This sounds like a great beta canon novel plot.

Any billionaire would take this deal. The hit is in imaginary money (i.e. stock/corporate assets) that won’t affect their daily lives and in return they get unspecified favors from the (other) oligarchs.

Platoon is my favorite as well. Love the contrasting cultures of the soldiers, think it really reflects where America was at on the war (old school, liquor drinking “patriots” backing violence vs. pot smokers just trying to get home alive). Oliver Stone is also an actual Vietnam vet too, Charlie is basically a self insert if I remember correctly.

I agree. I have become more amenable to things like Flatpak or Podman/Docker to keep the base system from being cluttered up with weird dependencies, but for the most part it doesn’t seem like there’s a huge upside to going full atomic if you’re already comfortable.

Raised by Wolves had a great intro theme and art style.

I would list the great Star Trek opening themes, but honestly they are long and can be a bit much when you’re on your like eighth episode in a row.

I use private trackers exclusively for content I want to “own” or want in the highest possible quality. Stremio/RD is great though for my wife to be able to search new media and potentially stream in okay quality without fucking with sonarr. Or popular TV you’re maybe not sold on but would try an episode. Or for old SD content, like tossing on a 90s show for a few episodes. To be honest, I live in a world of ad block and Stremio is sometimes the only way I even know something is out…

Anyway, they complement each other well.

Yep. If they somehow were left with only cis white men, they’d redefine cis, white, or man to divide the remaining people.

I will watch this, but only because I’m fairly certain Neuromancer is unadaptable to the screen. The thing that makes William Gibson great is the fantastic way he writes, leaving so much to the imagination but creating a definite vibe. When you have to fill out every single detail to render it on screen, it’s not going to be the same work. I’m sure It’ll share characters and plot points, but these are not the things that make Neuromancer such a classic.

Last I checked, Texas was literally the only red state that actually paid more into the federal government than it took out. The cold snap was just the usual idiocy, but it’s not like it couldn’t be handled, the state just stopped caring about weather proofing infrastructure.

And with the amount of natural resources and basically year round agriculture that happens in Texas, I have no doubt it could be self sufficient to some definition. I almost wish they would secede and tank the current electoral landscape. As long as I can move out first.

Yeah, I’ll be honest I’m pretty tuned out on the Dems, but the first time I heard about this was an unwanted donation solicitation that started like “I just got off the senate floor…” and it made it feel so transparent that right now, it’s performative bullshit.

Could be the start of something, but it won’t be until the Dems prove they’re effective at something other than fundraising to lose elections.

Wikipedia says from Portuguese, through Persian, back to Sanskrit, being the grand daddy of English, calling it “cina”, and/or it has to do with Qin Dynasty that unified China.

Probably better than whatever bullshit they would have gotten from Zhongguo if “Peking” was as good as they could do with “Beijing”

Exactly. DEI as a term is just a lightning rod for idiots at the moment so maybe you just publicly stop calling it that and keep everything else the same.

I dunno how to interpret this honestly. On its face this reflects poorly on Paramount, but we live in an oligarchy and I don’t really blame them for trying to avoid pissing off the volatile baby that runs this country when DEI can still be achieved without using that terminology directly.

Is there evidence that this division of their corporation was actually doing anything different than before the term DEI even existed? Or that Paramount has current issues with diversity?

Yeah, at least they don’t violate conservation of matter like the Dooplers appear to.

Ugh, I feel you. One is too many, 12 isn’t enough.

I never really thought about it, but you’re right, the Dooplers are too over the top and only make sense in a cartoon context.

The Pandronians from TAS and LD (the species that effectively have three independent parts) also make no sense outside of a cartoon.

Been listening to the 5-4 podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks and it’s been partisan bullshit forever, but yeah Citizens United will probably be considered the death of American Democracy (even though it was terminally ill beforehand).

The Court will literally just make up rules out of thin air to justify whatever the fuck they want.

What are you going to criticize Republicans for? Sure, they’re morally bankrupt and destroying the country, but they’re doing exactly what their dipshit voters asked for and succeeding beyond their wildest dreams.

Democrats are the ones who are being laughably inept at what they claim to want.

Flak cannon all the way, but I spent many days in high school instagibbing my friends so the shock rifle does hold a special place in my heart.

Certain ones, like music trackers, can still be interviewed into. Once you get into an initial tracker and establish yourself, it becomes easier to find / get into new ones via forum invites. It’s a long road but barring a time machine it’s the easiest way.