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Dispatches

Coffee-stained dispatches from the Minister of Intrigue.

2015

The Deadly Global War for Sand
·187 words·1 min
Articles Politics Geology War Crime
Fascinating piece on both the legal and illegal sand trade, and the immense criminal industry that has grown up around the latter. Today criminal gangs in an estimated 70 countries, from Jamaica to Nigeria, dredge up tons of the stuff every year to sell on the black market.
Strumming Again
·1423 words·7 mins
Articles Personal Music Guitar

Let's talk about regrets, shall we?

They tend to haunt us through the years. Sometimes they are the things we wish we had said (or could be unsaid), and sometimes they are bigger than that, a path you didn't take, or one you abandoned only a few steps along the way. It's the second type I'd like to focus on today, and I'd like to start with one of mine.

Second Life Begins Preparations for Next Gen Virtual Reality
·156 words·1 min
Articles Tech Vr Second Life Future
Second Life has always been one the pioneering efforts for Virtual Reality, and its in-sim economy has always been really impressive. Now, it sounds like the folks at Linden Labs are getting ready to prep its platform for integration with gear such as the Oculus Rift.
Suppressing Old Memories Key to Learning New Ones
·113 words·1 min
Articles Biology Psychology Science Memory
This article from Ars Technica covers some interesting new research on the science of memory, and why our memories deteriorate over time. It is because we push them out of the way in order to integrate new ones.
If Your Website's Full of Assholes, It's Your Fault
·163 words·1 min
Articles Social Media Culture Mra Gamergate Twitter Facebook
This old post from Anil Dash has been making the rounds again this week, and for good reason. As it turns out, we have a way to prevent gangs of humans from acting like savage packs of animals.
How Magic the Gathering Saved Dungeons & Dragons
·346 words·2 mins
Articles Gaming D&d Tabletop Magic Pathfinder
Ryan C. Burch has published an interesting piece on Geek Speaker about how Wizards of the Coast used principles from Magic the Gathering to save D&D from itself. His contention is that 2E was inaccessible to most gamers, and that TSR had made management decisions that had seriously hampered future development.
Ars Technica Now Knows Where You've Been
·178 words·1 min
Articles Politics Privacy
Ars Technica has successfully completed a public records request that allowed them to acquire 4.6 million records from the Oakland Police Department’s automated License Plate Reader (LPR) system. Using their custom built visualization tool, they are able to extrapolate a shocking amount of information about the travel patterns of individual vehicles.
On Journaling
·700 words·4 mins
Articles Journal Writing Personal Psychology
Do you keep a journal? I often wonder. It’s something we’re told we should do. Any simple search on the internet, or any self-help book you care to pick up, will suggest that there are numerous mental health benefits to journaling.
Peter Watts and the Gene Genies
·420 words·2 mins
Articles Future Biology Genetics
Peter Watts serves up a two part article on RNA editing, and how it might impact the future of entire populations. It is frightening.
Mars One Is Deeply Flawed
·160 words·1 min
Articles Space Tech Future
Elmo Keep’s interview with Mars One applicant Joseph Roche reveals that the program is deeply flawed. Indeed, some elements such as having applicants donate their speaking fees to the program in exchange for points even sounds like a scam.
Sam Sykes: In The Tombs of Poets
·100 words·1 min
Articles Writing Art Movies
Sam Sykes has published a reflection on the life of Shin Sang-Ok, and on an artist’s need to create. The idiot ninja action film I watched as a kid was the last legs of a man who was being denied his needs for a final time.
Changelog: Improving Discovery and Readability
·766 words·4 mins
Articles Meta Personal Development Lsi Jekyll Octopress Django Xapian Haystack
Iteration is the thing. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. After all, tinkering is easy to do, especially when you are working with a platform as flexible as Jekyll. So as you would expect, I’ve made several changes to the site since the initial relaunch.
Five Room Dungeons
·156 words·1 min
Articles Gaming D&d Ttrpg
This article from Strolen’s Citadel is easily the best piece of practical advice for a DM that I’ve found. Dungeon design is difficult to get right. Despite what the swollen published modules may lead you to believe, shorter crawls are almost always better.
Emerging
·536 words·3 mins
Articles Meta Announcments Jekyll Octopress Ruby
Ahh, a site relaunch. That fresh new-theme smell! Just what the doctor ordered for the Ministry of Intrigue.

2014

The Last True Hermit
·88 words·1 min
Articles Weird Profiles Culture
This GQ story about the North Pond Hermit is amazing. One day in 1986, Christopher Knight left family and friends behind for good, and spent 30 years leaving alone in the woods of Maine, sleeping in a hidden tent.
Wired Writes Up Slack: The Most Fascinating Profile You'll Read About a Guy and His Boring Startup
·49 words·1 min
Articles Tech Slack Flickr Profiles
Outstanding article from Wired on Steward Butterfield, the founder of Flickr and Glitch, and how his business software Slack is growing at an unbelievable rate. We’ve been running a trial of Slack at work for select teams, and it’s an amazing product.
Morning Pages
·499 words·3 mins
Articles Writing Personal Ulysses Iii
I’ve been trying to get back into the routine of doing morning pages. That is, the process of writing three pages of material each day to clear my mind and prime my creative pump for the day.
Quote: Antoine de Saint Exupéry
·68 words·1 min
Quotes Culture Philosophy Sociology Business Management
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.
Quote: Maciej Ceglowski on Productivity Techniques
·23 words·1 min
Quotes Productivity Culture
Kindly remember that if, unprompted, you tell someone about your system for getting organized, you are no better than a vegan. — @Pinboard
Doctorow on Talking to Children About Surveillance
·180 words·1 min
Articles Politics Nsa Surveillance Privacy Security
Great article from Cory Doctorow on the conversations he’s had with his six year old daughter about mass surveillance. What’s particularly revealing is which concepts she intuitively grasps from her own experience with technology, and how that aligns with research done on the online habits of children.