EverQuest is not a game; it is a world with its own economy

People do not play EverQuest they live it. Seeing as you can be whatever they want to be in the game it makes sense that people want to play. It is a great way to escape from the humdrum of everyday life, a bad day at work, or the expectations of your family. You have the control in the game and can be everything you are not in real life. As you are dealing with other people you can form friendships, and other relationships.

At this point there is a barter system economy going on in EverQuest. Dave Becker has written an article “EverQuest”, spins its own economy discussing how big that economy actually is and its impact on the real world. Currently people are selling items within the EverQuest system with actual cash transactions and items being sold on auction sites and other online shops. There has been talk of allowing real pre-existing online specialty stores to create a store in EverQuest were people can purchase items and then have the product in the game and shipped to them in real life. I do know that there are quite a few existing shops such as Medieval Magic, Boots by Bohemond, Drakyl's Chainmail Designs, Thak the Blacksmith & Armourer and Lost Legends Art that would fit right in with out any changes and would love to be able to sell directly on EverQuest. I even know someone who is thinking about creating a persona or avatar to do Tarot Readings on EverQuest. They do it professionally right now, but only reach so many people in there area. EverQuest would be a much larger market for them and they can do the readings right there in the game, no messing around with long distance phone calls or web cams.

This is a serious business opportunity and those with the smarts are going to find away to take advantage of this open marketplace. I am hoping that EverQuest will follow through and allow people to open stores to sell directly on EverQuest, so that they can have some type of control of who is selling what. They could even charge the shopkeepers rent every month. I know that I would go for that; I think it would add to the game. It would be kind of interesting to be able to buy something on a game, and then have the actual item in your home as well. At this point a lot of sales are going on around EverQuest, through deals made on EverQuest and then actual cash payment through online payment systems like Paypal. As much as some people do not like it, EverQuest does have an economy and it is having an impact on the world outside of EverQuest.

Earths ecosystem is desperately trying to find a balance.

All the storms and unusual weather patterns seem to indicate that there are some changes going on. Science proves it. We are having changes in the temperature of our Oceans and even in our climate. There have been great changes in the salt content in water and an increase in the quantity of water in our ecosystem. We have created a great imbalance and now the world is trying to fix itself.

Over the years we have impacted the world and its balance. We have increased pollution instead of decreasing it and that impacts the air we breathe and the amount of radiation from the sun that reaches us. Now we are changing the world’s water supply. We have taken water that was frozen for who knows how long and have consumed it. This has changed the quantity of water in our ecosystem. As we increase the water we dilute the salt concentration in our seawater. This is having an impact on fish and other see creatures. It is also changing the temperature of the water and our weather.

In Canada and some parts of the US a lot of salt is used to get rid of ice. It ends up in our fresh water supply as for some reason the water from the drains goes straight to the lakes and streams instead of a water processing plant. It has changed the water, and we are loosing fresh water species of plants, animals and fish at an unheard of rate. As freshwater is one of the most important natural resources destroying it is not a smart move on our part. We have these wonderful beaches but signs all over about how unsafe it is to get into the water, pollution has caused dangerous bacteria to grow in some of the water, and for others the pollution itself is just so high it is not safe.

Years ago someone came up with the weird idea of selling bottled water, who knew how big that business would become. It is a sad day when you have to go to the store to buy clean water, when you live surrounded by fresh water lakes that are no longer safe to drink from. Someone else came up with oxygen bars. A place where people could stop off and get a dose of pure oxygen, like a cup of coffee. They were popular in some of the larger cities with smog problems. People thought the idea was way out there until they tried it. People said even a small dose of clean air made them feel better. I know that they have not taken off like bottled water, but I can see that changing as the air becomes more and more polluted.

What can we expect over the next few years? Who knows! We may end up with even more extreme weather, or hopefully nature will right itself. However as long as we keep changing the balance nature is just going to have to keep trying to right itself. We cannot expect Governments to fix this, they have different agendas no matter what Country they work for. We have to think of what we can do as individuals. Maybe if a lot of us make small changes that might help. Until changes are made or a balance is found we just have to live with the consequences of our Grandparents decisions and ours.

Great picture of how much water and air we actually have

I found this wonderful picture showing how much air and water is on earth. It is a great visual of how little we actually have. This really goes to show that we have to protect our air and water instead of polluting them. We only have so much, and we have done a lot of damage already. It is not like once we start running out of usable air and water we can just run over to the next planet and pick some up. Once it is gone, we have to fix it or die. How much damage can earth sustain before it becomes irreversible? We are already seeing damage in ecosystems; species lost, and are feeling it in the fishing industry. When you make changes in the water quality and the salt content you change what can live in that water. The same goes with air. We have been destroying the world’s air filters when we destroy the rain forest and other plant life. The damage we are doing is no longer something that is going to be seen in a few 100 years. People used to excuse their polluting and uncaring about the damage by saying that it would take 100’s of years before it would have an effect on the planet, and by then we would have found a way to fix it. Well it seems that they were wrong. I don’t have an answer on how to change or fix this, just the observation that we are already seeing changes in our lifetime, what is going to be happening in our children’s lifetime?

Left: All the water in the world (1.4087 billion cubic kilometres of it) including sea water, ice, lakes, rivers, ground water, clouds, etc. Right: All the air in the atmosphere (5140 trillion tonnes of it) gathered into a ball at sea-level density. Shown on the same scale as the Earth. This picture and information about the picture was posted on Dan Phiffer.

What is in our food and how will it change us?

For some time now I have been a fan of Kim Harrison and her Dead Witch Walking series with Rachel Morgan. I have enjoyed how her characters have evolved, and her books are interesting in an alternate universe type of way. I love the mix of mythological characters that are all based in history and fairytales. What I find very interesting is the concept that humanity became more interested in chemical and biological science instead of space and machine weapons in this reality. And yet they still manage to almost kill themselves off.

What makes this so interesting is that in the last ten to twenty years we have started investing a lot more into chemical and biological research. The fact that we are cloning and changing the biological makeup of our food falls right into her stories. The idea is that someone created a weapon based on biological science that made it out of the research lab to make changes in a genetically altered strain of tomato. It causes a change that almost destroyed the human race. That is something we can actually do today, be it by human error or by design. The very fact that we are making changes in our food has already made changes in us, the people who eat it. It is true, you are what you eat.

If there is a cow that produces unusual large amounts of milk we don’t just breed to keep that trait anymore, we clone the cow. There are cows that have been genetically altered to produce more milk. Then we feed our chickens growth hormones to speed up their development so they can be sold sooner. Um, we are eating those hormones when we eat the chicken. Then we have the changes in our vegetables and fruits. They are changed to grow faster and larger, and sometimes changed so far from the original source that it becomes a new strain. This can be seen in a lot of grains, which is used to feed animals and us. It is scary when you think about this. What are all these changes in genetics and hormones doing to us?

I used to think people buying organic were just funny, now I think they have the right idea. The problem is that it is too expensive for the average family. So now we have girls starting the change to womanhood before they are even teenagers. There are girls out there who are 10 years old having menstrual cycles and accelerated development. They look like they are 18 not 10. We have children growing exceedingly fast, and taller then any other time in history. Now I do know that as adults we are getting fatter, and the same hormones and chemicals that are used to grow our food can cause this in some part. A fat pig is a good pig for market, not so good when we eat it with the hormones that caused it to get so fat. Don’t get me wrong; the side of fries and large pop with our ham sandwich does not help any. But you get the idea.

How long before something mutates and becomes harmful to us? Or the changes we have made to our foods changes us?

A possible step to segregation in Toronto’s schools

I cannot believe what I just saw on the news tonight. The Toronto school board (or one of them) is looking into having special schools and programs for black students. I understand that the idea is to try to meet the needs of black students, as there is a high drop out rate. However great the intention they have this is not a good idea. This is the first step to segregation. Special schools and programs based on skin colour no matter what the intentions are is not the right direction to go. Programs should be based on the students needs not their skin colour.

This is going open a big can of worms and I will be very surprised if they follow threw on this proposal. There are a few big problems I can see: one is that a non black student is going to be upset that they don’t get the extra help if they need it based on their skin colour. Also what about mix race? Because they have a black person in their family line does that mean they can go to this school or not because they have a non-black person in their family line? Does this mean other groups will start having special schools and programs? They did say that any one could go to the school but that it would be designed for the needs of the black students. Once this starts then you need to meet every groups needs, you cannot have a school designed to meet just the needs of one segment of the school population in this day and age. How are the students going to feel about being in a special program or school? Every one knows that in school “special” has a very negative connotation.

I think that they need to look at it not in terms of skin colour but the geographical location of the schools. There should be programs and schools available to try and help all the students stay in school in that geographical area. The higher the drop out rate in the area the more help available to the schools in this area. I believe that the idea to help students is on right track, but it must not be based on the colour of ones skin but the needs of the individual student.

Here is a link to a news article School board to discuss black-focused schools

Biggest black hole in the cosmos discovered

The most massive known black hole in the universe has been discovered, weighing in with the mass of 18 billion Suns. Observing the orbit of a smaller black hole around this monster has allowed astronomers to test Einstein's theory of general relativity with stronger gravitational fields than ever before.

read more | digg story

The Top 10 real life Star Trek Inventions!!!

I always knew that some of our new technology was inspired by Sci-fi books and shows. Here are some technology inspired by Star Trek that is part of our lives now or will soon be. In the past few months a number of technologies and products that invoke the Star Trek name have been rolled out.

read more | digg story