Ok about the sound check... Giving birth is not some monumental, impossible feat. It's doable, it may be hard, but not impossible. We're always hearing horror stories, but everyone keeps forgetting that the cast majority of labors go well. No one ever tells the positive, happy stories. My labor was four hours, not twenty-four, not four days, four hours. And my first, too. But that doesn't make me a superwoman or anything.
An episiotomy isn't done systematically (at least it shouldn't be done systematically, but some doctors are still lazy and oldschool), there are a bunch of studies on the matter, but I won't bore you with the details. Sorry to go off on a tangent like this, but public health and particularly maternal and infant health are fields I have a very strong interest in. To be honest, giving birth can be easy, it's the eighteen plus years that come after that are hard!
Back on gaming. I was so glad that you guys mentioned Plague Inc!! I've basically been playing it nonstop since the guys and Susan on the Gamers With Jobs podcast discussed it, and it's really well done! It's hard to believe the developer has no deep scientific knowledge on the matter, the different mechanisms involved in modifying your pathogen, spreading it, etc are very intricate, extremely well done. Also, I had the same reaction as Justin: "Greenland!!" Oh gosh Greenland has caused me to fail more than once...
About SimCity... I love the franchise, I played the first games "back in the day", and was very curious about this iteration, but... ugh, I just had a feeling this kind of debacle would happen. And it's really a shame, because from little feedback there has been, from what little people have played, it seems to be a great game, but all the "stuff around it" just makes it entirely unappealing.
Regarding names and nicknames, I just had to sigh and nod when I heard this part. Growing up in an English-speaking country with a distinctively French name has not done me any favors; people have downright massacred my name, I mean botched it beyond recognition. So I now when I say my name, I just say a English version people can handle, and that's fine. Until they have to spell it.
And finally, the Google Glass. I was so glad Susan brought up Greg's daughter, because I had bee basically crying out in my car "what if it was your child?" for the past five minutes. This is definitely a concern for me, not only as a woman, but also as a mother. I'm not sure I find the concept all that appealing, and at the very, very least, it's a double edged sword (and what Justin had to say on the matter was spot on in my book). Before the Google Glass, we had cellphones with cameras (and I've had some total random stranger in the street snap a picture of me in broad daylight, for absolutely no apparent reason, that's very uncomfortable), and that can be an issue too. Of course, the benefits are there, it's incredibly useful to be able to take a picture on the fly and send it to friends and family (particularly when you live so far away from each other, as is my case). Fundamentally, the problem is the same with Google Glass. In the end, it's not the technology itself that matters or that will make a difference, but the people and how they use it.
Sorry for the wall of text, but thanks for the awesome podcast! I always look forward to it, and you always spark a variety of thoughts and insights!
