Tsaiberspace

I first read about Desktop Tower Defense on TechCrunch and have resisted checking it out … until now.

I think the best way to describe the game is as a sort of “reverse-Lemmings” game. Instead of helping an army of assorted lemmings overcome obstacles to reach the other side of the maze, you set up a maze and weapons to stop an army of “creeps” from reaching the other side of the maze. The appeal is the same - you get to “program” the weapons and obstacles in a certain way to stop the creeps.

I never saw the first Fantastic Four movie, but I don’t feel like I missed much. And as is becoming expected for Marvel movies, I thought one of the secondary characters stole the show, in this case, the T-1000-esque Silver Surfer. They should have called this movie Fantastic Four: Rise of the TV Actors:

• Detective Vic Mackey (The Shield) as The Thing
• Dr. Christian Troy (Nip/Tuck) as Doctor Doom
• Dr. Ben Gideon (Gideon’s Crossing) as General Hager
• Clavo Cruz (CSI: Miami) as Major Cruz

… and those were just the ones I recognized and could identify. I’m pretty sure there were a few others.

This entertaining action/chase movie is just one more example of the winning combination of socio-political messaging and hunters-become-the-hunted action:

• First Blood
• The Rock
• Apocalypto

The lead actor Rudy Youngblood bears no relation to the funky Youngblood Brass Band, nor is he the warrior depicted on the promotional poster. And since we all know what happens to Mayan civilization after the Spaniards arrive in the final scene, we know he won’t get an Apocalypto II. So here he is for one possibly-final encore (he’s the one in the middle):

In the New York Times:

Roland G. Fryer, a 30-year-old Harvard economist known for his study of racial inequality in schools, is back in New York to again promote a big idea: Pay students cash for high scores on standardized tests and their performance might improve. And he has captured the attention of Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Across the country, educators have been experimenting with cash incentives. A program in Chelsea, Mass., gave children $25 for perfect attendance. Some Dallas schools pay children $2 for each book they read.

Little kids with glasses currently targeted for their lunch money can now wear another, bigger, bulls-eye target for their test-score money.

The cherries were delicious and fresh, and possibly specially organic or something, because I’m usually slightly allergic to them. We drove up to the orchard gate, picked up a bucket, went in, plucked a bunch of cherries from trees (sometimes with ladders, and often sampling the merchandise), and finally paid $2/lb. on our way out. At home they are quite good, especially so after a brief stint in the freezer.

I wonder how cherries got the “cherry-picking” idiom, as opposed to other fruits or vegetables.