frezik

@frezik@midwest.social

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frezik,

Unironically this. It was a great movie moment, but the domino effects throughout the franchise didn’t make for good storytelling.

frezik,

Almost all the discourse around episodes 7 and 8 when they were new was “Ray is a woke Mary Sue character”, and later “Rose and Finn were just diversity inclusions”. Complete with death threats sent to the actors.

Rose and Finn’s episode 8 scenes could have cut entirely and you’d immediately have a better movie. That wasn’t because they were diversity inclusions, but because it was terrible writing.

frezik,

I see that you, too, have met a lot of teachers outside of the classroom as an adult.

frezik,

We also have a drinking culture where doing it alone at home is considered taboo. You’re supposed to go out to a bar and do it, and then get home somehow.

Cannabis use doesn’t have that culture, not even in legalized states.

frezik,

Yeah, they’re one of those bands who’s songs pop up all over the place and you don’t even know.

frezik,

He probably was jacked. Being a carpenter back then meant going into a forest, cutting down a tree, and hauling it out of there.

frezik,

In other words, jacked because he had to go into a forest and cut down his own tree.

frezik, (edited )

Damn straight. I’ll only accept a Jesus into my heart who can bench press a camel.

Edit: and then karate kick it through the eye of a needle. (Also, my instance is having problems and I don’t know how that was posted extra times.)

frezik,

Europe as a whole never was “better” than the US, just different. People tended to focus on issues like healthcare and the social safety nets, where most European countries make better decisions than the US. However, when you take individual European countries (since “Europe” isn’t a single united country to begin with, not even with the EU), and look at issues like gay rights, abortion, or even racial issues, the US often comes out ahead.

frezik,

Is this very dangerous to our democracy?

frezik,

Lots of European countries have mandatory military service. Including scandanavian countries that are sometimes held up as a social democracy ideal. It works because they are primarily defensive in nature. When invaded, you want to have a large reserve list to fall back on; people who can return to service with minimal training. Motivation isn’t usually a problem, because people tend to rally around the flag when invaded.

Conscription doesn’t work as well when you’re the aggressor. You have to convince those conscripts that they are here for a good reason. They otherwise start questioning why the hell they’re putting their life on the line for a bunch of rich idiots at the top. Even if they don’t desert, they won’t put in their full effort.

This is basically the difference between the armies of Russia and Ukraine. They’re both relying on conscripts, but one is clearly the aggressor and has motivation issues. We can also look back to America’s history in Vietnam. Lots of people both pressed into service and at home who question why the hell we’re doing this.

So what you do instead is ramp up jingoisim. Convince people they should enlist, and then it was their own “free will” to run off and die for rich idiots at the top.

Some of the people most opposed to mandatory service are the top military officers. They want a voulenteer military, not because they’re high minded or anything, but because they know what kind of wars America fights.

That is, until one party had its brain eaten by a man who doesn’t understand the playbook.

frezik,

People don’t even get Robocop, and that one is even less subtle (IMO).

frezik,

But sensing a tiny amount of blood will send them into a murder frenzy, so the sharks have that going for them.

frezik,

“We celebrated the 80th anniversary of D-Day. It was a failure. It was the 'unnecessary war, ’ described by Winston Churchill. We had a dozen chances to stop Hitler. It’s not about NATO. It’s not about American weapons in Ukraine. It’s about a megalomaniac wanting to create the Russian Empire by force of arms.”

He did say what was in the title quote.

If I was being really generous, I’d say this is a nuanced statement saying that Hitler could have been stopped in a hundred different ways before it ever got to that point. I’m not inclined to be generous to Lindsay Graham, however. Part of that is because people who were Graham’s political ancestors in Germany–people like von Hindenburg, or Georg Neithardt, the judge in the Beer Hall Putsch trial–are the one’s at the top of the list of people who could have stopped it much sooner.

frezik,

You’re outright admitting that you aren’t being objective.

Yes, because Graham is a fuck head. I don’t feel the need to worship objectivity.

frezik,

In context it’s clear that he is saying we should have acted sooner and it was a failure for not having done so

In even larger context, Graham is one of the one’s not acting sooner by giving Trump a pass. The generous interpretation is still hypocritical, but why even grant him the generous interpretation?

Biden Administration Tightens Mileage Standards to Buoy E.V.s | The new rule requires automakers to achieve an average of 65 miles per gallon across all models by 2031. (www.nytimes.com)

The new standards require American automakers to increase fuel economy so that, across their product lines, their passenger vehicles would average 65 miles per gallon by 2031, up from 48.7 miles today. The average mileage for light trucks, including pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, would have to reach 45 miles per...

frezik,

There’s no reason to think the weight premium is here to stay. Going much over 350 to 400 miles of range isn’t really necessary, and there many models reaching that already. All further improvements in Wh/kg can go towards reducing weight, not increasing range.

frezik,

Yup. Most of the people complaining about EV weight didn’t give a shit about ICE vehicles getting bigger and heavier for decades. They bought them by the parking lot.

frezik,

That trend had been happening in no small part because of a loophole in fuel standards. This is (slowly) closing up that loophole.

frezik,

ARM isn’t more efficient than x86 at that scale. Below 15W or so, it is, but not scaled up. I think there are other good reasons for it–like having more than three companies that can produce them–but not that.

frezik,

I’m not sure why I’d want a PS5 when there are zero games that interest me on it, and most of PC games I do want have very modest requirements. A Steam Deck is overkill for most of them.

frezik,

Steam is a platform that works best for word of mouth. Yes, 90% of it is crap if you just browse around. Hang around gaming forums and YouTube channels that highlight top indy games, and you’ll soon have more games than you can play in a lifetime.

Those of us who rave about it have been doing this for years and have a big backlog. Now that I think about it, it would be difficult to jump in cold.

frezik,

Pushing the limits of technology also hasn’t been a healthy thing to do all the time. If the cost of these big, expansive, detailed games is swaths of mandatory overtime for the developers only to be laid off when the project is done, it is not worth it.

frezik,

A little while back, I met a black guy who went to a Turning Point USA convention, and he said those people were nicer than feminists. Which of course they were. They wanted to use him as the example in sentences that start with “I have a black friend who…”

Same thing here. They probably do turn down the homophobic rhetoric in his presence. This works if you don’t pay attention to anything else.

frezik,

It’s all they have now. They’re unwilling to compromise any position, even though those positions are horribly unpopular. Instead they have to make a lot of noise and insist you move further to the right to meet them in the middle, or else.

frezik,

American-sized license plate holders, so it’d be the Tacoma (similar to Hilux, but not quite the same). Or possibly old enough that it’s just called “Toyota Truck”.

It is, however, one machine gun away from being a technical.

frezik,

Some years ago, before Trump even took over the party, the Texas GOP started putting shit like this directly into their official state party platform. Including a nice PDF doc on their own hosted domain where you could cite everything. It was really handy for showing Enlightened Centrists that, no, it’s not just a loud minority of the right. This is what the party is like now, and has been for a while.

frezik,

I paid attention to polls, as well. They swung wildly around as the news cycle shifted between bad news for Trump and bad news for Hillary. Then, Comey’s letter drops at the perfect time (deliberate or not) to bring Hillary’s numbers just low enough to give Trump an edge in key states. That happened too late for any new polls to absorb the info before the election.

When Fivethirtyeight.com was giving around 75% chance for a Hillary victory, that doesn’t mean her victory was assured. It means Trump needed to flip two coins and have them both come up heads.

Polls aren’t useless. They are a statistical tool. People applied them badly.

frezik,

Power imbalance is problematic, and we shouldn’t give Bill a pass for it. Not even mere lampshading.

That said, Republicans clearly aren’t interested in power imbalances. Addressing that consistently would collapse their entire ideology. This is something where only the left has criticism that can be consistent with their principles.

frezik,

Oh the wild statements that he’ll post about how his parole officer is treating him “so unfair”.

frezik,

It’s not part of their mission, but it’s what they do in practice. See this series of emails in the SS and their treatment with the Oath Keepers:

citizensforethics.org/…/emails-reveal-secret-serv…

They were proud to liaison with them, and gave them a wide berth.

frezik,

It helps his cause among a small number of MAGA hatters to the point that a few of them will probably get violent. It does not help him among the Republicans who are passively accepting Trump, or anyone else.

frezik,

I know, right? Fix the angle of your lamp shade before asking three ladies over.

frezik,

Would you trust anything Trump rambled about off the top of his head? It could be true, it could be made up on the spot, it could be something spouted by the last guy Trump talked to, or it could be a stream of bullshit with one good tidbit buried inside that you won’t even notice.

frezik,

Eh, he’d probably set Trump up in a gilded cage and forget about him. It’d be a short stay because Trump is old, eats McDonalds, and doesn’t exercise. Only the McDonalds part would change, because they don’t operate in Russia anymore.

frezik,

They’re technically an invasive species in North America. Been around long enough now that they could maybe be considered native. If you’re looking to do a natural lawn in NA, though, you should probably still consider them a weed.

frezik,

To add, we lack almost any kind of graduated licensing, both for two and four wheeled vehicles. You can get a motorcycle license (even a learners permit) and go out and buy a literbike built from the factory to go directly on the track. Likewise, you can buy a gigantic truck on a basic license and have no clue how to park it. These facts are both insane.

“Motorcycle” licensing needs to start with a basic set that covers class III e-bikes and scooters/motorcylces up to 300cc or so (appox 40hp, or 3kW), and then you can work your way up.

frezik,

Old Man Murray’s former crate rule is now broken.

frezik,

They had an article about rating games based on how soon you see the first crate. Developers at the time used to always fill space with crates.

Doom failed because there were barrels in the opening scene, and barrels are just round crates.

frezik,

Now, I’m not saying that these people should be kicked in the nads. I’m just saying, what’s the argument for not kicking them in the nads?

frezik,

There is. It’s about as meaningful as the Munich Agreement.

frezik,

I’m glad you get to decide what degeneracy is. I wouldn’t want anybody else to have that power.

frezik,

We make a 2 ton metal box, cruising at 70mph, and driven by basically anyone. The only way to do this while having a reasonable level of safety is to cram it full of features that make it heavy and expensive. This is fundamentally terrible.

frezik,

That’s fine; there’s always special accommodations needed. Can we stop making it the default?

frezik,

I occasionally sneak that into a playlist while my wife and I are listening to something, and then I leave the room for a bit. I don’t do it too often, though, because I don’t want a divorce.

frezik,

Long time Xcom player here, back to the original series.

No.

frezik,

Does Israel have much ability to project that far outside its own border? Even ignoring all the countries inbetween that aren’t going to help.

frezik,

Super tiny is fine for the things diamonds are used for besides sparkling on fingers.

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