Saturday 30 June 2012
Thursday 28 June 2012
Twitter / Gamedigital: http://t.co/qMrpO0Ej - PC
Amazing Deal! Today Only! Game will let you pay just £2.99 for this FREE GAME!!!!1!!
I'm glad I started following this, it's hilarious.
Twitter / Gamedigital: http://t.co/qMrpO0Ej - PC
I'm glad I started following this, it's hilarious.
Twitter / Gamedigital: http://t.co/qMrpO0Ej - PC
Wednesday 27 June 2012
Buy low, sell high in Team Fortress 2′s “peculiarly sophisticated barter economy”
Buy low, sell high in Team Fortress 2′s “peculiarly sophisticated barter economy”:
Yanis Varoufakis, Valve’s new economist-in-residence, has posted his first investigation into Team Fortress 2′s economy. The hat trade is more fascinating than I anticipated. Varoufakis’ educational post explains (in terms non-economists can understand) two notable observations: the existence of an unusually complex barter economy in TF2, and the room for arbitrage — buying low and selling high — within it.
Varoufakis explains that barter economies are “cumbersome” because trades require a “double coincidence of wants” — that is, two parties who each want what the other offers. Because of this, he says, economic complexity breeds currency, and that’s why we’ve never witnessed “truly sophisticated barter economies.” In TF2, however, the story is different.
“I was expecting to find that some item or asset would emerge as currency in the context of games such as Team Fortress 2,” he writes. “However, a close study of our Team Fortress 2 economy revealed a more complex picture; one in which barter still prevails even though the volume of trading is skyrocketing and the sophistication of the participants’ economic behavior is progressing in leaps and bounds.”
In his exploration of TF2′s “peculiarly sophisticated barter economy,” Varoufakis goes on to explain the concept of economic equilibrium, and charts periods of high arbitrage potential. He outlines economics fundamentals clearly and concisely, and I highly recommend reading the whole post. Especially if you strive to have more hats and guns and stuff than everyone else.
Yanis Varoufakis, Valve’s new economist-in-residence, has posted his first investigation into Team Fortress 2′s economy. The hat trade is more fascinating than I anticipated. Varoufakis’ educational post explains (in terms non-economists can understand) two notable observations: the existence of an unusually complex barter economy in TF2, and the room for arbitrage — buying low and selling high — within it.
Varoufakis explains that barter economies are “cumbersome” because trades require a “double coincidence of wants” — that is, two parties who each want what the other offers. Because of this, he says, economic complexity breeds currency, and that’s why we’ve never witnessed “truly sophisticated barter economies.” In TF2, however, the story is different.
“I was expecting to find that some item or asset would emerge as currency in the context of games such as Team Fortress 2,” he writes. “However, a close study of our Team Fortress 2 economy revealed a more complex picture; one in which barter still prevails even though the volume of trading is skyrocketing and the sophistication of the participants’ economic behavior is progressing in leaps and bounds.”
In his exploration of TF2′s “peculiarly sophisticated barter economy,” Varoufakis goes on to explain the concept of economic equilibrium, and charts periods of high arbitrage potential. He outlines economics fundamentals clearly and concisely, and I highly recommend reading the whole post. Especially if you strive to have more hats and guns and stuff than everyone else.
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Tuesday 26 June 2012
When arsenic peppermints poisoned nearly 200 people in a single night [Food Science]
When arsenic peppermints poisoned nearly 200 people in a single night [Food Science]:
Back in Victorian England, they knew how to inflict macabre, terrible death. Case in point: a single mishap led to the death of 25 people and the poisoning of nearly 200 individuals in one night, after they all consumed arsenic-laced peppermint treats.
How did lethal levels of arsenic enter a homemade recipe for candy?
Top image via vortistic/Flickr.
Selling tasty treats filled with arsenic
On an October night in 1858, a sweet seller by the name of "Humbug Willie" sold peppermint-flavored hard candies to passerby from a market stand on Bradford, England. Humbug Willie sold close to 1000 individual pieces of candy that night.
Within days 25 people died, while at least 90 adults and 50 children became extremely ill. Counted among the stricken was Humbug Willie himself, who became sick from handling his own candies.
Results of a criminal investigation determined that each peppermint treat contained two times the lethal dose of arsenic (about half a gram).
A bad trip to the cellar
Adulterating food with edible fillers is an old practice that still occurs today. Sugar is expensive — so Joseph Neal, the distributor of the candies, sought to cut his costs, by inserting several kilograms of "daft" as a substitute for sugar. "Daft" was a substance that ranged in composition from calcium sulphate to pulverized lime to gypsum — none of these are tasty, but they're all perfectly safe.
When Joseph Neal sent an assistant to purchase some daft from a local pharmacist, a series of errors occurred. Charles Hodgson, the pharmacist who owned the establishment left his recently appointed apprentice, William Goddard, in charge of the store.
Goddard initially sent Neal's assistant away as he did not know the precise location of the daft, but Neal's assistant persisted, leading Goddard to contact his sick boss. A poor set of directions sent scurrying Goddard to the backroom, where he found a barrel of unlabeled white powder. After expending considerable effort in prying the barrel lid off, Neal's assistant left with twelve pounds of the white substance.
This trip to the cellar marks a one of several the grievous errors committed in the Bradford poison scandal. The white powder Goddard sold, arsenic trioxide, did not carry with it a proper label and sat amidst a number of other barrels containing white powders. Additionally, The Sales of Arsenic Act required a color additive to be mixed in with arsenic nitrate to help identify this deadly poison — and that was the only artificial additive left out in this tragic story.
Conjuring deadly candy
The powder next entered the able hands of James Appleton, a local sweet-maker employed by Neal. Appleton combined forty pounds of sugar, twelve pounds of arsenic trioxide, four pounds of gum, and peppermint oil, to create at least forty pounds of peppermint lozenges.
James Appleton worked for six hours to create the batch, with this prolonged contact with arsenic trioxide leaving him ill for several days with vomiting and pains in his appendages. Appleton never considered that the "daft" could be the source of his illness.
Making the sale and placing blame
Although Appleton became ill and the resulting sweets were a very different color than expected, Joseph Neal still sold the lozenges to Humbug Willie, albeit at a slight discount. Humbug Willie tasted the sweets over the course of the October night as he sold them and became one of the hundreds of people who suffered from arsenic poisoning.
The brunt of the blame for the poisonings fell on William Goddard, the poor pharmacist's apprentice who unknowingly obtained the arsenic trioxide from the cellar. UK magistrates charged Goddard, Neal, and Hodgson with manslaughter, but dropped the charges against Neal and Hodgson. Goddard faced trial, but did not receive a guilty verdict.
Chemical regulations
The Bradford poison scandal led to an increase in regulations regarding the handling of chemicals by druggists via the UK Pharmacy Act of 1868. The Pharmacy Act in addition to the 1860 Adulteration of Food and Drink bill changed the manner by which ingredients could be used and combined, aiming to ensure the health of consumers. A restriction on the sale of arsenic already existed in England in 1858, but the restriction only required the signature of the person buying the arsenic. Unfortunately, this regulation could not save anyone's life in the Bradford poisonings.
Arsenic trioxide is in use today, albeit in smaller doses, as a form of chemotherapy when other methods have failed.
Newspaper image is from the November 8, 1858 edition of the Glasgow Herald. Image of powdered arsenic trioxide from Walkerma/PD.
Back in Victorian England, they knew how to inflict macabre, terrible death. Case in point: a single mishap led to the death of 25 people and the poisoning of nearly 200 individuals in one night, after they all consumed arsenic-laced peppermint treats.How did lethal levels of arsenic enter a homemade recipe for candy?
Top image via vortistic/Flickr.
Selling tasty treats filled with arsenicOn an October night in 1858, a sweet seller by the name of "Humbug Willie" sold peppermint-flavored hard candies to passerby from a market stand on Bradford, England. Humbug Willie sold close to 1000 individual pieces of candy that night.
Within days 25 people died, while at least 90 adults and 50 children became extremely ill. Counted among the stricken was Humbug Willie himself, who became sick from handling his own candies.
Results of a criminal investigation determined that each peppermint treat contained two times the lethal dose of arsenic (about half a gram).
A bad trip to the cellar
Adulterating food with edible fillers is an old practice that still occurs today. Sugar is expensive — so Joseph Neal, the distributor of the candies, sought to cut his costs, by inserting several kilograms of "daft" as a substitute for sugar. "Daft" was a substance that ranged in composition from calcium sulphate to pulverized lime to gypsum — none of these are tasty, but they're all perfectly safe.
When Joseph Neal sent an assistant to purchase some daft from a local pharmacist, a series of errors occurred. Charles Hodgson, the pharmacist who owned the establishment left his recently appointed apprentice, William Goddard, in charge of the store.Goddard initially sent Neal's assistant away as he did not know the precise location of the daft, but Neal's assistant persisted, leading Goddard to contact his sick boss. A poor set of directions sent scurrying Goddard to the backroom, where he found a barrel of unlabeled white powder. After expending considerable effort in prying the barrel lid off, Neal's assistant left with twelve pounds of the white substance.
This trip to the cellar marks a one of several the grievous errors committed in the Bradford poison scandal. The white powder Goddard sold, arsenic trioxide, did not carry with it a proper label and sat amidst a number of other barrels containing white powders. Additionally, The Sales of Arsenic Act required a color additive to be mixed in with arsenic nitrate to help identify this deadly poison — and that was the only artificial additive left out in this tragic story.
Conjuring deadly candy
The powder next entered the able hands of James Appleton, a local sweet-maker employed by Neal. Appleton combined forty pounds of sugar, twelve pounds of arsenic trioxide, four pounds of gum, and peppermint oil, to create at least forty pounds of peppermint lozenges.
James Appleton worked for six hours to create the batch, with this prolonged contact with arsenic trioxide leaving him ill for several days with vomiting and pains in his appendages. Appleton never considered that the "daft" could be the source of his illness.
Making the sale and placing blameAlthough Appleton became ill and the resulting sweets were a very different color than expected, Joseph Neal still sold the lozenges to Humbug Willie, albeit at a slight discount. Humbug Willie tasted the sweets over the course of the October night as he sold them and became one of the hundreds of people who suffered from arsenic poisoning.
The brunt of the blame for the poisonings fell on William Goddard, the poor pharmacist's apprentice who unknowingly obtained the arsenic trioxide from the cellar. UK magistrates charged Goddard, Neal, and Hodgson with manslaughter, but dropped the charges against Neal and Hodgson. Goddard faced trial, but did not receive a guilty verdict.
Chemical regulations
The Bradford poison scandal led to an increase in regulations regarding the handling of chemicals by druggists via the UK Pharmacy Act of 1868. The Pharmacy Act in addition to the 1860 Adulteration of Food and Drink bill changed the manner by which ingredients could be used and combined, aiming to ensure the health of consumers. A restriction on the sale of arsenic already existed in England in 1858, but the restriction only required the signature of the person buying the arsenic. Unfortunately, this regulation could not save anyone's life in the Bradford poisonings.
Arsenic trioxide is in use today, albeit in smaller doses, as a form of chemotherapy when other methods have failed.
Newspaper image is from the November 8, 1858 edition of the Glasgow Herald. Image of powdered arsenic trioxide from Walkerma/PD.
Dwarf Fortress gets 238 page illustrated Getting Started guide
Dwarf Fortress gets 238 page illustrated Getting Started guide:
We’d all love to learn how to play Dwarf Fortress, just like we’d all like to climb Everest, or write a best selling novel. Dwarf Fortress is great, but not exactly a user-friendly game. To get to grips with it you’d need an enormous and meticulously illustrated manual, hundreds of pages long, right? Good job that one’s just been released then.
It makes a strange sort of sense that O’Rielly, a publisher that usually specialises in dense technical manuals, would be the ones to print a guide to the what has to be one of the most complex games out there. Who better to explain the fine art of magma moat construction? Getting Started in Dwarf Fortress clocks in at a weighty 238 pages, and if you’ve tried to play the game, you know every one will be needed
The book is written by Peter Tyson, whose guides for After Action Reporter have helped a lot of people get to grips with the tiny bearded madman simulator, but are now sadly out of date. Better yet, it’s illustrated by Tim Denee, who first came to our attention for his spectacular illustrations of the fate of forts Oilfurnace and Bronzemurdered. We liked him so much we had him illustrate our own PC Gamer Dwarf Fortress Diary, chronicling that time we all got drunk and opened a portal to hell, a process we usually refer to as’deadline day’ (pictured above).
If you’re interested in obtaining a copy, you can get it from the O’Reilly website. If you want to see more of Mr Denee’s awesome illustrations, check out his Dwarf Fortress comics.
We’d all love to learn how to play Dwarf Fortress, just like we’d all like to climb Everest, or write a best selling novel. Dwarf Fortress is great, but not exactly a user-friendly game. To get to grips with it you’d need an enormous and meticulously illustrated manual, hundreds of pages long, right? Good job that one’s just been released then.
It makes a strange sort of sense that O’Rielly, a publisher that usually specialises in dense technical manuals, would be the ones to print a guide to the what has to be one of the most complex games out there. Who better to explain the fine art of magma moat construction? Getting Started in Dwarf Fortress clocks in at a weighty 238 pages, and if you’ve tried to play the game, you know every one will be needed
The book is written by Peter Tyson, whose guides for After Action Reporter have helped a lot of people get to grips with the tiny bearded madman simulator, but are now sadly out of date. Better yet, it’s illustrated by Tim Denee, who first came to our attention for his spectacular illustrations of the fate of forts Oilfurnace and Bronzemurdered. We liked him so much we had him illustrate our own PC Gamer Dwarf Fortress Diary, chronicling that time we all got drunk and opened a portal to hell, a process we usually refer to as’deadline day’ (pictured above).
If you’re interested in obtaining a copy, you can get it from the O’Reilly website. If you want to see more of Mr Denee’s awesome illustrations, check out his Dwarf Fortress comics.
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Find out why NASA engineers call the upcoming Mars landing "Seven Minutes of Terror" [Video]
Dramatic music is a bit silly, but the stuff they're talking about is really fucking cool. Watch it.
Find out why NASA engineers call the upcoming Mars landing "Seven Minutes of Terror" [Video]:
Stop what you're doing and watch this. Invite whoever you're with to watch it, too. In just 44 days, NASA will attempt the most amazing planetary landing in the history of space exploration. It's a plan so remarkable, so technically impressive, so very different from anything ever attempted, that even the Agency's engineers have been known to call it crazy. Not because they don't believe in its design, but because it is that mind-numbingly awesome.
We've talked about the upcoming landing of NASA's SUV-sized Curiosity rover before. We've told you about the heat shields, the supersonic parachute, and the rocket-powered sky crane. But you've never seen the landing presented like this. This is exploration through the eyes of those closest to the Mars rover project. It is tension, anxiety, and anticipation. It's the sensation that overcomes you when you know exactly how much heart, emotion and energy you've poured into something, while being fully aware of what you stand to lose should things fall apart.
When Curiosity breaches Mars' atmosphere on August fifth, it will take just seven minutes to descend to the planet's surface safely. Find out why NASA calls them "the seven minutes of terror". [JPL]
Find out why NASA engineers call the upcoming Mars landing "Seven Minutes of Terror" [Video]:
Stop what you're doing and watch this. Invite whoever you're with to watch it, too. In just 44 days, NASA will attempt the most amazing planetary landing in the history of space exploration. It's a plan so remarkable, so technically impressive, so very different from anything ever attempted, that even the Agency's engineers have been known to call it crazy. Not because they don't believe in its design, but because it is that mind-numbingly awesome.
We've talked about the upcoming landing of NASA's SUV-sized Curiosity rover before. We've told you about the heat shields, the supersonic parachute, and the rocket-powered sky crane. But you've never seen the landing presented like this. This is exploration through the eyes of those closest to the Mars rover project. It is tension, anxiety, and anticipation. It's the sensation that overcomes you when you know exactly how much heart, emotion and energy you've poured into something, while being fully aware of what you stand to lose should things fall apart.
When Curiosity breaches Mars' atmosphere on August fifth, it will take just seven minutes to descend to the planet's surface safely. Find out why NASA calls them "the seven minutes of terror". [JPL]
What happens when our robot soldiers go rogue? Watch the impressive Prototype trailer now! [Video]
What happens when our robot soldiers go rogue? Watch the impressive Prototype trailer now! [Video]:
The folks behind Act of Valor are going scifi. Check out their first trailer for their mandroid film The Prototype. So far, this looks good! The movie follows a humanoid robot — who appears to be linked with his government scientist creator in some way — who escapes from its cargo hold and goes "rogue." This means killing all the government suits, stat! Now Neal McDonough has to catch him. The film is written and directed by Andrew Will. There's no release date as of yet, but we'll keep you posted.
The folks behind Act of Valor are going scifi. Check out their first trailer for their mandroid film The Prototype. So far, this looks good! The movie follows a humanoid robot — who appears to be linked with his government scientist creator in some way — who escapes from its cargo hold and goes "rogue." This means killing all the government suits, stat! Now Neal McDonough has to catch him. The film is written and directed by Andrew Will. There's no release date as of yet, but we'll keep you posted.
Child mugshots of the 1800s were like a depressing episode of The Little Rascals [Secret History]
There should be more of this sort of thing. I'm sick of kids obtaining oats by false pretenses. It's about time we took a stand.
Child mugshots of the 1800s were like a depressing episode of The Little Rascals [Secret History]:
During the Victorian era, kids as young as eleven received adult sentences for minor crimes. Here's an assortment of children's mugshots taken in Newcastle, England during the early 1870s. If some of them weren't labeled "PHOTOGRAPH OF PRISONER," you might mistake these portraits for yearbook photos.
These photographs — which were shot between December, 1871 to December, 1873 — come to us from the Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums' Flickr page. They depict convicted criminals who spent time in the Newcastle city jail. Many of these prisoners were incarcerated or sentenced to hard labor for petty theft — purloined wood, beef, and waistcoats are among the objects that got them into trouble.
The mugshots of these children are particularly heartbreaking. Even though we don't have the specifics of each convict's life history, the poverty, squalor, and lack of opportunity in Victorian England assures that some of these were crimes of desperation.
(Note: We've also included an older convict whose offense was seemingly penned by a random phrase generator.)
"At the age of just 16, this young man had been in and out of prison, but on this occasion he was sentenced for 2 months for stealing some shirts."
"Mary Catherine Docherty was sentenced to 7 days hard labour after being convicted of stealing iron along with her accomplices [...]" [Note: Those are two of her accomplices at the top of the page.]
"[12-year-old] Henry Leonard Stephenson was convicted of breaking in to houses and was sentenced to 2 months in prison in 1873."
"At the young age of 14, Henry Miller was charged with the theft of clothing and sentenced to 14 days hard labour for his crime."
"This is William Harrison. He was born in Durham and worked as a porter. He was convicted of obtaining oats by false pretence. He was sentenced to 12 months in Newcastle City Gaol in 1872."
"Michael Clement Fisher was 13 in this photograph [...and was] charged with breaking in to houses and sentenced to 2 months in prison. Michael was born in West Hartlepool."
"James Scullion was sentenced to 14 days hard labour at Newcastle City Gaol for stealing clothes. After this he was sent to Market Weighton Reformatory School for 3 years."
"Margaret Cosh was convicted of stealing a coat, she had no previous convictions and served 2 months with hard labour."
"Richard Rimmington was convicted of stealing a pipe from a shop and was expected to serve 14 days with hard labour. He was spared his sentence when his parents agreed to pay costs and the resulting fine."
You can see more of these photos here. And for more vintage mug shots, see this series of photographs shot between 1902-1916 in North Shields, England and this strangely artistic selection from Sydney, Australia in the early 1900s (left).
Finally, no discussion of weirdo old-timey mugshots would be complete without a hat tip to Pep the Dog, who — according to conflicting historical accounts — was either A.) sent to Pennsylvania's Eastern State Penitentiary to serve as a morale-boosting mascot; or B.) was condemned to the big house for feline murder. As the Penitentiary elaborates:
Child mugshots of the 1800s were like a depressing episode of The Little Rascals [Secret History]:
During the Victorian era, kids as young as eleven received adult sentences for minor crimes. Here's an assortment of children's mugshots taken in Newcastle, England during the early 1870s. If some of them weren't labeled "PHOTOGRAPH OF PRISONER," you might mistake these portraits for yearbook photos.These photographs — which were shot between December, 1871 to December, 1873 — come to us from the Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums' Flickr page. They depict convicted criminals who spent time in the Newcastle city jail. Many of these prisoners were incarcerated or sentenced to hard labor for petty theft — purloined wood, beef, and waistcoats are among the objects that got them into trouble.
The mugshots of these children are particularly heartbreaking. Even though we don't have the specifics of each convict's life history, the poverty, squalor, and lack of opportunity in Victorian England assures that some of these were crimes of desperation.
(Note: We've also included an older convict whose offense was seemingly penned by a random phrase generator.)
"At the age of just 16, this young man had been in and out of prison, but on this occasion he was sentenced for 2 months for stealing some shirts.""Mary Catherine Docherty was sentenced to 7 days hard labour after being convicted of stealing iron along with her accomplices [...]" [Note: Those are two of her accomplices at the top of the page.]"[12-year-old] Henry Leonard Stephenson was convicted of breaking in to houses and was sentenced to 2 months in prison in 1873.""At the young age of 14, Henry Miller was charged with the theft of clothing and sentenced to 14 days hard labour for his crime.""This is William Harrison. He was born in Durham and worked as a porter. He was convicted of obtaining oats by false pretence. He was sentenced to 12 months in Newcastle City Gaol in 1872.""Michael Clement Fisher was 13 in this photograph [...and was] charged with breaking in to houses and sentenced to 2 months in prison. Michael was born in West Hartlepool.""James Scullion was sentenced to 14 days hard labour at Newcastle City Gaol for stealing clothes. After this he was sent to Market Weighton Reformatory School for 3 years."
"Margaret Cosh was convicted of stealing a coat, she had no previous convictions and served 2 months with hard labour."
"Richard Rimmington was convicted of stealing a pipe from a shop and was expected to serve 14 days with hard labour. He was spared his sentence when his parents agreed to pay costs and the resulting fine."You can see more of these photos here. And for more vintage mug shots, see this series of photographs shot between 1902-1916 in North Shields, England and this strangely artistic selection from Sydney, Australia in the early 1900s (left).Finally, no discussion of weirdo old-timey mugshots would be complete without a hat tip to Pep the Dog, who — according to conflicting historical accounts — was either A.) sent to Pennsylvania's Eastern State Penitentiary to serve as a morale-boosting mascot; or B.) was condemned to the big house for feline murder. As the Penitentiary elaborates:
"Pep, The Cat-Murdering Dog" was a black Labrador Retriever admitted to Eastern State Penitentiary on August 12, 1924. Prison folklore tells us that Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot used his executive powers to sentence Pep to Life Without Parole for killing his wife's cherished cat. Prison records support this story: Pep's inmate number (C-2559) is skipped in prison intake logs and inmate records.[Via The Presurfer]
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