* A Kickstarter project for a Jane Austen MMORPG. They're about halfway to their goal, but it looks like they might be stalling out a bit. They do have a prototype version available, though, with some basic functionality. And, quite frankly, this sort of thing is needed, however odd a Jane Austen MMORPG may seem: while the point of the game is entertainment, it is also trying out educational ideas.
* IEP article on Francis Hutcheson (Vandenburg and DeHart)
* The real world is stranger than fiction:
A spy whose naked, decomposing body was found in a padlocked gym bag at his apartment likely died in an accident with no one else involved, British police said Wednesday.
But that really is as implausible as it sounds:
The codebreaker could not have got into the bag and locked it from the inside alone, witnesses who worked closely with the investigation have claimed after attempting the task more than 400 times. No one has ever come forward who has been able to recreate the scene.
And again:
The death of MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams -- whose naked body was found inside an externally locked bag in his bathtub in 2010 -- was a "perfect crime," a confined spaces expert says.
Peter Faulding said he disagreed with Scotland Yard's conclusion that Williams most likely locked himself in the bag, saying it was his belief that the MI6 worker was murdered.
* Sandrine Berges on epistemic injustice and the history of philosophy.
* Charles K. Fink, The Cultivation of Virtue in Buddhist Ethics (PDF)
* An interesting charity in Virginia: Hunters for the Hungry helps deer hunters donate venison to foodbanks and similar organizations (donating game is often extremely difficult -- lots of paperwork and distributions requirements, oftentimes there are testing requirements, and so forth -- so it's the sort of thing people will tend not to do unless someone gives them a way to navigate the system and the regulations).
* As you do your online Christmas shopping, you might consider using it as a way to donate to the Africa Windmill Project, which helps farmers in Malawi who are developing more sustainable farming methods.
ADDED LATER:
* On C. S. Lewis -- it is, of course, the anniversary of his death.
* The viola organista: part piano, part viola, designed by Leonardo da Vinci. It makes sense if you think about it: pianos hit strings, harpsichords pluck them, so why not do other things with the strings, like apply them to something like a bow, or, more practically, something a bit like a hurdy-gurdy mechanism (you can definitely get a richer sound than a hurdy-gurdy could possibly produce)? (ht)
