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Pokemon GO is bad. Pokemon is ripe for the most amazing "social" gaming experience of all time. Just let them battle each other and don't screw with the existing formula that WORKS. Ahhhhh... Really though, knowledge of the underlying systems (mostly due to modding games and learning how to use GIS software) means that I can conceive of both the mechanics they utilize as well as how they got there from a design perspective. They want eyes on their app and they're going to do it with an interminable power creep as the generations of pokemon are added over time, mark my words. Instead of focusing on pokemon the game to use as a template, they're using it as a brand to market their existing formula. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who likes to learn about app development, but it is still mightily disappointing to anyone excited for a real life pokemon game. Judging by the player base of this broken game, that audience seems to be quite massive. As ...

There are quite a few ways of getting a bleak look at the world in 2016. One is to follow the media's schizophrenic coverage of police shootings. Another is to look at the many awesome instances of uncontrollable deforestation and pollution that humans create. One can also just look to modern politics in the western world and assume that it's a hopeless mess. But don't worry! The world has been facing all of these issues for decades. Wait, that doesn't comfort you? Yeah, it doesn't help anybody who goes to a university to get an education in anything related to environmental science, ecology, or urban planning either. Environmental science curricula inherently focuses on solving or preventing damages to the environment, you spend most of your time looking at past failures as a result. Ecology is mostly in the same boat except even more complex and is often concerned with species that are facing extinction (or that have already gone extinct in the wild). ...