Of lawnmowers and video games

A while back, I read an interesting Fast Company article about how the manufacturer of Snapper power lawn equipment turned down Wal-Mart as a retail outlet. This interesting piece shows the muscle that Wal-Mart–and in this case, I think, the big home improvement outlets–can exert over their suppliers. Or not, in this case.
Today, there’s an article about the influence that Wal-Mart holds over video game developers:

Publisher sales reps inform Wal-Mart buyers of games in development; the games’ subjects, titles, artwork and packaging are vetted and sometimes vetoed by Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart tells a top-end publisher it won’t carry a certain game, the publisher kills that game. In short, every triple-A game sold at retail in North America is managed start to finish, top to bottom, with the publisher’s gaze fixed squarely on Wal-Mart, and no other.

Crazy.

TV Defender

Whenever I spend time browing our ReligiousResources directory or reviewing submitted sites, I’m amazed at what I find. My latest find is TV Guardian:

TVGuardian® technology automatically filters offensive language from the programs you and your family watch. TVGuardian® is a device you plug into your TV and it removes the bad language (cursing and profanity). It works with Cable, Satellite, DVD players, VCR and over the air channels. TVGuardian® makes movie time, family time again.

So, you can watch shows and movies that contain offensive language but feel secure that you’re protecting your and your children’s fine sensibilities. Here’s an idea: if that stuff offends you, don’t watch it!

Web site redesign

I’m happy to report that today I launched a new design for ReligiousResources.org. I’m pleased with the design, but visitors to the site will not see the biggest improvements: I’ve completely reprogrammed the admin functionality (managing listings, etc.). But that change should make life much better for Susan, and will hopefully make the site more useful.

Gacking cats

This is the funniest Ask MetaFilter thread ever.
A while back, Norman started making pre-gacking noises while we were sitting in the living room with guests. He was on the carpet, of course. Katie was a little late on grabbing him to move him onto the kitchen floor. He completed the job right as Katie was turning around with him, projecting cat vomit across the room and down my mother’s leg.

Do bilinguals have two personalities?

Researchers examined whether bilingual individuals showed different personality traits when communicating in each language. The short answer: yes. Unfortunately, you have to pay to read the entire paper.
As a bilingual person, that result doesn’t surprise me. I know I behave differently when speaking German than I do when speaking my native language, English. But upon reflection, I’d say the reasons for that are complex: relative insecurity with my mastery of German, different cultural conversational conventions and expectations, etc. I’d like to know how the researchers controlled for various influencing factors.
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