higeyuki

MapleStory Introduced Loot Boxes and Randomized Rewards

I remember the article saying he had wanted to go to Mongolia all along and that this was an added bonus to his experience.

"For a long time, he had dreamed of traveling across Mongolia on a bike. Now that his son was older, why not do it with him?"

The article even says that you do not have to go to Mongolia to do this.

"You don't have to go all to the other side of the world just to bond with your children, says Caroline Knorr, the parenting editor for Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization that educates parents about media and technology."

Quite a simple concept, it's particulate matter in the air, the greater the density the worse the effect on humans, animals, and ecology. It would be difficult to measure the effect of one specific particulate's effect.

Particle pollution — also called particulate matter (PM) — is made up of particles (tiny pieces) of solids or liquids that are in the air. These particles may include:

    Dust
    Dirt
    Soot
    Smoke
    Drops of liquid

https://www.cdc.gov/air/particulate_matter.html

What Are People Dying of on High Air Pollution Days? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00139...

"The air pollution disasters in London in 1952, the Meuse valley in 1930, and in Donoroa, Pennsylvania, in 1948 made it clear that extremely high levels of particulate-based smog could produce large increases in the daily mortality rate."

Temperature variability also factors into this. Though by itself is not a major factor, it seems to be a combination of things.

If anything we are not "killing the planet" we are destroying the conditions that allow life to thrive on Earth. I've been following these links since 2013 and more studies are showing this could be a "thing."

"Here we estimate associations between multiple environmental factors (air quality, residential greenness, mean temperature, and temperature variability) and self-assessed mental health scores for over 20,000 Chinese residents. Mental health scores were surveyed in 2010 and 2014, allowing us to link changes in mental health to the changes in environmental variables. Increases in air pollution and temperature variability are associated with higher probabilities of declined mental health. Mental health is statistically unrelated to mean temperature in this study, and the effect of greenness on mental health depends on model settings, suggesting a need for further study. Our findings suggest that the environmental policies to reduce emissions of air pollution or greenhouse gases can improve mental health of the public in China."

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10196-y

More importantly:

1. Air Pollution Linked to Mutations https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2002/12/air-pollution-linked...

2. Air pollution causes sperm mutations https://www.nature.com/news/2008/080113/full/news.2008.439.h...

3. January 1994 What Are People Dying of on High Air Pollution Days? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00139...

"The air pollution disasters in London in 1952, the Meuse valley in 1930, and in Donoroa, Pennsylvania, in 1948 made it clear that extremely high levels of particulate-based smog could produce large increases in the daily mortality rate."

Edit: A Few more from earlier times:

1996 Feb: Psychiatric aspects of air pollution. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8637739

December 1984: Air pollution and depressive symptomatology: Exploratory analyses of intervening psychosocial factors https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01256411

Nov. 2, 1999 Air Pollution Linked to Increased Heart Rate https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/19991102/air-pollution-linke...

1981 Dec The psychological effects of indoor air pollution. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1805416/

June 1989 Psychological effects of air pollution on healthy residents—A time-series approach https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02724...

Yes we were. We just did not all have handheld computers and widespread social media 'addiction' in that decade. Here are quite a few articles detailing privacy and data protection from the prior decade.

https://iapp.org/news/a/2008-04-data-protection-and-outsourc... https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2008/09/secur... https://www.geek.com/news/data-protection-authority-in-greec... https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/business/30privacy.html https://www.wired.com/2007/12/why-anonymous-data-sometimes-i... https://www.economist.com/international/2007/09/27/learning-...

I feel that as a technologist we need to better think out the long term ramifications of what we create. Be less apt to bring things to the public. Technology is great when used in a manner that helps everyone in society, however it can be Pandora and hard to shove in a box once it is out there. Sometimes things can damage a society with good intentions at heart only to backfire miserably.

Especially considering the loss of the "do no evil" mentality. Everything moved heavily over to IPO's where you have people buying chunks of tech companies who have no clue how any of this works, but they demand a return so we push things out without much thought about if it will have negative consequences. Witnessing the lack of moral ideals and the blatant grab for money entrench the tech community. I saw in the last decade a major rise in "Tech Bros" in the workforce. Honestly, I am looking at going back to school next year for Geography to work on maps. I am a bit burnt out by "tech" after this decade. (That or I am just getting a case of the "old." I still love tech, but don't want to work in the field anymore.)

Einstein on the atomic bomb,

“The release of atomic power has changed everything except our way of thinking ... the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker. (1945)” Albert Einstein

How happy are you? Truly, ask yourself. Think back and think of how things have drastically changed in society.

This is telling of a world that cares more and more about the "economy" then they do people. With little to no focus on living and so much emphasis on "success," "Business," and "economy."

Work with little pay, a buy in club for access to healthcare and no work/life balance in many jobs. It does not surprise me even the smallest amount. Health insurance (at least in the states) is more like a Costco membership. It just gives you access to healthcare.

Healthcare profits have been in decline so I don't think it is about the "for profit" system as much as it is other things in our environment (work/natural.) I think this is more telling of how our culture chooses to live and has structured the work environment.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-hospital-profits-fall-as-la...

My only question is why do employers have to be responsible for healthcare?

Retirement makes sense as this is your source of income. I feel that company resources would be better spent elsewhere than on healthcare.

This would, of course, require universal healthcare or direct market healthcare. This would help new businesses thrive, especially the "mom and pop" types.

I guess I am jaded on this as my parents lost their business when I was growing up due mainly to the cost of healthcare. Not all companies have monolithic budgets.