Time sink

A time sink (or timesink) is an activity that consumes significant time. A variant of this term is "time drain." Although it is unknown when the term was coined, it makes an analogy with heat sink.

In massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), time sinks are a method of increasing the time needed by players to do certain tasks, hopefully causing them to subscribe for longer periods of time. Players may use the term disparagingly to describe a simplistic and time-consuming aspect of gameplay, possibly designed to keep players playing longer without significant benefit. Time sinks can also be used for other gameplay reasons, such as to help regenerate resources or monsters in the game world.

Negative connotations

Many players consider time sinks to be an inherently poor design decision, only included so that game companies can increase profits. For example, one Slashdot article describes time sinks as "gameplay traps intended to waste your time and keep you playing longer". In most games, boring and lengthy parts of gameplay are merely an annoyance, but when used in subscription-based MMORPGs, where players are paying recurring fees for access to the game, they become a much more inflammatory issue. Game designers must be prudent in balancing efforts to produce both involving gameplay and the length of content that players expect.

Sink

A sink (also sinker, washbowl, hand basin and wash basin) is a bowl-shaped plumbing fixture used for washing hands, dishwashing, and other purposes. Sinks have taps (faucets) that supply hot and cold water and may include a spray feature to be used for faster rinsing. They also include a drain to remove used water; this drain may itself include a strainer and/or shut-off device and an overflow-prevention device. Sinks may also have an integrated soap dispenser.

When a sink becomes stopped-up or clogged, a person will often resort to use a chemical drain cleaner or a plunger, though most professional plumbers will remove the clog with a drain auger (often called a "plumber's snake").

History

United States

The washstand was a bathroom sink made in the United States in the late 18th century. The washstands were small tables on which were placed a pitcher and a deep bowl, following the English tradition. Sometimes the table had a hole where the large bowl rested, which led to the making of dry sinks. From about 1820 to 1900 the dry sink evolved by the addition of a wooden cabinet with a trough built on the top, lined with zinc or lead. This is where the bowls or buckets for water were kept. Splashboards were sometimes added to the back wall, as well as shelves and drawers, the more elaborate designs usually placed in the kitchen.

Sink (Foetus album)

Sink is a Foetus Inc compilation album that was first released in 1989 on Self Immolation/Some Bizzare. It compiles rare and unreleased songs from various Foetus projects from 1981–1989. Many of the rare tracks on the album have been edited shorter than their original length.

Sink is Foetus' final Some Bizarre record and it saw released in 1995 thanks to Some Bizzare Label Thirsty Ear's effort to reissue the Foetus catalogue. All versions' liner notes contain an up-to-date Foetus discography.

Sink is Self Immolation #WOMB INC 6.

Track listing

All songs by J. G. Thirlwell.

Sink (geography)

Mediterranean Sink during the Messinian Event
Red Sea when blocked by the Perim volcano
Africa: Afar Depression
USA: Carson Sink
USA: Humboldt Sink
USA: Quinn River Sink
USA: Salton Sink

A geographic sink is a depression within an endorheic basin where water collects with no visible outlet. Instead of discharging, the collected water is lost due to evaporation and/or penetration (water sinking underground, e.g., to become groundwater in an aquifer). If the sink has karstic terrain, water will sink at a higher rate than the surface evaporation, and conversely if the lakebed or sink bed has a layer of soil that is largely impervious to water (hardpan), evaporation will predominate. Since dry lakes in sinks with hardpan have little penetration, they require more severe aridity/heat to eliminate collected water at a comparable rate as for a similar sink with appreciable penetration.

Depending on losses, precipitation, and inflow (e.g., a spring, a tributary, or flooding); the temporal result of a lake in a sink may be a persistent lake, an intermittent lake, a playa lake (temporarily covered with water), or an ephemeral lake.