Contextual Idiot

This is good advice.

I’d stop talking to the contractors saying to only replace the asphalt, and talk to the ones saying they’d fix or refill the foundation. You’ll have to see what’s under the driveway to know how to fix it.

When I replaced my driveway, there was only sand under the asphalt. So that got replaced with proper crushed stone infill. It’s been about 4 years and I’ve seen no problems.

After it has been replaced, make sure you seal it with a good asphalt sealant. This will protect it from the freeze and thaw during winter by stopping the water from getting into the asphalt and wrecking it over time. It will have to be resealed again after a few years, but the length of time depends on the quality of sealant you use. This will greatly extend the life of your driveway, especially in a place that sees freezing temperatures, so it’s worth the effort.

Asphalt sealant isn’t too expensive either, and you get a good amount of coverage out of a 5 gallon pail. Just know that the first time you seal it it will absorb a lot more sealant as you fill all the little spaces in the asphalt. A wide floor squeegee is the easiest method for spreading the sealant.

I recently finished playing through Itorah, a side scrolling action platformer. It’s been on my list for a while. The game is beautiful, the story and art are influenced by Aztec, Incan and Mayan art and culture. There’s no voice acting, but each NPC feels different. There’s little backtracking, and in the areas you do travel a lot there’s usually a new path you can take through it.

I enjoyed my time with the game. The mechanics are fun and varied, and the boss fights are all different and challenging. My playtime was about 20 hours and I didn’t rush it. There are achievements for speed running the game too. I didn’t get all the achievements on my first play through, so there would be more to do for achievement hunters.

Not a scientist, but I’ll try to answer.

Gale Crater is huge. It is 154km (96 miles) in diameter. The meteor that created it would have been massive, and the impact was so big that it caused the surface of Mars to rebound from the hit, causing the mountain in the middle to form. That mountain is called Mount Sharp. The Curiosity rover has been exploring this mountain, and that’s where these samples were taken.

The meteor could have brought water with it, but the impact would have been so violent that it all would likely have blasted away from the crater, and any remaining would have been boiled away by the heat of the impact. That water could have flowed back to the crater eventually, through streams or rivers and possibly precipitation.

The fact that these samples are from high up the side of the mountain do bring the question of if this is a sign of water, how did it get there? I believe this is where the researchers are suggesting that Mars could have been very wet.

But as always, these are only theories. The Rovers can only do so much, and until we can get samples back, or boots on the ground, the researchers are left saying “This is probably why, but we could be wrong.”

I didn’t see it suggested yet, but you should check out Selaco. It’s a fairly new FPS with tight gunplay and retro graphics. The enemies AI is well made, they will work together to hunt you and try to flank you. The weapons are a mix of standard fare with some new stuff, and you can modify them with upgrade packs similar to how Doom 2016 does it. The upgrades give each weapon a good variety for different play styles.

The first chapter is released and playable, and there are 2 more chapters coming. The first chapter has a good amount of gameplay, I put 35 hours in it.

I was surprised when she brought up Mortal Kombat as an example of over sexualized characters, and not, say, the entire Dead or Alive series. Especially Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. She does make some good points in her video, and I don’t want to dismiss her point of view, but I feel she took the easy way out in addressing this point.

Games, and movies and tv, have treated women as sexual objects for a long time, and now the pendulum has swung the opposite way in reaction to that. It’s going to take a while for games, and movies and tv, to allow for better perspectives on women. I think the indy scene is where we will find this happening before we ever see it in the major studios, since the latter has to worry about limiting risk and making investors happy. But hopefully the recent flops will be a shot across the bow and wake them up.

Except for that, this was a good video. She lays out her arguments well. I don’t agree with every point, but I understand where she’s coming from and can respect her point of view.