Only recently, I passed on my GameCube to my nephew who was just starting college. He wanted something to play Mario Kart and GoldenEye on with new friends, and apparently it’s proving a hit. But this means I don’t have a GameCube. So let’s check eBay...
The vagus nerve is a busy bundle of over 100,000 information-carrying fibers that runs from the brain stem through the body to connect the brain with major organs including the heart, lungs, and digestive system.
Scientists have discovered they can hack this neural network to calm an overactive immune system, potentially helping millions who suffer from conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and Crohn's disease. — Read the rest
i think rickrolling is the only meme that gets objectively funnier with age. in 2009 you learned to anticipate it but in 2019 it happens just infreqently enough that i fall for it every single time
like people still make rage comics and doge jokes and shit but it’s always ironic (the real punchline is that you’re using an outdated format) or more in line with modern absurd internet humor. rickrolling is the only meme i can think of that’s been the exact same for a full decade- click on a link thinking you’re getting something else, get rick astley instead, and it’s still consistently funny
the more time passes the more foolish you feel for falling for a rickroll as well. Like darn I learnt about this prank 10+ years ago how did I just fall for it now,
I have had the honor of working on two different comics projects with Don Hertzfeldt. Flight, and Fusion Future. But this is the story of my first interaction with the man.
When unions are outlawed, only outlaws will have unions. Unions don’t owe their existence to labor laws that protect organizing activities. Rather, labor laws exist because once-illegal unions were formed in the teeth of violent suppression, and those unions demanded – and got – labor law.
Bosses have hated unions since the start, and they’ve really hated laws protecting workers. Dress this up in whatever self-serving rationale you want – “the freedom to contract,” or “meritocracy” – it all cashes out to this: when workers bargain collectively, value that would otherwise go to investors and executives goes to the workers.
I’m not just talking about wages here, either. If an employer is forced – by a union, or by a labor law that only exists because of union militancy – to operate a safe workplace, they have to spend money on things like fire suppression, PPE, and paid breaks to avoid repetitive strain injuries. In the absence of some force that corrals bosses into providing these safety measures, they can use that money to pay themselves, and externalize the cost of on-the-job injuries to their workers.
The cost and price of a good or service is the tangible expression of power. It is a matter of politics, not economics. If consumer protection agencies demand that companies provide safe, well-manufactured goods, if there are prohibitions on price-fixing and profiteering, then value shifts from the corporation to its customers.
Now, if labor has few rights and consumers have many rights, then bosses can pass their consumer-side losses on to their workers. This is the Walmart story, the Amazon story: cheap goods paid for with low wages and dangerous working conditions. Likewise, if consumer rights are weak but labor rights are strong, then bosses can pass their costs onto their customers, continuing to take high profits by charging more. This is the story of local gig-work ordinances like NYC’s, which guaranteed a minimum wage to delivery drivers – restaurateurs responded by demanding the right to add a surcharge to their bills:
But if labor and consumer groups act in solidarity, then they can operate as a bloc and bosses and investors have to eat shit. Back in 2017, the pilots’ union for American Airlines forced their bosses into a raise. Wall Street freaked out and tanked AA’s stock. Analysts for big banks were outraged. Citi’s Kevin Crissey summed up the situation perfectly, in a fuming memo: “This is frustrating. Labor is being paid first again. Shareholders get leftovers”:
I've never been banned from a videogame or even got a single warning before. But sometimes, simply playing by the book isn't enough to avoid a ban. Maybe you've run into a few too many salty players who've reported you out of spite, or maybe you got a message in-game telling you that third-party software has been found on your PC, even though that's not true. I can't imagine what I would do in this situation, but one player known as b00lin decided that he wasn't going to stand for it.
One day, after 36.2 hours of playing the early beta version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, b00lin opened his Steam profile to find a ban message. At first, he thought that it could've been a result of encountering a couple of bugs in the beta. But after appealing the decision, Activision held fast: "We've confirmed with our security team that your account has been permanently banned for using unauthorised software and manipulation of game data. As you were the account holder at the time of the infraction, your ban will not be overturned."
This short message from Activision Support was the start of a long and arduous process of using the legal system to get his account unbanned and receive a refund for his initial purchase of Modern Warfare 2—all of this would take two years.
(Image credit: Activision)
Before taking the matter to court, b00lin tried going through Activision one last time. He used Activision's ticket system, attempted to phone Activision support, and even tried contacting someone who works at Activision through Linkedin, but nothing seemed to work.
"When appealing these bans, I would often ask if there was any proof of the 'unauthorised software' used," b00lin says. "The answer I always received was that they are unable to [provide examples] due to it being a security risk and could expose how the anti-cheat works."
To date, I still don't know what caused the false ban.
b00lin
Protecting anticheat software is a must, especially when it comes to competitive games where players stand to gain the most from cheating. Within a week of Activision announcing its new kernel-level anticheat, Ricochet, back in 2021, the Anti-Cheat Police Department (a group of players dedicated to rooting out cheaters) announced that the driver had already leaked amongst cheat developers. When something like this happens, Call of Duty games and Warzone are usually swamped with cheaters for weeks afterward until Activision can make the necessary changes to root them out.
While keeping security secrets and information about Ricochet in-house is clearly important, b00lin does point out that he wasn't exactly asking for top-secret information. "Knowing the information such as the name of the software, IP address that was used, and how the software manipulated game data would all be known to a cheat developer," b00lin says. "Not even this harmless information [was] provided. How can I prove that I didn't cheat when no information has been provided? Was it Logitech G Hub? iCUE? OBS? To date, I still don't know what caused the false ban."
The last stop before taking the matter to court was an attempt to settle the matter by signing an NDA and using an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), which would involve an independent third party helping both parties involved come to a "mutually acceptable outcome." But that was shot down by Activision.
Court's in session
(Image credit: Activision)
First, b00lin filed a Money Claim Online (a service that allows people to make small claims online) for the cost of the game and the fee to file the claim. Due to Activision not responding to this, b00lin automatically won, and Activision paid up. But, the developer still stood firm against lifting the ban.
"Activision paid me out but still refused to remove the suspension placed on my account," b00lin says. "Their reasoning was that the courts did not order them to do so—therefore, they wouldn’t. I am sure they wish they had done so because it ended up costing them in the long run."
So the next step saw b00lin filing a non-money claim, and after Activision passed the case off to a law firm, b00lin tried settling the case with them. In exchange for paying court fees and getting unbanned, the agreement stated he would not take this matter any further and would sign an NDA regarding the terms of the agreement. Unfortunately, this was also shut down.
(Image credit: Activision)
By the time b00lin actually stood in front of a judge in court, he had amassed a great deal of information and examples to help his case. This included presenting his squeaky clean record in other games like CS2, in which he has over 1,000 hours, pointing out that he didn't want money, just the ban lifted, and that after this case was closed, he "wanted nothing to do with Activision." He had come prepared. So b00lin was surprised when the defendant presented their case, and it became clear that they didn't have any concrete evidence to prove that he actually cheated.
"This meant that if I didn’t commit any abuse of process within the courts, my case would be heard, and Activision would have no evidence to show what they are claiming," b00lin explains. "It would appear that Activision’s anti-cheat/security team is so strict that the people they hired to defend them were not allowed to see any 'evidence' of the 'unauthorized software or manipulation of game data'."
In the end, the judge found that b00lin should have his suspension removed on Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, and Warzone, and Activision must pay the Claimant's £711 fixed costs, thanks to all the examples that he put forward and a lack of evidence presented by the Defendant. But that's not all: "The Judge also found Activision to be the one in violation of the contract," b00lin says. "And with that, two years of phone calls, emails, and reading pages of legal jargon had finally come to an end.
"For over two years (763 days as of writing), I was wrongly accused of cheating and falsely banned from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2022. As of 08/01/2025, this has been officially lifted on all platforms."
But why?
(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)
When I first read about b00lin's two-year-long fight, all I could think about was how anyone had the time and strength to keep up with all of that. B00lin had bought every Call of Duty PC game since 2003, and he's dedicated a significant amount of time and energy to build up an in-game character, and going to court wasn't about getting the best of Activision.
"Having a Steam profile's reputation ruined after seven years of ownership is what fuelled me to keep going and not give up," b00lin says. "A ban for something I did not do on a profile I cherish and have spent thousands of hours on did not sit right."
The negative effects of the ban also seeped into other games that b00lin played: " If I ever did well in a game, someone would look at my profile to see how many hours I have and instantly see the red marker that shows 'I am a cheater.'" b00lin even shares screenshots of a CS2 match in his blog where one player accuses him of cheating to win in their match: "You wouldn't have a VAC ban if you didn't cheat."
I have seen so many stories of innocent players being banned.
b00lin
B00lin is also part of the COD False Ban Community Discord, where players who have encountered false bans or shadow bans come together to try and help themselves and one another. "I have seen so many stories of innocent players being banned and referred to this community in court," b00lin says.
Shadow bans are probably one of the most prevalent problems in Call of Duty. It relies on player reports or on Ricochet's internal system to identify cheaters, but even if you've done nothing wrong, you can still get flagged for it if enough players report you. The consequences of being shadow-banned can include not being able to play at all, worse matchmaking, or getting placed into poor-quality lobbies with other cheaters. Whatever the punishment may be, players will have to deal with it until the security team investigates the situation, which can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks.
"I feel the COD False Ban Community on Discord helped because it was a community of people trying to accomplish the same goal," b00lin tells me. "Not only did it give me a bunch of anecdotes I could use to show a pattern of this behaviour, a few people in there had taken legal action, too. Speaking to one of those people in there gave me a good idea of what to expect and what I should aim to do."
This is also the same Discord that Mike Swanson is a part of. A few years back, Swanson published a blog post detailing how he had been banned without cheating despite only playing singleplayer in Modern Warfare 2. "A good chunk of the pages I submitted to the courts was this blog (with Mike’s consent)," b00lin says. "It was extremely helpful to be able to refer to someone with credentials to get my point across."
Some of the material that b00lin ended up using in courts included a research paper from the University of Birmingham, which was conducted to demonstrate how cheaters will commonly bypass Microsoft Windows kernel protections, Activision's own terms of service, and one of our articles on how innocent Call of Duty players got permabanned.
All in all, the two-year-long battle to get an account unbanned may seem like a shed load of work—that's putting it lightly—but it's not something that b00lin regrets: "After fighting this false ban for over two years, I am happy to say it is finally over. In my opinion, it was worth the effort just to see the account alert."
PC Gamer reached out to Activision for a comment about this court battle but is yet to hear anything back.
Isn't it time you supported your friendly neighborhood independent comic strip? SIGN UP FOR THE INNER HIVE and you'll get each week's Tom the Dancing Bug comic at least a day before publication. Plus other exclusive content like extra comics, commentary, juicy gossip, puzzles, recipes, and thrilling secrets. — Read the rest
When Future Publishing's game magazines were shredded in the 1990s, no one thought twice about destroying what would become invaluable historical documents. Now, remaining copies of these defunct gaming periodicals are commanding premium prices on eBay and being digitally preserved by archivists who recognize them as irreplaceable windows into gaming's cultural evolution. — Read the rest
If CGC can be fooled, what hope do the rest of us have?
Last year, hundreds of vintage prototype, test, and presentation Pokémon cards believed to date back to the creation of the game in the 1990s sold for auction to various collectors for hundreds of thousands of dollars collectively. Now, one of those collectors has investigated the prototype cards they bought more…
Yes it's a Zelda game, but bear with me because this is a story only possible on PC. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was first released on the Nintendo 64 in 2000, and since then has been the mainline entry that all the cool kids say is best. There are plenty of reasons for this, from the grim and unsettling atmosphere to the brilliant Groundhog Day structure, but one of the enduring appeals is all of the game's mysteries.
Most of these are intentional and authored by Nintendo, but some are not. And one of the biggest unresolved questions about Majora's Mask is about a dog racing minigame where, to put it mildly, the odds are heavily stacked against one blue dog in particular.
Yep, this is an underdog story. At the back of Romani Ranch there's a location called Doggy Racetrack, where the player finds 14 dogs: Four are coloured white, three beige, three gray, two brown, one gold and one blue. Link can place a bet on any dog and then watch a race play out… except not all dogs have been created equal.
First of all, the game is designed in order for the player to exploit it. Once Link has obtained the Mask of Truth, you can equip this and pick up the dogs to tell what they're thinking: Dogs with happy thoughts are likely to finish higher, while dogs that are under the weather are a bad pick. On top of this, the gold dog is a bit of a winner, and when his thoughts begin with "ruff" a first place finish is highly likely.
The blue dog, on the other hand, is one of life's losers. So much so that the blue dog is a kind of mini-meme within the Majora's Mask community: It just never wins, to the extent that everyone thought (not unreasonably) it couldn't win. There are several factors going into this but, in order not to bore you with math, the blue dog has a lower base speed than all the other dogs and, despite there being a small element of RNG to this base speed calculated on each frame, over the course of a race that is going to hurt it relative to the rest of the pack.
Majora's Mask fans have wondered for years whether it was possible for the blue dog to win, and the first glimmer of hope came when the existence of a glitch in the race was confirmed. Again simplifying things, the way the game triangulates where the finish line is also creates a tiny sliver of the track halfway round that can trigger the end of the race early: But the line is so small, and the chances of a dog being positioned on it so low, that it's incredibly rare. This glitch had previously been suspected before it happened live to various well-known Majora's Mask speedrunners.
The below video by Vidya James does an excellent job of explaining the entire blue dog saga, and goes into detail on the parts I'm simplifying as well as including all the relevant clips. But this glitch was key in encouraging an individual who goes by Falkush to start messing around, and seeing if they could come up with a legitimate in-game scenario where the blue dog wins.
Thing is, and this is what enraptured me about Vidya James' presentation, the 14 dogs, their various moods, and the different speeds and RNG influence all add up to a mind-boggling number of permutations. I just don't have the math knowledge to check this so I'm taking his word for it: There are one quadrillion 83 trillion 414 billion and 90 million possible permutations of this dog race. 1,083,414,090,000,000 potential dog races. If you were to start a new race every second it would take 34 million years to do so.
Faced with such an insurmountable number, Falkush wrote a script that would run the race repeatedly on an emulator from the same starting state: One where the blue dog is in the best possible mood, maximising its chances of winning. After each race it advances the game by one frame to change the hidden RNG value for the next race before it starts. By automating the process (with some clever use of an auto-splitter to record race results for Falkush to later check-over) Falkush was able to get the game running thousands of races a day.
After three days and 8,410 races, this happened:
The blue dog's first-ever recorded victory, thanks to the glitch. The fact it only took 8,410 races indicates the glitch may be more common than thought, but in the glitch-less races the blue dog was still lagging with its best finish fourth place.
This wasn't enough for Falkush, who wanted a legitimate blue dog victory. They tweaked the script to not only maximise blue dog's chances, but minimise the chances of the gold dog and the other faster dogs (based on their pre-race condition). If there were any circumstances under which the blue dog could win, this was them.
Falkush has a Github repository showing all their work brute-forcing blue dog, should you be so inclined, but all that most of us need to do is watch the below: After over 30,000 attempts, the first-ever legitimate recorded blue dog victory in Majora's Mask, well over two decades after release.
This story encapsulates everything I love about speedrunning. The practice is not just about watching someone go through a game fast, but about how people get into the guts of games, reverse-engineer what's going on, and set themselves challenges to solve. There's no world record for the blue dog winning the race in Majora's Mask: People just knew it wasn't supposed to happen, and it possibly couldn't happen, and decided to tinker around inside this little universe to see if, in any possible reality, blue dog could win. It's a testament to ingenuity, hard work, community collaboration, and of course object proof of that old canard: Every dog really does have its day.
My library stopped fines because we made practically no money on it and evidence showed all it did was discourage low income folks from using the library.
The Super Mario Bros. speedrunner Niftski has achieved a new world record for the classic Nintendo title on a PC emulator, setting a time of 4:54.565 in the "any%" category. You may well be wondering why I'm bothering to include the hundredths of a second: So many talented players attempt to do something with Super Mario Bros. that new records in the game are measured in individual frames (thanks, Time Extension).
Super Mario Bros. has always been one of the most popular games to speedrun, probably because it's so ubiquitous, is arguably the first true classic of 2D platforming, and has a bunch of neat tricks that experienced runners love. Niftski's run is a masterclass in stitching together pixel-perfect hops and glitches and the absolute nerves of steel needed not to screw it up in 8-4, the game's last level.
Screwing it up in 8-4 had, unfortunately, been something of a theme for Niftski in the days leading up to the new record, with the streamer experiencing some rotten luck and frustration. The world record run begins with the runner joking about his chances with the chat while executing long looped jumps over piranha plants and jamming Mario into pipes, before the tone begins to slowly shift, both Niftski and the audience realising that this is a good one, and he's hitting every beat and frame skip perfectly.
8-4 is not just crammed with lots of fast-moving enemies and deadly obstacles, but requires several unusual strats worked together for the most optimal route. There's a moment in 8-4 where he's briefly underwater, dodging Bloobers and fire chains with exquisite stroke momentum, where the intensity reaches a fever pitch and Niftski's soon praying for Bowser: Soon enough he's at Bowser and like all true speedrunners blazes right past him and crashes into the axe.
Then the yelling: If you do watch the video, maybe get the volume control ready for the end of the run. It's abundantly clear how much this means for Niftski, who basically spends the next two minutes pinballing around his gaming room shouting "we did it!" while chat goes bananas. Niftski had a heart rate monitor attached during the attempt and it peaks at 188 BPM at the end of the run: He later had to clarify that "nerves can skyrocket at any given time due to the pace" of speedruns like this and he's completely fine and healthy.
"Although the 8-4 could have been a few frames faster with my strats, I am still extremely happy with this time," said Nifstki after calming down. "This run is now 18 frames, 0.3 seconds off of absolute perfection!"
Niftski also addressed his use of an emulator and keyboard, which is a legitimate method of speedrunning the game. "Emulation for this game is 100% accurate, which means that anything that can be done on an NES is possible on emulator," says Niftski. "Keyboard offers no advantage, and it is actually debatably worse for speedrunning this game. I use keyboard over controller for personal preference reasons, I have been playing games on keyboard since a little kid, and I have a very good feel for it compared to controller."
Of course, if anyone wants to doubt Niftski's incredible skill, take a look at his records and check yourself before you wreck yourself. This guy holds the #1 spot in the following Super Mario Bros. speedrunning categories: Any%, Glitchless, Warpless All-Stars, Warpless, Any% All-Stars, and Minus World Ending. Oh and he's the world record holder for The Lost Levels to boot. But a speedrunner's work is never done: "I will push this to 4:54.4xx and lower in the near future," says Niftski, "but for now, I am very satisfied with this run!"
This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen, with the dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place. — Read the rest
A 2,500-year-old Chinese sword discovered in 1965 remains razor-sharp and pristine today, seemingly defying the natural laws of decay that typically ravage ancient bronze weapons.
The Sword of Goujian, named after a legendary Chinese king, emerged from a waterlogged tomb in China's Hubei Province looking as lethal as the day it was crafted. — Read the rest
Sweden has broken ground on its ambitious $11 billion nuclear waste repository, where highly radioactive material will rest in an underground maze of tunnels stretching 60 kilometers — longer than the New York City subway's longest line. The sprawling network, which resembles an elaborate waterpark park design minus the fun, will take a decade to build before accepting its first radioactive deposits. — Read the rest
A decade ago, I had the privilege of attending and reporting from COP21 in Paris—the year of the so-called "Paris Agreement" was put into place. As I wrote at the time:
We know the overall climate is warming and we need to stop it before it gets worse.
Purchase an annual membership (base rate) to Tom the Dancing Bug's Inner Hive, and that amount will be donated to the California Community Foundation's Wildfire Recovery fund to help victims and communities recover froM the devastating Los Angeles fires. Members of the Inner Hive get each week's Tom the Dancing Bug comic emailed to them at least a day before publication, plus extra comics, commentary, exclusive info, etc. — Read the rest
I wasted more time than you know pursuing that city park proposal which was less a proposal and more a fait accompli. I had prepared a brief statement which I did not present and would have been inappropriate if I had — this city council meeting was more about where they should implement their expanded park proposal, not how. One of the things I wish the many, many people who spoke at that meeting had learned was to be brief and on point, and I wasn’t going to bring up an issue that was not under consideration.
I had my own petty concerns.
I’m going to speak for the bugs, as unpopular as they usually are.
If you get down on your hands and knees with a handlens in the park and look carefully in the grass, you’ll find a flourishing population of springtails and ants and isopods and beetles, all tending to the soil and bothering no humans at all. The soil is alive, and the biological elements are working to maintain it to our benefit — new grass is always pushing up and the detritovores are actively cleaning up any dead material. The natural surface is a familiar and safe substrate for children, too, with dirt and grass providing a comfortable cushion for play.
Landscape Structures Inc. intends to replace that living surface with dead asphalt and dead poured-in-place synthetic rubber sheets. I had to look up this stuff: it’s called EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer), made from processed recycled plastics and rubber. It’s mostly safe — you can read the material safety data sheet . There is a very small cancer hazard which can be regarded as negligible, since the polymer is so stable that the dangerous compounds are unlikely to be released. It is however toxic to aquatic organisms, since water runoff can carry the material into the groundwater. So maybe not as stable as we’d like to imagine?
I don’t think toxicity is a serious concern. I’m more concerned that we’d be replacing a living surface with dead , sterile plastic that will gradually decay, and need regular maintenance and eventual replacement. In the world we’d be making with this playground, falling leaves and twigs are a damaging contaminant rather than an aspect of a healthy environment.
Do we need to pave over more of the park? Don’t we have enough plastic in our environment?
As it turns out, that was all totally irrelevant anyway, since the city had already signed contracts with Landscape Structures, Inc.
The theme of this park is supposed to be a celebration of agriculture. Perhaps our farmers will start raising a rich crop of ethylene propylene diene monomer? It’s the future, you know.
A frankly absurd Magic The Gathering collection has been put on-sale, but us mere peasants need not apply. Listed as "1st Edition Magic The Gathering Artist Proof Set" the first line of the seller's description kind of says it all: "This is not a joke."
The lot consists of 302 cards that are all first edition artist's proofs. An artist's proof is a card from a limited print run that takes place before any larger commercial print run, which allows the artist to check their work and make changes before committing to the card's final look. "Some call them beta APs," says seller TheLotusVale. "This set took about 20 years to build. Luckily, I started back before they became super hard to find."
280 of the 302 cards have a glossy back and the remaining 22 have a matte back: The latter should apparently be considered "placeholders until you find a glossy back AP, if any still exist." A single first edition artist's proof card with the glossy back would be worth a pretty penny, but this set is somehow even more special than that.
"All cards are signed by the original artist," says the seller. "Additionally, all cards include recreation art, by the original artist, with 11 exceptions." These 11 cards come alongside a second, unsigned card which has recreation art by another Magic The Gathering artist, with a particularly notable example being the Black Lotus, for which "the set includes a Blacker Lotus AP with a sketch on the back done by Chris [Rush]."
Christopher Rush was an illustrator who died in 2016, and responsible for much of the early MTG artwork, including the Black Lotus. Of the other 10 cards, several were originally illustrated by Quinton Hoover, one of the key artists from MTG's beginnings, who died in 2013. The artists chosen to do the recreation art for these cards, says the seller, were chosen "because they were among the original MTG contributors, they knew Quinton personally, and they were not artists represented in this first edition set. As part of this effort, I requested that they each hide a 'Q' somewhere in the art, and they all did. Some a little too well. One actually requires a black light to see."
As if this all wasn't enough, there's more on the Black Lotus. The Black Lotus is the Holy Grail for MTG collectors, a card so incredibly rare and sought-after that one in mint condition went for $3 million last year. The current asking price for this set is $2.2 million, but this Black Lotus may be even more special.
"As for the Black Lotus, you'll notice that it is also numbered," explains the seller. "This makes it among the rarest of the Lotuses. Chris only numbered eight. The others he either just signed or left blank. This Lotus AP is not comparable to other non-numbered examples. It is the best of the best."
The seller says they'll consider separating out the Lotus, but otherwise the whole thing has to go as a set. This is a truly amazing collection ("and the pictures don't do it justice") which was "very expensive" to assemble, "but it was also an amazing journey. I met collectors from around the world, and I got to work with all these amazing artists. For the connections I've made with these two groups of people, I will be forever grateful."
If you have any love for MTG, then just spend a few minutes salivating over the listing's pictures. I've seen rare Magic cards over the years, but never such an outstandingly comprehensive and lovingly assembled collection that boasts so many unique elements: And with some of the original artists now dead, it is impossible for parts of this to be replicated. I don't have $2.2 million but, if I did, I wouldn't have it for very long.
Support your friendly neighborhood independent comic strip. SIGN UP FOR THE INNER HIVE and you'll get each week's Tom the Dancing Bug comic at least a day before publication. Plus other exclusive content like extra comics, commentary, juicy gossip, puzzles, recipes, secret background stories, and coded instructions from the underground resistance. — Read the rest
Someone at an old job asked why I wanted to write up the meeting minutes for our team and I said ‘i wanna control the narrative’ and they were like 'what’ and I pointed out that no one was gonna remember what we said in six months and so my interpretation of the meeting would dictate the assumed reality of what happened
“none of you ever send corrections when I offer the draft so y'all have consented to my version”
“we don’t read that shit”
“you must trust me implicitly to create our shared reality that’s so sweet”
That’s how several coworkers decided I was a supervillain and how I learned several coworkers didn’t understand record keeping as like a CONCEPT
Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ), a yearly speedrunning event raising money for the Prevent Cancer foundation, is ringing in the new year January 5. In case you're unfamiliar, AGDQ is a yearly charity event that sees speedrunners chewing through a buffet of games, streamed live to an eager audience.
The event's just released its schedule for 2025, and it's a doozy. Big-ticket games like Portal 2, Skyrim, and Super Mario 64 (which is a huge game in the speedrunning community, I've peered into that particular abyss) will of course be making their appearances, but I'm personally here for the challenge runs, baby!
DrDoot will take centre-stage with jazz powers befitting an Elden Lord, dooting through a boss showcase on January 11, 3:50 pm EST—just before that, there'll also be a "lockout bingo" run at 1:30 pm EST between adef and Captain_Domo. In case you're uninitiated, lockout bingo is a competitive format in which two players try to get lines on a bingo board full of tasks—twist being, they're sharing the same board. Sort of like a version of Noughts & Crosses, only designed by gamer SAW. It should be delightful.
But that's not even the tip of the iceberg. On January 6 at 7:40 pm EST, Player5 and MikeysGone will be trying to complete Breath of the Wild while sharing the same controller. Crazy Taxi will be played with a live accompanying band on January 11 at 4:20 pm EST, and love will be in the air when Fallout: New Vegas arrives on January 8 at 8pm EST in an "All Romances" speedrun.
I had no idea this category existed, but I'm excited to see how quickly you can make Benny go from shooting you to showing you "the tops", whatever that means. I have also discovered, through looking at these 'romance' options, that you can sleep with a robot called "Fisto" in Fallout: New Vegas. I had to learn this information, now you do too.
There'll also be the "awful runs", an entire, hellish block from January 8, 11:20 pm EST to January 9, 6 am EST that will feature—charitably—some of the worst games ever made. Superman 64, Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, and something called 'Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon' will be streamed to the internet alongside many others, so we can all be both proud and ashamed of our hobby's shared cultural history. At least Plumbers Don't Wear Ties isn't there.
AGDQ kicks off properly on Sunday, January 5, at 11:30 am EST, and runs until January 11/12 (the finale runs about 15 minutes past midnight). You can watch it on the GamesDoneQuick Twitch channel.
Accidentally drop it off a bridge when you drive over one. Saved you the click-through.
What happens if you find a police surveillance device attached to your car? Attorney Andrew Flusche reviews four cases and offers advice on what you should do.
In 2010, Yasir Aifi discovered a GPS tracking device under his car during a mechanic visit, which Reddit users identified as a Guardian ST820 unit after his friend posted a photo online. — Read the rest
While billionaires stash fortunes in offshore havens, the IRS is targeting gig workers who make a few bucks answering questions on a platform where people earn side income by sharing expertise.
A federal court in California has authorized the IRS to demand records from JustAnswer. — Read the rest
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