Macleanmeister

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A ‘no spoilers’ explanation of why you must play this masterpiece

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is campaigning with Bernie Sanders in Iowa, generally considered a conservative, red-state kind of place -- so much so that Iowa GOP operators made a series of public predictions that she would be laughed out of the state. The state party chairman Jeff Kaufmann called her "Doctor Ocasio-Cortez" and Sanders "Crazy Bernie": "She’s got a problem with our cows here!" while Iowa Senator Joni Ernst predicted that the pair would be booed offstage.

Instead, AOC and Sanders played to packed houses who cheered them on as they held a three-hour climate summit, with a panel featuring Sunrise Movement organizer Zina Precht-Rodriguez, and Naomi Klein, whose Leap Manifesto was the precursor to the Green New Deal. The panelists focused on the threats to agriculture from climate change and discussed how a just climate transition would protect small farmers and other workers who had seen their share of the profits from their labor fall even as the wealthy bosses, monopolists and middlemen waxed fat enough that they could peel off vast fortunes to sow expensive doubt about climate change and still retain enough cash to get unimaginably wealthy.

It turns out that the 99% of Iowa are just like the 99% of everyone: increasingly aware that they have been turkeys that were duped into voting for Christmas, and increasingly aware that the farmer is out there sharpening the axe.

Ocasio-Cortez also just happens to be uncommonly good at this, adept at inverting the arguments that have traditionally been wielded against people with politics like hers. “When it comes to a Green New Deal people say—always, always, always with this question of ‘how are you going to pay for it?’” she said. “As if we’re not paying for it now.” She rattled off a list of recent, headline-grabbing shocks—the California wildfires, Hurricane Maria, decreasing crop yields.

“Coal miners are being denied their pensions while coal barons are being bailed out by the federal government,” she said. The message of Bernie 2020 is that you’re already paying for it.

Later that day, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders spoke to a crowd of a few thousand at a field house in Coralville, near the University of Iowa campus. Sanders gear was in abundance, but he wasn’t the main draw for everyone. Caleigh Stanier, a high school junior, told me she came for Ocasio-Cortez, not Sanders.

Turns Out, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Huge in Iowa [Tim Murphy/Mother Jones]

(via /r/latestagecapitalism)

(Image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA, modified; Dimitri Rodriguez, CC BY, modified; Molly Crabapple, modified)

Court documents unsealed in New York on Friday provide the first detailed look at how Jeffrey Epstein operated what appears to be a vast global sex trafficking racket with the help of alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell, “and a number of other powerful business and world leaders,” reports the Miami Herald.

The documents released Friday are part of thousands of pages in a 2015 federal defamation case involving one of Epstein's victims. The contents are graphic and disturbing, with details on how Epstein and accomplices trafficked teen girls mostly from the U.S. Russia and Sweden.

They also detail Ghislaine Maxwell’s role as a co-abuser, and very effective recruiter of vulnerable girls.

One accuser said a court deposition that Maxwell “recruited her under the guise of a legitimate assistant position, but asked her to perform sexual massages for Epstein, and punished her when she didn’t cause Epstein to orgasm”.

Another deposed person “testified that [Maxwell] contacted him to recruit high school-aged girls for Epstein, and also testified that Maxwell and Epstein participated in multiple threesomes with Virginia Giuffre”.

A man working as Epstein's butler “witnessed, firsthand, a 15-year-old Swedish girl crying and shaking because [Maxwell] was attempting to force her to have sex with Epstein and she refused”, the court documents claim.

The 15-year-old girl said Maxwell “tried to force her to have sex with Epstein through threats and stealing her passport”.

From the indefatigable Julie K. Brown, without whom Jeffrey Epstein would not be in jail today:

Some of the testimony is difficult to read, as when one 15-year-old Swedish girl, shaking and crying in despair, tells a butler who worked for one of Epstein’s closest friends that she had been taken to Epstein’s island in the Caribbean and forced to have sex with him and others. The butler relates the story under oath. The girl, visibly traumatized, told the houseman who worked for Eva Dubin, a former Miss Sweden and founder of the Dubin Breast Center at Mount Sinai, and her husband, prominent hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, that Epstein and Maxwell had physically threatened to harm her and seized her passport to keep her on the island, according to the butler’s statement. She was so distraught she couldn’t recall how she got back to the U.S. mainland, but the butler testified that Maxwell brought her to the Dubin residence.

The cache of court documents, part of the case’s motion for summary judgment, also shows in 2006, when the Palm Beach police were first investigating Epstein, he was being assisted by Maxwell as part of a pyramid-like scheme the pair operated to lure young girls from around Palm Beach, focusing on schools, colleges and spas.

Palm Beach Detective Joe Recarey testified in the case that he was never able to question Maxwell, but the fact that the police had evidence of Maxwell’s involvement raises new questions about why the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Florida failed to pursue sex trafficking charges against Epstein, Maxwell and others.

Famed attorney David Boies, who represents one of Epstein's victims, said “there is nothing in the Maxwell case that showed any wrongdoing by Clinton, Gore or Trump,” reports the Miami Herald.

But plenty of people knew what was going on, says Boies.

Huge record cache details how Jeffrey Epstein, madam lured girls into depraved world

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Ubisoft’s space opera Starlink: Battle For Atlas is a series of gorgeous alien worlds, a light story and a ton of repetitive filler. The game’s big holiday update, which launched shortly before Christmas, adds even more repetitive filler, which is not fun at all.

I was super excited when Ubisoft announced Starlink’s free holiday update, outlining what seemed like a slew of exciting new activities. New alien animals to catalog, high tech outlaw encounters, fresh enemy creatures and constructs to take on—it could have been exactly what players like me who’ve burnt out on the samey post-game grind were waiting for.

But no. Each of the new activities added to the game are novel two or three times. Then they take their place among the rest of the repetitive tasks, turning what should be an exciting trek among the stars into mundane drudgery.

Take the new Obelisks, for example. These tower-like fortifications appear around Imp hives. The Obelisks fire beams of light at players and can only be stopped by using a spaceship’s tractor beam to pluck out their cores. There’s no real challenge to it. It’s just an extra step to taking down an Imp hive, an activity existing players have already repeated ad nauseam while playing through the game proper.

Then there are the new Outlaw encounters. Atlas’ resident purple space pirates have some new technology guarding their bases: missile turrets that can only be destroyed once players use their shields to reflect projectiles back at them. It’s nteresting the first couple of times and a good use of the shield, which didn’t get much love in the core game. But eventually they’re just another rote thing to do.

The new creatures and content in Starlink make me wish I’d waited until after the update arrived to play the game in the first place. Then things like roaming sandworms and exploding, damage-absorbing orbs would have been part of the adventure from the beginning and might feel like they were part of the main story adventure all along.

But I finished the story way back when I reviewed the game, so all of the update content feels either tacked on or worse—as if it should have been in the game in the first place.

Speaking of things that should have been in the game from the start but never seem to show up at launch, the update does give Starlink: Battle for Atlas an excellent photo mode. Considering how good plain screenshots looked prior to the update, being able to apply filters and compose shots is luxurious.

There’s still room in Starlink for fresh story content. That’s what the game needs. More character and heart, less busywork.

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Seems a good price for this and gets good reviews as well. Collect the promotion underneath the price to get it for £14.99 and its giving the option for free de...

Microsoft (Microsoft Store)
New month, new games. The line up looks fantastic :)

Anybody looking for a Game Pass subscription can pick up 12 months from

Google will start showing ads for addiction treatment centers again nearly a year after pulling them down in the US, now that it has vetted and verified almost 100 facilities. If you'll recall, the tech giant banned those types of ads in the US late...

Illinois lawmakers have want to end inmates' co-payments of $5 for each prison doctor visit -- the equivalent of a month's wages in the prison's $0.05/hour and under workshops; in Oregon, they're contemplating creating a $3-5/visit co-pay. (more…)

A successor of sorts to the brilliant Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Rogue was somewhat overlooked when it was released back in 2014. In that difficult 'cross-gen' period, Rogue was designed to take care of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners, but the key focus for the series was the technologically ambitious, but ultimately flawed, Assassin's Creed Unity - Ubisoft's series debut for PS4 and Xbox One. Rogue didn't really deserve its second tier status - it was a great game with a lot of visual highlights and with the release of this week's remaster, the game gets a second chance to shine.

Of course, the key question is straightforward enough: to what extent has the game actually been remastered? Ubisoft's PR describes 'enhanced graphics with improved environment rendering, upscaled shadow resolution, denser crowds and more'. Certainly, after playing the opening hours on PS4, Xbox One, and the two enhanced consoles, it's true that it's not a simple res bump. Let's not forget that Rogue has close ties to Black Flag, a cross-gen game that did receive PS4 and Xbox One upgrades - all of which are present and correct in this Rogue remaster.

However, there is evidence that Ubisoft has pushed the Black Flag engine on. To begin with, both the standard PS4 and Xbox One consoles run at 1080p resolution (up against Black Flag's 900p on the Microsoft console). The only aspect to distinguish the two is in anti-aliasing quality, where the base Xbox One pushes a rougher looking frame, despite the shared pixel count. It's a similar situation on the enhanced machines; both Xbox One X and PS4 Pro deliver native 4K - a 4x resolution bump over the base models, but with the X model producing slightly rawer edges by comparison. In all cases, the improvement in image quality over the last-gen versions is tangible, especially going from Xbox 360's circa 1200x688.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR5WT12B_88

Fidget spinners are wonderful. (more…)

Hang around libertarians long enough and eventually one of them will start talking about "public choice theory" (I last heard it raised by a prominent libertarian scholar to justify corporations imposing adhesion contracts on their customers to force them to buy expensive consumables and service). It's a kind of catch-all theory that can handwave away any negative outcome from unregulated capitalism, the "freedom" of which is key to a kind of libertarian thought, above freedoms like "the freedom not to starve to death". (more…)

Now available from the estore on your device for £15.
Seems a reasonable price for a recent release.

Seems like it should be fun and also suppor...

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Thanks to a big row of west-facing windows, my apartment can get really hot in the afternoon. And since I don’t have a ceiling fan, I was looking for a tower fan that would help me cool down without needing to run my air conditioner all the time. I randomly bought a Vornado tower fan at Target and I’m so glad I did. The basic idea of the Vornado brand is that their fans circulate air throughout the room rather than just blowing it in one direction (like a traditional fan) or providing intermittent bursts of air in different directions (like an oscillating fan). I was worried that was all just marketing jargon, but I’ve found the design actually works really well. In fact, the fan creates a far wider range of air circulation than I was expecting.

I wound up purchasing two different models, the NGT335 33” Whole Room Tower Circulator ($99.99) and the Model 143 29” Tower Circulator ($79.99). The NGT335 has a wider range and a bit more power and, in my opinion, is absolutely worth the extra $20. The Model 143, however, also gets the job done just fine. Both fans come with remotes and have timer features in case you don’t want to leave them running all day/night.

As far as tower fans go, both models are pretty elegant and discrete. They aren’t invisible by any means, but they also don’t look out of place sitting in a corner of my living room. And since they don’t rotate, neither draws the eye the way an oscillating fan might. The NGT335 is a little bigger and bulkier while the Model 143 is slightly sleeker. However, because the Model 143 works on a curved pattern, you might have to get a little creative in terms of where you place it in your room in order to ensure the air blows where you want it to.

Really the only downside I’ve found so far is that the fans can be a bit noisy on their highest settings. On their lowest settings, however, they’re both essentially silent. And, to be honest, when it’s sweltering outside I don’t mind a little extra noise so long as I can stay cool. Admittedly, I’ve only been using these fans for a few weeks so I can’t speak to their longevity. But so far I’ve been absolutely thrilled with the purchase. If you’re looking to stay cool this summer, the Vornado brand is definitely an option to consider. And a few years ago Boing Boing also praised the company’s small air circulators as well.

[Note: This is not a sponsored post. I purchased both of these Vornado fans with my own money and just happened to really like them.]

Nintendo just revealed its E3 plans, which are similar to years past. On June 13 at 9am PT, there will be a Nintendo Spotlight presentation for Switch games, including Super Mario Odyssey. That will be followed by a Treehouse Live event. 

2D fighting games are a very video game kinda thing, but where there’s a will, there’s a Way of the Fighter, an upcoming board game that tries to replicate the digital genre on a tabletop.

It looks like a pretty decent attempt at an adaptation. There’s a stage that players move back and forwards across, you can equip moves and skillsets onto characters, there’s initiative and even the art is suitably fighting gamey.

Oh, and there are a lot of dice.

The game is currently up on Kickstarter, but if you really want to see how it all works (beyond the video below), you can download a prototype version of the game here, print it out and try it yourself.

UPDATE: If you’d like to take a look at some games like this that already exist, you can try BattleCON (or this fan-made Smash Bros. mod for it).

Hackers and tinkerers rejoice! There's another single-board computer for you to build your next project with. The Onion Omega2 is a full-fledged Linux computer that you can buy for $5 (about £4, AU$7).

But what would you even do with a computer like this? Onion positions the Omega2 as an computer for the internet of things (IoT), meaning you can turn just about anything into an internet connected device.

Want create your own retro games console, network attached storage or security camera? You can do that, and much more, with microcomputers like the Omega2 and Raspberry Pi.

Kickstarting the IoT

The Omega2 works just like the Raspberry Pi, another $5 microcomputer, but differs in a few ways. First off, it's about a quarter of the size of the Raspberry Pi, making it easier to fit in tight spaces. It also has built-in Wi-Fi (the Pi needs an add-on) and a simplified Linux-based operating system.

The Raspberry Pi does have the Omega2 beat in performance though. The Pi Zero features a 1 GHz CPU, and 512 MB of RAM. The Omega2 features a 580 MHz processor, 64MB of RAM and 16MB of storage. You'll have to pick which one's better suited for your project.

The Onion Omega2 is on Kickstarter right now where you can sign up to receive the computers around November 2016. There are options to purchase $15 (about £12, AU$20) docks that give the Omega2 some expansion slots to work with accessories, like for power and storage.

These tiny computers aren't meant for mere mortals, but if you love programming and tinkering, the Omega2 could be a great computer to add to your arsenal of internet connected devices.

Via: TechCrunch

Top image credit: Onion | Kickstarter

Found by R9O2g1e9r

Thanks to haigythescotsman *********************************** What’s always in your luggage? Tell us for a chance to win 1 of 2 Eurocamp family holidays Shreddies Competition Week 3 (of 4) Why not try winning a European holiday for 2015? Tell us what’s always in your luggage for your chance to win 1 of 2 7 night family holidays with Eurocamp. UK residents over 18 can enter by commenting on this post, telling us what’s always in your luggage by 5pm on Friday 26th September. Only one entry per person. Normal exclusions apply. The winner of each holiday will be randomly selected and announced on Monday 29th September. Terms and conditions apply http://****/NMeS70. Holiday must be booked by 31/12/14 and taken by 31/10/15.

Found by teh arn

"This excellent 18 year old single malt from Glenlivet is a classic Speyside dram, it also won two golds at the International Wine and Spirits Competition." Tasting Note by The Chaps at Master of Malt: The nose is quite big and well-rounded. There are notes of chewy sultanas and sherried peels, barley sugars and toasty cereals with petals and apple blossom. A touch of fudge and gentle wisps of smoke. The palate is full and rich with notes of chewy, tannic oak. Manuka honey and walnut with Cox’s apples and orange peels. Cut herbs; fennel and spearmint. The finish is long and dry with a spicy oak note