Last post of the year

Greetings and Happy New Year!

Alright, so I had this plan for today's post, but I had trouble sleeping last night and I did not get out of bed when I was planning to, so being slightly pressed for time (and with a brain that feels like sticky pudding) I present you with a short but funny video.

In hindsight and such, it might be a good thing to have a really short thing for you today. Many are busy on this, the last day of the year.

Please join me next year for more Eccentric Spheres. Take it easy, don't blow off any fingers tonight, and rememeber booze and explosives don't mix.

Until next time (and year), have a great week!

Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM

It's not easy being Queen

Lizzie. Her Maj. Or, Queen Elizabeth (Alexandra Mary) II is an interesting person. This is not a biography of her life, you can look that up on your own if you like.

This is a few fascinating facts and happenings that involve HM and people around her.

Did you know HM is the only person in Great Britain who can legally drive without a drivers license? It's true, she could if she wanted too, issue one to herself, but chooses not to. Despite that, she is in fact a keen driver. She learned to drive during WWII when she was a second subaltern in the Woman’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, working as a truck driver.

In 1998, she hosted Saudi Prince Abdullah at her estate, Balmoral in Scotland. One day she asked if the prince would like a tour of the estate and to his shock she jumped behind the wheel of her Land Rover. She then proceeded to drive fast across bumpy terrain while pointing out features. Eventually, the shell-shocked prince had to ask (through his interpreter) her to please stop, as the ride had terrified him. It could have been the speed and terrain, or it could have been a female driver. After all it was only in June this year that Saudi women were allowed to drive.

Back in the day, HM and Mrs. Thatcher disagreed on many things. Thatchers tendency to arrive early irritated the Queen a great deal and she was overheard on many an occasion referring to the Prime Minister as 'that woman'.

One time, Thatcher suggested that they could both coordinate their outfits for an occasion. Buckingham Palace responded: “The Queen does not notice what other people are wearing.” Ouch.

Eventually, HM decided to attend Mrs. Thatchers funeral, even though it was not her duty to do so.

When Diana died in 1997, the people were bereaved. Diana was very popular and well loved by the nation. This grief turned to anger when the flag on Buckingham Palace wasn't lowered to half mast. Despite the outrage, this was correct. The Queen's flag, the Royal Standard is never flown at half mast, as it represents the monarchy. As Terry Pratchett once wrote: “Monarchy is the only thing that is faster than light. The instant one monarch dies, the first in line of succession is automatically the new monarch. Light is slow in comparison.”

The other flag on Buckingham Palace is the Union Jack, but that is only lowered if the deceased is an HRH. Diana lost her HRH status when she and Charles were divorced.

Out of respect for the feelings of her people, HM did order the Union Jack lowered on Diana's funeral until midnight.

In 1979 HM's cousin, Lord Mountbatten was killed by an IRA bomb. Elizabeth was very close to her cousin so it must have been awkward for former IRA leader Martin McGuinness to meet the Queen in 2012. You see, at this point Martin had been appointed deputy first minister of Northern Ireland. In 2016 they met again, and he asked her how she was. Her reply, “Well, I'm still alive.”

Lizzie likes them sick burns...

That's that. I wish you all a Merry X-mas, a Happy Holiday etc. Have a wonderful week and join me again on the very last day of 2018.

It's getting cold.

Hello and welcome to Eccentric Spheres.

Today is a short entry as X-mas is around the corner and I have a lot to do. So I give you
50 Insane Cold War Facts That Will Shock You. Whether on not you are shocked, I leave up to you.

As a side note, both Christmas Eve and New Years Eve fall on Mondays this year, but fear not, Eccentric Spheres will update anyway. So, enjoy 50 weird facts about the Cold War and I'll see you on X-mas eve.

Until then, have a great week!

The bigger they are...

The last few weeks have been an interesting time in the AAA game industry. Interesting as in the ancient Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times.”

EA releases Battlefield V, and most gamers barely notice. It's lousy sales numbers compounded by their former Executive Vice President in charge of Worldwide Studios, Patrick Söderlund, who stated “If you don't like it, don't buy it”. Then he took his multimillion dollar bonus and quit. Well, it seems that's what gamers did. They didn't buy it. EA's stock price has plummeted by almost 50% this year...

Blizzard, now Blizzard-Activision, dropped the ball twice in a row. First during their own conference, BlizzCon, where they announced a Diablo mobile game after leading fans to believe they had a proper game in the works. The devs on stage then double down and sarcastically asked the crowd: “Don't you all have phones?” Blizzard was booed at their own con...

Then, the announcement breaks that Diablo 3 is being released on the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo's new console / hand held combo device. To celebrate, Blizzard announces a competition where you can win a Switch with Diablo 3. Nice prize, the Switch is fairly expensive. To enter all you had to do was take a picture and upload it, but the picture had to be of you playing Diablo 3 on the Switch... So to win the prize, you already had to own the prize.

Now on to Bethesda, dear Bethesda. Their last couple of months have not been good. First Fallout 76 launches to less than positive reviews, then a furor erupts when Bethesda refuses to give refunds on digital versions of the game. But, there are no physical copies. Even if you went and bought it from a physical store it was a case with a download code in it. So people start talking civil suit, as in several places (like the EU) it's illegal to withhold a refund within reasonable terms.

Then the bag controversy pops up. The Collectors Edition (or power armor edition) of Fallout 76 was advertised to come with, amongst other things, a sturdy canvas bag. People got a cheap thin nylon bag instead. When they complained to customer service they got answers like, “Sorry, the canvas bags were too expensive to make,” and “We're not planning to do anything about it”. To no ones surprise people were furious. To make matters worse, the Collectors Edition was left on the Bethesda store unchanged for days after the story broke. Now, if it had truly been impossible to make the canvas bags, they should have changed the ad, but it remained.

Of course this is blatant false advertising, which is extremely illegal. Some lawyer at Bethesda must have gotten through to the decision makers because they announced that everyone who bought the collectors edition will get a canvas bag as soon as they are produced. All they had to do was contact customer service with their details so that Bethesda can send them the new bags. Simple, right?

Well, no, because Bethesda's CS pages apparently flipped completely and allowed a small number of random people access to the personal information of everyone who responded. Eight pages of real names, addresses, screen names, type of credit cards (but not complete CC numbers), etc. In internet parlance Bethesda doxxed a lot of their already angry customers. To make it even worse, these people could affect the tickets, as if they worked at Bethesda. The problem is fixed now, but there's a saying about barn doors and bolting horses.

All this leaves me wondering what is going on in the AAA game space? How can companies like this screw up so monumentally? What's next?

That's me for this week, join me again next time for more Eccentric Spheres and until then, have a calm and successful week!

It

I got around to watching It (2017), and I liked it.

First off, Stephen King's novel was published in 1986 and the TV mini series was produced in 1990, so I consider the story pretty well spoiled. That said, I'm still going to try to avoid any major spoilers, I'm nice like that.

So we have the small town of Derry, a nowhere kind of town set in Maine, because this is a King story. Every 27 years, something awful happens and lots of people die. It has now been 27 years since last time, and kids are disappearing. A small band of kids, dubbed the Losers Club decide to do something about it, and they do. End off first movie. The next film is out next year so we're only looking at the kids part of the story.

Overall, this movie is incredibly well done. All the usual things I ramble about applies, set pieces, sound etc. Well done everyone. The film gets a black mark against it due to a couple of scenes, including the climactic finale, being way too dark. Stop trying to make an almost black screen exciting. You know what is exciting? Seeing all the exciting things happening in the film, okay?

Now, an important point is that the book (and the TV series) are set in the 50's and in the 80's. This version starts in the 80's and then moves on to now. Placing a movie in a time period that the audience can actually remember is always risky, as you can't mimic an era perfectly. It always comes off as a set piece, but they really did an adequate job here. Besides, there is nothing in the story that requires it to be set in the 50's. The 80's works just as well, as long as it's pre internet.

Another pretty big change is how the kids fears take shape. In the book, the kids watch classic Universal horror movies at the cinema, so Pennywise the Dancing Clown (the monster if you didn't know), takes, amongst other things, the shape of the mummy and a werewolf. Kids in the 80's aren't going to be scared by that so the film changes it around a bit. Controversial perhaps, but I think they pull it off quite well. This presented a problem however. When the kids decide to fight Pennywise in the book, they decide to use silver, because werewolves are allergic to silver. But with the werewolf gone they can't use that, and their plan seems very haphazard. It becomes less of a plan and more a drive to do something.

Lets look at the characters next. There are very few adults here with anything to say. This part of the story is about the kids, and the actors were phenomenal. Some of the best child actors I've seen in a long time. However, the characters are almost not developed at all. For having a 2h 15m run time, the film barely introduces anyone. On one hand we have stuttering kid who lost his kid brother, girl, fat but smart kid, scared Jew, hypochondriac, loudmouth and poor black kid. On the other hand they all have motivations, fears, personalities and a strong drive to survive. I wish they could have developed them a bit more though, as I had to fill in a couple of blanks from memory.

My one complaint with the kids is Ritchie. He's the smart mouth who always has a joke or quip ready. In the book he's the morale booster, the kid who can calm tensions and cheer everyone up when it gets too scary. In the film, he comes across as a crude, rude jerk. I mean, thirteen year old kids are walking hormone bombs, but Ritchie does little except make crude sexual suggestions and trying to high-five his uninterested friends. It does not work.

Pennywise is interesting. Visually very different than Tim Curry's version, but more accurate for the novel. Bill Skarsgård does a really wonderful job being all weird and creepy. They could have used him better, but it's good enough, no question about it.

I could go on, nitpicking and analyzing, but there's no point. You have either seen it, you're going to see it, or you don't care.

Join us next time for more Eccentric Spheres, and until then have a great week and stay away from creepy clowns.

The Zapruder Mystery

Short and sweet is today's motto. I didn't get any sleep until about 5 a.m. so the old brain department isn't too well staffed today.

A while ago I tripped over an interesting documentary, or conspiracy rant, you decide.

This documentary is about the Zapruder film, the only film footage of the JFK assassination and the edits that were apparently done to it.

Disclaimer: I haven't seen the whole thing yet, but it seems interesting enough. Watch and make up your own mind. I usually don't post videos I haven't seen myself, but even basic spelling is really hard today, so whatever.

Join me again next week when my brain hopefully is properly staffed and until then, have a great week!

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_QIuu6hsAc

Pain & Gain

Yesterday I accidentally stumbled over a movie I had never heard of. A small film, produced on the cheap for a mere $26 million, called Pain &Gain (2013).

Directed by Michael Bay and starring (amongst others) Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, this is one of the oddest movies I have seen in a long, long time.

The story in a nutshell is this: It's 1994 in Miami and personal trained Daniel Lugo (Wahlberg) is fed up with being a regular Joe. He recruits fellow trainer Adrian Doorbal and ex-con Paul Doyle (The Rock) and together they kidnap a rich businessman in order to make him sign over all his wealth to them.

Sound simple, right? Well see here's the thing. Pain & Gain is not just a crime movie, it's also a black comedy and it's based on a true story. It's insane, violent, absurd, kinda funny, and at all times really weird. It's also too long.

Take ten percent from Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, 25 % from a Guy Ritchie movie, a healthy pinch of Miami Vice and a few bit and pieces from various sources and you get this movie.

What needs to be said it that it's not a bad movie. It's very clear that Bay really cared, and it shows. He is a skilled director and P&G is beautifully shot. The actors are also good. Wahlberg had to bulk up from 165 to 200 pounds of muscle, which required twelve meals a day. Dedication indeed. What also stands out is The Rock. I've seen him in several movies, and always as the total badass. The kind of man-mountain that flips cars and punches through walls. Here he is sensitive. Sensitive and at times totally insane, but he emotes the fear and disgust really well.

Pain & Gain is however two hours long and in this case that's 20-30 minutes too much. There are several scenes that feel pointless to the flow of the story and just enhances the weird factor. Like when Doorbal is having sex with his wife, and she's flailing around with a pair of nunchucks. It adds nothing and could well have ended up on the cutting room floor with no one the wiser.

Here be minor spoilers. The three wanna-be master criminals are complete, excuse the expression, fuck-ups. I usually try to avoid profanity here, but it's the only word that adequately explains the sheer madness they call a plan. A lot of the comedy flows from these scenes, as especially Lugo fancies himself some kind of genius, and you can see a myriad of problems they just blissfully ignore. They coast by on an enormous amount of luck, and it the subject matter wasn't so gruesome, it would be really funny. The quote: “I was abducted by bodybuilder ninjas” should say a lot.

In closing, I enjoyed myself, but you should probably be in a certain mood to enjoy this. I do recommend it, but I imagine some people won't make it through both hours, at least not in one sitting.

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

City of the Dead

Make some popcorn and jump into the cinematic time machine, it's time to look at:

City of the Dead (1960)

I first saw this movie sometime back in 1990-91, and true to form I watched it a couple of times. What stuck with me besides a fairly young Christopher Lee playing something besides Dracula, was the general atmosphere. I wasn't a fan of black and white movies back then, and I really liked this film despite it's monochromatic nature.

So what's it about?

The movie sets the theme by starting with a witch burning in the 1600's, and then jumps to modern times, i.e. the 60's. Lee is a university professor teaching a class in folklore and history. One of his students, Nan Barlow, decides to go to a small village called Whitewood to absorb some authentic atmosphere for her research paper.

This is the setup, and as far as I'm willing to 'spoil' the film. The story really is quite good, if a bit unsubtle as you can pretty much see things coming from a mile away. I heard a quote from Hitchcock the other day, “In order to build suspense you must give the audience information”. I think that's what they were going for here, as the “mystery” is as mysterious as a brick to the face. You can see what is happening, but the characters can't. Slightly unusual to a modern audience, but it works.

The title, City of the dead is pretty lousy. Whitewood is pretty much a tiny ramshackle village not a even a town let alone a city, but it's better than the U.S. title Horror Hotel. In fact, if you find it under Horror Hotel, then it's probably a cut version. Not that there is all that much to cut. It's not a gory movie, it's barely a violent movie. The cut part is from the opening witch burning as the U.S. censors were offended by the witch's dying pledge to the devil.

What makes the film is the ambiance and the actors. There are a few silly parts that make zero sense if you dwell on them, but it really doesn't matter. The important parts are solid which leaves City of the Dead as an overlooked but enjoyable part of horror movie history. If you haven't seen it, do check it out.

So that's that, join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

The Blizzard turns into an angry storm

Blizzcon is over and many fans are... disgruntled? Okay, furious is more accurate.

So what happened? Apparently it was a very lackluster con to begin with. This in itself is nothing new, it's a fairly well known fact that about every other Blizzcon has exciting stuff and the others contain filler announcements. This year was pretty much a filler year.

They announced a remaster of Warcraft 3, new heroes for Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm, a new expansion for Hearthstone and that World of Warcraft Classic is coming Summer 2019 and is free with a regular WoW subscription. Basic stuff, right? So far so good.

Then we get to the delicate issue. For a couple of years now, Diablo fans have been asking for news regarding Diablo IV and Blizzards only response has been “sometime in the future”. Then just before Blizzcon 2018 a blog post popped up on the official site that, it seems, was poorly worded.

It did say not to get your hopes up, but that it could also be seen as a teaser. I don't care enough to actually read it, you can probably find it if you want to.

Now, a presentation is a delicate thing, doing it right takes a very specific formula. In a nutshell it goes sort of like this:

1. Mid sized announcement
2. Small announcement
3. Small announcement
4. Medium to big announcement
5. Small announcement
6. BIG FRIKKIN' ANNOUNCEMENT

You layer the not so exciting bits between the hot stuff and finish big. You want the audience to leave the hall feeling pumped and buzzing with hype. Pretty simple right? Not, it seems if you work at Blizzard.

They end their main presentation with an announcement that we are getting a Diablo mobile game. Yupp, at a con that is predominantly full of PC players, they proudly trot out a mobile game as the big finisher. Then during Q&A a guy asks “Is this a delayed April Fools joke?” And the devs say no. The crowd is silent and very displeased. Then first one dev and then the others ask sarcastically “Don't you all have phones?” What a slap in the face to your own fans.

Crowd erupts with boos, and I can't blame them. Unfortunately the more “passionate” members of the fanbase started with the nasty personal comments on social media. You know, the never okay personal attacks and threats. Anger and disappointment is one thing but I wish people would stop with these attacks.

Apart from the disgusting attacks another commenter group appeared. The “how entitled can these people be?” comments. But I don't think it's about entitlement, it's an honest reaction to Blizzards lousy handling of the game. In itself, a mobile game is nothing. Yes, the fans wanted Diablo IV, and eventually they'll get it. The mobile game is not taking away that, but to pull out a mobile game as a big deal is frankly, idiotic.

Back when Bethesda announced Fallout 4 at E3, they also announced Fallout Shelter, a mobile game, and the fans were ecstatic. Why? Because it was announced along with the main game, and it was available on the iOS store that same day. Not in some distant future, but now. At this years E3, Bethesda did it again. Like my formula they had some smaller games up first, announced Elder Scrolls Blades, a mobile game, and then teased Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6. No one was upset, no one got angry, because Bethesda treated the mobile games like they should in front of a PC/Console crowd: like a small, fun extra thing. Very sensible indeed.

And let's not forget, it is usually not the developers who makes the decisions, it's the MBA business suits who neither understand the games nor the gamers. All they care about is money, and yes, a business has to make money, but a game company should also make games. If they make good games, they actually make money, and without cynically doing all they can to force people to pay up extra.

Well, that's it for me, this has gotten long enough and I've said announcement too many times already. Until next time, have yourself a great week!

Who is it?

Hello fellow eccentrics!

A quick one today, but a really cool video. A run down on the art of disguise by former CIA Chief of Disguise Jonna Mendez. Informative and interesting, and it left me with the question: if she is allowed to talk about this, what are they up to these days?

Anyway, enjoy and we'll see eah other again next week!

Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JASUsVY5YJ8

Is it legal?

Last Tuesday, October 17, 2018, Canada legalized cannabis for recreational use. It had been legal for medicinal purposes since 2001, but this new unbanning made Canada the second country in the world to take this step after Uruguay.

Now it's nothing new for things to be banned for different reasons and then unbanned at some point in the future, and that's what we're talking about today.

First out of the gate we have a thing that King Edward II first banned in 1314 and later on Kings Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V followed suit with. What could be so bad that several English Kings would ban it? Why football, of course!

I assume you're wondering why football was banned, and well Edward II was worried that people made too much noise and disturbed the peace (fair enough) and that they neglected their archery practice. At the time, England's archers were rightly feared across Europe, but archery is hard and requires lots of practise. The other kings on the list also claimed to have been worried about the lack of shooting practice, but there might have been another reason; the aristocracy couldn't play. Football was a common sport and they got jealous of the fun commoners were having.

As an aside, Edward III actually banned all sports, and Henry VIII also banned bowling, but only partially, as he himself was a passionate bowler.

In case you're aghast, wondering how they could ban football, try banning Christmas. To no-ones surprise, we lay this one at the feet of the fun hating puritans. Festivities were banned in 1644 and in 1659 the party-poopers decided that any celebration, even Christmas, was a sin. They also viewed Christmas as a pagan holiday. A few years later, the New England puritans followed suit, and all this misery lasted until 1660 (1681 in NE) when Christmas came back.

Staying in the mists of history, we find the banning of coffee shops in 1675. King Charles II was a bit paranoid and convinced that people were plotting against him. Since coffee shops were the equivalent of bars today, it made them the logical place to meet and plot. Charles also claimed that coffee shops made people lazy and created a public disturbance. In the end the ban was abolished two days before it was supposed to come into effect.

Let's skip forward a bit now and talk about clothes. Women wearing specific items of clothing in fact. I could go on about early bathing costumes or indeed how shocking the bikini originally was, but I have something more ridiculous in mind: French women wearing trousers in public!

In 1800, the Paris chief of police declared that women had to get police permission to wear men's clothing. Then in 1892 the law was amended with the condition that women could wear trousers in public as long as they held on to a horses reins at all times. This was further amended in 1909 to include bicycles, but the woman had to hold on to the handlebars at all times, or else... In 1969 the then chief of Paris police was asked by the city council to get rid of the stupid law, but he refused. He was of the opinion that one couldn't know what crazy things the fashion industry might come up with next, so the law might be needed yet. Mind you, this law had not been enforced in years. Most people didn't even know it existed. There was an attempt to repeal the law again in 2003 but it failed. The irony is of course that both female police officers and public officials had been wearing trousers in public sans horse or bike for decades. Finally the law was laid to rest in 2013... Five years ago. I guess we can conclude that the French don't make hasty decisions.

That's that. Until next time, have a great week and try not to break any odd laws!

Sue the Food

Have you ever read the content list that's printed on everything we eat and drink? It can sometimes be a pretty scary revelation. As a personal example, I drink Ice Tea in the mornings as it contains less sugar than orange juice. Go figure...

Today, we're looking at curious lawsuits filed against the food industry, some merited, some not so much. And, no, the woman who sued McDonalds for burning herself isn't on the list. She got second and third degree burns from spilling the coffee in her lap, so that's another story entirely.

Canada Dry is a ginger ale made by Dr. Pepper. They have been sued twice for not actually having ginger in the drink even though the label says Made with real ginger. The corporation defends itself by claiming that the flavoring is partially made with real ginger. A commercial aired in 2011 even shows a ginger farmer so it's not too far fetched to assume it would contain ginger. Read the label, folks.

Staying on the topic of missing ingredients, the doughnut maker Krispy Kreme was sued in 2016 by Jason Saidian when he discovered that their Chocolate Iced Raspberry Filled, Glazed Raspberry Filled, Maple Bar and Glazed Blueberry Cake treats didn't contain raspberries, maple or blueberries, respectively. Curiously though, their Glazed Lemon Filled and Glaze Strawberry Filled doughnuts do contain the advertized fruits, so it's actually not too far fetched to assume the other sweet treats should contain what they say they do. If that shock is worth $5 million is another matter entirely.

In 2009, Roy Werbel sued the Kellogg's corporation due to the fact that their Froot Loops cereal didn't contain fruit. The judge dismissed the suit since fruit is not spelled FROOT and it doesn't come in loops.

In 2017 in California, a woman sued the jelly bean manufacturer Jelly Belly for tricking her into believing that their Sport Beans were sugar free. Instead of sugar the packet read “evaporated cane juice” and the FDA supports her suit, stating that juice can only be claimed if it is referring to fruits or vegetables. The claim isn't yet settled, but I do think the woman has a fair point.

Then we have to unusual case of Athena Hohenburg who became outraged when she had, based on a commercial for Nutella, fed it to her daughter thinking it was healthy. It's in fact about as healthy as a candy bar, and she filed suit. Dumb parent doesn't think for herself right? Well no, as Nutella agreed with her, changed their commercial and agreed to pay up to $20 per household if you filed claim within a certain period. (That was six years ago, so tough luck getting any money now). Corporation admits to being wrong? Miracles sometimes do happen...

Speaking of sweets, the makers of Chobani Greek Yogurt needs to shape up a bit. In 2014 two men, Barry Stoltz from Scarsdale and Allan Chang from Queens slapped the yogurt company with a lawsuit for their product. The lawsuit points out that there is nothing Greek about the product, and that it contains as much sugar as a Nestle Fudge ice cream bar, while sporting a label that screams 0%.

Chobani's defense was that Greek yogurt is a style of food that doesn't have to come from Greece (fair point) and that the 0% means no fat (which it didn't say at all). Finally they claimed a as defense that a similar case against them was dismissed in California. Great legal argument there guys... First class.

Well there you have it, and that's it for me. Until next time, have a safe and tasty week!

I never thought about it like that

Welcome to a new installment of Eccentric Spheres. Before we get to this weeks main topic, I want to do a bit of a public service here.

During the weekend, I got a warning email that my Ubisoft account had been tampered with. This is the second one of these I've gotten, and I've received one about my Gmail being tampered with as well. Both times I did change my password, just in case, but here is the kicker: Change the password from the main account page by going there yourself.

Never click a link in an email like this, absolutely never!

With the second “warning” I pulled up Ubisoft's account page and letter by letter compared the link in the mail with the URL that I knew was 100% Ubisoft. It was close, very close. If the real site is account.ubi, then the mail was ubi-account etc. In other words, if you don't know the URL by heart, you'll miss it. Besides, all the logos were correct and everything looked really official. But none the less this is nothing but a phishing scam looking to rob you.

By all means change your passwords if you feel the need, just take the time to go to the account page manually and leave the phishing links in the gutter where they belong.

Okay, now let's get to what you came here for.

Last week I found a Youtube channel called WhatisAntiLogic that puts new twists on familiar horror movies, and the best one I've seen is called The Shining: There are no ghosts.

In it, he very logically lays out a theory that explains all the happenings in Kubrick's movie and how there are no ghosts or demons. His theory fills in quite a few loopholes in the film, that I've always wondered about. Mind you, these are his personal theories, not the actual intent of the filmmakers.

So enjoy an entirely new look at some older movies, and until next time stay safe, keep your accounts safe and have a great week!

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4NTVKU6Prs

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5xgni03DE8

Here Fido...

Everyone and their grandma knows about guard dogs, right? But what if you don't want a dog? Or maybe you're allergic to dogs?

Here are some creative solutions if you need an alternative to dogs to guard your property and or livestock.

Geese

Using geese to guard the farm is an old technique. The reason they are so good, is that thanks to their stellar eyesight they spot intruders easily and then they get very loud, alerting you. Should an intruder desire to bribe the geese, they get excited and equally loud. So a no win situation for trespassers.

Donkeys and Llamas

These animals aren't that good at keeping away humans, though they can do so in a pinch, but they are wonderful at keeping foxes and coyotes away from your livestock. Donkeys charge ferociously with hooves and teeth and they get so angry that their owners can't even go near until they calm down.

Llamas are nicer to people, unless it's an un-castrated male, in which case it will likely become over protective of it's “herd” even if the herd is not even mammalian.

Wolves

If you want guard dogs, but something more dramatic, do what some villages in Kazakhstan does: get wolf cubs and hand rear them to be guards. The villagers treat the wolves like dogs, and as long as they are fed, they remain calm. Some experts are skeptical however, as a wolf is never 100% tame.

Alligators and Crocodiles

Some drug dealers in the U.S. have been known to keep gators as guards for their drug stashes. The upside is that the gators ignore the drugs, the downside is that they can't be trained and remain dangerous for their owners.

The head of the Indonesian drug enforcement program, fed up with corruption has decided to build a prison surrounded by crocodiles, as they are even harder to bribe than geese. His initiative has been met with skepticism, which is understandable, but points for thinking outside the box.

Dolphins and Sea lions

Both are used and trained by the U.S. Navy to guard ships against divers and in the case of the dolphins, find mines.

Snakes

Apparently, many people in South Africa has taken to guarding their homes and businesses with snakes, ranging from brown house snakes to boa constrictors. Even if there are no snakes, signs stating Beware of Snakes can be found in many places.

Well, that's that, join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

The lootbox drama

So, the international lootbox controversy continues.

If you're not in the know, a rising trend in recent years in the video game industry has been to sell players so called lootboxes. In benign situations, these boxes are awarded for free in-game, and only contain cosmetic items. No game changing content at all.

But, in many games, these boxes have essentially replaced progression. Instead of being given some kind of increase in ability or equipment designed to be fun and fair, you get boxes of random stuff. Stuff that are completely game changing if you are lucky. To make matters worse, unscrupulous developers and publishers also sell these boxes for real money. Not in-game money, but actual dollars and cents, giving players who are willing and able to wave their credit cards around an unbeatable advantage.

This is the short version, it goes much deeper, but for the purpose of this post, this is what you need to know.

Now, in the past year, governments and legislative bodies have noticed the fury of players sickened and outraged by these business practices. Especially when the words “Gambling” and “Children” started being bandied around.

The problem is that in many games you can win rare in-game items, items that can then be sold off to other players for real money, even up to thousands of dollars. Again, that's actual dollars and euros. And unless their parents are paying attention, children are doing this.

It began small, with Belgium. Belgium went to far as to deem these lootboxes as illegal gambling and banned them on penalty of heavy fines and potential jail time. The AAA game publishers recoiled in horror but complied. All except Electronic Arts (EA). They refused to give up their supreme cash-cow, FIFA 18 (with 19 on the way). EA claimed that they don't agree with the interpretation of the law, and kept on selling in-game stuff for real money. Belgium wasn't too happy and are now dragging EA kicking and screaming to court. If Belgium wins (and I hope they do), EA could be fined about $1.8 million or so, and someone could be going to prison. We'll see how that goes.

But our saga does not end there. My native country of Finland has also jumped into the fray. The Finnish police are now investigating if these lootboxes are breaking the law. In Finland you must have a license from the government to run anything even remotely gambling related. My information might be a little outdated, but at least it used to be that if your club or school wanted to run a lottery for whatever prizes you had, and the tickets cost real money, you had to get the approval of the police. So I can understand why the police are looking into this.

But wait, there's more.

A panel of experts in Australia has decided that this kind of system of lootboxes are absolutely gambling and now, 15 countries and the U.S. State of Washington are scrutinizing the disgusting little boxes. The countries are:

Austria

Czech Republic

France

Gibraltar

Ireland

Isle of Man

Jersey

Latvia

Malta

The Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Spain

UK

If even a few of the bigger countries come down against lootboxes with the same kind of penalties as Belgium, then the AAA publishers are screwed. Their golden geese are slaughtered and it's all their own faults. The standard excuse is that it's too expensive to make games these days, but many many developers are managing it just fine without predatory micro-transactions. Imagine if the car industry did the same. You buy a car, but there are no seats and the roof is a net. All because it's too expensive to make cars. Yeah right.

As the drama unfolds, I'll be talking about it here. And until next time, have a great week!

Slice of history

Good morning fellow eccentrics. Short entry today, because of reasons, so I present to you a Estonian made documentary about the fall of the Soviet Union.

I'll see you again next time, so until then have a great week!

Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYD6ouVHXbo

Foyle's War

Usually when I talk about a TV series, I've seen it through, but today is an exception.

Today we're talking about Foyle's War.

Foyle's War is a crime drama set mostly during World War II in the south of England, mainly in Hastings. The last two seasons are set post 1945 in the early Cold War.

The show was commissioned by ITV and started in 2002 in order to fill the vacancy after Inspector Morse ended in 2000. It's written by Anthony Horowitz, the brain and pen behind Midsumer Murders, so that's some serious mystery chops right there.

As of writing this, I've seen series 1 and two episodes of series 2. Each episode is about 90 – 100 minutes long, so it's really more of a series of interconnecting movies than a regular TV show. This of course demands a lot more time from the viewer, but it allows the plots to develop more, which is important.

The titular character Christopher Foyle is a soft spoken, and doggedly determined Detective Chief Superintendent of the police. He's usually assisted by Sergeant Paul Milner and his driver Samantha “Sam” Stewart seconded from the Mechanised Transport Corps, as Foyle can't drive. Another regular character is Foyle's son, Andrew, a pilot in the RAF.

As far as I've seen, each episode consists of a main mystery and a couple of side plots, and usually they all connect somehow. A small incidental happening can be the key to solving a major crime, and so far I'm very impressed with the writing, it really is first class.

So what separates this show from the myriad of other British crime dramas is obviously the war. The production values are amazing with uniforms, clothes, everyday props, vehicles even Spitfires everywhere.

Plot wise, the war has an immense impact. From the evacuation of Dunkirk and bombings to rationing and black-market racketeering you feel the conflict in every episode, but in such a way as to make it natural and not forced. The script shows it doesn't tell. Again, first class work.

So what are the negatives? Well, there aren't that many to be honest. The pacing can be a bit slow at times, and some events are pretty predictable. Like in one episode, Sam is undercover, and despite being ordered to safety she sticks with it, but gets into a bit of trouble. Things like that. Due to the grim nature of the war, some scenes can be hard to watch, but this is British television, not a Hollywood gore fest, so not to worry.

Finally, if you have a good memory for faces like me, keep IMDB handy. Like many British TV productions, you'll find familiar faces everywhere, and if I couldn't look them up they'd have to lock me up. This seems to be one of those shows everyone has been in at one point or another.

If you want to give it a go, you can catch it on Netflix.

That's me done for this time, join me again next Monday and have yourself a great week!

Sniper Elite 4

Today we're talking about Sniper Elite 4.

I have a long history with this franchise, starting quite a few years ago when I bought Sniper Elite 1 and 2 as a bundle during a Steam Summer sale. I started playing the first game, but gave up fairly quickly as the graphics were muddled and grainy by modern standards. The game was released in 2005, so maybe that wasn't so strange. Besides, the reason I bought the bundle was SE 2. As it turned out, this wasn't a problem as SE 2, released in 2012, is a remake of the first but with modern graphics, a much better gameplay over all and the famous kill-cam featuring a realistic x-ray camera showing you exactly what kind of damage your bullet has done.

I played SE 2 several times so I was pleased when they released SE 3 in 2014. What's important to note is that SE 3 is a prequel to SE 2 as is SE 4. One thing that confused me a little, is that the protagonist in all games is Karl Fairburne and in SE 2 he clearly works for the American Office for Strategic Services (OSS) but in 3 and 4 he works for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Karl is an American you see, so it confused me a bit, but the fact that 3 & 4 are prequels explains that very well.

Anyway on with Sniper Elite 4.

First off, almost everything that has been featured in the previous iterations is still here, but with a lot more stuff added. The one thing I do miss from SE 3 is the ability to set fires as a distraction or to blow something up. It was a useful mechanic, but whatever.

You still sneak around and quietly take out soldiers, sabotage ammo dumps and assassinate important targets. It's a true part of the franchise, and no mistake.

The first thing that should be mentioned is that the maps are huge. They have never really been small, but in SE 2 they were pretty linear, and in SE 3 they were expanded if not enormous, but in 4? They are gigantic. I was constantly surprised at how big and detailed they are. There are ten levels which doesn't sound like much, but if you want to do all the side objectives, it can take a couple of hours easily to complete a level.

Next up, the weapons. All the old favorites are back, with a couple of additions like a pump action shotgun and the German paratrooper rifle, the FG42. My complaint here is that quite a few weapons are DLC only, meaning you have to fork over more money to get them all. On the other hand there are more than enough to go around and they have a new upgrade system I'll talk about next.

Another new feature is the upgrade system, both for Karl himself and for the weapons. When Karl reaches certain milestones you get to choose one out of two abilities that go into effect. An example is choosing between taking less explosive damage or defusing mines faster. It's very much up to you and your personal play style.

Weapons get better when used enough according to certain challenges. Improved damage and stability, that sort of thing.

I have a small complaint with these upgrades and choices, and that is that the game doesn't explain their presence at all. It's new to the franchise, and Rebellion could have done a better job pointing out the new things.

The final point I want to talk about is the information you get on the enemy. As in previous games you still use the binoculars to tag enemies so that they are visible even behind cover. What is new is the level of information you get for each enemy if you keep the binoculars on them. Ostensibly it's “British Intelligence” but to know the name, weapons carried and personal detail about every soldier and officer is perhaps stretching the believability a little. Furthermore, you can pick up not only mission vital intelligence from people you've shot but also letters from home, letters to home and last letters. This little detail really hammers home that it's people you are shooting. Not just fascist or nazi goons. It sells the grim reality of war quite well.

Final thoughts. I could go on nitpicking the good and the bad, but in broad strokes, I'll say this: if you liked the earlier games, there is no reason why you wouldn't like this, and if you've been thinking about starting your own Sniper Elite journey, this is as good a place as any.

That's that. Until next time, have a great week!

Spooky stuff

A couple of weeks or so ago, I tripped over a show on Netflix called Dark Tourist and I want to talk about it.

The show, which currently only has one season, is all about David Farrier, a New Zealand journalist with a taste for the dark.

He and his crew travel all over the world to visit locations that can best be described as grim, gruesome, sad, twisted, mysterious and very dangerous. Mind you, this is not fiction, it's real life.

The first thing that struck me is that David has a lot of courage. I personally wouldn't want to go to most of these places. Some of them sure, but others? No way.

I'm trying to avoid spoilers here, so bear with me.

I guess no episode is bad, but some are a great deal stronger than others. The Europe and United States episodes were interesting but a bit weak, but only because they have to compete with the Japan, The Stans, and South East Asia episodes. The SE Asian was really hard to watch, at least for me.

They are all fascinating, well worth watching, and definitely informative but not for the squeamish. If that hasn't become clear by now, if you are of a more sensitive disposition or just feeling a bit delicate, do not watch this show.

It's not overly grisly, but there are a lot of hard to handle things involved.

I'm quickly going to mention another show I found on Netflix, there was only one season which is fine: 1000 ways to die.

This is essentially Darwin Awards on film. Each episode details several people who met their ends in silly and horrific ways, mostly because they are jerks and idiots. Be warned though, 1000 ways to die is really gory. The re-enactments are extremely well done. Also, they sort of spoil each episode before the intro, so it's worth skipping ahead.

That's that. The final episode of the summer. Next time I see you will be in September, so until then, relax and have a great week!

Next Floor

Here we are again. Monday morning, and it's time for some more Eccentric Spheres.
Today's entry is eccentric indeed, a short film - eleven minutes long and utterly amazing and bizarre. I'm keeoing it short today as I have rather a lot to do, so enjoy this delightfully odd thing and I shall see you again next week.
Until then, take it easy.

Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t60MMJH_1ds

Saucy Jack 3

Hello and welcome back to the third installment of our series about Jack the Ripper.

Last week we looked at some of the suspects, but due to space I left out a few. Today we look at them beginning with:

Lewis Carroll

Carroll was an Oxford don, and is most famous for writing Alice in Wonderland. So how can this guy possibly be the Ripper? Well, that is a good question. There is some evidence that he was sexually assaulted as a child, which will likely mess you up. Then there are his diaries that he wrote in purple ink, except on the nights the Ripper was at work. Those days he wrote in black ink. Why? No one knows.

Some psychologists who have analyzed his poem Jabberwocky, have found evidence of a psychotic nature in some of the made up words Carroll invented, and apparently if you deconstruct and reconstruct some of his works you can recreate parts of the letters Jack (allegedly) wrote. But, you can do that with any body of work written in the English language, even the Bible so that's no kind of evidence.

Does this mean Lewis was Jack? Very unlikely, if you ask me.

Next up is Walter Sickert.

Sickert was a painter, with a taste for the odd. Some of his paintings seem to depict the postmortem pictures of the Rippers victims, and similar scenes. Besides that, he was both influential and popular. In his time he painted many of the rich and powerful, including Winston Churchill.

Sickert was not a suspect in 1888 though, that came later when author Stephen Knight published his book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution in 1976. Knight had spoken to Joseph Gorman who claimed to be Sickerts illegitimate son. According to Gorman, Sickert was forced to join in with the Ripper murders for reasons we'll get to. There is apparently no evidence that Sickert was Jack.

Alright, the last two men, Sir William Gull and Prince Albert Victor are on the list for the same reasons. This also ties in with the Sickert theory.

As the theory goes, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale and Queen Victoria's grandson had some slightly deviant tastes for a member of the Royal family. He liked to visit lowly prostitutes, including those at 19 Cleveland Street. That address was visited by many powerful men, as they served not only women, but also young boys. After the scandal broke, the prince was sent on a long tour of the Empire to make it impossible for him to be interviewed about the rumors of his involvement. Many witnesses were silenced or removed. A theory was put forward that he had contracted syphilis from a prostitute and sought revenge. Frankly the idea that an effeminate prince would roam around Whitechapel and brutally dismember women is ludicrous.

But there is another angle. Some say that the prince fell in love with a lowly shop girl, who happened to have been a prostitute for a while and was still friendly with a bunch of them. The story continues with the idea that Albert Victor would have married her in a Catholic ceremony and indeed gotten her pregnant. This would have been an unimaginable scandal. Since the Catholic Church forbids divorce, a commoner would suddenly have been in line to the throne, a Catholic commoner no less. At the time there were some grumblings that the Monarchy should be abolished, so they were extra keen on not having scandals like that. If you wonder why a commoner would have been such a big deal, keep in mind that Victoria wasn't just Albert's grandmother, she was also the German Kaiser's and the Russian Tzar’s grandmother. The royal houses were very interconnected with no outside blood to talk about.

So, we have a secret Catholic wedding complete with heir, and they have to go. The theory states that the bride was gotten rid of, possibly in an asylum like Bedlam, but that leaves the witnesses, the brides old friends.

Enter Sir William Gull, royal physician. According to this theory, Sir William was tasked with removing he prostitutes for the good of the Empire, but that he went quite a bit too far, possibly due to some medical issue of the mind. He is known to have suffered at least one stroke.

The Sickert connection comes in the form of the fact that he had used many of the prostitutes as models and had known about the wedding, but as a well known artist, he was too public to kill, and instead was forced to join in to make him keep silent.

One of the biggest draws of the Albert Victor theory is the idea that the police knew who the killer was but for obvious reasons couldn't arrest him. This would explain why they never caught the killer on indeed released the information they had.

The wedding theory became popular due to the graphic novel From Hell, by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, which became a movie later on. The novel is amazing and the film is mediocre.

There we have it. There are of course many many more suspects, and I don't have nearly enough space to go through them all. Until next time, have a great week!

Saucy Jack 2

Welcome back to our look at the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper.

Last week was a quick rundown of the murders and the area in which they were committed, Whitechapel. Today we look at some of the suspects.

One of the earliest suspects was a violent and aggressive butcher called John Pizer. Apparently, he confessed but it was quickly discovered that he was innocent with an alibi for two murders and that the confession had been coerced by the arresting officer Sergeant Thick. The reason he was suspect was the fact that a piece of a leather apron was found at Annie Chapman's crime scene. This lead to the public calling the murderer Leather Apron, until Jack the Ripper was coined.

Moving on to other suspects in no particular order, we have Joseph Barnett.

He was Mary Kelly's lover, a fish porter who lost his job. It seems that Mary took up prostitution to bring in some money after Joseph was laid off, and that he hated that. They broke up but were seen talking the night Mary died. Inspector Abberline interviewed Barnett and ruled him out as the Ripper.

Next we have Charles Lechmere, also known as Charles Cross. Some modern Ripperologists find it highly suspect that he used two names, but apparently it wasn't that odd back in those days. Cross was a driver for Pickfords meat company and was the man who found Polly Nichols and alerted the police. Some have suggested that instead of finding the body, he put it there, but a second person arrived moments later, and it would be almost impossible to clean up in time, so there is little to pin on Charles.

Unlike our previous suspects Frederick Deeming was a murderer. An already unhinged individual, he became a sailor and contracted syphilis from a prostitute in Whitechapel. He is alleged to have wanted to kill her if he could, and he, prompted by the illusion of his dead mother, killed two wives and four of his children. He does fit the bill in many ways, but there is some evidence that he was in South Africa taking part in a diamond scam at the time of the Ripper murders.

One of the most likely (but never proven) suspects was Aaron Kosminski, a Jewish barber and generally unhinged person. He was known to hate women and he had violent tendencies. At the time, there was a lot of speculation that the murderer could be Jewish, in part due to regular garden variety antisemitism, but also because of the famous graffiti found on Goulston Street on the night of the double murder. It read: The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing. The spelling of juwes has been the subject of much speculation, as it could be a typo, but it could also be a reference to freemasonry. Either way, Police Commissioner Charles Warren ordered it washed away immediately. Most likely, it was to prevent a wave of violence against the many Jews who lived in the area, but since he was a Mason, it became fodder for the conspiracy minded.

There are of course many more suspects, but these are some of the more average suspects. Next week we are looking at the more famous ones. Suspects like Lewis Carroll, Walter Sickert, Sir William Gull and Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, and Queen Victoria's grandson.

So tune in next week, and until then, stay safe and happy!

Saucy Jack

A month from now will mark 130 years since Jack the Ripper started his reign of terror in Whitechapel, London.

Much has been written and speculated about the identity of the killer which his still unknown. The police obviously didn't have the forensic methods available that we have today, and even so, murderers go undetected all the time. So, it's no wonder that the police in 1888 had a hard time finding the Ripper. This of course didn't stop the press and the citizens from decrying the police as incompetent.

But let's look closer at that, shall we?

Whitechapel was established as a district in 1855 and was 357 acres, or 1.44 km² in size. That may not sound that big, but the population in the 1891 census counted 74.420 people living at a density of 208 people per 0.004 square kilometers, and that's the registered population. A population that had recently swelled enormously with new immigrants, mostly Irish and Jewish. It's worth noting that the area also held a large number of illegal immigrants.

Added to this comes the fact that Whitechapel was a slum, badly built up, very poorly lit, and absolutely labyrinthine. Then we have the infamous smog and other industrial pollutants and we get a recipe for a policeman’s nightmare. On to this stage now steps the terrifying Ripper, who by the way wasn't the only serial killer in Victorian England, just the most famous and scary.

So the police has to find a killer in a labyrinth packed to the rafters with a population that's hostile to the police at the best of times, and is now almost hysterical with fear? Yeah, I wouldn't want that job either.

In case you don't know all that much about the case, here's a quick run down.

Friday, August 31, 1888. Mary Ann Nichols found at 3.40 am in Buck's Row.

Saturday, September 8, 1888. Annie Chapman found in the yard of 29 Hanbury Street.

Sunday, September 30, 1888. Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes found at Dutfield's Yard, Berner Street and Mitre Square respectively. Both discovered early in the morning.

Friday, November 9, 1888. Mary Kelly found in her bed at 10.45 am in 13 Miller's Court.

These are the canonical five, though there may have been more, considering how violent the area was. I'm not going to go into the macabre details of their deaths, except to say all had their throats cut, and the fact that Stride wasn't brutally mutilated, and that Kelly was pretty much torn apart. In all cases but Stride, there were organs missing.

This will have to do for part one. Join me next time for a look at the suspects, but until then, have a nice and safe week!

I'm not complaining but...

I'm still melting.

This has indeed been a most enthusiastic summer. Not only did we have a record breaking May, but the last few weeks have been, let's say, a bit trying. Soaring temperatures during both the day and the night aren't helpful for creative thinking.

Instead, I have had to distract myself as best I can. This has included a revisit to one of the best comedy series of all time: Yes Minister/Prime Minister. 
As long as we have bureaucracy and political parties, this show is relevant. It's also trueer than one might think.
Many of the jokes in the show, like a hospital with full admin staff but neither doctors or patients was real. Likewise, setting up a 'communications room' in a fictional Islamic country and filling it with booze for an otherwise sober reception, has happened for real. Truth and fiction, right?

Anyway, the core of Yes Minister is the relationship between Permanent Secretary (later Cabinet Secretary) Sir Humphrey Appleby and James Hacker MP. The Political Will and the Administrative Won't.
What I have for you today, is a three part documentary about what the real Cabinet Secretaries and what really happens in Whitehall.

I shall see you again next time, so until then, have a magnificent week!

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utDEkUWyQ8Y
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpK7jajX-rQ
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w55A9o9AGiY

No such place, again

Last week we looked at places that were erased from the map in order to allow for increased security surrounding nuclear weapon projects.

This week we are going to look at a couple of places that are tangential to the subject while somewhat different.

We start with Wunsdorf, in former East Germany.

Wunsdorf was originally built in the 1870's by the then German Empire, and later on expanded and fortified by the Nazi regime. When the Soviets found it, they made it their main base in East Germany, and restricted all access.

It quickly became known as “Little Moscow” and the “Forbidden City” and was the Red Army's main base in the west, housing between 60.000 and 75.000 personnel, mostly troops in case the Cold War would suddenly heat up. It even had direct train access to Moscow.

Today it's a crumbling ruin, slowly decaying under the gaze of an old statue of Lenin.

In England sits the town of Corsham, and underneath Corsham lies the previously secret town of Burlington Bunker.

A gigantic nuclear bunker system designed to house 4000 member s of government and their staff and families etc.

It had it all, from a hospital to it's own radio broadcasting station to it's own underground lake, for fresh water.

As you can guess, it was designed to be a safe haven for the UK government in case the four minute warning was sounded. The four minutes comes from the estimated time it would have taken Soviet nukes to fly to Britan.

Today it is a sometimes guided tourist attraction and in 2016 it was for sale for £1.5 million. No idea if anyone bought it.

Next up is Camp Century. Doesn't sound so bad does it? Well it's a decommissioned nuclear launch site, built under Greenland...

Constructed under the amazing name of Project Iceworm, it took over a scientific base and expanded it to an incredible 4000 km (2500 mi) tunnel network, leading to dozens of launch bays for ICBM's.

It was designed to be comfortable in the long run with everything from a cinema to a church.

There are more places like this, of course, but to keep listing them would be pointless. If you're interested you can do your own research, I'm sure, as the Cold War left a still seen and felt legacy of ingenuity, fear, paranoia, and defiance.

That's that for this time though, so I'll see you next time, and hope you have a great week!

No such place

If you don't know where you are or indeed where you're going, then the logical thing to do is to check a map. But if the place isn't on the map, what then?

There are entire towns that are know today, but back in the day they existed on no map.

Why would anyone bother erasing entire towns, you ask? For security, of course. It seems most of these places were instrumental for atomic research, so naturally they exist mainly in the U.S. and Russia.

First up, in the U.S. we start with Oak Ridge. Located 40 kilometers west of Knoxville, Tennessee, Oak Ridge was created and hidden by the military in 1943. This is where the Manhattan Project was born, so they were very keen on keeping spies out.

Once they were done being all theoretical, they moved to The Hill in Los Alamos, because setting off experimental atomic bombs near large cities wasn't and still isn't a good idea. The place was centered on an old school and quickly expanded to a small town. This is where Fat Man and Little Boy were created, and the place was so secure that babies born there simply had P.O. Box 1663 written on their birth certificates. In other words, doesn't exist.

The final location connected to the Manhattan Project is Hanford/Richland, in Washington state. This is where the fissionable materials needed for the first atom bombs were created, and where ultimately the first weapons grade plutonium in the U.S. was made. It's also the only one out of the three that was active during the Cold War.

If these places don't seem very interesting, keep in mind that they showed up on no map, and no one would admit that the places existed. If you lived and worked there, you lied to your families and friends, or else...

Let's now shift across the oceans to City 40, also known as Ozersk. This is where, in 1946, the Soviet nuclear program was born. The same levels of security that surrounded the three American locals were in place, except the Russians went one better: if you lived and worked in City 40, you didn't exist either. Your identity was erased from all records, and you were a ghost. All 100.000 of you...

In compensation, it was in all but one aspect the nicest place outside of the Kremlin. The living standard was incredibly high, and for good reason. They had several contamination issues, including one that was only surpassed by Chernobyl.

Today, people are free to come and go, but most inhabitants refuse to leave, they just like it so much.

Finally, we look at the Chinese variant of the above. Named 404, this city was built in four years at the edge of the Gobi desert an housed anywhere from 100.000 people to a million. That sounds high, but considering the Chinese population, it's still possible. It took them six years to develop nuclear weapons, and in 1964, China became an atomic power.

That's it for part one. More to follow next time. Until then, have a great week!