Outlast - NetFlix
By the same producers as "ALONE" I was induced to watch this by a friend. (Note: Jason Bateman as Producer?)
Now - In the beginning I was loving this. 8 episodes - the premise is that 16 people - "survivalists" or "outdoors men" or "marines", standard solo people would be forced to form four teams (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta) - and the team that survived the longest would win $1,000,000.
The catch was they had to survive as a team.
Now - I've talked a lot before about "Alone" - which I loved - primarily because while it on the surface showed people "battling" nature - a curious way of describing our relation to it - the battle in the end was always with themselves. Nature - in most of the seasons I watched excepting the one set in Slave Lake - is abundant, and the climate and "perils" the contestants faced were somewhat exaggerated.
This is a different twist.
There is still the overpumping of the perils - the cold (It's on the coast of Alaska, and so while there's snow and below zero temperatures it's not -40), the bears (you need respect, not fear), etc.
What you soon realize is that most of the contestants have but little experience, that beards do not make a woodsman, and that the perils they faced are the merest fraction of what the early Victorian explorers went through - women and man, comparatively they have it ridiculously easy.
We are, as a race, and a society sadly declining.
Now, the read-more as there are spoilers ahead. You've been warned:
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The Thieves of Our Attention
Now this was good, not because I know anything about Mr. Beast other than he's somewhat popular, but it does make some good arguments regarding his rather baleful influence. The opening claim of "Watched 1000 Hours SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO" impressed me, and it articulated a few things I've long realized to be true and recognized in myself, and hopefully should force me to act in a manner a little more in line with my integrity.
Now - while this video takes issue with the inanity of Mr Beast and the final summing up of how many years humanity has spent watching him count (1 inane video - 102 - YEARS!!! - imagine the sum of all his videos taken together). While I agree with the "Turn Away and give it none of your attention" philosophy, whether you watch him or not - he's symptomatic of a very much larger problem - this theft of our attention takes us away from people, humanity, community - and - were we all to do something with the time we waste on this nonsense we'd get - individually - great things done - as a society we'd be building pyramids daily.
Think of how much time we waste upon the internet, Facebook, Reddit - 99.9998 of any time spent there is wasted. The same with Instagram, Tik-Tok, etcetera. And the algorithms are designed to keep us "engaged" - although, in reality, they're keeping us stunned and numb when we should be righteously morally enraged at the antics of these "influencers", "Content Creators", etc.
Don't get me wrong, the internet can still be an interesting place - if you go there with something in mind. Go there looking to fill your head or waste some time and it will too readily oblige with the worst of all possible content.
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17th Century Polish Coin Hoard found by Metal Detectorist
Exactly what it says. A clay jug from the 17th Century filled with copper coinage of the era. Unfortunately Archaeologists had to be called in because metal detecting relics in Poland is illegal.
Which means - a lot of finds go undiscovered or unreported.
Link: https://www.livescience.com/17th-century-century-hoard-brimming-with-1000-coins-discovered-in-poland
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- Category: Found
The Vindelev Hoard
A 1 Kg gold hoard containing the oldest know reference to "Odin", unearthed in Vindelev, Western Denmark in 2020. Approximately 1500 Years old.
Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/mar/08/oldest-known-reference-to-norse-god-odin-found-in-danish-treasure-trove
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- Category: Found
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