Friday Links!
Steven has a slew of links below this, but I wanted to separate this one and use it to lead off the week:
A global guide to the first world war - interactive documentary.
This is both bizarre and fascinating. Country rap?
Driving and Dying in the Service of the Country Rap King.
From Steven Davis, and this is just wonderful:
The Foldscope – A Paper Microscope that Costs $1. Next, and this is fascinating:
New genetically engineered American chestnut will help restore the decimated, iconic tree. I had no idea that Teller taught Latin at one point:
Teaching: Just Like Performing Magic. Next, and I had no idea where this came from:
The origin of the dancing inflatable tube man.
From DQ Reader My Wife, and this is just ridiculous:
World's Fastest Rubik's Cube Solving Robot.
Wally sent me this next link with the comment "Now THIS is a SPORK!":
design awards. Also, and do you remember the Night Gallery episode where the earwig burrowed through the villain's brain? That's what the song with this video will do to you, but man, it's cute:
guinea pig bridge. Well, this is quite bizarre:
Cute to “a little sinister”—the beauty of US spy satellite rocket launch logos. Next, and this looks unbelievably useful:
Fakespot | Analyze and Identify Fake Reviews.
From Les Bowman, and this is, well, something:
How “House Hunters” became the most unstoppable juggernaut on TV.
From C. Lee, and what a fantastic headline:
Humans aren’t as cooperative as we thought, but they make up for it via stupidity: Economic experiments that supposedly show cooperation may instead depict confusion.
This is terrifying and very, very sad:
Former Giants Safety Found to Have C.T.E.
From Sean, and this is entirely delightful:
Risks Life to Prove Physical Law.
Of Note
With Eli 14.5 trying out in Detroit in six weeks, here's an article about the history of Detroit-area corporate sponsorship of Tier One teams:
The Big Business of Little Hockey Stars.
At goalie camp, it's always surreal to hear a goalie parent talking about the billionaire that's partially sponsoring their team for the season. What I was surprised by, though, was how well-grounded all these parents seem. That may have more to do with the kind of person that particular goalie camp attracts, but they're all nice people.
It will make for a good story, no matter what happens.
Arcen Games
RPS has a sad post about Arcen Games today:
AI War Devs In Financial Difficulty, Layoffs Imminent.
I went and bought their newest game,
Starward Rogue, immediately.
I'm not going to say that I love all of their games, because I bounce right off some of them. There's almost no one else, though, that makes this flavor of dense, complex, intriguing games anymore, and some of their games (including my favorite,
The Last Federation) are borderline masterpieces.
If anything Arcen is much better at making games then marketing themselves, and man, that's a tragic reason for a company to go under. They spent more time at making games than branding, and isn't that what we want?
Uncertainty
Loyd Case, one of my favorite all-time tech writers, has a new website called
Uncertainty.
As is true of anything Loyd does, it will be terrific.
In Dreams
I consume information very differently today than I did three decades ago.
I used to concentrate on one thing at a time, for an extended period of time. The closest I ever came to informational multi-tasking was playing a game with the television on.
[Aside: that television, by the way, was an off-brand, tube 27" model (HUGE for it's day, and it weighed tons) that I hauled up two flights of stairs by myself because I was consumed with getting it hooked up as quickly as possible.]
Today, instead of a single-stream focus for extended lengths of time, everything comes in bits and bursts. Fragments of information, for seconds at at a time. I'm constantly scanning.
Scanformation, I guess.
I've written before about how this makes me feel different on a second to second basis, and I don't really like the feeling. A bit unsettled. Less calm.
When I woke up this morning, I realized there has been another side effect: I dream differently now.
Instead of long narratives and complete stories, I tend to get a rush of fragments instead. It's interesting, certainly, but I like it less.
I enjoyed waking up with a full story in my head.
This makes me wonder if kids are never going to experience some of these things the way I did, because of the way they've consumed information their whole lives.
The Long Dark Steam Key [UPDATE: IT'S GONE}
First person to e-mail gets it. Hurry. Thanks to Daniel Willhite for his generous contribution.
It's Apparently North Korea Day
I was watching the NFC Conference Championship Game last Sunday in the car on the way home from another hockey trip.
The first commercial in every set at the breaks was a Dollar Shave Club Commercial. The same commercial, every single time. I saw it so many times that I felt like I was in a North Korean indoctrination center.
Oh, Come On!
Through a long series of events, I wound up at the 2015 World Press Freedom Index.
Hmm, Finland is #1 in both press freedom and goalie coaching (don't think it's impossible that we might take a summer trip to Finland one year, either).
The U.S. is #49 out of 180.
Of course, you're already wondering who's at the bottom of the rankings. North Korea, incredibly, was only #179.
What? There's a country with LESS press freedom than North Korea?
Indeed there is, and it's Eritrea.
Here's the explanation:
Deservedly last in the index for the past seven years, Eritrea systematically violates freedom of expression and information. It is Africa’s biggest prison for journalists, with at least 16 currently detained – some of them held incommunicado for years. In 2014 alone, Reporters Without Borders supported about 30 requests for international protection filed by Eritrean journalists who had fled their country. President Afeworki, who is on the Reporters Without Borders list of “Predators of Press Freedom,” does not envisage reforms any time soon and continues to ignore the international community’s recommendations. In early 2014, he said: Those who think there will be democracy in this country can think so in another world.”
Damn. Enjoy hell, "President" Afeworki.
If you want to browse through the data, it's
here.
So Remarkably Strange, Sony (Update)
From Adam B.:
Blow wrote about this in a blog post a week or so ago, which I'd send you the link to but it looks like it's currently down. Apparently to set up a pre-order on PSN, you have to submit documentation and get the process rolling months in advance. It seems a bit ridiculous a) that it takes that long to set up and b) that Sony, as an exclusivity partner, did not properly guide him through this process.
Ouch. Way to support your exclusive partners!
Just as a Note
I actually like that everyone in a YMCA league gets a trophy. And now I'm going to get into an unnecessarily complicated explanation of why.
Many people say that the YMCA--and their philosophy--devalue real athletic achievement because everyone is rewarded.
That's not the point.
What the YMCA is trying to do is instill into kids an appreciation and enjoyment of sports, and that enjoyment might in some way help them be both happier and more fit.
That's great. That's much more important than just giving the best team a trophy.
If a kid has true athletic potential and wants to seriously pursue sports, there will be plenty of times where he'll either win a trophy because he won or cry inconsolably because he didn't. There will be plenty of joy and pain to go around.
For the other kids, though, this might be the only time they play in organized sports. Why can't they have fun, get a trophy for playing, and be happy about what they've done?
Eli played in YMCA sports for years. It was a terrific foundation for him as a person, and that's more important than an athletic foundation.
Blizzard!
The Weather Channel was quite funny this weekend, and we watched it quite a bit as we sat in the hotel room between hockey games.
I don't know when they started naming winter storms (to put them on equal footings with hurricanes in terms of drama), but there were dozens of correspondents reporting breathless about wind gusts to 29 MPH (seriously, holding an anemometer in the middle of a street). I know there were moments of dangerous weather in the storm, but since the Weather Channel is on 24x7, they had too much air time to fill.
Here was a typical report:
"I'm standing here in the middle of winter storm Jonah and let me tell you, this is a dangerous blizzard!"
In the background of most of those shots were people sledding down hills or throwing snowballs at each other.
In a hurricane, no one is standing outside throwing frisbees because the wind is blowing 100+ MPH and you might get hit in the face by something flying down the street.
What is this, the Weather YMCA of storms? Does every storm get a trophy now? Are cold fronts going to get names? What about a line of spring showers?
"Isolated shower Jenny is heading directly over the Wal-Mart where I'm standing, and let me tell you, it's refreshing!"
So Remarkably Strange, Sony
The Witness is coming out tomorrow.
I'd like to play it on the PS4 and the plasma screen, so I went to the PS Store today to pre-order.
After enduring the error message they want me to send because sleep mode crashed for the millionth time, the update file, and the series of questions about my privacy, I finally entered the store.
I looked under the "Spotlight" tab. This was a big exclusive for Sony, right? Not there.
Not under "New".
Not under "Coming Soon", or whatever they call it.
This game is released tomorrow and it was NOWHERE.
I actually used the search function and finally found the saddest little game page I've ever seen. One video.
Oh, and guess what? I can't buy it. Nope, no price on that page.
Way to go, Sony! I'm sure Jonathan Blow is thrilled with you right now.
Friday Links!
From Eric Higgins-Freese, and it's an excellent explanation:
Evidence of a Ninth Planet.
Steven Davis appears later in the links, but this deserves its own spotlight:
The Tennis Racket: Match Fixing.
From Wally, and this is wildly entertaining:
La Petit Chef. Next, and this is as well:
Maybe Filling A House With Explosive Expanding Foam Wasn't The Best Idea. Here's a recounting of one of the dirtiest political campaigns in U.S. history:
Ma, Ma, Where’s My Pa? A cautionary tale:
Actual Conversations.
From C. Lee, and this is remarkable:
MIT engineers create glove that mitigates hand tremors from Parkinson’s. If you ever wondered how to have the freshest fish, here you go:
A Fresh Idea. It's called "ikejime", and here's another explanation:
Life Skills: Can You Humanely Kill a Fish?
From Steven Davis, and this is quite amazing:
The Official Ultra-Ever Dry Video - Superhydrophobic coating - Repels almost any liquid! Next, and this is a fascinating read:
Bone Thugs-N-Disharmony: Was forgotten paleontologist Joseph Leidy a casualty of the famous dinosaur wars? This next link is amazing and ridiculous:
Engineer Builds a Functional Miniature V8 Engine Using Only Paper. Here's a terrific read:
How GM Beat Tesla to the First True Mass Market Electric Car.
From Chris Pencis, and this is quite amusing:
SR-71 Blackbird Pilot Trolls Arrogant Fighter Pilot with Ground Speed Check.
From Marc Klein, and I remember linking to the original story five years ago:
Five years after viral video, 'Golden Voice' Ted Williams comes full-circle.
A Contest
A note from DQ VB.NET Advisor Garret Rempel:
I'm conducting a study on memory and the ability for people to memorize short sequences of numbers. In order to do this I've built a small web app to conduct memory tests. It tracks both correct answers and time spent and scores your performance - so speed is better but not at the expense of answering incorrectly.
The test consists of 5 sets of 5 questions with increasing levels of difficulty. Each question presents you with a small set of numbers to memorize, then asks you to answer a question about the numbers. It's randomly generated, so you can take it as many times as you'd like to try and do better, and it tracks your history so you can see your best score if you do it more than once.
It's very simple, and quick to do. I would much appreciate it if you would give it a try, and share it around as much as possible.
In addition, it's a contest. Anyone who signs in with an email address and completes the test before Feb 28 will be entered into a drawing for one of the top 2015/2016 indie games from Steam or an equal value Amazon book order.
Here's the link: Garret's Memory Test.
Anything Garret does is interesting, so check this out when you have a few minutes.
This is Some Kind of Rubicon
Here's how you know you're getting really, really old: you work out in regular clothes.
Everything was sore today, so I just walked on a treadmill for 30 minutes. In jeans.
Collapse, ahoy!
This is Quite Baffling, Really
Sirius doesn't have a channel dedicated to funk, but they have a Billy Joel channel?
Mistakes have been made.
Darkest Dungeon
This game is just ridiculously brilliant, and unlike most games today, you actually have to play attention (close attention) while you play.
Just trust me:
Darkest Dungeon on Steam.
Also, some of the best writing and voice-acting I've heard in a long, long time.
Make Better Decisions #16
Getting an early start on the Valentine's Day rush:
Not a good game for you, fan:
Number 9, Number 9, Number 9...
A New Ninth Planet May Have Been Detected, Scientists Say
I do not understand how planets hide. Some of them are quite good at it, really.
Gridiron Solitaire #800: Probably Won't Happen, but...
I've been kicking around the idea of a college football tie-in to Gridiron Solitaire.
This is very preliminary, obviously, and it won't happen unless I can leverage a fair amount of the existing code.
Basics:
32 teams (4 conferences)
10 game season (7 conference, 3 out-of-conference)
Recruiting mini-game each week
College "power rankings" each week
4 team playoff
New stadiums
That's all somewhat straightforward (the details aren't, but it's all doable).
What was preventing me from considering this more seriously was that I couldn't think of a way to distinguish college gameplay from pro gameplay. The college game is faster, with more big plays and turnovers.
How could this be modeled in the game in such a way that the gameplay truly felt different?
I asked someone whose design skills I very much respect for advice, and he responded that multi-purpose cards would provide more strategic options on the tableaux. So instead of a card being a red five, for example, it could be a red five/six.
That sounds like a small change, but it opens up quite a few additional decisions during the course of a game.
This was an interesting idea, and I liked it, but why would those cards be in the deck in the first place? They had to get there in a manner consistent with the game itself. Without that, they might just be seen as a gimmick.
I thought about this for a while, and realized that I could make those special cards part of the recruiting process.
Let's say you're recruiting a five-star quarterback. Instead of just adding X points to your team Passing rating, that quarterback has unique abilities as a card. So you're recruiting a five-star quarterback who is a red 10/11, for example, and as long as he's on the team (max four years), he appears in the game deck.
I like the deck-building aspect of this very much, and the circumstances under which the cards appear can be tailored to their role. So a quarterback's special card wouldn't appear while you were playing defense, for example.
Like I said, this is all very preliminary, but that's at least an entry point into offering a unique experience in gameplay.
Long Weekend
Three days in Dallas for a hockey tournament and just got back about two hours ago.
Eli 14.5s team won the tournament, and he won his two games 2-0 and 7-2. We're all beat, though--staying in hotels and living on a rink schedule is tiring.
Martin Luther King Day
Today is a national holiday in the United States to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.
It's easy to forget the kind of hatred and stupidity that King was fighting against, but a good place to start is with this documentation of the
Jim Crow laws in the United States (this is a different source than what I've linked to in the past, and it's much more detailed). The Wikipedia
entry for Jim Crow laws also has detailed information. And the Wikipedia entry for
King is here.
It's painful to read about the Jim Crow era, and as an American, it's both embarrassing and shameful, but it's important to learn about the past, even if we wish it hadn't happened.
Friday Links!
Leading off this week, and it's a great read:
The Biggest Dinosaur In History May Never Have Existed.
From C. Lee, and these are outstanding:
'Star Trek' Postal Stamps Beaming in for 50th Anniversary. Also, and this is excellent, it's
Someone who'd never seen Star Wars tweeted the whole original trilogy and it's hilarious. This next article is fascinating:
What did the Romans ever do for us? Lice, fleas and bacterial infections. Here's something quite amazing:
an augmented reality car manual. Next, and this is a real treasure trove:
180,000 Historic Maps, Photos, and Postcards Are Now Free for Public Use. One more, and it's both fascinating and shameful:
The forgotten way African Americans stayed safe in a racist America.
From Steven Davis, and this is both terrific and difficult to read:
A Father, a Dying Son, and the quest to build the most profound videogame ever. Next, and this is astonishing:
This is what the entire universe looks like in one image. This is a wonderful read:
Sky readers: For most of human history, the stars told us where we were in space and time. Have we forgotten how to look up? This is an incredible story:
Ned Overend Is the Champion Cyclist Who Never Grows Old.
Adding some white space, but here are more links from Steven, and this one is terrific:
How MSG Got A Bad Rap: Flawed Science And Xenophobia.
I'm breaking up the space, but this is another link from Steven, and if you play DFS, you should read it:
How the Daily Fantasy Sports Industry Turns Fans Into Suckers.
From DQ VB.NET advisor Garret Rempel, and Eli 14.5 would love to play on this:
A rooftop ice rink has just been installed on a 32 story building in Toronto.
From Wally, and this is fascinating:
the Forme of Cury. Next, and this is an interesting perspective:
Teeny house, big lie: Why so many proponents of the tiny-house movement have decided to upsize. Next, and this is very, very cute:
The Scamperbeasts.
From Sean Redlitz, and this girl is incredible:
The Wall Dancer: Ashima Shiraishi’s route to the top.
Girangaroo!
Thanks to Fredrik, of course:
A Poem
This is from one of El 14.5s younger friends, a 9-year-old goalie who Eli coaches. He is just about the cutest kid in the world, and every time he sees Eli, he runs and gives him a hug.
Sorry about the lighting quality, but it's worth clicking on and reading. That's next level awesome for a 9-year-old.
CombineRobot
This is an iOS/Android game that just released. Here's a trailer:
CombineRobot.
It's a pattern matching game, basically. Giant monsters are attacking, and you matching patterns of cars on the freeway in the foreground eventually enables a giant robot to assemble and start attacking the monsters.
It gets very fast-paced as you progress, and the robots are customizable, and even though it's quite repetitive it's still entirely fun.
Here's a screenshot (shamelessly ripped from the App Store page):
If you're looking to play something on your phone/tablet, check this out.
To Read
I guess this is father week.
John Walker of Rock, Paper, Shotgun wrote a beautiful and heartbreaking tribute to his dad today. You should go read it now:
RIP Hugh Walker, 1949 – 2016.
Cutthroat Kitchen
DQ Reader My Wife is a very good cook. That's why I can write about this.
Gloria made enchiladas tonight, but she tried a new recipe. It did not go well.
I looked at the pan, then got my plate. "Do we have anything else that goes with this?" I asked, innocently. "Like rice or something?"
We usually have rice or something.
Later, after dinner, the awkward questions began.
"So, what did you guys think of the enchiladas?" Gloria asked.
I was going to jump out of a window, but I couldn't. That's why you shouldn't put the living room on the first floor.
"I know you didn't like them," Gloria said.
"They were, um--very
wet," I said.
"WET," Eli 14.5 said.
"Something with the texture was a little off," I said, "but they were definitely wet. They were sort of--wet-chiladas."
Eli burst out laughing. I know this was heading downhill, because once we both start laughing, it's hard to stop.
"That's it, Mom," Eli said. "Wetchiladas!"
"I have to go to Walgreen's in a little while for Benadryl," I said, mouthing the word "Chic-Fil-A" to Eli, which sent him into borderline hysterics. Now we're both laughing ourselves silly.
"All right, the next person who says 'the word' has to clean the kitchen," Gloria said.
"What word?" I ask.
"Oh, no," she said. "I'm not falling for that."
"What if, hypothetically," I said, "I say the word as part of a call and response. So what if I say wet--"
"--chilada," Eli says, and bursts out laughing.
"Wet!"
"Chilada!"
"Wet!"
"Chilada!"
"You are both completely hopeless," Gloria said.
Pie
There's a game coming out tomorrow. It's called
That Dragon, Cancer.
Tycho mentioned it in his news post today over at Penny Arcade, but he also slipped in a link to a post he'd written about his father in 2014.
It's overwhelming, deeply personal, and it hits like a punch.
You should go read it
here, then come back.
_____INTERMISSION______SNACKS_________DRINKS__________
Okay, you're back.
Normally, I would give you a little summary in case you were lazy. Not this time. That piece of writing is too powerful to summarize. Go read it.
_____INTERMISSION______SNACKS_________DRINKS__________
Okay, you've read it now. Good thing, because you might not understand what's coming if you didn't.
Here's the thing about me. For the first forty or so years of my life, I was an apple pies. Like this:
See that crust?
That was my crust. Unlike a pie, though, there were no tools to get through that crust. It was a detachment that I held thickly around me.
When Eli was born, I still had that crust.
I had it through the first few years of his life, although there were moments when I felt something giving way inside me.
Being around a small person is different.
They're genuine. All the time. Eli was so sincere, so genuine, that parts of my crust started pulling away.
I didn't miss it.
I still remember the last piece of crust, the day that it just wasn't there anymore. I even
wrote about it.
That was the day. It was a good day.
This post, though, isn't about Eli, or me.
It's about my father.
My father left my mother very, very early in my life, too early for me to have any memories of him before he left.
I did spend part of one summer with him when I was (I think) eight. In Monroe (pronounced "Mun-row).
Even at my young age, what I clearly saw was a deeply unhappy man.
I don't remember one single moment when we really connected. Not really. It was something he wasn't capable of doing, although it seemed like some part of him wanted to.
It was crust, his crust. Thickly held.
It was the same with my stepbrother, his other son. My dad couldn't connect with him, either.
My Dad is very old now. Haven't heard from him in twenty years.
Does he know what he missed? With everyone?
I can't imagine what it would feel like to be near the end of my life, still holding that detachment around me like a shield.
Actually, I can imagine, and I do know what it would feel like.
It would hurt.
Friday Links!
This a brilliant and depressing piece:
Dying To Be Free: There’s A Treatment For Heroin Addiction That Actually Works. Why Aren’t We Using It?
From Wally, and I don't even pretend to understand this:
Dnipropetrovsk renames itself Dnipropetrovsk. Next, and this may cause a cuteness cardiac arrest, so be warned, it's
Unexpectedly Funny Things to do with Hamsters When You're Bored. Also, and this is great read, it's
Wrong Way Corrigan.
From Steven Davis, and this is a fascinating read:
How Do You Train a Dog to Sniff Bombs? Next, and this is wildly entertaining in a NSFW way:
The ladies of Downton Abbey play Cards Against Humanity. Also, and this is so bizarre, it's
A Picturesque Mountaintop Skywalk in the Czech Republic with a 330 Foot Slide Down. This is just amazing:
128,000 Dominoes Falling into past a journey around the world 2 Guinness World Records. Next, and you won't even believe this:
How this color changing cake was made + lenticular printing.
From J.R. Parnell, and this is terrific:
TECHNOLOGY YOU DIDN'T KNOW STILL EXISTED: THE TELEGRAM.
From Meg McReynolds, and I would back this Kickstarter:
Tell Me You Wouldn't Buy This Snow-Fighting Fire Plow.
The Big Jump
Eli 14.5 jumped 9'0" yesterday. I was speechless.
Today, I picked him up from school.
"After that jump yesterday, I think you need a nickname," I said.
"Oh, no," Eli said.
"Something 'classy' ," I said.
"Classy is important," he said.
"Something that conveys the sheer intimidation of your athleticism," I said.
"I don't like where this is going," he said.
"We've always agreed that you were part giraffe, part kangaroo," I said.
"We never did, but okay," he said.
"So," I said, "clearly, you're--The GIRANGAROO."
"The what?" he said.
"Half giraffe, half kangaroo," I said.
"I question your sanity--again," he said.
"It's perfect," I said. "Plus, it's kid friendly. It reminds me of Garanimals."
"Your favorite clothing line," he said.
"Color coordinate--
with confidence," I said.
"Well, this is a disaster," he said.
"I'll ask Fredrik to draw the Girangaroo," I said.
"Girangaroo--TM," Eli said.
"Obviously," I said. "T-shirts incoming."
"Of course they are," he said, laughing.
I Could Have Sworn I Posted This, But Can't Find It, So Here We Go Again
Perhaps the greatest exchange in movie history, presented entirely without context.
"Ideas are powerful."
"Not as powerful as a whaling ship."
Oculus Rift Pre-Order
I was sitting at the computer at 10:00:00.
Clicked on "pre-order now", and spent five minutes staring at a blank screen and hitting refresh every five seconds.
At 10:05, though, the order screen came up, and I was done in two minutes.
Price? $599.
Expected shipment date: March.
Oculus Rift Pre-Order Price Prediction
$599.
CES News
The annual news explosion that is the Consumer Entertainment Show has started.
First off,
Engadget usually covers just about everything. Here are some specific notes, though, about things that you might find interesting:
First, Oculus Rift pre-orders begin January 6 at 10 AM CST. That's Wednesday, unless you're in Australia, in which case I have no idea what day it is, really. Tuesday. Thursday. March 7.
Oddly, no price has been announced yet, but if you backed Oculus in the original Kickstarter, you get the finished unit for free.
That's remarkable, and I think it strongly points to this: the price is going to be higher than people expect, and there was internal concern that there might not be enough early adopters to act as evangelists for the product.
It's a master stroke, then, to give away the product to the people who are most likely to act as evangelists--the ones who backed the vision in the first place.
I'm ordering, of course. at 10:00:01 CST tomorrow.
LG had their big press conference this morning, and they
announced multiple new OLED lines in 55", 65" and 77" sizes. All of the new screens are 4K and support HDR (there's one existing 1080P screen that will still be available). They also now have some screens with 10-bit processing (not sure which ones yet).
I can remember, just a few years ago, when LG was considered a joke. They always made huge promises about products, many of which never shipped. But OLED is a premium technology in terms of image quality, substantially better than LCD, and LG is the company that has pushed forward and is driving the market.
Oh, and here's one more change. When LG does ship OLED product after announcing it at CES, it always meant second half of the year, at a minimum. Now they're saying some of these screens will ship in the first quarter. Nice.
One other development that I think is quite interesting: NVIDIA is serious about getting into the self-driving car market. Their
Drive PX2 product is very impressive and is being adopted by Volvo.
I think this is very savvy move by Nvidia (screw the caps). This is going to be a huge market, and the spin-off tech is going to be a huge market, too.
Here's something else I'm noticing about CES: I don't find as many things interesting as I used to. Man, sometimes I hate getting old.
Darn it, not streaming on NHL Network
Sorry, but I was incorrect: the semis are not streaming. It's showing on the NHL Network broadcast only, with no streaming (in the U.S., anyway).
Hoo-Wee!
Here's the news blurb:
On Saturday, armed extremists seized buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge—300 miles southeast of Portland—to protest prison time for Dwight and Steven Hammond, father-and-son ranchers convicted of arson for torching more than 100 acres of federal land, allegedly to cover up poaching.
"Armed extremists" in this case is shorthand for "angry white redneck", basically.
The mocking has been extremely clever, though, which makes this far more entertaining than usual.
Some of the best mocks so far:
YallQuaeda
VanillaISIS
YokelHarem
Wingnut Woodstock
Engaged in a "Yeehad", of course.
Also, thank you, Lars Petticord:
Every successful revolution starts with takeover of closed visitor center with gift shop.
IIHF World Junior Semis!
The U.S. plays Russia in the semi-finals of the World Junior Championships at noon CST. Eli 14.5s goalie instructor from Bandits, Alex Nedeljkovic, will be between the pipes for the U.S.
He's been one of the top goalies in the tournament so far.
If you're in the U.S., you can watch the game on NHL Network.
If you haven't watched any of these games, they're a huge treat. Ultra-fast, ultra-high skill levels, and very exciting.
Friday Links!
This is always one of our lightest weeks of the year, so go watch a football game. Or something.
From Wallace, and this is truly an excellent read:
Academic urban legends. Also, and this is fascinating:
Texts, 2015. Next, and this is just beautiful:
Ode to Joy by large Matryomin ensemble.
From Marc Klein, and I was lucky enough to see both of these guys in their absolute prime:
THE BIG 4-0 Tiger, Jack, and the cost of remaining great after 40.
From Jesse Leimkuehler, and this is astonishing:
This Chinese city is completely abandoned and makes for incredible photography.
From Todd Robinson, and this is brilliantly demented:
Ambitious angler outfits his fishing boat for skating.
From Steven Davis, and this is amazing:
Magical container for a Japanese Automaton. Next, and this is truly spectacular:
A Carved Graphite Train on Tracks Emerges from Inside a Carpenter’s Pencil. One more, and Shakespeare nerd alert:
Shakespeare's 74 death scenes in a single play more gory than Game of Thrones.
