Botanicula, the latest game by Amanita Design (the Machinarium guys), is out! You should buy it!
As part of its debut, it’s being sold in a bundle with Amanita’s previous two for-purchase games, the film Kooky (based on a storybook, with art direction by Amanita’s founder), and — because why not — Windosill. This bundle is available for any price you want. There is literally no reason that any person on Earth should not be buying this right now.
Police spot stolen truck being buried in giant sandpit in New York state
Sean Federico-O’Murchu, msnbc.com:
Thieves snatched a truck from a business in an Upstate New York town — and the evidence almost disappeared into the sands of time.
But a week after it was taken, the vehicle was discovered by eagle-eye investigators flying around Wayne County, according to local media.
“Jeffery Paul was in the process of burying the box truck,” Investigator Corey Black told the Batavia News, referring to the son of David Paul, who owns Country Construction, where the truck was spotted. “He was bulldozing it under in a sand pit.”
Article has a great pic. MY FLAWLESS PLAN HAS COME UNDONE
I’m going to Hawai’i in a few days! Go me!
“(For You) I’d Chase a Rainbow” by Kalapana is on the list of music I’m going to try to acquire while I’m there. Wish me luck!
Sweden’s New Gender-Neutral Pronoun: “Hen”
Natalie Rothschild, writing in Slate, about not just a new pronoun but Sweden’s status at the forefront of gender-equality. This caught my eye though:
Ironically, in the effort to free Swedish children from so-called normative behavior, gender-neutral proponents are also subjecting them to a whole set of new rules and new norms as certain forms of play become taboo, language becomes regulated, and children’s interactions and attitudes are closely observed by teachers. One Swedish school got rid of its toy cars because boys “gender-coded” them and ascribed the cars higher status than other toys. Another preschool removed “free playtime” from its schedule because, as a pedagogue at the school put it, when children play freely “stereotypical gender patterns are born and cemented. In free play there is hierarchy, exclusion, and the seed to bullying.” And so every detail of children’s interactions gets micromanaged by concerned adults, who end up problematizing minute aspects of children’s lives, from how they form friendships to what games they play and what songs they sing.
Goes to show how tricky and dangerous changing a culture is. It’s really hard to lose sight of the overall goal of equality: to build a society where everyone feels comfortable being themselves. (Society’s already a pretty comfy place for middle-class straight white cisgender men like myself.)
Another thing: questions of equality and justice are hard enough to reason about when dealing with adults. Can’t imagine how tough this is to do with children.
Jordan Stratford is writing a children’s book about the fictional adventures of young Ada Lovelace and young Mary Shelley.
This is the made up story about two very real girls – Ada, the world’s first computer programmer, and Mary, the world’s first science fiction author – caught up in a steampunk world of hot-air balloons and steam engines, jewel thieves and mechanical contraptions. For readers 8-12.
This is a pro-math, pro-science, pro-history and pro-literature adventure novel for and about girls, who use their education to solve problems and catch a jewel thief. Ada and Mary encounter real historical characters, such as Percy Shelley, Charles Babbage, Michael Faraday, and Charles Dickens – people whom the girls actually knew. If Jane Austen wrote about zeppelins and brass goggles, this would be the book.
FUND IT
Wait, this is on Kickstarter. IT CAN BE FUNDED
Just finished reading the trade paperback version of Ratfist, a webcomic by neatotastic dude Doug TenNapel. It looks like a graphic novel, although it has the daily-payoff pacing of a webcomic. It’s fun! And it has the worst Spider-Man pun you’ve ever read, guaranteed.
The AP published this photo by John Hanna. Caption & story:
Dennis Wilson, executive director of the Kansas Lottery, shares the spotlight with a poster depicting the anonymous winner of a share of a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot during a news conference, Friday, April 6, 2012, at lottery headquarters in Topeka, Kan. The holder of a winning ticket from Kansas has come forward but doesn’t want to be identified publicly.
I strongly disagree with the choice of placeholder image here.
New from the Royal Canadian Mint:
New Series! The Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai dinosaur coin is the first in a 4-coin Prehistoric Creature glow-in-the-dark (photo-luminescent) series!
• For best effect, place the coin in sunlight, fluorescent, or incandescent light for 30 – 60 seconds then bring the coin into the dark to reveal the skeleton of the dinosaur!
You know when you were eight years old and imagined you ruled the entire world? This was legal tender in your empire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M1JJ8fAXHo
Here, have Toots & The Maytals covering “Take Me Home, Country Roads”. Happy Friday and all that.