The Death of a Virtual Campus Illustrates How Real-World Problems Can Disrupt Online Islands

It isn’t clear whether Linden Lab simply took the Woodbury island offline, or actually destroyed the software behind it. Dori Littell-Herrick, an assistant professor and chairwoman of the animation department, said she believed it was the latter. If so, the university would need to build another island if it re-established a presence in Second Life.…

Babies not as innocent as they pretend

Behavioural experts have found that infants begin to lie from as young as six months. Simple fibs help to train them for more complex deceptions in later life. Infants quickly learnt that using tactics such as fake crying and pretend laughing could win them attention. By eight months, more difficult deceptions became apparent, such as…

Experts oppose video game addiction designation

Doctors backed away on Sunday from a controversial proposal to designate video game addiction as a mental disorder akin to alcoholism, saying psychiatrists should study the issue more. —Experts oppose video game addiction designation (Reuters | C|Net) Similar:York Plays 2025: Five cameras, adding up to ~100 hours of footage.Study finds AI tools made open source software…

When ''Digital Natives'' Go to the Library

At a packed session for academic librarians attending the annual meeting of the American Library Association, in Washington, the topic was how to help students who have learned many of their information gathering and analysis skills from video games apply that knowledge in the library. Speakers said that gaming skills are in many ways representative…

Americans and Japanese Read Faces Differently

In Japan, emoticons tend to emphasize the eyes, such as the happy face (^_^) and the sad face (;_;). “After seeing the difference between American and Japanese emoticons, it dawned on me that the faces looked exactly like typical American and Japanese smiles,” he said. —Americans and Japanese Read Faces Differently (Live Science) Similar:York Plays 2025:…

Old MacDonald Had A Farmers' Market — total self-sufficiency is a noble, misguided ideal

Every culture has its pathologies, and ours is self-reliance. From some mix of our frontier past, our Little House on the Prairie heritage, our Thoreauvian desire for solitude, and our amazing wealth we’ve derived a level of independence never seen before on this round earth. We’ve built an economy where we need no one else;…

Blake on Generalization

To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit–General Knowledges are those Knowledges that Idiots possess. —William BlakeBlake on Generalization (The Poetical Works of William Blake) Jotted in the margins of his copy of another author’s work. Similar:York Plays 2025: Five cameras, adding up to ~100 hours of footage.I may…