A Day in the Life of a Dead Dragon

I am sorry, Elder Dragon, for slaying you, but you were terrorising the village of Riverwood and there was not much else that I could do. With the right to self-defense I am allowed to deploy as much force as necessary, but who knew it would need to be of lethal quantity?

Will you forgive me, enslaver of all mortal races? 'No', you contest? How about I make it up to you; let me keep you company for a day. Hopefully you will find it in (what remains of) your heart to do so, if you are not as mortified of the incident as you are right now.

9am
You know what, dragon? No matter how hard I try, I cannot avoid absorbing a dragon's soul, and yours is no exception. Alas, you are stripped of what makes yourself you, and yes, I probably should apologise for that too...

What is this? You took out a Whiterun Guard? Shame on you, dragon; what did he ever do to you, besides attempting to bring you down himself? Perhaps my absorbing your very essence can serve as just punishment for such a heinous act of murder.

The village has started gathering, obviously transfixed by the sight of your skeleton. They have never seen a dragon before, and I cannot blame them; your kind has been absent from the face of Tamriel for centuries, after all. Perhaps you can spend your crippled days in a museum? That way, the citizens of Skyrim can afford their spectacle, and you enjoy the luxury of being polished. How is that for a deal?

My Computer and I: Spring Cleaning

I have bought a new(er) Dell Studio XPS 8100 and since retired my Dimension 8400. Despite a fresh system, sooner or later, problems will arise, often ones that are difficult to troubleshoot. That goes with any computer system, anyway.

I have no formal training in information technology, yet I try to troubleshoot computer problems myself. With that arises a somewhat crude scientific investigation, testing one component at a time until the problem disappears. So, what is the problem this time?

The problem:
Apparently randomly, the display's screen would go blank. Unlike last time, the problem would correct (temporarily) by pulling the plug and rebooting.

The Faction: The Wyrmrest charter [Interview Transcript]

The Hour of Twilight... was not meant to be, at least not yet. Yet, in their deepest despairs, the four Dragon Aspects managed to band together to neutralise a lesser, but nonetheless significant threat: Chromatus. Now, with newfound unity among them, us mortals can now hope, for a new day after the twilight, when Deathwing is finally defeated. Find out what happened to make them who they are today, and how mortal Thrall was of help to such grand beings, on The Faction, only on Critically Analyse.

19th day of 7(1) ES 39
N.B. Spoilers for World of Warcraft: Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects after the jump

Participants

• Deeve Spairs [Deeve]
• Kirygosa [Kiry]
• Aggra [Aggra]

Introduction
[Deeve] /say: Welcome to The Faction, where we will be talking about the charter of sorts forged between the four functioning Dragonflights: Red, Green, Blue and Bronze. Today we have two ladies with us, Kirygosa of the Blue Dragonflight and daughter of the past Malygos...
[Kiry] /yell: [:Draconic;ferocious] Hello.
[Deeve] /s: ...and Aggra, shaman and spouse of Thrall.
[Aggra] /s: [:Orcish;] Well met.

Doomsday: Inside Job

Earth is humanity’s cradle, but by no means can it completely harbour us from harm. Many risks threaten individual lives, but there are some catastrophic enough to wipe out entire species. Is it possible for the prolific human species to face extinction?

We knew the world would not be the same ... "Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds"...I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.

J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project

History
In 1933, Leó Szilárd proposed that free neutrons could be used to start a chain atomic reaction. In 1938, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann found barium in a uranium solution bombarded with neutrons. The next year, World War II started, during which the United States undertakes the Manhattan Project. It produced the first working nuclear weapons (atomic bombs), one of which dropped on Hiroshima, Japan and another on Nagasaki (pictured above). These attacks caused Japan to surrender, ending the War.

GST on Gold Selling

As questionable it may be, gold selling is a way to make money. Like any other Australian business, a Australian gold seller may get taxed on their proceeds, and if they have not been declaring such income on their BAS (business activity statement), they may well be running up a tax debt...

Josh, as well as his friends Guy and Sandy, have dipped their toes into the grey market, and are now wondering if they will have to pay GST (Goods and Services Tax). Unfortunately, they find the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 (GST Act) too daunting to find out themselves. Will you be able to help them?

This problem has been taken out of Understanding Taxation Law 2011 (see bibliography for full citation), and the GST Act as of 1 November 2010 has been referred to.

How to attract the tax collector
In the GST Act:

• s 7-1 says that "GST is payable on taxable supplies and taxable importations".
• s 9-5 says that a taxable supply is made if a supply is made for consideration in the course or furtherance of an enterprise carried on, if it is connected with Australia and the supplier is registered or required to be registered.

In defense of merchanting

Merchanting is the activity of buying items at a low price and selling them higher later. If done properly, the merchanter can make substantial amounts of profit. Given factors such as the non-production of items in the process and an apparent increase in price volatility, this kind of business is often stigmatised.

However, merchanting may serve a useful role in the economy. Such activity can actually help to keep prices more stable and, as a bonus, the merchanter will be rewarded for it.

Elastic supply and demand
Price elasticity is how much the quantity of an item in the market changes with a given change in price. The more elastic the price, the more quantity will change with a given price change. There are two types of elasticity:

Lemon Dungeoneers

In 1970, economist George Akerlof released a journal article about the used car market. In it, he drew the distinction between cherries (good cars) and lemons (faulty cars), and predicted how those selling cherries would be driven out of the market (and conversely how the proportion of lemons would increase).

There is often comment by World of Warcraft players how they would, at times, join a sub-par pickup group (PuG) and resultingly endure an excruciating dungeon run. The 'market' for dungeoneering 'labour' may well degenerate similarly, for the fellow dungeoneers likely do not know how skilled each other is.

The thing about asymmetric information
In the lemon market as described by Akerlof, it is asymmetric information that drives cherries out of the market. In such a market, the buyer does not know much about the quality of the seller's product so as to form a price. In the used car market example, the used car has many parts hidden away from view, so the buyer cannot completely know whether the car is free from defects. As a result, they make a best guess that the car is of 'average' quality and so will be willing to pay an 'average' price.

Doomsday: High Impact

Earth is humanity’s cradle, but by no means can it completely harbour us from harm. Many risks threaten individual lives, but there are some catastrophic enough to wipe out entire species. Is it possible for the prolific human species to face extinction?

Impacts with space debris are truly spectacular events, as the size of the object belies the devastation they can wreak. Not only does an impact event obliterate the the area around it, rock can also be thrown high into the air and particularly large ones can change the very evolution of life.

History
After the birth of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago, its planets saw many planet-sized collisions. Mercury was hit by an object that formed the 1550km Caloris basin. Venus suffered a glancing blow that was enough to make it spin the other way. Mars saw an impact that created a crater the size of half the planet's surface.

Doomsday: Pandemic

Earth is humanity’s cradle, but by no means can it completely harbour us from harm. Many risks threaten individual lives, but there are some catastrophic enough to wipe out entire species. Is it possible for the prolific human species to face extinction?

It is not good to be sick. At this day and age, the practice of medicine ensures that people stand a good chance of survivng all common illnesses. However, some diseases do pop up which no medical literature covers and against which no treatments exist. The burden then falls to the rest of society to contain its spread as a pandemic as scientists work frantically to develop a cure...

History
The Bible describes ten 'plagues' that befell the citizens of Ancient Egypt. Subjecting the Israelites to slavery, the Jewish God was accounted to have exacted His vengeance. The tenth plague, which finally convinced the Pharaoh to release the Israelites, was one which killed all firstborn sons in the kingdom. It is known that it was common practice to feed the firstborn son a double helping of grain, and with the ruin of their crops from the previous hailstorm and locust plagues, they needed to draw from supplies stored underground.

WoW Mathematics: Heavy Breathing

When Valiona breathes fire, she breathes lots of it. Not only does it reach the very edges of the room she is in, it also has a 180° angular spread.

Given that most fires tend to be bad, it is usually prudent to run out of it. There are, of course, a multitude of possible directions to run, which leave the player roasting for different amounts of time. Which path is the quickest?

Summary:

• The quickest path out of Devouring Flames is a straight line perpendicular (at right angles) to the boundary of the cone.
• If Valiona is facing the player, the quickest path out is through Valiona.
• Given a Cartesian coordinate system, the starting position (x₁,y₁) and the equation of the boundary ax + by + c = 0 ,the distance d to run is:

Doomsday: Extreme Weather

Earth is humanity’s cradle, but by no means can it completely harbour us from harm. Many risks threaten individual lives, but there are some catastrophic enough to wipe out entire species. Is it possible for the prolific human species to face extinction?

Earth's climate is a complicated system, one which climatologists are still studying. Like in a car or computer, a minor change in one component can cause more major effects throughout. Although volcanoes can disrupt this delicate machinery, there are other factors which can plunge Earth into an ice age, some of which built in, others brought about by humans.

History
150 000 years ago, Earth orbited a little further from the Sun than normal. It went through a particularly severe ice age, where the human population dropped to as low as 2000 people.

Doomsday: She's Gonna Blow

Earth is humanity’s cradle, but by no means can it completely harbour us from harm. Many risks threaten individual lives, but there are some catastrophic enough to wipe out entire species. Is it possible for the prolific human species to face extinction?

Volcanoes cause much disruption in their own right. However, much larger supervolcanoes do exist, with as many as eleven likely hotspots found around the world. Should one erupt, the surrounding area will certainly be levelled and buried, and the broader world would go through an unseasonal winter.

History
There are countless examples of volcanic eruptions throughout human history, let alone throughout the life of planet Earth. A more famous one occurred in AD 79 when Mt. Vesuvius erupted. Nearby Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried under several metres of pumice, sudden enough to preserve the inhabitants in their original positions.

Gift Card Creditors

Last February, REDgroup in Australia entered into voluntary administration after finding it difficult to pay off debts. Owning the Borders and Angus & Robertson bookstore chains in Australia, the administrators demanded that gift cards issued by these stores only pay for half the cost of purchases; the remaining half would have to come out of the customer's pocket.

As customers are accustomed to gift cards' applying to the full cost of a purchase, this caused quite an uproar, with sales staff being abused despite no fault of their own. However, this gesture may well have been a generous one considering how liquidation works, for gift card holders are creditors to the issuing business.

Gift cards are debt
The Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements (AASB) concisely defines a liability as:

...a present obligation of the entity arising from past events, the settlement of which is expected to result in an outflow from the entity of resources embodying economic benefits.

Doomsday: Sunfury

Earth is humanity’s cradle, but by no means can it completely harbour us from harm. Many risks threaten individual lives, but there are some catastrophic enough to wipe out entire species. Is it possible for the prolific human species to face extinction?

The Sun provides all living things with the heat (and, indirectly, food) needed to survive. Yet for all its needed sustenance, there are also times when it turns against life, in particularly spectacular fashion. Every 13 years it throws a tantrum of sorts, with the next one due on late 2012.

Doomsday: The Mayan Code

Earth is humanity’s cradle, but by no means can it completely harbour us from harm. Many risks threaten individual lives, but there are some catastrophic enough to wipe out entire species. Is it possible for the prolific human species to face extinction?

The Maya empire fell centuries ago, yet their work continues to intrigue to this day. Among many opinions of that work is the conclusion that the world will end on 21 December 2012. How well does that theory stand up to modern scrutiny?

Raid Checklists [Checklist]

Like an airplane, a raid is made up of several parts that need to work together for the whole thing itself to work. Those parts need to be set correctly in order for that to happen.

Because of the daunting number of controls to set, airline pilots need to use checklists to ensure that every switch, dial and button are in the correct states for whatever the plane will be doing, whether taking off, cruising or landing. Similarly, several aspects of a raid need to be in specific states for the raid experience to be as smooth as possible. The following checklists mimic the pre-flight checklists used in airline aviation, listing the states of the various aspects of a typical raid.

There are checklists for:

• Preparing for the raid (pre-raid checklist)
• Preparing for a boss attempt (pre-boss checklist)
• Handling a raid wipe (wipe checklist)
• Concluding a raid (post-raid checklist)

Value Added to MMO Items

In real life, people engage in production to make goods and provide services. In doing so, they hope to add value of the finished product above what it cost them in materials, labour and capital. Normally, this is what actually does happen, however in MMOs (massively multiplayer online [roleplaying games]), especially those whose skills are difficult to learn, items actually decrease in value as they are processed.

Like their real-life counterparts, items usually are assets, that is, they provide economic benefits to whoever is in possession of it. As part of production of a real-life asset, any combination of materials, labour and capital may be used in an effort to add value to it. This is usually what happens with an ingame asset as well.

As is the case both in real life and ingame, as a person/character repeatedly makes the same good or provides the same service, they learn more about how to do so. As part of an asset's total value (which includes its value as part of a finished product), there is value placed on its ability to facilitate such learning. When the materials/items are finally processed, such benefits are consumed and the total value somewhat falls.

WoW Mathematics: Server Loading

Hosts of MMORPGs face several dilemmas regarding the servers they operate. One of these, by far a significant one, is the maximum capacity the servers are able to take. Too low a capacity and players will complain about latency and other performance problems, while too high a capacity and the investment in the hardware will not be cost-effective. This problem is exacerbated by the tendency of the load to change cyclically throughout the day.

Deciding on the servers' capabilities is not a simple matter of allowing for a specific number of players. As the mathematics that follows shows, the throughput load created by those players will change according to the tendency of players to cluster together in the game world.

Merchant's Guide to Orgrimmar

Orgrimmar is the orc capital city and the capital city of the Horde territories. Also the current political capital, the incumbent Warchief Garrosh Hellscream is based here. It is the hub of the Horde's extensive zeppelin network and sees the bulk of adventurer traffic among all Horde capitals.

This combination of factors give Orgrimmar a high potential for lucrative business. It is large enough to boast five trade districts, each characterised by the architecture of the races that dominate their populations.

Goblin Slums

The Goblin Slums consist the goblin district in Orgrimmar. Dwellings are cloth tarpaulins supported by either branches or metal beams. Rudimentary waste disposal and a crude oil extraction operation has left the pond slicked with run-off seeping into downstream Valley of Spirits. Fishers are advised not to consume fish, especially endemic Toxic Puddlefish, caught from these waters.