Russians punish those causing profit.
Posted on April 16, 2008 at 9:39 am.
An anthropology professor (and a really great guy to boot) William Irons had shared the following story yesterday.
There was an experiment, a game of sorts, where a bunch of people were separated in two groups. Each person was given a certain amount of money and then each group was asked to contribute to a communal pool. The amount in the pool was then doubled and split equally among people.
In group-1, the donations were anonymous so it was possible to not donate anything and still get a share. Overtime donations decreased because people realized that someone was free-riding.
In group-2, donations were public. Also if someone felt that another is not donating enough, they could pay $3 of their own money in order to punish the offender, who would then lose $10 of his money. Overtime donations increased and everyone was making good money.
People could choose what group they like to be in. At first, most joined group-1, but once they saw the trends group-2 became much more popular.
This experiment was done across the globe, to see how different cultures affect people's grouping, donation, and punishing decisions. Obviously there were some variations.
What's curious is that was only one place in the world where in group-2 people punished others for making their donations too large.
As soon as Dr. Irons said it, I instantly thought, "Russia" and as it turned out I was right. In the words of my good friend Mr. Inkstain, "I love it when my prejudice is confirmed by empirical facts."
Comment on this post - 8 existing comments.
Game #123 - Infernal.
Posted on April 12, 2008 at 1:44 am.
Just beat Infernal. It's now on my list under number 122.
Not a bad game, but nothing to write home about either. Very straightforward even for a shooter.
Comment on this post - 3 existing comments.
Movie - Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels.
Posted on April 12, 2008 at 1:40 am.
Just saw Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It's a really nice movie. Hilarious too,
Comment on this post - 1 existing comments.
Movie - Highlander.
Posted on April 11, 2008 at 12:12 pm.
Funny, I never saw the original Highlander until yesterday. I did see the sequels, just never got to seeing the first one.
Comment on this post - 0 existing comments.
Virgins for terrorists.
Posted on April 11, 2008 at 12:06 pm.
You know how those Muslim pukes blow themselves up in public places in hopes of going to paradise and getting 72 virgins? As was pointed out earlier they don't need those virgins, what they need is just one whore, but no matter, it's their problem.
Anyway, I was able to obtain an image of those exact virgins that terrorists get.
Thanks Inkstain. =)
Comment on this post - 0 existing comments.
Egypt jails gays.
Posted on April 9, 2008 at 7:14 pm.
This is sure to bring a big smile to Mitia's face.
CAIRO, Egypt - 5 men were convicted on charges of homosexual behavior and the court sentenced them to 3 years in jail.
They were arrested in a crackdown on people who have AIDS and the charges of "debauchery" were conveniently applied to go after them.
A lawyer who works for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, told the press that these men were tortured and abused to "extract confessions" from them. This was going on for months.
After they serve their time they will have to spend every night (6 PM to 6 AM) in a police station.
Source: here.
Comment on this post - 6 existing comments.
BFKG bans samurai swords.
Posted on April 9, 2008 at 7:05 pm.
Britain: Legislation against selling, making, hiring or importing samurai swords in England and Wales has come into force.
Those breaking the law face six months in jail and a £5,000 fine.
Source: here.
Comment on this post - 0 existing comments.
Global warming brainwash.
Posted on April 8, 2008 at 1:53 pm.
"William Gray, the well-known Colorado State University hurricane forecaster, routinely uses the annual National Hurricane Conference as a platform to bash global warming. In a statement to Florida Today, Gray argued that the scientific consensus on global warming is bogus — and "a mild form of McCarthyism has developed toward those scientists who do not agree" that mankind is in danger.
"We are also brainwashing our children on the warming topic. We have no better example than Al Gore's alarmists and inaccurate movie which is being shown in our schools and being hawked by warming activists with little or no meteorological-climate background," Gray wrote."
Source: here.
Comment on this post - 5 existing comments.
Weird shit.
Posted on April 8, 2008 at 11:24 am.
Sometimes things are strange. Take World of Warcraft for example. According to the lore, your character is a great hero of his people. He fought liches and their armies of undead, put down dragons and elemental princes, even battled old gods. Then he walked through the dark portal to enter another world with more heroic deeds to be done.
And then he began digging though shit.
Literally.
I just did a quest called "A rare bean" in a zone called Nagrand. It goes like this, "To the west you will find dung heaps left behind by the wildlife of Nagrand. You must search the dung for the digested remnants of the Nagrand caracoli."
It was given to me by a guy who is two steps away from the aforementioned heaps. He is practically standing in them. Yet, somehow he thinks that a level 65 warlock is just the right type to pick peanuts out of some animal's crap.
This is not all. In Hellfire Peninsular, there is a goblin who keeps felhounds. Apparently they ate his keys, so here is his plan for getting them back: "I'll pay you if you'll take my felhound on a walk. Kill some boars and let him eat. He'll do his business. When he's done, see if you can't find the keys in his leavings."
Sure enough as you perform this grim task, you gain a debuff called "Stanky," which informs the world that "You smell funny" and displays a green cloud about you.
Isn't that an odd quest? I wonder who thought of this. The regular WoW sometimes had piles of shit next to ogre mounds, which is reasonable, but nobody made you dig through it. In the Burning Crusade expansion, however, there are now at least two such quests. Did Blizzard hire some feces-obsessed quest designer?
Makes you think, huh?
Comment on this post - 12 existing comments.
In Zeus we trust.
Subscribe to RSS feed.