My weekly Guild Wars 2 community round-up at GuildMag is now online. The October Halloween event, Blood and Madness is in its second week. We’ve also got some clues being dropped about next week’s new content update called Tower of Nightmares. There’s also the usual assortment of blog posts, videos, podcasts, and fan fiction from around the GW2 community.
October 24, 2013
This week in Guild Wars 2
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Balancing the scales of justice
Do you remember the name Annie Dookhan? She shows up in a post called “If you’re not getting enough convictions on drug charges, tamper with the evidence at the lab“. Her case came to court recently and she was sentenced to a three-year prison term. At Popehat, Clark does a bit of math to determine whether the scales of justice are in balance here:
Before she was caught Dookhan lied about 34,000 samples.
Over 4,000 cases were tainted with her corrupt evidence.
Over 1,100 people were jailed in cases where Dookhan was the primary or secondary chemist finding them “guilty” of drug crimes.
Without knowing the exact durations of their sentences, we can’t know how many person-years of confinement Dookhan was responsible for, but taking two years as a conservative guess per person, she was responsible for 2,200 person years of confinement.
Without knowing the exact torture and abuse these 1,100 men and women underwent, we can’t know exactly how much rape and degredation Dookhan was responsible for, but given that we do know that most rape victims in the US are men, specifically men in the custody and “protection” of the State, and looking at the multiple studies that show that 9-20% of inmates are raped, we can guess that Dookhan was responsible for over 100 men and women being raped. To hand-wave further, we can guess than because “once a punk, always a punk” in the prisoner’s code, she is responsible for thousands of actual rapes.
To recap:
Ariel Castro:
- crime: 3 prisoners, 30 person years, hundreds of rapes.
- sentence: life plus 1,000 years.
Annie Dookhan:
- crime: 1,100+ prisoners, 2,200+ person years, thousands of rapes.
- sentence: three years,
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Explaining Japanese culture – “Freud would have a field day”
It’s commonplace to say “Japan is weird” (I’ve said it myself many times), but even with the constant repetition, I didn’t realize just how weird Japan has become (somewhat NSFW … better not watch this at the office):
Published on 22 Oct 2013
Japan is a country that is dying — literally. Japan has more people over the age of 65 and the smallest number of people under the age of 15 in the world. It has the fastest negative population growth in the world, and that’s because hardly anyone is having babies. In these difficult times, the Japanese are putting marriage and families on the back burner and seeking recreational love and affection as a form of cheap escape with no strings attached. We sent Ryan Duffy to investigate this phenomenon, which led him to Tokyo’s cuddle cafes and Yakuza-sponsored prostitution rings.
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Quarterback musical chairs and other Viking sob-stories
As I mentioned yesterday, the quarterback lottery continues in Viking country as Christian Ponder moves back into the starting line-up after Josh Freeman is ruled out for Sunday night’s Green Bay game with a concussion. Jeff Garcia reported that he’d be willing to join the Vikings as a quarterback mentor for Freeman and the St. Louis Rams actually called Brett Favre to ask if he’d be willing to un-retire again to play quarterback for them.
Some people, when they talk about the 2013 Vikings season, suggest the appropriate music to play is “Yakkity Sax” (the Benny Hill Show theme music). I think carnival music is rather more appropriate, and so does the Daily Norseman‘s Eric Thompson:
Step right up, boys and girls! Come one, come all to the wacky and wonderful Minnesota Vikings Carnival! We have tons of great games to try!
How about you try your hand at the Robinson & Cook Toss? Just throw a football anywhere on this field. Then watch as Josh Robinson and Chris Cook miss their coverage and the ball goes right to your receiver! A guaranteed win every time you play!
If you prefer your games with a little more chance involved, then why not try our incredible Quarterback Wheel of Destiny! Each week, you can give the wheel a spin and hope it lands on your favorite quarterback. Round and round it goes…who will start? Nobody knows! But no matter where the Wheel of Destiny lands, you’re guaranteed a prize!
(Disclaimer: The only prize packages currently available from the Quarterback Wheel of Destiny are as follows: 1) Heartbreaking Last-Second Loss; 2) Embarrassing Home Blowout Loss; and 3) Embarrassing National Television Loss. The “Trip to London for a Fluke Win” prize package has expired; the “High 2014 Draft Pick” prize package is not available until May 2014.)
In the mood for a few scares as Halloween approaches? Then head over to Eric Sugarman’s Training Table of Terror! You’ll see deformed body parts everywhere! Can you stomach the sight Harrison Smith’s toes made of turf or Desmond Bishop’s detachable knees? Can you hear the twangs of the Haunted Harp created solely from the tight hamstrings of Adrian Peterson and Blair Walsh? Do you have the intestinal fortitude to fight past Christian Ponder’s Creepy Cracked Ribs? Can you make it through the fog of Josh Freeman’s Concussion Chamber?
(Disclaimer: The last two exhibits mentioned in the Training Table of Terror may or may not be related to the outcomes of the Quarterback Wheel of Destiny. Minnesota Vikings Carnival, LLC is not liable for any injuries that are made to look worse in order to assist the agendas of any Head Coaches and General Managers. No refunds.)
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The Somme, then and now – “most of these men would be dead 40 minutes after this film”
Published on 6 Oct 2013
After painstaking research I found a lot of the exact positions that Malins filmed the Battle footage from. I hope to re-edit it soon and make it a bit smoother; also will be going back soon to film where the artillery bombarded Gommecourt.
H/T to Think Defence for the link.
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