A Tradition of Links

The Ten Weirdest Unsolved Vehicular Mysteries. I'm pretty sure every one of these would make a great Clive Cussler novel. In fact I believe a couple of them already have.

Also, kinda scary how many unrecovered nuclear weapons there are out there.

PAX Prime 2015 in pictures: Cosplay, cartridge art, and classic gaming. Lots of cool pictures from PAX to be found in this article. PAX is one of those things that always looks like a lot of fun but I've never actually tried to go. I'm not the biggest video gamer anymore and I haven't played a tabletop game like Magic or D&D in well over a decade. Still, maybe next year when tickets go on sales I'll try to get a pair. Even if I decided not to go at the last minute I could always sell them.

The Inside Story Of How The First MTV VMAs Created A Tradition Of Making Censors Sweat. This is a really nice long form article on the MTV Music Awards, how they came to be and what they meant to the network in the early years.

The end of Aqua Teen Hunger Force marks the end of an era for TV animation. I guess we're really firing up the nostalgia-machine today. This look back on ATHF and the early days of Adult Swim is pretty interesting. I don't catch as much Adult Swim as I used to but I did stumble upon the ATHF finale last weekend and it made me a bit wistful. It's funny just how influential those early Adult Swim were, stuff like Archer, Bob's Burgers, Rick and Morty all seem to owe a great deal to Space Ghost, ATHF and Sealab 2020.

First Links

Senator on Internet Policy Subcommittee Has "Never Sent an Email". To quote Charlie Brown, Good Grief. This really shouldn't surprise anybody but obviously it has. There are all sorts of simple everyday tasks that you and I might do that politicians (especially life time ones like Graham) will never have to deal with. And this isn't a Left vs Right thing. Just today Hillary Clinton says she used a personal e-mail server for work because she didn't want to have to carry two phones. Because smart phones can only handle one e-mail address. Because it's still 2003.

Good Jorb America, way to democracy well.

Why America's Internet Is So Shitty and Slow. Speaking of the internet, here's another good read by Gizmodo that lays out (in real basic, basic terms) why US internet is so awful compared to oh I don't know pick a country. Japan, Korea, Finland, Ireland... wait? Ireland. Jeez that's kinda depressing.

Taurus First 24 Kit. What do you guys think? Is a kit like this a good idea to have just in case you need it or is it nonsense marketed to people who've seen too many episodes of Z Nation? Personally, I have a really terrible emergency kit in the house that's filled with food that probably expired 2 years ago. Is adding a gun insane or practical?

Eight Of The Strangest Animated TV Shows From The 1980s. Oh man, Kid Video was my jam. I LOVED that show. I wish it would show up on Netflix so I can torment my kids with it.

Celebrating gaming at PAX East 2015. PAX East was this last weekend, you know what that means? It's officially convention season! ECCC is right around the corner. This year things get serious. I've taken the day before the convention off just so I can prepare for Friday. Plus I've been ebaying my budget up the last few weeks. If things work out I'm going to walk out with a lot of cool swag on Sunday.

Firewatch, PAX Reveal Trailer

In non-celebrity nude news, last weekend was PAX. I haven't seen a whole lot from it yet but from the people I follow on twitter who went, it sounds like everyone had a good time. This trailer for the game Firewatch seemed like a big winner. A mystery/thriller set in Wyoming it definitely has a different vibe to it. I'm always a bit wary of a trailer that doesn't show off any gameplay (remember Dead Island?) but... Well, I don't have a but. I'm wary of trailers that don't show off gameplay, period. Hopefully the actual game lives up to the hype.

Reach all new levels of Badassness

Early word on the street is that Pax was pretty cool this year. A friend of mine got a copy of Far Cry 3 and a free mohawk. Technically I think you got the game if you agreed to let them cut your hair in a mohawk, but I used to pay like 9 bucks at the Greenwood styling academy for a good mohawk, so a free mohawk is a good deal.

Anyway, Borderlands 2 has gone gold and is due in stores middle of this month. There are a lot of hands on at PAX videos out there but this extended trailer released a couple days ago is better than most. It's certainly better than watching the developers try and backpedal over this whole "girlfriend mode fiasco" they're still dealing with.

Long story long I think I'm picking this up. I love RPG elements in first person shooters and I'm still a big fan of split screen gaming. Plus you know, the bazillion guns. 59.99 for a bazillion guns is still a pretty good deal.

Gearbox pulls the Oprah card at PAX

Reason #2476 on why I need to get out of the house more: Gearbox gave free copies of Borderlands 2 to everyone who attended their panel at PAX. Add that to the rest of the PAX swag (like a cool Lego Warthog from Halo 4) and tickets practically pay for themselves. The convention center is maybe 20 minutes from my house and as it turns out I knew a ton of people who went. I really have no excuse for not going. Ok I have one, his name is Logan, but he's almost 2 and it's about time he hits up a couple nerdy conventions.

After the jump (I really love typing that) is the teaser for Borderlands 2. I never got around to playing the first one even though it looked hella fun. What can I say, why play a cool new game when you can prestige on Black Ops for like the 15th time?