I'm sorry, but I've got more.
Parker and the gang are like, 'Wow, sure is weird that a stranger's gear showed up in our heist. Seems like Riri had an outside partner she didn't tell us about, and also brought some gear she didn't tell us about to the mission that wasn't part of her assigned job. And also snuck off to the room where John was killed. I guess the world is funny like that!'
The story doesn't even need magic to explain why Parker knows Riri killed John. What they do need to explain is why Riri would imagine that they all wouldn't know that she killed John after her betrayal and fingerprints are on the evening news.
Also: this show has too many faceless deaths. Parker in particular has murdered a lot of faceless guards in cold blood, and Riri is very okay with that. Riri, you should be in jail. You are so guilty of those people's deaths. Maybe you can feign ignorance before it happens, but afterwards if you show up to the gang meeting when you know this is the kill-kill kind of street gang and not the simple muggings and beatings kind, that's on you. You're signing your approval to this guy making widows and orphans. Those security guards aren't AIM or Hydra, those are blue collar Chicagoans who have been the victims of inexcusable violence.
This show needs a superhero to fight Riri, because she's a bad, bad, person.
I'm sorry to be the guy who kvetches about everything, but as much as I want to like this show, I don't get how the writers can not see how flimsy and senseless all of this is.
Why didn't Ezekial immediately turn Riri in for a plea bargain? Having some weird rubber is not a crime. He can just say that he gave it to Riri with no idea what she was planning, which is true and almost certainly be out on bail that afternoon. Does richboy not have a lawyer or anything?
Why did he break out? Again, where the fuck is this dude's lawyer? Don't trust the magical man in the cloak! Did you learn nothing from your last betrayal??
And then you go so far as to let strangers do crackhead backyard surgery on you?? What is this guy's fucking malfunction? It's such a flaw in the writing that he appears to have no friends or family at all. He doesn't get out of jail and find anyone he can trust? He just learned how untrustworthy strangers are and he's lying down in a surgery machine with a bunch of creepy criminals who look and sound just like Riri at the controls and he's going to let them slice and dice him with no protection or anyone he trusts even watching? This guy is going to be lucky to wake up, let alone wake up without his brain in a jar.
Also, the sorcerers are like, 'Riri, this is dangerous as hell! Any smart or caring person would immediately dispose of it! Good luck finding such a person!'
If someone brought me something like that, I'd immediately take care of it. Why did they make it her problem? Aside from obviously the plot seems to demand a ton of stuff happening with no justification at all.
Follow-up mention to Riri introducing that guy to his dead sister's AI hologram. Bro, what the fuck did you expect?
Also, Riri's friends and family suck. Intervene! What kind of mom puts up with this? What her family should be saying is 'Sweety, I've been very forgiving of you having obviously joined gang as soon as you got kicked outta school but now you're clearly tits deep in high-level supervillain bullshit. Go call the Avengers or get the fuck outta my house.' And: 'Oh my god I thought I was having trouble healing from the death of Natalie but you've won the trauma olympics. Here's your medal now pack your bags for therapy and not the voluntary kind.'
Fuck, it makes me mad and sad that they're doing this with a good character in a show that had so much potential.
Also, not only do they rely on "just vision", crucially they rely on real-time processing without any memory or persistent mapping.
This, more than anything else is what bewilders me most.
They could map an area, and when observing a construction hazard save that data and share it with other vehicles so they know when route setting or anticipate the object. Not they don't. If it drives past a hazard and goes around the block it has to figure out how to navigate the hazard again with no familiarity. That's so foolish.
Oof. Everything about this bill feels like having a car driven over you slowly. Fuck.
Oof.
This month is really feeling like one gut punch after another.
This is a genuine concern that we should recognize.
I'm about 99% confident it isn't, but considering it is the kind of caution we should all be exercising these days.
I have a lot of problems with this episode. The writing on this show just feels like it's gotten way too loose.
The reveal that Joe is Zeke is because he has "Obadiah S." written on a ziploc bag containing his father's ashes? Who labels a bag like that?
Riri's sneak into the base requires her to swim around under water and find a vent? And then cut a lock using a laser underwater? I know we already tend to just ignore the fact that real life lasers don't cut things like this, but now we're doing underwater lasers? She just found that, cut it, and then went in like she doesn't need to breathe any more. How's she even seeing shit? She's got no goggles!
And then she sneaks into the guy's lair and is just trying to discretely cut a piece of a a guy's clothes with a high powered laser!? How does that work? It's like the least discrete thing ever! He's just walking around talking to this billionarie and she's blasting off this lock cutting laser everywhere, except for some reason now it takes longer to cut through leather than it does steel. The guy should be cut in half and on fire and everyone screaming.
Why are there all these people-sized vents that are covered by openings that are taped on? They don't even screw that on? Why design a gate that traps people in the vent? Why not just put a permanent obstacle inside your vent? Why wasn't that their break-in plan? That was effortless? But the labs have no fire escape. The most obvious requirement for every lab. But she has no trouble getting out of the vent. We don't even see how she gets out, she just kind of gets trapped and then we see her leave.
And this business tycoon expected him... and then wrote a check? And also planned to have the security system entrap him but never considered the idea that the guy who broke him might just physically attack him? And also what are you doing, dude? Why are you gardening at night waiting to be attacked? Go home! And a hire a body guard!
And what is with these motherfucking contracts? I get that it's probably an allusion to Mephisto, but those contracts are worthless. So someone signs a paper promising to give you money. Where do you actually get the goddamned money? Where did they get the physical cash they're throwing around? Did they go to a bank and say, 'I'd like to withdraw $100,000 from my bank account. You'll find I have the money, because I got a billionaire to sign a contract promising me this money.' Like... think how fucking stupid this is. There's a reason why no one holds rich people hostage for a signature. They can do it for crypto. That's actually a real thing that is happening a lot these days. But a paper contract? It's meaningless! You have to actually get someone to execute it! And that's impossible because (A) you can't do that anonymously, you'd have to identify yourself and (B) contracts signed under duress are invalid. They're a legal concept, not a magic wand! This is so goddamned dumb.
Also, why the fuck is Zeke trusting Riri? Because she promised? They're not friends, and have no basis of trust at all. She's like, 'You have my word.' And he's like, 'Okay, be sure not to get me arrested for life. Here's a priceless ...' also what the fuck is that "bio-mesh"? Literally what is it supposed to be? It's like... organic? And how did she make it a metal detector cloak in 10 minutes? And why and how did he have an enormous bone-deep gouge in his arm? And why would you have blueprints for any of this? Blueprints are how they used to sketch out buildings fifty years ago. Was he drawing the dimensions of a new metamaterial with a ruler and compass? Writing out its dimensions? Like what is any of this? This feels like it was written by a 10 year old and ChatGPT.
This story makes no sense. I want to like it, but this is DUMB.
I'm just reminiscing, man.
That's there take. I think context and audience makes a huge difference, so I'd rank it higher.
I remember the experience. I watched it at the Rave Cinema at the Baldwin-Crenshaw mall, in Leimert Park. And let me tell you: the theater was so fucking amped. This theater was built by Magic Johnson in a part of LA that hadn't had a nice theater, and it's held up well. The neighborhood has really come up around it, too, so when Black Panther played, it was filled with folks dressed to the nines. There was LA street fashion, Panafrican garb, kids grown-ups, elders... The movie was good to start with, but it was just hard not to get caught up in the energy in the air. It truly was an event.
What's the drawback of self hosted? I've had a self-hosted instance running on a raspberry pi for a few months now, and so far it's working out great.
I've gotta say that MCU armor peaked around Iron Man 2. And I'm disappointed that they didn't take the opportunity to finally return to greatness.
I don't mind high-tech armor, but I was so disappointed that we see her donning high tech shiny self-assembling armor in the first few minutes of the show.
I miss the gantry. I miss the sense that it was a physical thing. Imagine the prop artists preparing the parts of Riri's suit that weren't pure CGI. The casting and the polishing and the fingerprint removal before she put it on. How about this? Actually design a suit. Imagine you had a high enough power source to power it and repulsors exist. What would it look like? Imagine something like Andrea Piccinno's exo frame with some plating and a motorcycle helmet. Remember the Mark 1? Remember watching the firmware boot up on an old CRT monitor while Yinsin sacrificed himself to buy Tony time?
I feel like what I'm saying is straight-up CRAZY to the people who make these shows. But PLEASE: if you must, work up to the fancy polished CGI stuff by the end! Let us see something that looks a kinda real. Let her impress us by showing us stages of development instead of literally starting with a product that is finished and capable of cross country flight!
Bring back a gantry. Or let us see her step in and tighten a harness! I feel like if these people were in charge of Top Gun, everyone would get in planes by just running onto an air ram in street clothes and getting launched into the cockpit while the plane is flying. 'Flight suit? Ladder? No, audiences will be bored.'
It really disappoints me that this show is dismissing this opportunity. We got a glimmer of it in Wakanda Forever, but oh well.
My understanding was that she used up the grant money and/or overextended the term of her scholarship without graduating.
It was a little hazy, tho
This is welcome news, but it still feels bizarre that people continue to act as though the settlements are part of a black market criminal operation. These are just private contractors of the Israeli government. You can't cut ties with the settlements while remaining in bed with the Israeli government than you can forgo using using one half of a hammer.
This article is better than I expected.
I thought it was going to be overly credulous nonsense about what the strategy is for an operation that is clearly a purely selfish gimmick to keep Bibi in power at the expense of Israel's long term reputation, security, and stability.
Overall, this author appears to be using dry sarcasm to allude to the fact that the emperor obviously has no clothes.
It makes me sad that Jewish Israelis let Bibi puppeteer them like this. It's unfortunate, and it reminds me that at least until something changes, change will have to come from abroad. I think American Jews are probably the greatest hope for an intervention. But it's not a hopeful situation.
Honestly, I don't think this is really correct. It's not a bad take, I just think the truth is that no one really wants more than violence for the sake of power.
Iran has never really supported Palestine, they just arm anyone who will attack Israel. And claiming that Netanyahu wants to install a puppet leader is giving him away too much credit. He wants nothing more than an indefinite war so he can start in power. He'll fight in Iran until something shocking happens like a terrorist attack from the West Bank and then he'll shake the etch a sketch and do all this again. And again. And again. Until anyone with sufficient power stops him.
This is silly.
First, I don't know why you're using the past tense. I don't call water "wetted" I call it "wet". And while I wouldn't call fire "burned", I would call it "burning".
But here's the thing: you're welcome to have your idiosyncratic opinion on this. The fact that you seem to want me to argue my side when I feel perfectly comfortable letting you have a subjective opinion most people consider ridiculous says to me that (A) you know which one of us holds the broadly agreed upon position and (B) this isn't about resolving a dispute. It's just online debate for sport.
Enjoy believing a hotdog is a sandwich. Sleep well in your claims that cereal is a soup. I'm not going to explain to you why water is wet because it's a waste of my time.
If you're wondering what the point is, you can just go to one and ask for a tour.
I pay $65 a month for a membership to my local YMCA mainly so I can use the pool.
Most scientists define wetness as a liquid’s ability to maintain contact with a solid surface, meaning that water itself is not wet, but can make other sensation.
But if you define wet as ‘made of liquid or moisture’, as some do, then water and all other liquids can be considered wet.
So... by a highly common definition it is wet. That's not much of a debate.
There are plenty of words that mean different things in scientific contexts that are different from common use. It's like saying "the sky is blue" is a false statement. Yes, there are contexts where the sky isn't blue. At night. On other planets. Perhaps earlier periods in our planet's history. But are we in those contexts right now? And is my meaning ambiguous?
There are a lot of times where language is unclear, and we must work to bridge communication barriers. But to insist on debating things when no genuine confusion is present is just an a bizarre antisocial practice.
That's a fun song (but also obviously silly and wrong).
This article is fine, but kind of superfluous.
We get it. Everyone can see this. If you don't have actionable advice or some additional insight, you're really just reporting that water is wet.
The escalation of Israel’s operations in Gaza has renewed turmoil in reservists' lives — and resentment about haredi Orthodox Jews who avoid military service.
I want to emphasize that although this article is written in a manner that shows sympathy to the perpetrators of a genocide, I thought it was a valuable look into the ways that the genocide in Gaza is completely tearing apart the social fabric of Israeli society.
>“Some people go into this with a deep sense of mission — of serving their team, their country, of doing something bigger than themselves,” she said. “But over time, that can blur into something else. It can make it easier to dehumanize the other side. I believe there has to be a space between committing war crimes and being killed. I pray we’re still in that space.”
[Ron Howard voice:] They were not.
Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil and his wife welcomed their first child Monday, while the Columbia University graduate and a legal permanent resident of the United States remains in federal detention, according to a statement from Khalil’s wife.
> Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate who has been in immigration detention in Louisiana for more than a month, was barred from attending the birth of his firstborn child Monday, after immigration officials denied him permission to attend the birth in person, according to emails reviewed by CNN. > >On Sunday morning, attorneys for Khalil wrote to Melissa Harper, director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in New Orleans, requesting that Khalil be released from detention for two weeks so he could travel to New York and be with his wife when she delivered their son. > >Khalil’s case has sparked a firestorm of controversy since he was arrested outside his Columbia University residence where he was living with his then-pregnant wife, a US citizen. ...
I just read this and thought... Jesus Christ, that's fucking ice cold.
I feel like they could've agreed to a 48 hour suspension in his detention just to be at the hospital and then carted him back to a remote swamp prison and still retained 99% of their Nazi cred. Hell, letting him hug his child and then disappearing him again is still ruthless as fuck. But no. That was still too much kindness for these sadists. Okay, noted.
My brother pointed out to me that in last week's episode of his podcast, Ezra Klein namechecked solarpunk in a blink-and-you-miss it mention:
>“One common argument I heard on the left - Lina Khan made this point actually in our pages - was that this proved our whole paradigm of AI development was wrong. That we were seeing that we did not need all this compute, we did not need these giant companies, that this was showing a way towards a decentralized, almost solarpunk version of AI development, and in a sense the American system and imagination had been captured by, like, these three big companies.”
The context isn't as interesting as the quote. He was talking about different approaches to developing strong AI. It's only interesting because he used the term "solarpunk" in such a casual manner in a discussion that wasn't about solarpunk or even fiction. It reveals that it's in his vocabulary, and that he's ingesting this in his media diet. For those who don't know Klein, he's a very popular writer and journalist whose politics roughly resemble a quieter version of Elizabeth Warren's.
After hearing this, the thought occurred to me that what I'm witnessing is an idea spreading from a fringe group into a mainstream concept. Eventually, if it gets big enough with mainstream progressive liberals like Klein, I bet it'll one day get discovered and made into a boogieman on the right.
I wonder how long that will take? When is the first time I'll hear a clip of like, I dunno, Ben Shapiro shouting, 'Have you heard about this new thing they call SOLARPUNK???!? It's crazy! It's like... imagine a cyberpunk dystopia: but they want THAT with like, vines and TRANS PEOPLE everywhere! Some ruthless Soviet dictatorship but without even the cool cars or wonderful corporate innovation! It's just TRAINS and GARDENS instead! Ulgh!! [eyes bugging out for the thumbnail image]'
That might be interesting. I think that this idea has a viral quality, so perhaps I can look forward to that in 2025 or 2026. What do you folks think?
RECOMMENDATION REQUEST: One of our GMs is looking for good negotiation mechanics. They want to do a legal-style adventure with lots of diplomacy, and are looking for something that adds game elements to the roleplay of hashing out agreements. Any suggestions? #ttrpg #rpg #gamedev
Here's a link to a post I made on the FA! Mastodon account to get recommendations on negotiation mechanics in RPGs that might be useful. Feel free to add more in these comments!
Oh! Let's add a POLL!! How much cross-over is there between fans of #startrek and #solarpunk ? [ ] I like Star Trek AND solarpunk! [ ] I like Star Trek, but I don't care for solarpunk. [ ] I like solarpunk, but I'm not that into Trek. [ ] I'm not sure / none of the above fit.
A poll on Mastodon: what's the overlap between fans of Star Trek and fans of the sci fi genre of solarpunk?
My husband bought a Stark Drive bike through Kickstarter about 6 years ago. It's served us incredibly well, and we've put thousands and thousands of miles on it, but the battery is now truly cooked.
I think it's time to finally buy a replacement, which sells for $600: https://starkdrive.bike/accessories/17ah-battery-pack/
Before I do, though, I just wanted to get some expert opinion. Are there any other options that are cheaper or more environmentally conscious? Are there places that can capably disassemble the battery locally and rebuild it with fresh cells? Would doing so have any advantages against just buying the new one? Thanks.
Solarpunk Game Design Sketch by Scan101 I've always been interested in game design and how subtly it can teach and influence us. It's not only how a given game is constructed on the surface, but also what emergent behaviours it can induce in us - and make us internalize, more or less consciously. I ...
This is a blog post by Pawel Ngei (@alxd@writing.exchange) sharing impressions of the games within the solarpunk genre.
This post doesn't go into TTRPGs, but it's a great primer on what is out there. Folks who like Fully Automated! might like many of these.
I recorded this a few months ago!
I'm disappointed that I seem to have spoken too fast, but otherwise I'm excited by the direction of the conversation!
Tbf sometimes I see really bad lefty memes on here, so when I saw a good I felt like I had to provide a demonstration.
(It's gotta fit the format, people.)
It's got little instructive explainers worked into the story. Good art, too.
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/16264721
> I'm looking for a GM and players for a post-capitalist scifi adventure game. > > The game setting and system are from an indie RPG called Fully Automated! (We have a community: c/fullyautomatedrpg ) > > I'm one of the developers, looking for a GM and possibly players on behalf of some other players who don't have quite enough people to start a new group. > > The Game > > The game takes place 100 years into our post-capitalist future. It's cyberpunky in style, but with an optimistic, earthy flavor. It uses a custom 2d10 system, but it's very flexible and modable if you prefer something else. The GM is welcome to use the rules as described in the manual (which are very straightforward) or just graft the campaign onto their preferred system. > > We're currently playtesting a new campaign and we've got a few too many players for one play group. The extra players asked if I could look for a GM and a few more players to make a second group. I'm actually a player in the first test group, and we're 5 weeks into what is really a helluva campaign. It's a lot of fun and very well written. I expect it to be about 10 sessions, but don't really know. > > The Campaign > > The campaign is called "The 1000 Year Cleanup". The players are sent to the backwoods of New Hampshire by a supply chain specialist who thinks that they've found indications of a long-buried toxic waste dumping site. Salvaged records suggest that a local landowner helped a chemical corporation illegally dump tons of toxic slag during the later years of the Global Climate War. Sixty years later, the slag is now sought after by a company that recycles toxic waste into useful, non-toxic industrial products. But the whole area is in in the process of being rewilded. Deconstruction crews are dismantling what's left of some largely abandoned ghost towns. If the players don't find the waste, soon there'll be no one left to ask and no roads by which to remove it, and the toxins will simply leach into the surrounding hills in slow silence for centuries to come. > > (There's also a little twist! I don't want to reveal it to anyone who might want to play, but if you're interested in running the game (or just curious), message me and I'll clue you in.) > > In terms of play, it's a bit like an extended Star Trek away mission if it took place amidst a big ecological restoration project. It's a very cool vibe that most players will find surprisingly easy to get into. Let me know if you'd like to play! >
I'm looking for a GM and players for a post-capitalist scifi adventure game.
The game setting and system are from an indie RPG called Fully Automated! (We have a community: c/fullyautomatedrpg )
I'm one of the developers, looking for a GM and possibly players on behalf of some other players who don't have quite enough people to start a new group.
The Game
The game takes place 100 years into our post-capitalist future. It's cyberpunky in style, but with an optimistic, earthy flavor. It uses a custom 2d10 system, but it's very flexible and modable if you prefer something else. The GM is welcome to use the rules as described in the manual (which are very straightforward) or just graft the campaign onto their preferred system.
We're currently playtesting a new campaign and we've got a few too many players for one play group. The extra players asked if I could look for a GM and a few more players to make a second group. I'm actually a player in the first test group, and we're 5 weeks into what is really a helluva campaign. It's a lot of fun and very well written. I expect it to be about 10 sessions, but don't really know.
The Campaign
The campaign is called "The 1000 Year Cleanup". The players are sent to the backwoods of New Hampshire by a supply chain specialist who thinks that they've found indications of a long-buried toxic waste dumping site. Salvaged records suggest that a local landowner helped a chemical corporation illegally dump tons of toxic slag during the later years of the Global Climate War. Sixty years later, the slag is now sought after by a company that recycles toxic waste into useful, non-toxic industrial products. But the whole area is in in the process of being rewilded. Deconstruction crews are dismantling what's left of some largely abandoned ghost towns. If the players don't find the waste, soon there'll be no one left to ask and no roads by which to remove it, and the toxins will simply leach into the surrounding hills in slow silence for centuries to come.
(There's also a little twist! I don't want to reveal it to anyone who might want to play, but if you're interested in running the game (or just curious), message me and I'll clue you in.)
In terms of play, it's a bit like an extended Star Trek away mission if it took place amidst a big ecological restoration project. It's a very cool vibe that most players will find surprisingly easy to get into. Let me know if you'd like to play!
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/16130943
> My mom was complaining that the city has limits on how many leaves that they'll pick up, and she's got bags and bags of leaves stuffed into black garbage bags. This seems like a problem that should have some kind of backyard solution. > > I've done a cursory search, and see that leaves are very compostable. They can also apparently be turned into "mold", though I don't fully understand what this means. > > But I also see that there is a lot of variety in compost bins, and they're quite expensive. So I'm wondering: what's the best strategy for making leaves go away? She's not specifically interested in the product of the leaves, she just wants to find somewhere to put them after she rakes them up. Any ideas?
My mom was complaining that the city has limits on how many leaves that they'll pick up, and she's got bags and bags of leaves stuffed into black garbage bags. This seems like a problem that should have some kind of backyard solution.
I've done a cursory search, and see that leaves are very compostable. They can also apparently be turned into "mold", though I don't fully understand what this means.
But I also see that there is a lot of variety in compost bins, and they're quite expensive. So I'm wondering: what's the best strategy for making leaves go away? She's not specifically interested in the product of the leaves, she just wants to find somewhere to put them after she rakes them up. Any ideas?
