September 25, 2007

Civics Literacy test

I recommend this Civics Literacy test although should warn that it is awfully hard. I got 50 out of 60 although was kind of unlucky on a a number of 50-50 guesses.


Posted by aarondf at 04:33 PM | Links | Comments (1)

Tennis Infographics

This New York Times infographic on tennis is really impressive in presentation. I found slides 5 and 9 particularly informative. You can really see the difference in effect of the surfaces (clay vs. grass) in #5 and of serving diversity (Nadal vs. Roddick) in #9. Kudos to the graphic designers on this piece.

Link from kottke.

Posted by aarondf at 04:27 PM | Links | Comments (0)

September 14, 2007

Are the Rich falling behind?

Pretty funny video.

Posted by aarondf at 04:49 PM | Links | Comments (0)

September 13, 2007

Hunting Party - Interesting game

I played the recent game Hunting Party on Tuesday which I liked pretty well although it is certainly not for everyone. A bizarre thing, though, happened in the game. A situation came up which seemed to completely knock me out of a game where players do NOT get eliminated. I had put myself intentionally in a bad situation because it seemed worth the gain and I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to get out of after I took advantage of the good points it had. However, I hadn't been paying close enough attention and Doug had a power (and could not possibly lose it) where he could negate anything I did to try to get out of this situation. As such, I actually walked away from the game to watch another game thinking I was just in a completely stuck situation. The others offered to do something to fix it but I was ok with being out of the game, given the chance I had taken and that I hadn't paid enough attention to Doug's hero's power. Oddly enough, after going away for like 10 minutes I came back and more closely looked at my cards and discovered that amazingly I had a card that worked together with one of my characters to give me a way out of my problem. I therefore rejoined the game and actually pretty quickly won. Totally bizarre and I am sure first time such a thing ever happened to me in any game.

Doug and I then played a couple of games of the great Knockabout.

Posted by aarondf at 06:27 PM | Games | Comments (0)

September 08, 2007

Grand Slam! - Wow! (spoilers)

Wow, Ken Jennings is good! Just watched the final of Grand Slam which was phenomenal and Ken just absolutely unbelievable. Even with his amazing Jeopardy! performance, I was amazed at just how well he did. The first two rounds (which Ogi actually won by tiny margins) were just incredible on both of their parts. After Ogi's collapse in the new third round (which I have to say I think is a bad idea to do - have a round type that only occurs in the final), the game was pretty much over and both knew it but still Ken's concentration and speed were just WOW!!!!. Congratulations and of course couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Ken's blog which I've been reading for a while is here and recommended.

Posted by aarondf at 08:07 PM | Television | Comments (1)