A new idea was shaping in his mind and a new phrase with it—Secondary Kill. Of those that the Great Disaster had spared, many would fall victim to some trouble from which civilization had previously protected them. With unlimited liquor they would drink themselves to death. There had been, he guessed, murder; almost certainly there had been suicide. Some, like the old man, who ordinarily would have lived normal enough lives, would be pushed over the line into insanity by shock and the need of readjustment; such ones would probably not survive long. Some would meet with accident; being alone, they would die. Others would die of disease which no one was left to treat. He knew that, biologically speaking, there was a critical point in the numbers of any species—if the numbers were reduced below this point, the species could not recover. Was mankind going to survive? Well, that was one of those interesting points which gave him the will to live. But certainly the result of his day’s research gave him little confidence. In fact, if these survivors were typical, who would wish mankind to survive?

Earth Abides, George Stewart

One of my favorite parts from The Stand was the section in the expanded edition in which King tells all the stories indirectly brought on by the superflu: people getting locked in walk-in refrigerators, that sort of thing.

The thing that makes apocalypse stories interesting isn’t what caused the world to end (oftentimes it isn’t even explained), but what survivors are willing do to each other to keep living and what that says about our true inner selves.

Even if it is just fiction.

But, like many things in HTML, there really is no correct way. HTML5 specs proposed a dialog element, but it was dropped back in 2009.

So what should you do? I dunno…use paragraphs I guess. And if you want to style it use spans and other junk. What’s the big deal, nerd?

• 4.13.3 Conversations

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• Daft Punk in Talks with Nile Rodgers for New Album

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• For those who have lost quite a bit of weight, what is your attitude to dating people who are overweight/obese?

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The problems with bashing your competition in ads:

1. It acknowledges your competition
2. It makes it seem like everyone who uses your competitor’s product is an idiot, which fails to endear them to your product and makes you seem like a jerk

Also hey you guys remember that song from 10 years ago by what was that band anyway they were in an ad for something last night, gonna go download it on iTunes now.

Not sure if this is an ad for The Darkness or an ad for Samsung.

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Madonna, you've done it again...made me want to sleep with a 50 year old woman. Thank you.

— PAtrick (@Unclear99) February 6, 2012

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The emphasis should be on the game, not the guest star. The character is the important person on that equation, not the person playing them. Every single time her journalist character comes on screen, I’m supposed to remember that it’s Jessica Chobot, which is unfair because it takes away my ability to escape into the game world.

If this is the direction the series is going in then maybe it’s not so bad that my 360 died halfway through Mass Effect 2.

• I’m Confused, BioWare… | Quest Board

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Gaft questions the comparison. This excerpt reveals a lot:

Well, that’s the thing, though. With that example in particular, you’ve got “some of this” and you’ve got “some of that” and it’s got some new stuff thrown in. The games in question are games that are being accused of taking too much, and not adding enough.

Like Dream Heights — it’s being accused of not taking anything from anywhere else, that it’s not taking a little bit from there or a little bit from here or adding new stuff. A lot of people are seeing, “Hey, this is a reskinned Tiny Tower,” and I think that’s the difference, though, between the example you gave and what’s happening now.

[PR steered the conversation away from Dream Heights at this point.]

• Gamasutra – Features – Talking Copycats with Zynga’s Design Chief

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According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the number of U.S.-born physicians expected to become primary care practitioners – internal medicine, family practice and pediatrics – decreased 31 percent from 2000 to 2010. And the group expects the shortage to get worse.

Also cited for the shortage is the amount of doctors who go towards specialties because they’re more lucrative than being a general practitioner.

• Primary Care physicians increasingly rare

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• No Pet For You

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