Inside the CIA, sort of.

The other day I spent three hours listening to part one of Julian Dorey's interview with former CIA officer John Kiriakou. Disgusted by the torture methods employed by the agency, he blew the whistle and was promptly put in prison for 30 months. 

The interview is in two parts, and full disclosure, I haven't had the time to watch the second part, which is also three hours long, but I'm sure it's good. 

I learned a great deal from part one, and figured some of you might be interested. With that said, enjoy.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_FDZozJ9zE

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HuyORiWoDM&list=WL&index=4&t=1s  

 

 

 

Playing with a challenge

I've played World of Warcraft since it's early days. I have also been away from the game many times, even for years, but sooner or later, I have always returned.

The beauty of a game like WoW is that you can play it how you want to (within reason). Some are almost pure PvP'ers, others spend all their time in the auction house making fortunes buying and selling goods. Raiders, transmog hunters, explorers, completionists, the list goes on.

Today I want to share two players with you. Both are Youtubers, and the first is Pathalerix, who's Goldlocked series has taken off in a big way. His deal is this; his character is at first stuck in Elwyn Forest until he can earn enough in-game money to buy a WoW token. Then he gets to move on to an adjacent zone, and so on. I have learned a great deal from watching Goldbound. I highly recommend it. 

The second channel is Manaburst who decided to only level up in dungeons, nothing unique per se, but he's soloing the dungeons, starting with Deadmines at level 9! This ongoing play-through has also taught me a thing or two, and I heartily recommend this channel.

Both of these gamers and Youtubers have created a challenge for themselves that is inspiring and awesome despite being pretty masochistic at times. They may not be the originators of these challenges, I simply don't know, but they are examples of how you can come up with a new way of playing a game beyond what the devs intended, much like my own project of clearing Sniper Elite 5 without taking any damage. There are new and interesting ways of playing our favorite games if we use a bit of imagination.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week! 

 

Operation Clockwork Orange

Quite by accident I ran across a video by historian Mark Felton, concerning Operation Clockwork Orange, which was a plan for a coup by certain British Military and MI5 individuals. Their aim was to secure the country against a communist take over. I had never heard of this so I went looking for more.

I found a documentary, which is absolutely fascinating. The video quality is abysmal, but the audio is clear. 

Mark Felton's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmKIa9dWI8E  

The longer documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSnqrXM3NNM

Enjoy this startling information. I'll embed both videos below. 

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

 

 

Falklands War

One of the less talked about wars in history is the Falklands war between Great Britain and Argentina in 1982. Despite being a relatively modern war and happening in my own lifetime, I knew very little about it. I did find a very nice documentary about it and wanted to share. 

So please enjoy this excellent documentary and join me again next time. Until then, have a great week! 

 

Hardcore Henry

A few days ago, I was looking for a movie to watch but nothing seemed to match what I wanted. Then, out of the blue I remembered having seen a trailer for an action movie filmed entirely in first person, so I dug it up and watched:

Hardcore Henry (2015).

Henry wakes up in a strange tank in a mysterious lab. A beautiful woman, Estelle, puts him together with cybernetics while explaining that his memories are shot, but that they are married and she loves him very much. Soon, the bad guy, Akan, bursts in with his henchmen and things go very wrong. Estelle is kidnapped, everyone seems to want to kill him and he doesn't know who he can trust, or what he is capable of. Queue a violent, fast paced action comedy with plenty of parkour, chases, fighting and buckets of blood.

Hardcore Henry is written and directed by Ilya Naishuller (Nobody, Heads of State) who has created perhaps the most unique movie I have ever seen. As I said, Hardcore Henry is completely filmed in first person, that is to say, from Henry's perspective. You see what he sees and nothing else. This has caused some people to become violently ill from motion sickness, so if you want to see it, be aware of that fact. Personally I'm not sensitive to that, and I play quite a lot of first person video games, so that helps.

The movie was shot exclusively with GoPro Hero 3 cameras on a special rig, which means that the movie in a sense doesn't really have any cinematography. At times this first person view is very disorienting, especially when Henry falls, rolls around and dives for cover, but eventually you get used to that.

Another interesting fact is that Henry doesn't have an actor. Ten different stuntmen played the role, depending on what was needed and who was hurt. Despite the challenge, only three minor wounds needed stitching, one tooth was chipped and two stuntmen got sore necks from the camera rig. With everything that goes on in Hardcore Henry, that is a miracle!

The story is alright, nothing too remarkable in itself, but it serves as a good excuse for the action. I didn't really like the villain, Akan, as he came across as more of a high school bully than a proper villain. Likewise, the ending dragged a bit, but those are my biggest complaints.

The effects are brilliant and besides all the violence, the movie really shines in the editing department. Some things are edited out like boring car rides, but beyond that you are in the hot seat for the whole ride. There is another aspect where the editing is amazing, but that would be spoilers so you won't get it from me.

The actors all do a great job, and the soundtrack is really nice. I think of it more as a soundtrack than a score, I don't know, it feels more appropriate like that.

So, do I recommend this movie? Absolutely! Hardcore Henry was a blast to watch. I'm not sure I'll watch it again, but as an avid gamer, it was so much fun. It is no coincidence that it feels like a first person shooter, there are in fact several gaming Easter eggs hidden in the movie, like posters and such. Hardcore Henry is a blood drenched movie that just doesn't stop, so if that sounds fun, have at it. Just remember the motion sickness thing.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

 

Time to tease that brain.

As both a way to teach critical thinking, a way to entertain and a way to make others think we're really smart, riddles are as old as humanity.

The oldest riddle we know of is Sumerian and is at least 4000 years old. 

1. "There is a house. One enters it blind and comes out seeing. What is it"?  

Other riddles have no answer like the famous one from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, that goes "How is a raven like a writing desk?" It doesn't have an answer frustrating as that is. The Mad Hatter is, as his name suggests mad, and the riddle has no answer. But readers bothered Carroll so much he eventually gave this response: "because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front". Someone else suggested "because Poe wrote on both." Make of that what you want.   

Here are some classic riddles to tease your brain and the minds of others. The answers are below, including number one.

2. "Walk on the living, they don't even mumble. Walk on the dead, they mutter and grumble."

3. "I work when I play and play when I work."

4. What is in seasons, seconds, centuries, and minutes, but not in decades, years, or days? 

5. What is so delicate that saying its name breaks it? 

6. What has to be broken before you use it? 

7. What kind of room has no doors or windows? 

8. Which word in the dictionary is spelled incorrectly? 

9. What invention lets you look right through a wall? 

10. As I walked along the path I saw something with four fingers and one thumb, but it was not flesh, fish, bone or fowl.  

I hope you enjoyed these classic riddles. That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

 

 

 

 

Answers:

1. A school. 2. Leafs. 3. A musician. 4. The letter N. 5. Silence. 6. An egg. 7. A mushroom. 8. Incorrectly. 9. A window. 10. A glove.   

 

  

 

 

Informative Entertainment.

I am officially melting. The weather in Finland has been way too hot and as a consequence my brain isn't really working properly.

When it's like this we all need entertainment, and if you can learn something while being amused, all the better.

I've mentioned OverSimplified History before, but that was a while ago. Since then he's made many amazing videos, including five about the first and second Punic Wars. They are as funny as they are amazing and I really hope you take the time to watch them. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go melt some more.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!