"Should Old Acquaintance be Forgot?"

This January has been a rough one. Between sleeplessness and the cold I've found a few sobering reminders of the natural law that all things must come to an end.

First is the end of Michael Steele's chairmanship of the RNC, which would be entirely unimportant if the Daily Show didn't exist. Wyatt Cenac's impersonation of Steele, in muppet style, is probably one of the greatest lampooning acts ever created on television. From the subtle nod to the unreal unfoldings of Michael Steele's time with the RNC to the 'bibbles', all of which were delightful, this was really one of those things which make an already great show undeniably awesome.

The other thing that finally came to an end is Superpoop, a webcomic that is known for taking a nonsensical stance on politics everything and being incredibly good at making amusing narratives out of disconnected images. Lately it became a bit more serious than usual, talking about the end of the world, and it just kind of ended there. Sure, there are mass animal deaths, and the poles may shift (good title for a stripper movie), and there are wars and rumors of wars, and rumors of famine to boot, but as deluded as our sense of stability is, the idea that the world will explode or somehow end in less than millions of years is ridiculous.

But January hasn't been all bad. I found a flash game powered by Java (and it's not Minecraft!) that has no point and yet is infinitely enjoyable. This game goes by several names: Dust, Powder Game, or something else. You'll know it when you see it, but here's a link to the game. It has no goal other than perhaps crashing the applet (by dropping the 'dot' counter to zero, which simulates, albeit facetiously, heat death via entropy) or creating an enduring equilibrium. Basically the game simulates particles, which the player throws into a space, and which behave according to certain rules, and eventually it all becomes madness.

A static image doesn't do it justice. This is just a weak representation of the sort of madness you can scheme up in this game, and I heartily recommend it. The trick is to start a kind of madness that you can leave alone for a half hour while you do something else, and return to find it still swirling. Inertia is the only enemy.