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    1. 'Desert Island Dump' A three-part study of the most polluted beach in the world.

      Desert Island Dump Chapter 1: Shipwrecked Chapter 2: The Big Haul Chapter 3: "Stolen from Talley's" Here's an abriged version: Henderson Island: the Pacific paradise groaning under 18 tonnes of...

      Desert Island Dump

      Here's an abriged version: Henderson Island: the Pacific paradise groaning under 18 tonnes of plastic waste

      And a video of the beach.

      7 votes
    2. An asteroid just buzzed past Earth, and we barely noticed in time

      News article in The Conversation: An asteroid just buzzed past Earth, and we barely noticed in time A bit of science: Asteroid 2019 OK to flyby Earth at 0.19 LD on July 25 - the largest of the...

      News article in The Conversation: An asteroid just buzzed past Earth, and we barely noticed in time

      A bit of science: Asteroid 2019 OK to flyby Earth at 0.19 LD on July 25 - the largest of the year

      Video showing the asteroid's orbit: Asteroid (2019 OK) Just Missed Earth and it was really close at 54,000 mph

      6 votes
    3. What games have you enjoyed for the "wrong" reasons?

      So, I just finished playing Sleeping Dogs. It's a kung fu action game with a heavy emphasis on the hand to hand combat. It feels like it's the Arkham games roided up with some hack and slash...

      So, I just finished playing Sleeping Dogs. It's a kung fu action game with a heavy emphasis on the hand to hand combat. It feels like it's the Arkham games roided up with some hack and slash juice. Almost all the upgrades are hand combat based, the vast majority of combat encounters are hand to hand. It's how the game was advertised, it's what all the reviews talk about, it's why I was interested in it, and why it was recommended to me. And you know what? I was way more into the shooting than the hand to hand combat.
      The game does not seem all that proud of its gunplay, there's not a place to buy or customize guns, you just have to pick them up when a firefight starts and drop them after, and there's only like 3 guns total in the game. But it's some of the most fun gunplay I've played in years in a third person shooter. It heavily utilizes slow motion when you jump over cover or kick an enemy and leap into the air, incentivizing you to not just stay in cover the whole game. It really reminds me of Vanquish, which is one of my favorites in the third person shooter genre of all time.
      So this got me curious, what are some games that others have enjoyed for "wrong" reasons? Wrong is in quotes, because, well, it is still something meant to be enjoyed if it's in the game, but it clearly wasn't the focus of either dev time, or marketing, or general hype around the game, or all of the above. Although if you want to share something that wasn't something meant to be enjoyed at all, like something left in totally unintentionally by the developers, feel free to share that too.

      21 votes