(Yehuda BS, 2007) The US dollar finally fell against the last currency against which it had managed to remain steady, the US dollar. The US dollar will now buy only 99.97 cents according to Wall Street's latest currency report."It was only a matter of time," said Mr. George W. Banks of the Bank of England. "The dollar can only hold out so long against such economic pressure." American economist Daddy Warbucks agreed, and indicated that the dollar could fall to as low as 97 or 96 cents.
Investors quickly scrambled to transfer their remaining paper dollars into harder currencies such as quarters, nickels, and dimes. "It's the fault of New Dollar, with those awful artificial colors," sad Warbucks. "People hate it. Bring back Classic Dollar and the dollar may show a turnaround."
Citizens for Retiring the Penny[2] had no comment when contacted.
Media on Overhype again [3]
CBS News reported on a "disturbing trend", that stuff kids post online increasingly comes back to haunt the parents. Obviously it's common sense to be careful as to what you post online, and of course there will be the single anecdote about something bad having happened.
But is it a "trend", or just the usual case of fear mongering? Are parents getting in trouble left and right because of things their kids post online?
Two experts were quoted in the story: Parry Aftab, a lawyer who specializes in online safety, and Sgt. Corey MacDonald, a policeman who speaks about online safety to schools. I fired emails off to each of them. Parry replied.
Parry is quoted in the article as saying: "I've represented a lot of parents who've come to me when they have been fired, they've been demoted or they've been called on the carpet because of what their kids posted online."
I asked her if she could give me some numbers to go along with this statement. What's "a lot"? Parry's reply: "It's not a huge number. But a risk people need to be aware of."
I asked again for more specific numbers: "I don't know how often it occurs. I only know how many cases and inquiries I receive. That doesn't mean anything, though. It's a growing number. Not commonplace yet."
In other words, the source for this "disturbing trend" essentially denies that it is a trend, but implies that while it's not a trend now, it could be sometime in the future.
As usual, common sense, with regard to what your kids do online, and with what you hear from the media, must prevail.
As Long as We're Bashing the Media
I'll send a bottle of beer[4] to the first mainstream news reporter this year who writes the "traditional board games are making a comeback" phrase or any variation therof. Who will be the first this year? See past years' winners. We may as well make it a drinking game.
Need to write an article about board games for the mainstream news media? I wrote some templates for you last year so you don't have to do all that work.
Game News[5]
Clive Thompson takes on the role of suicide bomber in Halo 3. Halo 3 is a trivial environment, but he sees an inkling of correlation to the real world.
Toys R'Us is apparently doing a good job at alienating all of its customers.
The Wisconsin Ledger reports on the Dane County Timebank, a freeform organization that simply matches those in need of services and those who can give them. One of the services on offer, according to the article, is teaching you to play Settlers of Catan.
Webwereld's list of 15 great online game sites includes BrettSpielWelt.
Latest celebrity board game lovers: Foo Fighters love Scrabble.
And, oh yeah, another poker shooting.
Yehuda
[1] This is fake.
[2] This is real.
[3] Also real.
[4] Probably fake.
[5] All real.
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