Loved this band in high school. Nice to see that they're still around.

I think i have this. It was a dupe of your own post. Sifty accidently (broken) double posted your video when you submitted it. This happens occasionally. You killed one and the other was still around and now is doing quite well It was never a dupe of someone's earlier video, but sometimes people will dupe in this situation to deal with the second video. I prefer just killing one of them. Hope that makes sense.

Your killed video is here and you can see its a slightly different url but posted at the same time. http://videosift.com/video/How-do-vending-machines-figure-out-if-coins-are-fake-or-not

I got my first cassette recorder for Xmas in 1969, I carried it with me everywhere. I still have a large plastic crate with dozens of unlabeled cassettes I've had since the early 70s. It's interesting to listen to them and be surprised by the stuff I find on them, music, conversations, radio stations. Good to see cassettes are still around.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Cute Overload. Is that site still around?

I remember watching him on Channel 5 out of NYC back in the early 70s, didn't realize he was still around. I grew up to think he was just another huckster but he has a point, I see mothers pushing shopping carts at the supermarket completely ignoring their kids while yakking on their cell the whole visit. Or a mom on the phone waiting for the school bus with her kid. Who knows, maybe they are completely engaged with the kids the rest of the day. But I suspect that next generation will end up glued to their phones as well.

They even still around?

Because they're fucking idiots?

And I'm from Portugal... you can see how our rally used to be (safety wise) from AeroMechanical's video.

I have actually been to a Rally of Portugal in the 00's. Me and a group of friends in college just decided to skip class out of nowhere, take 2 cars and drive 1h30m to where they were holding a rally stage, and go watch it. Colin McRae was still around back then.

Yes, you only get to watch them go by once, but if it's in a cool spot, it's well worth it. (we were in a straight portion of the road, but in small ridge above it, so we were pretty safe I'd say).

Fallout 1 was a technically antiquated VGA (that's right, 640x480, 256 colours) post-apocalyptic turn-based tactical RPG where you could not control you team mates during combat. It was a bit buggy (and so was F2). It was Mad Max, without cars.

And yet.

Fallout is arguably the best world-building work in the history of video games. People are probably going to dispute that, but most other games are built on pre-existing lore or works, or do not have that scope*. Fallout built its world pretty much from scratch, conflating a pre-war 1950's, golden-era, overly-optimistic world-view with the bleak desolation of the nuclear holocaust that ensued (to clarify for those who really know nothing about Fallout: in this universe a nuclear war happened in the 50s**. all that's left is from that era). Beside its content which was plentiful in and of itself, this created a contrasted, yet highly coherent and mature world (and by mature I don't just mean killing friendly NPC, I mean doing Morally Very Bad Things that don't necessarily result in graphic scenes). An open world that you could roam freely, be surprised by a new discovery that you made, and at the same time find these discoveries to fit perfectly with the game's logic. In most large games you just access new areas or are carried by the story, in Fallout you would go "Holy shit I'm in the middle of a city populated by centenarian ghouls!", shortly followed by "ho, of course it's full of ghouls, that's perfectly normal". There are not many games that have this mix of unexpected/logical and dark/humorous content.

Fallout 2 had the same ho-my-God-how-could-they-get-away-with-it VGA engine (so next to zero evolution there), but quadrupled the world map (with a minimum overlap with the one from F1) and brought it fifty or so years forward, expanding the world greatly (there are now rival quasi-city-states, and your action may influence their future), while also building on the first one: some antagonists 'classes' from F1 have now grown their own identity and became NPC, and some characters are still around -- a young character you saved in F1 went back to her settlement, became its leader, built it into a town, and is now in the process of expanding it into a new state...So Fallout 2 is basically the same game, except they did that one important thing: push the game world's boundaries even more. You could never guess what next city would be like, but you could bet it would have some crazy shit in it, and yet somehow still make sense.

That's why many people don't like Fallout 3. It is not in itself a bad game, but comparatively, it's kind of coasting. Also it's too damn easy.

I'm sorry, I got carried away, you were asking if you should play the previous ones? No, you 'should' not. But you could, and for F1 & F2 you would certainly not lose your time if you know what you're getting into. And if you don't, at least go and watch their intro on Youtube, they'll give you the feel of the world.

* Possible contenders in terms of "original video game world": Elder Scrolls (vast, but less original), Deus ex (not as large), Bioshock (same), Final Fantasy (original and vast, but not as complex). Any other idea?
** Technically not the 1950s, but in practice the 50s + a bunch of high tech gizmo.

Adrenaline rushes aren't dangerous if they're done properly. Personally I'm going to make sure my little boy is exposed to plenty of 'scary' things as he grows up so he can learn about risk and how to assess/handle it properly.

I saw a great documentary about this with Danny MacAskill called Daredevils: Life On The Edge. It looked at adrenaline junkies and investigated why they do what they do. At the end of the program there's a really nice choreographed sequence with MacAskill and various others performing tricks as they descend down the step into an underground station in London, and through the station itself.

The sequence was directed by a hollywood stunt specialist who has worked with all the top guys in big blockbuster movies and he said that the stuntmen and women, far from what most people think, are the least likely people in the world to do something risky. There are two parts to this. Firstly they've learned how to be very good at assessing risk. They understand extremely well what makes something safe or risky. They've had a lot of experience and have learned from it.

Secondly they are very highly skilled. What would be very risky for us to do isn't for them because they have the training to perform safely. We only think what they're doing is dangerous because we ourselves would be very likely to be hurt doing it.

If you insulate a kid from risky experiences you deny them the chance to learn in a controlled environment. It's like teaching a kid to cook. If you look after them really well and provide everything they need and cook them fantastic nutritious meals every day until they leave home they'll love you immensely for it. Then they'll move out, try to look after themselves and end up burning the house down with a pan fire or cut the end of their finger off with a knife or shave the skin off their hand with a grater.

Teach a kid how to use a sharp knife safely and how to sharpen it and keep it keen and they'll be safe for the rest of their life. Kids should be able to use sharp knives, under strict supervision of course, to learn the safe way of doing it. They should be doing 'dangerous' things to learn to do them safely. Part of the learning process is probably going to hurt. They may well get a few cuts before they get their knife skills up to scratch, but if they're in a controlled environment these should be small compared to the injuries that happen when someone with no idea about knives forces a blunt one through something tough.

As for adrenaline sports, the more they fall over the better they learn to balance. If this kid goes on a bit of a bigger slide and gets thrown off in the corners it's going to hurt, but it's not going to kill him. He'll find his limits and respect them more.

I'd rather my kid makes his mistakes while I'm still around to clear up the mess

@mintbbb I keep seeing NetRunner upvote your vids. Is he still around?

I miss him and I'm sure a lot of others do too. But all I see is him upvoting only your sifts lately. What's up with that?

i fucking love you man!
so glad you are still around to add your steady voice of reason and humanity.

That's too bad. You need a Hook who's going to chew the scenery, not get eaten up by it. Why not Dustin Hoffman again? ...he's still around.

why thankies!
giroux is on my heroes list.i love me some dissenters and dissidents,seems you do as well.

i think what surprises me most is that what he is saying is so non-controversial,yet he is seen as a dissident.we live in crazy,bizzaro times.

good to see your still around my friend =)

My Wrecking Ball

Driving through the streets tonight
It's hot, I’ve got the windows down
I wish I could call you, I wish you were still around

Nothing much left in the tank
Somehow this thing still drives
Think I forgot what it needed but somehow still survive
And all the walls we built they must come down

But hey, you’re my wrecking ball won’t you come and maybe knock me down
Hey, you’re my wrecking ball won’t you come and maybe knock me down
Hey, you’re my wrecking ball won’t you come and knock me down, come and knock me down
Come and knock me down tonight

Lying in the bed at night
Feeling like I’m somebody else
My thoughts inside my head get lost inside the haunted house
Everyone I used to know left their dreams by the door
I accidentally kick ‘em and talk until you’re still not sure
If you want to sell them out at all

Well hey, you’re my wrecking ball won’t you come and maybe knock me down
Hey, you’re my wrecking ball won’t you come and maybe knock me down
Hey, you’re my wrecking ball won’t you come and maybe knock me down
Hey, you’re my wrecking ball won’t you come and knock me down, come and knock me down
Come and knock me down tonight
Come and knock me down, come and knock me down, come and knock me down tonight
Come and knock me down, come and knock me down, come and knock me down tonight
Come and knock me down, come and knock me down, come and knock me down tonight

Driving through the streets tonight
It's hot, I’ve got the windows down
I wish I could call you, I wish you were still around

This guy's great. I remember reading his stuff years ago...

http://maddox.xmission.com/

I'm glad he's still around. I'll have to reread the grading children's artwork piece.