Bradleya

Have been looking through the list of subjects for this years Bradleya yearbook in this quarters journal.  There is a few new things there that are quite interesting to me as well as a few things that are obscure enough for this blog of sorts.

For one a brief bit of history about Bradleya, its our cactus yearbook as I've already said, but also is much, much more technical than regular issue of Cactus world and for one about 4 times as thick.

If you like taxonomy and have the requisite smarts to work out the obtuse botanical language used (seriously, there's quite a few technical papers here detailing new discoveries) then its for you.  For the most of you, its not gonna be worth it to be honest.

First up is Cremnocereus a cliff dwelling cactus from Bolivia.  Quite odd flowering on this one, reminds me of some of the other short flowered Cereus types (believe its bat pollinated too). It does look quite impressive growing on a cliff face as well.

 I've read a little bit of the article via issu and its quite good.  Mostly its stuff on Crassulaceae with a few parts on Kalanchoe and some more on the taxonomy of the money plant (Crassula Argentea and Ovata). And some stuff on Tylecodon too including a new species.

As a mesemb man myself, there are a few articles to kickstart the old almonds.  Leaf structure in Conophytums, a treatise on the hypothesis of the evolutionary origin and polymorphism of Lithops (you see why we keep these in Bradleya now).

But mostly what I'm interested in is a new genus from the Western Cape called Roosia.  There's no information on line about it.  It sounds like it was part of the super group Ruschia (if you were a pink flowered and shrubby mesemb, chances are you were placed there) and split off when it was given a taxonomic revision.  As I don't have access to it I'll just have to troll around the net to see if anything is posted about it.  Ironically the only Bradleya I do have is the big taxonomic revision of Ruschia itself done by Heidi Hartmann.  If I ever get to read this I will post an update...

EDIT 2018.

What a difference a year makes? This article details just what Roosia was and indeed is.  Short version is, it wasn't a Ruschia at all but in fact, part of Esterhuysenia instead. Looks quite nice as well.

R.I.P Spider

We have some sad news here. My cat passed away on Thursday. He was 17 or so, though getting an accurate age is problematic due to him being adopted from neighbours one dead and one now in sheltered housing.  He was a contemporary of my old cat Ginger, now passed and used to clean up his food that he left.  They never really fought or fell out though, even if they were neighbours and that.

I don't know how he died but could sense his decline and such, as being an out cat he spent most of his time indoors over the past week and slept most of the time by the front doors (both main and basement, where sadly he finally passed on).

Spider in better days.

The weird thing is that shortly after his passing, there was a rainbow outside and new agers always go on about pets crossing the Rainbow Bridge, whenever they die.

If you squint a bit, it looks like the central TV logo.

I don't believe in all that shit mind, so in my eyes its more like Bifrost and he's being welcomed into Valhalla, with the chosen and such.  Besides where there is food there is always cats and such, it makes sense. 

EDIT well look what has turned up on my Youtube timeline, Viking Cats. 

Superplay Returns

It may have escaped your attention but Future publishing have brought back a classic magazine for one final special issue.  Superplay is or rather was the best Snes magazine in existence for those that didn't know.  A mix of fair, well written reviews, encylcopaedic knowledge, and Anime aesthetics helped immensely too. 

Our first issue was the Pop N Twinbee cover of Issue 8 (with the tagline Pop 'em Twinbee on the spine) and over time I've managed to collect the whole set.  They've survived my school bag and most of my formative years laying up on the shelf, I'll never part with them.

I know its mainly to promote the Snes Mini as it has re reviews of all the releases as well as a preview look of the non prototype version of Starfox 2 which is bundled with it, but damn its exactly how I remember it.  The art style is exactly the same with full colour box outs of all the games, up for review.  There are some import reviews of the games for the Super Famicom Mini as there were import reviews back in the day, but more importantly it has all the characters you remember.  Though the original Neko, who asked you to sub back in the day died in 2004.  His son Neko Jr takes up the mantle.

Helen McCarthy's Anime World returns for a look back at the scene's origins back in the early 90's and what cart looks at some essential Snes games for you and marks the official acknowledgement of Terranigma and Streetfighter Alpha 2 for Snes, both were released after it had folded and not reviewed.   Also you get a great Wil Overton cover as well (its Starfox 2)

You don't get a letters page (Obviously) and Mode 7 tips are scattered over each of the reviews now.  There's no Fantasy Quest so I won't have to update the FAQ nor Final Fantasy Forum but you didn't get them at the end either so its no great loss.

In all its a great throwback to the golden age of Gaming, glad I have my copy.

3 years of Gamergate.

Apparently this milestone passed me by, its not if our side has been keeping score and such but its been 3 years.  Zoe Quinn has a book out called Crash Override How Gamergate Nearly Destroyed my life and that, unbiased reviews here. Its £19 or about $25 bucks or so, it peddles her victim narrative and shills her online advocacy the Crash Override Network. 

If you are broke or don't wish to donate £19 in victim bucks here is an alternative a free ebook explaining what it is and that. I haven't read it or such but works from the other side of the debate are few and far between.  If Sargon could write about it I'd snap it up in a heartbeat, but all we have are the official sources from the Guardian which are hardly impartial and fair. 

Can remember the old Internet Aristocrat videos about the whole affair and such, it was a cluster fuck with paid shilling of games and such and the hassling of the fine young capitalists was perhaps the final straw for me. Maybe one day we'll have the authoritative book on the subject.  Which explores each side but as anyone who has dealt with these people know anything that goes against there narrative is of course "harassment" and trolling.

That the wicked "MRA broflake army" and such keeping women down and out of gaming, is nothing we would love you to come over and play games and such.  We won't judge you, we won't troll you all we wanna do is game.