Sometimes I don't even bother to explain these things; I just imagine reading this paragraph back in 1989 alongside my new issue of Nintendo Power:
Bot mafias have wreaked havoc in World of Warcraft Classic
Jun 2020, Ars Technica
Dozens of websites easily found on Google sell code or services that automate the World of Warcraft Classic experience. Some individual players pay to hand their accounts over to a bot to level up their characters in the slow, meditative game while they’re at their day jobs or snoozing. Others turn a profit by automating groups of accounts that kill specific monsters and farm specific resources to earn mass amounts of in-game gold. Some use game-breaking techniques to gain an edge, like flying in the air and massacring rare monsters that can’t fight back. (Characters cannot fly in-game.) Then, they round up the goods.
- In-game anti-bot protest - just what it sounds like (but see Rainbow's End for more information.)
- Multiboxing - allowing people to tie the same keyboard and mouse input to multiple clients
Wildlife scientists examine the great human pause
Jun 2020, BBC News
- The Anthropause - the time a global pandemic sent most humans on earth into their houses for months on end
Being 'mind-blind' may make remembering, dreaming and imagining harder
Jun 2020, phys.org
- Mindblind - when you don't have "theory of mind"
Glass-like wood insulates heat, is tough, blocks UV and has wood-grain pattern
Aug 2020, phys.org
- Aesthetic wood - because technically it's not synthetic, it comes from regular wood
Your data and how it is used to gain your vote
Dec 2020, BBC News
When I buy your name, I can guess your income, number of children and ethnicity, and then send you targeted political messages. Experian, Equifax and Transunion are all brokering your data. AKA Selling your data. Read further at UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) Report
When they said big data they didn't say which data. But I'm just here for the words:
- Onomastic data - the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names, helpful in data mining. [wiki link]
Japanese increasingly single, disinterested in dating: study
Nov 2020, phys.org
The Herbivore Phenomenon - when dudes just give up and stop trying to get laid anymore
The Japanese media has dubbed the much-discussed increase in virginity and a purported decline in interest in dating and sex as symptoms of the 'herbivore-ization' of younger generations. In popular culture, adults who are unmarried and seemingly disinterested in finding romantic or sexual partners are 'herbivores' and those who are actively pursuing romantic partners are 'carnivores.'"This herbivore phenomenon, both its definition and whether it really exists, has been hotly debated for a decade in Japan, but nationally representative data have been lacking," said Dr. Peter Ueda, an expert in epidemiology and last author of the research published in the journal PLOS ONE.via University of Tokyo: Cyrus Ghaznavi et al. 9 Nov 2020. The Herbivore's Dilemma: Trends in and Factors Associated with Heterosexual Relationship Status and Interest in Romantic Relationships Among Young Adults in Japan - Analysis of National Surveys, 1987-2015. PLOS ONE (2020). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241571
'Multiplying' light could be key to ultra-powerful optical computers
Feb 2021, phys.org
- Polaritons - they're half-light half-matter
Promising computer simulations for stellarator plasmas
Sep 2020, phys.org
- Just Stellarators
- Cryptojack My Fauxbots - just made that shit up, doesn't mean anything
GameStop surges again as Reddit crashes temporarily
Feb 2021, BBC News
- Activist investors
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