Additionally, Venice is awesome but NEVER go in the summer. It's super hot & humid, which means the canals stink (because they're also the city sewers), and it is CRAZY crowded with tourists. Go in the off season. Everything is just as beautiful, but you'll actually get to enjoy it. >> ^raverman:

For any considering it. DON'T bother planning the tower of Pisa in to your trip.
It's a depressing little trap town. It really isn't that interesting or unique when you're there. You won't have a good time, and you wont 'remember it fondly forever'.
You'll remember how disappointed you were and that you saw better churches and towers and this sucked you in because of famous bad architecture and tourists all getting in each other's photos. If you do have to go, don't make the mistake of thinking you'll stay a night and see the town. It's basically a ghetto bus stop of regrets.
Book 5 nights in the Ci
nque Terre and a further 3 nights in Sorrento instead and tell me this wasn't the best advice i ever gave you.

For any considering it. DON'T bother planning the tower of Pisa in to your trip.

It's a depressing little trap town. It really isn't that interesting or unique when you're there. You won't have a good time, and you wont 'remember it fondly forever'.

You'll remember how disappointed you were and that you saw better churches and towers and this sucked you in because of famous bad architecture and tourists all getting in each other's photos. If you do have to go, don't make the mistake of thinking you'll stay a night and see the town. It's basically a ghetto bus stop of regrets.

Book 5 nights in the Cinque Terre and a further 3 nights in Sorrento instead and tell me this wasn't the best advice i ever gave you.

>> ^quantumushroom:

He probably also had cybernetic eyes to see in the tunnel.

>> ^Ryjkyj:
>> ^Enzoblue:
>> ^Darkhand:
Had me until he accelerated with his hand off the throttle!

And went into a pitch black tunnel with no headlight. Little things like that take me out of this. Foliage in the high rises was major overkill,(full trees? Seriously?) the chaser plane and even the seeker missiles it dropped had apocalyptic rust on them...

You guys didn't get that he was some kind of cyborg that controlled technology with his hands? And yes, given enough time, trees will grow anywhere.
I would be more skeptical of a skinny hipster surviving the apocalypse, along with his own suicidal style of motorcycle riding.



Exactly. Or he simply could see because of the bright light of the drones!

The real funny thing was, that his bike had perfect traction on a road with decades of dirt, plants and potholes created by the plants - with tires that seemed to be at least 40 years old.

He probably also had cybernetic eyes to see in the tunnel.



>> ^Ryjkyj:

>> ^Enzoblue:
>> ^Darkhand:
Had me until he accelerated with his hand off the throttle!

And went into a pitch black tunnel with no headlight. Little things like that take me out of this. Foliage in the high rises was major overkill,(full trees? Seriously?) the chaser plane and even the seeker missiles it dropped had apocalyptic rust on them...

You guys didn't get that he was some kind of cyborg that controlled technology with his hands? And yes, given enough time, trees will grow anywhere.
I would be more skeptical of a skinny hipster surviving the apocalypse, along with his own suicidal style of motorcycle riding.

>> ^Enzoblue:

>> ^Darkhand:
Had me until he accelerated with his hand off the throttle!

And went into a pitch black tunnel with no headlight. Little things like that take me out of this. Foliage in the high rises was major overkill,(full trees? Seriously?) the chaser plane and even the seeker missiles it dropped had apocalyptic rust on them...


You guys didn't get that he was some kind of cyborg that controlled technology with his hands? And yes, given enough time, trees will grow anywhere.

I would be more skeptical of a skinny hipster surviving the apocalypse, along with his own suicidal style of motorcycle riding.

There's still lots of art and architecture made today in the style and theme of old European Catholicism by people who're completely atheistic. I think it's more stylistic and cultural inspirations than religious, because even though the style might've been developed by and incorporated into catholic art and architecture, originally it was from even older cultural and religious styles.

This guy is full of false dichotomies and pretension. First, the whole "ritual" and "community" things are not specific to religion. Look at the art world, school, family life: all full of ritual. And the point about community has already been made above. Second, no one will look down on an atheist who likes aspects of culture and human thought/production linked to religion, be they architectural, textual or other.

He starts with the premise that it's the norm to know that believing in deities is non-sense and no-one does, and those who do do no harm. Well bullocks. The reason people are loud about arguing against superstitious beliefs is because they have dire consequences, especially when they are indoctrinated into vulnerable child minds who cannot oppose them (because not testable nor evidence-based). And that is a danger to humanity, period.

As for thinking about things, as it said above, education should take the place of giving people knowledge and material to be in awe of (e.g. anything by Carl Sagan) and philosophise about. The only reason the evangelicals/pentacostalists are convincing is because they are preaching to a crowd of indoctrinated sheep, making a conscious effort to bypass any critical thought. I think it would be terrible to "preach" that Shakespeare is wonderful. No. Live it. Learn to appreciate it critically. Or dislike it, but know why. And no, propaganda is never good. It is trying to imprint a message onto you without you questioning. No matter how "good" a message is, it should be up to the receiver to critically receive it, and accept/reject it based on their critical appraisal thereof.

Ugh, this guy annoyed me.

Any architects here? Is prefab really the future of architecture and is it safe?

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I don't like clutter. I don't like victorian buildings with fretwork, cornices faux columns etc. Nooks where dust collects and never leaves. Long planes of molded concrete surrounded by trees appeal to my aesthetic sense. >> ^kymbos:

As an architect's son and a former Canberran, I can only disagree with you on the architecture front. With the notable exception of the members bar of Old Parliament House - that thing is gorgeous.
Good luck in the Can. The place is empty over summer, as the public servants exodus to Bateman's Bay takes hold.

Who knew Cube studied Architecture? When did that happen, when he was producing License to Kill? Haha, anyway its true LA is not nearly as bad as people make it seem and if you or I could live nicely in LA I am sure itd be a blast... as long as we didnt live in one of those many/silly gated communities, ugh.

As an architect's son and a former Canberran, I can only disagree with you on the architecture front. With the notable exception of the members bar of Old Parliament House - that thing is gorgeous.

Good luck in the Can. The place is empty over summer, as the public servants exodus to Bateman's Bay takes hold.

>> ^Asmo:

While Westy is coming off as a half assed dimwit (how unusual), Eve really is an acquired taste with a learning curve like climbing a wall covered in razor wire, shards of glass and radioactive killer land sharks...


That actually sounds more fun than the demo of Eve I tried.

I could not get into how the ships flew around. While I understand the way they modeled it is what's needed for their netcode, it was way too simple and well, 'Just click.. then click.. then click.. and you're there!'. I even noticed ships passing through the warpgates(?) don't really care about the architecture of the gate. They'll fly right through structures.

I'm sure there's some great other aspects to the game, but I need some sense that I'm actually flying something.

bit of a missed opertunity , music was good , but really half arsed effort with the projected video looked like a 1990's cinema promo video or some 1990s theme park 3d video.

Just using basic colours but lighting multiple buildings up in time with the music would be infinetly better , often for music visualization the more minimal and selective things are what have the most impact.

the whole building projection working with the architectural can work well but evan then i think the more minimal effects are the most striking , like having water pore down the building or making it look like the building has changed shape as a whole by blocking parts off , or lighting features of the building up like the windows in a way to make it look like the building is doing stuff rather than sumone simply projecting an image on the building.

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We just flew back from Melbourne and now I've caught my breath. What a great trip and Sift Up it was. Melbourne is a gorgeous city - the trams, old architecture lots of amazing things to see - and the caliber of its citizens, (at least the Sifters) is second to none.

@spoco2 - I've added a couple of pictures to your post. Gaylord's was fantastic - I wish I hadn't filled up on pints of beer beforehand. We've got to do it again at least once a year, maybe we need to fly in some overseas Sifters too.

That is some incredible architecture. I've never seen a show in a place as impressive as this.