Interesting Links for 07-02-2012

[andrewducker]

• The 25 Most Awkward Cat Sleeping Positions (The Cuteness - it burns!)
  (tags: sleep cute photos cats )
• U.S. drones targeting rescuers and mourners
  (tags: usa politics military pakistan afghanistan )
• Government rejects pardon request for Alan Turing
  (tags: uk law lgbt AlanTuring )
• Narrative is not a game mechanic - on computer games, feedback and

Comments

[momentsmusicaux]

As much as I love flow and miss it dreadfully when absent, I stopped reading at the bit about 'the electrical shock could blind you for a few minutes'. Eep.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I'll definitely be waiting for version two!

[lil_shepherd]

I have always thought that it was the definition of 'porn' that was the problem with that copyright clause. Besides, it is not so much copyright as passing off where the danger of being bankrupted by a court case lies.

[danieldwilliam]

The article on narrative in game design was very interesting.

I don't play a lot of computer games so my experience is a little limited but thinking about Civilisation and Quake and Portal I see where he's going with most of it.

[wig]

some of those cat sleeping positions are yoga poses, e.g. #18 looks like "chair dvi pada viparita dandasana"

[undeadbydawn]

Government somewhat fails to appreciate that the point of pardoning Alan Turing is that his actions should never have been considered a crime.

the man is one of the greatest heroes in the history of mankind. the authors of that law among the greatest villains.

/sigh/

[andrewducker]

The government must appreciate that, as they said as much in their response.

[simont]

But McNally's quote - "A posthumous pardon was not considered appropriate as Alan Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence" - does seem to me to have missed the point somewhat.

A pardon is distinct from a retrospective quashing of a conviction. The latter would mean that you'd decided he had not in fact committed the crime after all, and that would indeed be inaccurate in Turing's case. But a pardon says (or can say) that you think he did commit the crime but nonetheless should not be, or should not have been, punished for it. So it's missing the point to argue that a pardon would not be appropriate because he did it.

If someone was punished cruelly and tragically for breaching a law that should never have been on the books in the first place, that would seem to me to be excellent cause for a pardon in moral terms. And if they were also a media-friendly war hero, it would seem excellent cause in PR terms too!

[andrewducker]

It seems the government disagrees about what a pardon means. As they agree that the law was bad and have apologised I'm not sure why else they would take this stance (unless it would have them open to criminal claims from survivors who were also convicted at the time).