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« April 2017 | Main | June 2017 » May 31, 2017Inspiring By fnord12 | May 31, 2017, 11:29 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link
Guess i'd better keep up with updates after all I'm so terrified of Windows 10's Creators Update that i've taken some extraordinary steps to block it. I know that's a bad idea because it means that i'm also blocking any security patches that Microsoft releases, but it seemed like it was worth the risk at least until Microsoft gets its act together. But reading about the history behind the WannaCry virus, which was in part possible due to people not keeping up with their patches, is making me rethink that. (There's a lot more to the story than that, though, and we can blame the NSA for part of it.) Update: Ten minutes after posting this, Min got the new Android update - which destroys its UI - and i am scrambling to block it on my phone. By fnord12 | May 18, 2017, 1:18 PM | Liberal Outrage & My stupid life| Link
God forbid we let new people into the party Politico has solicited a number of ankle biters to grouse about Sanders possibly running for president in 2020: By fnord12 | May 16, 2017, 1:07 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link
Security Question Fail By fnord12 | May 15, 2017, 10:40 AM | My stupid life| Link
He was almost president I know we are busy watching the latest in Trump drama but Bernie has just introduced a pair of bills that would make it possible for workers to take ownership of a workplace if the owners offshored their business. By fnord12 | May 12, 2017, 11:49 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link
Light 'Em Up I had totally planned on smoking pot when my mind started to go from age because at that point, who cares? Plus, i loved Michael Caine's elderly hippie pothead character in Children of Men. But this is fantastic news. I might actually start remembering characters' names in movies again! Pshaw...i've got all the info i need. By the time i start, my brain will already be going, so there's nothing to lose. Either it makes my brain better or i won't know to care. By min | May 10, 2017, 1:32 PM | Science| Link Thomas Friedman lectures you about the Hell he deserves This is from a guy who can barely string a sentence together and has been writing the same article and books over and over again for decades. And that means: More is now on you. And that means self-motivation to learn and keep learning becomes the most important life skill. By fnord12 | May 10, 2017, 11:47 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link It's funny because it's sad By fnord12 | May 10, 2017, 10:41 AM | Comics & Liberal Outrage| Link Low turnout among black voters One of the most important post-mortems that i linked to after the election was this one, which showed that a decline in the participation of black voters was a big part of Hillary's loss. It's a factor that has been mostly ignored because it doesn't fit the bullshit narrative that Bernie's solution is to "ditch identity politics" and focus on the "white" working class. The truth is that the decline of good paying union factory jobs has affected everybody, not just white people. An analysis in the Washington Post has more data on the decline in the black vote: ...These national averages obscure important patterns. Here's what stands out: while the decline in black turnout was stark across the board, it was sharpest, on average, in the states that determined the outcome of the election. ...in Michigan and Wisconsin -- two key Midwestern states where, to analysts' surprise, Trump won -- black turnout fell by more than 12 points. Hillary Clinton had nothing to offer people whose jobs were lost to NAFTA and other such factors, especially after eight years where Obama failed to do anything for them. You can go back to the previous post (linking again) to see some quotes from people saying exactly that. Sanders has a solution, but the Democratic party is still resisting it. I'm hoping that the Washington Post analysis will raise the topic again. By fnord12 | May 10, 2017, 8:10 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link
Happy Friday There are diseases hidden in the ice, and they are waking up. By fnord12 | May 5, 2017, 1:22 PM | Liberal Outrage & Science| Link
Minor characters in Star Wars Min's main complaint about Rogue One is that a lot of the characters didn't get developed, so i thought this from Tegan O'Neil was interesting (i'm quoting liberally from a much longer piece about various sub-topics, but click and read it all). Now, of course, you can easily learn that Hammerhead's real name is Momaw Nadon, and he is a native of the planet Ithor. But that doesn't matter. Kids in 1978 didn't know that, they just knew that he was one of the coolest looking aliens in the film. Because he didn't do anything onscreen, that meant his story was yet to be told. But you could tell that story, you could tell any story you wanted, because that was Star Wars. You always want the camera to linger on details for a little longer than it does, but it's always gone, moving on to the next bit of the plot - everything else on the margins is left for you to figure out on your own. After the Expanded Universe officially began in the early 90s, every secondary, tertiary, and quaternary character in the series got a backstory... Maybe it's still canon, maybe it isn't. It doesn't matter. What matters is that thousands of kids in 1978 bought that toy and built entire mythologies just around that one guy, and they were all a thousand times more engaging and interesting than anything a professional writer could ever come up with, because that's how being a kid works. Rogue One gets that. Star Wars is a place where not only can any passing character in a movie have an interesting backstory, but you know they do. Maybe it hasn't been written yet. Maybe he'll get his own spin-off novel. Doesn't matter. Characters in Star Wars are always introduced as if they have just concluded the greatest adventure of their lives, and are just chilling in the downtime while waiting for their next adventure to start. You don't know what Han Solo was doing in Mos Eisley before being approached by Obi-Wan, but you're sure it was interesting... A good Star Wars story, then, is one that expands on everything you've seen before while always implying the existence of even more awesome stuff just around the corner. Of course the spies and guerillas who stole the Death Star plans have their own backstory. The first time you see Baze and Chirrut onscreen, you want to know everything about those guys. Gay warrior monks in space? Sign me up. Of course, you learn nothing about them in the movie itself. Everything you need to know about them is right there on the screen. One day someone will write stories about Baze and Chirrut - hell, someone is probably doing so right now. And if they're any good - that is, if they're Proper Star Wars - it will only leave you wanting more. I doubt this will appease Min. Baze and Chirrut occupy a space that is larger than Hammerhead if smaller than Han Solo, so i'm not sure if the "they're not supposed to be developed" explanation holds. But i was surprised to see someone addressing Min's complaint at all.
Evidence for the "i'm old" explanation - i couldn't for the life of me remember Kylo Ren's name from Force Awakens. I just started referring to him as "Ra's al Ghul" when talking to people because my brain couldn't be bothered to create a new subfolder for this character. By fnord12 | May 1, 2017, 12:52 PM | Star Wars| Link |