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shadytyrantcherryblossom · 1 year ago

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Unveiling the Potential of Metaverse Mining: A Deep Dive into Digital Asset Creation

In an age characterized by mechanical breakthroughs, the Metaverse has developed as a transformative marvel, captivating trend-setters and financial specialists over businesses. At first established in virtual reality and gaming, the Metaverse is presently making its check on customarily physical segments, counting mining. The integration of the Metaverse into mining operations signals a worldview move, promising a future where proficiency, maintainability, and security focalize within the virtual and physical domains. This article investigates the energetic cooperative energy between the Metaverse and mining, revealing the energizing potential and openings that lie ahead.

Disclosing the Potential of Metaverse for the Mining Industry

The Metaverse, a energetic and intelligently virtual space, rises above the limits of conventional reality, advertising an inventive stage for real-time engagement inside computer-generated situations. As mining endeavors enthusiastically grasp this computerized wilderness, a significant change is underway. Operational forms are being re-imagined, giving rise to immersive biological systems where the boundaries between the substantial and the virtual consistently obscure. This integration not as it were improves operational effectiveness but too cultivates a collaborative environment where partners explore the complicated crossing point of physical and computerized domains. The mining industry stands on the brink of advancement, where the Metaverse unfurls as a catalyst for phenomenal progressions, reshaping the exceptionally texture of asset extraction.

Benefits of Metaverse within the Mining Industry

The integration of the Metaverse mining industry brings forward a huge number of benefits, revolutionizing conventional forms and improving generally effectiveness, maintainability, and security.

Virtual Preparing and Recreation:

The Metaverse gives a secure and immersive environment for preparing and reenactment, permitting diggers to experience practical scenarios without physical dangers. This cultivates a culture of security, diminishes mishaps, and guarantees that the workforce is well-prepared for real-world mining challenges.

Inaccessible Observing and Maintenance:

Real-time observing of mining hardware and operations from anyplace within the world gets to be conceivable through the Metaverse. This farther availability permits for incite reaction to peculiarities, preventive support, and generally upgraded operational proficiency, minimizing downtime.

Compelling Collaboration:

The Metaverse encourages consistent collaboration among topographically scattered groups. Experts from diverse parts of the world can interface in virtual spaces, share experiences, conduct gatherings, and collectively illuminate complex challenges. This level of collaboration leads to more educated decision-making and streamlined extend timelines.

Supportability and Natural Stewardship:

By making virtual representations of mining destinations, the Metaverse empowers companies to mimic and optimize extraction forms. This proactive approach makes a difference in recognizing ranges for advancement, diminishing natural impact, and cultivating feasible mining hones.

Upgraded Investigation:

Computerized reproductions of mining locales made within the Metaverse permit for exceedingly exact investigation endeavors. Progressed sensors, rambles, and information collection procedures contribute to the exact examination of topographical arrangements, optimizing exploration exactness and effectiveness.

Asset Administration:

The Metaverse empowers real-time checking and information visualization, enabling mining companies to convert crude information into profitable experiences. Integrationof Web of Things (IoT) gadgets, manufactured insights, and virtual sensors upgrades asset administration, driving to diminished costs and moderated dangers.

Tokenization and Computerized Resources:

Presenting the concept of tokenization, the Metaverse speaks to real-world mining resources as advanced resources on blockchain stages. This not as it were opens up unused roads for venture but too makes a straightforward and productive commercial center for exchanging and financialization of mining assets.

Virtual Mining Communities:

The Metaverse sustains the improvement of virtual communities centered on mining-related endeavors. Diggers, industry specialists, and devotees can collaborate in virtual spaces to share information, talk about advancements, and collectively work towards progressions within the industry.

Computerized Twins for Operational Optimization:

Advanced twins, virtual copies of mining locales, hardware, and forms, enable diggers to mimic and optimize different forms. These nitty gritty representations empower gear execution, extraction methods, and calculated operations, driving to made strides productivity and decreased operational dangers.

Expanded Security Measures:

Through virtual preparing and recreation, the Metaverse makes a difference in making a more secure working environment. Mineworkers can hone crisis reaction scenarios, get it potential risks, and familiarize themselves with security conventions in a controlled virtual setting.

Metaverse for mining industry holds the guarantee of transformative progressions, reshaping the way operations are conducted and laying the establishment for a more maintainable, collaborative, and innovatively progressed future in resource extraction.

Exploring long Run: Metaverse for Mining

As the Metaverse proceeds to evolve, mining industry pioneers, policymakers, and innovation suppliers must collaborate to explore this transformative travel. Grasping the Metaverse isn't fair an venture in development; it could be a commitment to a associated, effective, and maintainable mining industry. The integration of the Metaverse into mining operations speaks to a unused time, where the computerized and physical universes consistently focalize for the betterment of asset extraction.

Shamla Tech: Manufacturing the Long run of Mining with Metaverse Arrangements

Shamla Tech pioneers Metaverse for Mining with bespoke arrangements, consistently consolidating the physical and virtual domains. With a visionary approach, Shamla Tech tackles the transformative control of the Metaverse to revolutionize mining operations. From immersive preparing recreations to inaccessible checking, their custom-made arrangements open up security, productivity, and supportability. As the metaverse mining navigates the energetic scene of asset extraction, Shamla Tech's Metaverse arrangements stand as the signal for a future where advancement and network rethink the exceptionally texture of mining hones. Grasp the Metaverse for Mining with Shamla Tech and step into a domain of boundless conceivable outcomes.

#Metaverse Mining #Metaverse for mining #Metaverse Development company

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mbari-blog · 3 years ago

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Fresh from the deep: a whalefish made an appearance for our researchers last week! ⁠

This whalefish (order Cetomimiformes) was spotted by Steve Haddock and his team on their recent R/V Western Flyer expedition 2,013 meters (6,600 feet) deep offshore of Monterey Bay. We've only encountered these obscure fish 18 times in 34 years of deep-sea exploration with our remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). ⁠

Whalefishes lack external scales and pelvic fins, and in adult fish, the eyes are very primitive and small. The eyes' lenses are lost after they transform from the larval stage, and with it, they lose the ability to form images. But instead of relying on sight to survive, they have an incredible ability to feel their surrounding. They have a highly sensitive lateral line system, with sensory pores that run over the head and down the length of the body to help them feel vibrations in the water around them. ⁠

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Whalefish have rarely been seen alive in the deep, so many mysteries remain regarding these remarkable fish. With each deep-sea dive, we uncover more secrets and solve others. ⁠

#MBARI #deepsea #whalefish #freshfromthedeep #new

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corkcitylibraries · 4 years ago

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Book Review: James Nestor’s Breath - The New Science of a Lost Art.

by Ed Cashman

“But why do I need to learn to breathe? I’ve been breathing my whole life.”

James Nestor

The fruit of a decade’s travelling, research and self-experimentation, Nestor’s travelogue through breathwork practices, both ancient and modern, is accessible and provocative. He opens his account with an epiphany. Attending a breathwork session to alleviate chronic stress, he experiences an intense physical and mental shake-up. This transformative event ignites his interest in the mechanics and chemistry of breath, its therapeutic potential and inspires him to investigate a range of practitioners operating at the vanguard of this increasingly popular field. His engagement with these “pulmonauts”, as he

terms them, constitute the spine of the book. Nestor adventures through yogic and esoteric hinterlands, all the way to the rigours of research labs in a quest to understand, experientially and scientifically, the art of breathing. For the most part, he succeeds.

His success doesn’t come without sacrifice, however. Alongside Anders Olsson, a Swedish breathwork practitioner, Nestor blocks his nose with silicone plugs to force himself to mouth breathe for 10 days. Supervised by the chief of rhinology research at Stanford, it’s rapidly obvious that this is not a good idea for both of them. Most of their health metrics plummet and they feel simply awful.

So lesson No.1 in the breathwork world? Breathe through your nose. It turns out nasal breathing has many positives. It filters and warms the air via nasal turbines and increases oxygen uptake in our cells by 18% compared to mouth breathing (via a mechanism known as the Bohr effect that counter-intuitively requires an optimal amount of CO₂ in our system). It also enhances production of nitric oxide that facilitates lung health. Breathing nasally, it turns out, has a modest and occasionally spectacular potential to ameliorate chronic respiratory issues, ease mental health conditions and, indeed, raise the game of high-performance Olympians.

So far, this is conventional wisdom in the world of breathwork. However, the book takes an intriguing and informative turn to what can be described as an example of dysevolution. Simply put, our facial structures have collapsed precipitously, especially in the last 300 years. Here’s the theory: from an evolutionary standpoint, a trade-off occurred – as a result of developing cooking skills - between increased brain-size and the shrinking of our mouths and narrowing of our nasal apertures. Sadly, this deterioration led to a tightening of our airways and instigated the positive feedback loop of mouth breathing.

In addition, this state of affairs was amplified after the Industrial Revolution by the advent of processed foods, too soft for the chewing that signals stem cells to grow bone, and thereby weakening our facial structure. Consequently, of the more than 5,400 mammals on the planet, humans are the only ones that routinely show misaligned jaws, overbites, underbites, crooked and crowding teeth. Hence, our current state of less than optimal breathing.

Nestor spends quite a bit of time on this topic and assuages my incredulity somewhat by citing both anecdotal and more rigorous evidence to back up these claims, conducting interviews with experts in anthropology, skull collections, and dentistry. He even takes a macabre trip to an off-limits catacomb in Paris with some local guides known as “catophiles” to confirm this theory and, one might add, spice up his narrative.

So lesson No. 2? Chew more and, for a start, consider the benefits of a proper oral posture - lips closed, teeth lightly touching and tongue to the roof of the mouth while you inhale through the nose. From a developmental point of view, it’s wise to encourage our children to breathe more nasally.

The tagline of the book, “The New Science of a Lost Art”, points to the truth of a curious collective amnesia that sometimes accompanies advances in human potential. For most of the techniques outlined here, there are historical precedents, often neglected and forgotten till a pioneer re-discovers and updates them, becoming popular when the wider culture sits up and takes notice. Nestor relates a fascinating homology between the performance of traditional prayers and chants from disparate religious traditions and the paced breathing practices of contemporary techniques. (The extending of the exhale is relevant here.) Both approaches share a calming and restorative effect because of how the breath is engaged in similar ways.

So lesson No.3? Take time out to practice extending the exhale in a 1:2 ratio (4 seconds in, 8 seconds out, for example). Purse your lips on the outbreath to slow the exhale. This exercise stimulates the parasympathetic system, the mode that puts your body in a state of rest and digest.

There’s a plethora of unusual characters in these pages, outliers and pioneers of the breath. We learn about Alexandra David-Neal, a Belgian – French anarchist who travelled to Tibet in the early 1900’s, absorbed the ancient practice of Tummo, an advanced technique that activates and warms the body. This enabled her to achieve feats of endurance as she hiked the Himalayas on her own in freezing temperatures at elevations above 18,000 feet and, we are told, for up to 19 hours a day with little in the way of food and water!

Tummo is also an influence on Wim Hof, a.k.a. the Iceman, the Dutch extreme athlete, currently the most well-known pulmonaut on the planet. An excitable and charismatic figure, his techniques exert control over the autonomic nervous system and have been validated in the lab. Hof, a holder of numerous Guinness World Records, can control his body temperature in ice through conscious breathing and can also repel the effects of an injected endotoxin, a feat thought impossible by medical authorities. The experiment was replicated with a group of people tutored by Hof, proving his “powers” are available to anyone.

Lesson No. 4? Practice, with due care, superventilation techniques that consciously put you in a controlled state of stress for short periods of time only. This places you in the driving seat of your sympathetic (fight or flight) system, increasing resilience and endurance. However, these exercises are not advisable for people with heart conditions or high blood pressure.

Less well-known in the breathwork domain are the achievements of a choir conductor who developed techniques to alleviate emphysema. Carl Stough, operating in mid-twentieth century America, was extremely private and somewhat eccentric. Nestor does well to shed light on this obscure figure. There’s a fascinating account of how the Russian, Konstantin Buteyko, came to formulate his own technique and how it continues to have success in relieving asthma. Ireland’s Patrick McKeown, a Buteyko practitioner since the late nineties, also features. Then there’s Emil Zatopek, who won gold in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres in the 1952 Olympics. His hypoventilation technique maintained high carbon dioxide tolerance in his system, off-loading more oxygen to his muscles. Stanislav Grof and his Holotropic method, an offshoot of 1960s psychedelic research, is also examined.

Nestor is to be commended for his deep dive and, although it’s not exhaustive (notables in the field such as Stig Severinsen and Belissa Vranich among others are absent), it’s at the very least a worthwhile endeavour to promote awareness and discussion around breathing in a time when the world’s lungs are under attack by a novel virus.

I waited for a note of caution, a caveat to this “missing pillar of health” and thankfully it came towards the end. Nestor relates a tale of a fellow airline passenger requesting him to recommend a breathing technique for cancer. There are limitations. Breathwork won’t help acute events like an embolism, he tells us, but it can alleviate milder, longer-term, chronic conditions and enhance the wellbeing of the healthy or mentally stressed. It’s a prophylactic worth striving for and certainly worth more extensive research.

There’s a useful compendium of practices in the appendix of this intriguing read, ranging from yogic pranayama to box breathing. The latter technique is reputedly practiced by Navy Seals. But it’s not just elite performers that can benefit; anyone can, and this book will make a significant contribution in communicating the profound importance of how we breathe.

And so to the author’s final lesson. If one were to distil, for simplicity’s sake, these sometimes contradictory practices into the perfect breath, try this: breathe slowly and lightly in through the nose for a count of roughly 5.5 seconds, expanding the diaphragm and breathe slowly out through the mouth or nose for 5.5 seconds. This averages 5 or 6 breaths per minute. Do this exercise for 5 minutes at least 3 times a day. That’s it. Easypeasy, you might say but the trick, like the practice of any art, is consistency. Nestor’s wager, and that of his cast of pulmonauts, is that you will be richly rewarded.

Available on BorrowBox

#LoveReading #CorkCityLibraries

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pi-cat000 · 5 years ago

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MSA: A (sort of) Necromancy AU

Summary: Arthur remembers the cave. He wants Lewis back and is desperate enough to try anything.

NOTE: Started this serval months ago and its been in ‘planning’ for a while. Probably won’t continue until after either ‘time travel idea’ or ‘winged-Arthur’ is complete. But was in an editing mode today so here it is.

The mental case clicks open. The red light flickers to green, and Arthur carefully replaces the plastic panel he’d removed to access the lock’s inner-workings. Around him, the room remains mostly dark, dimly lit by a glowing red exit sign. Far off, if he strains and holds his breath, he can hear the sounds of people moving up and down the hospital’s hallways. This section of the hospital may be closed for the night, but the wards and emergency room operate 24/7.

Quickly, not wanting to try his luck, Arthur snatches the plastic bags of donated blood, shoving them into his backpack. The process is made hard by his single, solitary arm. In his hast, he accidentally bumps his bandaged shoulder against the cabinet. Pain shoots across his chest, forcing him to pause and wait for it to settle to a more manageable dull ache. This is the third time he’s knocked the still-healing injury and it’s been equally, if not more, painful each time. Probably shouldn’t be moving around this much after his surgery. There are a lot of things he probably shouldn't be doing. Like stealing blood, driving long distances, transversing creepy cave systems, and attempting to resurrect his dead best friend.

Backpack is appropriately stuffed with blood packets, Arthur heads out the way he came, closing doors behind him, trying to leave as little evidence as possible. No one stops him. It’s not too surprising, he can’t imagine that many people want to seal blood in a small town like this one. He makes it back to the van emptying his backpack into a cooler box which is set to the correct temperature. Next, he’s manoeuvring through empty streets, ignoring the steady throb of his shoulder, speeding towards The Cave - Location of all his recent nightmares and scene of Lewis’s death. Arthur tightens his grip on the steering wheel.

It is almost three in the morning when he pulls up to the gapping stone entrance. So far, everything is running according to his well-planned timeline. If this doesn’t work, he wants to be home before Vivi wakes up to find him missing. He hopes it doesn't come to that, but a small part of him acknowledges that this whole expedition is a long shot. In the still night air, the slamming of van doors and his occasional pained grunts echo unnaturally in the surrounding trees.

Arthur ignores the prickling unease running down his back while he struggles to carry the cooler of blood, his bag of resurrection supplies, and the hefty necromancy book down the stone tunnels. He ends up having to hold a flashlight between his teeth to properly light his way. The trip is slow and laborious, requiring several stops to catch his breath. He pushes on. Occasionally, the silence is broken by the wail of wind whistling through stone crevasses and slow dip of unseen water. By the time he makes it to the site of Lewis’s murder, he is shivering with both cold and unease. Arthur drops his load, freeing up his hand so he can use the flashlight to scan the space. Tall pointed stone barbs tower over him and throw long shadows, which crisscross the ground in uneven patterns. Nervously, he inches forward, feeling awfully exposed in the open space.

“This is such a bad idea,” He mutters, glancing up at the high stone ledge and trying to calculate Lewis’s fall trajectory. His voice bounces around. A suspicious organic lump catches his eye. Arthur takes a sharp breath, freezing, riding out the sudden wave of nausea.

Lewis…

The necromancy book states that the closer the necromancer is to the body, the higher the chance of success. Arthur swallows, pointing his flashlight away from the darkened misshapen mound at the foot of one particularly sharp spike. There is no way he can approach Lewis’s body, let alone draw the sigils needed for the ritual around it.

Arthur picks a spot on the further side of the cave. Technically, the book only specified that the ritual needed to be ‘at the location of the target's demise’. As long as it was the most recent death then everything should work out fine.

“This is fine…Everything is fine. A-okay. Nothing to worry about.” He glances into the darkness. Everything not lit up by the flashlight is completely obscured.

“Just a normal guy, doing a completely normal necromancy ritual that will totally work. This will be fine and is not in any way a bad idea.”

Wind moans somewhere overhead as if in response, and he points his torch upwards. Nothing is there but more pointed rock formations. It would suck it one fell on him…Arthur shivers. The ritual he’s planning to follow is convoluted, the instructions poorly translated by Vivi, with potential consequences ranging from deadly to horrifying. A relic from Vivi’s macabre phase, he has no idea where the necromancy manual came from originally only that it's the only option available. Of course, he has had to substitute almost all of the ‘ingredients.’ For example, there was no way he’d be doing any ‘human sacrificing.’ Hopefully, the donated blood would be an adequate replacement for the rituals ‘liquid life’ requirement.

“Okay…ah," He hesitates, "…Wards. I need to set up a protective ward.” A ward is, according to Vivi's necromancy book, needed to protect his soul from some loosely defined 'darkness. Unfortunately, the book fails to describe how to set up a protective ward. As a substitute, he’s stolen a stack of paper talismans from Vivi and the giant scroll from the shrine in Vivi’s backyard. Vivi had once said the scroll was for protection and, with his lack of options, he hopes it’ll work for him. Trying not to feel too guilty about the theft, he shuffles around slapping paper rectangles on every surface he can reach and slinging the scroll haphazardly over a nearby rock formation so it can sit unfurled. The moment the scroll roles open, its fancy Japanese characters start to glow a faint gold.

Arthur stares. Okay…He has no idea what that means. Why had he never looked into any of this supernatural stuff before now? He should have been investigating this stuff years ago! A bit late now. Hopefully, it means it is doing its ‘protective’ thing.

Arthur continues his preparations, which is made slightly easier in the light of the scroll. His hand is shaking so much that the sigils for the ritual are almost impossible to draw, never mind that the rough stone doesn’t take chalk very well. The whole process is slow and painful, but he pushes on and manages to sketch out a large circle, decorated with intricate symbology. All the practice he’d snuck in during the week seemed to be paying off.

Now for the hard part. Arthur takes the first packet of blood and ends up having to stab it open with his pocket knife. The blood spurts all over the place and his clothes and he almost throws up right then and there. He tries not to think or look as he empties out the rest of packets into the centre of the circle. When he finally finishes, his good arm is tired, his shoulder is throbbing, and he is panting with exhaustion.

Arthur pulls out a locket containing a picture of both Lewis and Vivi. He had had to steal it off Vivi’s nightstand because, despite not recognising the man in the picture, she was very attached to it. Hopefully, it would work as an ‘emotional anchor.’ He drops the locket and some of Lewis’s hair, collected from an old hairbrush, into the circle. All that is left is a long and overly complex Latin chant.

Sitting at the edge of the circle, laying the book down flat, Arthur traces the words with a finger.

This is it…If this doesn’t work…He doesn’t know what he’d do. Probably cry. He takes a deep breath and begins to read. When Arthur finishes reciting, he waits for several long, agonising seconds.

At first, nothing happens. The cave remains cold and silent. Then, a loud wind moans overhead, tearing down through the tunnels, twisting in a circle around him and pulling at his hair. The flashlight flickers off, but it doesn't matter because the stolen scroll is growing brighter and brighter. It continues to increase in brilliance, lighting the entire cave floor, reflecting off the stone spikes. Arthur’s eyes sting and he sees spots.

Then the scroll bursts into purple flame. Simultaneously, all the paper talismans explode, burning and flaking away. The area begins to grow steadily hotter until Arthur is sweating and breathless. It is so hot that the blood in the circle starts to boil also catching on fire, evaporating in long wisps of smoke which twist in the wind overhead. Arthur feels a sharp pain in his chest, tugging him forward. He grips his shirt, having trouble thinking, and edges of his vision dim.

‘Bad idea confirmed.’ Is his last coherent thought. .

Lewis breathes in like he’s returned from some deep-sea dive. His chest expands as he inhales in one desperate action. The next thing he does is groan loudly. Everything hurts. There is a constant throbbing pain in his left shoulder and his whole body aches with exhaustion. Cold air makes him shiver uncontrollably. Lewis blinks up from where he is lying on hard stone ground. He can’t see anything despite knowing his eyes are open. When he moans it is all wrong, too high pitched.

“Lewis?” Arthur’s voice, faint and whispy, drifts through the dark towards him. Lewis tries to pull himself into a seated position to get a better sense of his location. Only, he overbalances and smacks into a nearby rock, sending spikes of more intense white-hot pain through his shoulder. He grits his teeth.

“Lewis!” Arthur's voice is way too enthusiastic, piercing through the haze of pain.

Where is he? The last he remembers is walking with Arthur, navigating down a stone tunnel. They’d come to a stone platform overlooking a larger cavern, then…everything gets blurry. He’d fallen…He vaguely remembers falling.

“Arthur. Where are you?” Lewis, using his good hand, grips the rock to hold himself up in a seated position. He is not imagining it. His voice is definitely different.

“I don’t know…but I can see you,” Arthur answers and Lewis glances about, confused, peering into the dark.

“How? It’s pitch-back in here.”

Something is wrong with his left arm. It is completely unresponsive. He can’t move it at all.

“I’m not sure,” Arthur also sounds confused now. Lewis presses his back against the stone, using it for support, feeling for his shoulder, trying to find the source of the pain.

"Whoa hey. Ah...I wouldn’t....” Arthur responds to his movement, “You may notice some body parts missing, but don’t panic."

“Don't panic?! Was I injured in the fall? Oh god,” He discovers why his arm is unresponsive, “My arm’s gone!”

“I said don't panic!"

Lewis gasps, heart beating way to fast. "I'm dying."

"No. You’re fine. I swear you're fine. Just try and calm down. You need to breathe.”'

“I am breathing,” He snaps, taking several hash breaths. He’s feeling lightheaded and woozy now. It doesn’t help that he still can’t see anything. That, plus the pain, saps the rest of his strength right out of him. Lewis hears is Arthur's panicked. "Lewis!" And then hears no more. . . . Of course, Lewis doesn't die. He wakes back up and is met with the same throbbing pain and cold stone. However, unlike last time, it is no longer pitch-black. A ball of floating fire, burning a mix of purple and yellow, is hovering over his chest. It lights the immediate area in a dim haze. He freezes, alarmed, staring in the soft light.

"Lewis? You're awake." Arthur's relived voice is coming from the ball of fire, which wavers and fluctuates when he speaks. What the...?

“Arthur?” He asks, hesitant, scanning the surrounding space. It is still too dark to see beyond a few meters, but he can make out taller stone structures.

“Yeah? You can see me now?”

His attention returns to the slowly bobbing fireball. Yes, Arthur’s voice is coming from the fire. Maybe he is dead after all.

"What happened?" Lewis whispers, swallowing and glancing down at where his hand should be. In the low light cast by the floating Arthur-fire, he can see there is no blood or any other sign of recent trauma. It just hurts a lot. He lifts up his remaining hand to examine that as well. It is pale. Far too pale to be his own hand. How?

#MSA #mystery skulls animated #fanfiction #fanfic #Lewis pepper #arthur kingsmen #nercomancy #sort of necomrancy #but not realy #references to injury #tw: blood #blood and injury

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thesupernaturaluniversity · 5 years ago

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Just Don’t Call Them UFOs

The U.S. military wants pilots to report strange sightings in the sky, but doesn’t want any of the stigma that comes with it.

Pilots are about to receive a new memo from management: If you encounter an unidentified flying object while on the job, please tell us.

The U.S. Navy is drafting new rules for reporting such sightings, according to a recent story from Politico. Apparently, enough incidents have occurred in “various military-controlled ranges and designated airspace” in recent years to prompt military officials to establish a formal system to collect and analyze the unexplained phenomena. Members of Congress and their staffs have even started asking about the claims, and Navy officials and pilots have responded with formal briefings.

The Washington Post provided more details in its own story:

In some cases, pilots—many of whom are engineers and academy graduates—claimed to observe small spherical objects flying in formation. Others say they’ve seen white, Tic Tac–shaped vehicles. Aside from drones, all engines rely on burning fuel to generate power, but these vehicles all had no air intake, no wind and no exhaust.

The Navy knows how this sounds. It knows what you must be thinking. But the fact stands that some pilots are saying they’ve seen strange things in the sky, and that’s concerning. So the Navy is trying to assure pilots that they won’t be laughed out of the cockpit or deemed unhinged if they bring it up. “For safety and security concerns, the Navy and the [U.S. Air Force] takes these reports very seriously and investigates each and every report,” the Navy said in a statement to Politico.

Yet even as the Navy indicates it’s willing to discuss the taboo topic, it’s also shying away from three notorious little letters. UFO carries an airport’s worth of baggage, bursting with urban legends, government secrecy, and over-the-top Hollywood movies. The statements and quotes that the Navy provided to news outlets are devoid of any reference to UFOs. Instead, they’re called “unexplained aerial phenomena,” “unidentified aircraft,” “unauthorized aircraft,” and, perhaps most intriguing, “suspected incursions.”

Read: When a Harvard professor talks about aliens

The message is, if you see something, say something, but for God’s sake, lower your voice. Don’t call it a UFO. Which is funny, since the military came up with the name in the first place.

The earliest government programs dedicated to investigating UFO sightings in the late 1940s treated the claims, unsurprisingly, as a big joke. As a rule, officials dismissed and debunked any reports as hoaxes and hallucinations, according to UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry, a textbook-style deep dive published in 2012. This apparently didn’t sit well with some of the higher-ups.

In some ways, the Navy’s modern-day attempt to take seriously reports of UFO sightings is a rerun of what happened next. “I want an open mind,” Major General Charles Cabell, then the head of Air Force intelligence at the Pentagon, reportedly demanded at a meeting with subordinates in 1951. “Anyone who doesn’t keep an open mind can get out now.”

A new, secretive program, dubbed Project Blue Book, was quickly organized to investigate claims of strange visions in the sky without ridiculing them. Its director, Edward Ruppelt, introduced the term unidentified flying object sometime around 1953. The definition carried no hint of extraterrestrial life; in a national-security official’s scariest daydreams, the objects were probably Russian spycraft. For the military, a UFO was simply “any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object.”

By then, there had already been several high-profile reports of objects flying through or falling from the sky. For the public, these sightings didn’t just seem unfamiliar—they seemed not of this world. A civilian pilot had seen nine somethings flying in formation near Mount Rainier in Washington State. A rancher found mysterious wreckage on his property outside Roswell, New Mexico. Multiple people spotted a series of lights hovering over Washington, D.C., and moving toward the White House. The military even mobilized jets to intercept them, but found nothing.

In the meantime, UFOs further infiltrated the public consciousness. They sailed into Hollywood, which to this day remains obsessed with stories about aliens, from friendly creatures to nightmarish monsters. The fourth Men in Black movie is coming out this summer, and it’s probably not the last.

Elsewhere, the lines between fiction and reality blurred. People told harrowing stories of nighttime abductions. UFOs became the focus of conspiracy theories about government secrecy. A disheveled, wild-haired man on the History Channel suggested that extraterrestrial beings helped build Stonehenge. Over time, a collective opinion emerged about those who truly believed UFOs proved the existence of aliens, and it wasn’t a flattering one. “Let’s face it—believing in the paranormal has become shorthand for crazy,” wrote Alexandra Ossola in Futurism in 2017, on the lasting stigma surrounding UFO truthers.

Military pilots are well aware of the taboo. Christopher Mellon, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence in the Clinton and Bush administrations and an advocate for UFO study, has said service members worry that reporting UFOs puts their careers at risk. They also worry that staying silent could threaten national security, in case one of those mysterious objects turns out to be a new form of aircraft from a rival country.

“Nobody wants to be ‘the alien guy’ in the national-security bureaucracy,” Mellon wrote in a Post op-ed last year. “Nobody wants to be ridiculed or sidelined for drawing attention to the issue.”

After two decades in operation, Project Blue Book eventually concluded there was “no evidence that [UFOs] are intelligently guided spacecraft from beyond the Earth.” They attributed most sightings to, among other things, clouds, weather balloons, and even birds. “The report brushes aside the demands of some scientists and laymen for a large-scale effort to determine the nature of such ‘flying saucers,’’ The New York Times wrote in 1969. “Such a project, the report says in effect, would be a waste of time and money.”

Read: But, seriously, where are the aliens?

Future generations at the Pentagon thought differently. From 2007 to 2012, the Department of Defense operated a top-secret, $22 million program dedicated to investigating UFO reports, known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. The New York Times revealed its existence in a jaw-dropping story in 2017. “The program produced documents that describe sightings of aircraft that seemed to move at very high velocities with no visible signs of propulsion, or that hovered with no apparent means of lift,” the Times reported.

Although the funding eventually ran out, officials say Defense officers continue to investigate claims reported by service members.

Edward Ruppelt probably didn’t imagine the journey his three-letter abbreviation would take over the years. In 1955, five years before he died, he dumped everything he had learned about UFOs into a nearly 300-page report. “People want to know the facts,” he wrote. “But more often than not, these facts have been obscured by secrecy and confusion, a situation that has led to wild speculation on one end of the scale and an almost dangerously blasé attitude on the other.”

As his successors in the U.S. military draft their reports and memos and guidelines, carefully avoiding any mention of that word, they will no doubt run into the same trouble he did. “The report has been difficult to write,” Ruppelt wrote in 1955, his frustration hovering above the page like the air over pavement on a hot day, “because it involves something that doesn’t officially exist.”

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loftyloftyloftyloftylofty · 5 years ago

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About Cat Story’s scripting

Recently I was asked about the specifics behind the design and implementation of Cat Story’s scripting.

This post is REALLY LONG so here’s a keep reading link because I appreciate you and don’t want to force you to scroll forever-and-ever unless you actually wanna’ read this.

Cheers everyone ♥

Okay, have we filtered out all of the non-believers?

Good.

Hello and welcome to the WIZARD ZONE. I’ll be your guide to the magic and mystery that is CatScript3.

There’s a lot that goes into Cat Story’s engine, and I also built this engine completely from scratch, so I’m not sure how useful a technical explanation of all of this stuff is going to be for any folks working inside a prebuilt engine, but without further ado, let’s dive into the underbelly of the engine and take a look at the engine that connects instantiated game assets to under-the-hood functionality.

For my engine, the idea of a script is that it is a set of instructions that are read from a text file. Instructions are run one at a time, from top to bottom, with (usually) one instruction being executed per frame.

Scripts are intended to give me the flexibility to re-use parts of the game engine instead of having to manually copy everything.

For example, I do not want stuff like this in my game engine:

LoadFirstMap() LoadSecondMap() LoadThirdMap()

When I could have this instead:

LoadMap( ”best_map_ever.level” )

At a high level, a script is run when some kind of event triggers it from within the game. Some script-triggering event examples include clicking on sprites, the player intersecting other sprites, or pressing the interact key.

Here’s an egregiously oversimplified diagram of how this theoretically works:

So, this general-idea diagram is nice and all, but an actual example might be a lot more helpful to really solidify an understanding of what’s going on.

Moving from map to map is one of the many scripted things in Cat Story. Here’s a snapshot of a tiny section of one of the map files.

The line in question we’ll be looking at is this one:

SPRITE|CollisionZone64x64|VIS|2|1671|-136|RunScriptOnIntersect,PLAYER,Assets/ScriptLibrary/WATERDRAGONKUNGFU/MapTransitionScripts/BlueCaverns/ExitAquiferRight.script

I’ll skip an explanation of all of the non-relevant-to-post fields for now, but I want to call attention to the RunScriptOnIntersect callback attached to the sprite’s map data.

This teal square is the sprite we’re looking at. Its only purpose is to be a collision zone that the player touches as they run off the edge of the map to the right (the camera constraint line is shown in this image, too).

When the player runs to the right, the character runs slightly oustide the boundaries of the camera (enough to be mostly obscured) and then intersects with the collision zone, which causes the callback RunScriptOnIntersect (assigned to this sprite in the map data) to fire.

The script that gets called as a result of this intersection only has one line.

This command tells the game engine to load up a new level and place the character at the coordinates X 192, Y 0.

The scripting processor supports conditional operations (and in a loose sense, loops) which means you can create scripts that only trigger when certain conditions are met.

Conditional operations in CatScipt3 look like this:

*|WATERDRAGONKUNGFU-MiningTunnels-Pump1-Enabled| |some_instruction

Admittedly, this syntax looks really weird, but what’s occurring here is that as the line is being processed (from left to right), the very first thing that the script interpreter sees is an asterisk, which means “Check the named value and compare it, only execute instruction if true”.

The next inputs are the name of a piece of savedata ( in this case, WATERDRAGONKUNGFU-MiningTunnels-Pump1-Enabled ) and a check-against value of blank. Checking against a blank returns true if the value isn’t in the game’s savedata yet.

This means that the first line of this script says “If this savedata flag doesn’t exist yet, we’re going to add it now and set it to zero.”

After adding the bit of savedata we want to modify, we then run the appropriate toggle script based on whether or not the value is true or false.

The ~ operator means “continue same frame” - that is to say, we don’t want the results of this frame’s script operations to affect how the following lines are run, so we run those lines on the same frame (otherwise toggling this frame would always toggle-off again on next frame because one instruction is run per frame).

Still with me? Deep breaths.

Scripts can trigger other scripts, including themselves.

This means that individual behaviors can be spaced out across different callbacks and different scripts to allow for branching options or loops.

The game’s dialog is handled through scripts that chain into each other. Switches and buttons are handled through scripts that behave in similar ways. The list of built-in scripting commands that the game engine accepts and interprets is currently just shy of 100 entries, ranging from displaying text or minigames in an open terminal to manipulating sprites and savedata.

The advantage to this system is that once a base behavior has been built-out and behaves correctly, it’s easy to use and repurpose with new inputs as needed.

The disadvantage is that a single complex interaction with a character or scripted object often ends up being spread across multiple text files and notepad++ isn’t the best at displaying all of these files simultaneously.

This fragmentation, coupled with a lack of formal handling of scope can cause headaches when you’re looking to adjust the order of a single line of dialog.

To combat this, I’ve built custom tools specifically to help make this process more manageable for character conversations, but it may be awhile (if it ever happens) before Cat Story sees any kind of advanced interface for general scripting - you’re just gonna’ have to crack open the level files and attach callbacks for scripts manually for the forseeable future.

Normally, a script in Cat Story only continues to execute while the sprite it is attached to still exists.

Scripts can be marked as persistent if they need to move with the player across maps - and some examples of persistent scripts include the firing effects for certain weapons, handling powerups, and timed story events that span multiple gameplay areas.

Originally, script persistence was implemented to test whether or not a proof-of-concept was possible for the creation of a multiplayer instance using Cat Story’s scripting system.

The proof of concept worked.

With a little bit of engineering, I was able to send chat messages through a combination of the scripted dialog system and a handful of persistent scripts that polled for additional scripts created by the server application.

I’ve said this before and will say it again - I’m leaving it in the hands of the community to expand on this concept after the game launches. The game was built to be mod-friendly on purpose and I think that people will be able to have a lot of fun together specifically because the game’s scripting engine allows them that possibility.

More documentation on CatScript3 will be available when the game launches.

For now, I’m gonna’ call it for this post. It went a lot longer than I thought it would.

Cheers nerds,

These games won’t make themselves. GET BACK TO WORK

#Cat Story #GameDev #Programming #IndieDev #Progress #2D #Pixel Art #Game Development #Game Design #C++#SDL2 #Platformer #Metroidvania

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raymundsuacillo-blog · 6 years ago

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TABOO: The Medieval Mind Within the Modern Filipino

In an era where humanity trails behind the coattails of technology, it is inevitable and evidently expected that people alongside their values progress in pace with the environmental shifts occurring around them. Not much can be said about the Philippines. We are in a nation with conservative presets backed with roaring liberal judgments. As much as history tried to weather the eastern storm with a more westernized narrative, it only gave birth to a nation and people whose sights are poised towards the future yet whose minds are grappled in the past.

Traditions, beliefs, and values are intertwined with history and the culture that serves as society’s foreground. But these historical and cultural facets should not overwhelm the business of politics and the social advancements we have made so far. It is wrong to disregard and sideline these factors in political movements. But to let our medieval values hold our social norms and politics by the neck is a sin in its own sense.

This is taboo. These are the conversations we tried strenuously to avoid and the discourse we vied to kick under the dinner table. In a conservative-esque nation like the Philippines, there are lines one must not come across and there are moral boundaries planted within every social framework. These restrictions have been in place for centuries and we haven’t grown since. We can never genuinely comprehend and understand these issues we deem taboo if we aren’t open to discussing it freely. Only if we learn to pin the obscure will we only find a clearer path to modernity?

Religion in the Philippines is no taboo. But its side effects have been evident long enough for it to mend the social fabric and tinker with our politics. Over 90% of Filipinos are Christian, 80% of which are Catholic. Banking on such foothold, the Church has held power in its pulpits and has even used its sweltering influence to dictate the change in society and in our government. The Church bore the power to take down a dictator. And it still has the power to do so. There is a reason why you can’t look down upon the altar.

But where does the Church fit in this medieval discourse? Frankly, it sits pompously at the center. Like tradition, the Church has embedded its values down to the very helm line of our society. Its propositions, morals, and policies are infused with our cultural norms and have even become our norms. It is through this fusion of Church and stately influence which has quarantined the Filipino mindset from tackling issues that the world has learned to take inconveniently. We have been living with one-sided truths. It is not in the Church’s doctrines neither is it in the Bible where we establish our policies. For the Church heeds its own narrative. And that narrative is not shared by everyone.

The Last Man Standing

What God has put together, let no man separate. This beating mantra has been the battle cry of people who stand at the frontlines against Divorce. We have been told tirelessly told to honor the sanctity of marriage in Filipino households. But when taps run dry, emotions run deep, and domestic violence remains a common Filipino feature, there is really nothing to honor here.

According to recent data by the Philippine Statistics Authority, over 30% of women experience spousal violence from their current partners. In a society where love and matrimony are held to such a high standard, we can never truly tell that love is a safe haven for all. This domestic abuse has led to physical, emotional, and mental bruises that no man can even dare to bear. Abused partners have merely one option to turn to, annulment. But the tedious and blaringly expensive process takes months even years to come into motion. It leaves the abused with no other choice but to exit the process and force themselves to stay with their violent partners or leave such abusive households and face retaliation from a hypocritical society where religious presets become a way of life and personal values become the morals of a 100 Million.

In the years 2017-2018, the Senate has made progress in legalizing divorce. This conversation sparked headlines internationally as the massively conservative state is finally taking steps in swallowing the divorce pill. This is considering that the Philippines is the lone sovereign state to still have divorce illegal after its anti-divorce partner Malta made the act legal in 2011. While commendations trickled down from the thrones of the Vatican, on a global and more realistic sense, we are left grappled in an idea the world has long kept in the past. The world cannot imagine a life where divorce is illegal. But as they say, there is always something unique and painstakingly exotic about the Philippines.

The Talk

In an age of advanced technology, social media has usurped the need for newspapers and tablets have seemingly overtaken the necessity for books. Social media has tightened the loose ends of communication and has engaged millions of people into easier and more convenient discussions and conversations through online platforms. It is easy to think that topics such as Sex Education are more openly brought into light with such technology. But how can the youth initiate such crucial forums on such if Sex Education remains a vague construct and talks about sex and health are literally still kept under the sheets?

According to the Commission on Population (Popcom), Filipino parents still refuse to discuss the barebones and complexities of sex to their children. Sex discussions and Sex Education go beyond the flirtations and the foreplay the general public tags them to be. SexEd opens about sexual health, sexuality, and the repercussions that early and premarital sex may have. Encapsulated within this is the necessary measures in preventing the rampant spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases such as HIV and AIDS among others. While sex education is being dabbled upon by educational institutions, what echoes within the classroom aren’t generally comprehensive enough for the youth to grasp. These discussions must come from their parents in order to break the stigma around the topic.

It is through this stigma why troubled youth fear opening up about their sexual past. It is in this stigma why HIV/AIDS are set to peak at 15,000 cases in 2019 in a 140% jump because we try desperately to keep the conversations quiet. 500 Filipino teenagers become mothers each day. If Premarital sex, HIV/AIDS, and Teenage Pregnancy aren’t enough to spark discussions, then it is basically useless to even try to fix the problem.

In a country where the age of sexual consent is age 12, parents must exhibit the necessary precautions to keep their children from engaging in premarital and unsafe sex. Schools cannot stress this further for textbooks could only do so much. Despite the common notion, leaving our children ignorant about sex does not safeguard them from doing the act. The retaliation of youthful curiosity is lethal. It’s best we hand them the information rather than letting them seek the information themselves.

#Pride

The colors, festivities and the celebrations are blinding. But if you deep dive into the segregated sectors of society, there is nothing worthy of celebration for the LGBT+. Pride marches are symbols of unity, strength, and the progressive march society is willing to take for the LGBT Community. But that’s all there is. We see gay fashion icons trailing the asphalt in Instagram-worthy outfits together with LGBT couples that find their way at the pulpit of Twitter stardom. Pride marches have only become a mere symbol of the flamboyance of coming out and is somehow sidelining the fight for basic civil rights.

The Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) Bill has breezed through the House of Representatives yet has been gripped with strict judgment and brash political backlash at the Senate. The overtly over-religious solons have lionized themselves as preachers to turn LGBT rights into an over-sensationalized lobby for Same-Sex Marriage. While it is respectable to heed religious belief into the Senate floor, it is despicable to use subjective religious doctrines as an excuse to deny people of their right to self-expression.

While we tirelessly demand genuine separation of church and state, what the system dictates, the operator does not follow. Numerous religious groups staged a rally against the legalization of the SOGIE Bill for some stated that it would eventually lead to Same-Sex Marriage. It just goes to show how we only value the LGBT on-screen as best friends or comedic figures but not for the humans they are. We are only tolerant of their actions but never respectful of it.

There are currently no laws protecting LGBT from hate crimes or workplace discrimination. While the Philippines is open to homosexuality, its mindset remains clasped in the past. We will constantly deviate from this conversation long enough for the people to forget. Long enough for the Filipinos to forget once more.

This is a nation that has cultivated numerous ideologies and ideas yet has faltered in comprehending them all. There is no grey area. For as long as we keep these topics and issues in the shadows of the conversation, we can never truly taste the fruits of the progress we have long yearned for. Because these should be embedded into the foundations of our social structures and yet they aren’t. Progress isn’t really about technology. Or how many asphalts we’ve paved and concrete we’ve poured. Progress and change still rest on our moral presets. Our values dictate where we trace our future and where we build a better nation. Unless we are willing to open ourselves to new values then we shall remain in the crevices of our past, in the castles of our Medieval mind.

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cyberjulie · 2 years ago

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Review:

Lee Brotherston and Amanda Berlin wrote the “Defensive Security Handbook: Best Practices for Securing Infrastructure” to help newly appointed security practitioners and those in management roles. Their goal is to provide a common standard of terms and practices, which can be pragmatically and effectively applied to most organizations. This is not a book for long-time practitioners; it is designed to be a reference for those comparatively new to managing a security program. It is also not a deep engineering book; rather, it is a set of high-level standards and best practices across a wide variety of defensive security activities.

This book provides a broad overview of a number of defensive topics, without focusing too much on any one industry. The authors intentionally made this book for “as many environments as possible” (p. xiv), and as such, they do not give many industry-specific examples (with the exception of the section on industry-specific regulations). Their examples focus on the security professional and that person’s tools and processes, without discussing the nuances of different industries. This makes the book appealing to a broad range of practitioners, from companies of different sizes and influence levels.

I appreciate that the authors take a top-down approach – describing creating a security program and getting executive buy-in. They discuss the creation of policies, standards and procedures, with user education thrown in for good measure. Brotherston and Berlin recognize that creating a security program is, first of all, about aligning the program to business priorities, and they ensure readers are made aware of the benefits of getting financial and human resource support for the security program as a first step.

In each chapter, the authors include basic information on the topic, and also tips and suggestions, notes and words of caution. For example, in the physical security section, they note that “badges are fairly simple to spoof with time and effort. Recon can be completed by someone malicious to attempt to re-create a legitimate badge” (p. 77). Additional resources are referenced appropriately, which makes the reading interactive and thought-provoking. Because this is an overview of many topics, there is not a lot of depth to each discussion – there is just enough to cover the basic concepts, identify common approaches and challenges, and reference additional resources for readers who want to go further. The layout is clean and the information easy to read and absorb.

It is not until later that the authors dive into technical topics such as operating systems, networking, endpoints, software development, logging and monitoring, and password management. They provide a lot of follow-on resources and an appropriate overview of the topics.

This book is a terrific resource for anyone tasked with starting a security program at his or her company. The authors acknowledge that many security professionals find themselves in a security role after being “voluntold” to do security, and that making the transition from purely IT operations to security leaves a person bewildered and overwhelmed. The authors also recognize that the first tendency of IT people is to find a tool or “pretty blinky LEDs” as a panacea for all security problems. The authors address this by stressing that many effective security strategies do not require a large tool investment, but instead a professional can leverage their organization’s existing capabilities to quickly improve the company’s risk profile.

They complete the "Defensive Security Handbook" with some “last mile” tips about email, DNS and security through obscurity, as well as a list of resources and links for further information. One drawback of this book is the lack of discussion about dealing with cloud security and hybrid infrastructure environments. Written in 2017, it may be a matter of timing that this vital topic is not addressed. I would look to future editions to correct this oversight.

Book written by Lee Brotherston and Amanda Berlin

Book review by Helen Patton

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greysebay · 2 years ago

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Winter wonders 1.7

#Winter wonders 1.7 crack

'Incredibly rare' SWORDFISH sighting in British waters: 10ft-long fish is spotted leaping out of the water in the Irish Sea in one of only a handful of recorded sightings in the UK NASA's Artemis I mission: How £19 billion Space Launch System rocket will blast off on a 42-day journey around the moon - with Snoopy and Shaun the Sheep on board - paving the way for humans to return to the lunar surface by 2025 One giant step backward! NASA leaves tens of thousands of fans - including VP Kamala Harris - disappointed after early morning Artemis 1 moon launch is scrubbed due to engine bleedīillions of used COVID-19 masks, isolation gowns and rubber gloves that are tossed in landfills each month can be shredded into tiny pieces and added to cement to make concrete up to 22% stronger than the traditional mix 'Invisibility cloak' made of a smoke-like obscurant that conceals US troops from enemies on the battlefield.DELAYED ARTEMIS 1 LAUNCH - RECAP: Technical issues force NASA to CALL OFF plans to fire Space Launch System.Mysterious shipwreck off Argentinian coast of is finally identified as a whaling boat lost more than 160.'Europe's biggest sauropod' unearthed in Portugal: Fossilised skeleton of 82ft-long dinosaur that lived up.'Incredibly rare' SWORDFISH sighting in British waters: 10ft-long fish is spotted leaping out of the water.Is THIS the key to reducing concussions in rugby? MailOnline tests a 'smart' mouthguard that measures the.NASA spacecraft on course to smash into asteroid at 15,000mph NEXT MONTH: Space rock Didymos is perfectly.Greenland ice melting is INEVITABLE because of climate change and will cause sea levels to rise 10 inches.Apple leak reveals stunning iPhone 14 with shimmering purple finish that is shown when held at certain.Dolphins have 'wingmen' just like humans! Study shows males work together to court females and boost their.Billions of used COVID-19 masks, isolation gowns and rubber gloves that are tossed in landfills each month.Snap-solutely adorable! Miniature crocodile SEVEN times smaller than today's crocs roamed the forests of.How will we charge them all? US needs to spend $35 BILLION to meet demand for 1.2 million public ports by.NASA's Artemis I mission: How £19 billion Space Launch System rocket will blast off on a 42-day journey.One giant step backward! NASA leaves tens of thousands of fans - including VP Kamala Harris - disappointed.It's also the site of frequent earthquakes and home to eye-catching hydrothermal vents that can form where magma provides heat as it rises to the seafloor. Since most of it sits underwater, it remains largely unexplored. The Mid-Atlantic Range spans the north-south length of the Atlantic Ocean and stretches for 10,000 miles, making it the longest mountain range in the world and one of Earth's most impressive geological features. I would start to see if there was any caves or deformation in the seabed.' 'I suspect either ancient coral or some sedimentary rock structure underneath has a void for which material is being washed out further away.

#Winter wonders 1.7 crack

One commenter offered a less supernatural explanation: 'This to me looks like the sediment is falling through, or water flowing up from a crack in a geological shelf or cave roof. 'Upwelling! Freshwater from a land source bubbling up? As if there's a rock under there allowing the flowing water to break through in that linear manner.' a second user commented.Īnother used suggested, 'Some type of crab maybe'Ī user shared a meme saying: I'm not saying it was the aliens.but it was the aliens' Pictured above: Remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer traverses over the seafloor of the volcano explored during the fourth dive of the Voyage to the Ridge 2022 expedition

#Winter wonders 1.7

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zacharyleishmanfilmstudent · 4 years ago

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FILM 303 Creative Professional Conclusions: Crowdfunding and Sourcing Deep Dive – Lecture Notes and Thoughts:

This session featured a deep dive look into the many resources available to secure and utilise crowdfunding in for our grad film projects, or for use in future projects across our practice. The session was designed to discuss the many options available to us to secure funding, and then use this research to begin planning how we may utilise these resources.

Crowdfunding as a concept in itself is fairly simple. In all productions, producers are required to develop a budget that covers all below and above line costs from cast to shooting and development processes. This budget is typically financed by a studio but frequently in independent endeavours media makers have to find means to finance themselves.

The most common form of funding independent filmmakers can gain is found through crowdfunding. Taking the place of the involvement of friendly investors, this is where strangers who have been convinced to donate to the project contribute to the budget with their own money, in an effort to support the project/creator.

Crowdfunding can come in three different forms. All take place usually on social media the forms consisting of, equity crowdfunding, where investors receive a return on their payment, rewards crowdfunding where non-financial incentives are offered for donations and finally simple donation crowdfunding which is just simply charity.

Rewards crowdfunding is the most popular and the method I have the most experience with and would personally offer. It is the less risky option should your production run into issues and you find yourself unable to return funds to your investor and is ultimately a good show of gratitude in any small form to your backers.

Rewards crowdfunding involves the artist offering specific rewards once certain milestones are achieved in your push to gain funding. An example of this could be offering concept art, a copy of the script, pieces of your soundtrack or early test screenings. It assures the donor of the feasibility of your project, that actual work is going towards it, whilst also maintaining interest in the project, possibly helping develop communities around it, if enough people want to work to access all of your available rewards. It is effective in being in its own way, supplementary content creation but does also pose the risk of fitting into the gig economy, you are putting all of your eggs in one basket and there is zero guarantee of success.

The overall benefits do though greatly outweigh the risks. It generates a maintained social media presence for your work, doesn’t come across as corporate, allows you to directly appeal and pander to niche audiences and you can sometimes be lucky enough to gain extra funds even after the donation period has ended.

There are several platforms on which artists can crowdfund but possibly the two platforms that bare the most use and benefit to my practice are Kickstarter and Patreon. Kickstarter is effectively the epitome of the rewards crowdfunding system previously discussed. A site specifically designed to creators to pitch projects and find support it operates on a reward system utilised to draw up attention but is reliant on the project reaching its total funding goal to access any of the funds you’ve gained during the process.

Patreon in contrast to this differs in that it is a support network for artists not their projects. Here artists can offer rewards in return for directly funding their livelihood. Used particularly by YouTubers they offer rewards such as exclusive content or direct communication in return for money they use when ad revenue is not available. There are no direct downsides to Patreon but there is a very tricky formula to maintaining audience interest and does require you to be producing regular and quality content if not quality rewards to make the donation seem worthwhile.

Both have been used to scam and cheat certain audiences and like any social media there are adverts for even the most useless and inane of the causes. However, both platforms can be used to really provide positive support to creatives and really help make or break their art in a time where it is increasingly difficult for artist to gain the likes of major studio support or just have their platform on which they operate, treat them fairly.

After having discussed the styles and functionality of these platforms we were tasked individually with researching the successful instances artists have found on these platforms and then determine how we might create our own campaign or programme on these platforms.

An extremely successful Kickstarter campaign that I have previously researched at great lengths due to the sheer impressiveness of its success, is the Kickstarter campaign for the Indie hit game, ‘Shovel Knight’. Through Kickstarter, indie development team Yacht Club games were able to launch their 8-bit homemade platformer into one of the industry’s most beloved and well-known titles.

The success of Shovel Knight was born out of the game not just being a legitimately fantastic product but through the approach Yacht Club took when trying to fundraise for the project. Setting the bare minimum target for their total goal their approach focused on acquiring what was necessary, it made the project seem trustworthy. The team wasn’t seemingly asking for any more than they needed just what they needed to make the game and survive financially. The honesty present was a huge reason to place trust in this team, when the platform had previously been used to take excessive amounts of money from fans and not committing it to the actual listed project, as seen in the case of the now industry hated ‘Mighty Number 9’.

Gaining publicity for the game was something Yacht Club was able to quickly get their hands on, sending early test models of the game’s beginning stages to streamers focused on retro game content, attracting both their fans and support. It signalled this was a project that was meant for the fans and was a love letter to the fans who missed this era of games as well as to the era itself.

The real killer of this Kickstarter however were the reward tiers. The make-or-break factor of many a Kickstarter, Yacht Club promised new character campaigns that would be released as full DLC once the stretch goals for the main game had been reached. Effectively saddling themselves with even more work, work that they didn’t finish until years after the full game’s eventual release in 2014, the team once again sold donors on Shovel Knight as a product. This was not a one and done hit, this was a product that would be supported and would become a long-time investment to the fans good enough to believe in the product.

A larger risk had the game failed, but one that they were ultimately able to pull off, the main lessons I would take from this campaign is the importance of getting your name out amongst the fans and giving them decent incentives to back you that are actually valuable.

A Kickstarter campaign is not something I intend to start for my grad project film ‘Eulogy’ given the film has already been self-financed and doesn’t likely require further funds. However, I still believe that the project could possess a strong campaign that offered a variety of rewards to those who chose to donate. The budget I would hypothetically want to reach would range between £200-£300 and whilst lacking the funds or manpower of Yacht Club to produce the same quantity of rewards or the scale they possessed I would still attempt to produce a quality and modest set of rewards.

£1 Patrons = Name in credits and a signed copy of the script

£5 Patrons = Name in credits, signed copy of the script and behind the scenes featurettes and commentary videos

£10 Patrons = Name in credits, signed copy of the script, BTS videos and original limited print of the artwork featured in the film.

£20 Patrons = All of the above and early access screening of both work in progress and final cuts of the film.

These rewards I would envision to be a decent incentive for donors to consider donating and given the low rate of the budget and rewards available at every tier, it seems likely that even if the majority of donations were on the lowest tiers, I may still be able to finance the film and the donors will be thanked for their contribution.

A platform I do greatly intend to make use of in my future though is Patreon. Whether my practice continues to focus on filmmaking or not a great hope that I have is that I will be able to commit to the creation of video essay material on YouTube analysing media I have a knowledge and affinity for. Ad revenue is famously a poor means of supporting oneself through YouTube so if in some reality I could attract a following, I would offer a Patreon through which they could support me.

My Patreon model would be based on a current Patreon I currently donate to, the patreon for the ‘Let’s Fight a Boss’ podcast. An Irish podcast the trio discuss the media they’re consuming and offer livestreams of obscure video game series, their playthrough of ‘Shenmue’ being possibly their most famous content. Their Patreon model is quite modest, there not being many rewards, they can offer in a Podcast format but still being worthwhile enough in themselves. The rewards I have been able to access by donating, is access to their private discord for fellow patrons, shout outs for actual patrons during episodes of the podcast and access to exclusive episodes not featured on their channel.

Any rewards I would offer on Patreon would follow a similar model, I myself wanting to produce some similar digital rewards that also focuses on thanking and involving fans in my work to show gratitude for their charity. Whilst there’s no guarantee this plan will ever actually take shape, this is the hypothetical rewards system I have long planned to offer.

£1 Patrons = Name in the credits of videos and access to channel discord.

£5 Patrons = Name in credits, access to channel discord, a verbal shoutout at the end of the video and access to behind the scenes editing commentary videos.

£10 Patrons = All of the above with early access to videos, access to private vote to determine topic of videos and access to four Patreon exclusive videos not featured on YouTube.

This is model I think I could feasibly create and that ultimately isn’t greedy. I doubt I will commit to YouTube full time, but this is enough of a rate where I could consider it a viable side project/earning if I can hopefully develop enough of a following, and I believe this reward programme is quite generous in that regard and wouldn’t lead to burn out.

The many benefits and pitfalls of crowdfunding have been apparent to me even before I considered entering this industry myself. My desire to utilise crowdfunding within my current practice is undeniably minimal as I do not have the confidence to consider asking for money for an amateur project. However when my practice does eventually alternate to this new video essay focus, considering crowdfunding on Patreon will be completely necessary if it is media I want to make viable.

#Creative Professional Conclusions FILM 303 PCA FILM BLOG POST

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enterinit · 5 years ago

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New Xbox One Games for April 28 to May 1

New Xbox One Games for April 28 to May 1.

Daymare: 1998 – April 28

DAYMARE: 1998 is a third-person survival horror with hardcore survival mechanics and hard to kill enemies. It requires a strategical approach to combat and puzzles and offers a multi-character point of view on the story, revealing a deep and obscure lore. The scene is set with a secret research facility, a deadly chemical weapon and a special security team to investigate this incident with the potential to become much more than just a security breach. Follow the steps of an elite soldier, a helicopter pilot and a forest ranger, as they play out their roles in an event that transforms one peaceful small town into a deadly zone and its citizens into bloodthirsty monsters. Take the creatures down first, before looking for any clues and evidence to bring more sense to the mess. Keep track of your itinerary, as resources are scarce in a situation like this! Anything can happen when your daymares become real… Fans of the iconic cinematographic brands and classical gloomy survival horror games of the '90s will be thrilled, seeing how DAYMARE: 1998 recreates the atmosphere of the most beloved works from the end of the millennium and places a typical yet fresh story in the middle of it. The plot unfolds through the eyes of various characters, putting players in the shoes of different personalities that will guide them through their theories and doubts about the situation. Backtracking, managing ammo, collecting lore items, solving environmental puzzles and the overall difficulty will help players jump a couple decades back and get chilled to the bone in their first real daymare. Features: Multi-character POV – see the story from different angles and discover the truthDreadful enemies – rendered in detail with lifelike animations and dismembermentRealistic HUD – check inventory, health and position on a special piece of gearEnvironmental puzzles – finding your way is not always easy, look for cluesClassic mechanics - limited ammo and save points, backtracking, collectibles, tough enemies and moreModern graphics and effects – not all is classic thanks to Unreal Engine 4Experience 90s – homage to the era with tons of references https://youtu.be/-Bv1MFhbo5c

Ghost Sweeper – April 28

After many centuries, the dark lord is resurrected from his ashes and coming back to his castle… and… cursing the lands all around!! Now, many ghosts and undead wander freely haunting every place. Giving to the people, only one option. Escape! But, when the hopes seem to fade away… the heroes usually appear! The "Ghost Sweepers" are here! Ready to kick out ghosts and some clumsy monsters! Prepare yourself to face the most fun army of darkness ever seen! Rounded ghosts, laughing pumpkins, creaking skeletons and many other weird creatures are waiting for you! You will explore 8 different zones. From the Dark forest to The Evil Lord Lair passing through the haunted villages and graveyards. Each zone has many levels and many secret levels to be revealed! If you manage to find all the secrets, the gates to an hidden zone will be opened as your reward! Many items, cartoon graphics with many fun details, a game-play that mixes action and puzzle. You can count on your agility and quickness or maybe plan a perfect strategy and avoid any risk, is all up to you! Choose the "Ghost Sweeper" that fits more with your style or maybe more appropriate for a specific stage. Look everywhere in search of treasures and use those treasures to buy useful items In the shop! Are you skilled enough to defeat the dark lord? (And maybe take back all his treasures!!?? ) Ghost Sweeper: 8 Different Worlds 2 Hidden Worlds 8 Levels for each world Hidden levels 2 Different Heroes

Moving Out – April 28

Moving Out is a ridiculous physics-based moving simulator that brings new meaning to "couch co-op"! Are you ready for an exciting career in furniture? As a newly certified Furniture Arrangement & Relocation Technician, you’ll take on moving jobs all across the town of Packmore. Smooth Moves may not be the biggest moving company, but there’s no task too dangerous or strange for this busy team of go-getters. Grow your business to brave new heights, recruit colorful customizable characters, and save your town from furniture peril! What does Smooth Moves have to offer, you ask? Co-op! Enjoy the story mode solo as an independent contractor or team up with some friends. Up to four players can cozy up on the couch to argue over the best way to move a couch. Test your skills AND your friendship! Physics! Are pesky doors and windows standing in your furniture’s way? Just blast through them with physics! Lift, toss and smash your way to the fastest times! Action! Learn the ropes in a series of increasingly precarious and fantastical moving jobs. How a bed gets from point A to point B is never a straight line, so throw out the training manual and get creative! Adventure! Every moving company starts small, but as your reputation ranks up, so do your destinations. Move through sleepy suburbs, frenzied farms, haunted houses, virtual reality and lands beyond! Characters! Recruit a unique cast of colorful characters, each packed with a passion for manual labor! Assist Mode! Are you a rookie? No problem! Adjust the game’s difficulty so anyone can play! Don’t wait! Grab your friends and become a certified moving master in Moving Out today!

SnowRunner – April 28

Get ready for the next-generation off-road experience! SnowRunner puts you in the driver’s seat of powerful vehicles as you conquer extreme open environments with the most advanced terrain simulation ever. Drive 40 vehicles from brands such as Ford, Chevrolet, and Freightliner as you leave your mark on an untamed open world. Overcome mud, torrential waters, snow, and frozen lakes while taking on perilous contracts and missions. Expand and customize your fleet with many upgrades and accessories including an exhaust snorkel for heavy waters or chain tires to battle the snow. Ride solo or with other players in 4-player co-operative! • Face extreme environments in a highly advanced physics engine • 40 unique vehicles to unlock, upgrade, and customize • Complete dozens of challenging missions across an interconnected world • Go solo or play with other players in 4-player co-op https://youtu.be/y2jzQuUPSgo

Telling Lies – April 28

A Video Game About Private Conversations An investigative thriller game with non-linear storytelling, Telling Lies revolves around a cache of secretly recorded video conversations. Starring Logan Marshall-Green, Alexandra Shipp, Kerry Bishé, Angela Sarafyan and directed by Sam Barlow, creator of Her Story and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. How does it work? Telling Lies sits you in front of an anonymous laptop loaded with a stolen NSA database full of footage. The footage covers two years in the intimate lives of four people whose stories are linked by a shocking incident. Explore the database by typing search terms, watch the clips where those words are spoken and piece together your story. Unlike anything you've played before, Telling Lies is an intimate and intense experience. A game where you decide the truth. https://youtu.be/a0x9OaHDjig

The Inner Friend – April 28

Dive in and remember… Led by a mysterious Shadow, face fears and nightmares inhabiting its materialized subconscious universe. Dive into a unique and eerie world to relive the Shadow’s childhood memories and overcome them to restore what was once a safe haven. You’ll journey ever deeper through the subconscious to unravel a rich but wordless story and encounter gruesome beings that you must evade. Ultimately, however, you will have to face them. The Inner Friend features a rich visual environment, supported by an immersive soundscape and a cinematic soundtrack enhancing immersion and emotional moments. Movement, imagery, and music are the main ways for the player to interact with the Shadow, their guide throughout the descent. Dark and scary, mysterious at times, the world of The Inner Friend is a surrealist representation of memories and fears." Features: IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING : Immerse yourself in a visually-driven narrative with a minimalist interface.AN EERIE ADVENTURE : Journey through a surreal world inspired by childhood nightmares and psychology.DIVERSE GAMEPLAY MECHANICS : Overcome obstacles, solve puzzles and defeat nightmarish foes.RECONNECT WITH YOUR INNER CHILD : Earn the Shadow’s trust to unlock new challenges and pieces of the story.COLLECT ALL ARTIFACTS : Rebuild the Shadow’s safe haven to save him from his darkest fears.

Active Neurons – Puzzle Game – April 29

Active Neurons is a game that trains the player in spatial logical thinking. By controlling the power of thought, you must charge the neurons. The more the neurons are charged, the healthier the brain becomes. The healthier the brain becomes, the more of a fully-fledged life the person will live. It may seem simple, but it won't be as simple as it seems. To choose the direction of movement, the power of thought should be at rest, so it is important for you to correctly use the obstacles presented on every level. Think, make a decision, and look for the right path to the neurons in order to charge them. Our brain works much like a computer without the chips. Neurons are the primary components of the nervous system. They send and receive information in the form of electrical signals from the sensory organs, facilitating communication with the brain. Do not forget to charge your brain! This is exactly what you need to do in the game, while simultaneously charging the neurons in real life! Features: 120 logical tasksMore than 15 types of unique mechanicsMeditative music that creates an additional atmosphere in the gameSupport for color blindness mode

Crawlers and Brawlers – April 29

Lord Wellington was a great adventurer. You've traveled to the town near his castle to listen to his stories and learn how to be a great one too. But everything isn't as it seems and your education might unfold differently than you expected. Play how you want. Adventure through the entertaining story. Crawl through the dungeons in any order by yourself, with 4 friends online, or in 4 player split-screen co-op. Challenge other players to brawl in versus or team battles on 12 different maps. Fight waves of enemies in the Arena for extra loot. Procedurally generated dungeons so replays are always exciting. It has all the classic RPG elements you love. Unlock abilities as you level up. Powerful items to make your character better. Artifacts that give you special abilities. A skill tree to customize your character.

Dread Nautical – April 29

Your cruise was so relaxing until the monsters from another dimension showed up to kill everyone. A tactical turn-based RPG with roguelike elements, Dread Nautical combines immersive gameplay with a cartoonish—yet captivatingly eerie—tone. Supernatural forces have overwhelmed a cruise liner called Hope with mysterious malevolent monstrosities. Fight them off as one of four unlikely heroes. Manage your scarce resources effectively, and convince scattered survivors to fight alongside you. You’ll need them for any hope of escaping this “vacation” alive. Traverse all 20 decks of the to unlock the mysteries of the Hope. Think several steps ahead during each battle, plotting the optimal use of each character’s action points. Your weapons, bandages, and other items deteriorate, and your resources are very limited. Make sure your companions rest, or panic may overtake them. Oh… And expect to die. A lot.

Gun Crazy – April 29

Gun Crazy is a fast paced and hectic arcade style action shoot em’ up in this homage to classic old school classics! Become the fiercest lady on the police force! Take out the bad guys through 4 unique levels filled with challenging bosses and powerful special guns. Features: Survive 4 uniquely designed levelsFight bosses, each with their own challengesPick up special guns that will lead you to victoryTight controls allow for easy use to take down your enemies

Shred! 2 – ft Sam Pilgrim – April 29

Ride as Mountain Bike legend Sam Pilgrim, and use the advanced trick system to bust out insane combos in over 40 hand crafted levels. Created out of passion by a solo developer, Shred! 2 is the most authentic MTB gaming experience available!

Star Crossed – April 29

StarCrossed is an action arcade game with a magical girl aesthetic and a cooperative twist! Join our cast of 5 space-faring heroes as they travel across the stars, working together to strengthen their bond and defeat a looming evil that threatens the Nova galaxy! It’s time to team up, get sparkly, and take out the bad guys! Features: Cast of 5 playable characters to choose from, each with their own unique ultimate ability!Designed from the ground up for 2 player local co-op! Split controller offers the option for solo play or an even cozier two player experience.Get competitive with Arcade Mode, featuring a global high score leaderboard!Explore the galaxy in Story Mode, with visual novel style dialogue scenes and an epic quest!Original soundtrack of magical and spacey tunes, composed by PearlPixel!

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered – April 30

INCLUDES the Underwater Demo Team Classic Ghost Bundle, available for use in Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare®, including Warzone*. Pre-order now to get the bundle instantly. Gear up with one of the most iconic Ghost looks with this Ghost Operator bundle. Bring the intense look and feel of UDT Ghost from the heart-pounding Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2 campaign mission 'The Only Easy Day… Was Yesterday' into Modern Warfare® including the free to play version, Call of Duty®: Warzone. Relive the epic single-player Campaign from the 2009 blockbuster Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2, remastered for a new generation in true high-definition. The Campaign picks up immediately following the dramatic events of Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare®, the ground-breaking title that earned worldwide critical acclaim. Modern Warfare® 2 is the epitome of gripping and heart-racing action, as players face off against a new threat hellbent on bringing the world to the brink of collapse. The Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2 Campaign has been fully remastered with improved textures, animations, physically based rendering, high-dynamic range lighting, and much more. Experience classic missions including Cliffhanger, The Gulag, and Whiskey Hotel as you join Soap, Price, 'Ghost' and the rest of Task Force 141 in the globe-spanning fight to restore order to the world. https://youtu.be/x993FRC4rXA

Levelhead – April 30

EMPLOYEEEEEE! The Bureau of Shipping is the galaxy's premiere package delivery corporation. For hundreds of years our customers have trusted us to deliver their goods, real good. And now you get to be part of that delivery magic. As a new Employee to the Levelhead Division, you are responsible for training your very own GR-18 delivery robot for every possible delivery scenario. Create L.E.V.E.L.s, or "Limited Exercises for eValuating employEe Limitations", with the intuitive Level editor in the Workshop, then publish them for the whole world to experience. Build incredible contraptions and machines, craft adventurous expeditions that require brain and brawn to complete, or just create a relaxing music scene for other Levelheads to chill with. Once you've completed your Level, share it with the rest of the world… and gain a following! The Levelhead Division comes equipped with powerful curation and Following systems, so you'll always be able to find the best new Levels created by your colleagues. And don't forget about the Training course! More than 90 hand-crafted Levels offer a wealth of challenges and surprises to jumpstart your creativity. What are you waiting for, Employee? Get out there and do good for our goods! Features: Build your own levels. Create your own levels with hundreds of elements including enemies, hazards, paths, programmable switches, secrets, weather fx, music, and power-ups.Master the challenging campaign. Take control of GR-18, a delivery robot in-training, as you run, jump, and blast your way across 90+ challenging, hand-designed campaign levels.Gain a following. Publish your levels for the world to enjoy. See your Play Time, Attempts, and Followers stack up!Compete for Speed and Score. Every level comes with a leaderboard. Take the top spot and you'll hold the trophy!Laugh in couch co-op with friends! Play with all three of your friends on the same couch for downright hilarious entertainment. https://youtu.be/A0WrHrDnNwE

Streets of Rage 4 – April 30

Featuring hand-drawn visuals from the team behind 2017’s gorgeous Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap remake, Streets of Rage 4 builds upon the classic trilogy’s gameplay with new mechanics, a fresh story and a gauntlet of dangerous stages with a serious crime problem. Whether players gang up with a friend or clean up the city solo, Streets of Rage 4 is a skull-bashing, chicken-chomping delight all set to a thumping soundtrack sure to get your blood pumping.

Antigraviator – May 1

In the year 2210, racing has evolved far beyond its expected limits. New terraforming capabilities paired with scientific breakthroughs in the field of antigravity have given birth to a new spectacle: the Antigraviator tournament. Race perpetually on exquisitely detailed stages, full of light-speed danger, chaos and mayhem. Guide your Grav in five gameplay modes across six different worlds with three tracks each. These dynamic courses come to life, while pushing the power of Unity to the limit. Challenge your friends in the fiercely competitive multiplayer modes, either online or in split-screen mode. Sabotage your fellow racers by activating hover mines, creating a rockslide to cause tunnels to collapse, firing missiles from rocket launchers along the track, and many more malicious tricks. Customize your Grav to your heart’s content, but choose wisely: deciding on one upgrade may mean compromising on another. Unlockable skins will be available free of charge. Features: No speed limit!Play the single player campaign to unlock new parts, ships and skinsRace your friends with local split-screen multiplayer for 2 playersRace anybody in online multiplayer modeUse environmental traps to overtake your opponentsPower-ups and boosts allow you to become top of the trackShip customization gives you an edge over the oppositionSix beautifully created sci-fi worlds with three dynamic courses eachStunning realistic 3D graphics powered by UnitySoundtrack featuring 15 intense tracks that will enhance your racing experience

Arcade Spirits – May 1

What if the 1983 video game marketing crash never happened? Set in 20XX, Arcade Spirits is a visual novel romantic comedy with a different history, where arcades still reign supreme as the ultimate place to play. After a period of turbulent employment, your character starts an exciting new job at the Funplex: a popular local arcade with a team of staff that are as eccentric as the customers. Features: Play as yourself – In Arcade Spirits everything is customizable. All choices are reflected throughout both cutscenes and artwork - pick your pronoun, hair style, skin tone, hair/eye colour, and more.Develop your personality – and interact with characters however you like: whether it’s friendship, platonic or something more intimate. Work hard and build the relationship you desire!Track game progress – The Identity Identifier System, or “IRIS”, can track your relationship status with all characters throughout the game, as well as your personality traits.Protect your Arcade – Your decisions will affect the future fate of the Funplex. Whether it’s the relationships you choose to develop, or the way you handle key moments of crisis management.

Chop is Dish – May 1

The game includes exclusive prologue chapter "Stolen Pork Story" never released on any other platforms! «Chop is Dish» tells the story of one cook who was robbed by some mystical creatures. Some strange monsters had suddenly appeared in his forest and stole his master chef's chunk of beef. Our cook needed this meat for his ultimate dish, and now it's gone — he has to act quickly and dangerously by pursuing the thieves and recovering his grand ingredient. The main feature is the protagonist — grumpy cook who would love to beat the sauce outta his enemies. Fans of oldschool pixelart games would be pleasantly surprised by this one, instantly feeling like home.

Fight the Horror – May 1

"Fight the Horror" is a whole new survival experience. A group of young people abducted and forced to participate in a game by a mysterious organization. They are 7 days to solve the mystery and defeat the boss to escape, otherwise … 7 days may seem enough at first, but soon they know they are trapped in a small room at day time, and can only get out to explore during night time. Intelligence and supplies gathered through many struggles, will be no more if one does not get back to the safehouse by dawn. A game that brings you the excitement of a lunatic human experiment situation, now let you experience even more with a friend through split-screen. Can you overcome fear and fight the horror? Features: Survival horror: gather, synthesize, level-up, fight or flightSplit-screen couch co-opChallenging time-limited gameplay7 Mysterious stories based on local urban myths14 ways of burials or sacrifices for your teammateMaze-like fictional city world

Miden Tower – May 1

Miden Tower is a fantasy RPG with a compelling and dramatic story. After Miden Tower is invaded by the Alroval Empire, the mages who call it home find themselves cornered on its upper floors. This sets in motion a series of tragic events that lead to a counteroffensive being launched to take back the tower and to get revenge for the wrongs committed against them. The heroine is an actual wall that provides support to the main characters by merging with walls or acting as a wind breaker if needed. Turn-based battles can be engaged with 3x3 grid battles by using skills with different effects or by summoning golems to take down your foes. Alchemize items, learn passive skills and enjoy the tons of quests and extra enjoyment that await in this magical adventure! Features: RPG of a soul-stirring story of tragedy and revenge, and a wall maiden!?The heroine is an actual wall that provides support to the main characters by merging with walls or acting as a wind breaker if neededTurn-based battles can be engaged with 3x3 grid battles by using skills with different effects or by summoning golems to take down your foesAlchemize items, learn passive skills and enjoy the tons of quests and extra enjoyment that await in this magical adventure!

Robot Squad Simulator X – May 1

Deal with the hardest missions which can't be performed directly by people due to the conditions. Human life and safety is in your hands! Game features: 4 different robots: 2 terrestrial, aerial and underwater6 training missions16 story missions which take place all over the world, in different settings10 different accessories mounted on robotsplenty of gameplay elements like: guards, explosives, mechanismsupgrading parameters of robots and accessoriesdifferent types of missions: rescue, spy, exploration, military

Sin Slayers: Enhanced Edition – May 1

Sin Slayers is an RPG with roguelike elements set in a dark fantasy world, where your choices determine how challenging the fights and enemies will be. Create, equip and lead a team of heroes. Each unit will have its own abilities and weaknesses, so plan your combat strategy accordingly. You’ll journey through stinking primeval forests, boneyards riddled with crypts and the graves of fallen warriors, and other places even the bravest adventurer would fear to tread. Battles, traps, and bizarre enemies… Everything and everyone wishes to take your life, but don't succumb to despair. Between fights your party can take their rest at a fountain, or while on the road in an old church which leaves its doors open to the weary and wounded. Travel every path and byway of the Valley, obtain new weapons on the field of battle or by fulfilling quests, gather ingredients for magical elixirs and resources to craft armor and amulets. If a certain item is beyond your crafting ability, ask the blacksmith in the Old Church for help. The best gear will allow you to challenge the deadliest monsters. Features: Randomly generated locationsRoguelite with Dungeon Crawler elementsTurn-based JRPG combat systemSinfulness system changes the difficulty of the gameDark fantasy world

Super Toy Cars 2 – May 1

Super Toy Cars 2 is a fast-paced arcade racing game where you control miniature cars that speed through amazing tracks made of supersized everyday objects. In Super Toy Cars 2 you will race cool toy cars, alone or with friends, across crazy tabletop tracks made of everyday objects that take on a new dimension. In this world a sausage is the size of a bus, a burger is the size of a small swimming pool and you may encounter dangerous toy scissors cutting their way through the middle of the track. Outrace your opponents… or crush them to scrap! You can fight them up close or use one of the many power-ups scattered throughout the race. Unlock and collect the 20 toy cars, each with their own statistics, by playing through career mode and then improve them by installing upgrades or changing their paintjobs. In the end, this game is sure to do one thing for you: revive that crazy larger than life feeling of playing with toy cars when you were a kid. Features: 16 different tracks20 different vehiclesFully fledged Career Mode to unlock tons of liveries for your carsOnline and local split screen multiplayer https://youtu.be/oxwWP5XooQM Read the full article

#Games #XboxOne

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nikkil-rp · 7 years ago

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Masterpost: Characters and Worlds

The Color of Magpies

A second world novella, on the line between steampunk and fantasy, set in a structure called the House—a gigantic orrery/armillary sphere that hangs suspended around an equally gigantic tree called the Mother Tree—with an alchemy-based magic system that isn’t well known. The story revolves around a series of unsettling disappearances and the rush to solve the mystery behind them before the House comes apart at the seams, both figuratively and literally.

Magatha Briggs: Autistic. Brilliant scientist in a world that seems to be run by mystical rules, with things being explained by allegory and myth. Her parents were the Masters of the House until they fell unexpectedly ill, to the point where they are almost entirely catatonic, and she was forced to step up and become the Master of the House in a time of crisis. She believes that who she is is unhelpful and unnecessary because she is interested in botanical chemistry, where her father and all the Masters before him just “listened to the Mother Tree”. She does not know what this means. She tries to suppress who she is for the good of the people.

Kaelan West: Visibly Dichromatic, including dichromatic facial features. Works in the conservatories, and has worked on the grounds crew for the Mother Tree. Cares a lot about plants. Loves them, even though it is literally impossible for a plant to repay him for doing so. He thinks magpies are beautiful, even though “magpie” is a pejorative term used against Dichromatics. Struggled with depression when he was younger, but found that when he worked with his plants and tried to help people around him, things were brighter. Goes out of his way to help people who he thinks might be struggling with depression or something similar.

Ivory: A mysterious, otherworldly woman that no one has ever seen, but that everyone seems to know about. Has an apparent network of individuals at her disposal, and may be responsible for or otherwise connected with the series of disappearances that have been plaguing the House.

The Steward: An older man who keeps a library, filled with all kinds of books. Some were written by members of the community, others were found in newly discovered spheres as they joined the tracks. The Steward has been around for as long as anyone can remember but barely seems to age.

The Mad King: Magatha’s father, the previous Master of the House. Currently in a catatonic state for an unknown reason. Many members of the community resent his absence and refer to him as “the Mad King”, a character from an old folk tale who abandoned his people in a time of great need.

Chemeia: A name found in some of the oldest texts in the Steward’s library, frequently associated with long, detailed passages about obscure sciences.

No Loyal Knight

A second-world fantasy series, set in a 4th-generation matriarchal society called Koronea, with an energy-based magic system that draws inspiration from Daoist theory. The story revolves around a group of young adults who were recently recruited to an elite fighting force (the Knights of the Covenant) tasked with protecting the ruling family and being a kind of special operations unit for particularly dangerous or important missions. Their recruitment comes just as the previously loyal veteran Knights seem about to collapse under the weight of corruption and apathy.

Ania Kyatei: Main character. 15-18yo over the course of the first book. After being seen as an outcast for most of her life because of her association with the Knights, she wants to help create a world where everyone is safe and anyone can belong. Currently doing her best to get to the bottom of the unexpected corruption of the leaders of the Knights with the help of her best friends, Randen and Elyys

Randen Derris: Best friend of Ania and Elyys. Autistic. Son of a male Knight who was recently killed in action. Incredibly gifted with instinctive magic and martial arts, but also prone to self-doubt. Has a deep love of the ocean after spending his childhood pearl diving with his mother, and is fiercely loyal to his friends.

Elyys Faye: Best friend of Ania and Randen. Close as a brother. Powerful observational and pattern recognition skills. Ania teaches him to read, and he loves it. From an abusive home, but comes into his own after being recruited to the Knights.

Alecgorn Eldan: First male Master of the Knights in seventy-five years. Mid- to late-forties. Specializes in ranged weaponry and fighting styles adapted from those practiced by Nephin Corifalle, one of the founding Masters of the Knights. Has not yet been allowed to take an apprentice, but goes out of his way to mentor male recruits when he can. Best friends with Matlynd Derris, Danin Kyatei, and Alliania Kyatei.

Raea Miral: Joconan immigrant. 18-21yo over the course of the first book. Works in the infirmary at the Inner Compound and the Corifalle House. Came across the mountains with her father and brother four years prior in the first border raid Ania ever volunteered in. While her father is still with her, working as a blacksmith for the Knights, her brother disappeared back over the mountains several years ago. She is in a relationship with Kyros Dehaan.

Kyros Dehaan

Skaught Farstrend

Amirone Farstrend

Mya Tohgis

Ehmita Kyatei

Matlynd Derris

Metallic Heartbeat

A second world diesel-punk sci-fi short story, set in the world of Ithaca, primarily on the civilian-class airship Arboretum. The story revolves around two cyborgs struggling to find and keep their place in a society that does not want them, who find themselves pitted against a biological supremacist group. Contains themes of ableism and domestic terrorism.

Koltor Bryant

DiPersia Iaonsen

Jakob Mahara

Alec Connelly

Karina Azuras

Jericho

A science fiction story set on the ice moon Europa-66, in an inhumane military labor camp. The story revolves around an escape attempt and the way it draws in good people on both sides of the conflict. Contains themes of torture and violation of human rights.

Jericho

Bradley Wallace

Amelia Abrams

Joshua Abrams

Commander Caen

#writeblr #original characters #roleplay #no loyal knight #masterpost #the color of magpies #metallic heartbeat #jericho #my writing

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z5061241 · 5 years ago

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Something Awesome Week 7: The tides hath turned

So this is probably the final week where I will purely be doing information gathering, next week I will be putting together all the information found into a nice, easy to view profile of Andrew.

Since last week was a bit of a flop, I re-checked the Tracelab’s OSINT criteria (here) and I found that it’s valuable to find out employer, family, and any vehicle information. Up until now, I had only been focusing on Andrew himself. The site reminded me that, when building a detailed profile, you need to consider more than just personal information, the context of work/family is important too because they can provide opportunities for exploitation.

Thus, the goals for this week are:

Gather more detail on the employers (maybe limit to only the past 2 for relevance).

Find relatives, but no stalking them. Just basic name and social media profile link if found.

Current Vehicle Information.

Employer Deep Dive

Finding PwC’s information was easy as expected. Just Google and Glassdoor.

Name: PricewaterhouseCoopers

Business: Consultancy

Website: https://www.pwc.com.au/

Address: One International Towers, Watermans Quay, Barangaroo NSW 2000

Phone: (02) 8266 0000

Social Media (Australian Accounts): Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube

Manager at the time: Unknown

Estimated Salary at the time: $28-$32/hr

I decided to add two more fields (Manager, Salary) because I think for an attacker this information is important. The Manager provides an authority which can be exploited via social engineering and knowing the Salary allows you to piece together an idea of the target’s financial situation. In intelligence gathering, if you need to sway a target onto your side it’s common to bribe them - but how much is enough? This is why it’s important to have an idea of how much the target earns so you can use this information to your advantage.

Next up was Tutor Doctor.

Name: Tutor Doctor (Tutoring Franchise)

Business: Private Tutoring

Website: https://www.tutordoctor.com.au/, https://northshore.tutor-doctor.com.au/

Address: None (Tutoring is done in students home, possible no address at all)

Phone: 0490 177 441

Social Media: Facebook

Manager at the time: Hugh Moore

Phone: 0490 177 441, Email: [email protected]

Social Media: LinkedIn (with public photo), Facebook

Estimated Salary at the time: $25-$27/hr

I quickly found that there are actually multiple ‘regions’ the brand is split up in and each seems to run independently. Luckily I found contact details for each region on the website and it was clear that each region was run by 1 person with a listed mobile number and website.

I used the fact that Andrew went to Barker to narrow down the regions to either Hornsby or North Shore. This is where I ran into a dead-end, I didn’t know how to verify which one Andrew worked in. I decided to call the mobile numbers and act as though I’m an enquiring parent who has been recommended Andrew specifically; one of them will have Andrew in their system. I called Hornsby first since Barker college is in Hornsby however the person didn’t pick up, so I tried Hugh Moore in North Shoore (forgive the pun, it's late). Hugh didn’t even have to use any system, he remembered Andrew (from like years ago...must have been a fine tutor). SideNote: I realize that this is probably going too far for OSINT and walking the lines of Social Engineering (which I wasn’t cleared to do) but my aims were not to get Hugh to give me Andrew’s confidential, personal details such as an email/phone number. If I’ve crossed the line here, I understand if I dock marks for it - sorry :(. SideNote 2: This did give me an idea of how I would use social engineering (if I was meant to/cleared to) to get personal information. I would call up acting like a technical recruiting manager from a tech company with an obscure name (the types that you forget after a couple of minutes). I would claim that Andrew is applying for a job at the said obscure company and he has listed Hugh as a Referee. After the chit chat of getting his referral, I would ask Hugh if had Andrew’s number or email address - “He definitely seems like a very promising candidate and I’d be happy to progress his application forward with your referral. Um actually, for the next stage, I need to call him to organise the best time for an interview however I think he’s forgotten to put his number on his CV. I was wondering if you had a phone number for him? “ Why would this work?

People want to help people they know (Hugh would want to help Andrew land this job)

A phone number is not really personal information to a recruiter, might not sound any mental alarm bells

People operate in patterns: For the duration of the call, I would be asking questions (about Andrew’s personality, work ethic - things that are personal to his character) and Hugh would be answering. When I slip in the question about getting a phone number, Hugh might not think twice about it at this point. Especially if I've built good rapport with him thus far and sold him the recruiter story.

Feels almost evil to think of such things. So let's get back to proper OSINT :D :D.

Family + Relatives

In the past, I’ve seen mentions of a Glen R Carmichael in the UNSW Deans list under CSE. It seems very likely that this is a brother. When looking him up I found he had an ABN, his facebook was private and he too was on the HSC Distinguished Achievers list. Unfortunately, this is where I uncovered something that didn’t match my hypothesis. Glen R Carmichael went to Covenant Christian School not Barker College. Weirdly, I couldn’t find a LinkedIn profile, so I couldn’t try and use that to find more similarities between him and Andrew. For now, I’m going to put him down as a possible relative/cousin. Vehicle

Trying to find Glen’s information took some time so instead of trying to find more people in Andrew’s family, I decided to move on to trying to find some vehicle information. I read an article a few months ago about a man who created an ML project to look up car registrations in Victoria in real-time. Surely, I could do the same in NSW and maybe I could look up driver information too? Turns out you can search for vehicle registration’s via the number plate, but there’s no way of finding out who owns the car, or searching up drivers and then getting cars. Makes sense, it is kinda personal and only the po po should have access to that info. Ideally, if Andrew had a public facebook profile there may be a post of him showing off his shiny new red P’s (as so many Millenials do). Usually, these posts will include the car (and most of the time the number plate too!). A registration check gives you the following information:

Model

Make (inc. year)

Colour

Weight

Registration Expiry

CTP (insurer details)

Any concessions listed

You can also get a vehicle history report for $22. Since I don’t have any photos of his car or knowledge of any immediate family, I’m pretty sure its rather impossible to find any information on any vehicles he drives. All the resources under osintframework.com or the bellingcat doc are either only useful in the US or not related to what I’m trying to find. Facebook Events & Photos I had a brainwave one day while walking out of my thesis meeting and checking a facebook event I was invited to. Facebook events allow you to view the guest list if the event isn’t private, so even though I can’t see Andrew’s events via his profile, I can try and find events he has been to/going to go to and check the guest list! This is actually not a bad idea, because he is the Wellbeing head at UNSW SecSoc and in my past experience of societies, the exec committee usually come to the events. On the Events of SecSoc page, I checked all the events since April and found that Andrew has been to 3 events of which he has actually hosted one event!

On the sidebar I noticed the photos tab. After going through all the photos (not that many anyway) I actually managed to find a few photos of Andrew at those events!

AWWW YEAAAA :partyparrot:

What’s interesting is that Andrew isn’t tagged in any of these photos, but by knowing enough information about him I was able to place him at these events (OSINT is legit y’all).

What’s more, I would like to explain the significance of the second photo. Something I learned from the first phase of research is that photos of personal tech and devices are very valuable. Even though the photo may not be clear, this photo combined with one in the album which exposes part of the keyboard is enough for attackers to identify which model laptop Andrew owns. This opens him up to all the vulnerabilities and exploits this model has. It also gives attackers an idea of the computing power Andrew has access to on a daily basis. BINGOOOO :P

What’s the impact of having this data?

Employer Details: Gives an attacker more context on the target and opens up the attack surface. Finding people the target worked with creates opportunities for social engineering and more social media profiles to analyse. Knowing the position and company also provides an idea of the kind of financial income the target may have and whether or not that is exploitable.

Family/Relatives: Very similar to the above when it comes to social engineering and social media. OSINT professional’s have a term for family members who post their entire lives (and yours) on social media: Chatterboxes.

Vehicle: Even though I didn’t find Andrew’s vehicle, having such information is very useful. It can be used for many things such as, confirming that the target was in a location by finding their vehicle there, knowing whether rego has expired or not, etc

Events & Photos: The events and photos show where the target has been, what they are interested in and where they like to go. Using this information, I can say with some confidence that Andrew will go to a UNSW SecSoc event at the end of the term once his thesis and other course requirements are cleared.

Note on Time Management

This week I managed to complete all my usual work by Tuesday night/Wednesday mid-day (counting time for tutorial). This was huge because It allowed me to dedicate a lot more time to this week’s something awesome and honestly, without it I probably would’ve run out of time and not found the facebook events and photos. Definitely going to run with a schedule like this next term :D

#wk7 #something_awsome

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