kontextmaschine

poipoipoi-2016:

kontextmaschine:

Still playing Battlefield One, though the new Civilization is tempting.

I remember in the ‘90s the US Air Force saying that primary flight training went a lot quicker because thanks to video games the trainees came in with a baseline intuitive sense of how to fly an airplane.

I wonder if the same holds true for foot soldiers now. I’m realizing that from playing this stuff, I’ve developed an intuitive sense of how to breach and clear rooms in teams, how to plan an advance under cover and how to mount a reverse slope defense, how to overlap fields of fire, enfilade and defilade.

You know what would be a good premise for a terrain-combat game? “Bandit Country”, about the IRA in South Armagh and their use of “dead ground” to attack observation towers. It’d make for shitty multiplayer though, the British Army side would be “maintain constant vigilance, very very occasionally you explode”

Your multi-player experiences and mine are so, so different.  

“how to breach and clear rooms in teams”.  That implies a level of cooperation that I never see.  

/Of course, I don’t play Battlefield, so…

I mean, that’s the thing, if you get the principles you can execute pretty well even without explicit planning or coordination - when you go through a door turn in the opposite direction as the guy in front of you and clear corners, keep a rough sense how many shots your partners are firing and stagger your reloads so someone always has a loaded gun to cover the others, that sort of thing.

Huh.

Was downtown the other week and there were protesters near the courthouse with signs about jury nullification and I was like “oh yeah, that’s all going on here, right.”

jasper-rolls:

goodnight sweet prince

argumate:

brazenautomaton:

enrique262:

(click for high res)

https://newrepublic.com/minutes/138162/truly-devastating-email-controversy-go-south-korea

http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/support-for-south-koreas-park-geun-hye-slides-to-all-time-low-amid-friend-scandal

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-27/influence-peddling-scandal-rocks-south-korean-president-q-a

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/10/27/asia-pacific/politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific/south-korean-scandal-parks-mysterious-helper-know/#.WBKKdS3hDIU

http://www.voanews.com/a/scandal-undermines-south-korea-constitutional-reform-effort/3565079.html

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/767405.html

Man, 2016 just gets weirder and weirder with each new day, when will it fucking end?

Special thanks to @hugobertington for the pic and the heads up.

wow, this looks like some serious shit

like I don’t know how supported the accusations of specifically ideological feminism driving it are, but given how much they fucked with the culture ministry, it does seem to be some kind of Culture War going on

wtf Korea

So that storm where I unclogged the sewer drains? Thought I got off fine (the dust on the basement floor was undisturbed, so not even any leaks that dried) but then I looked out the window and a walnut tree was listing like 30 degrees.

Wasn’t split but roots levering up, an arborist diagnosed as unsalvageable so I had him chop it down and leave me the wood.

Maybe should’ve specified for crafting, cause I think he gave me firewood cuts, about 21-27 inches long and 5-7 in diameter (milk for scale), but tree was probably too curved and thin to get much long lumber anyway. Still got a bunch of branches in the yard waiting to be leaf-stripped might be good for staves or even bedposts though.

Have a pinball friend who works with wood (that’s not that uncommon around here, next step up the value ladder for a forestry economy) so might put it to use with him. The base piece is big but twisted like a woman turning at the waist, might be enough volume to get a nice chessboard and carve pieces from the others, maybe use (bark on or off) as rustic-looking bases for coffee or end tables

Apparently I need to dry it for like, a year per inch of thickness though.

One thing looking through history it’s striking how many of the main characters were at some point sentenced to death - and we’re not talking bullshit folk crimes but like, “making a pretty serious attempt to overthrow the government” or “assassinating someone important”, and then had the sentence lifted/commuted/pardoned/overturned/reprieved/amnestied.

kontextmaschine:

One thing looking through history it’s striking how many of the main characters were at some point sentenced to death - and we’re not talking bullshit folk crimes but like, “making a pretty serious attempt to overthrow the government” or “assassinating someone important”, and then had the sentence lifted/commuted/pardoned/overturned/reprieved/amnestied.

Maybe that just means “leaders of powerful movements will get traded as bargaining chips”.

Before film and the Cold War they coulda just hung Mandela.

(I remember the ‘90s, how the great Palestinian and Irish propaganda gently glide-pathed to shit after the USSR fell, Gerry Adams got the message but Arafat had a good run)

My secondhand social media impression of The Good Place is “Dollhouse x Touched by an Angel” and please let that be true because Kristen Bell deserves it.

“Hey kontextmaschine, what’s today’s Portland adventure?”

Riding the bus out to the goddamned industrial district to pick up my stolen bicycle from the police evidence room!

See I kept the serial number written down and that actually worked. Filed a report, and then a few months later a cop looking for a pretext to take in some bum ran his ride’s number and there it was.

Lost it in the first place because I biked back from a bar, left it outside my house intending to open the garage door and then totally blanked on it. Fair enough.

Now that I think of it I’ve had my last four bikes stolen, at least this one came back. Two bikes ago I think the guys got sent to federal by the fucking Secret Service though, that’s a trip.

kontextmaschine:

“Hey kontextmaschine, what’s today’s Portland adventure?”

Riding the bus out to the goddamned industrial district to pick up my stolen bicycle from the police evidence room!

See I kept the serial number written down and that actually worked. Filed a report, and then a few months later a cop looking for a pretext to take in some bum ran his ride’s number and there it was.

Lost it in the first place because I biked back from a bar, left it outside my house intending to open the garage door and then totally blanked on it. Fair enough.

Now that I think of it I’ve had my last four bikes stolen, at least this one came back. Two bikes ago I think the guys got sent to federal by the fucking Secret Service though, that’s a trip.

Fucked up my transfer, walking around Portland State and getting an Uber. Crazy little parks with some amazing topography tho - Lovejoy, Pettygrove, the geometric waterfall at Ira Keller. Between the landscape architecture and the natural stone and tree cover all the modernism around here comes off impressively humane.

The police property warehouse is in the middle of nowhere, every single piece of literature is about the 1979-ass “WomanStrength” self defense classes, and there is an episode of Grimm staging in this parking lot

My bike came back with the levers and brakes stripped, the cables twined around to mount a multitool and a rubber duck, new seat and handlebars and tail rack, and honestly a better front tire

Bulk freight, Willamette River

Portland, OR

poipoipoi-2016:

kontextmaschine:

My bike came back with the levers and brakes stripped, the cables twined around to mount a multitool and a rubber duck, new seat and handlebars and tail rack, and honestly a better front tire

I have to say that that is the weirdest tail rack I have ever seen.  Most of the ones I’ve seen have mounts above the back tire so they’re not putting torque down.  

Yeah I know, it’s a Topeak Beam Rack QR. I noticed in the course of just now putting back in the rear reflector that popped off and realizing the beam is hollow and stored a patch kit.

I-5 by the Eastbank Esplanade

Portland, OR

Aaand alright, back home. Transmission’s not in the best shape or the best gear and neither am I so a bit of a slog towards the end but good times.

Glad I took this trip. Went places I normally wouldn’t, saw some cool stuff that reminded me Portland is amazing and I love it.

Stopped at a red light and another bike came up behind me blasting hardcore punk, when it turned green and he passed it was an old greyhair in flannel with the countenance of a Prussian aristocrat.

Think this is just what I needed to lift my spirits. Life’s gonna be alright.

kontextmaschine:

Bulk freight, Willamette River

Portland, OR

oops, used the wrong photo on this the first time.

paleglanceaustereface said: There was an article in the WSJ a while back about how Portland was close to dying entirely as bulk port.

Other way around, it’s dead as a container port and only functions as a bulk and automobile port. The Pacific mouth of the Columbia is actually an incredibly tough passage, and the river isn’t really suited to modern oceangoing ships, while in comparison Puget Sound is ideal for shipping. It’s the rivers - originally the Willamette serving the fertile Willamette Valley and then the Columbia-Snake system all the way to Idaho - that make inland transit to the port efficient enough to stay competitive.

kontextmaschine:

paleglanceaustereface said: There was an article in the WSJ a while back about how Portland was close to dying entirely as bulk port.

Other way around, it’s dead as a container port and only functions as a bulk and automobile port. The Pacific mouth of the Columbia is actually an incredibly tough passage, and the river isn’t really suited to modern oceangoing ships, while in comparison Puget Sound is ideal for shipping. It’s the rivers - originally the Willamette serving the fertile Willamette Valley and then the Columbia-Snake system all the way to Idaho - that make inland transit to the port efficient enough to stay competitive.

That’s something that matters a lot in explaining how the West Coast developed - thanks to the way that the Pacific Coast Ranges dominate the shoreline, it contains three of the best natural harbors in the world - San Diego Bay, San Francisco Bay, and Puget Sound - and nearly jack shit else.