The Age of The Sphinx

This topic captivated me since I first learned of it in the mid 1990s.  The below is from memory, so, if I got something wrong feel free to tell me:


I finally read AAD blog post on the topic last night and listened to the podcast during commute (which is Chris White -- _the_ AAD guy -- reading the same blog).  1st, direct quote from the blog post:

Unlike similar debates with ancient alien implications this one has played out in scholarly circles.

^I.e., none of the participants are bsc (batshitcrazy) AA  (Ancient Aliens) guys.  But Schoch's view _has_ been used by some bsc AA guys.

Shoch's view is that the water erosion is evidence the Sphinx is circa 2,500 to 5,000 yrs older than Egyptologists claim it to be.  Reader believes this date too old, and the Sphinx is only circa 400 years older, which is a much later age by 4,500 to 2,000 years <-- both of these views most egyptologists do not like, as it affects their belief that King Khafra commissioned The Great Sphinx (can I call him "king"?).  It is important to denote that:

A. Both Schoch and Reader believe TGS (The Great Sphinx) to be older than the common egyptological view.
B. Both also believe it to be from an older hereto-fore-unknown "Sun Cult" culture (it is pointed at the sun).
C. Both believe TGS to have had a different, bigger head, most likely a lion.
D. Both believe Khafra simply carved his head onto TGS at a later date.
E. Egyptologists have not endorsed either view, but state Reader's -- which is _much_ later than Schoch's -- to be "probably right."

Good article, the tennis match between Reader and Schoch is enjoyable.  It is very academic and professional.  Both men showing high levels of education and scholarly respect.

tl;dr2: Schoch has to have his view proven guilty, and until then it is considered innocent.  He has turned over a lot of evidence and done lots of work, but until all possible geological "tests" are passed, his view will remain in doubt.  It is important to note here that Schoch has not been proven wrong, and he has affected modern archaeology regardless.

Credentials:

Schoch has a phd from Yale in geology and geophysics.

Reader is secretary of "The Manchester Ancient Egypt Society."  All else I can find about him is "Colin Reader Geologist" <-- cannot find his degree in a 5 minute search.  Here is one link to his creds.

rawr!

n00bs, pros and joes and the dota2 reporting system

Dota2:

The guys not-very-good-at-they-own-game at Valve have put out a statement regarding the here-for-to-mentioned batshitcrazy reporting system that serves as an admin (replacing real admins) that I earlier bitched about....  You know, when I had not played in ages, played 2 games, and got muted in the 3rd ... when I had said hardly anything and it was just people reporting me for 'sucking' in their eyes?

Anyhow, here it is.

tl;dr: lemme translate: "we know it can be abused.  We know you can get reported for not saying a word and just bcs someone did the: 'i died = u suk' stuff, but still.  People _are_ getting reported for being mean (/queue Taylor Swift), so, we're keeping it....

So, being weak and a liar and a hypocrit, yes yes, I went back to dota2....

But I've learned!  (It's learning!).

I now work the piss out of the reporting system.

Case example:
PA: "Axe, why did you tower dive into all 5 of them?"
Me (Axe): "misclick" (actually it was lag).
PA: "Well, that misclick might cost us this game."

Oh no he didn't!

mute-report!

Another game:

VS: "Omni, why didn't you use your ult?"
Me (Omni): "I try to save mana for repel and heal over ulting."
VS: "Well, now we are wiped."

Get that weak-ass stuff outta here!!!

mute-report!

^see?

I am now a true follower/believer of the Dota2 reporting system.

I've even upped it.  Here's an example of my latest muting/reporting:

Me (Void): "Guys.  I'm gonna come in at them from the wood, bottom.  When I go in and ult, that's when you join-in.  Got it?  Got it?...  Guys?  Guys?"

Hrm, they would not answer me:

mute-report!

Game starts.  I get commended.

mute-report!

This one guy: "you are a good Omni.  I got a rare hammer for you."  [We trade].

Me: "Thx man!"
Him: "np."

mute-report

Working as intended....

Small Town Security: YAFTOR

I.e., "yet another fucktard on reddit."

Anyone can make a subreddit, and for any reason.  'Tis the open 'net after all, and I err on the side of supporting Internet freedom, but squatting sucks, and in the end, squatting laws make sense, mostly.

tl;dr: fuckers will "squat" a subreddit name, for purposes of trolling.  To this let us now meme:

I in no way want to be seen as some supporter of the show, Small Town Security.  I do find it fascinating -- sorta the way a train wreck is fascinating .. as long as you're not in it!

But I put this write-up in http://www.reddit.com/r/smalltownsecurity and it was getting upvotes:

The show is asking for it:

..It is asking to be jeered at, put down, ridiculed and mocked, but only from those who have not looked beyond the thin veil of a reality tv show. On that level it is among the worst. If the producers continue to script laugh scenes where old men are tricked into thinking they peed (whether scripted or not, it appeared to be) then the show will be seeing its final season. If, however, they continue to peel-back the layers of these characters -- these real people -- I will continue to watch and be amazed.

We find in STC individuals at the end of their ... not lives, but dreams. A former survivalist and militia member, come back to society, a former starlet with 'connections'. An educated businessman, always trying to provide with hoarding and 'other' issues. And, yes, between these three, a current love-triangle of uncommon nature.

And from these histories, these stories, we have their current situation, delve into their bad habits, things that are so awkward that we cannot believe it isn't scripted, but it can't be.

In the middle of all of this we sense longings: one has struggled for years with their gender, one with her marriage, one with his desire for normalcy that he denied himself via marital choice and abnormal vices.
And these people are not young. They are older. Opportunities are running out and health is beginning to deny chances to change.

What will happen if/when she dies? Who will have to leave their business? Will she break-it off with one of her relationships to save the other?

This same primal story could make for any great Hollywood romance, but Hollywood could never create a Mayberry with a transsexual, a businessman and a one-time starlet.

No, reality is stranger than fiction, and that is Small Town Security.

And again, it was getting upvotes .. until -- mods deleted it.

Why?  Well, when I peruse that subreddit, I see just about all negativity about the show, its members, etc.

Can it be the mod(s) just wants this subreddit to be an attack, a put down, a pejorative diatribe against this show? (Did he just say "pejorative diatribe?")  In the least, I do not feel that subreddit is objective in light of the few posts there, and the deletion of my post above.  ffs, there are only 3 posts there and none new in months -- attack of the mods!

Dota2: Hello, and welcome to the world of batshitcrazystupid....

Edit: I want to be clear here: as far as I can tell, people can report you for absolutely, positively, no good reason.  This, in turn, will lead to you _not_ being able to speak to your own team for upwards of days.  The fact that you can end up on a team with 4 "friends" who you piss off (bcs, like, that guy wanted mid altho you got it 1st, or that guy got pissed you took his stacked camp creeps, or you didn't go rosh when they went rosh) and they can simply troll you with reporting, is so incredibly dumb on the part of Valve that I cannot believe it.

Of the reporting systems in LoL or WoT, this one is moronic by comparison.

/Edit



I play this game, rarely, called Dota2.  I have friends and family who play it lots.  They enjoy it when I play it.  Tonight, I thought I would take a break from World of Tanks and do a rare visit into Dota2.

I want to stop here and thank Valve and Steam for making me realize that this game is a liquid piece of shit, badly done, and badly administered.  I want to make everyone reading this realize that instead of doing real administration and moderation of their game, they have tried to offload this work to the player base, and they have done this horribly, terribly, incredibly, badly.

So, it's been weeks or more since I played Dota2.  I really, only, play it when friends urge me to.

But tonight, I thought I need a break from World of Tanks, and I launch Dota2 on my own.

I play a total of 3 games.  The 3rd game I quit because it was the game that told me -- upon trying to congratulate a teammate on a first blood:

"No one hears you. Your account has been flagged as disruptive and your communication privileges temporarily revoked. Time remaining: 24 hours"

^what?!?!?

What incredibly bad thing did I do?!?  What on earth could have been so bad, that I can no longer be heard from anyone in the game, on the enemy team ... on MY TEAM!?!?!?

I cannot tell my team where I'm going, what I'm doing, anything.  I CANNOT TELL THEM THE ENEMY IS MISSING FROM MY LANE!!!!  I google, and find this:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/570/discussions/0/828937420098941622/#p3

Indeed, this reveals the incredible level of stupid that is going on with this game.

Here's what happened in the 1st 2 games I played tonight, that lead to this retarded 24 hour ban on my commuincations:

1st game someone said they were going to report me bcs I pushed mid instead of going rosh.  I literally only said, "me?" <-- this was it!!!!!!!!!

2nd game, I hit a camp creep and there were like 30 creeps.  I was like, "wtf??!!?"  I killed them all <-- I was axe with 2 stouts and other stuff.  Antimage raged on me, "been building that all game.  Thx axe!!!"  <-- he cont to rage on me.  Honestly, truly, he did.  He said nasty, mean stuff.  I did nothing about this, but I simply said, "perm muted" finally  Another guy on team did the same and I said, "perm muted" to him as well.  (I think these were the guys who got me muted from EVERYONE IN THE GAME for 24 hours <-- although I in no way returned the favor!!!!!!).  Later in this game, an enemy commended me over a fight and I said something to the effect of, "well, I put 2 over here on ignore for going off on me" <-- is this why they did it??!?!  still!!!!!

3rd game, someone got 1st blood.  I tried to say, "gj" and it tells me: "No one hears you. Your account has been flagged as disruptive and your communication privileges temporarily revoked. Time remaining: 24 hours"

Welp, I did nothing wrong.  This is bullshit.

So, I want it to be known here, that you can fully be abused in Dota2. If you find yourself on the losing end of one or more people with the will to click you into obscurity, you can be put on a ban list from ever talking in this game, because they can.

Word to the wise: if you ever, remotely, feel an argument or flame war or whatever in game with a player in Dota2, simply report them, simply do it, simply click and complain, because they will, and it'll be dumb, fucking dumb, fucking potato dumb.

Better yet, just ignore this fucking game altogether and play a game where real mods moderate it.

-fkd

And here is the support ticket I submitted to steam on this issue:

"No one hears you. Your account has been flagged as disruptive and your communication privileges temporarily revoked. Time remaining: 24 hours"

First, here is my blog, and here is my post on this stupidity that you have instituted:

http://www.fatkiddown.com/2013/05/hellow-and-welcome-to-world-of.html

I want to thank you for encouraging me and others to play a game not dota2 with this mute shit that you've wrongly offloaded to the player-base, who are simply abusing it.

It is dumb and may your game fail

-fkd

Update:
Steam support replied to my trouble ticket:

Hello

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

Any bans are applied due to excessive reports being made towards your account or from repeat abandons from games.

We are not able to remove these bans as they are handled automatically by the Dota 2 servers.

You will need to wait until the ban is expired in order to retain your full privileges.

And I replied to their reply to my trouble ticket:

My future son-in-law has a dance off with a child

Arty

Spaced Armor