Bewarethewumpus

Gregory S. Aldrete, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, explained through vivid whiteboard illustration by AfterSkool, how every society seems to follow Anacyclosis, an endless social cycle of governance that explains the sudden rise and spectacular failure of tyrants, which leads to an urgent democratic rebirth.

Is every civilization doomed to rise, but then  inevitably fall? Is there some ideal form of government that will allow a civilization to avoid collapse? How can we explain why some civilizations flourish and expand While others stagnate or are easily conquered?  These are vital questions that humans have  pondered for thousands of years and they remain urgently relevant today.

Anacyclosis, which was conceived by Greek historian Polybius during the middle Hellenistic period, describes how society follows a simple cycle in which the three basic forms of government: democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy, give rise to their degenerate counterparts of mob rule, oligarchy, and tyranny/demagogy before the cycle starts up again.

Political power rests in the hands of the people equality and freedom of speech typically form two of the cornerstones of democracies for a time there is harmony and prosperity, but soon corruption again creeps in. Later generations who have grown up always enjoying freedom of speech and equality begin to take these rights  for granted and no longer guard or value them. Greed leads to inequality and affluence fosters a sense of entitlement. Both create resentment among the populace. Deceitful and shameless leaders arise who play upon these feelings by making extravagant  promises vowing to shower the people with gifts but in reality these men are only concerned with increasing their own power.

Yet, Aldrete, who greatly is informed by history, reassures that this too shall pass and the cycle will repeat itself again.

Remember it’s easier to make sense of the present if you know about the past

History repeats itself in Rogue Point, the new "roguelite tactical co-op shooter" for up to four players from Black Mesa creators Crowbar Collective, narratively at least: Alexander the Great is dead, and in the wake of his passing a coterie of generals and familial dynasties go to war to claim his power for themselves.

Alexander, as depicted in Rogue Point, is in fact "the CEO," the unnamed richest man in the world, and the pretenders to his throne are the "cutthroat conglomerates" who wage their Diadochi Wars in the most 21st century fashion possible: Via the MERX app, which enables them to "order private mercenary armies as easily as ordering takeout."

You are not actually one of the "Merx" in this scenario, but rather an "elite independent vigilante squad" determined to end the corporate wars by declaring war on the corporations. A little counterintuitive there, but if you want peace you have to justify the means, or something like that.

Anyway, as one of the not-Merx you'll square off against multiple classes of enemies, each presenting a "unique threat" in missions set across four separate locales: The airport, mall, office, and oil rig. That's not a huge variety of environments in which to run and gun, but this is where one of Rogue Point's roguelite aspects kicks in: "Each sprawling map is reshaped by the game's Parametric Design System, offering new strategies and challenges with every play," the Steam page states. "The constantly evolving gameplay ensures every mission feels as thrilling and unique as your first, keeping the excitement alive in every campaign."

There looks to be a strong element of Rainbow Six to Rogue Point, as each mission begins with a planning and loadout stage, and it's "purpose-built to reinforce teamplay" rather than just four guys running around blasting the hell out of everything that moves—although how that works out in practice, we will have to wait and see. Players will unlock weapons, cosmetics, and campaign modifiers enabling them to build unique loadouts for each mission, all of them leading into "the ultra-hard Endgame Mission," which I have to imagine will have a new and better name by the time Rogue Point launches.

Unlike Rainbow Six—Rainbow Six Siege, anyway—Rogue Point will not support PvP gameplay. "The core of the game is in PVE and that is what we want to focus on," Crowbar Collective said. "We will keep an eye on community feedback, but we think that type of experience can already be found elsewhere."

"We cannot wait to go in depth about the game, and everything we learned while creating a new IP (as well as turning Crowbar Collective into a full time development studio)," CEO and Project Lead Adam Engels said. "Just like Black Mesa, we want to heavily involve the community in our development and updates. Our community was critical in the Early Access of Black Mesa and having [publisher] Team 17 as a partner for Rogue Point helps us focus on development and community feedback."

A release date for Rogue Point hasn't been announced but it's expected to be out sometime in 2025, initially in early access. Pricing also hasn't been revealed, but it will apparently be a buy-to-play game: Crowbar Collective said it currently has no plans for in-game purchases.

Look, I don't ask for much in life. I'm the sort of person that's quite happy with a little house in the suburbs, a brilliant gaming PC, and the odd cold pint of beer. But if someone, anyone, is looking to buy me a luxury holiday gift this year, I'd like to add one large item to my wishlist.

Wayne Enterprises Experience is offering ten honest-to-goodness Batmobiles for pre-order, built by Action Vehicle Engineering, and I'll be honest with you here, it's the thing my heart desires most in life (via The Register). While the Nolan Batman films varied in quality, one thing I think we can all agree on is "The Tumbler" Batmobile design was cool as hell—and now it looks to be a reality, I'd be a fool not to put my hand up for one.

All you'd need to spend is a mere $2.9 million dollars. I know that's not exactly chump change, but look what's being offered for the money: It's powered by a 6.2L LS3 525 HP V8 engine, features a paddle-shift transmission, and includes "advanced software upgrades" (whatever that means), a smoke-screen delivery system, and imitation gun turrets. Be still, my ever-aging heart.

The weight is estimated to be 5,511 lbs (1,387 lbs less than a top-spec Cybertruck, I hasten to add), and it's made of a combination of kevlar, carbon fibre and fibreglass with an aeronautical-grade steel frame. Plus it's got disc brakes all-round—which is the sort of detail I love added to the spec sheet of a Batmobile. What else was it supposed to have, drum brakes? A boat anchor? Anyway, let's continue.

I haven't even got to the interior yet, which is described as "authentic...with bespoke seating trim" and features a digital dashboard, "premium GPS", one-way mirrored glass screens and a two-seat configuration. It's only available in left hand drive though, which is a bit of a downer for someone living in the UK, but I think it matters not. 

Those huge wheels should have no problem running over the top of cars ahead of me, and if I owned one of these I would make it my business to ensure I became the biggest traffic violation possible. Yes, it's very unlikely to meet road safety standards, err, anywhere, but who's realistically going to pull over Batman?

Everyone knows he's out there fighting for justice, so I think we can all agree we should let the man continue on his path of morally dubious destruction.

My only slight hesitation (ok, perhaps it's a large hesitation) is that all this seems a little bit too good to be true. I can't quite shake the feeling that the end result might not live up to expectations when it's eventually heaved off the back of a truck onto your front lawn.

Oh, and it doesn't shoot flames. But hey, in this one specific instance I'll put aside my hard-hewn scepticism and take a punt. All I need is the cash. So again, friends, relatives, oligarchs, should you be reading, sign me up now. I promise I'll never ask for anything ever again.

liberalsarecool:

No one has ever been harassed by a trans female. No one.

Republicans and fascist oligarchs bankrolled an entire made-up scenario and exploited MAGA lizard brains.

Webfishing, the delightful $5 chat room fishing game released last month, includes a selection of cosmetic titles you can collect to display to other players below your username. Many are goofs, like Little Lad or Shithead. Others, like the Gay, Ace, Bi, and Trans titles, offer players a chance to express their sexuality or gender identity.

One keen intellectual on the Steam discussion forums, however, noticed the lack of a title for straight people and felt compelled to raise the issue (via Rock Paper Shotgun). At time of writing, it's unclear whether they'd noticed the vast majority of other human media that assumes a default straight perspective. Easy to miss, but as a straight guy, I promise you: We're doing fine on that front.

And yet, not everyone can read the room well enough that they don't need to wonder why an indie game featuring a bunch of anthropomorphic cats and dogs might not be centering the straight experience. It's a skill you develop, I guess. Despite the goofus behavior, however, Webfishing developer lamedeveloper was—as a sign of benevolence—receptive to the suggestion.

As part of its 1.09 Housecleaning Update, Webfishing now offers the "Straight" title. It costs 9,999 in-game dollars. For comparison, other purchasable titles cost $75. I'll also note that it's the only orientation-oriented title with quotation marks. Pretty good bit.

The Housecleaning update's other additions include bug and performance fixes, balance adjustments, a Hand Labeler for renaming items, and a Non-Binary shirt and title. There's also this note:

• Added the ???????? which is accessed through the ???? ?????? and ??? ????????. Yeah.

Seems fine. Personally, I'm feeling an affinity with the new Creature title. I'll probably pick that up the next time I'm in the mood for a Webfishing fix.

Because that original thread's been locked, we can only wonder whether the original complainant is content with the added straight representation. If not, there's always, you know, almost every other videogame.

Cybertruck owners are finding out that stainless steel doors will rust and corrode if they are not painstakingly maintained.

A Cybertruck owner who put advertising magnets on his ugly truck found they had caused the body panels to rust. — Read the rest

The post Decorative magnets corrode Cybertruck panels appeared first on Boing Boing.

m1dori-eyes:

unusual-pybro:

lumsel:

There’s an open pit in the middle of our office plan that drops down into a bunch of very sharp spikes that kill you instantly. This is bad. People keep falling in there and dying. Someone put a sign up, the other day, all bright yellow so you can’t miss it, that says “Beware!!! Spikes!!!”

The office immediately split into two factions over it. One says that if anyone falls in the spike pit it’s their own fault for being so stupid and not watching where they’re walking, so we should remove the sign. The other says that the sign is an insult, there shouldn’t be a spike pit in our office at all, and having the sign up like that is just normalising the existence of the spike pit, so we should remove the sign.

We ended up removing the sign. Probably for the better. Still… for a while there it looked like it might have worked…

Nobody has ever been capable of writing a scathingly harsh and well formulated satire about the perils of modern capitalism, that doesn’t just get immediately one-upped by some random food service worker talking about their actual week.

myrandomstuffpage:

depsidase:

Holy shit, that might just be the most accurate description of the USA I’ve ever heard.

Where is Half-Life 3? It's been a joke in the gaming community for years, and for good reason – and no, Half-Life: Alyx doesn't count. Today, on the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2… well, Half-Life 3 wasn't announced, but it's something almost as cool. — Read the rest

The post Half-Life 2 remaster drops; no word on Half-Life 3 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Whoever the next editor-in-chief of Scientific American turns out to be, they would be well-advised to make sure their criticisms of MAGA supporters aren't too spicy. Laura Helmuth resigned Thursday after posting, then deleting a furious rant about the "meanest, dumbest, most bigoted" voters and "fascists" who turned the White House over to right-wingers and conspiracy theorists. — Read the rest

The post Scientific American editor-in-chief out after posting anti-MAGA rant appeared first on Boing Boing.

Gamers, claimed by mainstream media to have broken hard to the right in last week's presidential elections, are now alarmed that the import tariffs proposed by their favored candidate will sail quickly into being with Republicans controlling the White House, both branches of Congress and the courts. — Read the rest

The post Gamers' faces among first to be eaten by leopard appeared first on Boing Boing.

comeguessmethisriddle:

well? can you?

my opinion of nge is as follows:

dr-dendritic-trees:

classicslesbianopinions:

thefibrarchaeologist:

mounmantaka:

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist:

shrewreadings:

blackcatphysics:

krakenartificer:

shadytail:

We also figured out—the hard way—that the ancients probably cut each layer of linen to the proper shape before gluing them together. For our first linothorax, we glued together 15 layers of linen to form a one centimeter-thick slab, and then tried to cut out the required shape. Large shears were defeated; bolt cutters failed. The only way we were ultimately able to cut the laminated linen slab was with an electric saw equipped with a blade for cutting metal. At least this confirmed our suspicion that linen armor would have been extremely tough. We also found out that linen stiffened with rabbit glue strikes dogs as in irresistibly tasty rabbit-flavored chew toy, and that our Labrador retriever should not be left alone with our research project.

I love this in every way possible. What is it from? Where can I read more?

The pitfalls of experimental archaeology and puppies.

link to source:

“Unraveling the Linothorax Mystery, or how Linen Armor Came to Dominate our Lives.”

https://jhupress.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/unraveling-the-linothorax-mystery-or-how-linen-armor-came-to-dominate-our-lives/

holy shit read the article. it’s short but wild

We found that even more of a threat than rain was one’s own sweat on a hot day. So, yes, it does need waterproofing, both inside and out. We did a number of experiments along those lines, and found that rubbing a block of beeswax over all sides of the armor provided nice waterproofing. It also makes the armor smell nice! When you wear it for a couple hours, your own body heat softens the glue a bit and makes it conform to your body shape, so it is much more comfortable to wear than rigid types of armor. Our reconstructions weighed about 10 pounds–about one third the weight of bronze armor that would provide the same degree of protection.

Honey i gotta go to war… not to smell my bee armor or hang with the boys or anything no.. uhh we need to uh do war things?

#i’ve definitely read this before and i’ve probably reblogged it before but like.#no one in this thread is mentioning that they actually shot someone with an actual arrow in this armor.#they were like ‘we’ve got to test this in practice’ and instead of getting a mannequin or something they had an actual person wear it.

They what?

from the article:

While all of this mayhem (both scientifically controlled and free-form) convinced us that our linothorax was ancient-battlefield-ready, we still felt compelled to try a real-life scenario, so Scott donned the armor and Greg shot him. And while we had confidence in our armor, our relief was still considerable when the arrowhead stuck and lodged in the armor’s outer layers, a safe distance away from flesh.

a good life-size mannequin is expensive but i guarantee it would’ve cost way less than they were spending on all that linen.

Academics are just like that.

Announcing the brand new Tom the Dancing Bug book: "IT'S THE GREAT STORM, TOM THE DANCING BUG!" collecting all Tom the Dancing Bug comics from 2020-2023 (and more!)! Now accepting orders right HERE! Get your personalized / signed / sketched / swagged copy while it's still legal to buy books that are critical of Trump! — Read the rest

The post Tom the Dancing Bug: One D-Day in Normandy appeared first on Boing Boing.

NASA's annual budget is $25.4bn. It generated $76bn of the U.S. economy last year, it claims. Clearly we are not giving NASA enough money!

NASA's latest economic impact report reveals that its activities contributed $75.6 billion to the U.S. economy in fiscal year 2023 — about three times the agency's budget for that year, which was $25.4 billion.

— Read the rest

The post NASA more than pays for itself, "generated $76bn" for U.S. economy last year appeared first on Boing Boing.

Republicans usually can't shut up about election interference so I don't understand why they are as silent as slugs about mail-in ballots that were destroyed by arson in Democrat-leaning Maricopa County, Arizona.

ABC 15 News in Phoenix reports that "An arrest has reportedly been made after a Phoenix United States Postal Service mailbox was believed to have been set on fire overnight, damaging a number of mailed-in ballots." — Read the rest

The post Mail ballots destroyed by arsonist in Democratic-leaning Arizona county appeared first on Boing Boing.

Actually, the classic YTP just turned 18.*

The first of what would become a popular meme trend got its start on this day.

The phrase is often used ironically to mock cannabis enthusiasts who identify themselves with the stoner subculture.

The Federal Trade Commission's rule prohibiting fake, paid-for or AI-generated reviews went into effect yesterday. The rule also bans business from making threats against people posting real reviews—a surprisingly common occurence.

"Fake reviews not only waste people's time and money, but also pollute the marketplace and divert business away from honest competitors," said FTC Chair Lina Khan. — Read the rest

The post Fake and fradulent online reviews now explicitly banned appeared first on Boing Boing.