#iceberg design is going well btws
Photo
Shades of pink, Shades of red.
I’ve got two customs that are going to have to wait for blue dye to arrive.
The first is a gradient pink/grey/lilac cali girl Summer made from an iceberg nylon hair dye experiment. The extra hair batch #1 got nabbed by puppy Talia who thinks undoing knots is a very important task so of course she pulled all the hair out of the tie (circled in green) - it was the wrong shade of pink anyway.Batch #2 gets the shade of pink right but needs a touch of blue and i’m not doing any hair dying on the doll as Barbie vinyl is super porous.
Daria Roselyn makes my camera choke, her skintone is much darker in real life and between the blush and deep purple makeup she gives off purple undertones They inexplicably gave her these hot pink streaks with very red undertones: they don’t mesh with the pale pink at all and they clash with her blue tones so the problem is two-fold: we have hair that looks completely unnatural like a bad wig because the contrast between the two colours is so vast AND it clashes with her makeup. BTW mine has a wonky eyebrow, it makes her more like her namesake Daria the sarcastic teen so I like it.
I have no idea why they dropped the ball so badly on Daria, her cartoon is well designed, it’s almost as if they got the choice of secondary hair colour wrong when they ordered the dolls and didn’t correct it or they messed up with a violet purple for her face instead of a dark rose. 🤡
So I’ve seperated out the near red from the pale pink and I need to decide how to proceed:
If I add a bluish tint to the red we still have the problem of the contrast.
If i darken the pale pink to a mid lilac we get a much more cohesive doll but it’s not Daria anymore. see pic above, pretty sweet right?
Undo all the braids, dye the whole thing bordeaux and then when the blue arrives, dye the bottom into a purple gradient.
D/ dye that leftover kiwi blonde hair into a colour between the two contrast wise but bluish toned and reroot pretty much everywhere to blend
Yeah so either a find another quick easy project (you know there are tons but off the top of my head? *static noise - actually it’s the chorus from KD Lang’s Constant Craving on loop*) or she gets dyed wine.
10 notes
·
View notes
Text
MY Crown Tundra thoughts/Reactions p1
-Oohh pretty senery, and hey Its south of Galar. Cute map design.
-Hey Dex lady, happy to help😸. Also Trainstacem floor design is quite lovely.
-Is she a Gangaro girl? Aw her earing/s? Are female pikachu tails. Also why is she wearing what looks like ether a Business suit or school uniform? Isn’t she cold?
-you sir. No no you dont. (Mythology and History lover starts a rant). Oh no, he a Dad, please tell me a side arc is him not being soo...this? at the end? I don’t really like ether of them yet. Music an’t helping, what is this music?? This is not a gameshow or overly humorous scene?😾 MAKE IT STOP!
-MAKE HIM AND THE MUSIC STOP! Sir, Im going to kick your butt. Sir, I’m the champ and already have many rare and legendary mons under me. But HEY SuRE yoU NUSince!
-metal elephant meet Fire Bunny ball. Oh hey it was a 1-Shot. And no sir, I’m not even scratched and have PLENTY MORE. Oh you use steel types? oh ya, I have plenty of Mon to handle you. New(toSwSh) mon, hm is it rock-steel or ground-steel, kicks will do I hope.
-Me.punch.You.SIR. I dont even need to hit the ‘next’ button to know she ran off during the fight. You know what, fair enough reaction for a parent 2. 3 now I have questions. Oh um, well the thought counts? But maybe you were a BiT too pushy? Sorry. You sir are in denial(running off is not a show of love😓). P4 😶 . You didn’t even see my team, Harp kicked your butt.
-oh snow idle animation is pretty, normal or updated? Maybe I just(somehow) didn’t spend enough time in the ices routes. QuickBall throwing mantage now I guess?
-hi snom, dont need you but hey any sparkly ones are welcome. OH FOSSIL DINO(I have an amaura plush)! A town and Spheal! I like this music. Dynite? Hm wonder what the carrots do. Aw no, its a really nice town. Theres a legendary pokemon statue, thats really nice☺️. Cosmog? Hua...well thats a thing I guess. Back to mon hunting.
-?? Is that marshadow or pkmn prints? Oh Hi Sonia. Yes as I said hi.(pic5). 2%? Um is that a collectible like the diglets or forced storyline things? Wait, ironWill, Cavorn, and Meadow pokemon? OH The swords right😃? Yes I am, don’t worry I’m happy to help with your search Sonia😌. Counted dex(took out unknowns that I know for a fact are evolines) and less than 50 mon to catch, likely Far fewer but dont know which spots are just Evos, also Aron line the farthest down.
- Nidorans cute. ESPEON! Eeveelotions spawn here! Stone mound? Oh more myths/lore😁. Is Aradactul Lighter?
- I am seriously lost. Oh fairy cave. Oh Frotmoth forest. ...which Legendary was that, well i made it to one end of the Tundra I assume.
- oh it wasn’t that I was somehow only in the grassy areas, I was just bad at spotting the other two prints.
-Thanks lady for the crown, are those MaxRooms... in the frozen floats? Hey GameFreak you know what would make perfect sense? MAKING A RING OF ICEBERGS INSTEAD OF US JUST RUNNING INTO A WALL THAT HAS CLEAR BEEN PLACED WILLY NILLY! Well Im still kinda lost but Im calling it here for now. Btw, looks like less then 30 mons left to find. Babys are currently being mean(Aron, Magbe, Electabuzz but that may be Verson-mon)
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
Drag Me Away (From You) Liveblog 15x16
Watching Live again!
The Road So Far!
See? I told you that line was important.
Yes Jack, you are important sweet bb.
We won’t let you die, bb.
Alright - So is Misha in here or not?
Okay, I recognize that acress.
This poor guy is terrified. Is this the hunter they’re avenging?
It’s that room! The one that I went off on! I put my scenic design studies to good use.
It was never real? Yeah, say that to the ghost that popped out of the closet.
Well, he dead.
I’m calling it now. It’s a boggart.
He slit his throat with a whiskey bottle? He slit it?
Cas bailed - MISHA’S NOT IN THIS EPISODE
Sam - Are you sure that you two didn’t fight
TEXT FROM CAS ASKING HUBBY IF HE TOLD HIS BROTHER?
“It looks Smaller.”
“Well we’re bigger.”
Fighting over a book.
Mention of Sully <3 <3 <3 I’m legit tearing up at that.
Well, if you ever needed three items to sum up Sam. Gun. Knife. College.
Aww, Travis and Caitlin.
LMAO - Who’s your Dad? Night Rider?
Awww, he’s crushing on her.
Travis had a pretty rocky life after they left. Winchester curse, for real.
The funeral was last week. Oh shit.
Tell us about that winter.
Cursed Vending Machine. Look, I know I shouldn’t laugh, but that’s hilarious.
(Still saying it’s a boggart.)
I wonder how many people are saying that Caitlin is Dean’s endgame right now? You know, trying to erase Castiel.
EMF!
Dean called Bobby. 🥺🥺🥺
All the missing kids. Weird things.
The thing preys on kids? Apparently not.
Using Junior Mints to mark the map.
OMG THIS AIN’T THE FREAKING GOONIES.
Dean, my sweet summer child.
Oh wait, she’s crushing on him.
Boggle = Boggart. I’m sticking to my original guess.
Well, what ever creature it is, it likes the hotel.
Where’d you get that blade Dean? That doesn’t look like your normal one.
Caitlin’s right. Duh. She wouldn’t have called if she wasn’t.
“We all thought he killed it.” Sammy sticking up for Dean.
Oh! That’s what I missed. It was a nest, with dead kids.
“We have iceberg lettuce. With Ranch.”
BILLIE!
That was a picture of Baba Yaga. Nope.
DEAN. YOU NEED TO TELL SAM.
They figured out it’s the ring. She has the ring. And now she’s been attacked. Is she dead, or is she alive?
Dean has returned. Sam is frantic. Sounds about right.
They’re going to the nest!
I’m just going to point out. Dean was listening to a lady moan while getting fucked. And he didn’t care. He eyerolled even.
I’ve seen this film before. (And I didn’t like the ending)
Oh shit, he wasn’t in the nest. He was in the room. Nicely done, Sammy.
“Were you scared?”
“I always am.”
Aww. Flashback hug.
The lie. It came back to bite him in the ass.
I hear the Impala.
“We make a good team.”
Is that Jensen driving the Impala?
Is Sam calling Cas?
TALK ABOUT RIPPING OFF THE BANDAID.
HE WAS HONEST? HE SAID THAT CAS TOLD HIM!
I was just waiting for Dean to say: “The truth? You can’t handle the truth.”
“We don’t have a choice!” So, Dean. You trying to convince yourself of that? Cause you don’t want anything to happen to Jack. You literally said that in Last Holiday.
Drag me away from you? = Drag the brothers apart. Dean lied as a kid, and that came back to bite them in the ass. He was even trying then to keep Sam from looking at college from looking to a future. Dean hid things yet again, this time in the form of Jack, and it’s coming to bite him in the ass.
#sorrynotsorry, but this is screaming separate paths for me. They’ll always be brothers, and they love each other, but after this is said and done? They’re going to go their separate ways. They won’t be under Chuck anymore.
Also. A boggart turns into your fears and feeds off of you. So does Baba Yaga. I was kinda right. 😜
Don’t read past here if you don’t want the Preview spoiled.
(I’m totally not singing Africa, btw.)
ADAM? Not Adam Milligan. ADAM FIRST MAN ADAM. And he’s a stoner. I fucking love it.
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
“I realize there is something I have known for some time but have never said, and, since I have just spent another 4 hours of my life in climate change academia I have to get this out of my system.
Please understand that many you reading this won't live to an old age... and likely will start scrolling after one or 2 more paragraphs... (edit...Ok I was wrong on this point. This is now my 2nd most shared post of all time..(edit)...make that my most shared)
The IPCC report and Paris accord are incredibly overly optimistic and that commits the world to a target that means the death of hundreds of millions if not more.
But it is worse than that.
Even the commitments made by countries in the Paris accord don't get us to a 2 degree world.
But it is worse than that.
The 2 degree target is now unattainable (unless the entire civilization of the world doesn't do a 180 today...) and is based on geo-engineering the climate of the earth as well as the sequestering of every molecule of carbon we produced over the last number of years and every molecule we are producing today and every molecule we produce tomorrow.... these technologies that don't exist wont exist and even if they did would likely cause as many if not more problems than they fix.
But it is worse than that.
The 2 degree target of the IPCC does not factor in the feedback loops that such as the increased albedo effect caused by the 70% loss of ice in the arctic, The release of methane from a thawing arctic. (there is more energy stored in the arctic methane than there is in coal in the world). This is called the methane dragon. If the process of the release of the methane, currently frozen in the soil and ocean beds of the arctic, which has already begun, spins out of control we are looking a an 8 degree rise in temperature. (this ignores the scientists that don't see this feedback stopping and ends up resulting in the world oceans boiling off and earth becomes Venus...but I digress.
But it is worse than that
The report which give us 12 years to get our head's out of our arses underestimated the amount of heat stored in the world's oceans by 40%... so no , we don't have 12 years.
But it is worse than that.
The IPCC report ignores the effects of humans messing up the Nitrogen cycle through agricultural fertilizers and more... Don't go down this rabbit hole if you want to sleep at night.
But it is worse than that.
Sea level rise will not be gradual. Even assuming that the billions of tons of water that is currently being dumped down to the ground level of Greenland isn't creating a lubricant which eventually will allow the ice to free-flow into the northern oceans as it is only the friction to the islands surface that is currently holding the ice back coupled with the same process is happening in Antarctica but is also coupled with the disappearance of the ice shelves which act as buttresses holding the glaciers from free flowing into the southern ocean we are not looking at maintaining the 3.4mm/yr increase in sea level rise (which incidentally is terrifying when you multiply it out over decades and centuries. We will be looking at major calving events that will result in much bigger yearly increases coupled with an exponential increase in glacial melting. FYI Alberta is going to need a pipeline... just not for oil. More likely for desalinated water from tidewater...
But it is worse than that... We can no longer save the society that we live in and many of us are going to be dead long before our life expectancy would suggest.
If your idea of hope is having some slightly modified Standard of living going forward and live to ripe old age... there is no hope. This civilization is over...
... but there is hope.. There is a way for some to come through this and have an enjoyable life on the other side. Every day we delay can be measured in human lives. There will come a day of inaction when that number includes someone you love, yourself or myself.
So we have 2 options. Wake the fuck up. If we do we will only have to experience the end of our society as we know it aka...the inevitable economic collapse which is now unavoidable, but be able to save and rebuild something new on the other side. This would require a deep adaptation. Words like sustainability would need to be seen as toxic and our focus needs be on regeneration. Regeneration of soil, forest ocean etc.... This is all possible.
Option 2 is the path we are on. Think we can slowly adapt to change. This not only ensures we experience collapse but also condemns humanity to not just economic and social collapse but in a 8 degree world... extinction.
I am sick of pipeline discussions. I am sick of any argument that is predicated on the defeatist assumption that we will continue to burn oil at an ever increasing rate. Fact is if we do we are not just fucked, we are dead. I am sick of people who don't understand how their food is produced, and its effect on the climate.(both carnivores who eat feed lot meat and vegans who eat industrially-produced-mono-cropped-veggies as they are equally guilty here as the consumption of either is devastating). I am sick of the argument that our oil is less poisonous than someone else's. Firstly, no it isn't and secondly, It doesn't fucking matter. I am sick of people that can't even handle the ridiculously-small-only-the-tip-of- the-iceberg of the changes we need to accept; the carbon tax. I am sick of my own hypocrisy that allows me to still use fossil fuels for transportation. I am sick of those who use hypocrisy as an argument against action. I am sick of the Leadership of my country that argues we can have economic growth and survivable environment... we can't. I am sickened by the normalizing of the leadership of our Southern neighbour who as the most polluting nation in the world officially ignores even the tragedy that is the Paris accord. I am sick of the politicians I worked to get elected being impotent on this subject. Naheed and Greg I'm looking at you. (BTW...Druh, you are an exception) I am sick that the next image I put up of my kids, cheese, pets or bread is going to garner immeasurably more attention than a post such as this which actually has meaning... I am sick about the fact that all the information I referenced here is easily discoverable in scientific journals but will be characterized by many as hyperbolic.
I am especially sick that my future and the future of my children is dependent on the dozens of people that saw this post, said there goes Marc off the deep end again and chose to remain ignorant of the basic facts about our near future.
There is a path forward. But every day we delay the path forward includes fewer of us. Build community, build resilience, work for food security, think regeneration, plant food producing trees, think perennial food production, eat food that does not mine the soil and is locally produced, eat meat that is grass fed that is used to provide nutrients to vegetation, get to know a farmer or become one yourself, park your car, do not vote for anyone who either ignores climate change or says we can have our cake and eat it too, quit your job if it is fossil fuel related, stop buying shit, Stop buying things that are designed to break and be disposed of, let go of this society slowly and by your own volition (its better than being forced to do it quickly), rip up your lawn and plant a garden with veggies, fruit bushes, fruit trees and nut trees, learn to compost your own poop, get a smaller house on a bigger lot and regenerate that land, plant a guerrilla garden on a city road allowance, return to the multi-generational house, realize that growth has only been a thing in human civilization for 250 years and it is about to end and make preparations for this change, teach this to your children, buy only the necessities, don't buy new clothes-go to the thrift store, don't use single use plastic or if you do re-purpose it, unplug your garberator and compost everything, don't let yourself get away with the argument that the plane is going there anyway when you book a holiday, understand that there is no such thing as the new normal because next year will be worse, understand before you make the argument that we need to reduce human population ... meaning the population elsewhere... that it is not overpopulation in China or India that is causing the current problem... It is us and our lifestyle, Understand that those that are currently arguing against refugees and climate change are both increasing the effects of climate change and causing millions on climate refugees... which will be arriving on Canada's doorstep because Canada will on the whole be one of the last countries affected, understand that the densification of cities is condemning those in that density to a food-less future. Stop tolerating the middle ground on climate change. there is no middle ground on gravity, the earth is round, and we are on the verge of collapse.”
Via Marc Doll
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
TDP season 2 - episode 8
So, everything that could go bad seems to be going bad.
Let’s see what happens then
Oh shit. So, magic cannot heal Soren
This is serious
Oh and great Callum has found his Arcaneum... and it’s DARK MAGIC!
I think Viren is in deeper doodoo than he realises
And now it’s time for.... DARK!CALLUM.Oh no, it’s kingdom hearts!
oh no
no
no, no no,
Ez should lern that from Callum not Corvus
oh god no, no pls not baby
Oh brilliant
Pair it up with “He should hear it from me” about Soran’s disability.
Very bold choice btw.
And now we have sad Ezran
And damn, he is taking it... well, with dignity of a king.
Also, cool mixture of designs: one of the books in the library is in what looks like Arabic, and another with Latin-based language. Cyrillic for a hattrick?
Okay, I love the fact that so far the only people that could outsmart or outcommand Viren are women. LIBRARIAN IS THE NEW QUEEN
oH MY GOD
I was about to add the “UNLIMITED POWER!!!1!1!!!!1!” gif of Palpatine in the last recap, but, welp, now I have to
Don’t accept it, Callum, there is still time for you to hide in the iceberg!
“I can’t do anything evil, because I can’t... do... anything”
God dammit, TDP, why do you make such good characters with complex feelings?!
Okay, but dark!Callum is mimicking Star Wars a bit too much now
Yes, that scene with Harrow sliding out needs to be a gif
And we have another ATLA reference with the haiku
I want my sanity back, Dragon Prince. I miss it very much
I was kidding about that iceberg thing
Welp, that was a rollercoaster of emotions. Damn it, TDp, you know which strings to pull.
0 notes
Text
Timeless 1 x 16: “The Red Scare”
See, that’s why I postpone watching stuff, because of the inevitable death-by-feels. I’m looking at you, Timeless finale.
(Yes, I know, I skipped a few eps. *shrugs*)
Just so I don’t forget.
Firstly, the bad.
Okay, so Emma is Rittenhouse? But why would then she choose to get stowed away in the 19th century for a decade? Unless they were bidding their time because they weren’t ready to strike yet and perhaps they also suspected someone might get onto them and go after them soon. Hence, as a precaution, the past was the safest for one spare time pilot to wait out the storm and then help Rittenhouse ‘fix’ everything.
Of course Lucy’s mom is Rittenhouse! Not really surprising that these type of world-domination- bent racist, homophobic etc. folks would only reproduce among their own good, strong, ‘pure blood’ families. Yuck.
So, I think Ethan only got the top of the iceberg – but not the very tip – while there’s an entire larger monstrosity hidden under the surface that he had no idea about. (I assume Rittenhouse would suspect someone would eventually betray and set it up so that it couldn’t cause them permanent damage.) And the government will just get the most obvious members, who were expendable to Rittenhouse to take the fall, while the base and the actual big shots will stay untouched and free to execute their grand agenda.
Anyway.
So, Mason really loves Rufus like a son, to the point that he turned again and helped Agent Christopher get Rittenhouse. (And he admits he is no good.) And I don’t mind that he got kinda redeemed. Fine. (Although, he really just turns by the wind; I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future when/if things start going the Rittenhouse way, he turns again.)
I loved Ethan! Feels. Poor guy. And he was so happy when Lucy finally got to visit him in the present.
So, more than 3 people in a time ship is bad and comes with unexplained bleeding and seizures, and what, superpowers? Did Jiya see the future? Or maybe even a part of her went to the future for that one destroyed Golden Gate moment?
Loved all Lucy’s talks with Flynn and Wyatt and focusing on the present shit.
But. Damn it, Agent Cristopher! Yes, Flynn did bad things and probably shouldn’t get away with them, but, ahem, so did everyone else (see: Mason, in particularly). That was unfair, double standards and all. At least you could let him save his family. And it was so heart-breaking when he thought Lucy betrayed him.
And even though I suppose Denise meant that Flynn would get a fair trial, since Rittenhouse is still in play, I doubt it.
But I guess one Rittenhouse starts ‘fixing’ things, they will find about is soon enough and I guess the time team will have to go after Emma.
And they will, of course, need Flynn’s help. Yeah, good luck with that. (They will probably threaten-bait him with promising to save his family or something and he’ll do it, but… Or he’ll do it out of his greater sense for destroying Rittenhouse. But I would totally understand if he sent everyone to hell.)
Also, I think that once he has a couple of minutes to sit and chill – not funny, I know – and think about it, he will come to the conclusion that Lucy didn’t betray him – although he might be too pissed to let her off easily, just because.
(BTW, come on, Kripke, again with ‘rabid dogs’. Also, punching people when they are trying to get up. As in, fucking people over when they are trying to get better does not result in people getting better.
I’m so fucking sick of these TV shows: giving us sympathetic morally grey characters who do bad things but obviously want to be good, but instead of getting a chance at it, they get punched back down every single time. If I stick with the metaphor, hit a dog enough times and it well damn sure turn rabid. Ugh.
It sends an awful message to real people, too: nothing you ever do will be good enough, because you are the designated villain/criminal/poor/sick/worthless piece of shit, right? And the downtrodden will always be stepped on, so why bother trying to get up. UGH.
Give me hopeful stories instead. Give me stories where people are allowed to change, where they are given real chances to do so.)
Anyway. Never mind. So, now we only need season 2. Come on, NBC, renew it already!
(Otherwise, I’ll just imagine that the show ended with Lucy finding Ethan’s stash, sans Flynn’s arrest and Lucy’s talk with her mother – that would have been actually a good, well-rounded series ending on a hopeful, positive note.)
1 note
·
View note
Text
Hitting The Solar Energy Sweet Spot With Blockchain & Cryptocurrency (#CleanTechnica Interview Part 2)
New Post has been published on https://cryptnus.com/2018/10/hitting-the-solar-energy-sweet-spot-with-blockchain-cryptocurrency-cleantechnica-interview-part-2/
Hitting The Solar Energy Sweet Spot With Blockchain & Cryptocurrency (#CleanTechnica Interview Part 2)
Clean Power
Published on October 29th, 2018 |
by Tina Casey
October 29th, 2018 by Tina Casey
Talk is growing about a new wave of solar development powered by blockchain and cryptocurrency, so file this one under U for You ain’t seen nothing yet. After all, a new revolution in the history of energy is well under way, and yet energy transactions are still lumbering along on the same monetary platforms that powered the soon-to-be bygone era of fossil fuels. Now just imagine how quickly the renewable energy transition could accelerate when you throw in a bit of 21st century software.
If you’re new to the blockchain-crypto-solar connection, no worries! Last week CleanTechnica sat down for an interview with the blockchain-crypto-solar startup Power Ledger,* and the company’s Chairman and co-founder Dr. Jemma Green breaks it all down.
How Blockchain Fits Into The Solar Energy Picture
Following comments edited for clarity and flow.
CleanTechnica: What is a major obstacle for accelerating solar development, and how does Power Ledger solve the problem?
Dr. Green: I didn’t know much about blockchain in the beginning. I was doing applied research for my PhD. in electricity market disruption. I designed a rooftop solar array for an apartment building, but there was no economic incentive to have one installed.
I needed software to be able to allocate energy to each unit, and enable tenants to trade their allocation if they’re not home.
The solution came together when I was introduced to people in the blockchain community. I was introduced to Dave Martin [who is Power Ledger’s co-founder and Managing Director], and he was saw a problem with too many distributed energy resources — like rooftop solar — on the grid. If too many people go off the grid, those who are still on the grid will have to pay higher rates.
So here we are in 2017 and the price of solar is competitive, but some people will still be paying more.
The solution is to create a proper marketplace. Blockchain enables that by enabling peer-to-peer trading.
Wait — What Is Blockchain Again?
CleanTechnica: How much do people need to know about blockchain if they want to participate in this system? And where does cryptocurrency come in?
Dr. Green: Blockchain is a common record keeping system. Traditionally, buyers and sellers each keep their own books. With blockchain, they both have access to the same book.
The software connects to smart meters, and each payment goes into that record. It enables a direct connection showing how much electricity is used, by whom, when, and where.
Blockchain literally means blocks of data linked together, but if you prefer another description, “data lake” is suitable.
There is no consumer interaction with the cryptocurrency on a technical level. Customers need Sparkz (cryptocurrency pegged to local currency) to buy electricity, and utilities need POWR tokens to acquire and sell it.
Note: For more details check out this quick Power Ledger explainer, and for even more details check out the full Sparkz and POWR rundown).
Is This Really Happening?
CleanTechnica: What are the next steps for Power Ledger?
Dr. Green: Our mission is to democratize power. We’ve made a lot of headway in our first two years.
Among our projects are a peer-to-peer trading project at Northwestern University. We also have a virtual power plant project with KEPCO in Japan. This one will focus on frequency control and other grid services.
In Australia, we have a Smart Cities project involving 50 homes, a grid connected battery, an EV fast charger — and a Tesla.
In Thailand we have several sites for peer-to-peer trading including a mall, a dental hospital, a school, and apartment buildings.
The petrodollar has been the default currency for so many years, and now electricity is becoming more of an indicator of economic activity.
More And Better Solar Power
Well, that’s the end of the interview. All this — and several additional projects, too — was taking place before Power Ledger nailed down first prize in Sir Richard Branson’s Extreme Tech Challenge earlier this month, so it will be interesting to see how the company fares with that prize under its belt.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the impact of blockchain and cryptocurrency in accelerating the clean energy transition, btw.
Not for nothing, but guess who else is getting into the blockchain-crypto-solar connection? Three guesses!
Okay, so it’s the US Department of Energy. The agency’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory was established just over 40 years ago in the heyday of coal power, petrodollar geopolitics, and centralized grids. Here’s what the lab has to say about software that enables 21st century energy development through peer-to-peer transactions:
Blockchain technology is an innovative solution to managing grid security, enabling distributed energy markets, and the proliferation of distributed energy resources while opening new value streams for customers and utilities.
Sweet! If you caught that thing about distributed energy resources, they don’t mean coal. Think rooftop PV and anything else that doesn’t involve a large scale central power plant, and you’re on the right track.
Last June, NREL demonstrated a real time, peer-to-peer solar energy sharing system on two homes and came away satisfied, so look for more activity from that quarter.
Here’s another snippet of insight from NREL:
Current energy markets lack an effective market interface for distributed energy resources, leading to reduced opportunities for vendors/manufacturers and the under utilization of assets. Blockchain technology offers a compelling framework for new market systems built around this emerging asset class.
And another, which reflects Power Ledger’s focus on providing for more equitable utility rates that reflect the low cost of solar:
The emergence of such markets will enhance customer choice, and it will motivate an ecosystem of new products and services that will stand to mutually benefit grid operators, utilities, regulators, ratepayers, and technology providers.
Okay, that’s enough. Speaking of coal, we’re wondering when the Department of Defense — an early and enthusiastic adopter of solar energy — will get into the game, so stay tuned for more on that.
Follow me on Twitter.
Image (cropped): via NREL.
Support CleanTechnica’s work by becoming a Member, Supporter, or Ambassador.
Or you can buy a cool t-shirt, cup, baby outfit, bag, or hoodie or make a one-time donation on PayPal.
Tags: blockchain, cryptocurrency, Power Ledger
About the Author
Tina Casey specializes in military and corporate sustainability, advanced technology, emerging materials, biofuels, and water and wastewater issues. Tina’s articles are reposted frequently on Reuters, Scientific American, and many other sites. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter @TinaMCasey and Google+.
0 notes
Text
Homefront: The Revolution review
Homefront: The Revolution is an ambitious FPS marred by its fraught development cycle. I was quite kind in a first-impressions review I did for this game, encouraging people to buy it for the insanely good sale price of £9, and whilst having played through and completed the game and its DLC ultimately leaves me with positive feelings on the whole, my recommendation is quite conditional.
H:TR is a semi-open world FPS about a silly alternate history in which North Korea invades the USA. NK led the digital tech boom in the 70s and dominated the US market with their technology. In the present day the US economy is failing and the country is globally disliked after numerous Middle Eastern wars, and after defaulting on a debt to NK they are invaded. The world is apparently okay with this, as it is performed under the facade of humanitarian aid, but NK's methods of control and suppression are brutal, and you begin the game finding yourself part of a revolutionary uprising to take back Philadelphia.
You are Ethan Brady, and in the base game are afflicted with a malady known as 'badly realised silent protagonist’. Sadly, your quality of life is heavily impacted as you immediately find yourself in numerous dire situations that could be easily sorted out if you could just find it within you to speak, but it’s not to be. What starts as an awkward and inappropriate use of the trope becomes full-on meta towards the end when at one point you operate a literal camera, which is ironic given that for the greater part of the game, a camera is all you are, despite the writer's best intentions to portray you as an active part of any given cutscene.
Your general goal is to liberate zones of KPA incursion, and you'll find yourself in one of two types of areas as the story progresses. Red zones are restricted to the public and the KPA will fire on sight. The red zones can be cleared by conquering numerous 'strike points' that free a small area of KPA troops and establish revolution forces. Your revolutionaries then dot the free zones, coming to your aid when you recruit them in a drop-in-drop-out system. Recruiting them is easy and you feel powerful when you have a clutch of soldiers at your side, although once you figure out how to take a strike point out on your own, you fellow soldiers may become an afterthought. Once you’ve cleared the entire zone, a mission will trigger that will drive you into a yellow zone - an inhabited area in which the KPA won’t shoot on sight, but set off an alarm and you’ll have to hide in order to escape their aggression. You’ll complete missions here whilst rallying the public behind you until they’re ready to revolt, after which you can begin liberating the zone as before. Liberating the zones is fun, but it is most of what you’ll be doing in the game. There’s a definite sense of repetition to the gameplay that may set in, however clever level design and nicely sculpted landscapes help to mitigate some of that feeling. The world appears meticulously designed, giving you a great freedom of movement and choice in tackling your objective.
Initially the KPA feel rather intelligent in a broader sense, in that if you fire an unsilenced weapon they will come from off-screen to investigate, and if you set off an alarm they relentlessly track you whilst you are engaging in open fire, however upon closer inspection I noticed numerous AI quirks and bugs in which enemies stood still, failed to notice my presence, ignored the fact that they were being pelted with bullets, or simply froze in place.
It’s worth mentioning though that the combat is a lot of fun. The way the KPA are designed to attack on sight in the red zones (but you can escape by fleeing or eliminating all witnesses), and be on guard the yellow zones (but any kind of open aggression will trigger an alarm that will bring incessant enemy troops), allows for lots of hit-and-run guerrilla-style attacks, and oftentimes you will start a fight confident only to have something tiny and unexpected go wrong and you find yourself fleeing for your life. The flow of combat feels quite dynamic and it rarely feels like there is no way to change your situation should you be fighting against the odds, and although the checkpoint save system can be, at times, extremely frustrating, it doesn’t hurt to know that if you screw up and die, you’re going to be inconvenienced in terms of your real time, which gives the pitched battles a sense of immediate stakes.
However, when we talk about AI, or graphics, or story, or any one of half a dozen topics, we come to a consistent theme permeating H:TR as a whole – a tug of war between elements that sell you, and elements that expose the game as a daft and sometimes broken affair. The standalone base game is not something that I would recommend for full retail price, as the AI problems and awkward silent protagonist are, sadly, the tip of the iceberg. There are many aspects of the game that are very buggy.
It’s worth keeping in mind before you buy that H:TR’s development process was a nightmare. The IP belonged to THQ and was to be developed by Crytek UK before THQ went out of business. Crytek bought the rights and then came into financial problems of their own, transferring the rights to the Deep Silver’s parent company before the game was finally handled by Dambuster, a studio comprised of members of the original Crytek UK. It was a mess, and caused massive problems for the developers both practically and mentally, as noted by the touching thank you message at the end of the credits. However, this doesn’t change the fact that my experience was marred start-to-finish by constant and imposing graphical glitches, specifically one in which a portion of the screen would turn a certain colour, usually black, which would then creep to obscure my entire view. This could often be stopped by moving the camera elsewhere, but would often happen in cutscenes in which I had no control over the camera and it would black-out everything on screen. I also noticed instances of bad dialogue pacing in which the sound files don’t kick in until 10 seconds after the last line is uttered, leaving all the characters on screen standing around in silence like idiots and wasting my time, as well as missing ambient sounds that eat away at immersion and expose the behind-the-scenes technical troubles. You may not have all these issues – I noticed that even though my frame rate was solid on High settings, it was very taxing on my GPU, and other, better rigs might not have such problems, but it’s still worth noting that you may notice some glaring technical issues during play.
Thus, had it been just the base game that I played (and I started writing this review before playing the DLC, after which I began a rewrite), I wouldn’t recommend it without a heavy discount, simply for the pervasiveness of the technical problems I experienced. However, the DLC goes a long way to correcting and even redeeming the issues experienced in the main game. There are 3 DLC packs – Voice of the Revolution, a 1 hour long prologue in which you play as Walker (a somewhat central NPC in the main game) immediately before the events of the game; Aftermath, a couple of hours following the end of the main game in which you play as Ethan (now with a voice!) sent on a rescue mission; and Beyond The Walls, another couple of hours playing as Ethan, and the true finale of the game.
Content-wise, the DLC rights some of the wrongs in the base game. Ethan is a likable character when he’s allowed a personality. There’s one jibe about how he was better liked when he kept his mouth shut, but I found it easy to connect with him and start caring for him, even in the mere 3-4 hours you spend getting to hear him. The narrative is much more directed in the DLC, and this, paired with Ethan being voiced, means the DLC hits its emotional mark a lot better. VOTR is really short and carries a ‘Metro’ vibe as you battle raiders in the subways, and in terms of overall worth is neither here nor there. It’s nice to take a spin in the boots of a rather central main-game character, but it’s really quite short. Aftermath is a decent bit of fun, although again amounting to little more than a single mission. Its greatest achievement is in going some way towards establishing an emotional connection to two of the main characters that was all but lacking up until this point. BTW is the best bit of DLC in my opinion, and takes you out of the city into the sparsely patrolled countryside. There’s a pitched battle towards the end that really feels like a genuine struggle, the stakes feel high, and the ending left me genuinely emotional. The technical problems still appeared in the DLC, but being shorter and more directed, I didn’t feel the content was hindered quite so much by them, relatively speaking. Because the levels are more linear, they allow for a greater motivation in your actions and the pacing is tightly controlled. Had the main game itself involved a greater amount of these directed sections, perhaps there would have been a better sense of pacing and less of a feeling of repetition.
So after playing the DLC, my final opinion of H:TR as a whole changed wildly. Obviously, the developers had a hell of a time even getting it off the ground, and for all that is flawed about the main game, it can’t be said that it’s not highly ambitious in many important ways. But be aware that there are bugs, and while the bugs remain, I cannot recommend the main game alone for anything other than a heavy discount. Get it with the DLC, however, (it cost me £9 all up in a great sale) and I’d call that a steal. I’d still not recommend it for the full price tag, but even if the discount were half that, I’d say that it’d still be worth it.
7/10
Good
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
snwrggy
screaming in the public restrooms
myfeelingshavefeelings
~Babylon's Whore~
deathnote2019
mello's tiktok
tempressmac
Sup
tiazvni
bunnyboo