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A List of People I Had Lunch With Yesterday (12/30/14)

Yesterday, December 30th, 2014, I had lunch with the following people at a Chinese restaurant in Pennsylvania that was not particularly noteworthy.

Jason Brown

This concludes my list of people I had lunch with on December 30th, 2014.

kurtbraunohler

Last week I did the Mancow morning radio show in Chicago.

It did not go well.

As a comic, I’ve done a lot of morning radio. It’s the main press for most Midwest clubs. Never have I had an experience like the one I just had.

Everybody is familiar with the Morning Zoo stereotype – the sound...

glentickle-blog

Kurt Braunohler is a national treasure.

fencehopping

Melting aluminum with an electromagnet.

sh4ne

splat

glentickle-blog

Bridget, I need to expense some things... for science.

putthison

Here’s an inspiring story: these students are part of a large group who wore neckties to Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory High School in San Francisco, as a show of solidarity for a classmate who wasn’t allowed to wear a tux in her yearbook photo. One time when a tie pairs well with a Philadelphia 76ers jersey.

obamawhitehouse

Climate change isn’t a distant threat — it’s happening right now.

Here’s what President Obama is doing to cut carbon pollution and prepare the U.S. for the impact of climate change.

bobak

Poop.

putthison

"If I dress like a schlump, I think like a schlump and I work like a schlump." - Nina Totenberg in the Wall Street Journal’s slideshow of how people dress for the office at NPR.

I’ve worked in public radio for twelve years now, though never in an office other than the one where I’m the boss, and this is a pretty representative sampling. Some people look great (Audie Cornish), some look a mess. It’s a funny world, defined in large part by an audience that can’t see you.

(Incidentally, for the twelve million people who’ve emailed me to ask: no picture of me in this feature because while my show is distributed by NPR, I work out of my own office in Los Angeles, not NPR HQ in DC.)

geekosystem

Learn the History of the Term “Winter Soldier” and Why Ed Brubaker Used the Name in Captain America

With Captain America: The Winter Soldier coming out, soon I was curious about where the name “Winter Soldier” came from. It turns out it’s a lot more than just a cool-sounding name comic book writer Ed Brubaker came up with. It has its roots in the Vietnam War and even goes back to Thomas Paine.

I first became curious about the origins of the term “Winter Soldier” after hearing podcast host Jesse Thorn mention it a few times on his show Jordan, Jesse, Go! He was put off by Marvel’s use of the phrase due to its association with the Vietnam War’s Winter Soldier Hearings.

Rather than paraphrasing him, I reached out to Thorn about his feelings on the situation. Here is his reply: […]

(read more)

victoria-q-nerdballs

This is super insanely interesting and you should read it right now.

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Attn @jillpantozzi and @vqnerdballs.

I Kobayashi Maru'd Bioshock Infinite

Note: When Bioshock Infinite came out, someone asked me about my thoughts on it as a parent. Dadthoughts, if you will. I don't remember who that person was. I've tried asking the people I thought it may have been, but no one is admitting to it, and so, here are my Bioshock Infinite Dadthoughts publicly in the hopes that the person who asked for them will see them.

There are big spoilers here, since the spoiler is what I was asked about. I had it "spoiled" for me ahead of playing the game, and don't think it lessened my enjoyment any (until I stopped enjoying it.) Still. Some people are weird entitled babies, so: Spoiler Warning.

I didn't play Bioshock Infinite until it came out for free on Playstation Plus because that's where I'm at with gaming. I went in knowing Elizabeth is Booker's daughter and that Booker is Comstock.

Infinite isn't really the type of game I like playing. I prefer puzzles and adventure to gunning down faceless people, but that's just me. Still. Infinite was pretty fun. Shooting birds at people, though ludicrous, was surprisingly enjoyable.

I don't like killing people in games, but as Booker tells Elizabeth about killing, it gets easier. Or something. I don't remember the exact quote, and I don't care enough to look it up.

The world is weird enough that it was still fun, so I kept playing, the whole time wondering why someone wanted my dad-specific opinion on the game. Was it just that there aren't a lot of father/daughter team-ups in games? Maybe it's that you find out at the end of the game that she's your daughter, so maybe that might give people some weird feelings?

Then, at the end of the game, I came to the moment I'm assuming this person was wondering about. It's at the end, where you're not really playing anymore, just basically watching cut scenes. You press a button to move along, but can't do much.

The moment in question is when you realize the whole "Give us the girl to settle the debt" thing isn't about rescuing Elizabeth, and that the debt's already been settled when you handed over your infant daughter over to Lutece years ago.

That's your only option. You can stall all you want, but if you want to keep playing you have to hit the button to hand the baby to Lutece. You have to give up your daughter to keep playing the game.

So I stopped playing. I turned off my PS3 and uninstalled the game.

You can't have my daughter.

geekosystem

In honor of Valentine’s Day, We made you some valentines using 14 of our favorite real-life robots. Just be warned, if you send some of them to your loved ones, they might send you back a restraining order.

victoria-q-nerdballs

This is what I’ve been working on all week and I’m so excited it’s finally published, you guys. Terrifying robot valentines for everybody!

geekosystem

What Is This Polar Vortex Thing and Why Does It Hate Us So Much?

If you went outside in the United States today (and we wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t), you might have heard everyone complaining about the “polar vortex” in between burying their faces in their coats for warmth. Because we think it’s important to know your enemy, here’s the back story of the polar vortex.

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