Prankster Doesn't Take the Problemspace Seriously

My favorite textures/patterns of the day: these two smashed beer bottles. They look like they should have jurassic DNA in them.

Farmers urged to take steps to improve chances of henhouses being recommended by foxes.

Right, right. Which makes it better STRUCTURALLY than our system, right now, at least. US legislative is fucked but it is in principle more democratic, the issue is more to do with immense amounts of money and power at stake than the formal process of the government

Obviously the slave thing was a big part of the interests of the moneyed class but it wasn't literally "here's a group directly appointed by powerful people to serve a specific set of interests", it's just structured so that it usually works out that way

The directly appointed group is SCOTUS

I'm by no means a scholar of the period but it sure seems like a lot of our current issues, politically, stem from the western Allies rushing to start the Cold War instead of properly mopping up at the end of WWII, including deciding it was OK to put the defeated Nazis to work fighting communism

100% this, including I Lied To You being a showstopping sequence but not the best song. Pale Pale Moon was my favourite song (and it's actually a great sequence in the film too!)

Jayme Lawson - Pale, Pale Moon | Sinners (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) YouTube video by SonySoundtracksVEVO

"Pale Pale Moon" — written by Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes and belted by Jayme Lawson — is a WAY better song than "I Lied to You" and shoulda been the Oscar nominee. "I Lied to You" is a better sequence in the film, but that's not what the award is for.

Plus I wanna see Lawson sing this live.

They tried but I didn't understand it

The US Senate is interesting because it's less about serving the interests of an aristocratic class (literally or figuratively) in the broad sense and more about maintaining the interests of the slave owning states

Part of Reconstruction should have been reconfiguring the Senate

Canada also has an unelected Senate (the equivalent of HoL)

The US Senate is horrifically undemocratic but at least the members are still actually elected. However the issue with upper chambers all throughout the world persists, they exist to reign in democracy

LOL at the "this shouldn't be an old boy's club network" when it's still going to be an unelected chamber of wealthy and prominent people who could just as easily be nobility. This is a step forward but a pretty tiny one

The irony of legislation to remove aristocrats from Parliament requiring the monarch’s symbolic approval.

Answering this earnestly.

In chess, pinning a piece means keeping it in place because moving it means you lose something else.

For ~50K a day, the IRGC can pin air defenses at this one oil field.

The cost asymmetry between drones and air defense missiles is exactly the problem.

The First Order resurrects the Empire because Disney wants to make money off of rehashing classic Star Wars and needs them to be villains...and then fascists come back in real life as political leaders because capitalism needs them as an oppositional force

It's just funny that these extremely kindergarten takes on politics in SF end up being broadly true and resonant just as much as more nuanced attempts like BSG or Star Wars' own Andor, seems very much like "these things become cliches because they're true"

A lot of it is because both B5 and the Prequels are drawing on the post-WWII political consensus that formed the basis of a lot of science fiction and pulp storytelling (Nazis as easy go-to villains, etc.) which felt like it was starting to seem dated in the 90s but, turns out! Those lessons endure!

I've been rewatching Babylon 5 and it's better written but it's got some of the same issues: it's very hamfisted and clunky politically AND YET it managed to predict so much of our current situation that it's actually kind of annoying

And it's why I think bringing back various visual elements or references from the OT in things like the TV shows was a mistake, those things work better as something we can flesh out either in our minds or on fan forums and so on. Every new SW thing should keep introducing new elements

But then there's also stuff like the Clone Wars which are clearly meant to evoke based on a single reference rather than having a detailed explanation. It's very well done!

It's why I feel like EU stuff is largely beside the point for Star Wars and not really my bag

--actually thought most of it through, at least in terms of having a fantasy-style backstory. For instance the Bo'Marr monks were clearly developed by Kasdan and Lucas and whoever else contributed as part of the backstory of Jabba's palace but they only pop up as a brief visual with no explanation

The OT is masterful at using the audience's imagination to build the world with a few tossed-off inferences or weird visuals (and a bit of lore that the real heads had to dig for in things like interviews and production stuff). I actually don't think it's superficial, they seem to have--

I have never met anyone who is more adept at tracking every last cent they have than people who live or have lived in poverty

it is a skill developed out of necessity and it never leaves you

“You know, it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young."
"Why, what did she tell you?"
"I don't know, I didn't listen.”

Remember, the Bechdel Test was an intentionally low bar to demonstrate how bad things were for women onscreen in studio releases. One-third of films that simply have two women speaking to one another about something other than a man... Harvey, Lisa, you shouldn't have.

@CNN Pizza shop workers took down an armed robber -- but when police took off his mask, they discovered he was their old boss.

and he would have got away with it too if it wasn't for those meddling kids

Thank you!!!!!

Arrrrgh for some reason my Patreon payment won't process which means I can't read @zhandlen.bsky.social 's latest Babylon 5 writeup ARRRRGH

Fewer Norwoods, More Frewers

Even if AI could write a novel what problem has been solved? The problem of knowing what you’re reading was written by another person? Who loves reading novels but hates the part where your mind briefly and mysteriously touched another?

Renfer is an attorney for the DOJ btw