August 5, 2013
The goal of the player is always to go forward
"What it all really boils down to are neat ways to justify a lot of violence." Frictional Games lead designer talks about acclaimed PS3 game The Last of Us: "The game has a lot in common with the recent Spec Ops: The Line. Both feature a dog-eat-dog world, takes place in the destroyed remains of a city, and have you play as violent and deranged characters with no qualms about butchering countless people. Both of these games have also been praised for their mature and intelligent storytelling. And sure, they both feature deep and nicely portrayed characters, but ... if this represents the future of videogame storytelling, then we are doomed to play as broken, murderous protagonists living in worlds populated by antagonists." [more inside]
'The theme of "Charlotte's Web" is that a pig shall be saved'
"I haven't told why I wrote the book, but I haven't told you why I sneeze, either. A book is a sneeze." A lovely little letter from E. B. White.
Major Icebreakers of the World
An answer's value can only go down...
"A Day at the Park", a long scrolling comic that features two interestingly designed characters having a discussion of their respective collections: one of questions, the other of answers. By illustrator Kostos Kiriakakis as the start of a series titled "Mused", along with "Lost and Found", about names and games and stuff...
(thanks to Fleen, which just yesterday scooped us on Boulet's Long Journey).
(thanks to Fleen, which just yesterday scooped us on Boulet's Long Journey).
Lion, scarecrow, tin man... mine demon?
The song is a catchy summer jam by British producer Naughty Boy, which topped the charts in the UK and Italy (though got little airplay in the US). The video, shot in Bolivia by British director Ian Pons Jewell, is a little more complicated: for 90% of viewers, it's a pretty obvious (if rather bizarre) urban retelling of the Wizard of Oz. For the rare viewer acquainted with Bolivian folklore, however, the video is a bit more: a retelling of a traditional folktale about a deaf boy with an abusive stepfather who sacrifices himself to stop a demon who rules over silver mines... [more inside]
Abandoned Porn Under The Sea
Gil Koplovitz took pictures of a strip club called the Nymphas Show Bar. One small detail: he did it while he was scuba diving off the coast of Israel.
The Uncertainty Principle
Now that I'm indestructible all I can worry about is sex
18 Days
Grant Morrison's "18 Days" was announced as a YouTube web series at the San Diego Comic Con, and the first two episodes are already available.
You guys watch Joe Don Baker movies?
A six-minute documentary snippet discusses Kubrick's camera modifications for special, low-light f/0.7 Zeiss lenses used to film candlelit scenes in Barry Lyndon, now available to rent by aspiring filmmakers.
Kiese Laymon may be the best writer and curator in a generation
Kiese Laymon, is writing some of the most innovative pieces about race and life in America right now.
Previously discussed here when his essay How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance was published on Gawker and took the world by storm. He has two books out this summer, his debut novel Long Division and an essay collection also entitled How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, which includes a correspondence between Laymon and four other authors, including Mychal Denzel Smith of The Nation. Long Division has received some very positive press although the establishment literary outlets have not (yet) weighed in, unsurprisingly. [more inside]
The Use and Abuse of Civil Forfeiture
Taken: The Use and Abuse of Civil Forfeiture. "Under civil forfeiture, Americans who haven’t been charged with wrongdoing can be stripped of their cash, cars, and even homes. Is that all we’re losing?" [Via]
We've fuckin' time travelled now. Maybe you can download rice!
Before he was announced as the 12th incarnation of The Doctor (previously), Peter Capaldi was probably best known for his turn as the foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in Armando Iannucci's political satire The Thick of it. But, as The Guardian handily illustrates – via a collection of some of Capaldi's best moments over the past 30 years – there's much more to Peter Capaldi than his ability to turn swearing into a creative artform. [more inside]
sold.. to Jeff Bezos
The Washington Post will be sold to Jeff Bezos for $250 million, ending four decades of the Graham family. Amazon will have no role in the purchase.
BBC Documentary - Das Auto: The Germans, Their Cars and Us
Das Auto - the British Obsession with Germany and it's industrial Power continues (recent MeFi Discussion here) - while Top Gear tries to show with a Tribute that British Car Manufacturing is still alive and kicking.
Sometimes it's lovely to be read a bedtime story, even as an adult.
A wonderful, generous and free selection of authors, collections and books online at Lit2Go for awake times or drowsy ones. The Count of Monte Cristo from the Adventure collection | or perhaps a Just So Story from the Fantasy collection | Beowolf from the Here Be Dragons! collection | Aladdin from Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors or The Heart of Happy Hollow from the African American collection. Also practical for children. Previously. [more inside]
Another nefarious deed by history's greatest monster
"There is no vaccine for guinea worm, and there are no drugs that can cure those who are infected. The pest once afflicted hundreds of millions of people from the Gambia to India. But the worm is now gone from Guinea, and from almost everywhere else. At last count, there were only five hundred and forty-two people infected, down from an estimated 3.5 million in 1986. Of the remaining cases, exactly five hundred and twenty-one are in South Sudan." -- Parasitologist Mark Siddall on the very successfull, Jimmy Carter sponsored campaign to eradicate the guinea worm and how this campaign proved Malthus wrong.
Russian Belyanas, huge wooden lumber hauling river craft from the past
Russian Belyanas (meaning "made of white wood") were amongst the worlds largest wooden ships, but more impressively, these huge lumber hauling ships would get dis-assembled at the end of their voyage down the Volga river, and almost every part would be sold and turned into something new. Even the crews' cabins and the captain's cabin were sold as pre-built houses at the end of their trip. After being steered down the river towards Astrakhan by huge iron bobs, the immense cargo of lumber would be off-loaded, and the vessel taken apart and repurposed. The last Belyana sailed down the Volga in 1934, and the only record of them are old photographs, and some very small modern model.
The Venn Diagram of Geeks, Nerds, Dorks and Jocks.
How Hollywood Helped Hitler.
"Throughout the 1930s, the term "collaboration" was used repeatedly to describe dealings that took place in Hollywood." -- The story of how Hollywood censored movies around the world so they could earn more money in Nazi Germany.
Stop playing around with serious stuff like this
Since the Riley Cooper story broke last week, writer Khalid Salaam has "had an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other" about how to react. [more inside]
Way Ahead of the Technology
No brain! No suffering!
Fukushima tired of being out of the news, makes new play for spotlight
A Water Storage Nightmare: Fukushima Daiichi is back in the news. "Highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is creating an 'emergency' that the operator is struggling to contain."
"I coulda played a great street urchin or ragamuffin. Or just been one."
We look forward to a timely response to our request
Senators Mike Quigley, Tammy Baldwin, Mike Enzi, Elizabeth Warren, Barbara Lee, along with thirteen other senators and 64 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter last Thursday asking the Department of Health and Human Services asking for an end to the ban on blood donation of all gay men who have had sex with other men since 1977. [more inside]
bonne écoute
Les disques africains collects, rips, and uploads out-of-print records (and their sleeves!) from the golden age of vinyl in francophone Africa. Don't miss la belle chanteuse Sali Sidibé, psychedelic grooves from Benin, or this incredible 35-minute oral-musical history of Bobo-Dioulasso. New posts appear, as if by some rare magic, every three to four days.
"For some, suicidal intent is a terminal illness"
Suicide prevention has become a key focus of public and private mental health initiatives in recent years. And as we previously have seen, in many cases suicide is not an inevitable outcome for people experiencing suicidal ideation or even those who have made a suicidal attempt.
Still, the question remains: is every suicide preventable? [more inside]
How DO they get the graffitti there?
Amazing French cartoonist Boulet would like to take you on a long journey.
Cat images reportedly unaffected
Domestic spying now (secretly) used by law enforcement
The NSA is handing the Justice Department information, derived from its secret electronic eavesdropping programs, about suspected criminal activity unrelated to terrorism; meanwhile the DEA is using information from NSA programs to launch criminal investigations, and then 'recreating' the trail of investigation in order to hide where the information originated.
Ping Pong Poodle
Mocking the self-serious world of fashion
Model Files is a mockumentary web series about fashion and modeling from an insider's view, executed with very dry humor. Real-life models play themselves, only more ridiculous, sarcastic, or preening, and the show's protagonist, a real-life model casting director, is "one of a handful of human beings who could make Anna Wintour crack a genuine smile." Samples: I Made That Baby, RJ's World, Reality Wars, Save SoSo. [more inside]
David Mitchell on online dating
For my generation, a proper grounding in dating chutzpah, like the teaching of English grammar, had been removed from the curriculum. I'm not sure Michael Gove is the man to put that right. A lot of men my age went into the world thinking that the only way you got a girlfriend was to find a way of copping off with someone at a party. And the level of drunkenness often required by both individuals in order to make that happen can impair judgment of mutual compatibility. I'm not saying I approve of arranged marriage, but it sometimes works better than getting hammered, having a cry, drinking through it, throwing up and then returning to the party's chaotic closing minutes saying to yourself: "Right, who's left?" Which is why I usually stopped at the throwing-up stage. David Mitchell on online dating.
Send in the Tanks
Sebastiao Salgado
has recently visited the Awa- Guaja, a hunter gatherer people who are on the verge of extinction.
Brazil has sent in the armed forces to try and protect their lands and the animals that live there from illegal logging.
Brazil has sent in the armed forces to try and protect their lands and the animals that live there from illegal logging.
"Ties. And no playoffs. Why do you even do this?"
With the English Premier League season less than two weeks away, there have already been a number of massive shakeups to the established order. Among the most shocking are the appointment of Jason Sudeikis Ted Lasso as head coach for the Tottenham Hotspurs, and Luis Suarez returning to a relatively normal office life in Uruguay.
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