Links for 2012-04-05

As anyone that has played the game can tell you, this air looking stuff surrounding an asteroid defines a region in which the angry birds will interact with the rock. If the bird is outside of this region, there will be no force on bird. No force means no change in velocity and the bird will move along at a constant speed in the same direction. Ok, I admit it - I missed this one. Why? Why would the game do this? I have no idea, but it is probably either because it makes the game more fun to play or because it makes it easier to calculate things in the game. But what about the time the bird is INSIDE this gravitational area? What kind of force is exerted on the bird? Is it like real gravity or something different?

I have a problem. I admit it. Isn't admitting you have a problem the first step to recovery? My problem is Angry Birds Space. I just can't stop trying to figure out how this stuff works. Oh, I am not complaining. It is like Rubic's Cube for me. I like it because I don't know the answer. So, let me bring you up to speed. First, I looked at the preview movie before the game was even available. Really, all I could figure out from the movie is that either this isn't normal gravity or the asteroids are super dense. In the second post, I used the actual game - but just the first level. At that point, my best guess was that the gravitational force was constant and there was some type of air resistance. I also found that there is some "gravitational sphere of influence". Outside this sphere, there seems to be no gravitational forces. There. You are up to speed now. Are you ready for some more data? Of course you are.

It's possible that Scalia was just kidding, just saying something outlandish and outrageous just for kicks and giggles. But it didn't seem like that. It seemed as though Scalia was genuinely, sincerely advocating the stance of an utter idiot. And let's be clear, if he meant what he said, then Antonin Scalia is an idiot -- a bad justice, a bad lawyer and a bad human being. If he really meant what he said, then Antonin Scalia is a very, very stupid man. This is not the kind of stupidity that has to do with innate intellectual capacity or the lack thereof. It is not a level of stupidity that can be achieved through simple ignorance. This is a depth of stupidity that can only be achieved through the deliberate rejection of empathy. This astonishing variety of stupidity has to be willfully, voluntarily chosen. The point being that this is not a good thing.

"A precious moment for Salome..."