This trend followed the natural escalations within American culture, and soon parents of these young athletes began to sue the coaches and the referees for costing their children opportunities of a lifetime. The absurdity of these events aside, I cannot help but recall very clearly the words of wisdom given to me by my parents while I was very young:

“Remember, it’s just a game”

Time has passed, and my generation is now having children of our own, but our kids are growing up in a truly digital age. Online communities, online income, online communication, and online competitions.

In their moderation I don’t have any problem with the methods of this age, and in fact I utilize them to connect and continue our relationships around the world. The online gaming and competition also has its place, and it is undeniable that it also has both entertainment and economic value. In fact, I hope our dear friend and podcaster over at Women of Warcraft can combine those economic and entertainment aspects by getting picked up by some gaming sponsor so she can make a pile of money and come out here to visit us (with Andy of course)!

But, now it seems that the violence that was once reserved for little league ballparks on Saturday mornings has overflowed into the world of online gaming: and with a digital-age-guerrilla-warfare twist:

What gets even more disturbing, is that the guy decided that it would be better to DIE than to lose his precious online persona. Or perhaps all that strategy gaming had taught him to read that the gunmen were bluffing, because after five hours they let him go.

I think all of these young men, the gamer and the guerrillas alike, would surely have benefited from my parents sage advice: IT REALLY IS JUST A GAME!

Time has put together a photo journal from a book by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio entitled Hungry Planet. The book itself is a photographic journal and cookbook looking into the family table around the world. Time has taken a glimpse into this book with a photo slideshow entitled “What the World Eats“, and I encourage you to take a look at it.

One word of caution: the most relevant information given is that of “Favorite Foods“. Although the “Food expenditure per week” is interesting and can show what economic slice the pictures are taken from, without a basic cost-of-living from the region it’s difficult to tell whether you are looking at poverty-level or luxery-level spending. For example, a single adult who makes $500/month in Thailand is very wealthy in Northern Thailand, where a meal at a Thai “restaurant” costs less than $1 and a nice home can be rented for $100 a month.

It was also interesting to me how much more money families with teenage boys have to spend on food. Yikes!

So go take a look and see where you think you might be able to live (those meat and cheese countries look really good to me)…