Augmented Reality Breeds Dysfunction

Players of the first big "augmented reality" game, Pokémon Go, have crashed a car, fallen off a cliff, and hopped a fence in the middle of the night to catch a digital nothing beside a tiger enclosure.  In the process, they have been forced to accidentally get exercise (much to their chagrin), while also blissfully signing away their data to government, law enforcement, and private parties.

Terrorism in Miniatures

First they came for the video games, and I did not speak out--for I did not play video games.  Then they came for the movies, and I did not speak out--for I did not watch movies.  Then they came for the tabletop board games--and there was no one left to speak for me.

Castiglione

"And what say you to the game at chestes? It is truely an honest kynde of enterteynmente and wittie, quoth Syr Friderick. But me think it hath a fault, whiche is, that a man may be to couning at it, for who ever will be excellent in the playe of chestes, I beleave he must beestowe much tyme about it, and applie it with so much study, that a man may assoone learne some noble scyence, or compase any other matter of importaunce, and yet in the ende in beestowing all that laboure, he knoweth no more but a game. Therfore in this I beleave there happeneth a very rare thing, namely, that the meane is more commendable, then the excellency."

- Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier

Chess President Claims Sport Came From Aliens

Is Ilyumzhinov telling the truth about his abduction and belief that chess came from aliens? Well, he’s running to replace Sepp Blatter as leader of an organization notorious for corruption, bribery and other nefarious behavior and he himself had a similar reputation as head of FIDE.

Rise of the Cultural Libertarians

Social surveys show that millennials are the least racist, least sexist, least homophobic generation in the history of the species. Yet in the absence of overt racism, progressive culture warriors invented “microaggression theory”, frightening millennials with allegations that they are still racist, sexist, and homophobic, just on a subconscious level. It was only a matter of time before the anxiety culture warriors created was replaced by irritation.

Entertainment Industry Says ‘No More’ to Social Justice Warriors

"Perhaps the most accurate distinction is libertarian versus authoritarian: those who want to control culture versus those who want to liberate it. The entertainment police versus the entertainment rebels. The rebels are producers and consumers. The police are a narrow band of loud but isolated media blowhards."