Sassie2608

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biostar:

"(Lake Natron) takes its name from natron, a naturally occurring compound made mainly of sodium carbonate, with a bit of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) thrown in. Here, this has come from volcanic ash, accumulated from the Great Rift valley. Animals that become immersed in the water die and are calcified." Read the full article here.

Calcified birds (and bat) at Lake Natron, by Nick Brandt.

遊びすぎたのかな？　白は汚れが目立つよｗ

cooking-recipes-jp:

フリーマガジン「R２５」に載ってますよ「サンマ缶ユッケ丼」: 料理勉強家ヤスナリオのブログ

サンマ缶ユッケ丼！

Naya’s Quest (Browser) de Terry Cavanagh. Naya’s Quest est un platformer, oui en 2D isométrique… Vous allez me dire, que ce sont deux genres qui ne collent pas vraiment… Et pourtant, Terry Cavanagh va justement jouer avec les défauts de la 2D iso, la perte des repaires et des distances, “cette plateforme devant vous est-elle bien devant vous ? Ou au dessus ? En dessous ? Sur votre droite ? Votre gauche ?”.

A tester par là ! 

Merci a @JeromeBD pour l’info !

The tale of Salammbô began in Carthage, an ancient city situated on a promontory near present-day Tunisia, Africa. During the first Punic War (264 BC - 241 BC), the defeat of the Ancient Carthage by the Roman Republic resulted in an intense rivalry between Carthage, Numidia, Libya, Syracuse, and other nearby nations. The Mercenaries, who once fought for Carthage against Rome, turned against Carthage when their troops were not paid. This led to the Mercenary War (240 BC - 237 BC), in which the Mercenaries convinced the Libyan conscripts to also revolt against Carthage. The war ended at last when the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca led an army to defeat the rebels in the Battle of The Saw. These events were recorded in The Histories by the Greek historian Polybus. In 1862, French…

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Si vous avez suivi l’affaire Prism, vous êtes au courant de l’importance des métadonnées. Tout le monde craint que l’on puisse espionner les conversations que l’on tient par nos communications électroniques. Mais peu de gens savent que les métadonnées peuvent en apprendre beaucoup sur le profil d’un internaute. Les métadonnées (les données sur les données) regroupent pour Gmail par exemple qui envoie le mail, à qui, à quelle fréquence, avec quelle longueur, etc.

Pour démontrer que ces métadonnées en disent beaucoup sur vous, un groupe de chercheurs du MIT a mis au point une application web qui cartographie vos métadonnées Gmail. Il s’agit du programme Immersion.

Pris au jeu, et fervent utilisateur de Gmail depuis 2008, j’ai décidé d’analyser mes résultats. Et c’est assez bluffant. Suffisamment pour me faire prendre conscience d’un aspect de ma vie dont je n’avais qu’une vision floue : l’évolution de mes relations et réseaux dans le temps. Ou la chronique d’une isolation progressive. Une fois n’est pas coutûme, je vous propose de plonger avec moi dans ma vie, afin de vous démontrer à mon tour, que nos métadonnées sont très bavardes. J’ai bien sûr retiré les noms des contacts.

Juillet 2008 – Juillet 2009

Jeune étudiant de Sciences Po Lyon, je quitte la capitale des Gaules pour rejoindre Paris, entamer un master 2 de communication en alternance chez TBWA\CORPORATE. Jeune hôte de ce blog, grâce à ma meilleure amie Marion, je découvre aussi le monde des soirées blogueurs parisiennes, et mon travail d’apprenti chef de projet ePR m’amène à côtoyer certains blogueurs professionnellement. J’ai la chance d’avoir pas mal d’amis dans mon cas, montés sur Paris pour finir les études ou travailler, la plupart anciens de Sciences Po. Je découvre un excellent master, et la petite vingtaine d’étudiants que nous sommes devient un vrai groupe d’amis. Nous nous voyons en cours et en dehors, avec un grand esprit de corps qui n’a rien à envier à celui connu à l’IEP. Quelques amis se détachent de ce groupe, on se voit encore plus régulièrement. En parallèle, je quitte petit à petit mes activités politiques et associatives lyonnaises. Ma nouvelle vie sera parisienne !

Juillet 2009 – Juillet 2010

La vie parisienne prend forme ! Je découvre une vie sociale intense, au sein d’un groupe d’amis soudés, prêts à tous les 400 coups ! C’est l’époque de la Plurkie et de ses apéros sur le pont des Arts et à la Cordonnerie, ainsi que des débuts sous Twitter. Je suis officiellement embauché chez TBWA, j’étends mon réseau professionnel. Je vis une grande histoire d’amour à distance, je garde contact avec la famille par email. En partance de TBWA, j’hésite entre deux postes, je choisis Bercy. Une nouvelle année s’achève.

Juillet 2010 – Juillet 2011

J’ai de moins en moins de contacts avec les anciens du Master 2. Le groupe très uni s’est disloqué avec la folie parisienne et les premiers contrats professionnels. Je suis de plus en plus proche avec mon frère et ma soeur, avec l’âge. Je garde de bons contacts avec mes anciens collègues de TBWA (nous formons une belle étoile !).
C’est aussi l’époque de la naissance du Réseau des Jeunes Communicateurs Publics, que je co-fonde avec deux autres collègues de ministère. Ce réseau professionnel se développe à grande vitesse.
Telle une deuxième vie, j’entame aussi des fonctions dans une association événementielle, avec des gens totalement différents, déconnectés des autres.
J’ai moins de temps, le groupe des meilleurs amis est moins actif qu’avant, les échanges baissent. Je déménage dans le 15e arrondissement.

Juillet 2011 – Juillet 2012

Ma dernière année parisienne. Mes associations me prennent beaucoup de temps. J’y consacre beaucoup d’énergie. Je commence également à donner des cours à Sciences Po Lyon, avec mon meilleur ami qui a déménagé là-bas. Du groupe des meilleurs, je n’ai que quelques contacts avec ma meilleure amie et son dernier garçon. J’ai moins de contacts avec mes anciens collègues de TBWA. Et je ne parle pas des amis du Master. Je perds pied dans ma vie sociale. J’ai l’impression de ne plus avoir de socle fort. J’étouffe. Fin juillet 2012, je démissionne de Bercy. Je quitte Paris. Pour Lyon. Retour aux sources. Retour au calme.

Juillet 2012 – Juillet 2013

La période Lyonnaise. Nouvelle vie. Je garde contact avec Paris, notamment via le Réseau JCP, que je ne quitte pas, bien au contraire. Avec mon meilleur ami, nous reformons un petit groupe de potes, ça ne durera pas bien longtemps. Une sombre histoire idiote viendra isoler les membres. Je ne connais plus grand monde ici à part mon meilleur ami, à qui je ne peux pas demander tout son temps. Que dirais sa future femme Je tente bien de prendre contact avec des anciens du lycée, notamment à mon arrivée, et aussi avec mes anciens colocs. On aime se revoir. Mais c’est très occasionnel.
L’avantage d’être à Lyon, c’est que je me suis rapproché de ma famille. Les échanges en sont plus forts.
Je garde quelques contacts, au début, avec la personne qui a partagé ma vie à Paris et ses ami(e)s. Et puis plus rien. J’ai des contacts de-ci, de-là,  mais rien de soutenu. D’une vie sociale forte et animée, je suis passé à un vaste monde sans lien :

Voilà l’eclatante vérité telle que les métadonnées peuvent l’illustrer. Implacablement, froidement. Ma vie est cartographiée, statistique. Pas le place au doute, ou à l’interprétation subjective. Les données ne mentent pas. Et je suis affiché au grand jour. J’ai trouvé ça légèrement effrayant.

Et vous, qu’en pensez-vous ?

iheartmyart:

Bill Domonkos, Untitled, 2013

Alexandra Douglass

Black Square is a quick, well-polished bit of fun from Ghost Pixels. It's a top-down shooter with the rarely-used backdrop of the early Cold War. The graphics make use of a limited palette and excellent, low-res pixel art to convey the mood of playing a Gameboy game, or of watching an old black-and-white war film.

It's 1948 and the Cold War is already in full swing. You are Sergeant Chuck Taylor and your mission is to single-handedly infiltrate Stalin's stronghold of censorship and save an important minimalist painting, Kazimir Malevich's "The Black Square".

The compound is patrolled by Russian soldiers, which you can sneak by or shoot. You start out armed with only a pistol, but you'll be able to grab a machine gun later. The place is also protected by landmines, but you can often use these, in conjunction with exploding fuel barrels, to take out your enemies.

It's a fairly casual experience, as you have unlimited ammo and there are plenty of health pickups. However, the communists have an advantage in that they can shoot diagonally and you can't. You use the arrow keys to move and you can shoot with Shift, Ctrl, or Space.

Explore the compound and find your way to the titular MacGuffin, where you'll experience a final boss encounter which had me grinning from ear to ear. Give Black Square a play in your browser.

I can safely say that I have never seen a game that looked anything like Humanoid 47 before and I can also admit that I simply love this particular aesthetic result. It reminds me of those '90s, slightly psychedelic, gloriously busy and definitely surreal French comic books I used to collect, though this one comes with the added bonus of being a fully exlporable, highly interactive point-and-click adventure that will not overstay its creepy welcome.

via

Écolo et exemplaire, la nouvelle auberge de jeunesse Pajol est un « bon plan » pour les visiteurs au budget serré. C'est l'histoire d'une vieille halle métallique qui s'ennuyait, seule, au bord des voies ferrées. De bonnes fées la trouvèrent jolie. Elles décidèrent de la vêtir de bois et d'en faire l'amie de la nature. Elles prédirent qu'ainsi, les visiteurs afflueraient. Et par un beau jour de printemps... La voici enfin ouverte, la première auberge de jeunesse écolo de Paris ! Impossible de la manquer : (...) - / Loisirs & Voyages, Paris 18^e, Paris, Pajol, Auberge de jeunesse, Françoise-Hélène Jourda, FUAJ, centrale photovoltaïque

itscolossal:

Davit Yukhanyan

Oniken developer JoyMasher took some time away from its upcoming 'Castlevania meets ActRaiser' Odallus project to create adventure RPG Killing Moon for a Brazilian scary game jam called Pack of Horrors. In this RPG, you explore a high school during a costume party, gathering items used to gather even more items (typical adventure stuff) until... something horrifying happens.

As a word of warning: like a lot of horror films, Killing Moon takes several minutes to reach the scary tension. Still, it's enjoyable, especially for a game made in three days.

Here’s more Little Chicken.

Goodness, Morphopolis sure is a sight to behold. I do not usually like bugs because I’m afraid they’ll crawl into my eyelids while I’m sleeping and lay eggs, but just look at that. So much insistently strange color. So many rich veins of detail popping and pulsating with life. The point-and-click adventure treats nature not as a playground, but as a canvas for the grotesquely gorgeous. I just want to go inhabit that place. Problem is – based on a bit of the game I played at Rezzed – I’m not sure if it’ll let me. Trailer and thoughts below.

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Good day to you, fine Internet. Lumenox Games send word that their beautiful 2D platformer, Aaru’s Awakening, has a new trailer, which you can find embedded below. It’s astonishingly pretty, and shows off the game’s key mechanic – teleportation – across some exquisitely hand-drawn levels. You really will want to take a look at this. But wait! As Alec previously noted, there’s also a demo over on the Greenlight page. That means you can play it.

Perhaps you should.
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"I'm a living breathing person... but I'm just going to stand frozen in this spot forever. Also, I'm a tortoise."

I complained about Bioshock Infinite before. Here, I complain some more, because I really can't get over how bad this game is. Hopefully this'll be the last complaint post. I'm sorry.

Clint Hocking famously coined "ludonarrative dissonance" to describe moments when what's happening in a single player action game doesn't fit with what the game is telling you is happening -- maybe it's just plain wrong, maybe the tone doesn't match, or maybe the game thinks this thing is more interesting than it is -- either way, it doesn't quite work.

It's when you realize your sympathetic handsome male player character is a sociopathic mass murderer, or maybe when a character in an RPG "dies" despite having already died and revived dozens of times before, or maybe the brief instance when an elite soldier NPC glitches in the middle of a doorway despite all the boring game lore dumped on you. Sometimes it's intrinsic to making a game about killing people, sometimes you hope fridge logic kicks in, and sometimes it's a technical quirk you forgive.

But I feel like that theory doesn't explain what actually happens out in the field: if Bioshock Infinite was forged entirely, purposefully, from solid ingots of 100% pure ludonarrative dissonance, why didn't this annoy the shit out of everyone? Isn't ludonarrative dissonance supposed to be jarring and horrible? Why was the unusually unified critical response to Binfinite something like, "wow this game is colossally stupid," but the mainstream response was, "this is amazing"?

So I have a new theory -- most players do not find dissonance to be dissonant, and therefore ludonarrative dissonance doesn't really exist.

An important part of being good at games means looking past dissonance to value the "game underneath."

In his Last of Us review, Tom Bissell calls it something else -- a "gameism" -- and he argues that learning to internalize gameisms quickly, or even nostalgizing their absence, is a fundamental step to taking on a gamer identity and truly understanding these games. These are design decisions we've quickly learned to take for granted, to ignore their blatant implausibility and incoherence. All human senses must adapt to pain. Becoming an "experienced gamer" means learning to readily resolve a game's dissonance and ignore it as a gameism, an intrinsic byproduct that We Just Have to Learn To Accept To Enjoy Man Shoot.

Some academics might call this a "lusory attitude" or make references to a semi-porous "magic circle." Or maybe it's a suspension of disbelief, or maybe you're in a flow state and you're not in a mental place to criticize. Whatever you call it, a lot of players seem pretty good at ignoring stuff that gets in the way of playing video games.

Bissell implies that gameisms are supposedly just these fringe cases that'll get ironed out by the Grand March of Game Innovation, temporary band-aids to patch the cracks between systems before Our Dear Young Medium Grows Up and surpasses Hollywood as an influential culture industry.

... I disagree that they're fringe cases. As frequent game players, we've just numbed ourselves to the more primal gameisms that form the fundamental core of AAA single player action games; the most basic assumptions and reasoning we make about player progression... they all involve heavy doses of gameisms. The contrivance is EVERYWHERE with everything we do.

Like, let's imagine you're playing a typical first person game, and there's a locked door: what do you do now?


Do you remember seeing a door like this in Fallout 3? Probably not, because noticing the incoherence here does not help you level-up your character. You were probably looking for rocket launcher ammo.

Faced with a locked door, which arbitrary leap of logic are you supposed to make? Maybe encountering a locked door means you need to find a key to open it -- unless it's a post Half-Life 1 game and there's a nearby hallway or crevice to go around it -- or unless it's a fake un-unlockable locked door intended as set-dressing -- or maybe a scripted event / monster closet that broke? -- and you can tell it's a fake door because there's no 3D doorknob model there? -- but wait the door just turned red, that means we need to sprint into it to knock it down! -- oh but that door has a gold padlock on it, made of unbreakable metal? -- but since it doesn't require any lockpicks to pick it, we know it's probably a critical-path door, since the game would never put me into an unwinnable situation that required lockpicks without any to be found -- oh wait there's a crumbling wall, I can probably just stab these bricks with my knife to knock it down -- and hey, the apples in that nearby tree resemble the positions of the bricks, I have to stab the bricks in that specific order...

Game logic is frequently illogical. When is that okay and not okay? When should we do better?

I'd reckon that AAA designers, either wisely or obliviously, rarely have these existential crises. It's not just the players, but also the developers, who have to train themselves to ignore the gameisms inherent in their games.

I can imagine an early design meeting where they were brainstorming different pants powers for Bioshock Infinite's scrapped multiplayer mode, balanced on an XP curve progression with custom loadouts. Then they realized they had to cut multiplayer to meet 2K's release deadlines. But what about all these different hats / shirts / pants powers they've spent months designing and tuning?

Well, let's just cram this inane magical clothes system into the single player game! That fits really well, because the player character probably wears clothes, right? And we need to give the player more choices and trade-offs, because that creates deep combat, right?

Hopefully it didn't happen like that. But what other kind of groupthink could produce thinking like this:

How about a pair of pants that lets your magical flaming crow-gun-hand haunt an enemy's gun to shoot by itself? Yes, but then should we tweak the haunt duration from 5 seconds to 7.5 seconds? 40% probability or 45%?

At any point in these design meetings, did anyone wonder whether bird-igniting pants-ghosts were even relevant, at all, in a game supposedly about fatherhood / redemption?


Or it's also a game about poverty too, with money routinely found in trash cans... and it's about the systemic complexity of racism, and you can solve racism in Act II by pressing Q... and let's throw some quantum science-magic in there too... also, the player should press F everywhere...

The result is a moist pile of theme-creep, a game that isn't about anything except how it isn't about anything. All attempts to read Bioshock Infinite, in any consistent way, end with, "because video games." Where some games might worry a lot about the coherence of an NPC invincible in combat, suddenly dying in a scripted event -- or maybe why a family would lock so many interior doors in their own house, and then leave town -- this game said, "Fuck it."

I suspend my disbelief for games all the time. But here, I couldn't. The most charitable thing I can say is that it put a great deal of hard work into being lazy.

... And no one notices and no one cares. The falling tree never made a sound. Clearly I don't play enough first person shooters to appreciate the tradition! Forgive me, Bissell.

Here, Gamespot puts me in my place: "[Binfinite] depicts uncomfortable, relevant themes in an effective way [...] Upgrades make you feel increasingly powerful. [...] Some annoying texture pop-in and screen tearing are the culprits mostly likely to disturb the captivation. [...] 9/10."

(I'm glad they finally made a video game where upgrades make the player more powerful. Very relevant. Very captivating.)

See? No dissonance. No confusion. It's totally straightforward.

Except for a little bit of screen tearing (-1 pt!), Bioshock Infinite is truly the Citizen Kane of video games. It is decided.

No dissonance.

Last week we learned that our cookbook will be much bigger, over fifty pages longer, than originally planned. We're very excited and, upon our publisher's request, have been busy taking a large batch of new photographs, making the dishes from the book and reliving the experience.
In the middle of these crazy times, I especially cherish my quiet mornings, before the work begins. Breakfast is always mandatory, and this fragrant and nutritious amaranth porridge has been a dish that I've come back to time and time again. Amaranth is amazing, although often thought of as a grain, it is a seed of the amaranth herb and contains more protein than wheat or any other gluten-free grain. The texture of amaranth reminds me of poppy seeds, which is one of the reasons I like it so much. Growing up, poppy seed rolls were one of my favourite treats, and I still crave them when feeling nostalgic. Cardamom and vanilla make this porridge exceptionally addicting. There are few flavours as magical as cardamom seeds straight out of the pod or vanilla scraped fresh from a plump vanilla bean. The porridge is also very good cold, straight from the fridge, and we sometimes have it that way for dessert. Any fruits in season will work in place of strawberries.
Back to work now!
P.S. Honored to be featured in Emma's Inspire Me Series.



Cardamom Amaranth Porridge with Stewed Strawberries

for the porridge
1 cup amaranth - soaked overnight, rinsed and drained
2 cups almond or coconut milk
2 tablespoons coconut sugar
1/2 vanilla bean - split open, seeds scraped
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom - from about 3-4 pods
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon - optional
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg - optional

for the strawberries
1 lb fresh strawberries - hulled and sliced
1/2 vanilla bean - split open, seeds scraped
1/4 cup honey

to make the porridge
Combine all of the ingredients (vanilla bean included) in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.

to prepare strawberries
Combine all of the ingredients (vanilla bean included) in a separate saucepan, bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

to serve
Mix the porridge and strawberries together. Add a few splashes of coconut milk if desired and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

What’s behind the door? That’s the question Amplitude Studios are asking in their mysterious teaser trailer for Dungeon of the Endless that arrived overnight.

Retro spaceships, explosions and beautiful music has us sold already. Sci-fi is making a comeback, and we couldn’t be happier. Given Amplitude’s success with Endless Space, we have confidence in Dungeon of the Endless.

Apparently more details will be revealed at Gamescom later this month. Our bet is on some kind of retro roguelike, which is A-OK with us!

The post What’s Behind The Door? Dungeon of the Endless teased appeared first on Pixels For Breakfast.

Making an honest puppy out of Isabelle

In case you don’t get the joke.

The comic comes from Greg Melo, who has more Animal Crossing: New Leaf strips — including one or two with offensive language — over at his DeviantArt gallery.

BUY Animal Crossing: New Leaf, AC:NL guide, upcoming games

Gloria Victis is an MMO that initially reminded me a bit of The Witcher, and then I read that some of its developers helped make The Witcher. “Ooooooooh,” I replied eloquently. The general vibe, especially, gives me flashbacks to Geralt’s particular brand of gallivanting (or Geraltivanting for short), with a fantasy setting where everything… well, it just sucks. No knights in shining armor, no one-man-army mega heroes, no mighty spells or gear sets that look like they emerged from the great costume glitter explosion of 1927. That’s certainly not a bad thing, though. I mean, there’s a reason “realistic” fantasy is all the rage right now. It’s a focus that bleeds into the game’s skill-based combat as well, with things like weather conditions even coming into play. Sounds like quite the thing, huh? Check out some gameplay footage after the break.

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Après «The Eagleman Stag», découverte du trailer du futur court métrage de l’illustrateur anglais Mikey Please : «Marilyn Myller». Produit par le studio Hornet Inc, ce court métrage réalisé en stop motion et en noir et blanc, arborent des décors faits mains et une lumière toute particulière. Making of disponible dans la suite.

Mikey Please
Hornet Inc

«Moleskine Doodles» est un projet de l’illustrateur Kerby Rosanes basé aux Philippines. Celui-ci nous livre ses sketchbook aux dessins très détaillés dont chacun renferme un grand nombre de personnages humoristiques et caricaturaux.

Kerby Rosanes website

Coup de coeur pour le projet «It’s Hardly Noticeable» réalisé par John William Keedy. Diagnostiqué de troubles de l’anxiété il y a 9 ans, le photographe américain entreprit de transposer photographiquement les angoisses, névroses et autres troubles du comportement. A découvrir.

John William Keedy website