Running Trump Tech became a sprawling, demanding job.

Running Trump Tech became a sprawling, demanding job. Braynard said he would order the narcolepsy drug Modafinil and go on “five-day benders” without sleep. “Corey’s slogan was ‘do your job,’” he said of former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. “The challenge was I was never really sure what my job was, and it just seemed to keep expanding.”

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trump-campaign-memo-unlikely-voters///cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Just finished Broadchurch season 2, no idea how season 3 would work.

Just finished Broadchurch season 2, no idea how season 3 would work.

…it’s very good. Faster paced that season 1, more reliant on standard TV tricks, but still well worth your time.

It also continues a critique of Law & Order’s genre conventions. In fact, watching a Dick Wolf production after Broadchurch really brings home how artificial those conventions are – the relentless focus on the clever element of this episode’s plot, the flat professionalism of the whole cast and criminals, the repeated emotional notes carried from one character to another. Nobody is ever at a loss for words, everyone has to say their piece as clearly as possible and then get out of the way of the next Dun-Dun. Quips and confessions alike are ad punchlines. Vincent d’Onofrio gets to say the thesis statement out loud at the end. Nobody has a life outside the drama.

This is extremely unlike that.

Charlotte Rampling is, of course, amazing as a state prosecutor. Marianne Jean-Baptiste is brilliantly hateful and human as the defense barrister.

Everyone knows David Tennant is great so he hardly has to do anything. Except, you know, let you know exactly what’s going on by looking past the camera.

One day the first decades of the 21st century will be recognised as the era of Olivia Colman. Not sure how I feel about that.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/broadchurch-series-3-confirmed-catch-6683517//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Futzing with hexmaps, I have to say this is an enormously tempting idea – using Civ V’s editors to handle the…

Futzing with hexmaps, I have to say this is an enormously tempting idea – using Civ V’s editors to handle the coastline edges and textures.

My main question (apart from the this is not complete complaints in the comments section) is how to display the whole map at once. If there’s a way to output it as a massive picture file then I’m in.

http://www.pcgamer.com/how-to-make-a-map-in-civilization-v///cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

any time you think this bloody blogging thing is just shouting into the void.

any time you think this bloody blogging thing is just shouting into the void. The audience is tiny, who cares about a measly couple of hundred eyes in the grand scheme of things consider this:

if you have more than 5 views in total of any of your Kudos publications pages, this means you are in the top 20% of all publications that have been explained and enriched on Kudos!

…where Kudos is a view-tracking service for academic articles covering a bunch of journal publishers

https://www.growkudos.com/

https://www.growkudos.com//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Counter-colonial Creature Compendium:* the invisible rail is like something out of Edward Gorey.

Counter-colonial Creature Compendium:* the invisible rail is like something out of Edward Gorey.

German ornithologist Gerd Heinrich, who prepared for his Halmahera trip by rolling in stinging nettles, wrote of the [rail’s] sago swamp habitat in the 1930s: “I am solidly confident no European has ever seen this rail alive, for that requires such a degree of toughening and such demands on oneself as I cannot so easily attribute to others. [The rail] is shielded by the awful thorns of the sago swamps… In this thorn wilderness, I walked barefoot and half-naked for weeks.”

#countercolonialheistcrawl

#countercolonialswampcrawl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_rail//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

So.

So. Like trey causey I finally got around to seeing Star Trek: Beyond. Unlike Trey, it was my first Trek movie since Where In The World Is Spock’s Brain and my first Abrams production since… Fringe, maybe?

Thoughts:

I look forward to Patrick Stuart updating his musings on starship fetishism in the series. Really, there was quite a lot of Enterprise-caressing, and then space city caressing, and then evil insect ship caressing (not recommended).

…is this The Island of Dr. Moreau or Return to the Forbidden Planet again?

……particle renderers and flocking have become much, much cheaper over the past 15 years.

……..boom cameras are, apparently, as addictive as crack. My wife would not be able to watch this movie because of motion sickness.

I know I haven’t been keeping up, so I don’t expect to understand the relationship between this crew and TOS  or other crews (please don’t explain it to me unless it’s really funny). Even with that said, there were large chunks of this film that made no narrative sense to me – and I’m not going to get into the usual geek arguments about like wouldn’t the existence of transporters totally invalidate this whole thing.

Belatedly, though, it made me realize that narrative sense of the kind I expect might be terribly old fashioned – honestly the film didn’t try to present any kind of coherent legal case for the shit that happened. Instead I think it strove for a kind of musical or symphonic sense – introduce a theme, harmonize, counter with an antagonistic theme, repeat theme to remind us this was always here under the other thing, crescendo, cymbals, repeat. So the tilted deck early in the film is reprised in the grand nearly-finale and it makes sense musically. We don’t worry about Crusoe’s amazing house or why Vader isn’t living in it because it’s been justified thematically, visually and impressionistically. It’s post-critical. I guess I should be too.

CHARACTER!

CHARACTER!

Izo

Izo recently washed ashore, with few clothes and fewer memories. His only, and therefore prized, possession, is a pendant, the holy symbol of a god he dimly remembers, which he was clutching in his hand when he regained consciousness. He assumes this means that he is a priest, and he hopes to restore himself to his god’s good graces in order to once again wield divine power.

He’s certain that the best way to do this is to recover a set of dice made from the knuckles of a saint (whose name he also cannot recall) which he is certain are hidden in a building on an island he once visited as a child. He knows exactly where the island is – the trick is, he has no idea where HE is right now.

In reality, he was an officer of the divine court, part judge, part bailiff, and part sanctimonious thug. His only connection to religion before his misadventure began was that the court was formally a branch of the church, and operated under its authority – but not supervision. For all that he believes himself a priest, his skills are:

3d: Bully

2d: Melee

1d: Construction

Profession:

Str -1, Con -1, Cha +1

I AM:

Shipwrecked, suffering from amnesia

I HAVE A:

Holy symbol or badge of office

I AM RELATED TO:

A relic of a foreign saint, which is known to be abandoned.

goddammit Sid Meier.

goddammit Sid Meier.

This is the second time I think I might be able to wriggle off the hook of Civ V. It’s destroyed my last 3 weeks, but I’ve got to a point where I don’t really know what to do and I have no interest whatever in the upcoming world congress. I could ride roughshod over the world’s other powers but the unhappiness is strong and its remedy (build happy buildings) is slow and boring.

…I think… I think I might be free.

My character time! Richard G tell me what you think. I’m a bit unsure about how to spin the results of the barrel.

My character time! Richard G tell me what you think. I’m a bit unsure about how to spin the results of the barrel.

Hannu

Ex-buddhist monk, picked up some brawling skills and some sailing skills after he left the monastary.

His home island is awash with Buddhist monks, begging for rice in the villages, and Hannu was averse to work, so that seemed like a great career until he discovered that it really just meant eating shit from the abbot.

3D: Meditate

2D: Melee

1D: Sail

Profession: Ex-monk

Dex: (7) -2, Cha: (13) +1

Destitution: 2 (where’d you get that?)

Equipment:

A.15. Hammer, chisel, pick + 8 iron spikes

B.2 Potion of healing

Many Things: Enemy ship, on edge of mutiny, lost in a useful way, you are a captive spirit. When Hannu meditates, his spirit moves to a Dutch ship, where he can cause mischief and mayhem (like a small poltergeist). This has unnerved the crew sufficiently that they may be prodded to rebel against the captain.

MADE A CHARACTER

MADE A CHARACTER

Question 1: Do I apply ability score penalties as well?

Question 2: Do you have a character name generator? That would be super helpful for a Big Ignorant like me.

CHARACTER HIMSELF

Itinerant medium/conman; prefers to lie about communing with spirits than actually do it; lazy, venal, charming; hated/wanted by the invaders for his affinity for thunderous, profane, and lengthy curses that  both implore the gods to torment these interlopers and describe his plans for appalling sexual adventures with regards to the victims’ parents.

3D: Pray

2D: Pick Pockets

1D: Charm

Profession: medium

CHA: +1

Gear

1. a spirit flute

2. a crowbar

3. leather armor

4. a size 2 boat

Thing in the world that related to me

A Holy Book translated by the Spaniards, foolishly translated into a language we can understand. It was stolen by a drunk Dutchmen, and I want it back so I can complete my experiment in weaponized syncretism/start feeding saints to my ghost friends.

Nothing gets my goat like first-generation migrants from upcountry saying they’re Cornish.

Nothing gets my goat like first-generation migrants from upcountry saying they’re Cornish. You’re not Cornish till you’ve actually died in a tin mining accident or been eaten by the Seven Sisters, emmet! Or maaaybe if your family has lived south of Bodmin for at least 4 generations and you’re called Demelza and you know that bloke on the Mitchell bypass as used to sell Moroccan Brown out of his van till the police found out and he had to disappear to Malpas and you still have his van up on bricks round the back of Devoran road.

That and people saying “Pueto Rican rum” when they mean Bacardi.

especially for Paolo Greco Adam Thornton Jeremy Duncan Patrick Stuart William Broom et al but also for everyone…

especially for Paolo Greco Adam Thornton Jeremy Duncan Patrick Stuart William Broom et al but also for everyone interested in #countercolonialheistcrawl

here is something crawling toward a set of rules.

I don’t know of a better way to share these rules and start a discussion about them than this. Please look ’em over and provide critical feedback. I don’t want to make a game nobody wants to play.

This here might be incoherent, please ask for clarification. It all makes sense in my head, but maybe it won’t when I say it.

If you wanna play it, please help make it playable!

https://lurkerablog.wordpress.com/2016/07/28/counter-colonial-heistcrawl-rules-v-0-1///cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Trying to figure out where the dystopia that’s incubating in Silicon Valley really fits–the constant haze of toxic…

Trying to figure out where the dystopia that’s incubating in Silicon Valley really fits–the constant haze of toxic masculinity and endless regression to entitled frat douche makes it very bad-guys-in-Pop Tartary, while the near religious belief in free markets, managent horseshit and Darwinian meritocracy is very AmTart. Buuut the explicit pro-colonialism (sometimes from British expats) is very Toxic Tartary, as is professional programmers getting their computers exorcised. 

Anyway, a guy selling himself as an eccentric tech lifestyle mogul who hates food that tastes like anything, as well as er alternating current electricity, building a shitty teenage clubhouse/public nuisance and calling it an experiment in sustainable housing is just Too Good.

http://la.curbed.com/2016/7/21/12245620/soylent-illegal-shipping-container-home-lincoln-heights//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

OK, let me explain something about that cache of hacked Democratic party emails.

OK, let me explain something about that cache of hacked Democratic party emails.

The point is not that it’s a surprise to learn the Democratic party apparatus was biased against Bernie Sanders. Many of us knew that from the start.

The point is that the DNC, and the Clinton campaign, and many Dems, and many media allies, argued throughout the primaries that the DNC was an honest broker.

Either they were lying or badly (and depending on their position, unacceptably) ignorant.

And there’s a huge reason not to talk about this now. The head of the DNC, Deborah Wasserman Schultz, is not just a powerful politician and Clinton ally.

She’s from Florida. Remember the Electoral College? Remember battleground states?

So what we might see are Democrats coming to realize that their party leaders were lying or badly ignorant… and won’t do a single thing about it.

Here’s the trove of emails:

https://wikileaks.org/dnc-emails/

https://wikileaks.org/dnc-emails///cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Business plan:

Business plan:

1. become dramatically famous by exposing government evil

2. tie fame to consumer products line

Originally shared by Graham Cluley

Edward Snowden’s new case design detects if your iPhone is broadcasting its location.

Read more in my article on the Bitdefender blog:

https://www.hotforsecurity.com/blog/edward-snowdens-new-case-design-detects-if-your-iphone-is-broadcasting-its-location-16100.html

The loot in this dungeon is a pile of gas masks large enough to climb up, scattered all around are boots.

The loot in this dungeon is a pile of gas masks large enough to climb up, scattered all around are boots. Dented cans of beef stew. Vamoth’s boy found a pistol and 4 cartridges once, and started his own gang two towns over.

Copious notes for a machine that never worked but would have rained death on Kovacistan during the Blitz

To become a full citizen of Rad, the town elders take you here on a moonlit night and you must come out in a full suit: boots, waders, mask, and gloves. Some initiates do not return and become Strigoi that prowl with glowing eyes and a hunger for flesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwYW1bsQ_3g&feature=share//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Civ Revolutions for iOS is a bad game – and not just because it’s a dumbed-down version of plain old Civ.

Civ Revolutions for iOS is a bad game – and not just because it’s a dumbed-down version of plain old Civ. It’s desperately unclear, refuses to actually tell you what you’re doing wrong, has a willfully obtuse interface and withholds vital information. That’s why I recommend not buying it.

Coincidentally, it’s full of racist and sexist representations.

But it has a generally a jocular tone that does not hesitate to poke fun at beloved characters like JFK and Lincoln, so that must be OK, right?

Mmmmmno.

That said, regular old Civ offers barbarians that cannot be reasoned with and are fit for nothing but extermination, so maybe Civ Rev’s obviously horrible representations of them do serve some useful function.

playing Civ, I was given my actual home town in a peace deal.

playing Civ, I was given my actual home town in a peace deal.

….and had to raze it because it was getting in the way of the East India Company.

Story of my life.

……..it occurs to me that there is a very interesting difference between the wilderness > conquest > development pattern* that Civ presents and the kind of empire-construction inside extant systems that a Mafia-building game would entail. In a Mafia game you would have to negotiate with all sorts of sitting powers, from companies to governments to community organizations to police to other mafias/private fiefdoms (church, unions, docks…) and the success of your empire would depend on working good deals with all these other powers rather than replacing them.

Does anyone know of a game (tabletop or computer) that does this well? That actually pays attention to that difference?

Cracked-style writing has hit mainstream car review sites.

Cracked-style writing has hit mainstream car review sites. The results seem like they’re aiming for style but I don’t actually know if the reviewer recommends the car or not…

anyone stupid enough to drive the Sedona quickly around a corner will encounter enough understeer to make an Impala SS seem like a sports car… After driving the Sedona, it’s apparent that Kia has decided to concede the wretched morsels at the bottom of the barrel to Dodge and go for the Japanese lions’ share of the budget-minded Applebee’s crowd. Let’s be frank with each other… the minivan segment has no room for conspicuous consumption… a set of wheels that slowly kills you on the inside. If you’re one of the enthusiast types who’s resigned yourself to the tragic fate of minivan ownership, the Kia Sedona is a fantastic hearse.

I’m not playing Pokemon Go because my son already got me to play a couple of hours of Civ 5 and here we are 12 hours…

I’m not playing Pokemon Go because my son already got me to play a couple of hours of Civ 5 and here we are 12 hours later and I’m having to remind myself not to install it on my own machine if I ever intend to get anything else done with my life.

Washington, though. Your days are numbered. Because you’re between me and everyone I could possibly trade with. We Khans don’t tolerate.

…it’s… erm… Countercolonial heistcrawl research. Yeah, totally.

Marco Polo season 2 ep 4 review:

Marco Polo season 2 ep 4 review:

I’m going to have to look up the Mongol succession to understand this, aren’t I? What happened to Tolui again?

Needy Kubilai is a pain. He’s also Teddy Roosevelt in Mongol drag. Starting to like the rival dude better.

My reaction to Michelle Yeoh is oh fuck it’s Michelle Yeoh. Which is maybe not exploring the character fully? Like now you pissed off Crouching Tiger woman you better get your kung fu master on that and we’ll see who you believe in more type silver age superhero bullshit.

So I’m kind of impressed that a show might send me scurrying to my history books and start a who would win, Batman or Wonder Woman? nerd fight in the same episode but not really.

so everyone’s already seen this, because it’s a classic facepalm.

so everyone’s already seen this, because it’s a classic facepalm.

It’s also a reminder to SPEAK UP WHEN YOU HAVE NICE THINGS:

Hayward officials said they had no idea this curb had such sacred significance for geologists

…so they ramped over it. Obviously. And it’s not their fault if nobody mentioned it to them.

So why’s it under roleplaying? Because it could be a classic example of magical thinking: fix the curb: fix the fault (like fix the king: fix the land). The more geologists watch it and count the days to the next fault, the more faith potential they build into it. Make them go somewhere else and maybe the buildings will fall down there instead next year (maybe – earthquakes are weird and complex enough that lots of chance outcomes are possible).

I’m thinking about yokai and genii loci because I’m slowly revving Countercolonial Heistcrawl back up to 1st gear. The Offset Curb (that’s Kerb in British) could be like the Dragon of the Stream in Spirited Away.

Originally shared by Gretchen Sher

And scientists facepalm, as city worker finally get around to fixing something after decades – and in the process destroy a living lab.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-earthquake-curb-destroyed-20160705-snap-htmlstory.html

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-earthquake-curb-destroyed-20160705-snap-htmlstory.html//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

via Abstract Machine

Originally shared by Richard G

via Abstract Machine

The Guardian’s best photos of the day pages are an amazing resource for monster/encounter/treasures – Afrikan Boy and Wataru Tominaga’s runway show are pure Pop Tartary, while the Delhi machine shop is essence of Toxic Tartary.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/jul/05/owning-it-black-dandy-in-pictures?CMP=share_btn_gp

https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/jun/30/best-photographs-of-the-day-berlin-fashion-and-a-whale-autopsy

via Abstract Machine

via Abstract Machine

The Guardian’s best photos of the day pages are an amazing resource for monster/encounter/treasures – Afrikan Boy and Wataru Tominaga’s runway show are pure Pop Tartary, while the Delhi machine shop is essence of Toxic Tartary.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/jul/05/owning-it-black-dandy-in-pictures?CMP=share_btn_gp

https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/jun/30/best-photographs-of-the-day-berlin-fashion-and-a-whale-autopsy

Things I would not have imagined on my own:

Things I would not have imagined on my own:

Egyptotiki interior, Pittsburgh Cheesecake Factory.

James Aulds Joseph H. Vilas

My son insists this is specifically Roman Egyptotiki, because regular Egyptotiki only has square columns.

Note especially the Eye of Sauron lights.

And the way the snooping faces look like they’ve popped up out of the capitals, as if the whole roof has just lifted up by a foot to reveal them

#tikinD

#Isisiswatchingyou

No, seriously. It’s a web based choose your own adventure, and it’s glorious.

Originally shared by James MacGeorge

No, seriously. It’s a web based choose your own adventure, and it’s glorious.

You look down at your powerful, affront-to-God body. You’ve spent your entire life imprisoned in this glass tank, hungering for human flesh. The scientists only feed you pellets. You don’t want pellets. And today is the day you finally can’t take it anymore.

You hear the sounds of a tour group approaching your glass prison

You’re welcome.

http://www.clickhole.com/clickventure/you-are-cannibal-lobster-man-new-england-can-you-b-4474#1//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

cocktails

cocktails

Bensonhurst

1¾ rye whiskey

⅔ dry vermouth

1 bar-spoon maraschino

1 bar-spoon Cynar

Stir over ice then strain in to a cocktail glass. Garnish with a large twist of orange zest.

Brooklyn

View in: oz | ml | shots

2 shots / 60 ml / 2 oz rye whiskey

¾ shot / 22.5 ml / ¾ oz dry vermouth

⅓ shot / 10 ml / ⅓ oz maraschino

⅓ shot / 10 ml / ⅓ oz Amer Picon (or substitute, such as Ramazzotti)

Stir well with ice and strain in to a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange zest twist.

Red Hook

View in: oz | ml | shots

2 shots / 60 ml / 2 oz rye whiskey

½ shot / 15 ml / ½ oz Punt e Mes

½ shot / 15 ml / ½ oz Maraschino liqueur

Stir with ice and strain in to a cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Juniper Club Cocktail

1½ dry gin

½ lime juice

⅓ Cointreau

1 bar-spoon Peychaud’s bitters

½ bar-spoon sugar syrup

Shake all ingredients with ice and fine-strain in to a cocktail glass. Garnish with a wedge of lime.

pendennis club is the same but subs apricot brandy for the cointreau

pom molasses: sultan brand

corning 15a

ithaca 14b

http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/uk_57737efce4b081f48abaa055?edition=uk//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

placeholder for an angry rant about Brexit, Trump and other irritants

placeholder for an angry rant about Brexit, Trump and other irritants

– dire warnings about rising nationalism, vilification of newly-famous public figures;

– snark about economic woes, idiocy of politicians/public;

– gallows humour, pop-cultural references;

– comparison to abuses by technology companies, post-modern, post-factual, post-service malaise;

– barely-concealed Marxist thesis that leads the reader right up to all the conclusions without quite stating them;

– citation of one of the more obscure historical moments when everything’s fallen apart. Assiduous avoidance of the name “Hitler.”

OK, pop quiz:

OK, pop quiz:

Which film stars Justin Bieber, Sting, Tommy Hilfiger and Neil de Grasse Tyson? With cameos by John Malkovich, Susan Boyle, Skrillex, Lenny Kravitz and Susan Sarandon?

Which film would the young Almodovar wish he had directed if he were to have a time-traveling dream about it in 1985?

Which film looks like it stars the young Almodovar in possibly its smartest and most obscure in joke?

Damn. Best appropriation of the old Adam and Steve joke ever.

Ever have the feeling architectural ergonomics aren’t really designed for anyone you’ve ever met?

Ever have the feeling architectural ergonomics aren’t really designed for anyone you’ve ever met?

Ernst Neufert’s Architect’s Data (1936), one of the first reference works, “changed the corporeal dimensions of the “well-proportioned man” to conform to an elaborate modular system based on multiples of 1/8 of a meter, deforming the human body to match the module”

Liebermann, JSAH 75.2, from Vossoughian in Grey Room 54 (2014).

TIL about the Netherlands’ first telethon, to fund a village for disabled people designed to provide indefinite care…

TIL about the Netherlands’ first telethon, to fund a village for disabled people designed to provide indefinite care and maximum autonomy.

“An impromptu auction brought donations of an Olympic gold medal, a pig, and a sailboat.”

#treasure #startingequipment  

The minister for Social Affairs, Marga Klompe, said “you have awakened something within us, within the people, namely, awareness of our fellow disabled citizens.”

1962, looking good.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Het_Dorp//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

of course it is useless to repost an Arnold K. post because you all read him already. But.

of course it is useless to repost an Arnold K. post because you all read him already. But.

Goddammit, Arnold. The stuff with the mirror ships and the implication of a two-sided cartoon desert island and the glancing reference to gravity well models that suggests that our own planet is just such a (ludicrously) two/many-sided figure. And it’s just thrown out there and then you’re on to considering the practical implications of threatening recursive time-empires in “real time.”

So good. So casually written. So knotty in the mind.

Originally shared by Arnold K.

High level shit to do in Centerra. And by high level, I mean like level 5+.

Sail across the astral sea between planets (its easier–not harder–than regular sailing once you actually get up there). Like Spelljammer but more explicitly nautical and low-tech. The local topology of space is boring and anisotropic but it’s more interesting if you chasing neogi by sailing up a piece of the astral sea shaped like a pillar, spiraling around each other like DNA.

And the temporal kingdoms are where elves go so that no one will bother them. It’s a kingdom built in a certain century, or year, or minute, occupying all (or nearly all) of Centerra. Like when the pool is emptied out for adult swim. It’s like those minecraft worlds where kids have spent 15,000 hours recreating winterfell, except it’s the same elf, endlessly repeated across a million permutations. A kingdom of one.

I am amazed by the cordial tone of posts here this morning. I just feel like shouting and swearing.

I am amazed by the cordial tone of posts here this morning. I just feel like shouting and swearing.

Best three comments so far:

trey causey A thing stepped out and confronted him, a green-litten chiaroscuro of umber and somber shapes and angles. Some weird thrashing machine, it might have been, or a mangle, or a nameless collection of mechanical oddments on the march.

Mateo Diaz Torres The future is a contemptible place.

Noah Stevens It’s like Star Trek in reverse.

Kert Rats.

Yup, this will be my new name for whatever takes the stage now – however bad its hair and intentions and barbarity and brain damage, it will just be kert rats.

I don’t care what John Logan says, I’m going ahead and writing Ives and Lyle: Consulting Demonologists.

I don’t care what John Logan says, I’m going ahead and writing Ives and Lyle: Consulting Demonologists.

It’ll run and run, like Scooby Doo. Gillian Anderson will do a cameo in the pilot. Every season Ives will get a new ancient evil stalker and Lyle will reveal a new deadly Edwardian sin. They’ll just keep piling up: by season 8 Ives and Lyle will only be able to take jobs in Darkest Africa, by season 12 they’ll be trapped in Shanghai, and season 13 will be set entirely in the upstairs rooms of the Athenaeum.

Coincidence… or ingenious moment of detournement?

Coincidence… or ingenious moment of detournement?

Link on the Indy’s “Referendum Facts” page presents bleeding obvious question with 2 wrong answers.

The colour is teal. Or, less exactly, a shade of turquoise.

People who “don’t know” apparently don’t know whether to call it blue or green.

…this seems like a question about elections in general, actually.

http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/a-third-of-people-dont-know-what-colour-this-is–WyoH4P3sEZ?utm_source=indy&utm_medium=top5&utm_campaign=i100//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Superhot is weirdly like DnD combat – or maybe even more like RPG hacking/netrunning.

Superhot is weirdly like DnD combat – or maybe even more like RPG hacking/netrunning.

think think think ACT and take the consequences.

Arguably all turn-based games are like this but there’s something about the relative looseness of the turns I’ve known in RPG combats that feels like this. Like am I acting now? Is time going? Make it all count.

It’s also an ingenious way for slow thinkers like me to feel like action movie characters.

http://superhotgame.com///cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

After Trump reaching out to the Japanese, here’s another unlikely demographic.

After Trump reaching out to the Japanese, here’s another unlikely demographic.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/13/donald-trump-is-the-anti-lorax-in-michael-ian-black-s-child-s-first-book-of-trump.html

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/13/donald-trump-is-the-anti-lorax-in-michael-ian-black-s-child-s-first-book-of-trump.html//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Spoileriffic Game of Thrones battle tactics thread.

Spoileriffic Game of Thrones battle tactics thread.

Given the extremely good direction available to the writers, I’m disappointed that we rarely get a battle clearly set up and allowed to play out using the pieces on the board. By my count we’ve now had 4 last-minute cavalry saves (Tywin at King’s Landing, Stannis at Castle Black, and two this week – Meereen and Winterfell), not counting Dragon Surprises.

In particular, an object lesson in how Romans defeat Gauls is more effective if you don’t have the Gauls start by doing several stupid things, then trap them with corpse mountains (no really, how did they get so tall?), then save them anyway. Me I don’t know why you don’t grab the pikes poking through a shield wall and pull. It would be nice to know that.

So:

1. Apparently nobody but Petyr Baelish has ever read Tywin Lannister’s Guide to Military Scouts with its handy chapters on “How to know when thousands of horsemen are less than a day’s ride away” and “How to hang back until you’re the last army standing.” People: post scouts. Especially if you just happen to have an impregnable fortress next door but are for some mysterious reason addicted to the idea of meeting enemies in the field.

2. leadership is apparently very personal. So why do people not try to assassinate their enemies at parleys? In particular, what the hell is Ramsey thinking riding out with half a dozen guys into bushes the perfect size and shape to conceal crossbowmen? Boom: just saved thousands of lives.

3. armour, people! Yes I know it’s expensive but if you’re Jon Snow… then I guess nothing hits you anyway. But for pity’s sake armour your giant, even if it’s only with the enemy’s shields. Some wooden shin-pads on the big guy could’ve solved the whole shield wall thing. You didn’t bring any? Pick up a shield on the field.

I tend to watch GoT knowing that GRRM’s a long-time DM, and it mostly passes my roleplayer’s smell test – I can imagine players who are not authorial sock-puppets making the mistakes GoT characters make. This season….. not so much. Maybe it’s me filtering what I watch through the knowledge that GRRM isn’t really writing it any more, but it bothers me.

I’m inclined to keep this thread open until the end of the series and update it as new battles pile up.

Oh, but also: there is nowhere worse to be, when you’re facing a dragon, than in a ship. The minute you see those leathery wings you land everyone you can. Now.

So obviously you’ve seen this. I guess I’m just inducting it into the Hall of Fame here.

So obviously you’ve seen this. I guess I’m just inducting it into the Hall of Fame here.

Because:

(a) this is exactly how it will be

and

(b) Trumpmenbashi https://leogw.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/031-img_8916.jpg

Originally shared by Angie Person

Oh, Japan. Don’t ever change.

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