Tag: alternate
Alternate Incline Dumbbell Curls: Sculpt Your Arms
BioShock Infinite: Burial At Sea Cannot Reconcile Its Alternate Selves
BioShock is celebrating its 10-year anniversary today, March 26, 2023. Below, we take a look at how its DLC, Burial at Sea, attempted imperfectly to find synthesis between its various worlds.
BioShock’s Rapture is a place of necessity. The novelty of its underwater setting comes out of a practical concern: Why wouldn’t a player character just leave a dangerous place? The game’s thematic concerns came out of these gamey considerations. Give Big Daddies Little Sisters so that players are incentivized to attack difficult enemies to get resources. A world without regulation means that players can buy ammo from vending machines and shoot lightning out of their hands with “plasmids.”
Even the game’s preoccupation with objectivism comes from these kinds of practical considerations. In director Ken Levine’s own words, “we wanted a very believable reason why they would be there.” Rapture’s founder Andrew Ryan (a thinly veiled stand-in for writer Ayn Rand) cannot imagine a place where he can build his ideal, objectivist world on land, so it must be done in the sea. Though BioShock’s narrative ultimately, tepidly, condemns him, it also finds some nobility in his mission, in the purity of his vision. Maybe that’s because his goals were similar to the designers’. They too built Rapture out of necessity, a world constructed out of gameplay constraints, that could only exist digitally.
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To Cut Costs Google Asks Some Employees to Share a Desk, Work Alternate Days
The new desk-sharing model will apply to Google Cloud’s five largest U.S. locations — Kirkland, Washington; New York City; San Francisco; Seattle; and Sunnyvale, California — and is happening so the company “can continue to invest in Cloud’s growth,” according to an internal FAQ recently shared with cloud employees and viewed by CNBC. Some buildings will be vacated as a result, the document noted.
“Most Googlers will now share a desk with one other Googler,” the internal document stated, noting they expect employees to come in on alternate days so they’re not at the same desk on the same day. “Through the matching process, they will agree on a basic desk setup and establish norms with their desk partner and teams to ensure a positive experience in the new shared environment.” The FAQ says employees may come in on other days, but if they’re in on an unassigned day, they will use “overflow drop-in space.”
Internally, leadership has given the new seating arrangement a title: “Cloud Office Evolution” or “CLOE,” which it describes as “combining the best of pre-pandemic collaboration with the flexibility” of hybrid work. The new workspace plan is not a temporary pilot, the document noted. “This will ultimately lead to more efficient use of our space,” it said.
A Google spokesperson said they’d conducted pilot programs and surveys “to explore different hybrid work models,” CNBC reports, with the results showing employees “value guaranteed in-person collaboration when they are in the office, as well as the option to work from home a few days each week.” So they’ve devised their new system to combine “the best of pre-pandemic collaboration with the flexibility and focus we’ve all come to appreciate from remote work, while also allowing us to use our spaces more efficiently.”
The article points out that Google Cloud is currently not profitable, and “is still losing hundreds of millions of dollars every quarter — $480 million in the fourth quarter, although that was nearly half of the loss a year prior.”
An internal FAQ warns that affected employees are now expected to have “conversations about how they will or will not decorate the space, store personal items, and tidiness expectations.”
Thanks to Slashdot reader RUs1729 for sharing the story.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
This YouTuber is crafting an alternate Command & Conquer mythos populated entirely by the weirdest guys on the internet
Virginia Teen Observes ALTERNATE REALITY Open Before Her
A rural south-central Virginia teen is sitting on her porch when she notices a ‘slit’ opening mid-air in the yard. She goes to explore, but the opening soon closes. Was this a peek into another reality?
“I had a weird experience when I was a teen, back in the late 1950s in my family’s rural home on a two-lane highway in south-central Virginia.
I was sitting out on the small front porch with my mom. We were doing nothing, just resting in the sun. The traffic on the highway was usually infrequent and now no cars or trucks had gone by in a while. It was extremely quiet. Our neighbor had come over and was talking to mom.
I lapsed into staring off into space, into the front yard, smelling the pines across the road heated by the sun, smelling the flowers. I wasn’t blinking, just staring. It wasn’t sudden but I happened to notice that a ‘slit’ had appeared in the air and seemed to be parted just enough so I could see inside.
Inside the slit was the same yard, the same world but yet it was different. The sunlight was uniform and soft white, and nothing cast a shadow. I had the strong urge to go explore and hopped down off the side of the porch to go through the ‘slit.’
I looked back to make sure my mom wasn’t watching me and reassured myself that she was still talking to our neighbor, although at this point I could not hear their voices, although they were just a few feet from me. I turned back to the front yard to walk a couple of yards and enter the slit but it was gone.
I think that ‘openings’ or ‘portals’ are only open for a very short time. I was just curious, but I wonder what would have happened if I had stepped through? Would it have closed behind me? I would have been one of those children that disappear literally right in the presence of their parents. I believe that they are anywhere where the conditions of solitude are just right and the veils can thin out.” BD
NOTE: I have heard of these ‘slits’ or ‘tears in the veil’ opening, then so closing. Is this how some people simply vanish? Can we enter into an alternate reality that easily? Lon
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Have you had a sighting of a winged humanoid or huge bat-like creature in the Chicago, Illinois metro area / Lake Michigan region? The entity has also been referred to as the ‘Chicago Mothman’, ‘Chicago Owlman’ & ‘O’Hare Mothman’ or ‘O’Hare Batman.’ – Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map – Please feel free to contact me at lonstrickler@phantomsandmonsters.com – your anonymity is guaranteed. Our investigative group is conducting a serious examination of his phenomenon. We are merely seeking the truth and wish to determine what eyewitnesses have been encountering. Your cooperation is truly appreciated.
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Scary ALTERNATE REALITY Incident in Labrador Woods
Peggy, her husband Derek, and their two children moved to Clarke’s Beach, a small town on Conception Bay in Newfoundland and Labrador back around 2000. Peggy always enjoyed the area until she had a frightening experience while picking berries in the woods near her home in August 2022.
“I had an experience blueberry picking that left me scared to go back for a while. I still get the chills thinking about it to this day. I always loved the summer. Where we live, there are only seven houses on our road with only one entrance. It’s surrounded by trees. My yard had lovely wildflowers, strawberries, and cherry trees. My neighbor had a plum tree that the moose come out and eat every fall.
Across from my house, there was a big piece of undeveloped land overgrown with trees and giant blueberries. It’s one of my favorite spots to go to. Every year I’d make a few trips across the road onto this little path until I came to a small clearing full of blueberry bushes.
Every year was the same for years until it just a little while ago I remember I was waiting for my sister to come and visit. I said to my husband that I was going to pick a few berries while I waited for her, so I grabbed a bucket and I was off. It was around 6:00 PM in late August, so it was starting to get dark earlier but I figured I had plenty of time. Now keep in mind I could see my house and hear if my sister pulls into the driveway from where I was. The piece of land I’m on is maybe a couple thousand feet.
So there I was picking away one for me one for the bucket. The berries were big but today they were huge. I mean I had never seen berries so big, it was blue all around. I kept picking and picking. I soon started to notice it was getting dark. ‘Oh no, another big patch, look at those!’ I said to myself. I couldn’t leave but no matter how many I picked, my bucket just wouldn’t fill. ‘Oh, it’s just my eyes playing tricks on me, because it’s getting dark. Keep picking, Peg, and you’ll fill your bucket soon,’ I said.
Suddenly, I got this strange silence coming over me. The air got a little colder. No wind. It got so quiet. No birds. Nothing. I couldn’t even hear the sound of the highway. I can always hear the highway. I thought I was deaf. All I could hear is my heart and I believe that stopped for a second too. Everything started to go in slow motion around me. All of a sudden something clicked and a voice said, ‘Get out of here, now!’ I remember standing up and trying to go and my feet felt heavy.
I looked for the path but I couldn’t find it. I started to panic because I could see my house but I couldn’t find my way to it. The harder I tried to get through the trees and reach the road, the further away it would seem. It’s like I was looking through something. I was walking on a treadmill in front of a big screen. I saw my sister’s car pull into the driveway and my husband talking to her on the step and calling out to let me know she was there, but I couldn’t call back. I tried and only whispered. I started to get scared. It was getting dark and I wanted out of those trees. I remember saying ‘Not tonight, buddy, not tonight. Leave me alone! I’m not playing your games!’
Next thing you know, I’m out on the path and standing on the road in front of my house unsure of how I got there but glad I was.”
Transcribed source: The Round Table Of Knowledge By HTH
NOTE: This Conception Bay, Labrador account is very interesting. I have been there a few times and I had heard of weird incidents. My father was stationed in Goose Bay, Labrador during the Korean War. He and others experienced a bunch of unexplained activity. There have been several Bigfoot encounters there as well. It’s a joint Canadian / US military facility where Special Forces have often trained. Some of the later unclassified training books mention incidents at Goose Bay, especially those involving Bigfoot encounters and how to react. I had 2 of these manuals many years ago but lost them when I had a fire in my apartment in 2005. Lon
HAVE A COMMENT? GO TO OUR SUBREDDIT AND POST YOUR THOUGHTS
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Have you had a sighting of a winged humanoid or huge bat-like creature in the Chicago, Illinois metro area / Lake Michigan region? The entity has also been referred to as the ‘Chicago Mothman’, ‘Chicago Owlman’ & ‘O’Hare Mothman’ or ‘O’Hare Batman.’ – Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map – Please feel free to contact me at lonstrickler@phantomsandmonsters.com – your anonymity is guaranteed. Our investigative group is conducting a serious examination of his phenomenon. We are merely seeking the truth and wish to determine what eyewitnesses have been encountering. Your cooperation is truly appreciated.
—–
TODAY’S TOP LINKS
Massive eel found washed up on Texas beach
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**********
Please Consider a Donation to ‘Phantoms & Monsters’
Your financial support of Phantoms & Monsters and our other pursuits is much appreciated. This all depends on you, the readers & followers.
Please use the PayPal donation buttons on the blog site. You can also go directly to Phantoms & Monsters donation. Thanks again for your loyalty and continued support. Lon
This blog and newsletter are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Work 3.0 United States License.
Registered trademark PHANTOMS AND MONSTERS ® / PHANTOMS & MONSTERS ® – USPTO #90902480 – Lon D. Strickler
© 2005-2022 Phantoms & Monsters – All Rights Reserved
Android Users Can Finally Use Alternate Search and Payment Methods… but Only in India
Android users in India will soon have more control over their devices, thanks to a court ruling. Beginning next month, Indian Android wielders can choose a different billing system when paying for apps and in-app smartphone purchases rather than default to going through the Play Store. Google will also allow Indian…