Month: May 2024

The Strange Disclosure Format of the “Qinglang” Series Special Action

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On November 25, 2016, the Cyberspace Administration of China suddenly reported on the completed “Qinglang” series of special actions. A large number of rectification actions were listed: “Centralized Rectification of APPs Involving Children and Adolescents”, “Special Rectification of Search Engine Links”, “Special Governance of URL Navigation Websites”, etc.

Then, only some explanations were given for the “Special Rectification of Search Engine Links”: Due to the “Wei Zexi Incident”, the State Internet Information Office, while jointly investigating Baidu with relevant departments, also rectified the search engines of other platforms.

However, from 2017 to 2019, the Cyberspace Administration of China did not implement the Qinglang Action, at least the relevant network rectification actions were not prefixed with the term “Qinglang”.

On May 22, 2020, the State Internet Information Office announced and launched the 2020 “Qinglang” Special Action for 8 months nationwide. It will rectify negative and harmful information such as pornography, vulgarity, online violence, malicious marketing, and infringement of citizens’ personal privacy. However, there are few details in the announcement, and there are no specific goals for rectification.

On May 7, 2021, the State Council Information Office previewed that a press conference would be held tomorrow to introduce the relevant situation of the 2021 “Qinglang” series of special actions.

On May 8, 2021, Sheng Ronghua, Deputy Director of the State Internet Information Office, introduced the 2021 “Qinglang” series of special actions deployed by the Cyberspace Administration of China at the press conference. However, the reports from various media did not have the full text, and were like fragments that needed to be integrated. It is worth noting that there is almost no mention of details such as the start time and duration, but there are 8 specific special actions.

[To be continued]

P.S.: “Tianlang Qiqing” comes from Wang Xizhi’s “Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Collection”: “On this day, the sky is clear and the air is fresh, and the breeze is gentle. Looking up at the greatness of the universe…”. It means the sky is clear and the air is fresh.

Source: You can visit ggame to view.

Some Orders Prohibiting Exposure of Overseas Games

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In December 2016, the “Administrative Measures for Online Performance Business Activities” stated that online performances must not contain the display or explanation of online game techniques using online game products that have not obtained the content review approval number or filing number from the cultural administrative department.

On December 9, 2019, the “Notice from the Comprehensive Law Enforcement and Supervision Bureau of the Cultural Market of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Law Enforcement Related to the Online Game Market” stated that it is necessary to prevent illegal online games that have not obtained an online publication number from being promoted through online live streaming platforms, and to strictly investigate activities that display game techniques containing prohibited content.

On March 19, 2021, the National Anti-Pornography and Illegal Publications Office launched “Xin Feng 2021”, which specifically pointed out “prohibiting the live streaming of online games that have not been approved”.

In April 2022, the “Notice on Strengthening the Management of Game Live Streaming on Online Audio-Visual Program Platforms” stated that it is strictly forbidden for online audio-visual platforms to disseminate illegal games.

Although the above rules have basically not been formally implemented, on September 15, 2021, Sina Weibo briefly banned the accounts of game media outlets “IGN编辑部”, “IGN_CN”, and “BB姬Studio”, causing Youyoushe, A9VG, the campfire editorial department, GamerSky, 3DMGAME official Weibo, Switch games, Dianwanbus, GameDogn, and the official Weibo of Humble Bundle and other game media to post articles requesting subscribers to follow subsidiary accounts or Apps, the purpose of which should be to prevent loss of contact. A Sina Weibo member responsible for self-media operations said: “We (Weibo and Sina Games) require that unapproved game news cannot be released”.

Three months later, on December 22, 2021, the Steam main site domain store.steampowered.com was interfered with and became almost unusable. Perhaps this is the result of mutual compromise by all parties?

Source: You can visit ggame to view.

Disposal of Dead Animals and Related Procedures

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Roadkill (Roadkill) refers to the situation where cars kill animals on the road. This has become very common with the increase of human activity areas and vehicles. Some estimates suggest that one million animals die from roadkill every day, but this number will gradually decrease as there are fewer and fewer wild animals near roads.

If roadkill occurs outside the city, scavengers often come to clean up the corpses. Someone only needs to move the corpse to prevent it from interfering with other drivers. However, there are usually no large scavengers in the city that can clean up quickly, so the city has to take on this responsibility.

In the United Kingdom, if a car hits a dog, goat, horse, cow, donkey, mule, sheep, or pig, whether it is fatal or not, you need to stop and call the police immediately. If any dead animal (such as a cat) is found on the road, it can be reported to the local government’s website.

In Toronto, Canada, there are more detailed guidelines. For larger animal carcasses, you can call the hotline to book a corpse removal service. The specific “larger” animals refer to animals larger than raccoons or opossums. For small birds, squirrels, and mice, wrap them in plastic bags and throw them in the trash. (The municipal public animal service center will not handle complex needs such as climbing trees, demolishing fences, or entering lakes. If you have such needs, please contact a private company)

The handling situation in Philadelphia, USA is similar, but it mainly mentions the issue of private property. If a dead animal appears on private land, do not bury it. You should wrap it in a plastic bag and throw it in the trash, or take it to Philadelphia ACCT for disposal (there is no relevant description on the Philadelphia ACCT website, it should be cremation).

Edutainment, Part 4: Balancing Play and Diet

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Although games have been controversial in the past, the current popularity of electronic devices is very high, and software is also an important tool. Games can be considered playable software, so it is difficult to prevent children from playing games.

Even strictly limiting children’s time playing games may lead to an increased desire for games when they grow up, making them more prone to game addiction. So, setting reasonable time limits and matching game types is a good idea.

Some educators have created LW4K courses, selling courses designed for various games. For example, learning planning and time management from Minecraft, learning social skills from 《Animal Crossing》, 《Hades》 also has courses…probably to train thinking (and finger) flexibility…

LW4K also created a sister website, LearningWorks for Kids, to rate games and software, give recommended ages, trainable thinking or academic skills, etc. For example, the recommended age for 《The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild》 is 10 years old. Thinking skills used: flexibility, focus, organization, planning, self-awareness, self-control, time management, working memory; academic skills used: reading. The final score is a perfect 10, because it is very interesting and also trains thinking ability.

However, for mathematics, coding, and writing, you have to find other games to train. For example, 《Pokémon》 can learn mathematics…maybe it depends on how you play it. Regarding software, the website recommends many time management tools related to habit formation, Pomodoro Technique, and diaries, which should also bring many benefits.

P.S.: The “games” mentioned in this article specifically refer to “video games”.

Edutainment, Part 3: Nintendo

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In November 2023, the University of Maryland launched a brand new engineering course. Assistant Professor Ryan D. Sochol, a fan of The Legend of Zelda, used 《The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom》 as the software used in the course, replacing expensive and boring computer-aided design (CAD) software.

Although this is an isolated case, 《Tears of the Kingdom》 does have the potential for STEAM education. It is a pity that Nintendo does not seem to be deliberately developing in this direction, but Nintendo is still very concerned about education.

For example, Nintendo Labo is a very interesting set of toys, with the theme of making, playing and exploring, which can let children understand how these toys work. In 2018, Nintendo cooperated with the educational institution Institute of Play to introduce Labo into elementary schools, planning to let 2000 students learn this course. And then opened the Teacher’s Guide, so that interested teachers can also organize learning plans.

Nintendo also launched 《Game Builder Garage》 in 2021, allowing players to use a visual editor to get started with game development from scratch. Perhaps future game developers, talking about the first game they made, will be guided by it.

Edutainment, Part 2: Valve

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In 2007, Valve released 《Portal》, and many physics teachers gave it rave reviews (thanks to the Havok physics engine) and communicated with Valve via email. Subsequently, Valve began to explore the educational potential of 《Portal》.

In April 2011, 《Portal 2》 was released. A year later, in May 2012, the “Perpetual Testing Initiative” DLC was released. Players could use the Puzzle Creator function to create simple levels, which was actually a map editor. However, many players felt that the maps created by this function lacked playability.

This may not be an illusion, as the main inspiration for this tool was to allow students to create maps to learn physics knowledge such as gravity and conservation of momentum. Because soon in June 2012, Valve launched the Teach with Portals program. Teachers and students could register and use the 《Portal 2》 Puzzle Creator for free.

(Later, due to its excellent universe simulation effects, Universe Sandbox was also added to the TWP program.)

However, after 2013, the TWP program completely stagnated, and the website domain was transferred to the educational research organization Foundry10. This may be because Valve is no longer interested in educational games. Because the secondary development of Source engine games is too complicated, Valve spent a lot of effort to only create a simple map editor, which has limited help for teaching.