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March 10 2010

The Nothing noths

"Nothing is an awe-inspiring yet essentially undigested concept, highly esteemed by writers of an existentialist tendency, but by most others regarded with anxiety, nausea, or panic."

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March 07 2010

A Trailer for Every Academy Award Winning Movie Ever

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Autoantonyms

are single words that themselves can mean either one thing or its opposite.

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March 06 2010

Reposted from

andelocks

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March 05 2010

Tremendomeatatarianism

is the ethical stance of vowing only to eat meat that’s tremendously delicious.

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March 04 2010

Play fullscreen

Gymkata!

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March 03 2010

A History of Obama Feigning Interest in Mundane Things

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I'm getting sick of the terrible servers.

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Play fullscreen

LEGO!

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March 02 2010

Reposted from

andelocks

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February 28 2010

February 24 2010

Planet War (in pictures)

"From the bloody civil wars in Africa to the rag-tag insurgiences in Southeast Asia, 33 conflicts are raging around the world today, and it’s often innocent civilians who suffer the most."

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February 23 2010

February 22 2010

Alan Cooper's List of Homonyms

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February 20 2010

10 Rules for writing fiction

"1 Do not place a photograph of your favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide."

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February 17 2010

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Stereotypically correct, but not very charitable to Descartes.

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February 16 2010

Werewolf is a game of deception and manipulation

"No one is drunk or under any narcotic influence, and yet all three men are moments away from what Fitzpatrick will later describe as "a mindfuck". A year on, Gibson concurs. 'It left me with the sense that one of my basic anchors on reality had been ripped loose,' he recalls. Wales still talks about the all-nighter with reverent awe: 'It was amazing. It was a work of art. It was a thing of beauty.'"

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The Prisoners' Dilemma

You and your friend have been arrested by the police and placed in separate rooms to be interrogated. Both of you are told that if one testifies against the other and the other does not testify, the former will go free and the latter will get five years of jail time. However, if both of you testify against the other, both of you receive three years in jail. If neither of you testify, the police do not have enough evidence to convict and you both go free. (Example adapted from Harrington's Games, Strategies, and Decision Making).

The Payoff matrix looks something like this:

C = Cooperate

T = Testify

C T

C (0,0) (-5,0)

T (0,-5) (-3,-3)

This is what is known as the Prisoners' Dilemma.

A Nash Equilibrium is the optimal strategy for each player given that each player is rational and trying to maximize their payoffs (e.g. less jail time). In the Prisoners' Dilemma, the Nash Equilibrium is {testify, testify}, which results in both players receiving jail time.

What makes the Prisoners' Dilemma a fascinating case is that the optimal strategy for each player, testify, results in an outcome that is both Pareto and Welfare dominated. The best (i.e. most rational) strategy for each player results in a suboptimal outcome for both players.

There is no solution to the Prisoners' Dilemma. Additionally, the dilemma arises no matter how many times the game is iterated. One may only 'solve' the Prisoners' Dilemma by changing the parameters of the game.