Bewarethewumpus

"Probably the funniest table tennis match in history" (SLYT)

Danish design firm Monstrum (previously) continues to redefine the modern playscape, constructing numerous fantastical scenes for kids to climb on in locations around the world. Founded by Ole B. Nielsen and Christian Jensen, the award-winning firm has an extensive background in theatrical set design in theaters throughout Copenhagen that strongly influences their groundbreaking aesthetic. Each new playground becomes the backdrop for a dramatic scene, from towering robots to hoards of attacking insects. For their most recent creation in Moscow’s famous Gorky Park, Mostrum constructed a gargantuan octopus overtaking a huge oceanliner, complete with slides, cargo nets and climbing walls (shown above in subzero temperatures). See more recent work in their project portfolio.

Forming squads, gearing up and taking down zombies. That's what DayZ is all about, right? Well, not entirely. Falling off ladders, dying from rotten bananas and being chased by zombies that can walk through walls, while trying to find players nearby? That's more like it!

Here's an animated (and slightly NSFW) guide to DayZ from YouTuber Pyrion Flax that tells the truth.

Pyrion Flax's Guide to: DayZ [YouTube]

To contact the author of this post, write to: gergovas@kotaku.com

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

In the Rurouni Kenshin manga and anime, there's a reverse-blade sword called sakabato. An old, real-life version of this fictional sword was apparently discovered in Japan.

Last October, what's being compared to a real sakabato turned up in an old family storage cellar, located in Chiba Prefecture's Shiroi City, that dates from the Edo Period (1603 to 1868).

Asahi News reports that the entire weapon, which it's calling a "kogatana" (小刀) or "short katana," was covered in rust and measures 11 inches, with the blade measuring 8.6 inches. This reverse-blade, which is also covered with dragon engravings, is different from traditional Japanese swords.

For Japanese swords, the outside of the blade is sharpened. But, as this sword retailer explains, the fictional sakabato differs in that the inside of the blade is sharp and the outside of the blade is dull. Apparently, this makes the sword brutally deadly.

Here is a photo of the discovery:

Supposedly, there was a rare reverse-blade tanto (dagger) called a "kubikiri" or "head cutter." That blade, however, had no point—unlike this latest find. You can see a photo of it here.

The Asahi News report appears to indicate that the newly discovered short sword is different and even compares the short sword to Rurouni Kenshin's fictional blade.

While there are contemporary sakabato for collectors, there's no record of the sword actually appearing in Japanese history. Until now, it seems there's been no such record of a similar sword. Thus, that makes the discovery of what's apparently an actual reverse-blade all the more interesting.

The reverse-blade has been donated to the prefecture's cultural archive.

「るろうに剣心」でおなじみの刀、文化財に　千葉・白井 [Asahi News]

To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft.

Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Tycho: The two big stories right now, mainstream gaming ones, are stealth promotional campaigns on Youtube and the Candy Crush Saga saga. I’m not a frequent enough consumer of Let’s Play style content to even understand the first one, so I’m glad Ben can spend the time figuring that out.  I’m in the JPEG business; I get agitated when the pictures start to move, rub my chin, suspect grim sorcery.  But it is one thing to offer money, and another thing to take it; I do wonder why we reserve our approbation for the former.  But, whatever.  It’s hard…

'Charlotte's Web' strain of pot has parents moving to CO...


(Third column, 11th story, link)

---

Related stories:

Mother seeks medical marijuana for 3-year-old twins with rare disorder...
Lawmaker proposes marijuana exports to pay off Hawaii debt...

In this week’s episode of Cyanide and Happiness, Explosm takes us to a fantasyland where all the sad promises of our junk mails actually come true.

This week, Zero Punctuation reviews Rust, Starbound and 7 Days to Die.

kj askdjhdkjashdkasjdhaskdjh asdkjh asdkjhas dkjashdkajshda skjdh askjdh askdjhas kdjhasdkjhasdkjashdkasjhdask jdhask djahsdkjhasd kjahsdk ajsdhaswawavoiwaov iwofiawoiv awioalksjflaksjcjalkwocaiwvoawivoas asdkjhasdkjha sdkjhas djhsd akjdh

Serious post!

Tom Scott tells a (fictional!) tale of the day Google forgot to check passwords. A stock market crash, the end of privacy, no lasting harm, and, of course, butts to lol at. — Rob [Video Link]

In this video, we see how a mother dog teaches her pup how to walk down the stairs. First she lovingly demonstrates, then she provides watchful encouragement. The puppy is scared, but he does the job. That's a good dog! Then we are treated to a look at a cat teaching a kitten how to navigate down the stairs. Now you know the difference between cats and dogs. (via Daily Picks and Flicks)

Sales Stink: it's easy to think that sales are good for players, but what if they're not? What if waiting for sales affected the way players feel about purchases and actually lessened the amount of money devs make? The Castle Doctrine's Jason Rohrer explores these questions in a fascinating write-up here.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.

S

You won't see anime locations being remade in Minecraft often, especially not the vivid, colorful ones from Hayao Miyazaki's works. Maybe because it's not an easy task to remake something that's perfect. Yet here's Alan Becker with his Spirited Away project, ready to show us that it can be done.

One thing he did right is definitely the color palette. Check out his comparison pics below, including the Ghost Town, the Bath House or Zeniba's Cottage and you'll see:

Spirited Away in Minecraft [imgur]
Spirited Away Minecraft Recreation by Alan Becker

To contact the author of this post, write to: gergovas@kotaku.com

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.

S

When we first saw screens of Final Fantasy VI on mobile, I was a little worried. The sprites looked faded, as if they'd been accidentally thrown in a washing machine, and like the FFV port before it, the game had an amateur, RPG Makerish feel.

But who knew it would get this bad? Today Square released the Android version of the FFVI remake/port, and one Redditor has been posting screenshots and impressions throughout the day. While some of the new features seem pretty neat—like Sabin's Blitz feature on touch screen—the aesthetics are killing me. One of my favorite games now hurts to look at. This is an atrocity against my childhood.

I mean, look at that city in the screenshot above. They shrank a realistic-looking model of Figaro and slapped in on the world map, even though it looks nothing like the cartoony, washed-out Locke sprite standing next to it.

Compare to the original SNES version:

The dimensions might be askew, but at least everything fits. Locke seems like he belongs. Figaro Castle's world map landmark is an abstraction, but it feels like part of the world. It doesn't look like someone's half-assed sticker.

You know, some people might be okay with Locke's sprite there. Some RPG fans might not mind the visual update. But if you've played the SNES version of Final Fantasy VI—one of the best games of all time, I have to add—this shot might give you fits:

S

Sigh. These characters, once so interesting and animated, now look like they were drawn in MS Paint. And sure, we can ignore this mobile remake. We can pretend it doesn't exist. But it does, and it's painful to see that in 2014, this is how Square Enix treats one of its most beloved games.

Well at least maybe they got the script right...

...

...

At least we'll always have the SNES version, my friends. They can never take that one away from us.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.

The dance craze featured briefly in ASDFmovie is back with its own video.

"Tell them about the dream, Martin!"

Earlier this week, EFF published a scorecard for rating Obama's NSA reforms. Now that the reforms have been announced, it's time to measure them up. They don't fare well, I'm afraid. Here's a roundup of commentary from privacy leaders around the world, expressing disappointment (if not surprise) at Obama's half-hearted reining in of the surveillance state.

3. No data retention mandate.

Score: 0

Obama’s review group recommended that the telephone metadata surveillance program be taken away from the government, suggesting that a third party or even telecom companies themselves be responsible for maintaining a searchable list of our calling records. This approach—mandating companies act as Big Brother’s little helper—won’t alleviate the serious privacy concerns with maintaining a digital record of every call we make. We had hoped that Obama would make clear that he would reject any form of mandatory data retention. Instead, Obama acknowledged some of the concerns with a data retention mandate but called for “options for a new approach that can match the capabilities and fill the gaps that the Section 215 program was designed to address, without the government holding this metadata itself.” He never specifically rejected the idea of forcing companies or a third party to hold this data, and so he does not receive a point in this category.

...

5. Stop undermining Internet security.

Score: 0

The NSA’s systematic efforts to weaken and sabotage the encryption and security technology make us all less safe. But in contrast to his review group’s recommendations to stop those practices, Obama was silent on the issue. That silence is disappointing, as this is a critical problem that has not just undermined the privacy of millions around the world, but poisoned our collective trust in institutions that depend most on it. Zero points.

Rating Obama’s NSA Reform Plan: EFF Scorecard Explained

Matthew says: "A father in Kansas is outraged by a middle school sex-ed poster which lists ‘anal sex,’ and ‘sexual fantasy.'"

Gonna do some Star Trek comics this week I think. I’m full of Voyager eps and I need to release the spit valve, if you catch my drift.

The latest Snowden leak details DISHFIRE, a joint NSA/GCHQ program to slurp up hundreds of millions of SMS messages from global mobile phone users. Included in the program are text messages to and from Americans, though these are apparently subsequently purged. The UK spy agency GCHQ also makes extensive use of the database. Text messages are stored for long terms, so that spies can do historic lookups on people they target. The DISHFIRE database allows for full-text search.

Vodaphone expressed shock and outrage at the news that its customers' private messages were being harvested without a warrant or due process, characterising the program as outside the law.

“In contrast to [most] GCHQ equivalents, DISHFIRE contains a large volume of unselected SMS traffic,” it states (emphasis original). “This makes it particularly useful for the development of new targets, since it is possible to examine the content of messages sent months or even years before the target was known to be of interest.”

It later explains in plain terms how useful this capability can be. Comparing Dishfire favourably to a GCHQ counterpart which only collects against phone numbers that have specifically been targeted, it states “Dishfire collects pretty much everything it can, so you can see SMS from a selector which is not targeted”.

The document also states the database allows for broad, bulk searches of keywords which could result in a high number of hits, rather than just narrow searches against particular phone numbers: “It is also possible to search against the content in bulk (e.g. for a name or home telephone number) if the target’s mobile phone number is not known.”

Analysts are warned to be careful when searching content for terms relating to UK citizens or people currently residing in the UK, as these searches could be successful but would not be legal without a warrant or similar targeting authority.

However, a note from GCHQ’s operational legalities team, dated May 2008, states agents can search Dishfire for “events” data relating to UK numbers – who is contacting who, and when.

NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep [James Ball/The Guardian]

(Thanks, Sergei!)

Despite a series of disgraceful dirty tricks, the TSA has lost its case against Dr Rahinah Ibrahim, a Malaysian academic who had been wrongly put on the no-fly list. The DHS engaged in witness tampering (denying Dr Ibrahim and her witnesses access to the courtroom by putting them on the no-fly list) and argued that neither Dr Ibrahim nor her lawyers should be allowed to see the evidence against her (because terrorism).

Lowering the Bar does a great job of summing up the ruling, which held the no-fly list unconstitutional because citizens are "entitled to a remedy that requires the government to correct its lists and records... and to certify under oath that such correction(s) have been made."

* The plaintiff has standing to challenge the no-fly listing and practices, and all of the government's arguments to the contrary are overruled.

* Once a plaintiff shows "concrete, reviewable adverse government action" (i.e. not being allowed to fly) has resulted from a government error, she is entitled to a remedy that requires the government to correct its lists and records "and to certify under oath that such correction(s) have been made."

* Because the government's current administrative remedies, such as they are, don't do this, they are unconstitutional.

* He ordered the government to provide that remedy here (take plaintiff off the list and certify under oath that it did so), and/or to disclose whether she is in fact on or off the list. (As you may recall, the government refuses to tell people whether they are on the list or not.)

* Presumably she is or will soon be off it, because "the government concedes [as it has for a while now] that plaintiff is not a threat to our national security."

Judge Rules for Plaintiff in No-Fly Case

(Image: University Putra Malaysia)

In which Donald Duck teaches kids about family planning. If you've been following the Internet's ongoing fascination with duck sex, you should be very disturbed right about now.

"This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others." — Harry Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (an early predecessor of the DEA).

Nicky Wishart is a 12 year old from Eynsham, a village in Oxfordshire, England, where the local youth club is slated to close due to austerity. He decided to organise a protest outside of Prime Minister David Cameron's nearby constituency office (after all, Cameron once told Parliament, "we need youth clubs, we need things to divert people from crime"), so he posted a call-to-action on Facebook. In response, the Thames Valley Police's anti-terrorism squad visited Wishart's school, pulled him out of class, and warned him that he would prosecuted if the protest led to violence, even if he decided not to attend.

Hundreds more youth clubs in England are slated for closure. 20 out of 27 of the clubs in Oxfordshire alone are set to close.

When Nicky Wishart began a campaign to save his popular local youth club from closure, he might have been praised for showing the type of community-minded spirit that his local MP, David Cameron, has championed since he entered Downing Street. In fact, the 12-year-old's reward for attempting to rescue the centre – a small, brick hall in the leafy Oxfordshire village of Eynsham – was a visit from the police.

After his plans to hold a small protest outside the constituency office of Mr Cameron were spotted by anti-terror officers on Facebook, Nicky was pulled out of a lesson and warned by police that he would be held responsible if any violence broke out. Without his mother with him, he was frightened. "It was terrifying," said Nicky. "I was told that I could be arrested if there was any trouble at the protest. I was also told that I could be arrested even if I decided not to go myself. I didn't know what to do."

'I was told by police that I could be arrested. It was terrifying' [Michael Savage/The Independent]

(via Interesting People)

(Image: Your worry or your life, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from ggvaidya's photostream)