Life imitates "Contact"

I watched this talk by a woman doing SETI work. She was actually not a very good speaker, in my fabulous opinion. She gave a nod to "Contact" by using the "awful waste of space" line, but at other times seemed to just be stealing from it (badly). Then she mentioned a further parallel that was just a little too crazy. Microsoft founder Paul Allen is playing Hadden (the rich old benefactor from Contact) by funding a dedicated radio telescope array for SETI work. (This is actually old news, in the works since 2003, but new to me.)

Empire Building Game Mechanics, EVE

I've ranted before about EVE and WoW and how they were not the games I wanted to play. I kept playing EVE and just hit one year since I started playing it. I've run into the usual MMO problem that it has boring repetitive grinding. The scifi candy shell has worn off, and it's getting boring.
I haven't quite quit yet, and I still have some things cooking in game to optimize the experience. They have an expansion coming out soon (they always do), but I'll probably take a peek at that content and decide the whole system is inherently flawed and quit it then.

( Analysis )