Lovecraft and Slavoj Žižek, George Orwell, Prince of Persia, Kamehameha and the bonacon, the toxic beast of the Middle Ages that no one wanted to cross. Famous characters, classic video games, anime, and medieval horror. What more could you ask for from recommended links?
H.P. Lovecraft and Slavoj Žižek: Philosophy of Lovecraftian Fiction: "Philosophy and fiction not only go hand in hand, but the latter sometimes takes the form of a battering ram that pierces age-old ideas and concepts, and even discovers completely new ones in the process. This avant-garde trait of fiction is almost never recognized, except as a colorful footnote. For philosophy, fiction is intuitive; it does not think reality to deconstruct it, but to evade it and, if lucky, to find some unexplored labyrinth that later, under the light of reason, will be meticulously dissected."
George Orwell's Six Writing Rules: "In this post I want to share with you the six writing tips that author George Orwell left written for those cases where we have doubts about the effect of a word or a phrase. As Orwell says, "one needs rules to rely on when instinct fails". And since I suppose you'll agree with me that this writer knew what he was doing, it's worth taking a look at what he proposes."
'Lovecraft gamer': How to Discover Cosmic Horror in Three Games: "The Dreamer of Providence, a meticulous and fantastic essay written by Carlos G. Gurpegui published by Héroes de Papel, tells us about the Lovecraftian legacy and its presence in one of these arts: video games. A reading that reminds us that to discover the real influence of an author, it is not enough to read him or to make a list of works that reference him. You also have to follow his trail beyond the text; you have to play with him. A game of any of the following video games will bring us closer to understanding different concepts of cosmic horror and allow us to better understand the author from Rhode Island, while we accept losing part of our sanity. Because that is not dead which can eternal lie..."
Prince of Persia, the Princess Is Indeed in This Castle: "Mechner grabbed everything he liked back then: the karate classes he attended, Japanese woodblock prints of the Ukiyo-e genre, the early animated works of the Disney studio, Akira Kurosawa, and silent films (a type of cinema that the programmer compared to the state of computing at that time, for drawing on creativity to overcome limitations). With all this on the table, Mechner decided to make his own film and devised a story that, like the first silent films, was built on archetypes: a nameless hero, a kidnapped princess, a villain, and a castle." And remember that the source code has been available for a few years.
The History of Neo Geo. The Future is Now: "Neo Geo was much more than power. Neo Geo was much more than exclusivity. Neo Geo was, in short, a real dream come true: it brought to our homes all the spectacularity and grandeur of arcade games, so fantastic and overwhelmingly superior to anything on the market that it is impossible to convey in words the unfathomable and deep sense of awe and stupefaction with which Neo Geo flooded our hearts after the titanic impact of its arrival."
With Nintendo Labo You Can Recreate a Game & Watch Machine and This User Does It in the Best Possible Way: "We are just a couple of days away from 'Nintendo Labo' going on sale in all stores in Europe. In the United States and Japan, however, it is already available and some people have begun to let their imagination run wild to bring some real genius to life, like this user from the Japanese country. Thanks to the Toy-Con Workshop, with which it is possible to create whatever you want in a way that seems limitless, user BSpowerx has recreated the mythical 'Fire' Game & Watch machine by taking advantage of the functions offered by this mode that Nintendo Labo has."
If Your God Is Money, Transhumanism Is Your Religion: How They Bleed Silicon Valley: "All the people mentioned so far are very diverse, but they have a point in common. Transhumanism, a lubricant that makes this whole plethora of Silicon Valley millionaires, neoliberals, biotechnologists of opaque intentions, or popularizers like Cordeiro fit and work perfectly on their way to the most ambitious goal in the history of our race: to end death!"
Kamehameha, the Story Behind the Combat Technique That Would Take You 50 Years to Master: "We make a circle with our hands, bring our wrists together, open our hands vertically and release a "Oooonn-daaaa Viii-taaaaaaaaal!" (or directly "Kamehamehaaaaa!!" if you were a bit of a sybarite) and we already had fun for the whole recess when we weren't playing Power Rangers or "Chicho Terremoto" (which basically consisted of lifting the girls' skirts to see their panties). Japan conquered us when we were little and much of the blame was 'Dragon Ball' and its combat techniques."
The Great Civilizations Were Neither So Great Nor So Civilized: "Traditionally, history has basically been a form of delayed propaganda. Thus, historians collected the writings and archaeologists documented the ruins that the great civilizations of the past left for their own greater glory. However, until almost yesterday, the vast majority of humans have lived outside those supposed powerful kingdoms and empires, which some current scholars are discovering were nothing more than small and unstable islands surrounded by a whole immense sea of 'barbarian' peoples who left little or no trace."
Rhino, the Amazing Amphibious Vehicle with "Bubble" Wheels: "Elie commented that the origin of his inventions lay in the observation of his environment, everyday life, and nature. For example, the idea for the faucet aerator came to him when he contemplated a waterfall. Thus, the ever-restless Elie's invention bulb lit up again one day while watching some public works machines in New York. Why not create a machine that combined the capabilities of a bulldozer with the agility of an automobile?"
Do Not Attack the Bonacon: A Medieval Beast with a Very Toxic Defense: "For one reason or another, the bonacon became a certainly popular creature and made an appearance in many medieval bestiaries. One of them, for example, is the Aberdeen Bestiary, in which it is stated that the beast is native to Asia (and not to Peonia as indicated in the Natural History and in On Marvelous Things Heard). Furthermore, this bestiary indicates that the heat of the creature's excrement is so strong that it sets fire to everything it encounters. In these illustrated works, the bonacon often appears being hunted by humans, and for this reason its illustrations show the creature spewing fire from its rear. The human pursuers in these scenes usually appear with a look of disgust on their faces."
China's Ambitious Project to Develop the "Holy Grail" of Clean and Inexhaustible Energy: "On Science Island in Anhui Province, eastern China, there is a large shiny metal donut located in a huge bright round box, almost as large as a two-story apartment. This is the Advanced Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (or EAST, for its acronym in English). Inside, hydrogen atoms fuse and turn into helium, which can generate a temperature several times higher than the core of the sun. Powerful magnets control the reaction, which, if maintained, could soon produce large amounts of electricity. Around the world, there is an effort to advance the management of nuclear fusion: the United States, Japan, Korea, Brazil, the European Union... but none can keep it stable for as long as the Anhui team."
Videos
Maniac Mansion (fan film), dives into motor oil, cat goes to butcher shop, girl eats raw meat, objects are people too, the screaming dog, corgi vs little crab, the fable of the tyrannical dragon, don't mess with the Power Rangers, robot with super realistic facial expressions, why you need to reinforce concrete, the toadfish, creepy worm, friendly meerkats, Chris Hadfield talking about space, nooooooooo, a tornado, tolerates G-force like a champ, the effect of Komodo dragon venom, The Floppotron: Cars, thieving cockatoo, kitten bites sleeping puppy and the fails of the week.
Galleries
Aerial photographs of low-cost housing, jokes without dialogue, the first bodybuilders, the phenomenon of perfect mud balls, Enoch Bolles' beautiful pin-ups, the Studio Ghibli theme park, Brutalism, the roofs of Hong Kong, tribal circuit-based tattoos, horror movie illustrations and the brilliant Visual Dump of the Week.
This Week on NeoTeo
And now the best of the best! The best of NeoTeo! Let's go! Magazines with Raspberry Pi projects, why software fixes are called patches, how Sega made the pixel art of its games, how to cook The Matrix steak, the first humans genetically adapted for diving, the best speed tests, the Silurian hypothesis and how to win at Minesweeper.
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