation marks.

I empathize with people who want to protect their children from frightening, shocking material that kids aren't ready to see. But they could just turn the TV off.

I'd rather just bleep all kinds of stuff than shut down conversation completely:

Passage Game

Yet another point for the "games can be art" side.

Passage is a very simple game, but it tells a very beautiful story. You do have some control over what happens, but the author kept enough control to make some powerful points.

(He's come out with a new "game" that's a storytelling platform for 2 players to interact. I'm tempted to learn more about Sleep is Death. When I actually have time for it.

Doored!

I got my garage door opener to work at last! So, stalker/thieves, figure out my encryption code and come on in and take our stuff! (Although hopefully it will be more difficult than robbing our car was.)

Oiligarchy

Another vote for games being a form of expression: Oiligarchy.

You play the role of CEO of a major oil company, drilling and exploiting resources all around the world. Pretty funny, and dark and interesting. (Although I was annoyed when I had an oil spill in Alaska despite only drilling on land. But I guess tankers carry oil gathered from on land as well as at sea.)

Makes me curious to play other games by the same team like the McDonalds game.

Facebook privacy scanner

You'd think Facebook would be better than most websites when it comes to privacy, since it's where people are at their most personal. But in the last few months it's been clear they don't get it, setting things to totally public by default, changing privacy settings whenever they feel like it, and selling your information to other companies without telling you first.

You don't have to just take Facebook's privacy whims. Now you can use lots of different tools to figure out your privacy settings and take control.

Portal is free!

Did I mention that for a few more days, Portal is free!

It's one of the best computer games of the last few years. Devilishly clever. And for a couple days - free.

It's a promotional gimmick to get people to sign up for the online game service Steam. And I know it's worked for me. Hopefully I didn't agree to give them my firstborn in the terms of service that I clicked through.

Mt. St. Helens time-lapse

Thanks to NASA, we can see the forest returning to the slopes of Mt. St. Helens.

Short film - Pixels

If you played 80s video games, this is the best movie of the destruction of New York ever.