Then we're fucked...no body is going to meld with him, and remember, without that sacrifice, the world was doomed.

It is very different and poppy compared to previous stuff for sure. I like it in the context of the song, even though overall I prefer Tool's prog/metal melding.

I'm not a Maynard whisperer / expert, but my guess is that there are 2 motivations for the sound of this song/album compared to other stuff.

1) Although Maynard is the vocalist for Tool, APC, and Puscifer (which I haven't listened to much), he kinda wants to keep all those projects distinct. Tool is more dark and heavy, APC is a bit more rock, and Puscifer trending towards some electronic stuff. But that kinda oversells this, because mostly he is putting vocals down onto musical tracks that the members of those bands have already recorded without much or any input from him...

2) From my interpretation of the song itself, he's being (mildly) critical about getting caught up in triviality of celebrity gossip and nightly news instead of paying attention to stuff closer to home. While simultaneously accepting that we all do that, and that sometimes it takes the death of a far-off idol from our adolescence that we'll never meet in person to get us to consider our own mortality.


So the poppy sound with that dark edge right around the corner really fits -- at least to me.

I think a lot of people are down on American cheese based on its worst, cheapest variants. *Good* American cheese is, hands down, the best cheese for a cheeseburger. I mean, there's no debate there. It has a mild -- but not overwhelming -- cheesy flavour, and it has the perfect gooey consistency that melds with the beef in the best way possible.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/07/whats-really-in-american-cheese.html

This video has been seconded as a duplicate; transferring votes to the original video and killing this dupe - dupeof seconded with isdupe by Vexus.

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/Neil-DeGrasse-melds-Science-and-Rap-Battle

This video has been nominated as a duplicate of this video by eric3579. If this nomination is seconded with *isdupe, the video will be killed and its votes transferred to the original.

Neil DeGrasse melds Science and Rap Battle has been added as a related post - related requested by eric3579 on that post.

The ring doesn't grant powers, it boosts the powers of those who wield it...if they already have innate powers.

If they do not have innate powers, basically mortals, then they simply are pulled into the half-spirit realm so that they can be found easier by Sauron and his henchmen (that have power).

The only creature, in the books, with innate powers that put the ring on is Tom Bombadil. He does not seem to be affected by the ring in any way. IF any of the non-mortal characters were to wield it, they would control the Nazgul and would meld a portion of Sauron's power to their own.

Now, in the borders of Mordor, the ring's powers were boosted immensely. When Sam encountered an orc in the Tower of Cirith Ungol while holding the Ring, he appeared to the orc as a powerful warrior cloaked in shadow "[holding] some nameless menace of power and doom." The orc was so terrified that it fled. Similarly at Mount Doom, when Frodo and Sam were attacked by Gollum, Frodo grabbed the Ring and appeared as "a figure robed in white... [that] held a wheel of fire." Frodo told Gollum "in a commanding voice" that "If you touch me ever again, you shall be cast yourself into the Fire of Doom," a statement fulfilled when Gollum fell into Mount Doom with the Ring.

Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!
I love this on so many levels. It's a beautiful melding of recycling, innovation, art, ecology, engineering, exercise, job training, self sufficiency, etc. This is how I want to see 3rd world countries to better themselves, in ways that better their lives without falling into the same traps 1st world countries have that destroy their priceless environments for convenience or profit. 1st world countries could learn something from that too.
*promote

Invisible Inc didn't always include the rewind mechanic and I don't think it was actually a planned feature. Later iterations probably balanced the game more around it, but I still think it is kinda amazing how well it works given it wasn't in the game until relatively late into development.

I'd actually very much like the game to penalise you for not using rewind. Or rather I'd like the game to be balanced with assumption you will use it. I like that rewind creates a nice middle ground between quick save scumming and iron mode. I think it allows for a more challenging game in other respects and that doesn't feel frustrating when a miss click puts your main girl in open ground surrounded by cyberdisks (especially when the UI was pretty bad when it came to different elevations...). It smooths the transition from too easy to too hard.

That said, there are a number of changes from Enemy Unknown that I'd like to have more priority. Borrowing from Invisible Inc again, the ever raising alarm level in that creates a sense of urgency that I never felt in XCOM, even in the bomb missions and with the meld resource. I never lost a soldier because I forced them to take an incredible risk for the sake of the mission, I really only lost people because an unlucky shot dinked them in head across the map when they were in heavy cover. It looks like they are perhaps addressing urgency with the threat of reinforcements, which is cool. The other frustration I had with XCOM:EU/EW is that it always seemed to punish scouting. You'd effectively "wake up" the aliens by finding them which really disincentivised spreading out to cover more ground. It was simply safer to move as ball and let the enemies run into you (with the possible exception of the terror missions). it looks like they might be addressing that by making you the insurgent force with ambush tactics etc.

So yeah. I'm hyped.

I hope some day we'll see a woman champion beat the male champion and meld the belts, making one championship.
You're right, if women can't compete, it would be terrible, but I think they could, certainly if given a certain weight advantage. I know damn well that Ronda could tie me in knots and make me swallow my own buttocks.

That was.... That had zero artistic value unless you count the amount of effort to engineer and arrange the perfect melding of these things.
In the end, it's just cutesie gothic lolitas prancing around to lull the crowd into ignoring that it's a prerecorded music track, and superficial construct of media.
I guess that's art in some form.
For some reason I still dig it. I guess that's the magic of a pure distillation pop-production.

EDIT: Curiosity got the better of me and I downloaded the album. It's pretty funny, and often wanders more into the realm of regular J-pop and electro-synth music, and with one song, for some reason, gangster rap.

If They Melded: Mark Zuckerberg + Bert Edition has been added as a related post - related requested by PlayhousePals on that post.

If They Melded: Mark Zuckerberg + Bert Edition has been added as a related post - related requested by PlayhousePals on that post.

If They Melded: Mark Zuckerberg + Bert Edition has been added as a related post - related requested by PlayhousePals on that post.