My browser’s become a bit cluttered with tabs, so a bit of a roundup of interesting tabs sitting around in my browser:

This article is interesting. Alas, I don’t know enough about quantum mechanics to really know what’s going on here. The way it’s described sounds so confusing and impossible — Maybe this is an example of bad science reporting?

From Digg, an article on Second Life. Apparently Second Life is taking on a trajectory not unlike Sims Online. In its heyday Sims Online had prostitution syndicates running the game, using sexual favors in the game as a way to monopolize markets and driving out competitors or independent agents.

Funny and sad bits from the article:

In the virtual world of Second Life, it is possible to walk up to someone and rub a body part against them without their permission. Ren Reynolds, a virtual-world consultant and Second Life inhabitant who spoke on the ethics panel at the first Sex in Video Games Conference in San Francisco last week, says this is more likely to be “annoying” than a “violation”.

…

People have long argued whether committing crimes in games encourages the same behaviour in the real world. Although many argue that it must, this is very difficult to prove. Studies have concluded that people who play violent video games are more aggressive, but critics say this merely proves that violent people gravitate towards violent games. Some even argue the reverse – that allowing people to commit virtual crimes reduces the probability that they will transgress in the real world, because they have been able to vent their violent urges. … Bruce Bartholow of the Univesity of Missouri, Columbia, says it is more likely to increase the likelihood that they will engage in violent activities again.

On a sort of similar psychosexual theme, an article from Wired positing some theories on why men play female characters. As usual with Wired it seems like they’re going for the wacky or obscure angle. The article references a “Last Girl” theory developed concerning horror movies, about why people will cheer when early victims get diced up, but cheer when the hero (usually female) starts fighting back. An alternative theory: Maybe men like looking at women.

Riffing on this again, though no videogame theme this time, I was reading over this post by Dr. Helen (ie, the Instawife) and took a look in the comments. Take a look at this link that showed up in the comments (Note: Site is a Russian bride site and thus may not be safe to browse in your usual browser. You may want to pick up Torpark if you’re concerned about privacy when looking at such a site.). All I can say is “Damn.” Even knowing these are glamour shots with some Photoshopping going on, these are some nice looking women. What’s wrong with Russia, and, for that matter, America?