Weird & Wonderful Web

[Saturnine Tenshi]

I'm much more open when it comes to allowing the extremes of either side, even if it's inciting hate or unlawful (especially disagree with unlawful). Even the Nazi boogeyman.

But most of what gets under my skin is how people on both sides are eager to demonize and attack the people responsible for making the games, the people who think A is okay or not okay, and the ideas involved. There's a difference between asking and voicing your opinion, and painting your opinion as the only just and right opinion. Then following that with anyone who disagrees being either a Nazi Alt-Right or Libcuck Commie Scum.

And going back to Ethan: as someone who seems to have his ear to the ground, if you don't see that happening, or that people want only what they firmly believe should be accepted to be, uh, accepted, then I don't know what to tell you.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Saturnine Tenshi

[TheMightyEthan]

52 minutes ago, Saturnine Tenshi said:

And going back to Ethan: as someone who seems to have his ear to the ground, if you don't see that happening, or that people want only what they firmly believe should be accepted to be, uh, accepted, then I don't know what to tell you.

Of course people only want what they think is acceptable to be accepted.  I was saying I don't see people going beyond criticism of the viewpoint to actually trying to get stuff banned.  If people are doing that regularly, please enlighten me.  If that's not what you're talking about, then please elaborate because I want to understand what you are talking about.

After writing that I realized that there are lots of personal attacks/doxxing/threats of violence/etc, which is not cool.  I'm fine with people thinking an idea is reprehensible, and even fine with people finding the people who hold it/advocate for it reprehensible, but using threats beyond economic actions and criticism is not okay.  I think I didn't make the connection to what you were talking about at first because I was focused on the "ban it" thing, so wasn't thinking about other ways people do that.  That said, at least in the context of games/pop culture I only see one side doing those sorts of things, and it ain't the liberals.

*Edit - I don't mean that as some kind of absolute truth or anything, I realize it's just my anecdotal experience, and if there are examples of that stuff happening from the left I would like to hear about them.  Information is our friend.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

I hope you'll understand that I don't, like, keep a notebook in which I jot down these things for future reference. But as someone who's dug in pretty deeply on both sides, I see it coming from both. And always a gasp when I mention it. Like, surely you mean it's only the other guys doing a bad thing. Also think it's a dubious distinction writing off economic actions, as if that doesn't threaten a person's livelihood.

 

I'm sure you're well aware of what the right has done, so I'll stick to the left. Just some quick Googling and going down the list.

http://skepchick.org/2014/12/why-im-okay-with-doxing/

https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/2iwf40/compilation_of_harassmentinsultsdoxxing_from/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeploraBall (Under Protests)

http://theralphretort.com/doxx-attempt-ends-badly-for-4chan-sjw/

 

Going back to the free speech that cropped up earlier, it seems as if lately it's more "free speech, but only if it's something I want to hear", which strikes me as dangerously insular and prejudiced. Feels as if I'm too-often just playing devil's advocate or something depending which community I'm participating in at any given time. Also a reason why I try to keep politics off my social media since my vocation requires a strong presence there (besides a few well-deserved jabs at Trump, anyway).

More relevant to what (I think, I can't remember anymore) sparked the conversation, also don't agree that it's somehow seen as damning to speak ill of some groups, while others are set aside as OK to disparage.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Saturnine Tenshi

[deanb]

Some of the Monsterpalooza stuff on Tested is pretty cool.

I quite like the coverage since with Frank they've got an "insider" as it were and it's a less busy convention than say Comiccon so it's easier for them to get some nice longer interviews set up.

 

 

[deanb]

This is pretty neat. Very simple story telling but it works with what they've got.

[deanb]

http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html

Someone posted this on Reddit which shows light pollution and thus good spots to do a bit of stargazing. One element I like (since I don't like the bit with most of UK covered in some form or another) is it showing the oil fields in the North Sea  

And less fun I guess is the excellent night skies the citizens of North Korea have.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

That's neat af. But fuck my life I'm in a white zone.

[TheMightyEthan]

Huh, I have to go quite a bit farther to get into a grey zone than I would have expected, and even then it's not a full dark zone.  I'd have to go all the way to Colorado for full dark.

Also, re: North Korea, the South Koreans are sharing their light with those close to the border, at least.

[Mr. GOH!]

That map is pretty nifty, even if I am already aware that I'd have to go pretty far to be able to see the stars at night.

I've been to dark places, and even compared to near-dark places in the Midwest, like where Ethan lives or where I grew up, it's a big difference at night. Even though I grew up in a sparsely-populated area, the fact that the countryside was 99% developed farmland meant that there was always just enough light to block out the faintest stars.

[Thursday Next]

50 minutes ago, TheMightyEthan said:

Huh, I have to go quite a bit farther to get into a grey zone than I would have expected, and even then it's not a full dark zone.  I'd have to go all the way to Colorado for full dark.

Also, re: North Korea, the South Koreans are sharing their light with those close to the border, at least.

Sharing their light pollution. I don't think people in NK can read by it.

[Mal]

I had the pleasure of being out in western Nevada/eastern California near the darkest skies during a new moon. If you grew up as a city person like I was, it will blow your god damn mind. You only need to read accounts of blackouts in NYC and the like to get a sense of it. It is really noticeable going from one zone to another so even having seen the Milky Way before in dark skies, it can still blow your mind. Of course, even in where I was at you can see the faint glow from the nearby town of Bishop. In other places you can even get hints of Los Angeles and Las Vegas since they are so intense.

I believe this year's solar eclipse I'll be camping out in a dark area in Idaho (and else where) so I'll see the night sky in almost its full glory. It something everybody should experience at least once. Just grab a drink or whatever and just look. Take it all in... you Europeans are so fucked. The Japanese as well.

Edit: Anybody knows what's up with central Russia? Oil fields, mines and/or industrial region?

Edited April 27, 2017 by Mal

[deanb]

Oil fields I'd guess. You can enable Satellite view which shows a lot of crazy spidery roads. Matching some spots up with proper Google Maps shows some of the more built up areas listed as "Oil Refinery".

(Also I'm kinda enjoying how much this seems to have captivated a bunch of you).

 

Anywho on topic of Russia (sort of) this popped up in my FB Memories. 31 years and a day since Chernobyl disaster. This Imgur article/album is always worth a read through

Especially relevant I would say for us gamers since I'd guess the majority of us have crawled through that area in gillie suits to fire off a sniper, or maybe gone exploring the zone around it.

 

[Mister Jack]

 

The longer you stare at it, the more fucked up it gets.

[deanb]

This has probably sold more people on Spider-Man:Homecoming than the actual trailers

[deanb]

lol

[Mister Jack]

Fucking freeaboo.

[deanb]

https://dood.al/pinktrombone/

 

This certainly falls under the weird. It has sound (it's pretty much the point of it) so headphones or not at work required.

[MetalCaveman]

In case you were curious about how metal vocalists can do what they do without damaging their vocal chords/throat:

I already sort of knew about this (false vocal chords are mentioned pretty much every time the subject of death metal vocals comes up )  but this is the first time I see an actual scientific study on the matter.

Related, this is what happens when you teach a neural network to come up with its own band names:

http://www.metalinjection.net/latest-news/heres-what-happens-when-a-machine-learns-metal-band-names-and-then-makes-up-its-own

My favourites are:

Inbumblious
ChaosWorge le Plague
Inhum the Thorg
Dragonsulla and Steelgosh
Black Clonic Sky
Sespesstion Sanicilevus

\m/ \m/

[TheMightyEthan]

If I ever have a band I'm naming it Inbumblious.

[Mister Jack]

It says right there what's going to happen and I laughed anyway.

 

[deanb]

 

It's like The Room in real life.

[deanb]

 

This is really well put together. As a story less so, but considering it's using cut audio you are slightly limited by whatever is said in the show so far (though plenty of episodes of content to pull from).

 

[TheFlyingGerbil]

http://ekitailullaby.tumblr.com/post/163305006418/kony2012official-withdrawnlyricist-guess-who

I'm sure if you watched the whole film you'd lose your mind but this clip actually makes me want to watch a barbie movie.

[deanb]

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/jul/29/jon-ronson-bespoke-porn-nothing-is-too-weird-all-requests?CMP=share_btn_tw

This article on custom porn is certainly interesting. It's more on the fetishes than anything...well pornographic as such.

[Hot Heart]

Love the one where she thinks she's posing for a photo but NOPE.