Category: Uncategorized

Crushing the test?

Do you remember when McRapey was bragging about how he crushed standardized tests? The guy didn’t even break 700 on the SAT’s Math section:

Seriously, I took three years of post-algebra math in high school and got 690 math SAT score and yet still REMEMBER NOTHING.

Now, 690 is a very good score. It’s a great score. If his verbal score was similar, he would have just been able to squeak into Mensa. Of course, since the great self-inflator never talks about that, we can probably assume that his overall score was 1330 or below, which would indicate a verbal score of around 640 and an IQ between 130 and 134. That would make him a high midwit, which is exactly what one observes of his behavior.

In any event, Johnny would like everyone to know that it’s not absolutely necessary to tell him that you’re no longer interested in buying the work of a chubby chinless SJW. Because he totes doesn’t care.

Dudes, if you’ve decided that you’re never going to buy my work again,
you don’t HAVE to tell me. I don’t actually care. Just don’t buy it.

After all, he doesn’t need you, not when he’s got Tor to do the bulk-buying for him. And isn’t it remarkable how he cares about nothing? It’s like the man is a stone. A stone made out of Zen. Anyhow, I’m not buying his work today, just like every other day prior.

On evidence

One of the usual anklebiters attempted to claim that there is no evidence I was ever a successful game producer. Now, I don’t talk about most of my designs these days, for obvious reasons, but since the review is out there, here is the take on RMR from Computer Gaming World, written by Loyd Case, who was their most technical writer at the time:

There is an old aphorism that’s often said about weddings – something old, something new. You need a bit of each for good luck. REBEL MOON RISING is a 3D shooter that is a mix of the old and the new – both in terms of gameplay and technology….

Another new technology feature [after mentioning our first use of 16-bit color -VD] is voice recognition. One early Windows 95 game, ACES OF THE DEEP, used speech recognition, but the implementation was very limited. In REBEL MOON RISING, the list of usable words is quite large. While you can actually give orders to AI squad mates in a limited way, it’s mostly used to communicate with other players in multiplayer games…. Where REBEL MOON RISING doesn’t break new ground is in graphics. Although it does use 16-bit color, the style is still 2/12D, in the style of DUKE NUKEM 3D….

 “Where Rebel Moon Rising does
break new ground in 3D-action shooters is in mission design (as opposed
to level design). There are a couple of missions in which you defend a location. You can either choose to run around frantically, trying to defend against multiple attackers as they teleport in, or you can find the switch that will bring in reinforcements. The reinforcements are about as dumb as the AI opponents, but they do help buffer the target against the opposing forces. The two best missions in the game are ones where
you escort prisoners – in one case, alien babies – to a hand-off point.
The suspense gets pretty intense as you move with your charge and try to
keep enemies from picking them off. It’s also somehow more personal
than similar missions in flight sims. When one of the alien babies was
killed, I felt a very real sense of outrage and emptied most of a
magazine into the enemy that had killed it. Some of the other missions
which involve searching for and destroying a specific set of objectives
are more creative than the “if it moves, shoot it” philosophy in most
3D-action games. All of this takes place in the context of a relatively
interesting story.” 

So, I was publicly recognized by the leading industry magazine as the
first game designer to do mission design in 3D shooters, introduce 16-bit color, and feature AI squad mates to whom you could actually talk to using speech recognition, in a game that did over 6
million units. It did well enough that a strategy book was released for it. This is failure?

Case was absolutely correct. The game wasn’t outstanding. It had some production flaws and my decision to set it on the Moon was egregiously stupid. (Way to show off the color, sport!) But “it has an interesting story and some highly creative missions” is hardly indicative of “a crappy game”.

The liberal view of #GamerGate

The white knights of the anti-GG Left ride to the rescue:

niko ‏@nikodimov 30m30 minutes ago
There’s no anti-GG, just people with common decency who give a damn.

Peter Coffin ‏@petercoffin
Also I’m not anti-journalistic integrety, I’m anti-using-that-as-your-mission-statement-for-what-GG-is

Vox Day ‏@voxday
#GamerGate is all about journalistic integrity. That’s what kicked it all off. And they are VERY corrupt.

@IamSpacedad 
Nope. It’s about fear of ladyparts, and vultures like you projecting and attacking liberals journos

@IamSpacedad
‘Hey look a fake cause where I can pretend Im relevant and pontificate about corruption & vaginas.’

Vox Day ‏@voxday
Corruption and vaginas? Oh, you mean ZOE QUINN. Got it.

Ah, so THAT’S what that journolist thing was. Just a group of game journalists with common decency who give a damn.

UPDATE: I find this behavior typical, and all too telling, of the frightened little rabbits upon finding themselves face to face with the big bad wolf. They leap up and yap, and then upon learning, to their surprise, that you actually respond, immediately run away with their hands pressed over their ears.

niko ‏@nikodimov 1 hour ago
niko favorited some Tweets you were mentioned in 

niko ‏@nikodimov 55 minutes ago
@IamSpacedad @voxday @notryan @petercoffin
Guys, can you please untag me bc I blocked Voxday?

niko ‏@nikodimov 46 minutes ago
@IamSpacedad @voxday @notryan @petercoffin
Untag me pleeeeease.

Peter Coffin ‏@petercoffin 45 minutes ago
@nikodimov @IamSpacedad @voxday @notryan

Yeah, please untag me as well.

Women in the game industry

A civil exchange with a genuinely curious #GamerGate moderate who asks questions rather than flings accusations:

Vox Day ‏@voxday
As the game media grows, the probability of it being co-opted by women who want to make it all about their vaginas approaches 1. #GamerGate

René Dreadsteves ‏@robobeau 2h2 hours ago
I understand where you’re coming from, but that’s still a bit of a harsh generalization.

Vox Day ‏@voxday
Harsh or not, it is observably true. Most have zero interest in games, they just want to run the “insufficient vaginas” routine.

René Dreadsteves ‏@robobeau
A lot definitely do, but a lot simply want better representation, so I think it’s harsh to lump them all together.

Vox Day ‏@voxday
What is “better representation”? Precisely how would more vaginas being represented in Call of Duty or WOW improve them?

René Dreadsteves ‏@robobeau
More support for female developers, which is way harder than it sounds given the AAA game industry

Vox Day ‏@voxday
What “support” means is “someone to do the work for me”. Never happening. Game dev is too lean, especially at the entry points.

René Dreadsteves ‏@robobeau
Let me ask this: In your experience in game development, do you feel females have been treated equally in terms of opportunities?

Vox Day ‏@voxday
Yes. In fact, I’ve seen game companies bend over backward to recruit them. They seldom apply and usually can’t take the hours.

René Dreadsteves ‏@robobeau
Except female game designers are genuinely trying to stand as equals in the game industry.

Vox Day ‏@voxday
No, they’re not. They’re crying that no one wants to play their games. Roberta Williams just designed great games.

René Dreadsteves ‏@robobeau
Thanks for the reply. From an outsider’s perspective it’s really hard to tell one way or another.

I should add that when I was running a game development house, with multiple million+ development contracts with companies including Intel and Sega, the grand total of female responses to our various ads over a period of five years was one. That was an artist who responded to an ad for 2D/3D artists at MCAD and we did not even consider hiring her after interviewing her, viewing her portfolio, and learning that she was primarily interested in abstract art.

The reality is that the game industry is absolutely desperate for talent. But it requires real talent and an ability to deliver quickly and reliably, it is no place for anyone who is even slightly inclined to lean on others to help them do their job. There are women who can hack it. Roberta Williams was, and is, very well-respected as a game designer, for example. Scorpia was the single most respected RPG reviewer in the industry for years. Charlotte Panther was the News Editor at CGW; she was cute but she was also competent. Consider Scorpia’s opinion on the matter:

Question: Do you feel you have experienced significant discrimination as a female professional in the reviewing business?

Answer: None whatsoever. After considerable thought, I can’t come up with any incident of discrimination.

Sam Harris: genocidal maniac or suicidal logician?

Sam Harris is whining about the fact that people are still actively holding him accountable for the clear and obvious meaning of his written words, and he is still attempting to shade the truth while doing so.


“I know one thing to a moral certainty, however: Both Greenwald and Aslan know
that those words do not mean what they appear to mean. Given the amount
of correspondence we’ve had on these topics, and given that I have
repeatedly bored audiences by clarifying that statement (in response to
this kind of treatment), the chance that either writer thinks he is
exposing the truth about my views—or that I’m really a “genocidal
fascist maniac”—is zero. Aslan and Greenwald—a famous “scholar” and a
famous “journalist”—are engaged in a campaign of pure defamation. They
are consciously misleading their readers and increasing my security
concerns in the process.”

What a load of utter codswollop. Sam Harris clearly and openly and unmistakably wrote that it MAY be ethical to kill people for believing dangerous beliefs. Not for doing anything, not for harming anyone, but for simply BELIEVING CERTAIN BELIEFS. His repeated “clarifications” and obfuscations don’t change that established fact and he has never recanted his statement. Nor, I note, has he ever come right out and declared specifically WHAT beliefs are so dangerous that it is ethical to kill people for nothing more than holding them.

There is absolutely no reference to ACTION, only to BELIEF, in his statement. Don’t forget, his entire thesis in THE END OF FAITH is the intrinsic danger that  stems from the mere possession of faith.  Harris can’t complain about “selective quoting”, as the entire context actually makes it worse. He wrote: “Certain beliefs place their adherents beyond the reach of every peaceful
means of persuasion, while inspiring them to commit acts of
extraordinary violence against others. There is, in fact, no talking to
some people. If they cannot be captured, and they often cannot,
otherwise tolerant people may be justified in killing them in
self-defense.”

And then he compounds his justification of genocide with more deceit about his own behavior: “I have never knowingly distorted the positions I criticize, whether they
are the doctrines of a religion or the personal beliefs of Francis
Collins, Eben Alexander, Deepak Chopra, Reza Aslan, Glenn Greenwald, or
any other writer or public figure with whom I’ve collided.”

In other words, he’s pleading ignorance in the vast panoply of untruths he has told about Christianity, history, and other matters. In TIA, I showed what a sloppy and careless thinker Harris is; it is no surprise that his carelessness with words is still coming back to haunt him. I mean, look at his idiotic trainwreck of a defense here:

“Aslan and Greenwald know that nowhere in my work do I suggest that we kill harmless people for thought crimes.”

No, Sam, you expressly justify killing DANGEROUS people for thought crimes. And just who will decide who is dangerous and who is harmless? You? Roger Goodell? The Learned Elders of Zion? The Pope? Ironically enough, it is Harris’s own logic that would clearly justify killing Sam Harris. Look, I think Sam Harris is actually a likeable, well-meaning individual who isn’t quite a smart as his fans believe him to be. But Harris desperately needs to stop trying to defend the indefensible, admit that he fucked up on this as he did with both the “religion causes war” and “Red State” arguments, own up to his mistakes, and recant his lunatic justification for thought-based genocide.

He should simply say: “I was wrong. It is not ethical to kill people for their beliefs, no matter how dangerous those beliefs may be.” Or, if he can’t honestly do that, he should be forthright and say: “It is ethical to kill people for excessively dangerous beliefs, and those beliefs are: X, Y, and Z.” If he won’t do either, he will fully merit the criticism and contempt that will continue to flow his way.

ASP programmer wanted

A member of the Dread Ilk is looking for a project programmer:

I have need for a programmer familiar with ASP.NET.  The project is mostly
completed and I need someone to jump in an assist with finishing it.  It
could lead to additional work including a permanent position.

If you’re interested and qualified, send me an email with ASP in the subject and I will forward it. And if you’re someone with a job, particularly one that is location-independent, don’t hesitate to let me know so I can post it here. The Dread Ilk have a tremendous pool of talent and experience, and range everywhere from Finland to Australia, so don’t hesitate to draw upon that pool when you’re looking for people to hire for your organizations or projects.

Ebola spreads in the USA

First, they said it would never get to the USA. Then they said it wouldn’t spread to the health care workers:

A hospital worker here who helped treat the Liberian man who died last week of the Ebola virus has tested positive for the disease, even though the worker was wearing a gown, gloves, mask and other protective gear when coming into contact with the victim, officials said Sunday.

The hospital employee, a woman whom officials did not identify, worked at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, died last Wednesday. The health care worker reported a low-grade fever Friday night, went to the hospital at some point after that and was immediately admitted and put in isolation, officials said.

One wonders what will be the next statement from a government official on the subject to be exposed as false. Note that a nurse in Spain also caught the virus from a Spanish man who was brought back to Spain by his government for treatment.

VPFL Week 5

70 Mounds View Meerkats (4-1)
60 Texas Chili Eaters (4-1)

86 Greenfield Grizzlies (4-1)
80 Boot Hill Bogs (0-5)

55 RR Redbeards (4-1)
47 Clerical Errs (0-5)

68 Gilbert Gamma Rays (3-2)
66 Bane Cornshuckers (2-3)

66 King (2-3)
54 Favre Dollar Footlongs (2-3)

About six years

That’s how much time the American can-kicking in Iraq bought. Of course, it is readily apparent that this was rather like going buying time in order to go from the frying pan into the blast furnace.  Another prescient selection from William S. Lind’s forthcoming ON WAR:

A piece in the December 27, 2007 Cleveland Plain Dealer, “Vote on fate of Kirkuk postponed,” by Tina Susman and Asso Ahmed of the L.A. Times, reported that: “Kurdish lawmakers agreed Wednesday to a six-month delay in a referendum on whether the oil-rich city of Kirkuk should join the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan or remain under Iraqi central government control….Also Wednesday, the head of the Iraqi parliament’s constitutional review committee, Humam Hamoudi, said he would request a three-month delay in rewriting the national constitution. That would mark the fourth time the target date…has been put off.”

As the Iraqis kick the can down the road, so do the Americans. The American-funded Sunni militia, aka the Concerned Local Citizens or the Awakening, has grown to 72,000 volunteers in nearly 300 communities in Iraq. They have been credited with reducing violence in some of Iraq’s most violent areas. But many people, including some Sunnis, worry that the groups could destabilize Iraq.

The concern is a valid one. With our usual charming naiveté, we seem to think the Sunnis have become our friends. But they are merely using us to help them get ready for the next round with the Shiites and, in the case of Kirkuk, the Kurds.

They were indeed, as “destabilize” is a mild way of putting it. That American-funded Sunni militia, aka the Concerned Local Citizens aka the Awakening aka the Islamic State, is now engaged in successfully fighting that anticipated next round with both the Shiites and the Kurds. They’ve not only taken Kirkuk and are pressing the Kurds hard in the north, but are also threatening to besiege a Baghdad ruled by a crumbling Shiite US-puppet government.

As in the case of al Qaeda, the Islamic State was directly subsidized by the American government. If this sort of repetitive blowback does not suffice to convince you that expansionist imperialism abroad is a fool’s game, then one can only conclude that you are one of those Aristotle characterized as impervious to information. We don’t always have to do something, especially when that something has the predictable probability of making matters worse.

TSA battles Ebola

Or not, as it happens:

The World Health Organization is sending doctors to countries where the virus is most prevalent — Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Fusion’s Jorge Ramos spoke to one of the doctors, Dr. Aileen Marty, who recently returned home to Miami after spending 31 days in Nigeria. She says she was surprised what happened when she arrived at Miami International Airport.

“I get to the kiosk…mark the fact that I’ve been in Nigeria and nobody cares, nobody stopped me,” Marty said.

“Not a single test?” Ramos asked her, surprised.

“Nothing,” Marty answered.

Some say evil, some say incompetent. I fail to see why the Obola administration can’t be both. Let’s face it, our best hope is that the whole thing simply burns itself out without a great deal of help from the obviously overmatched medical community.

So much for that whole “science just works, bitches” meme. It’s unwise to arrogantly challenge Mother Nature.