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EdamAnchorman

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Posts posted by EdamAnchorman

  1. 1 hour ago, Squee said:

    Wow, you guys are just your own worst enemy.

    Half of me wants to say:

    Quote

    “If only it were so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? ”

    -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

    But the other half of me would be fine if the R party was just blown into nonexistence.

  2. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2317878121

    Quote

    Unifying fluidic excretion across life from cicadas to elephants

    Can insects weighing mere grams challenge our current understanding of fluid dynamics in urination, jetting fluids like their larger mammalian counterparts? Current fluid urination models, predominantly formulated for mammals, suggest that jetting is confined to animals over 3 kg, owing to viscous and surface tension constraints at microscales. Our findings defy this paradigm by demonstrating that cicadas—weighing just 2 g—possess the capability for jetting fluids through remarkably small orifices. Using dimensional analysis, we introduce a unifying fluid dynamics scaling framework that accommodates a broad range of taxa, from surface-tension-dominated insects to inertia and gravity-reliant mammals. This study not only refines our understanding of fluid excretion across various species but also highlights its potential relevance in diverse fields such as ecology, evolutionary biology, and biofluid dynamics.

     

    • Big Brain 1
  3. 19 minutes ago, decibal cooper said:

    That's cool you got to go to Cuba. I wanna go so bad to Havana. I imagine the music and food there are so good, even though like you say the country is probably not in great shape economically. Are Americans allowed to go there now? Thought that there was still some kind of embargo or something.

    There is still an embargo and Americans are not allowed to travel for tourism, but there are several reasons for which we are allowed to travel.  Look it up; the most popular is, "to help and support the Cuban people."  Supposedly, you're supposed to do something like 40 hours worth of helping the people each day, and you're supposed to keep receipts that they can check for up to 5 years or something.

    We stayed in privately-owned AirBnBs and did several private tours, all of which count toward that goal.  We did a farm tour in Viñales where our guide (a farmer) took us through tobacco fields and to a tobacco / honey / coffee farm.  The gov't takes 90% of their crop, but they're allowed to do whatever with the remaining 10% and I may or may not have hypothetically in an alternate universe perhaps not purchased 50 cigars from this farmer (there's some gray area there, as they are not "branded" cigars; they are made and sold by the farmer not the government so nobody could tell me if they were illegal but idc because now I have them in my humidor).  We also did a vintage car tour and an Afro-Cuban / Santeria tour in Havana; both supported privately-owned businesses.

    Inflation there recently has been crazy af (something like 100 - 500x?), the gov't ration books don't provide shit, and COVID / Trump's policy shift from Obama wrecked a lot of their tourism (country's main source of income) so they are facing a pretty bad time all around.  Because of the embargo, we had to take a fat stack of cash and change it there (American credit cards and bank cards will not work), but tourists from other countries do not face this restriction, although you can really only use credit in a limited number of shops and there were long lines for the ATMs that were actually working (side note, the gov't restricts Cuban citizens to withdraw max 5,000 Cuban pesos per day, which currently is only about $16 USD).

    Bottom line was that we had an amazing time, and nearly all Cubans we met were friendly and helpful and had a lot of good things to say about American people.  It also helped a lot to have a native Spanish speaker (father-in-law) and fluent Spanish speaker (my wife); I'm not sure how well I could've gotten around with limited Spanish.  It was amazing to hear all kinds of stories like our Viñales hostess and how her 2 sons had to sell drugs for a coyote just so they could get to Grenada where they're barely making enough to eat but she says, "at least they're free".  Or our Havana hostess who was a pharmacist but also does the hosting/AirBnB concierge gig because her pharmacist job pays less than $15 a month and that's not even enough to feed herself let alone her family (doctors make a whopping $20 a month)...  I'd definitely recommend going, but do your research first and plan well.

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1
  4. 1 hour ago, ignatius said:

    h329clwg8voc1.jpeg?width=619&auto=webp&s

    Man, I drag on capitalism a lot but after spending a week in Cuba and talking to a lot of people, the situation there is totally fucked up and a lot of their history should not be celebrated.  (Of course their situation is complicated and due to many problems.............)

    • Like 2
  5. 32 minutes ago, Nebraska said:

    zBsQaxa.png

    When it comes to the average breast size, the figure that’s thrown around for American women is 34DD, which is a little bit larger than what people speculate Sweeney’s size to be. That number seems to come from a decade-old survey by lingerie retailer Intimacy, so it’s also hardly a scientific fact.


    great article. allegedly, american's are under such severe censorship they have forgotten the true measurements of an average pair naturally home grown of milk duds- so much so that they confused sydney sweeney's "average" bust for what is universally considered "big boobs". 

    https://slate.com/human-interest/2024/03/sydney-sweeney-breast-size-oscars-snl.html

    Average cup size might be D or DD but there's no way in hell 34 or lower is avg.  I mean, just walk around WalMart.

  6. 5 hours ago, chenGOD said:

    and repeatedly. corporate jagoff bootlicker.

    And the thing about it is that he's wrong.  He's just wanking into a ceiling fan on LinkedIn.  At most big companies, several hundred thousand dollars is a rounding error. "Every dollar counts", yeah only when they're negotiating your salary / benefits.

    Furthermore, it's typical to actually get punished for not spending out any budget that has been allocated to you.  If I ask for $120k to buy an instrument or $5k for travel to a conference, I get no kudos for coming in under that.  Finance actually gets upset because it creates more work for them if I come in significantly under, AND next year when I ask again they'll say, "well you didn't allocate properly last year, so we're gonna give you less this year."  Vendors have actually tried to give me discounts and I have had to tell them "no" (and then I enjoyed the puzzled look on their face).

    The whole thing is just bonkers.

    • Like 2
  7. 16 minutes ago, Nebraska said:

     

    GH772jYbwAAINOs?format=jpg&name=large

    Residents of an Encino neighborhood are the latest victims of wheel thefts.
    Caroline Fratacci found her daughter’s Honda right where she had parked it across the street, but it was missing all four of its wheels.


    In disbelief, Fratacci asked her daughter if her friends were playing a prank. “She goes, ‘That cannot be my friends — that’s, like, a crime,’” Fratacci said. “All four of my wheels disappeared,” Kabel said. “Gone — completely gone.”

     

     

    i honestly don't think the wheels disappeared

    That kinda stuff happens all the time. Happened a few times when I was living in a townhouse development in NJ 2011.

    • Like 1
  8. 17 hours ago, may be rude said:

    it's a lame narrative that's not well-grounded in reality. biden is out there being very effective as president. he's fine and great. fox news and other reality subversion operations have been seeding the narrative since 2019. here's a list of accomplishments

    • Lowering Costs of Families’ Everyday Expenses
    • More People Are Working Than At Any Point in American History
    • Making More in America
    • Rescued the Economy and Changed the Course of the Pandemic
    • Rebuilding our Infrastructure
    • Historic Expansion of Benefits and Services for Toxic Exposed Veterans
    • The First Meaningful Gun Violence Reduction Legislation in 30 Years
    • Protected Marriage for LGBTQI+ and Interracial Couples
    • Historic Confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and Federal Judges of Diverse Backgrounds
    • Rallied the World to Support Ukraine in Response to Putin’s Aggression
    • Strengthened Alliances and Partnerships to Deliver for the American People
    • Successful Counterterrorism Missions Against the Leaders of Al Qaeda and ISIS
    • Executive Orders Protecting Reproductive Rights
    • Historic Student Debt Relief for Middle- and Working-Class Families
    • Ending our Failed Approach to Marijuana
    • Advancing Equity and Racial Justice, Including Historic Criminal Justice Reform
    • Delivering on the Most Aggressive Climate and Environmental Justice Agenda in American History
    • More People with Health Insurance Than Ever Before

     

    of course you're right that we're in a very dangerous situation and we're maybe fucked. but it's not because of biden, it's because people's minds are fucked. there are reasons why someone very seasoned and experienced is exactly what we need right now, and there are trade-offs to younger people. 

    some say obama was a better politician than biden but honestly i'm not sure. biden has achieved a number of bipartisan agreements. biden has achieved a number of deft political wins. biden has navigated very difficult territory very successfully.

    the misconception is a trick that can be illuminated and defused. is he old? sure, he's 81. is he "too old?" no. he's still sharp. biden is fucking great.

    I'm not trying to take the piss or anything but sincerely asking how much of this was due to Biden and how much was due to a competent administration / cabinet / advisors / etc.

    I get what we're up against with orange T, that backing his challenger is important and the situation is different because we have a 1-term incumbent and so forth...  Even if the answer is that a lot of it was due to the administration, that's still not a reason to vote against Biden, just want to be clear and honest about all this.

  9. 53 minutes ago, trying to be less rude said:

    his voters think he is being disruptive in a benevolent or acceptable way, because they are buying into the false schtick that i described, and don't realize that he is destructive like cancer.

    ... lending credence to the idea of that fake character he claims to be is what prevents people from seeing his destruction as the cancer that it is.

    you say "all they care about is someone who acts/feels like they do" and that is the same idea my argument aims to dismantle. trump is not the champion of the people, he doesn't feel like they do. trump despises the people. he's tricked them into thinking that he is like them. he is nothing like regular americans and he is not acting like they would. he's a sociopath and is manipulating people into thinking that he is like them. 

    I think the really hardcore Trumpers don't think he is being disruptive in a "benevolent" way. They hate the system and don't care if it is damaged. This voting bloc likely has never or rarely voted in the past, which is why the polling missed them in 2016.

    I think it's important to say that a lot of these people want to change what they see as "the system" and they don't care if it is done in a violent way. See Jan 6th.

    Again, I don't think these people feel tricked. As far as they see it, just by fucking with the system like he is and will continue to do, he is fighting for them. Doesn't matter that he's a billionaire. Doesn't matter what he says about them.  Doesn't matter if his policies directly benefit or hurt them in the immediate term. If he's helping to destroy the system, he's for them.

     

    • Like 4
  10. GYBE is touring Europe twice in 2024, and they're playing a handful of dates in the NE USA right now.

    Supposedly they are playing 3 new songs.  I'm going to see them tonight in Delaware.

     

    https://cstrecords.com/pages/godspeed-you-black-emperor

    24 Feb 2024 - New York, NY @Outline at Knockdown Center (with Alan Sparhawk, Marina Herlop and Maria BC)

    25 Feb 2024 - Wilmington, DE @Arden Gild Hall (with Mat Ball)

    26 Feb 2024 - Homer, NY @Homer Center for the Arts (with Mat Ball)

    27 Feb 2024 - Oshawa, ON @Biltmore Theatre (with Mat Ball)

    28 Feb 2024 - Kingston, ON @Grand Theatre (with Mat Ball)

    07 Mar 2024 - Mexico City, MX @Pitchfork Music Festival CDMX


    10 Apr 2024 - Tampere, FI @Pakkahuone

    11 Apr 2024 - Tallinn, EE @Kultuurivabrik

    12 Apr 2024 - Riga, LV @Hanzas Perons

    13 Apr 2024 - Vilnius, LT @Loftas

    14 Apr 2024 - Warsaw, PL @Progresja

    16 Apr 2024 - Gdansk, PL @B90

    17 Apr 2024 - Kraków, PL @Kamienna 12

    18 Apr 2024 - Bratislava, SK @Majestic Music Club

    19 Apr 2024 - Prague, CZ @Meet Factory

    20 Apr 2024 - Vienna, AT @Arena

    21 Apr 2024 - Budapest, HU @Dürer Kert

    23 Apr 2024 - Zagreb, HR @Tvornica Culture

    24 Apr 2024 - Graz, AT @Dom Im Berg

    25 Apr 2024 - Ljubljana, SI @Kino Siska
     

    27 Sep 2024 - Dublin, IE @National Stadium

    29 Sep 2024 - London, UK @Troxy 

    30 Sep 2024 - Glasgow, UK @Barrowlands

    01 Oct 2024 - Manchester, UK @Ritz

    02 Oct 2024 - Bristol, UK @Marble Factory

    03 Oct 2024 - Coventry, UK @The Empire

    04 Oct 2024 - Tourcoing, FR @Le Grand Mix

    05 Oct 2024 - Esch-Alzette, LU @Kufa

    06 Oct 2024 - Paris, FR @Le Trianon

    08 Oct 2024 - Nantes, FR @Stereolux

    09 Oct 2024 - Nancy, FR @L'Autre Canal (Jazz Pulsation Festival)

    10 Oct 2024 - Zürich, CH @Volkshaus

    11 Oct 2024 - Lausanne, CH @Les Docks

    12 Oct 2024 - Frankfurt, DE @Zoom

    14 Oct 2024 - Berlin, DE @Huxleys

    15 Oct 2024 - Amsterdam, NE @Paradiso

    16 Oct 2024 - Brussels, BE @AB

    18 Oct 2024 - Athens, GR @Floyd

    • Like 2
  11. 1 minute ago, trying to be less rude said:

    i identified the core of trump's political support and laid out a compelling argument that dismantles it 

    I think what Satans Little Helper is saying is that it seems like the lion's share of Trump voters don't care about facts.  They don't care about what's true and what's not true.  Your dismantling argument would have almost no effect on them.

    IMO, hardcore Trumpers are deeply selfish, first and foremost.  My theory that conservatism is built on the bedrock of selfishness stands beside this, but these people are selfish to the n-th degree.

    Many of them also feel they have been screwed by the system.  They are low-income earners, and they blame their lot in life on "the system".  Then someone charismatic comes along who is truly outside that system.  Sure, your argument does show how, technically, Trump is not an "outsider" by some metrics, but you have to admit he is an outsider in that he is playing the game his way.  His voters don't care what way that is or how he does it, they just care that someone is screwing with the system in ways that are novel.  And they will support that no matter what.  They will disregard facts (easy for deeply selfish people), and vote for him just to fuck with the rest of us who are trying to play the game within the previously established rules.  It probably wouldn't matter if it was someone other than Trump, as long as it was a super-charismatic leader who does nearly everything in a selfish way while fucking with the system his/her own way.

    Try and get into the mindset of someone like this, someone who is supremely selfish and feels like they have been screwed / held down by the system.  Then read your argument back to yourself.  Has almost no effect.  All they care about is that someone who acts / feels like they do (or like they aspire to) is getting into power and screwing with a system that they despise.

    • Like 6
  12. 6 hours ago, Rubin Farr said:

    IMG_2404.jpeg

    I'm surprised it's taken KenTacoHut this long to do something like this.  Why not go balls to the wall and stuff that shiz inside a taco or gordita shell?

  13. https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/how-renaults-lego-gearbox-changed-hybrid-game

    Quote

    Nicolas Fremau built a Lego model at Christmas - then Renault scaled it up into the radical E-Tech Hybrid system

    About 10 years ago, while playing with his kids and their Lego toys one Christmas holiday, a clever young Renault engineer called Nicolas Fremau came up with an idea for a new, super-efficient form of hybrid gearbox - exactly the thing he knew his company would need for the rapidly approaching electrification age.

     

  14. 2 hours ago, Mattthegoone said:

    I thought how are they going to tie this all up in the last episode, they didn't 

     

    Yeah they totally needed to hone their focus a bit and choose one or perhaps 1.5 main struggles, but instead we got like 4 protagonist / antagonist struggles, all half-baked and ALL revealed in the final episode.

    Calling back to S1, sometimes less is more.

    Spoiler

    And I guess we're now OK with murder / manslaughter of those 6-ish scientists?  I mean they did kill that one lady and were complicit in poisoning the town, but the group of native ladies is guilty of at least manslaughter or perhaps murder 2.

     

  15. 3 hours ago, Hail Sagan said:

    True Detective S4 was an absolute train wreck. Not sure how it happened as HBO has an outstanding track record due to their quality control and willingness to green light projects other platforms would botch, if not avoid entirely, but goddamn.  I feel bad for all the actors involved as this just came across as so bad in so many different ways. The editing with the overuse of music, and not just any music but for the most part really vapid and even flat out goofy selections (an acoustic,  austere cover of the Twist?, for real?) caught me off guard.
     

    The overuse of profanity, especially the word fuck, particularly in the last episode, was mind-boggling. Seriously. Throughout the series but especially at the end everyone shared the same ape-brained dialogue you would expect from a 13 year old schoolyard bully. The show got progressively worse in all aspects but you can REALLY hear it in the dialogue as the writers rushed through it at the end. 
     

     I honestly thought the setting and the basic premise of the show on paper could have been great. The native community, the mining protests, female protagonists all could have been handled just fine but they really did have to overreach and make it disturbingly woke. The complete gender role-reversal and glaring emasculation of the men in uniform is on full display here. Men are only fit to flip pancakes or submissively mop up the crime scene while their female counterparts are performing sexual conquests on other women’s trophy husbands or partaking in 3 v 1 fistfights with the neighborhood bad boys. 
     

    Lastly, it’s just fucking bad. As others have already mentioned the jump scares they go for don’t land and look straight out of the forgettable early 2000’s Japanese repurposed for American horror audiences genre, complete with stock audio cues and all. They just straight up try to shoehorn in a connection to a riveting scene in from the first season of True Detective, there are a ton of plot holes, loose ends, etc. But the worst part is that they have some damn good actors in here that tried their hardest to polish this turd. Navarro was a little iffy in a few scenes but other than that I would say everyone tried their damndest to make up for the terrible writing and made it passable enough for me to continue watching it. 
     

    I will say that I gave up on TD season 2 about midway through because it was boring and was pleasantly surprised with how much I wound up enjoying season 3. This was a fucking gong show however, but I can’t imagine a scenario where S5 could be worse than what I just watched. 

    Mostly agree with all of this, and furthermore I have 3 gripes about the reveals in the finale:

    Spoiler
    1. Why the fuck did Navarro have to "disappear"?  She presumably resolved two major points that were massively unresolved for her: solving the Annie K's murder and finding her real name from her mother.  Seems to me that after having resolved these two things, she'd be pretty happy to return to her job.  What was her motivation for "disappearing"?  I get that she had the same thing as her sister and mother, seeing and hearing the dead and all that, but I felt like the disappearance was unnecessary so soon after having resolved her two major issues.  And did she really disappear?  I find it hard to believe that she was just hanging out on Danvers's porch drinking tea, or was that her spirit visiting?  Stupid.
    2. The whole plot point of the scientists needing the pollution to accelerate this dumbass microbe that could save humanity was just stupid.  First of all, just fucking isolate some area of the permafrost with containment and subject that area to pollution in order to get what you want, you don't need to subject the whole fucking town to pollution.  Do the writers know how scientific experiments work?
    3. This is an extension of point 2.  The whole microbe thing was really unnecessary.  It would've been better and more believable to just have the scientists in the pocket of the mine and faking the pollution numbers because they were paid by the mine.  That shit unfortunately does happen.  By introducing this stupid supermicrobe plot point, they make the scientists the bad guys for poisoning the town in pursuit of some scientific goal.  It would've been better to have the scientists murder Annie to cover up the pollution scheme and then Clark have a personal struggle of knowing that Annie died because he was a greedy fuck, then he'd have to reexamine his morals.  Instead he still felt her death was worth it because of this dumb microbe.  Fucking stupid.  Remove the whole (somewhat confusing, convoluted, complicated) microbe idea and the plot becomes better and more compelling by subtraction.

     

    • Like 1
    • Confused 1
  16. 1 hour ago, J3FF3R00 said:

    with a few minor exceptions (usually occurring one a month, at which point you need to be extra attentive to their needs)

    My wife went through medical menopause at 28, so I honestly don't even remember what that was like.

    • Like 1
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