Sunday, January 6, 2019

"Sultan Muhammad V became the first monarch to abdicate in Malaysian history, cutting short his five-year term in an unexpected move after just two years on the throne"

NYT:
He reportedly married a 25-year-old former Russian beauty queen in November while on a two-month medical leave.

...

Under a unique system maintained since Malaysia’s independence from Britain in 1957, nine hereditary state rulers take turns as the country’s king for five-year terms.

The monarch’s role is largely ceremonial . . . But the monarch is highly regarded, particularly among the ethnic Malay Muslim majority, as the supreme upholder of Malay tradition.

Saturday, January 5, 2019

Where in North Dakota Is Carmen Sandiego? was "Intended as a form of 'pilot program' to test whether region-specific versions for the remaining 49 states were financially viable"



Wikipedia:
Although 5,000 school copies were sold to schools in the region, the game has become extremely rare and only three retail copies are known to exist (sources conflict whether they are complimentary versions offered to educators who worked on the project, or stock left for mail order at a game shop in North Dakota), although it is currently unproven if retail copies were ever sold.

Where in North Dakota Is Carmen Sandiego? constitutes the fourth game in the Carmen Sandiego video game series (which includes World, U.S.A., and Europe). In contrast to these previous titles which were developed internally, North Dakota was instead largely developed by a team of fourteen educators led by computer coordinator Craig Nansen, concept designer Bonny Berryman, and co-chairwoman Mary Littler collectively known as the North Dakota Database Committee of the Minot Public Schools, who made the game idea a reality Having observed the popularity of the Carmen Sandiego franchise in the education of school children, the educators were inspired to develop a North Dakota version to teach North Dakotans about their state's history and geography
(There are playthroughs on YOutube)
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Bionic flying fox





From the description:
So that the BionicFlyingFox is able to move semi-autonomously in a defined space, it communicates with a motion-tracking system. The installation constantly records its position. At the same time, the system plans the flight paths and delivers the necessary control commands for this. A person performs the start and landing manually. The autopilot takes over in flight.
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Wargaming miniatures roundup





































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Friday, January 4, 2019

"Here's Everything We Know About the Fake Australian 'Bachelor' Contestant"

Observer:
(For the record, Observer editor Juliet Helmke, who was raised in Australia, found Bri’s accent unconvincing from the jump. “It’s stilted, when the entire sound of an Australian accent relies on you being somewhat lazy with enunciation,” she said. “Also, it veers slightly into Eastern European territory.”)
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Hummingbirds with fluffy legs; Cat likes being stuck; It's adorable that the puppy loves mud, until...












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Ten funny tweets





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