Raithe

I have friends who wouldn't have been able to get the medicine their kids need if not for Obamacare. So without knowing and living the joys of the American Health Care system myself, they've always been damned grateful that came into existence. Edit: Also, his attempts to push science and get kids interested in science and engineering more. Which was in large part why he did the Mythbusters appearance and related things.

The Narrative of Normalisation

Got into an odd headspace and ended up starting that binge-rewatch of old Highlander episodes into the wee early hours of the morning. The amusement factor of watching a show that started in 1992/93, so it has the rare blocky mobile phones with no texting, big hair on the women, a plethora of small "rat-tail" ponytails on the men, the fade out of the shoulder-pads on women's jackets, and characters that still go to the library to research things. It's still interesting the way they did that show. Half a season set in the USA, then the next half all shot in Paris. Plus impeccable use of flashbacks to cover time periods and great music. Not to forget the amount of names before they were famous (such as a very young Marion Cottilard), or former pop stars/lead singers turned occasional actors playing assorted Immortals.The likes of Roland Gift (Fine Young Cannibals), Joan Jett (The Runaways), Roger Daltrey (The Who), Gary Kemp (Spandeu Ballet).

Yes, that whole opening is great. The technical side and gameplay of the levels is pretty darn great throughout. The trouble is in the lack of storyline advancement - although to be fair, that might have been because I started in from the beginning episodes and had to wait months between releases. If you're coming at it fresh with it all there, it might be flowing better.

I was half tempted to put this in the funny things thread... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qBX4Cpp4Ek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3wKzyIN1yk

It had some ups and downs. Some quite nice moments, and then others that made you go "what?" I think in some ways this season has tried to be a bit too clever and getting wrapped up in the.. psychology of it? Or at least showing it too much, so the audience is seeing hallucinations, imaginations, dream sequences, repressed memories and tricks like that to make them think one thing is occuring while something completely different is happening.

Just wait for the cosplay.

It's still kind of a Civ-lite, just with more added sci-fi. The diplomacy isn't half bad to begin with, but stops being useful the moment you get slightly good because no-one is willing to deal with you. It adds a few interesting tricks, such as floating cities, a few extra wonders, and puts in a lot more about hybrid units and having bonuses for multiple affinities and how they mesh rather than focusing you on just picking one alone.

I picked up the Rising Tide dlc for Civ: Beyond Earth while it was in the sales over Christmas and finally got around to playing a new game. I have to say, it does add a whole heap of stuff to how the game plays, but I am damn glad I never actually paid full price for it.

I recently got into a conversation with a friend about characters and interesting twists in tv shows, ended up discussing the old Highlander tv series and dang it, now I want to dig out the dvd's and do a massive binge watch...