Bits & Pieces VII (Apparently Hobo is no longer a mod edition)

[Crashpunk]

I thought the similarity between that new dragon and a Glukkon was uncanny.


Maybe a Glukkon in drag...*shudders*

[Mac Sirloin]

I bet this guy is one of them fuckin' Brony types now.

[STM]

Wow, is this...really how people act when they see a girl on the internet? Internet machismo and instant love? Wow.

[Dynamithix]

Pretty sure that guy is just trolling or drunk.

[MeechMunchie]

Or both!

[Havoc]

That didn't sound like trolling to me. I think he was actually that pathetic.

[Mac Sirloin]

Pretty sure that guy is just trolling or drunk.

Considering the bizarre, inconsistent slurring I'm thinking it's the latter.

That didn't sound like trolling to me. I think he was actually that pathetic.

[sheridanm962]

Hey look I'm playing Half-Life 3!!!

[DarkHoodness]

They should've done that overlaying an image of somewhere abandoned, like Prypiat. That image doesn't work.

And speaking of Prypiat, apparently someone's done a google-style street view of it - Interesting for those fascinated by abandoned places:

[Havoc]

Apparently they give tours of that area under strict supervision. It's pretty high up on my list of places to visit. However the fact that I don't speak Russian very well probably doesn't help.

[Wings of Fire]

Most badass looking War Correspondent ever and award winning French photographer die in Syrian bombing.

The Telegraph is reporting what appears to be a lot of bullshit about the Syrian army having a kill order on western journalists. Wow.

[STM]

I think the Red Cross have a far too optimistic toy soldiers attitude, war is war and war is hell, they won't agree on any sort of ceasefire until the cesspit has filled up with corpses. In the meantime I wonder what the French and American reaction will be, I can imagine the French certainly won't be happy, but I wonder whether or not foreign intervention is correct?

[Wings of Fire]

Well, Colvin worked for the Sunday Times, so she's a British citizen. Also the thought of starting an international incident over the death of a journalist is absurd. War/Foreign correspondence (Funny how they pretty much mean the same thing nowdays) is dangerous and any journalist going to the Middle East should on a level understand they might not come back. Especially one who was wearing an eyepatch for a decade after her eye was blown out by shrapnel.

[STM]

I agree it should not spark a war, but war has always started over trivial things as well as big problems. What can we do though? We don't know enough about the rebels to side with them and we can't send troops or weapons. The UN seems about as reluctant to act as the League of Nations did with Germany though and it worries me, I'm no 'DM end of the world doom sayer' but I do think the Middle East is heating up faster than the west can handle.

[Manco]

The Guardian has published a collection of photographs taken by Ochlik over the past couple of years.

I think the Red Cross have a far too optimistic toy soldiers attitude, war is war and war is hell, they won't agree on any sort of ceasefire until the cesspit has filled up with corpses.

So, what? Are you suggesting they do nothing? Wait on the sidelines? Ignore what is happening?

I’d rather they try in vain to call a ceasefire than stand by and let the killing continue unchallenged.

[Wings of Fire]

The Guardian has published a collection of photographs taken by Ochlik over the past couple of years.

I don't really 'get' photography, but even I can see that 2,4 and 10 are really really great.

[DarkHoodness]

Yeah I've been looking at this, same as everyone else who watches the news.

What makes this "more" tragic that these two journalists are dead is because they were talented people who's work is easily available to view, but you really have to think about all the other poor, unsung talented and intelligent bastards who are killed in wars who's work isn't as publicly available to view as theirs was.

It's a shame that they're dead but in the end it's just as tragic as an entire bloody town being deliberately wiped off the map indiscriminately using mortar shells with civilians still inside. It was brave of them to care enough about what was going on to want to work in Syria, but you have to remember that they were there by choice, unlike most of the civilians. That doesn't make it less of a shame, but I just hope the coverage of their deaths and extra attention that their last reports are receiving now will emphasis this atrocity more in the eyes of the world.

It begs the question though: Why should it need deaths of "more important" (to us westerners anyway) people to draw attention to a serious issue that should be incredibly prominent anyway? I don't remember the bombing of Homs to be as prominent in the news as it is now until today.

Blah I just woke up from an afternoon nap. This may not make much sense.

[Wings of Fire]

It begs the question though: Why should it need deaths of "more important" (to us westerners anyway) people to draw attention to a serious issue that should be incredibly prominent anyway? I don't remember the bombing of Homs to be as prominent in the news as it is now until today.

Human interest. A million is just a statistic and people need something to sink their teeth into to really get indignant.

Also, the Syrian bombing has been pretty consistently on my BBC news feed for the last couple of weeks.

[STM]

I agree with DH, WoF, I only ever saw it makes news on the BBC, and even then it wasn't breaking headlines or anything. It needs more media coverage but that requires putting people out there to get the news, and it's not safe enough it seems.

[Manco]

The Guardian has been providing pretty extensive coverage for the past month or two, with daily live blogs on their website and even a couple of printed front pages.

Unfortunately, nobody reads the Guardian.

[STM]

Funnily I've been reading the Guardian at least once a week for the last month because of requirements for my English A level, I probably should pay more attention it seems. =/

[Wings of Fire]

The Guardian is pretty much the UK's best news source after the BBC (May have to remove the 'after' when the BBC gets relinqueshed to tighter tory government control.

On a more lighthearted note

[STM]

Have we seen this before?



Captain America is commanded to wank.

[Crashpunk]

hahaha. That's just too funny.

[Spooce-aholic]

[MeechMunchie]

Unfortunately, nobody reads the Guardian.

Raised on it. Wait a minute, aren't you in the US?





Brought to you by the National Film Board of CANADA

[DarkHoodness]

+Rep to you, Spooce-aholic for reminding me of my childhood - Theme Hospital was an awesome game that I still like to go back to occasionally.

Also it's funny that in terms of Midi, the Roland MT-32 is pretty much unbeaten in terms of quality as a Midi card - Even better than today's cards. Good luck fitting that monster in your case, though.

I'm glad game music is MP3s now though and Midi is a long-since phased-out thing, even if I do love nostalgia... I used to have a SoundBlaster AWE 64 in my old rig back in the day and wish that current on-board soundcards had midi that sounded as good as that whenever I decide to play ancient DOS classics.

[Manco]

Raised on it. Wait a minute, aren't you in the US?

I’m infatuated with the paper on account of their approach to design and typography.

On a really-reaching-semi-related note, this is great but embedding has been disabled: http://youtu.be/D2rBDoCj2Gg

Charlie Brooker spends two minutes rhyming.

[MeechMunchie]

Charlie Brooker fan.

++Penis length increased by 2.3 centimetres++

[sheridanm962]

Apparently according to a friend of mine Pripyat is a place where strange kids wear Gas masks...

I fucking love that! iWish I could wear a gas mask all day without any hassle with "hurr durr help us there's a killer in a gas mask" even thou no one is getting hurt and there are no weapons presented or anything other than the scenario that I just played in the top of my head.

umm... You get the idea though right?