The Zodiac 340 has been solved!

└ posted on Saturday, 12 December 2020, by Novil

The Zodiac 340, the second-most famous unsolved encrypted message after the Voynich Manuscript, has been deciphered by code breakers David Oranchak (USA), Sam Blake (Australia) and Jarl Van Eycke (Belgium)!

[ 7 Comments ]

Looking for editor for Gaia making-of book

└ posted on Saturday, 24 October 2020, by Novil

I’ve received enough applications already. Please don’t apply anymore!

As you may know, the Gaia anthology will be supplemented by a making-of book. The book is now almost finished and already in a pretty good shape in my opinion. I’m now looking for an editor, who must be a native speaker, to give it a last editing pass.

The editor must look for remaining spelling mistakes, grammar errors and phrases that sound off to a native speaker. As the book isn’t meant to win a literary prize, I’m not interested in (more expensive) in-depth editing. In particular, I’m not interested in extensive discussions about minute details. Moreover, significant changes would break the page layout, so those should be kept to a minimum.

The text has 24,000 words and comes in form of a nicely formatted Microsoft Word document. I’d suggest that the editor provides the fixes and comments by using Word’s editing features. But I’m open to another workflow as long as it doesn’t result in too much additional work on my end.

If you’re interested, please send your application to novil@gmx.de which must include:

  • Your rate for editing the book
  • A short description why you think you’d be a good choice (references, etc.)

I can pay with PayPal or Transferwise.

There will probably be additional editing jobs in the future.

[ 2 Comments ]

Some of the best YouTube channels

└ posted on Tuesday, 30 June 2020, by Novil

In the last years and months, I’ve discovered a couple of independent YouTubers who produce content that is truly exceptional. I’d like to present them in this news entry. All of them are enjoyable for people of all backgrounds and political affiliations.

  • LEMMiNO produces well-researched top-10 lists and documentaries with a focus on popular mysteries like the origin of the Universal S and the lost colony of Roanoke. While the videos of many other documentarians mostly consist of read out Reddit posts, his videos boast high production values and a cool visual style.
  • CGP Grey also produces documentaries about a wide range of topics. Most of them feature funny looking stick figures. He also tackles topics that you may have never heard of before, like the race to win Staten Island and the trouble with tumbleweed. If you can’t get enough of short documentaries, you may also want to check out Tom Scott. But his stuff just isn’t as original and exciting as LEMMiNO’s and CGP Grey’s.
  • Summoning Salt creates videos that present the world record progression for the fastest speedruns of games like Super Mario Bros. and Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out. If you haven’t been interested in speedruns before, chances are high that you’ll become a regular on speedrun.com after watching a couple of his meticulous composed videos. You’ll watch a 55 minute long video on Castlevania and will be sad that it’s already over… If you’re interested in individual speedrunners afterwards, I suggest the channel of Super Mario Bros. runner Kosmic.
  • The LockPickingLawyer picks locks. That’s pretty much all he does, but his unusually pleasant voice and the little stories about the history of the locks he picks make his videos true highlights. Most of them are very short, since the crappy locks are no match for his leet lock picking skills. If you can’t get enough of lock picking, you can also check out the videos of his friend BosnianBill.
[ 12 Comments ]

Spoiler-free review of The Last of Us Part 2

└ posted on Saturday, 20 June 2020, by Novil

https://clips.twitch.tv/AuspiciousPlausibleMagpiePunchTrees

I honestly didn’t expect these reactions after the game got a 95% on Metacritic. I guess that shows how much a 10/10 is worth nowadays.

[ 5 Comments ]

Boardroom suggestion

└ posted on Tuesday, 2 June 2020, by Novil

Boardroom suggestion

It’s often said that reality isn’t black-and-white, but that there are various shades of gray. But in this conflict, there rather seem to be shades of black.

[ 42 Comments ]