firehose

Details regarding a little-known sidequest in Square Enix's PSOne RPG Final Fantasy IX have surfaced, sparking fan discussion some 13 years after the game's initial release.

GameFAQs user The_Kusabi_ discovered the sidequest while reading through Final Fantasy IX Ultimania, a 600-page guide/tome that was never released outside of Japan. Despite its appearance in an official guide, the secret remained undocumented in the western world, evading the watchful eye of FAQ authors until recently.

According to fan documentation, the newly discovered sidequest only triggers after entering the game's final dungeon. It activates once the player speaks to the Nero brothers in Lindblum, and advances alongside specific story triggers and boss battles within the final dungeon. The quest requires the player to return to the Nero brothers a minimum of 9 times within a possible 16 advancement points, adding another layer of complexity to a quest that a majority of players would never see in the first place.

Fans can attest that Final Fantasy IX is rife with obscure secrets like this one. An alternate bit of dialogue during the game's opening can only be seen if the player answers a question incorrectly 64 times in a row, for instance. One of Final Fantasy IX's more notorious secrets is the Excalibur II sword, which can only be obtained by speeding through the game, start to finish, in under 12 hours.

Obscure Final Fantasy IX sidequest uncovered and detailed originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 28 May 2013 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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These know-your-chemical-weapon posters were produced by the Medical Training Replacement Center at Camp Barkeley near Abilene, Texas as training materials for soldiers being sent to fight in WWII. They're a weird mix of cheerfulness and atrocity:

Of the four chemicals mentioned here—phosgene, lewisite, mustard gas, and chlorpicrin—three were used in World War I. (Lewisite was produced beginning in 1918, but the war ended before it could be used.) Phosgene, which irritates the lungs and mucus membranes and causes a person to choke to death, caused the largest number of deaths among people killed by chemical weapons in the First World War. (Elsewhere on Slate: A firsthand account of what it felt like to be hit by mustard gas.)

The smells that these posters warn soldiers-in-training to be wary of are the everyday scents of home: flypaper, musty hay, green corn, geraniums, garlic. The choice of analogies seems particularly appropriate for soldiers raised on farms­—a population that would become increasingly small in every war to follow.

Four WWII Posters That Taught Soldiers to Identify Chemical Weapons by Smell (via Kadrey)

(Images: National Museum of Health and Medicine)

Othermill is an small computer-controlled mill that allows the user to precision cut small objects like circuit boards. The mill is encased in a 10″ cube and weighs just 15 pounds, so it can be easily transported and used in a small workspace. While it is optimized for creating custom circuit boards, it can also cut metal, wood, wax, and plastic. Othermill is currently be developed by Otherfab in San Fransisco. They’re raising funds for the project on Kickstarter.

For most of the history of television, the barrier to syndication—and to profitability—has been 100 episodes. The shows that have made it to that mark are an unusual group. Many were big hits. Some found small cult audiences. Still others just hung on as best they could and never posted numbers quite low enough to be canceled. In 100 Episodes, we examine shows that made it to that number, considering both how they advanced or reflected the medium and what contributed to their popularity.

When Star Trek: Voyager premièred in January of 1995, the Star Trek franchise was at the height of its expansion. The Next Generation’s final season was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the 1994 Emmys, the only syndicated series to achieve such a distinction, and that series’ cast was preparing to transition into movies. Deep Space Nine had been launched two years ...

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The first beta of the LibreOffice 4.1 open-source office suite was released this past weekend...

Opera’s popular  e-mail feature is to be removed from the browser and released as a standalone application, developers have announced.

The decision to remove the feature, which was first added in 2000, is part of several major changes planned for Opera 15. The next generation version of the browser, currently available for testing as ‘Opera Next’, sees Opera swap out its Presto rendering engine in favour of Google’s new Webkit-fork ‘Blink’.

But rather than ditch with the integrated e-mail client, called M2, entirely Opera developers have decided to package it up and release it as a separate, standalone product.

“It’s almost ready, so today we want to introduce to you, the first release candidate of Opera Mail,’ the Opera’s Adam Minchinton writes on the desktop team blog, ‘So please download it and send us your feedback.”

Now for the not so good news. Downloads of Opera Mail’s Release Candidate are currently only available for Windows and Mac OS X, though – thankfully – Opera devs have confirmed that the app will be coming to Linux.

Mail Apps

Following Mozilla’s axing of direct development on Thunderbird, and the lightweight mail app Geary failing to get funding, some users may have felt that the future of the desktop e-mail client was looking doomed.

But this news, along with that of innovative app Inky’s plans for Linux, means mail app fans need not worry just yet…

The post Standalone Opera Mail Client Coming to Linux appeared first on OMG! Ubuntu!.

Last month, the removal of some 1,800 titles from Netflix’s streaming library caused a mass hysteria dubbed the “Streampocalypse,” leading to rash, post-streampocalyptic measures such as the hoarding of old Cheers episodes and even, in some extreme cases, the desperate repurposing of long-abandoned materials. Someone also probably got cracked in the head with a shovel, because it’s not a streampocalypse without someone taking a shovel to the head. Understandably, Netflix would like to avoid this scenario in the future, so it’s taking the most logical route: It’s just not going to tell you what titles are expiring anymore, thus preserving the public order.

While Netflix has already made it quite clear that it doesn’t have to tell you jack, it’s pinning this decision on the “last-minute changes in content flow” that tend to make expiration data inaccurate. So, although it will continue to ...

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For decades, most people had never even seen a jar of moonshine, let alone tasted it. These days, you can find it at stores and restaurants around the country thanks to loosened liquor laws and changing consumer preferences. Even the industry’s biggest distilleries are experimenting with moonshine.

madebyabvh:

Animated Pizza
(this made me laugh, I had to do a quick animation )

ORIGINAL

(larger)

Pop Chart Lab has created a lovely chart of over 300 luscious fruits “from Berries like Huckleberry, Gooseberry, and Boysenberry to more exotic crops like the Ice Cream Bean, the Cocoplum, and Dead Man’s Fingers” in the illustration, “The Various Varieties of Fruits.” The chart is a great companion piece to their “The Various Varieties of Vegetables” which we previously featured. Prints are available to purchase online.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

Since You Asked, 9 May 2013:

Dear Cary,

I’ve followed you for what feels like 10 years, as I’ve traversed the quarter-life crisis and crises of creativity that speak powerfully to the blood that has always run through my veins.

So now I come to you with a more commonplace problem in some ways, but still so connected to the vein of creativity that you speak so well to.

There is a man. Isn’t there always? An older man, and one I work with. So banal, I know. But we’ve been as you might call it, “good,” or as good as one can be as two married people. We’ve admitted our attraction to each other, but agreed it would be reckless, careless and selfish to take it any further. I am not under any illusion that I love him, but I do enjoy his company. And that’s my dilemma.  After traveling with him for work this week, staying up just talking until the sun came up, I suddenly feel a wave of creativity rushing my every sense. It’s like being a teenager again, but one who’s actually read ee cummings, Whitman and Milton. I find myself scooping up old poetry books, reading Shakespeare and even writing down the colors of this strange, yet I imagine so universal, blend of emotions. It’s addicting in the way that any other vice might be, but I’m still young (so they tell me, at 28), so still learning the ways of this strange and wonderful world.

So my question is, what do I do about all this? The conflict in this emotional-but-not-physical affair is feeding my intense desire to feel human, to feel what it’s like again to struggle against my otherwise easy, carefree world. But of course, my rational side tells me there’s no good way this thing ends. But how do I murder the Muse? How does one say no to something that makes one feel so damn alive? And I’m happy, really, in every other way of the world. Unlike so many in my generation, I want for very little — so it seems entirely selfish to risk any of it for that piece of the artist in me that wants to experience everything, good and bad, that this world has to offer. I don’t think I’ve crossed any red line or any point of no return, but I suppose that’s why I’ve come to you before I do. I trust in your experience of this world, of the writer that wants to feel it all, but also of the human being that knows how other human beings can be hurt by these addictions.

Thank you, for this, and all of it always

Caught Between Conscience and Creativity

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best, like Cat Boarding, a cat is placed in a box and then sent down the hallway on a skateboard.

Here’s a short “making of” video:

Animated “Deal With It” GIF by redditor YouGotDoddified

videos by perkyballs

via Tastefully Offensive

Manhattanhenge

A top Harvard administrator who faced criticism from faculty and students for authorizing searches of e-mail accounts regarding a massive cheating scandal last year has resigned her leadership post. Evelynn Hammonds, dean of Harvard College for the past five years, will return to teaching and research in the History of Science and African and African American Studies departments, leading a new program on the study of race and gender in science and medicine at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, the university announced today.

Original Source

President Obama looks less than entirely stoked with this stuffed bear he won on the New Jersey boardwalk.

Original Source

Attack on anti-polio team kills one UPI.com PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 28 (UPI) -- Assailants opened fire on a team of polio workers in Pakistan Tuesday, killing one woman and critically injuring another, officials said. Security personnel were accompanying the team in Peshawar when the attack ... and more »

These are the guys I fell in love with when I was a teenager.

We all know that Middle-Earth is a sausage fest. But what would happen if you flipped all the genders? Could Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings still work as well if you replaced Sean Bean, John Noble and Sean Astin with women? This dream cast proves it would. It's... a diversion.

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How To Annoy Celebrities Using The New Gchat

This is Devo and Neil Young performing Young's "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)." Seriously! It's from the 1982 comedy Human Highway, starring and co-directed by Bernard Shakey aka Neil Young. (Thanks, Gabe Adiv!)

A lion and a miniature sausage dog have formed an unlikely friendship after the little dog took the king of the jungle under his wing as a cub.

Bonedigger, a five-year old male lion, and Milo, a seven-year old Dachshund, are so close that Milo helps the lion clean his teeth after dinner.
The 500lbs lion dwarfs little Milo, yet after the dog took the disabled lion into his protection as a cub, Bonedigger has rarely left his side.

Hitler teapot

In 2012, Busted Knuckle Films and a group of off-road enthusiasts took to the hills at Morris Mountain ORV Park during an RBD event in Heflin, Alabama for some Extreme Barbie Jeep Racing, a dangerous downhill challenge in plastic toy vehicles. To compete in the race, you must “take a power-wheels vehicle, break off the drive gear, go to a steep hill, climb aboard and watch the madness unfold.” You can read more about the race online.

Nothing is more hardcore than riding a plastic kids toy down a steep race course at breakneck speeds. Plastic will break, egos will be bruised. Who will come out on top?

The Most Fun you can Have on 15lbs of plastic! Footage from RBD 2010.

photos by Scott Prince

videos via Busted Knuckle Films

via UniqueDaily, The Awesomer

A derailed train just outside the hub of Baltimore sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky Tuesday afternoon that could be seen from downtown, as buildings shook from miles away and residents feared the worst from schools and office buildings across the city.

For many Amish teens, Rumspringa means hard partying, dating, cars — and Facebook. So much for “What happens in Rumspringa stays in Rumspringa.”

A website leaking nude photos from Snapchat has popped up and spread like wildfire on Twitter and Facebook, attracting more than 500,000 Likes on the latter in less than 24 hours.

Link