Interesting Links for 31-07-2013

[andrewducker]

• Declaring the death of the Final Fantasy series
  (tags: games )
• The pace of modern life: UK v Denmark
  (tags: uk life society denmark )
• BBC Trust admits a key programme on Welfare State was biased
  (tags: politics uk welfare bbc )
• Psychotherapy via internet as good as if not better than face-to-face consultations
  (tags: psychology internet therapy )

Comments

[gonzo21]

I would imagine the big bonus of online therapy is the ability to scroll up and re-read something your therapist has said, and reflect on it more fully. A lot of the time in my sessions I found myself wishing I had a transcript of the useful things she said, because the brain can only hang on to so many things in an hour session, I'm quite certain I forgot a lot of stuff.

[bart_calendar]

While Final Fantasy X-2 was awful, I think that given the sheer number of Final Fantasy titles that have been created I can forgive one piece of shit.

Final Fantasy XIII was really good and Final Fantasy XIII- was even better (because it skipped the rails part of the original XII.)

While the boob jiggling in the next one sounds ridiculous, all of the videos documenting the game play on it look amazing. And it's entirely possible they'll get rid of the boob jiggling before they release it.

[aiela]

I actually finished 13. I liked it. 13-2 got so bogged down in time travel I got lost and gave up.

[bart_calendar]

I enjoyed the time travel (though I did use the official guide to navigate it, but I use the guides for all the games.)

[aiela]

I don't have a problem with using guides, but I tend to use them when I get stuck, not step-by-step, and by the time I realized I was lost, the guide did me no good because I had no idea what I'd done or not done. I will probably eventually get the guide and start over but I've had way too many other things I've wanted to do than drop another 40 hours into a game.

[a_pawson]

I walked up to Muckle Flugga a few years ago. I always remember the signs warning walkers not to wear waterproof trousers as if you are blown off your feet they provide no friction against the heather and make it more likely you will be blown off a cliff. I've never seen those signs anywhere else in Scotland, which is not surprising as Shetland is an incredibly windy place.

[cairmen]

The therapy link is *fascinating* - not least because Internet-based therapy will be significantly more accessible to a lot of people.

It's generally very interesting to watch how we're discovering what face-to-face interactions can and can't be replaced easily with virtual interactions. AD&D appears to work well virtually, therapy works well virtually - it's exciting stuff.

[drplokta]

I suspect that figure for the amount a Big Mac would cost if the workers were paid $15 per hour is only the McDonalds employees, and doesn't take account of what would happen if all of the farm workers, delivery drivers, cleaners, etc. in the entire supply chain were all paid at least $15 per hour.

[daveon]

This is very US focused, and doesn't take into account a fair amount of variation in the minimum wage, although none of them are quite that high. WA State is currently $9.20 - not that I'd want to live anywhere in King County on that kind of money.

The flipside of that, is that the US tax payers are, on the whole, picking up the tab already for the low minimum wage, so what's more likely to happen is you'd ultimately end up with the transfer of money between individuals and the state being in a different place. The most egregious data I've seen on this involves the cost of a single Walmart store being a non-trivial six figure amount in government payments to their staff.