Friday Linkdump loves airships and philosophy.

So there's this guy named Paul up in Chicago who I don't hear from a whole lot, but I've known him literally half my life. One of his sisters -- Sarah, who is also pretty dang fantastic -- married a guy named Randy, who's an artist.

Well, Randy and Paul are making a game, and you can help make it happen.

Quicksilver: The Great Airship Race is a board game for 2-6 players in which the object is to cross the finish line first while avoiding obstacles and stymieing one's opponents. The prototypes look gorgeous, and everything I'm hearing about playtests suggest that it's going over super well at cons so far.

Basically if you like steampunk, zeppelins, or fun, family-friendly board games, please consider dropping Split Second Games a couple of bucks to make this thing happen.

And now, linkage:

- While I'm thinking about Kickstarter and projects I'm backing, Brendan Myers, a Canadian philosopher working mainly in environmental philosophy and virtue ethics, is writing a college-level logic textbook. Now, before you glaze over and wonder why anybody would care, here's why this is awesome: he's crowdfunding the project to create a high-quality, comprehensive teaching tool that can be distributed in electronic format for free, with an affordable print option. This looks like a great project, and I enjoy Myers' work. If this sort of thing interests you, go check it out.

- The best thing I've seen on the web all week: Party Rock Anthem, meet Star Wars Cantina.

- Why Privacy Matters Even When You've Got Nothing To Hide.
A brief unpacking of the "nothing to hide" argument that gets used against privacy advocates. If you take nothing else from it, the retort "So, do you have curtains?" might be a nice thing to tuck away in your memory banks.

- For my roommate: the usage mistake I keep making, all the damn time. Well, not so much with eminent, but immanent/imminent? I'm going to need a mnemonic.

- Tifton 85 grass linked to Texas cattle deaths
A variety of hybrid grass has spontaneously begun giving off cyanide gas. That's not terrifying or anything. Not at all. (Note: This article originally said that Tifton 85 was a genetically modified grass. It has since been corrected to reflect that Tifton 85 is a hybrid grass, not a GM grass.)

- Finally, confirmation from on high on an issue crucial to the well-being of humanity: Tim Gunn confirms that tights are not pants.

- Christian fundamentalist textbooks touting the Loch Ness Monster as proof of Creationism
Sing it with me now: Je-sus loves the little cryp-tids! All the cryptids of the wo-o-orld...

- I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I'm doing rather well in Paul Cornell's "This Time Next Year" league table. Which reminds me, I need to finish my Hugo votes...

- Chuck Norris Wants Boy Scouts To Stay Anti-Gay! Lesbian Ex-Den Mother Fights Back!
You know what? Screw Chuck Norris. We've got Captain America on our side. I'll take the Avengers over Walker Texas Ranger any day of the week.

- I've been having this really interesting conversation with someone about privilege, responsibility, causality, and radical life changes for about a week or two. It's clearly a thing I need to unpack more, because I keep running into things that make me think about it more deeply. Including, of all things, Indexed. Well-played, universe. Well-played.

This post has been mirrored from Christian A. Young's Dimlight Archive. To see it in its original format, visit dimlightarchive.com