Happy Friday for all of you out there pretending to work.
Don’t forget the First Annual Glibertarians College Basketball Tourney Bracket Challenge (a carryover from the Hit & Run Tourney Pick Em days for those of you that remember) (password: Podesta). Max entries per person capped at three, so you’ve got options there to have some fun with upset picks. There will be prizes for the winners involving our new logo. Which reminds me, the deadline for entries is rapidly approaching. So get off your asses and get them in here. More on this over the weekend and Monday.
- The Daily Mail does Spring Break at Panama City Beach. You can tell some of those girls aren’t native. Yikes. By the way, we Florida Men thank those who will be spending their financial aid to help the local economy. Seriously, kids, just get a credit card. At least then you can get shut of bad decisions in seven years or less.
- In other Florida news, we invite all of you tourists who have finished spending your money to this lovely sinkhole where alligators are piled three deep.
- Burt Reynolds may have made one of the most libertarian movies ever, but ol’ Bandit thinks the State of Florida should give more money to his kind of people. True story, I sat two rows behind Burt at a Willie Nelson concert.
- If you read between the lines here, you’ll find the giraffe version of David Carradine.
- US Army one ups Defense Distributed, 3D prints a grenade launcher.
- And railguns just became closer to being man-portable. Not close, closer.
- Why would the NYT care about medical tourism? RINOCare is going to give them everything for free. Also, do NOT go to sketchy storefronts in Miami for butt implants.
Oh well, at least we still have David Bowie and Lou Reed, right? What, you were expecting an INXS song after the David Carradine joke?
Comments
370 responses to “Friday Afternoon Links”
Obligatory
I remember some public event with creators and cast where they said that, after they sent the script to Reynolds, it came back with a whole bunch of corrections and additions.
All of them self-deprecating humor at Burt’s expense.
Archer runs off all those Reynolds movies, and doesn’t mention Malone? I am disappointed, Archer writers.
It’s a fucking crying shame to see Burt reduced to Old Crippled Man in the Bandit raffle commercials that are running now.
My children know to kill me before I reach that stage.
I clicked on the INXS link.
I had forgotten what the 80s looked like. For good reason.
Fucking awesome, right!?
Fucking right!
Fuck yeah!
In my mind it is still the 80s.
The Daily Mail does Spring Break at Panama City Beach.
Why are they all so fat? Fort Lauderdale in 1985 was wayyyyyy better.
Right? I remember the 90s and the talent we took down there was much better than that. Also, how long before there is some article at a SocJus feminist site using this article as proof of the evil patriarchy?
Hah!
Look what I found!
Thanks, YouTube!
Ah… the 1980s. Fluorescent bikinis, high top sneakers, and untrimmed bush.
Radical. I esp. liked the matching zebra bikinis that bro and his chick we’re rocking near the beginning.
If the dude is showing more skin than the chick, something has gone horribly wrong.
Zubaz bikinis? Yikes.
Basically, yes. And by “esp. liked” I meant “was repulsed by”.
1985 may have been the last good year in Lauderdale for the next 20 years. The cops began acting like gestapo and ‘scene’ became fucked up.
Spending spring break in a jail cell, after getting ripped off by the hotel and travel agency. Mexico or Palm Springs were the places for the later 80’s.
Sonny Bono fucked up Palm Springs in the 80s too.
Or as Jesse puts it, “made it much better”.
Yeah… I clicked on that.
What. The. Fuck.
I assume Spring Break at Panama City is for those too lazy to travel to the real part of Florida instead of lower Alabama.
I think its also bike week, so Daytona is probably a no-go zone for college bros.
PCB is also dirt cheap, which helps. That might be because it’s such a dump.
Panama City is much more reachable, from say Kentucky, in a one day drive. Used to be crawling with jailbait too because HS students would go there as well in the 70s-1980, back when the drinking age was 18 and not enforced.
It’s not just that they’re fat. They’re also ugly.
Most of those chicks look like they’ve done at least 10 years in prison.
The hot chicks must be in Mexico.
We’re not sending our best to Mexico, believe me./The Hat
SEC and ACC Schools have spring break next week. These are all Big 10 girls.
I think you mean Big 14 (and I am not referring to # of schools)!
Ooh that is harsh. True, but harsh.
I remember there being a bunch of smoking hot chicks at Atlantis, and that wasn’t even Spring Break. That’s gotta be a pretty short flight from the southeast….
Yeah, that was a disgusting presentation of disgusting fat bodies. WTF Florida?
[Begins old man rant about Spring Break in his day…]
Man, I’m glad I escaped college before rampant social media. Of course, my spring break destinations were Telluride and the Dominican Republic.
Yeah, no kidding. Hell, there was better talent walking across campus to class in 1985 in Texas.
No wonder college kids are outraged and miserable all the time.
Ain’t no pearl clutchin like a Daily Fail pearl clutchin.
I’m not pretending! Ok…maybe just a bit. Alright, I haven’t done a fucking thing today. *gets up to stretch*
Neither do I. Just drinking champagne before my flight to Barbados.
I’m drinking champagne just because.
It was on sale.
Veuve Clicquot goes amazing with vanilla wafer cookies.
Off in search of the rare Barbadian brown bear?
Let’s have a meetup while he’s gone.
My partner has attended a conference/workshop in Barbados for years. So this time I’m travelling there to investigate what’s going on.
A math orgy. There, I saved you a plane ticket.
Oh, it was. Fortunately, I’m arriving after the event is over.
Barbados? Are you going to a Rhianna concert or something?
Yep, that’s what us “salespeople” do on Fridays – as little as possible.
Let me know when they are the size of an ar-15. I will join the kickstarter. Pew- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – — – — — – – — – — – —————————————•
Newton’s third law is still going to apply.
It’s for Them. *points at sky*
Oh, so you’re planning to use it as a spacebourne propulsion system?
Deterrent.
I commend them on all the labia shots.
A for effort.
D- on the execution.
Why is it that the most ardent “defenders” of Western civilization have no fucking clue about the thing they are defending?
Gliberalia will be held next week, by the way, in honor of Gliber Pater and his wife Glibera.
People from fucking Birmingham are taking exception to boorish behavior? Are they angry because the young women pictured don’t appear to be glassy-eyed blackout drunk in overpainted faces and fuck-me pumps?
For shame, is not Emperor Constatine one of the founders of Western Civilization, and his morality laws made Augustan ones look positively libertine*! Maybe Mr Toad thinks it’s all been downhill since then?
*and were equally as effective, showing that if you are gonna have laws people won’t obey, you may as well shoot for the stars
Mr. Toad is probably right. No one has ever said before about any other time in history so he has to be on to something.
They tend to run on the ‘Dark Ages’ Christian version of the fall of the Western Roman Empire, i.e. they all got filthy decadent and God punished them all for their sins. When in reality the late Roman Empire was a hell of a lot better behaved than the Republic at its height.
Modesty is for those pants-wearing Persian gits.
Railguns are already human sized
(what?)
Does this thing look like a cross between a dalek and an old-school cylon to anyone else?
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/03/10/knightscope-shows-off-crime-fighting-robo-cops/
Holy crap. Either someone is taking the piss at a completely new level or definition of irony now has a new baseline standard.
It’s a Choad!
This is not a joke. From a letter sent by Nancy Pelosi to Paul Ryan:
Well, it’s not rain on your wedding day, but…
There really is only one response to this letter isn’t there.
We have to pass it to find out what’s in it?
Pelosi can’t go out in the rain, and buckets of water anywhere near her are expressly verboten.
Sure, right after they pass it.
I hope he responds to her that “we need to pass the bill to find out what’s in it”.
Ryan should just respond with the following link que’d up to the 34 second mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV7dDSgbaQ0
“Queued” is a perfectly cromulent word.
Dang it. No edit button.
Of all the grammatical errors, apostrophe abuse is probably the one thing that really drives me up a wall.
*Pulls off Ted S.’s mask to find LYNN TRUSS!?!?!*
Ted S. comments, shits and leaves?
It’s/its is probably the most frequently made mistake (I see it all over here too).
One error I’ve noticed gaining traction lots of places:
Unless there are multiple “peoples” for something to belong to (e.g. “the treaty between our peoples” equivalent to “our peoples’ treaty”), the correct form is “people’s.” That rare form should almost never occur. Seeing it more often is making my eye twitch.
/rant
Hey man, its a free country!
Just say “my peeps.”
Speaking of the continuing adventures of Florida Man: Hot story: Miami lawyer’s pants erupt in flames during arson trial in court.
That is such bullshit. “Hey look, anything can blow up on its own!”
What’s the news on the Fires along I-75?
I think I’m done for the week. Heading over to the fancy meat market. Anyone want anything?
Can you get some ground bison? Want to make burgers. Thanks.
I add raw egss to ground bison. Too damn lean otherwise.
Drake, I’ll take short ribs. Thanks, dude!
Ground bison is one of the key meat ingredients in my three animal chili. Ground beef and sausage filling (pork) are the other two.
Not monkey, koala and toucan?
Not as easy to find at the local grocery sstore.
I try to go for dolphin, spotted owl, and California condor.
Bald eagle tastes a lot like condor, if you need a substitute.
I’ll have to try that!
Tundra, I thought Common Loon would be more up your alley?
Breakfast of Champions, Mike!
Endangered Species Kebab anyone?
As a Florida Resident, I prefer manatee … a little fatty, but oh, so succulent.
That’s what I just bought. Long bone short ribs.
Still haven’t decided what to do yet; smoke or braise.
Braising is hard to beat.
My go to:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/prime-angus-beef-short-ribs-recipe
Smoke while your braising.
You, bacon, are a true visionary.
It’s the big googly eyes.
Indeed!
Bison is not exotic enough. How about some bear meat?
These euphemisms are getting pretty obvious…
Never eaten bear before.
Most exotic thing I’ve probably eaten is kangaroo.
I had gator. Probably not exotic in Florida.
Those fried gator tail nuggets? Nah, those are fairly common in Florida and the rest of the Gulf Coast. When I lived in Pensacola, there were several food festivals around the area every year, and there were always a couple of stands selling them.
Pro-tip : The fried gator on a stick is the tail meat, not the best cut. The best cut on a gator are the haunches and the jowls. You might get that in a restaurant if you are lucky. The gator hunters/skinners/wholesalers usually bring that home to their families.
Bear, like most mammalian predator meat is just nasty. There’s an interesting little fish camp in Jacksonville, FL that has all kinds of exotic meats. Clarks Fish Camp, I think. They also have all kinds of animals that were hunted on safari and have now been turned into displays via the magic of taxidermy.
Apex predators are also apex hosts for a plethora of pathogens/parasites that have made their way up the chain. This is why we eat cows and not lions.
Bear’s pretty greasy and awful. It’s what I imagine dog tasting like.
Got some ground bear meat from an acquaintance. The burgers I made were just a little gamey and greasy.
Overall, not bad at all. Would eat again.
I had ostrich once. Would again.
That sounds like a decent weekend plan.
My cannibalism joke was too edgy.
Exactly.
Lemme help break down that taboo further. Here’s something for my heterotarians from PETA UK
Mmmm, now I want some rump!
What’s with PETA and nude women? Just making sure they draw attention to their extra-retarded arguments? There is an awful lot of assuming going n there.
More like ass watching, amirite?!
Is elk exotic? It’s pretty much the same thing as venison, only not as common.
Elk is delicious. Reindeer too.
Rayne Deer
If only it were legal to ranch and sell in the US… its a bitch to get drawn.
Elk is both exotic and delicious. Too bad I cannot drive to Banff for a half-a-day trip.
What about oryx? It’s really the only maybe exotic animal I’ve had. There’s a herd of them down at white sands.
Wasn’t bad.
Elk is the standard meat in parts of the west. The entire time I lived in WY, MT and central CA (that is surprising) I never ate beef for entire series of years. Get my elk and deer each fall and consume for the next 15 months. When I moved to HI I made sure to ship all my game to keep me in good meat for another nine months.
Today I make a trip back to the mainland each fall to keep hunting elk. I would love to hunt moose as well since the meat is even better but it is hard to get drawn for a hunt.
Anything endangered.
Do you mean meat market, or “meat market?”
For those of you disappointed in Thicc Thursdays, or who like normal body types.
So what you’re saying is that we need to balance out Thicc Thursdays with equal amounts of pictures of dudes with beards?
No, these jackals complain about that too.
Wait, are Manly Mondays gonna be beardless forever?!
The very concept…welp, there pops my monocle, I shall never see it again.
Today’s Fetish Friday…so there still is hope for your particular fetish, Pan.
I’m just saying, if there’s manliness there should be some beards!
Mighty ones, too.
“Bosnians in S&M gear” is always an interesting Google search.
I could spend time looking at denizens of the Balkans in leather gear…
It has to be said, if you like them tall and lean-muscly, mountainous parts of the area have you covered till you hit Greece.
I have fairly broad tastes and found my time in Kosovo, Bosnia, Montenegro and Croatia very engaging.
FUCK ALBANIAN MUSIC VIDEOS THOUGH.
Dang…my time in Bosnia was full of land mines. Very Strong coffee, at least.
Better that than the plastic surgery advertising we’ve been getting.
You do you HM. Fuck the Haters.
They’re all white. Libertarianism is racist.
As much as I like beards, some people do not benefit from them.
Obama sure did.
Isn’t the usual joke that Obama is the beard and Michelle is the husband?
Probably. I’m just phoning it in this afternoon.
*cracks beer*
I may just be pointing out the obvious here, but those traps are pretty impressive. Her biceps are nothing to sneeze at too.
For a woman, she seems a bit… uh… built.
As long as you let her win.
^Tulpa wins comment of the day^
You’re Tulpa!
But thanks.
Oh fuck. Tundra.
*pours coffee over head*
Mirror Universe Obama, with the goatee, is actually a pretty great guy.
Isn’t that Commander Sisko?
Very humble and self-effacing.
“”As much as I like beards, some people do not benefit from them.”
so true.
No Lauren Southern? I am disappoint.
I cannot look up to one of these women. Not a single one of them mentions backdoor-fun-times or trees.
What are ‘trees’?
(hopes its something kinky)
Code for weed.
^ Apparently a hip millennial?
Nope. Too old to be a millennial. I’m from the Internet.
No robe or wizard hat? 😛
The saga of bloodninja is far from over.
“code for weed”
i think “trees”-as-weed only works in a hiphop context. I thought it was something to do with hairy legged lesbians.
i don’t even know why people bother with slang for weed anymore. actual marijuana is about as about as counter-cultural as Rockport loafers. im more impressed when people whip out terms for various types of resin i’ve never heard of.
INSERTS OBLIGATORY BIGGEST DAB YOU’VE EVER SEEN
Who cares about the fourth amendment when you’ve got the Geek Squad!
On the plus side, they’re pretty much incompetent.
The new UK budget has been a bit controversial. During the election, Conservatives promised not to raise National Insurance (NHS tax). In the budget, they brought the self-employed NI rate up to par with employee one, which has led to cries of broken promises, and accusation of fucking over what they call “the strivers”.
The Spectator, however, has the best take:
The Budget exposed a myth: people don’t want to pay more tax to fund the NHS
And since I haven’t recently, I recommend The Spectator highly, in particular for genuinely having difference of opinions among their writers (there’s a New Labourite who has gone into full spittle mode over Brexit and Old Labourite who loathes Bitter Remainers, both writing for mostly-Tory publication).
NHS is one of those things that cause otherwise educated and intelligent people to instantly go full retard.
DON’T ANY OF YOU WORK?
4:30 pm on a friday.
I’m home for the weekend.
I work your momma real good while playing Salt n Peppa.
Don’t you have your orphan slaves do your daily tasks for you?
State High School Hockey Tournament is a religious holiday around these parts.
6:00 AM to 2:30 PM in the real time zone.
DON’T YOU EVEN SAY HELLO?
Left work early because I am Much too sick. Home with red wine and Godzilla movie. Might as well venture in to the afternoon links here.
Jeebus, are all college girls fat now?
My favorite from the spring break link is the sober black dude who cant be bothered to stop looking at his phone to notice the fat girls twerking.
Look in the picture right after the video. See the dude in the black t-shirt?
That expression is priceless.
Wait. The dude in the black t-shirt, or the black dude in the t-shirt?
I should specify.
The black dude in the black t-shirt.
About three quarters of the way down in that article there is a picture that is absolutely screaming to become a meme. I don’t have to describe it, you will immediately know which one when you see it. So, who’s getting on that shit?
Yeah, I saw that and cracked up. He is the guy in the crowd who usually yells “Put ’em back on baby! Please put ’em all back on, oh yeah!”
Are you sure he wasn’t taking video?
(I’m not looking again. The whole thing was awful)
Yes, certain. Camera pointed down. He is looking up ‘eyebleach.com’
Fat-bottomed girls make the rockin’ world go ’round.
Not for nothing, but if David Carradine were a giraffe, he’d likely still be with us.
In case you thought people were going to stop being stupid with the TDS, there’s this: a billboard near the Tesla factory calling on Musk to Dump Trump
I know most of you don’t know me, as I post quite rarely, but my father passed away yesterday and I would just like to take this opportunity to say that life really fucking sucks sometimes.
My condolences.
I know the feeling.
Yes, it does.
I’m very sorry for your loss, deepspeed.
Sotry to hear this. When my dad died I felt sick for quite a long time — and we were not very close.
It does. Very sorry for your loss.
My condolences.
Indeed it can. Condolences.
Was his name Big Boss?
I mean, it’s okay if it’s not. I’m still sorry. I just… it would have been cool, thats all.
Considering that would mean that deepspeed killed him with a lighter and hair spray, hopefully not.
No need to worry. My father was far too kind and gentle to be a mercenary leader. Although, his name was John and mine is David, which I believe are the real names of Big Boss and Solid Snake, respectively.
Indeed life does suck, condolences.
Sorry to hear that. I lost my dad last year, and it fucked me up for a while.
Condolences.
I am sorry to hear that deepspeed.
I’m very sorry for your loss.
peace
Sorry to hear it, lurking friend.
Thank you all for the kind words. Reading the articles and posts on this site are helping me get through the toughest experience of my life, so thank you for that as well.
Let me join in with sympathies. I lost my dad 30 years ago and still think about him every day. He’s the guy who, to test out a new printing press he’d assembled, ran off a few hundred handbills that said, “Hire the handicapped, they’re fun to watch!”
As long as you remember him, he is in a very real sense still alive.
Accept my sympathy.
My condolences.
I also offer my condolences. I lost my wife a couple years ago, and a couple friends since.
Unfortunately, as we age, we start loosing more and more loved ones as age takes it toll.
The flipside, for many, is that hopefully brand new loved ones come into the world.
Very sorry to hear. Words always seem so feeble. It sucks, but no doubt he lives on in you.
Argh, four interesting posts in addition to the morning and afternoon links? I don’t have time to read a magazine worth of articles a day (plus comments, natürlich) but I HATE missing out. Could we slow down to 2-3 non-links posts a day?
Damn you kids with all your energy!
It’s cocaine.
Helluva drug.
I thought the libertarian drug of choice was Mexican weed. So I mean to say “wait, wut?”
nah. Rare-strain Indo with some name like blueberry-bubblegum-kush but turned into some distillate which is inhaled through a nasal-spray bottle.
New York Times BUSTED changing article title after Trump tweets the word “wiretap”
Agh, please let this be not true.
Because if it’s true, may as well have a bloody revolution to purge the aristocracy. Any peaceful policy change will not be possible.
Bernie Goldberg was on FOX the other day ranting that he believed in the Trump/Russia connection because when all of the possibilities are considered that is the only believable one. He just cant believe that the New York Times would make something up.
I nearly pissed my pants.
Apparently that’s not true. NYT published a different headline for the print version of the story than for the online version.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/445649/mccarthy-error-apologize-nyt-headline-not-changed
So Ohio Deparyment of Education changed rules to fuck over e-schools. I’m shocked.
http://nbc4i.com/2017/03/09/ohio-auditor-to-probe-if-e-schools-can-track-learning-time/
Cory Booker preaches love, refuses to answer question about whether he’ll die for humanity’s sins.
This seems to be a continued strategy, after he told Trump he loved him last year. If he ends up the 2020 Democratic nominee this will be fun.
Love’s just an abstract concept, it can’t knock down stuff!
He should get Shia LeBouf as VP Candidate. VP debate is Shia repeating “He will not divide us” until Pence loses it and punches him.
So, for anyone who may have seen John Titor and me blather about Crusader Kings 2 or Europa Universalis 4 and thought “that sounds intriguing”, Paradox Interactive is this weekend’s sale over at Humble Store. You get a Steam key, devs get paid, and portion of proceeds goes to charity.
Their games tend to have lots of DLC so I recommend poking at related subreddits (/r/eu4 and /r/crusaderkings), there should be some sticky posts that explain DLC breakdown.
I can give no better recommendation than to say that EU4 (the lesser of two games) was the first one in years that had me up at 1:30 AM on a workdady, with morning meeting coming up.
You can now worship Satan in CK2.
Jus’ sayin’.
I saw, but, according to Reddit, it’s not at all well balanced, as you can murder, sacrifice, kidnap, ravage the land and be exposed as Grand Master of All Satanists Everywhere, and consequences are, well, -50 opinion. No Crusades, Inquisition, automatic CB or anything else.
UI improvements alone are worth the price, though, and the idea of being secret Zoroastrian inside Caliphate really tickles my fancy. I’m holding off on patching/getting DLC till my Ironman Amalfi is complete, and then I’ll probably get it, and just turn off Devil Worship in rules.
Except most of the UI improvements are in th free patch, no need to get the DLC for that.
It’s also OP as hell apparently. Will be nerfed as hard as Republics (oh, the days of the old, OP republics…) and pagan tribals.
Well, DUH!
CK2 – Legacy of Rome, Old Gods and Way of Life required. Charlemagne is also pretty good. Get the Republic, Sword of Islam, Horse Lords and Rajas of India if you want to play as Republicans, Muslims, nomads or Indians respectively. Conclave and Reaper’s Due are based on personal taste (but Reaper’s Due is helpful late game because more character deaths makes the game run better)
EU4 – Art of War and Common Sense required, Cossacks, Conquest of Paradise and Wealth of Nations are all pretty good. Skip El Dorado unless you want to play as Mesoamericans.
So, no recommendation for the Sons of Abraham DLC, you fucking Nazi son of a bitch?
There’s like two Jewish characters in the game, and that’s the DLC that let’s you kick (((them))) out of your country. If anything I’m doing the virtual Jews a favour.
Besides, everyone knows Germanic pagans are the master race. I mean…shit.
Khazaria is game to you?
Jewish nomads are fun, but Zoroastrian nomads are more fun.
Marrying your cousin as a Zoroastrian? Noob. This is how you should play as a Zoroastrian.
Man, when I get really good, I so want to try a Jewish run in Ethiopia to try and get all the way to the Med and create Kingdom of David…
I will catbutt all of you if you make me reinstall CKII.
Cut that shit out. I have things to get done this weekend.
Did you know that you can get pet cats in CK2 now?
What if you thought “Those guys should just fuck and get it over with?”
I’m a FPS shooter guy. Been burning back thru BL2 with couple others in coop.
Do look into 2016 Doom if you haven’t, because I found it a fantastic experience. Best FPS I’ve played since Wolfenstein: New Order.
I feel like that game just moves too fast for me. It’s monster closet to monster closet with monster closets in between. I mean, I like a good FPS… but I also like to do a little exploring, maybe get some exposition, etc. in between slaughtering demons with a hand-cannon.
Ah, that’s what I love. It brings back the feeling of playing Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament.
And it’s not so much “monster closet” but “arena” feel. You can’t stay still and you have to use map to your advantage. Exploring is pretty well handled, even with my “show as much of map as possible” upgrades, I still spend a lot of time looking for secrets.
Yeah, the new generation has been slightly broken by the ‘slow’ FPS hybrid genres. They don’t want to run around like a crack-fueled maniac carrying a small nuclear arsenal anymore.
I downloaded the Turok port off Steam.
I can’t remember basic science or math from highschool, but I remember The Big Cheat by heart.
*pours one out for Counterstrike*
If you’ve played the Warhammer Total War, they released a free Bretonnian DLC, which is actually quite good in that it isn’t just a re-skinned Empire, but has a peasant mechanic where if you levy too many of the poors as cannon-fodder, your agricultural income suffers. The knights don’t trigger that decline, and are pretty hoss in a fight, but even the low-level knights errant are expensive as balls to maintain.
Fuck me, now I’m reminded of Bulletstorm. Such a good game, such awesome awesome weapons, only let you carry two at a time. Sadism is what it was.
I’m really wondering what the response will be when Half-Life 3 is released twenty years from now.
“Oh, so you can carry like ten weapons at one time? And there’s no cover system? So unrealistic.”
Red Orchestra 2 and Rising Storm are outstanding if you’ve not tried them. All the horrible brutality of ARMA without being bogged down in an infantry simulator. Plus, flamethrowers.
They don’t want to run around like a crack-fueled maniac carrying a small nuclear arsenal anymore.
My kid (16) posts YouTube videos of himself playing Call of Duty, and that’s actually a perfect description.
Oh, man. What you love about it is what I hate: the fast-paced world of Quake 3 and Unreal. I just hate spawning…looking around a little…and then dying because someone’s spawn-camping like a little bitch. You are definitely right that it’s got more of an arena feel than a monster closet; I didn’t have the right word.
Give me a nice round of CS:S, preferably in Office, Dust2, or Italy anyday.
My memories of CS when I last played it in 2000 was like Unreal – everybody running around and jumping like maniacs, blowing everything away constantly. Did it change?
Benelli! Benellis for everyone!
I guess maybe it depends on the server you play on? I frequented the “House of Pain” based out of Seattle, and it was all round based CTs vs Ts, as opposed to the deathmatch free for all style.
Mabye, I gave up on CS after 1.3 primary because they started balancing the game to cater to the deathmatch style of play.
Something something girl gamers something something.
My once pretty hefty gaming habit has shrunk now that my originally assembled a decade ago PC can officially no longer handle modern big name FPS.
Probably for the best. The amount of time I spent on the BF franchise is rather sickening.
I’m better than 3/4s the way thru that. That’s a pretty good critique too, Riven. I play it in short bites because of that, which is why I’m not through it yet.
I’m amazed how good the graphics are, and I’m getting no lag or load issues. Wolfenstein gave me huge fits.
That’s how Mr. Riven has been playing it–short bites. I also lack a current sweet gaming pc, so it’s mostly console stuff for me until I can remedy that.
I don’t suppose you ever played through the Marathon trilogy?
I haven’t, but…
I’m listening
Marathon was so good. HALO had quite a few nods to it, and early on we had hopes it would at least a spiritual sequel.
It had features like regenerating shields, two weapons only, and a really good story with AIs commanding huge-ass ships and battling each other when one went rampant. Lots of cool little story and setting stuff you could dig out of terminals scattered about.
I think there’s an open-source port, but there’s only so much you can do with 20-ish year old game series…
That does sound fun, Pan Zagloba, but you bring up an interesting point–seriously, HALO needs to be done. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it. It was the first FPS that I really enjoyed and was semi-competent* at.
This rules out 007, which I blew huge donkey balls at playing.
You could also say it may have created the business case for halflife. Marathon, when it was first released, was the first ‘thinking’ FPS. I mean, the game-play was fun but there was actually a reason to kill stuff – couldn’t read the rest of the story if you didn’t. They spent a lot of time worldbulilding through the interactive terminals in the game which also encourged the player to explore every nook and cranny of the generation ship that it took place on. People developed all kinds of mods for it… was really interesting in the early days and they had great ideas going forward. Problem was, the way things went from a corporate perspective, they were never able to bring those ideas to the PC and others beat em to the punch. Then, given the limitations of consoles, they kinda had to strip out everything that made the franchise interesting and by the time they actually released a product it was stale in comparison to what was going on in the PC realm. Great for console guys who hadn’t had something similar, but for those of us who remembered where Bungie came from It was disappointing.
I may be alone in this, but I really think the best thing to come out of the entire Halo franchise was Red vs. Blue. The second best thing was the name “Pillar of Autumn” which for whatever reason I think has some real gravitas.
You’re so right. I love the ship names in HALO. Looking at you, Forward Unto Dawn (and, of course, Pillar of Autumn, as you mentioned).
And Red vs Blue was written by geniuses, I’m pretty sure.
“Didn’t I just tell ya to stop making up animals?” gets quoted around here pretty often.
Most of the Red vs. Blue guys are old drinking buddies of mine. They’re pretty smart and funny guys, but anybody who has ever hung out with them around 1 am will tell you, they’re not geniuses.
Shhhhh… don’t ruin my dreams with your reality.
Those must have been some great bar conversations. On a related tangent, there is a wonderful meditation on spaceship names contained in Banks’s Culture series.
{|} wrote:
Marathon and Marathon 2 LAN parties.
*sheds nostalgic tear*
PanZ wrote:
Aleph One.
It’s still worth checking out, imo. Especially for the single player experience.
… and all the scenarios (especially EVIL, Red, and Rubicon).
I still have a Mac OS 9 machine with Pfhorte, Forge, and Anvil on it (Marathon map and mod creation tools).
Have you given Titanfall 2 a whirl? Campaign’s a bit on the short side, but it’s an absolute blast.
It’s in the queue but pretty far down on the list. I’ve got a huge back log of PC games.
I know the feeling. Currently making my way through F.E.A.R before ME: Andromeda releases.
Shiiiiit. Kudos to you. I can’t play any of the FEAR games. D:
New Order was so much better than I would have expected. Crazy, over the top balls-to-the-wall action, yet it also managed to have a pretty solid and sombre story, and managed to walk the tightrope between absurdity and pathos better than most other games I’ve played.
Heard there’s supposed to be a sequel possibly this year.
It showed why Nazis are such compelling villains.
At the beginning, in the insane asylum, I was about to roll my eyes reflexively when the officer issues “We’re shutting this place down” order and they proceed to murder poor, mentally ill people in their beds.
Then I went, “Shit, hospital for mentally ill? In Poland? Of course the fuckers would do that! LET ME THE FUCK AT THEM!”
Also, one of three games I know that lets me play a Jewish character (other two being CK2 and South Park: Stick of Truth).
It’s so bizarre to me that we’d get a scene like that in a Wolfenstein game, of all things. But, that’s the 2010s for you.
Awesome game. DOOM was great too.
Unless Pan’s a woman and connected to some dynasty that will give me claims on the Kingdom of Serbia, I’m not interested.
You guys are so cute, do you mind if I take a picture? Thanks.
You don’t get a raging boner at the thought of conquering Jerusalem for the Pope and call yourself a Catholic?
The current rulers of Jerusalem cheerfully allow pilgrims and tourists to visit – giving them special protection. Not to mention respecting the chartered rights of the religious orders located there.
What a change from the policies which prompted the Crusades the first time around!
Also, Israel isn’t trying to conquer Byzantium.
Neither were the Fatimids, i.e. the people who controlled Jerusalem when they were attacked in the First Crusade. You’re thinking of the Turks.
Yes, well, the timespan of the game deals with the Old Management. If Pope calls a Crusade, you can get to rule Kingdom of Jersualem.
Better yet, if he doesn’t but you take enough of the land belonging to it, you can create it yourself, for huge Piety and Prestige boost and (I think) a cool nickname. Also, if you control all the Pentarchies, you can mend the Schism and reunite Christianity (under Orthodox rule of course).
However, the game, because it’s focused on your own dynasty, doesn’t let you play as Papacy, or any of the Holy Orders. EU IV, however, does have theocracy mechanics, and more interesting religion interaction.
Also, in both games, Orthodoxy is your “secularist religion” for some reason. Be Orthodox if you just don’t want to deal with clergy for good or ill, and, in EU4, if you want to not have to deal with religious tensions inside your real (VERY helpful in 1600s Europe – Reformed, Protestant and Catholic may hate each other, but are reasonably chill being ruled by an Orthodox monarch).
Yes, I’ve been intrigued, and have been seriously looking at CK2.
Looks like you can get CK2 and ALL the DLC for about 40 bucks total at that link.
I’m just afraid of getting sucked into it right now, dammit. =/
OK, now I get to bitch at Paradox for mis-naming things 🙁
The “DLC Collection” is not a good title. It’s about 2(?) years old, and there’s been a lot of stuff that came out since. Though only Way of Life is what I’d call important, and Charlemagne is vital if you want to play a huge empire.
But for weird emergent stories and role-play elements, CK2 can’t be beat. And if you are a history fan, it’s quite an experience. Not because it’s historical, but because it will give you empathy for leaders in similar position to yours.
Fuck, I always mocked Romans and their hypocritical “Oh no, we only fight defensive wars, oops, Empire” attitude. Until I found myself waging my fifth war of conquest against Egypt simply because I was terrified of what may happen if I don’t and they strike me when some other asshole attacks. That’s when I realized I took almost all of Southern Italy, chunks of Balkans, and half the North Africa because I was “defending” my merchant Republic.
Fuck, I always mocked Romans and their hypocritical “Oh no, we only fight defensive wars, oops, Empire” attitude.
Hence what I love about Paradox Interactive history games: They teach you to be as big a prick as real countries.
None of this Civilization “oh, we’re just here to generate culture and science” crap, it’s kill or be killed. You do anything to pull yourself up to the top. Expand and convert by the sword. Murder children to acquire more power. Invest in slavery and asshole colonialism to get the upper hand on terrifying European continental powers.
Civilization 6 makes me so angry. The entire source code is just digitized shit. I want to kill everyone involved in the development of that piece of shit to revenge my 75 bucks. I hate Civ 6.
Haven’t played, after 5 and Not-Alpha-Centauri I figured you’d have to wait a couple years before you’d even get something close to Civ 4.
Is this performance problems, not enough new stuff from 5, half the game coming later in DLCs, combination thereof…?
I haven’t played Civ since 4, and I only dabbled in that one, despite my friends faithfully buying each one and raving about them.
All of the above, plus the fact that I don’t want to pay AAA prices for a game that looks like it was designed for a fucking Android phone.
God, those ugly fucking leader graphics.
Man, you’re making it harder and harder to resist…. I’ve got a massive backlog to go through, but fuck it, I might have to pick it up.
They marked down NMS a paltry 40%?
Official NFL Free Agency Subthread.
I’m a Redskins fan, so it’s been a rough couple weeks, but I really like the Pryor signing, and we also signed DJ Swearinger and a couple defensive lineman, which on paper fill needed gaps in the roster. The division rivals are shitting all over us right now, and it feels bad man.
Your qb is a bitch for complaining about being franchised again. Fucker makes more than Tom Brady now.
Yeah, when you make 20+M a year, STFU about your feelz.
Eh, he’s 28 and he wants a long term deal. We should give him one before the deadline. What he’s afraid of is that he will be standing on the pocket next year, playing on the tag, and take a big hit and get hurt. He wants the security of a real deal, and IMO he’s earned it.
If this was MLB or something I could see that, but NFL contracts are barely worth the paper they’re printed on.
I say take the money and run.
Who is the Redskins QB? Does it even matter? They were like a 500 team last year.
Yeah but Cousins himself was pretty good.
Yeah, I saw the stats just now. I guess the reason I never heard anything about him last season is because of him being on a 500 team.
I’m excited that Julius Peppers is coming back home to the Panthers.
I liked that trade ya’ll made too. NFC South is gonna be a dogfight next year IMO.
I think so too. Hoping the Panthers are able to step it up, but the NFC South does have the potential to be brutal.
From BBC, an article about cultural impact of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I was wondering why, until I read the opening sentence – that show is 20 YEARS OLD!
Fuck, the reminders of my advanced decrepity come for unforeseen directions these days…
I had the same moment recently when I saw an interview with Richard Dean Anderson (who hasn’t aged well) and I realized Stargate SG-1 is twenty years old now. I now feel old in my late twenties.
I feel old because you’re in your late twenties. 🙁
Remember: You are only as old as you feel. And since I am old, I self-medicate to get that nice numb feeling.
Apropos
Love that song
More apropos
touche
Damn! I knew I should have married a woman younger than me.
Yeah, I get that when I think my staff are all in their mid 20s and I’m old enough to be their dad. But, then I think, I’m in better shape than any of them thanks to something as simple as lifting weights at least 3 times per week.
And Buffy will be 40 next month.
Still looks good though.
Oh, slay me buffy!
Yes, please!
The first sign of getting old is hearing the songs you listened to in high school on the oldies station. The second sign is hearing the songs you listened to in high school on the oldies station.
I can recall the day I heard Kiss’ “Dr. Love” in the grocery store. I had to suppress the urge to place myself on an ice flow.
Oldies station my ass. I got on the elevator in a hospital an unmentioned number of years ago and when the door closed they began playing Led Zepplin as muzak. I nearly had a nervous breakdown.
Is the fourth one you don’t get the joke the first time?
Hell, I still remember working at OfficeMax in the computer department. I needed to call into Packard Bell (worst computers ever) tech support, and their hold music was a musak version of Karma Chameleon.
Well, you come and go.
It’s also going off of Netflix on April 1st, so if you feel like doing a binge, better do it now.
Hah. I bought the damn DVDs when they came out.
I remember how it started, I got the first season on a lark, cause I’ve seen an episode here and there and liked it. So I came home and put in disc 1.
Next day, I was buying seasons every season that was out, taping the syndication on local SF channel, and burning through them before 5 premiered.
And also from BBC, some Eddie bait:
Pope hints at possible ordination of married men.
Which, with Church no longer holding large tracts of land far from Papal control, is a perfectly reasonable policy. As the article points out, Eastern Rite churches, which are as Catholic as the Latin Rite one, have allowed married men into priesthood, provided they were married before they took the vows, for a long time.
He’s buckin’ for a gibbetin’ . Go, go commie pope!
I dont know what they do to get rid of a rotten pope, but they oughta do it.
I believe assassination is the traditional method.
Another Cadaver Synod?
Precious. More tears to savor.
My mental thirst has been quenched, now on to a Genios Maduro 5 and some Firestone Imperial Walker’s Reserve (It is Walker with an apostrophe s!).
Mmmm. Firestone Walker’s limited, barrel aged beers are truly nectar of the gods.
It is very good beer. I lived a bit north of Paso Robles and would stop by their brewery to pick it fresh when I was in town.
Crikey, there’s commenters in that thread who defend Frankenfiend and Jeff Sessions. Retards all round. Well, it’s Twatter.
Yes. Get in line.
Holy shit, Gilmore. What is that from?
Nanking
For clarity
My joke about the japanese position is =
#1 – “it never happened!”
#2 – “they deserved it!”
Wow. I knew about that massacre, but I guess I never looked into the horrible details. Unreal. Thanks for helping me learn something today
That was child’s play. I have seen photos from the Maoist revolution where they tried to purge all of the people associated with opium; users, dealers, etc.
Guys standing next to thousands of heads piled in pyramids over ten feet tall. Film footage of several thousand people in cattle corrals pulled out one at a time, shot in the head and then the bodies dragged off by their feet. Remember, Mao’s cultural revolution murdered somewhere between 45 and 60 million. That is a lot of bodies. It is nearly impossible to imagine murder on that scale. Wiping out the drug trade was no small part of that. The Japanese aren’t off the hook for Nanking but in the book of Chinese murder they are just a footnote.
Just in case you were feeling cheerful here is some whitewashing apologia for Mao’s war on drugs:
http://revcom.us/a/china/opium.htm
It is amazing what evil things humans do to each other.
anybody in college in the 1990s would probably end up reading books about My Lai, Dresden, Nanking, and (maybe) the Congo
i honestly don’t know wtf they teach in history classes now.
I’m a history buff, but I tend to have tunnel vision for the European Theater of WWII, including pre- and post-war. There are many more interesting things to learn about and I need to expand my area of interest.
Bill Clinton did the same thing in 1993.
“Navarro is all about wacko protectionism and Cohn is for crony trade. But Navarro is worse.”
Feelin’ Satisfied, by Boston.
Just because.
Guitar player for Boston , Tom Scholz, attended MIT and routinely published schematics for guitar effects in magazines in the 1980s.
i made 2-3 different stomp boxes on his designs. they were shit and cost more time and money to make than it would have taken to simply buy some japanese DOD/Roland clone, but still…
his guitar tone is sort of unique because he did actually make all his own channel effects from front to back. it has this homebrew sound.
Huh
there are about 1000 bands i’ve never heard of that “came out of brooklyn” in the last 15 years.
Better
the OG version
I discovered TEEN while watching “The Beauty Inside” on YouTube.
I watched “The Beauty Inside” after seeing “The Power Inside”.
Also, I almost forgot to watch this today.
i am also a fan of Pogo, but curious why you keep reposting that.
i think that guy should be getting a lot more exposure/cred in the US, and also doing re-mixes of stuff for basically everyone.
My suspicion, re his horrifying story of why he’s banned from the US... is that Disney hates him. And Disney has some serious pull.
“…but curious why you keep reposting that.”
Because it’s awesome.
It’s like Jimmy Stewart from Harvey meets Heath Ledger from The Dark Knight
It is definitely his best work, and the best validation of the chop-chop-chop method of remixing.
“C” is for CAVEDOGS (Not Cat Butts)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LPks6qJYAE
Since I’m in a posting links mood, I’ll throw out another of my playlists: Pig Music
What I do is turn on the shuffle and replay buttons, and let it run.
No Good deed goes unpunished:
I felt sorry for a stray cat that had been hanging around the yard so I put some food out for him. Over the course of a couple of weeks the very wild cat figured out I was friendly and eventually let me pet him…once. This afternoon I noticed that while I was in the driveway running the table saw he had wandered into my open garage. No big deal, he had done it before.
This evening, with the garage door closed I kept smelling something….awful. When I got a good whiff of it finally it was unmistakably the smell of shit. I asked my wife why I might be smelling that and she helped me look around. We thought a dog had used the garage as a place to dispose of used dog food. We found nothing. On my second trip into the garage to smoke I was picking up and organizing some stuff and discovered what my new friend had been up to. Concealed in sawdust was a hefty, squishy heap O’ shit. Apparently the sizable pile of sawdust I swept up earlier makes a very good substitute for a cat box. At least I hadn’t stepped in it.
Cats keep mice away but their services are not free.
That’s the shits, Suthen.
Dogs should be in a doghouse, and cats…oops, never mind.
A ring of house breaking thugs tried to get in my house once. They never got past the window they broke nor took so much as a ghost turd from me. Lucky for them the dogs did the job before I could. When they were caught they had a shed full of stuff from over 20 residences. None from mine.
The dogs earn their keep. I keep them fat, happy and comfortable. I guess the cat does too. Had a mouse problem recently. They were hell to get rid of and did an amazing amount of expensive damage in a very short time.
Dogs are fantastic pets. Cats…not so much.
The main reason dislike them, apart from their indifferent attitude, is the smell. I can tell if someone owns a cat within a minute of walking in their home. I frigging hate that smell.
Over 400 people arrested for Human Trafficking
Jeff Sessions Asks All Remaining Obama-Appointed U.S. Attorneys To Resign
Note that Preet is described as “fiercely independent.” Whatever it takes for publicity.
“Sessions’ request for the U.S. attorneys’ resignations comes as he prepares to implement a series of significant policy shifts at the department, pushing for tougher prosecution of gun and drug offenses and parting company with the Obama administration’s embrace of more lenient sentences for some drug convicts.”
While reading this blog post by Daniel Griswold, I had a new thought: Trade Protectionists like to point out that the U.S. policy toward trade during the 19th century was one of high tariffs and other trade restrictions, and yet the national economy grew at a rapid pace.
What I had not considered with regard to this information is that the U.S. ran a “trade deficit” during that whole time.
I think, if one less lazy than I took the time to research the matter, one would find that eras of high “trade deficits” are also eras of rapid economic growth.
Yep. Tom Woods has a number of podcasts about economic growth in the 1800s, particularly the key difference between depressions/economic downturns in that century as compared to the ones in the 1900s, particularly after the creation of the Fed.