So Bad it's Good

We're in the middle of the Holidays and everywhere you turn, things are X-mas themed.

This is Eccentric Spheres however and, of course, things are the opposite.

Today I present to you a Youtube channel that I found quite by mistake, but I've become very fond of: Good Bad Flicks.

It is a channel dedicated to movies that are good despite the handicap of being really bad. You know the sort, entertaining because they stink. Funny, exciting, corny, good-bad in other words.

I sat a couple of hours one evening and enjoyed the rundowns and reviews of movies I love, some I've never even heard of, and some that I've been vaguely aware of.

The best part for me, is the love and passion for these movies that shine through, giving every video a warm and wonderful feeling. There is also a wealth of trivia mixed in, which of course is right up my alley.

For example, did you know that there is a direct link between The Terminator and The Re-animator? Both movies were filmed in the same studio right after each other, and many of the extras and the crew were the same. In The Re-animator, a muscular corpse is revived, and the man playing the corpse in question, was Schwarzenegger's stunt double. Also there is a scene in Re-animator where the heroine Meg gives a magazine to a patient in the hospital with his jaw heavily bandaged. That man was James Cameron's father. Cool stuff like that.

The videos are pretty short, so they are perfect if you need to kill a short amount of time before going to visit relatives, or indeed before guests arrive. That annoying time that's too short to actually do anything, but too long to just ignore. Here's the solution, my gift to you.

I'm keeping it short this week, so that's it. Have a great week, and take it easy, and I'll see you on the first Eccentric Sphere for the year on the first day of the year.

Happy Holidays!

Extra link, just in case: https://www.youtube.com/user/trachenburg/featured

Tasty but Terrible

Christmas time is almost upon us, and while traditions vary around the world and from family to family, one thing remains as a common thread: food.

Fear not, I'm not about to share X-mas recipes, nor am I about to spoil Christmas. However, this is Eccentric Spheres and I'm going to take a dive into odd and scary food facts, and you're all coming with me...

It's a common fact that vegetables are healthy, right? Sure, but they might just kill you.

In 2015, an elderly German couple made a tasty stew from zucchinis that they had received as a gift from a friend. They both complained that the stew was unusually bitter, but the man ate the whole plate anyway. They both succumbed to cucurbitacin poisoning, that hospitalized them both, and ultimately killed him.

Spinach, cucumbers and peas have all been responsible for spreading E. coli, botulism and salmonella in recent years, but these are unusual cases, stemming from improper handling and storing, so no need to worry. Potatoes are another matter entirely, however.

The potato plant is a relative to Deadly Nightshade and is terribly toxic, that's why no one ever eats anything but the actual potatoes themselves. Fun Fact: tomatoes are also a part of this family so, do not eat any part except the fruit.

Anyway, in 2013, a Russian professor went down to the basement to fetch something. When he failed to return, his wife went down to see where he was. Then their son and the professor's mother went down, and they all died. A sack of rotten potatoes had created an atmosphere so toxic that it incapacitated and killed them all.

Then we have the case of the British fork lift operator who challenged his brother-in-law to a chili eating contest. He won the contest, but paid dearly as he later complained of acute discomfort and itching. He was found dead the following morning from a heart attack, even though he was in perfect health and had no pre-existing heart condition. Apparently he has ingested so much capsaicin from the challenge that he developed an allergic reaction, which did him in. Everything in moderation, kids.

Now, if these gruesome tales have soured your disposition towards vegetables, to the point of panic, you may be suffering from Lachanophobia, or fear of vegetables.

Other relevant phobias are:

Oenophobia – fear of wine

Deipnophobia – fear of dining and dinner conversations

Mageirocophobia – fear of cooking

Xocolatophobia – fear of chocolate

Ichtyophobia – fear of fish and fish related things

Arachibutyrophobia – fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth

and finally:

Cibophobia – fear of food.

Now Cibophobes can't survive without eating and it's rare even within the small number of people who suffer from this that it's a blanket fear. Usually it's about being unable to eat a specific combination of foods or food cooked by someone else. It varies, but is usually treated promptly and with great care, since the sufferer can in worst case scenario, starve to death.

Well, with that out of the way, it only remains to wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday or which ever festivity you may choose to celebrate or not. In any case, until next time, have a great week and watch what you eat.

Bad Medicine

A month or so ago, my wife and I saw an interview with two young mothers in Finland (my country) who likes to not only drink Colloidal Silver Water themselves, but also give it to their babies. The reason being that silver kills most bacteria on contact, so ergo, it's good for you.

But, many topical treatments have a label that says “Not for internal use”. This is a pretty useful warning, since no one would eat Icy-Hot or some other muscle relaxing gel, right? Anyway, at best silver water does nothing for you and at worst it will give you Argyria and kill you. On top of that, silver water is ridiculously expensive. Researchers have found no benefits from drinking silver beyond the placebo effect, so please, don't do it.

It got me thinking about other weird things people have taken for medicinal purposes, and that's what today's topic is all about. Bad medicine.

In the early 1900's Radium water was all the rage in certain circles. No one seems really sure why anyone thought Radium was good for you, but like Colloidal Silver water, “it's good for what ails you.”

Eben Byers, a wealthy industrialist from Pittsburgh started drinking Radium when his doctor suggested it, and by 1930, he had several holes in his skull, multiple cancers and most of his jaw had fallen off. Very healthy...

During the first half of the 20^th century, doctors used to prescribe one of the most powerful painkillers in history for pretty much anything you could possibly complain about. The painkiller? Heroin of course! In no time flat, there were desperate addicts everywhere, clamoring for another dose from their doctor, which is why it's illegal to own today.

This brings us nicely to Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup. Popular around the late 1800's and early 1900's as a cure-all for babies and small children. Teething pain, diarrhea and trouble sleeping? Soothing Syrup time!

Of course, the syrup was pure morphine dissolved in alcohol. No wonder it worked, that would take the edge off anything, but sadly it led to death from overdose and lots of drug-addicted babies. Be careful what you feed you kids.

In the 70's a new wonderful drug was discovered and prescribed for depression, autism and incredibly, substance abuse. The drug is called MDMA, or more commonly Ecstasy, (or Molly).

Considering that the name Ecstasy is precisely what the taker feels, it makes sort of sense that you would give it to someone who is depressed, but a person with substance abuse issues? Yeah that stopped by the early 80's. Interestingly, today it's being looked at as a PTSD treatment drug. Time will tell, I suppose.

Between roughly 1920 and 1950, women were told to smoke if they wanted to loose weight. Doctors appeared in commercials, telling the ladies to reach for a cigarette instead of that candy when they felt like a treat. Sure, tobacco is a mild appetite suppressor, but it's not much of a diet drug. Then after 1950, instead of smoking, women were urged to drop those extra pounds by taking Methamphetamine instead. Much better!

Finally I want to mention ear candles. The idea is that you put one end of a hollow candle in you ear, and light the other end. This would create negative pressure, drawing out the ear wax. Except it doesn't work, and you are very likely to get an earful of hot candle wax instead. Oh yes, want to guess when this was invented? 1996. Stupidity is truly timeless.

That's all for now, so until next time, have a great week and stay away from dodgy medicine!

That sinking feeling

Well, I got somewhere about four hours of sleep last night. My brain is desperately trying to escape through my ear and back to bed, which makes expressing myself somewhat difficult.

As a result, you have to make due with a short entry today. What I have for you is a computer simulation of the Titanic sinking in real time. That's 2h 40m of water seeping into a big ship. It's actually more interesting than it sounds, so give it a go.

Until next time, I'm going to celebrate my country (Finland) being independent for 100 years, and at the same time hope that you have a great week!

Star Wars gambling, Destiny 2 and all the rest

Well, it just keeps going.

Last week I talked about AAA game publishers and pay-2-win loot-boxes sold for real money. Since last Monday, it's gotten more interesting, and here's how.

The Belgian gambling commission is still looking into it, but the Belgian Minister of Justice has said that in his opinion these loot-boxes are indeed gambling and incredibly harmful for children. This is his private opinion, but if Belgium finds against loot-boxes and classifies it as gambling, then it will become regulated and taxed. Oh, and no one under eighteen years of age can buy them. If this happens, it's a very short step for the entire EU to adopt a similar stance. If that happens, kiss loot-boxes and predatory gambling practices goodbye. The EU market is enormous, and while I'm sure the big AAA's can ignore Belgium (11 million people), they can't afford to ignore the 743 million that reside in the EU as a whole.

As I mentioned, Holland is investigating this, as is Sweden, it would seem. Oh, and as a fun piece of trivia: in France, you can only gamble in resorts. No where else.

Gambling authorities in Australia are also investigating this, and while the gambling commission in Victoria indeed do think that it is clearly gambling, they can do very little about it as long as it's only on the 'net. Like online poker for example.

The really surprising thing is that State Representatives from Hawaii have stood up and condemned these micro-transitioned loot-boxes as a “casino for children”. I'm sure Disney was happy about that one...

Now, it turns out that Destiny 2, developed by Bungie (Halo series) under Blizzard-Activision has been caught with their pants down and their hands in the cookie jar.

Destiny 2, the sequel to the pretty popular sci-fi multiplayer shooter Destiny (no, really?), was released not only on console but unlike the first game, also on PC.

When it got released, people were a bit grumpy about the whole micro-transaction thing, but at least you earn loot-boxes (called bright engrams) in-game for free, you just have to go to the in-game store to open them.

Why do you open them in the store? Well, the speculation was that you would get tempted to put down some money and buy a couple of extra crates. OK, bad, but not villainous.

What is pretty damn villainous is what Reddit user EnergiserX discovered: Bungie was cutting away the XP you were earning without telling you.

The way it works is like this: once you reach max level, you still earn XP, but every time your XP-bar gets filled up, instead of getting a new level, you earn a Bright Engram (loot-box). What EnergiserX found out was that players were earning between 4-50% of what they were supposed to be getting. Isn't that fun? You work hard, grinding away to earn more loot-boxes, and earn 4% of what you should have gotten, all so that you would be frustrated enough to fork over you sweet sweet money!

Once caught, Bungie said that “they weren't happy either and that they have fixed the issue.”

Yeah, I bet they're not happy. No one is happy when they're caught stealing, lying and cheating.

Sadly some players have reacted with joy that “it's fixed now,” and “see, Bungie are good guys”. Come on. That like saying the guy who mugged you is a good guy because he gave back your wallet after taking all your money.

Finally, I want to address the claim the AAA publishers are constantly pushing: “Games are too expensive to make these days. We have to make money somehow.”

Pure and utter garbage. One might even be tempted to say Bullshit. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, was made with $12 million, three years and a team of twenty people. It's a commercial success after a mere three months after release.

If these mega developers can't figure out how to make a budget, how to make a compelling and fun game that people want to play, then good riddance. Go out of business, and leave the industry to those who can figure it out. Stop spending hundreds of millions on games that are soulless boring grinds and then claim we have to buy extra loot-boxes because you're so poor.

The AAA's have proven time and time again that they can't be trusted. Their word is as rotten as a dead rat under a porch in the summer.

Give your time and money to those who deserve it, until the “Big Boys” prove they can do better. Don't believe them when they say they'll change. Talk is cheap.

Ultimately what I find so ironic is that these monoliths, these gargantuan behemoths became what they are because they were the best, the most successful, the most beloved. But as they say: you either die a hero, or live to become the villain.

Until next time, support the good stuff and have a great week!

A victory for honesty

When Star Wars Battlefront II closed it's beta, gamers were furious, and with good reason.

There's been a lot of talk recently about the prevalence of loot-boxes in AAA games. For those not in the know, a AAA stands for the biggest, richest and most powerful game publishers on the market. I've been unable to find a proper list of them all, but companies like Electronic Arts (EA), Ubisoft, Blizzard-Activision and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment are good examples.

Loot-boxes on the other hand are in-game crates of (usually) loot and other kinds of gear that are handed out by the game as rewards. The contents are randomly generated, lottery-style.

So what's the hubbub, you ask?

Some games like Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch only give out cosmetic items in their loot-boxes, meaning the contents can only modify your characters appearance, not their performance. Recently, however, many AAA publishers have taken a page from the mobile game market in order to pump up their revenue, by selling loot-boxes with game enhancing content. And when I say selling, I mean for real money. Not in-game currency like fantasy gold, but real Dollars and Euros, leading to entirely correct accusation is pay-to-win mechanics. This scummy habit is bad enough in mobile games that are free to play, but when the game costs $60-90, it's inexcusable.

In the case of Star Wars Battlefront II, it got even worse. Gamers were horrified to discover that not only was the entire progression system loot-box based, but as such, all progress was random. To make matters worse, you could buy more crates with real money, if you found your progress too slow. Pure pay-to-win, in other words. The players who were willing to shell out the most money at launch would get an unbeatable edge over the competition.

Well, people weren't about to take that sitting down. The internet exploded in outrage, and quickly spilled over, to the point where main-stream media reported on it. EA and the game studio, DICE, started back-pedaling, but it was too little, too late. EA actually saw their stock fall in value, which is practically unheard of. Meetings were held behind closed doors and a statement was quickly pushed out the door stating that the so called micro-transactions were removed from the game. A clear victory for honest players right? Yes and no. The same statement also said that the micro-transactions would be reinstated at a later date, when they could be “balanced”. In other words when EA thinks they can sneak it in and no one cares anymore.

This whole debacle came about shortly after the scandal where Warner Bros. had put actual game enhancements in Shadow of War. It's up to all of us to support game developers and studios that play fair. Don't give your money to studios and publishers who lie, steal and cheat.

These loot-boxes, with their real money costs, and “spin-to-win” mechanics have been accused of being a covert form of gambling. The ESRB have stated that they're not, but both Belgium and Holland are looking into this. Especially since gambling is regulated all over the world, and these loot-boxes aren't, but they are sold to minors. If the verdict comes down as guilty, they may even be banned, and that ban could spread throughout the EU. Let's hope so.

To end on a more positive note, Blizzard has announced that they will be releasing vanilla servers for World of Warcraft at some point in the future, something players have been asking for for a long time.

That's it for me. Until next time, have a great week, and avoid micro-transactions.

A hunter of Men

Last week I finally got around to watching another film that's been on my must-watch list for years;

Manhunter (1986) by Michael Mann, (Heat, Last of the Mohicans, Public Enemies).

This is the first on screen appearance of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, (here spelled Lecktor), predating Silence of the Lambs by five years. In essence this is the earlier version of Red Dragon, so forget Lambs for now.

We follow FBI agent Will Graham as he's brought out of early retirement to catch the Tooth Fairy, a serial killer who slaughters whole families during the full moon. Graham is renowned as it was he who caught Lecktor and put him behind bars. He does this by being able to think like the killers he chases, even thought this ability once landed him in the psych ward. He's naturally hesitant to get back to work, but with the lives of entire families at stake, he can't refuse.

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. Manhunter is a very 80's movie. If this bothers you, maybe stick with Red Dragon instead. I don't mind, and except for the title logo, I wasn't bothered.

If you have watched Anthony Hopkins portrayal of Hannibal several times, you may have a hard time adjusting to the Brian Cox version. It's certainly different, but I can't say that either is outright better.

That was easy, so let's crack on with the good. Manhunter is absolutely gorgeous. Most scenes are crafted and shot with meticulous care, and are as such a joy to behold. The music fits very well, unlike Mann's previous movie The Keep. I wrote about that some time ago. All the actors are real professionals, and it shows. You buy every scene, without question, except one in the end which was a bit silly.

I could go on gushing, but two things really stood out, and minor spoilers ahead.

1. When they find out that the Tooth Fairy is threatening Graham's family, the FBI just moves them. No last second rescue that has become so cliché over the years.
2. Graham's wife is very understanding. Yes, she feels the stress and the pressure, but there is no melodramatic scene with the tearful screaming wife and the brooding determined husband. They talk like adults, and I love it! Donnie Brasco looses points for just such scenes. Pointless drama for the sake of drama.

Overall I was very impressed, more than I expected, in fact. It's more a pure thriller than the Hopkins movies to be sure. You could brush it off as “just another crime procedural” but that would be unjust. It is in my opinion better than Red Dragon, but only just. Dragon explains a couple of things better than Manhunter, but Manhunter feels more realistic. At the end of the day, it's up to you which version you prefer.

Now that I think about it, Red Dragon felt more disappointing because Lecter isn't in it a whole lot, and as a part of The Silence of the Lambs trilogy, I wanted more of him. In Manhunter, Lecktor is on screen just as much as he should be and the whole thing feels a bit more honest, for the lack of a better term.

Bottom line: I recommend Manhunter wholeheartedly.

That's all folks, so until next time, stay away from serial killers and have a great week!