Minecraft vs reality

Urban sprawl represented by players' builds in Minecraft
Deforestation represented by loss of jungles in busy servers due to building on the land and lack of replanting
Resources exhaustion represented again by busy servers in which players consume all the iron etc. Runs out as easily accessible caves run dry.
 
Shop owners representing companies also exhaust all minerals etc. to stock shops. See last point and represents companies e.g. iron and coal mining
 
Extinction of species in the wild represented by players trapping and farming all wild animals so no wild ones remain
 
Infrastructure such as roads reproduced in Minecraft servers along with shopping centres etc.
 
Exploitation of indigenous tribes by invaders represented by machines using npc villagers and theft of crops and supplies by villagers.

Batman Darkest Knight Film Review - spoof

Scene from Darkest Knight

Disclaimer: Spoof. I am not affiliated with anyone, this is just a joke. Besides Christian Bale all people mentioned here are meant to be fictional, real names are unintended

Following the success of the Batman Franchise, Warner Brothers announced the upcoming release of a new Batman film Summer 2016, Darkest Knight. Christian Bale returns to fight a new enemy, Swarm, who cloaks Gotham in dense darkness. Fighting the darkness and psychological torment of everyone he knows dying, Batman must battle to save Gotham from being choked in night forever.

From a technical standpoint Darkest Knight was unique not only for the franchise but for film as a medium. In order to realistically portray the all consuming darkness, the studio used no added lights whatsoever and no natural lights in the scene (street lamps were switched off). We were unable to interview Bale about the film but Justin Staw, who plays a sidekick Carrow, said of the experience:

It was impossible. The director decreed no lighting at all, none of us could see a thing. I'm not sure what the camera picked up because I had a scene of dialog with [Elliott] Pune and I had no idea who I was talking to as I couldn't see him. I could hear him and I think I could just about make him out but I may have been talking to a tree.

While on break, an extra told me she walked hard into the staff tea trolley and resulting in bruises while playing her role of panicking citizen because she had no idea where she was going. Numerous complaints have been lodged with the company from cast, extras and camera crews receiving minor injuries walking into props and equipment due to the lack of light. Speaking to an editor who wishes to remain anonymous, they informed me that the camera output was so dark that they had no idea what order the rushes were in:

Cameras need a certain amount of light to operate properly. Basically it's about two hours of almost complete black. If you look carefully it's possible to just about make out some action but about a third of it is wrong or the cast walking into props and talking to trees and offscreen equipment. Your eyes go funny after a short while of this.

The producer, David Crowe, defended his technique:

With any new technique there's bound to be quibbles and naysayers who are unable to appreciate the art of film and mood. Film has used half darkness effectively for years but it has never really looked realistic. Blue lighting is not darkness and I think this real darkness draws the audience into the plot and helps them to identify with the physical and psychological struggles of the characters. If Batman is known as the Dark Knight it should be just that. Dark.

The film has yet to receive a rating. We wait to see if Darkest Knight lives up to the success of its predecessors.

The Superiority problem

Ideology:
All other religions are inferior to Christianity

Result:
Crusades

Ideology:
Africans are inferior to English

Result:
Slavery

Ideology :
Other races than the Aerian race (Germany) are inferior/do not count esp Jews

Result:
Holocaust, genocide

Ideology:
Animals are inferior to humans

Result:
Animal abuse, animal testing etc.

Ideology:
Women are inferior to men

Result:
Misogyny, unequal rights (cannot vote, work, go out without total coverage in some countries)

Notice  a pattern?

Sexuality TV representation YouTube debate

Note. This is a personal, not educational, blog so these are my personal thoughts and may not be backed up with research.

This debate came up in a video about a cartoon character's ambiguous sexuality (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTXlZNvNBHY). I thought I'd share.

Other commenter:

I think some kid shows should include homosexuality, because of the stereotype Girl+Boy. This makes kids have intolerance to gay relationships, and that's just sad. And just imagine their faces when they find out boy+boy is actaully possible. Just my thinking.


Me:
I'm heterosexual (I don't like 'straight', sounds kinda offensive as implies
that anything else is wrong) and I found that I kinda learned about other
sexualities in a too stereotypical fashion (through representation in TV
shows) which gives makes it hard to be equality-focused. Childrens' TV
shows tend to be along the lines of 'this is the perfect family structure:
mum, dad, boy and girl (or same gender children).' 

There is barely representation of other heterosexual family structures such as extended or single parent never mind homosexual. If people learned about these through the non-stereotyped fashion* in the same way it would possibly make it easier for statistically less common sexualities and family stuctures to be accepted. I imagine this is particularly difficult if you are within LGBT and find every representation is of seemingly 'perfect' heterosexual couples or boyfriends/girlfriends and the few representations that meet yours are stereotypes.

*the gender roles tend to be very traditional in these programmes but that's going off topic

Useful Android apps

These are some useful apps I use all the time on Android. I am not affiliated or sponsored by any of the companies producing these apps and the descriptions are either my own or taken from the app description.

I use an advanced vetting process as follows (diagram):

Google Keep

Useful note taking app for mobile (app) and desktop browser (instant sync) with interactive checklists, general notes and photo text transcriptions. No ads!

Fast Notepad

As hinted by the name, this app work as a fast notepad. It's the Android equivalent of Notepad on Windows computers or TextEdit on Mac (I guess). The nice thing is that it is uncomplicated so allows you to quickly take and save notes on things. However, unlike Keep it has no auto-internet sync functions I am aware of.

Google Mail app

Useful for checking your emails on the go, because of course you have to check them every second of the day! Works with the Gmail browser app

Google Play

Music player, basically the Google variant of iTunes except easier (probably). I prefer this to the hard to see default music player on Galaxy S3 (too dark) and you can also play and manage music bought in the (Google) Play Store

Adobe Photoshop Express

Nothing special but lets you tweak your photos a bit. Nowhere near as powerful as the desktop pro version but does some stuff

Google Chrome: Useful extensions

These are a couple of extensions I am using and find very useful, just to help.

• AddThis for quickly sharing pages to social networks through the right click menu or button in the taskbar at the top

• Google Dictionary (pop up): nice and easy to use. Comes in handy when I don't know the words (it happens sometimes)

• Copy Plain Text: Allows you to instantly copy text without formatting

• Send to Google Maps: By far the most useful extension I use. 
• 
  

Send to Google Maps allows you to send a selected address or POI on any website directly to Google Maps. You no longer need to   1.) copy the address or POI 2.) open a new tab 3.) enter http://maps.google.com 4.) paste the address 5.) press the search button  All these steps are done by "Send to Google Maps". (source, Chrome store page)