#when the solution is 'replace the bad president with a good one'

[dabruzzy]

I may not like the Threeboot but I do appreciate that there's one version of the Legion that isn't government-sponsored

[gradelstuff]

Old MHA fic ideas (all Tomura related)

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Chances of me writing (or posting it publicly) are super low. Sorry!!

1.) Avatar Last Airbender AU -> Avatar!Tomura who was raised by AFO. The LoV helps Tomura master all 4 elements while they're all on the run from the authorities. There's the whole moral dilemma of whether the heroes should kill the Avatar or not when they find him too. ShigaDabi

2.) Spinaraki: Ready or Not AU -> Shuichi "Spinner" Iguchi is going to marry into the prestigious Shigaraki family, even though Tomura warned him beforehand about what that could entail. Spinner's determined to win whatever game he's dealt though, all to marry his fiance and save him from his crappy family. A lot of Spinner whump.

3.) Commission Deal -> Everyone in the League of Villains gets arrested post MVA. Ujiko is dead (lol). The Commission analyzes Ujiko's research and realize that they need to deal with the Quirk Singularity theory ASAP. Except the only current "solution" is a 4-month-long torture surgery that is totally illegal. Furthermore, the "surgery" was specifically tailored for Tomura Shigaraki, who would be completely unwilling to work with the government unless it meant lightening the League's crimes... Tomura whump

4.) Shigaraki Time Travel -> Tomura travels back in time to before Mon-chan dies. TLDR; All for One reverses time in an effort to “fix” everything, but Tomura retains his memory of the past timeline because AFO did the time travel thing while using Tomura's body. It's Shigaraki-family centric with LoV importance. Shimura family is alive but its like not super relevant at first

5.) Parallel AU travel -> The LoV end up in a parallel universe where they never existed. They have to find a way back to their original universe, which unfortunately includes infiltrating UA since that's where the story first begins. Has ShigaDabi, Overhaul replaces Tomura in this timeline, complicated relationships, etc

6.) AM & kid!Tomura fic -> Standalone-ish fics about All Might struggling to be a good guardian for his arch-enemy’s ex-protégé, who also happens to be Nana's grandson. Canon divergence; 14 y/o Tomura.

7.) Hero/Villain Roleswap -> Snapshots of the League as heroes instead. Commission President AFO, hero Tomura Shigaraki, hero Dabi, UA internship Toga, vigilante Compress, etc. There's some unethical experimentation and AFO still sucks. Shigadabi

8.) Tomura & Hawks AU -> News about another kid joining the HPSC’s Hero-In-Training program eventually reaches Hawks. And during one of his breaks, Hawks finally meets the mysterious newbie - Tomura. A lot of hero bashing

9.) Childhood ShigaDabi thing - Endeavor agrees to temporarily house All Might's "nephew" while AM is busy tracking down some bad people who are after him. Tenko is creepy, Touya is an angry emotional kid, they don't really get along, kinda hurt no comfort

10.) house of horrors - The police find the mutilated corpses of the wealthy Shigaraki family couple. Their son, Tomura Shigaraki, is missing and is the presumed killer. The case becomes more convoluted after finding some homemade VHS tapes. (inspired by Black Mirror's "Loch Henry" ep)

11.) Time Loop - Every time Tomura Shigaraki dies, Deku is reset back to the moment he first receives OFA. And apparently "saving" Shigaraki is very fucking hard because he's never willing to work alongside with the heroes. Tldr; It's hard to save someone that you don't understand and is unwilling to be saved, and Izuku maybe takes too long to realize why.

Etc

[misfitwashere]

Beware the Weak Man

Thoughts from the Munich Security Conference

TIMOTHY SNYDER

FEB 22

Who is the weak man?  You shall know him by his itinerary.  The weak man knows that Ukraine is what matters, so he goes to Texas.  The weak man of Congress buys some casual clothes, has a staffer write a speech about the border, and recites it word-for-word.  A real invasion is replaced by a pretend one.  The weak man invites us to fear phantoms rather than face issues. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson did this, as did other American legislators seeking excuses not to help Ukraine.  While I was in Munich, Elon Musk put on a cowboy hat and took his turn.  In fall 2022, when Ukraine might have won the war, Musk cut the Ukrainians off from Starlink.  Rather than going to Ukraine and learning, he made a profoundly bad decision on the basis of personal fear. 

The Munich Security Conference is a place where people get together to take action.  Unlike Johnson and Musk, Senator J.D. Vance was at least present.  But he was there to demotivate.  Invited to meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelens’kyi, Vance made his excuses.  Rather than looking a courageous man in the eye, he retreated to his hotel room and searched for "dolphin" and "women" on the internet.

At a meeting I attended, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced that her country would donate its entire stock of artillery shells to Ukraine. Vance stood outside the building and said that we should give up.  He told the leaders of a democracy (but not to their faces) to give up territory.  If the Ukrainians followed his advice, the chain of events would be similar to what happened the last time fascism was appeased in Munich: the collapse of faith in order, and a world war.

Ukraine could win, if Americans would help; but our weak men have cut off the weapons.  Musk spreads Russian propaganda.  Vance amplifies Russian foreign policy.  Trump follows Putin’s wishes.  Johnson maneuvers for months to block a vote on aid to Ukraine.  And so the Ukrainians, fighting for their lives, run out of artillery shells, and must withdraw from losses from Avdiivka. 

The weak man kills because he lacks the energy to act and consumes the energy of others.  He scorns those who struggle with real danger, and want them to fail and die. 

The problem is not masculinity.  Radek Sikorski, the foreign minister of Poland, is a man’s man from central casting: good looks, deep voice, firm stare, bad jokes.  When not in office, he was raising money for pickup trucks and driving them to the front.  At Munich, plenty of competent men were at work: such as Czech President Petr Pavel, a former general, who has been searching the world for artillery shells to send to Ukraine.  The problem is brittle masculinity, the male form of weakness that substitutes mendacious prattle for necessary action. 

Instead of aiding Ukraine, the weak men of Congress have dedicated months to a long series of lies that have wasted the energy and good faith of others.  First Johnson said that he wanted to protect the border and would pass aid for Ukraine if it was connected to a border bill; then, when presented with exactly this solution, he rejected it.  When aid for Ukraine was then separated from the border issue in another bill, he rejected that too, on the grounds that the border was not mentioned.  The weak men of Congress want inaction both at the border and in Ukraine.  They only mention the one to explain why they are not acting on the other.

After this parade, Johnson called to House of Representatives to recess.  But Johnson himself is not on vacation.  He has to put on a tie and abase himself before Trump in Florida.  In the photograph Johnson posted, Trump lacks the strength to raise his thumb.  Trump submits to Putin, and encourages Russia to attack American allies. 

And Putin, in his turn, is all fear.  He kills opponents because he fears that a younger generation might do better.  He attacks Ukraine because he cannot stand the thought of democracy in Russia.  The submission chain that runs through Johnson and Trump to Putin ends in a vacuum. 

The danger is that this vacuum will consume our democracy.  The weak man runs from danger by running for office.  Not strong enough to believe in law or to live by it, the weak man breaks laws and then tries to break law itself.  Putin wants to die in his bed.  And so we will soon have another fake Russian presidential election.  Trump wants to pardon himself or otherwise avoid prosecution for all the crimes he seems to know he has committed.  For the weak man, fear is everything, and fear must also become everything for us.

On the first day of the Munich Security Conference, the news arrived that Alexei Navalny, the foremost Russian oppositionist, had been killed in Russian prison. Navalny was known for his courage.  He had returned to Russia after Russian authorities poisoned him. After his poisoning, but before he returned to Russia, he telephoned the Russian secret police, impersonated one of its officers, and elicited the truth about what happened.  He was also courageous enough to be a friend to his friends and a father to his children.

Weak men therefore find Navalny unbearable.  Putin cannot say his name.  Nor can Musk -- and the social media platform he owns suspended the account of Navalny’s widow.  Trump claimed that Navalny died to show how much Trump suffers.  Navalny committed no crimes, but drew attention to those of oligarchs.  Trump is a wannabe oligarch who says that, should he become president again, he will round up and imprison his political opponents.  He wants to be able to do with all Americans what Putin did to Navalny.  And, like Putin, he will claim to be the victim as he does so.  The weak man always says that he is the victim.

One way the weak man kills is by broadcasting his fears.  Putin might or might not have given a direct order to kill Navalny.  More likely it was an indirect suggestion, picked up by other weak men.  On January 6th, 2021, Trump used language other weak men understood.  He now uses the internet to encourage violence against elected representatives, prosecutors, and judges.  He prepares for a second coup attempt.

Munich is a city full of resonances for a historian.  Hitler’s first coup attempt took place here.  After his second one, the one that succeeded after an election, he let others understand what he wanted done.  Like Putin, and for that matter like Trump, he made his general wishes known, and let others turn them into fearful acts.  And so institutions changed, and society altered, and life became fear.

Americans don’t tend to learn from foreign examples or from the past.  We don’t recognize a politics of fear, which makes us vulnerable to it.  We assume that any action they take from personal fear must be justified.  And so we normalize fear, and spread it, and institutionalize it. 

The Republican Party is becoming a party of fear, in which Republicans fear other Republicans, fear their constituents, and fear Trump, which means fearing Russia.  Republicans enter the submission chain that binds them to Trump, and to Putin, and then rationalize what they have done.  From the position, actual cooperation with actual Russians no longer seems to be a problem, as we have just seen in the attempt to impeach Biden with the help of Russian lies, and for that matter in a series of events going back a decade.

Americans beyond the cult of MAGA submit in a different way.  They decide that the weak man is the strong man, and thereby make it so.  They instruct us, absurdly, that the war in Ukraine or the work of democracy makes us "fatigued."  If we think that labor and courage are bad things, we are conceding the point — and our democracy — to the weak man.  But the work itself is invigorating, and is the example of those doing the work.

American newspapers instruct us that Biden is old.  If he’s old (goes the thinking), he must be weak; and if he is weak, then we are permitted to give up.  But Biden is not weak.  He is not running away from prison, or from anything else.  He does not act from fear.  He gets work done.  His record is one of the strongest in the history of the American presidency.  And he went to Ukraine with zero military protection.  That was courageous.  No other president has ever done that. 

In Munich I thought of the Ukrainian writer Stanislav Aseyev, whom I last saw in Kyiv.  He survived a Russian torture camp, tracked down his own persecutor, and wrote a book about it.  Aseyev is now at the front in the Ukrainian army.  He doesn’t like being in a bunker, because it reminds him of his cell.  I saw another Ukrainian soldier I know at the conference.  The last time I talked to him he had his right pants leg tied below the amputation.  This time he had a prosthesis.  He stood and spoke of the “spirit of freedom.” 

It is absurd, in such a world, where so much is at stake, where so much is to be won, to speak of our “fatigue” either with the struggle in Ukraine or the struggle for our own democracy.  Doing so is the prologue to a story of weakness, which ends with the victory of the weak man.  When we fall in line behind the fearful, when we forget the “spirit of freedom,” we help the weak men create a politics of fear.  When we obey in advance, we invite the weak man to take power over our souls, which then means power over our politics.

In 2024, a year of war and a year of elections, a year that will test decency and democracy, the weak man wants to see his fear in our eyes.  We will need the courage to admire the courageous, and to say something that might feel risky.  For example: we believe in our values, and we believe in our strength.  Ukraine can win this war, Biden can win this election, and democracy can thrive.

[earaercircular]

“There is no right to a single-family home,” says climate economist Gernot Wagner. The expert says in an interview that the ideal, sustainable society is an illusion. And yet the growth should be green.

Mr. Wagner, you are not just an academic climate economist. You also moved your family of four into a 70 square meter old apartment in Manhattan. With the aim of minimizing the family's greenhouse gas emissions. How difficult was it to make the apartment green?

We spent a lot of money and even more time on it. I partially translated German passive house standards for American craftsmen. I have concentrated on roof windows, ceiling insulation and heat pumps. It was my hobby for over a year.

Is low-emission living impossible for people who don't want to spend a fortune on it?

You can actually invest a lot of money, for example in a WiFi-enabled induction cooker with the latest technology. Conversely, there is also a very cheap induction plate. What's more: after just four years, our ambitious solutions back then are much cheaper, and some of them now don't even cost half as much.

How does this come about?

Technologies can only get better and cheaper. This does not apply to coal, gas and oil. These are raw materials whose prices fluctuate greatly. When it comes to decarbonization, the question is no longer if, but when.

Some politicians want to speed up the transformation with bans.

In the USA, the old-fashioned light bulb was banned under Republican President George W. Bush, who is not a leftist. Donald Trump wanted to reverse this. Without success. Companies knew the new technology was better and cheaper.

Are bans acceptable when there are cost-effective alternatives?

It's not always just about costs. Murder and manslaughter are prohibited. Of course, as an economist it is important to internalise all negative and positive effects. This means: on the one hand, raising taxes or prices or, on the other hand, introducing subsidies. A car driving into Manhattan incurs at least $150 in traffic jam costs alone. A city toll of $150 per trip would be the autistic economic calculation.

What's bad about bills like this?

We live in reality. At $150 per trip, I can say straight away that there is actually a better alternative for most trips. For example, traffic on Broadway can be eliminated entirely and replaced with bicycle paths and bus lanes. This makes the city more liveable. It also means more freedom if the inefficient light bulb is ruled out right from the start and I don't have to use a calculator to calculate which light bulb is more profitable every time.

The calculation is actually not difficult. However, the decision is often made for practical reasons.

That's why there is a society, governments, taxes and control. Homo economicus lives in the model. In reality, I love the freedom of not always having to decide everything myself.

CO2 prices and bans are politically unpopular. The USA is now relying on strong funding for green technologies. The EU is following suit. In Switzerland, funding was decided by a referendum.

Does this mean that we are now subsidising our climate goals?

Partially. It's about promoting new and better energy technologies and accelerating industrial transition. And of course some are warning of a subsidy race. But funding has been around for a long time. Why should we stop now? We subsidise the consumption of fossil energy goods globally to the tune of several trillion euros a year. This is the real subsidy race.

That's an argument against subsidies. And if a solar panel factory is built in the USA and not in Germany as planned, will that help reduce emissions?

Positive externalities require subsidies. Installing your first solar system takes forever, you've learned a lot with the tenth one, and the thousandth one is even cheaper. This applies not only to the USA, but also to the rest of the world. A colleague at Columbia Business School has calculated in a new study that American subsidies increase productivity and therefore economic growth around the world.

In Europe, however, the American billions are causing concern.

The mayors of Berlin and Brandenburg or Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels are of course worried if the next gigafactory moves to Nevada. That is her role. But the green technology race is – from a global perspective – a fantastic development.

Some activists say capitalism is bad for the climate. Therefore it should be abolished.

There are problems in the world that our current economic system will not and cannot solve alone. But to say, as many leftists do, that this time we will create the ideal society after it didn't work before is naive. But it is just as naive for economic liberals to say that there should be no subsidies this time. So a clear yes to green growth.

The climate discussion is often dominated by loud tones like those of the activists of the latest generation. Is this the right way to reach the general population?

The youth have always screamed, thank God they have. This has changed many things for the better.

Are there any limits to the actions?

Of course, that is also part of the political debate. But I find opinions hypocritical when they say: I'm in favour of climate protection, but because a painting was smeared with paint, I'm against it. It's about a positive vision of the future. It's not just about technology, but also about values. This doesn't mean banning meat eating overnight. However, studies say that vegetarians live a healthier live for a longer period of time.

The discussion quickly takes on a tone of preaching. You also consider your lifestyle to be more sensible than others.

Right, I do. It's about standards. Many people in our part of the world are convinced that they have the right to a single-family home. This is a development over the last fifty years. It has dispersed our landscapes and shaped a car culture.

So does the definition of what a good life is need to change?

Without having to. The definition changes. Now it is important to channel optimism and entrepreneurship in the right direction in order to decarbonise. Climate change is the most long-term, global and risky problem of all.

If the problem is so big, can solutions even be found?

Solutions exist, even in sectors that are difficult to decarbonise. Let's take the steel sector. There are three big solutions: electrification combined with recycling, green hydrogen and carbon capture, storage and usage.

However, environmental purists warn against storage technologies. They worry that new life will be breathed into the use of coal, oil and gas.

With every technical solution there is a so-called moral hazard that could lead to delays in emissions reductions. But that doesn't mean we don't have to deal with the technologies.

Can we still afford the politicisation of certain climate technologies?

It is too late for politicisation. Likewise, it is also too late to ignore physics. Electric motors are five times more efficient than combustion engines with e-fuels, heat pumps are five times more efficient than gas heaters.

What does this mean for nuclear power?

Should old, safe reactors continue to operate? Naturally. Should we continue to build the big 1 gigawatt reactors? Here the answer is nuanced. These systems are extremely expensive, and I see no benefit for a country like Austria with a lot of hydropower. Would such plants be a good option in a rapidly developing country that would build five coal-fired power plants instead? Yes, more Indians and Chinese would live longer. What about small modular reactors? Here too, there are models that promise solutions. We have had small reactors in submarines for decades.

Geoengineering technologies that aim to artificially intervene in the atmosphere are also being discussed controversially.

Geoengineering is the extreme example. This involves a difficult balancing of the risks of climate change and those of technological intervention.

Let's stay with the damage and risks of climate change: can we estimate today how expensive unrestrained climate change will be?

We can estimate the social cost of each additional ton of carbon. According to recent studies, they are around $200 per ton of CO2. Converted to the global economic volume, this is around 8 to 10 percent of the overall economy. The costs are enormous. That doesn't mean that every alternative should be blindly preferred, but you can't go wrong. The most expensive thing of all is not doing anything about climate change. The political question today is: who pays?

Nobel Prize winner William Nordhaus[1] estimates that the costs of climate change are small compared to the increase in global economic output. You criticise this approach.

The naive and often repeated view is at least implicitly as follows: our economy is running on an optimal path and in the year 2100 climate change will hit us and the gross domestic product will collapse by 25 percent. Why 25 percent? The global economic crisis in the 1930s was the most radical economic event to date. But in the future we will be four times as rich as we are today. The conclusion is that climate change is not a big problem.

Is this calculation wrong?

Yes. An example: a hurricane hits Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Both countries are on the same island. In the comparatively rich Dominican Republic, roofs are blown off, but the house is standing. Roofers come, and 18 months later the gross domestic product actually increases. In Haiti? Not only does the roof disappear, the entire house collapses and epidemics break out. A study shows that 15 years later, Haiti's economic output is still lower than before the hurricane.

The macroeconomic climate models do not take these effects on economic growth into account?

Macroeconomic climate models are also evolving. A large part of the change has to do with the fact that we can now assess more damage. We also have a better understanding of how we should assess future damage today. The more uncertain the risks, the higher the current value. The structure of the model itself has also changed in some cases. This is how climate change affects productivity. A simple example: on hot days we are less productive.

Does climate change primarily threaten the economies of poorer countries?

There are too many deaths due to climate change, even in rich industrialised countries, but in reality it is less about human life and more about capital goods, as higher insurance premiums show. The damage is higher in rich countries than in poorer ones.

Source

Kalina Oroschakoff, Gerald Hosp: « Es gibt kein Recht auf ein Einfamilienhaus», sagt der Klima-Ökonom Gernot Wagner, in Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 27-09-2023

Missionary and academic

Gernot Wagner is a climate economist with the highest academic distinction. He teaches and researches at Columbia Business School in New York. He is also the author of several books, including the bestseller “Climate Shock,” which Wagner wrote together with Martin Weitzman, a pioneer in environmental economics. The 43-year-old Austrian has also become known because his family of four lives in a 70 square meter old apartment in the American metropolis - with the aim of minimising the family's greenhouse gas emissions. Climate policy firsthand, and also staged it in a media-effective manner: back then, Wagner had forced a good thirty journalists into the loft to report on his experiences. He sees himself in a role as a pioneer among climate economists. These should take extreme scenarios into account. When it comes to progress in science, he says bitterly and angrily: “Research is progressing, one funeral after another.”

[1] William Dawbney Nordhaus (born May 31, 1941) is an American economist, a Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, best known for his work in economic modelling and climate change, and a co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Nordhaus received the prize "for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis"

[gduncan969]

Who's Winning The War?

Psalm 92: 5 - 7 O Lord, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep. A senseless man does not know, Nor does a fool understand this. When the wicked spring up like grass, And when all the workers of iniquity flourish, It is that they may be destroyed forever.

It’s a bit overwhelming right now, isn’t it? It’s hard to believe we are being forced to deal with questions that are so self-evident to any reasonable-thinking person we wonder why on earth anyone would want to ask them in the first place, let alone discuss them. What is a woman? How many genders are there? What pronouns should we use? Is marriage just between a man and a woman? Can I stop my teenage (and younger) children mutilating their bodies through so-called gender-altering surgery? Can I express my sincerely-held opinions without fear of losing my job, my status and my freedom? Who’s in charge of all this anyway and who voted them in?

Turning on the news these days is a sure-fire recipe for clinical depression. According to the media, we are so far along the pathway to destruction we have passed the point of no-return and it is too late to turn back. If the environment doesn’t kill us the next plague will, if the plague doesn’t kill us the weapons of mass destruction will and if the printing presses don’t stop printing money the economy will and we are all going to die through one or more of starvation, fear, war, global warming and a host of other equally disastrous circumstances. It’s all just a matter of when, not if. No wonder so many are terrified and depressed! There is a cure for this depression but perhaps you have already found your own—you don’t listen to the news anymore! If that is your stand you are holding on to that good old standby, “no news is good news” otherwise known as the “head-in-the-sand” approach. It might relieve your symptoms for a while but it won’t cure the problem of how to survive the next decade (if there is one!)? When it comes to being aware of what’s going on, ignorance is not bliss and the proof for that is found in the many examples in the bible of the “sudden destruction” that fell on people who chose to live in their ignorance. If you want to check me out, start with Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis and move on through Noah and the children of Israel who made it out of Egypt into the desert but never made it out of the desert into the promised land. Then, follow on through the rest of the books ‘til you reach the last one, Revelation. There’s a hefty price to pay for ignorance.

Heed the Warnings

Paul’s warning to all believers in these last days is “when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction (will) come upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5:3) and he also tells us in Ephesians 5:15 “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise..because the days are evil”. That word “circumspectly” means “looking around to discern what is really going on”. Now, no one wants to spend time listening to news media who are doing all they can to hide the blatant corruption, the lying, the hidden agendas and the subterfuge that is going on all around us while they hype up every fear that is gripping us but the corruption has now reached a level that simply cannot be ignored. The fear and frustration produced by this is slowly being replaced with anger, which is a good thing for believers because it drives us to the only solution we have available which is PRAYER, prayer and more prayer, but anger can be a very bad thing among unbelievers who may well go the way of violent protest, mayhem and destruction. What do you think the outcome will be if Donald Trump is indeed found guilty of the multitude of charges against him and is sentenced to jail just as the battle for the next president begins? Will his multiple millions of supporters simply walk away or do something else? How long will Russia and China stand by and watch the western nations destroy themselves with their environmentalism, woke-ism and every other “-ism”—designed only to bring more and more fear into our lives—before they decide we are now too diminished to defend ourselves? Will President Biden and his extended family walk off with their millions of dollars gained through influence-peddling and bribery and will that happen before or after the next world war that is lying at the door? These are very scary questions but they are very much in line with the bible’s description of how it will be before Jesus returns to set up His Kingdom here on earth? What must we do?

It’s OK to Be Angry

It’s OK for Christians to get angry—”Be angry and do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26) the bible tells us. Of itself, anger, like love and hate is neither good nor bad. It all depends on the object of the anger or the love or the hate that determines their benefit. It is good to love righteousness but bad to love sin. It is good to be angry at injustice but bad to be angry with the policeman who ticketed you for speeding. It is good to hate sin but love sinners. Nevertheless, as believers we must guard against anger’s powerful tendency to lead us into sin by deciding to take matters into our own hands and not seek God’s plan and purpose in these situations. The only thing that can halt the moral collapse we are all witnessing in our neighborhoods, our country and the world beyond is a sovereign move of the Holy Spirit to REVIVE the sleeping Church whose mandate from Heaven has always been to spread the Gospel in all its fulness by preaching, teaching, evangelizing, healing and delivering and that’s where our struggle really lies. It’s OK to get angry at these things but our anger must goad us into action but watch out, whatever action we take must be prompted by the Holy Spirit, not our self-righteousness. 1 Corinthians 4:20 says, “For the kingdom of God is not in talk but in power”. We can talk about God all we like but unless we can demonstrate His power, we really have nothing to say! Even the briefest review of revival history shows revivals all begin with a small group of believers, who could no longer stand the decay they saw in themselves and their fellow believers, fell on their knees and started to cry out to God to come and rescue them and their neighborhoods. God’s answer to their prayers was to send the Holy Spirit to light a fire among them like He did on the day of Pentecost and that’s what this end-times generation desperately needs. They were long past the days of simply complaining about how bad things were and talking among themselves about how worse it might get. They had written to their MP’s, voted for the best candidates, attended public meetings, protested about the latest government actions and inactions but none of it was turning the ship of state around in a new, godly direction Their only qualification was an awareness of the dreadful back-slidden state of the local church and its impotence (lack of power) against the deluge of sin consuming the unbelievers around them. We can wonder all we like about how otherwise reasonable people can be so blind to the blatant corruption around them and we can wring our hands in fear of the outcome but all of it is designed to do one thing: bring us to our knees!

God’s Plan

Psalm 92:4 tells us how God plans to let us share in the victory of this war of the ages, “For You, Lord, have made me glad through Your work; I will triumph in the works of Your hands.” Victory for us lies in us doing the works of His hands, not our own works and He reveals what may not have occurred to our foolish, senseless minds that the only reason the wicked schemers of this world are flourishing so successfully these days is so “that they may be destroyed forever”. The last book of the bible tells us who wins this war. This theme of why the wicked prosper further unfolds in the Psalms that follow:

Psalm 94: 3 - 15

3 Lord, how long will the wicked, How long will the wicked triumph? 4 They utter speech, and speak insolent things; All the workers of iniquity boast in themselves. 5 They break in pieces Your people, O Lord, And afflict Your heritage. 6 They slay the widow and the stranger, And murder the fatherless. 7 Yet they say, “The Lord does not see, Nor does the God of Jacob understand.” 8 Understand, you senseless among the people; And you fools, when will you be wise? 9 He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see? 10 He who instructs the nations, shall He not correct, He who teaches man knowledge? 11 The Lord knows the thoughts of man, That they are futile. 12 Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord, And teach out of Your law, 13 That You may give him rest from the days of adversity, Until the pit is dug for the wicked. 14 For the Lord will not cast off His people, Nor will He forsake His inheritance. 15 But judgment will return to righteousness, And all the upright in heart will follow it.

What will win in our own minds? Will it be fear or faith? For the Christian, this world may becoming a scary place for all that we hold dear—our families and friends, our jobs and careers, our hopes for the future but that remains true only until we place our trust in the One who “gives us rest from the days of adversity” (verse 13) and from whom we receive instruction. In verse 16, God asks us two questions:

Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

And the Psalmist gives his answers (Verses 17 - 19):

Unless the Lord had been my help, My soul would soon have settled in silence. If I say, “My foot slips,” Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up. In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.

For all of us who may be suffering from a “multitude of anxieties” about the changes taking place all around us and are struggling with a sense of hopelessness about the inevitable disasters that lie ahead of us, remember that “God is still on His throne and He will remember His own” as the old song says. Someone once said, “When you are depressed and discouraged about life’s circumstances, look DOWN because you are seated in heavenly places with Him from where you can see the grand picture of God’s plan for the world”. That’s good advice for all of us and will put a smile, not a frown on our faces as we take on the challenge of reaching others with the good news of the Gospel.

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina! ☕️

Kim and I rented a place for a week to share with our kids, grandkids, and our dogs! We arrived around 7PM Friday evening, got setup, had some pizza, and pretty much passed out.

We haven’t had time to do any real recon of the are but I did manage to find a decent pizza joint and a Food Lion so we could pick up odds and ends to stock the fridge for the week.

From Friday to Tuesday it’s all about our kids and grandkids. Tuesday forward it’ll just be Kim and I and our oldest grandchild until next Saturday.

I was hoping to get some extra bunk time but that ain’t gonna happen with a puppy who thinks 5:30AM is play time. 🤣

We’re going to have a great time at the beach and whatever else we can drum up.

Enjoy the links.

Daring Fireball

But even just a small taste of VisionOS made me feel confident that it is going to be the next major platform for Apple and Apple developers, alongside MacOS and iOS/iPadOS.

I wasn’t too excited about any new AR/VR headset Apple was set to release, then I saw it in the keynote.

At first I was disappointed because they were showing someone in an office using it to replace their monitor(s) and that’s kind of boring.

The we see someone celebrating a child’s birthday wearing the headset. Really? What a complete douchebag. No, seriously, that’s a really bad move.

But, when I saw them demonstrate watching movies with it, I was excited! That is what I’d use it for!

Am I spending $3,500 anytime soon on one? Hell no! It’s still to early for me, especially at that price. It’s hard to justify it.

Steven Beschloss

Donald Trump himself broke the news this evening that he’s been indicted—making him the first former president to ever be charged with a federal crime.

King ding dong himself is finally being indicted for his retention of government documents. It’s not about him accidentally having a few mixed in with his other papers, it’s about boxes of them, not returning them on request, and lying that he did return them.

The right like to say “What about Biden and Pence?” Indeed, what about them. They self reported having documents and turned them over right away.

TFG is a real garbage human wrapped in a suit. My hope is, at a minimum, he’s banned from running for any federal office ever again.

Colin Paice

Easy question – hard answer, how to I convert a hex string to hex byte string in C?

Go along for the ride. I haven’t taken the time to think through how to solve this and I only have nits to pick with Colin’s solution.

Virginia Mercury

Richmond’s post-graduation mass shooting reflects America’s gun violence epidemic

This is so sickening. The shooting is absolutely horrific but to do it at a graduation? It’s heartbreaking how callous our nation has become.😔

Swift.org

This document is the reference guide describing how to mix Swift and C++

Since this was done as an official way to use C++ from Swift there was all kinds of thought out into safety. That’s fine, but if you have a great hunk of C++ that has been thoroughly tested and you feel good about it you probably don’t need the training wheels provided by this support.

Just wrap your C++ in a thin layer of Objective-C++ and call it from your Swift code without penalty. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Robert Reich

Goodbye, CNN’s Chris Licht. But what’s the lesson?

I know he screwed the pooch with that TFG interview thing but man, that was pretty quick.

512 Pixels

The number of 2019 Mac Pros sold cannot be huge, but the new one’s numbers are going to be even smaller. As a Mac Pro fan that worries me. Yes, there are users who are reliant on PCI solutions and I’m sure those folks will upgrade to this new machine at some point.

Who is this computer for? That’s the question on most folks minds. When I heard it wasn’t nearly as expandable as the 2019 version it made me wonder why they bothered? Beyond the awesome SOC it doesn’t have more to offer than its 2019 counterpart.

Then again, I’ve never been the target of this computer. I’m still using a 2019 MacBook Pro and I’m fine with it. Heck, I have a brand new M2 based MacBook Pro sitting in a box waiting for me to set it up. 🤣

Audibon.org

But as Adams scanned the bustling crowd of King Penguins, elephant seals, and Antarctic fur seals, he spotted something bizarre in the distance.

Go check out the post. This bird is gorgeous and I want it.

Jalopnik

Could The NASCAR Garage 56 Camaro Beat Every GTE Car At Le Mans?

I’d love to watch this all the way through but that’s not gonna happen. I hope NASCAR has partnered with someone to do a full documentary on it. The process from concept to reality to running the race. I hope it makes it the full 24 hours. That alone would be a huge victory.

[tonkiturbo]

Eggy drinks crossword clue

#Eggy drinks crossword clue Patch#

In graduate school, I studied and wrote about anti- MENDICANT (specifically, anti-fraternal) literature of the fourteenth century (it's true), so that word was an oddly nostalgic piece of cake ( 14D: Beggar). Of course I knew who President TAFT was, but it wasn't until after much crosswording that I realized that the family was an Ohio political dynasty. short for "RITardando"), MRE ( 68D: Field ration, for short), ALETA ( 104D: Prince Valiant's love) and the TAFTS ( 58D: Ohio political dynasty). AGIO was a huge WTF?! to me the first time I saw it - now, a gimme ( 8D: Currency exchange premium). 56D: Really angry group? ( HOT CROSS BUNCH)Īs is true on many days, today was a good day to have some Basic crosswordese under your belt.16D: Hit below the belt? ( MAKE A BAD PUNCH).117A: Instruction #1 for roofers? ( GET A LOAD OF THATCH) - this and PATCH.

#Eggy drinks crossword clue Patch#

98A: Hidden help for one who's trying to quit smoking? ( PATCH ON THE BACK).68A: What kind, decent people wear? ( MENSCH FASHION).38A: Exceptional soldier on his only tour? ( ONE-HITCH WONDER).23A: Problem for a crane operator? ( NO-WINCH SITUATION) - one small issue: "operator" in the clue when OPER.Luckily for me, SARA LEE ( 51A: Food giant based in Downers Grove, Ill.) and HELOISE ( 40D: Hint offerer) eventually helped me corral this section. Coincidentally, the non-bird TERNE crossed the birdy WREN ( 41D: Follower of Christopher or Carolina), which I also had some trouble getting. I know TERN as a shorebird common to North American crossword grids. Also, if you replace the "U" in "ENURE" with a "T" and then anagram it, you get the one word (besides RIN) I had *no* clue about today: TERNE. And the most common clue for RIN - RIN Tin Tin - is a dog. And here I thought someone had found an interesting new clue for that damned animated dog. Sadly, the stupid is a RIN, not a REN, and so, today, INURE was the correct way to go. I had ENURE for 66A: Get used (to), which is *a* correct answer to the clue (that exact clue has been used for ENURE before). I noticed an error when checking over my grid. Very undemanding grid (just seven theme answers) allows for a generally interesting and mostly smooth overall quality to the grid. a wooden block built into a masonry wall so that joinery structure can be nailed to it.An easyish, non- OGREISH puzzle ( 84D: Beastly), with hardly any sticking points.a wooden pin pushed or driven into a surface.The solution to the Eggy drinks crossword clue should be:īelow, you’ll find any key word(s) defined that may help you understand the clue or the answer better. You’ll want to cross-reference the length of the answers below with the required length in the crossword puzzle you are working on for the correct answer. This clue last appeared Jin the Eugene Sheffer Crossword. You will find that as you play more of these games that you will end up familiar with a lot of the clues that come up! Eggy drinks Crossword Clue AnswersĪ clue can have multiple answers, and we have provided all answers that we’re aware of for Eggy drinks. There’s nothing to be ashamed of if you struggle on a crossword clue! These puzzles cover many different subjects, and it’s hard to be an expert on everything. We have all of the available answers for Eggy drinks crossword clue if you need some help! Of course, sometimes the crossword clue totally stumps us, whether it’s because we are unfamiliar with the subject matter entirely or we just are drawing a blank. Crosswords can be an excellent way to stimulate your brain, pass the time, and challenge yourself all at once.

[decolonize-the-everything]

Now that it's officially time to start considering mid-term elections, this is a reminder to democrats that you will lose the necessary progressive, PoC, and leftist votes you need if you push another candidate who will only seek to protect the status quo.

The safety of disabled, poor, LGBT, and PoC isn't something you can keep putting on the bargaining table. Those aren't your lives to bargain. You can't keep trading me and my kin for your ability to live comfortably.

Police brutality

MMIW

the cost of living & low wages

limitless profits

You know there were a Thousand more hate crimes in Biden's first year than there were in Trump's? Did y'all know that hate crimes increased from a steady 59% under all Trump's 4 years to 61% in just One year under Biden? And more of those crimes were racist?

Inaccessible healthcare

tax loopholes for the rich

Climate change

Changing All infrastructure to green/renewable energy

inaccessibility still the norm

disabled folks not being able to marry

the way it's us who've had more deaths in our covid demographics than anyone else

police stealing from communities & broken justice systems

a more broken government who can't stop breaking treaties

oil on native land

the fact CRT isn't in schools & the way we Know history books in our education systems are full of lies no president Ever thought should be fixed

a broken voting system with voter suppression rampant each year

infrastructure so bad water in more and more cities is being deemed unsafe because of old pipes that shitty landlords don't maintain or upkeep or replace Ever because it'd cut into profits

The housing market and the fact that we collectively have Too Many Houses but people just can't afford to pay to Use them

colonization Gentrification

All these things are Actual problems that need to Actually be addressed and solutions need to be Actually be found because human lives are at stake.

You can't just say "but republicans are worse" and expect me to ignore the way you've let my friends sleep outside hotels with empty beds just the same as they did. Like I can't see the way you use your #GayBesties to help you win votes for the #Girlbosses of the world while you ignore the gay and trans kids killing themselves because you failed to protect them.

Give us candidates that are Actively good for us instead of passively bad for us.

Because when y'all lose mid-terms after trying push more people that nobody wanted I don't wanna hear y'all crying about 'great now our lives are ruined! This is fascism!' again.

The fascism never left. It's still here. And it looks like asking people to settle for the over-policing, mistreatment, and imprisonment of it's people

[theramseyloft]

i read your long pigeon poop post, and after some poking around online i saw that a loft in melbourne australia failed. do you have any idea why that is?

Oh... my fucking God. I am so furious.

Look at this thing!

$70,000 went into this monstrosity?

It looks like they converted a fucking water tower by punching holes in it and welding on entryways shaped like the stereotypical toddler’s first house drawing!

Who fucking researched this?!

Was it designed by a committee purely by aesthetic?!

Here is an article I found on it’s decomission and removal.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/melbourne-city-councils-70000-pigeon-loft-turned-into-scrap-metal-20160724-gqcmsc.html

According to the pigeon expert quoted in this article: 

“Frank Hayes is the president of the Australian National Pigeon Association. While his group is mostly interested in show pigeons, a different breed to the city pests, he says it was fairly predictable the coop idea was never going to work.”

“ "The nature of the pigeon is that they find a home and they stick with it. So finding them somewhere else to go is a bit of a dream," said Mr Hayes.”

“ "Trying to shift them is one big headache. It's a worldwide problem and no one has ever figured out how to deal with it." ” 

LOOK at this structure!!!

It’s made of fucking METAL!!!

In AUSTRAILIA!!!

In the fucking OPEN!!!!

From this charming article:

 http://melbournedailyphotodaily.blogspot.com/2011/03/pigeon-loft-batman-park.html

“The loft is painted with light coloured corrosion resistant to reflect the heat and minimise internal over-heating. It houses two hundred nesting boxes for pigeon breeding. Eggs laid will be replaced with artificial eggs intended as a humane way to control and reduce pigeon numbers.”

That is a metal structure in the Melbourne sun...

No amount of Paint is gonna make that less an oven.

And I can’t imagine you can add anything to paint to make it corrosion resistant that isn’t noxious in a small space when the metal under it heats up.

“Bird feeding around the loft base is permitted to attract birds out of the CBD to this area. Bird feeding is not permitted in any other area around the CBD.”

But the city council is not actually providing the birds with good quality fed...

“... and no one has ever figured out how to deal with it."

No one, you ignorant twit?

NO ONE?!?!

Here is the site of a successful branch of the German Stadttauben Projekt, translated:

https://stadttauben-stuttgart.de/

“The Stuttgart pigeon project

Dear prospective customers,

nice that you found our homepage. We would like to introduce our project to you on the following pages:

The Stuttgart City Pigeon Project is an animal welfare-friendly concept for regulating and reducing city pigeons for the benefit of people and animals. We operate several supervised pigeon shots in the Stuttgart city area, in which the pigeons are cared for and their eggs are exchanged for dummies so that no offspring hatch. By the end of 2019, there had been well over 45,000 eggs. By feeding grain mixtures in our shots, the animals are no longer forced to look for food on the streets and squares in the area. They spend 80% of the day and the entire night in the dovecote. Ergo - your droppings also stay there and no longer land on roofs or balconies.

We were awarded the Baden-Württemberg State Animal Protection Award 2015 for our commitment .

The city pigeon is one of the most successful residents of the urban living space and today populates all major cities worldwide. It is the free-living descendant of the wild rock pigeons from the coastal and mountain areas in Africa and Eurasia. Long ago, the rock pigeons were domesticated by humans primarily for the purpose of meat production and thus also carried to our latitudes and cities. In modern times, the stock of the archetypal rock pigeon increasingly mixed with breeding, racing and sports pigeons that either escaped, were abandoned or, exhausted by exhausting competitive flights, ran aground in the cities. Today's city pigeons are the overgrown children and children's children of these rock, breeding and sports pigeons.

In cooperation with the state capital of Stuttgart, the Tierschutzverein Stuttgart und Umgebung eV launched the pigeon project in 2008. The cooperation was formed with the aim of bringing about a permanent and humane solution to the city pigeon problem.

The concept of the Federal Working Group for City Pigeons or the so-called * Augsburg Model * was helpful. It is based on scientific publications, practical experience and has already been successfully recommended by several federal states such as Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg. Today it is implemented in more than 80 German cities and towns. For example, there are pigeon houses looked after in Aachen, Augsburg, Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Saarbrücken and Wuppertal.

We aim for a small, supervised and healthy pigeon population in Stuttgart. Then the image of the city pigeon may rise again. Because healthy animals, which have a permanent home and receive animal feed, do not bother anyone!”

https://stadttauben-stuttgart.de/?page=1,0,0,Chronik+%26+Fakten

“Care instead of fighting: our chronicle

2008:The first step was a dovecote at platform 1 in Stuttgart main station

2009:The second blow was made in the roof of the Leonhardskirche

2009:The third pigeon house was on the Mühlgrün parking garage in Bad-Cannstatt, which has since been demolished and replaced by the pigeon tower in the rope

2010:The fourth facility was the pigeon tower in the city garden on Max-Kade-Weg

2011:The fifth pigeon house stood on the roof of the town hall garage until February 2016. Reconstruction on the roof of the city comb in April 2016.

2011:The sixth dovecote was a second stroke on the roof of the Leonhardskirche (other roof side)

2013:The seventh dovecote was built in the roof of the Fairkauf building in Stuttgart-Feuerbach

2014:The eighth pigeon loft was built (as a replacement for the location at the main station) on a flat roof in the Kriegsbergstrasse

2016:Dovecote number 9 was inaugurated in July 2016 at the Marienplatz in Stuttgart in the roof structure of the imperial building

2017:

On Landhausstrasse in the east of Stuttgart, we were able to set up dovecote No. 10 in the attic of a residential building. It was opened in June 2017

2018:In summer, an indoor pigeon tower was opened at Seilerwasen in Bad Cannstatt as a replacement for the Mühlgrün pigeon house

2019In autumn a new pigeon facility was inaugurated at the station in Zuffenhausen and the first egg was laid in December.    

In addition, a dovecote (trailer) on the grounds of the shelter Stuttgart and Nistwand for about 30 pigeons on the will of the ASPCA Stuttgart  House  Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn in Stuttgart Zuffenhausen care.

... more dovecotes are to follow!

Health hazard facts

A health hazard due to pigeons flying around, running and sitting can be largely excluded. New scientific studies have shown (again) that pathogens that may be contained in the pigeon droppings are usually bird-specific and are therefore not transmitted to humans. This was confirmed in 1995 by the Federal Ministry of Health.

The general classification of the pigeon as a pest was withdrawn by the Federal Institute for Consumer Health Protection back in 1989 on the basis of research results at the time and the opinion from 2001.

Feed facts about pigeons

Feeding pigeons in Stuttgart is prohibited on public land. Well-meaning pigeon friends increase the population density of the city pigeons by regular feeding in the same place, without offering the additionally attracted animals sleeping and nesting places where they are tolerated or the clutch can be exchanged. This creates people who work there or often live more pigeon hate and more pigeon misery.

Above all, too many food scraps are thrown away on the streets and squares of the city! This waste is mostly not compatible with pigeons. They lead to illnesses, shortages and thus, among other things, to the unsightly liquid starvation. Nevertheless, due to the scarcity of bird-friendly feed in cities, these human foods are usually the main basis for the feeding of city pigeons, but their organism is designed for pure hard grain feed. So this means sick pigeon populations that nonetheless reproduce disproportionately due to their (pet) genes raised by humans.

If you would like to help sustainably, please contact us. Only other supervised dovecotes in the city area (including food and egg exchange) start at the root of the "problem". We welcome any support!”

From their gallery:

Here is a loft.

Small, wooden, well insulated from heat and cold.

Those openings are not the nests. They are just doorways with a landing ledge designed around the comfort of pigeons, which are social birds.

Here is the inside.

Lots of comfortable nest boxes, perches in the back, food, water, comfortable socialization space...

Here is an entry into another loft currently in use.

Here is the inside.

Water and feed are provided by the care takers. You can see feed and drinking stations all over the floor.

And this is the inside of a huge new loft in Frankfurt.

These German Taubbenhauses are designed around meeting the birds’ needs for food, comfort, safety from the elements, and socialization with their flock mates.

None of these birds had to be coerced or forcibly relocated.

Because their needs were better met, they came on their own.

Look at the $70,000 Melbourne monstronsity again!

More specifically, look at the bridge behind it.

And tell me where you would rather me.

Compact metal tower designed exclusively around convenient human access, metal nest boxes, 0 landing platforms, no socialization space, no protection from the elements, still no choice but to forage for what ever garbage people toss you...

or the comfortably Cool space under a concrete bridge with a convenient water source.

Three guesses what’s more comfortable for the pigeons.

Now, would you rather live under a bridge with constant noise from traffic, open to predators, 

or

A well insulated apartment building with comfortable suites, a spacious common area, and a nutritious free meal plan with clean water included by default.

"It's a worldwide problem and no one has ever figured out how to deal with it."

My ass, Mr. Hayes!

[thebooki3h]

I can't stop thinking about a Lukadamianette fic that starts with

“She looked at the carnage around her, and knew one thing, she will NEVER let herself be that weak EVER again”

This is after years of fighting Hawkmoth and getting no where. Hawkmoth progressively got to be as bad as Joker or Scarecrow. The lasting psychological damage that he left on Paris’s citizens would be a permanent scar in France’s history. Marinette has been isolated from her class for years. Lila’s reign of terror completely destroyed her self worth as Marinette and all of the pressure she has been under from all aspects of her life have taken a SERIOUS toll on her.

Her parents don’t trust her anymore after Lila’s lies got to them. At first they didn’t believe them, but Marinette lied to them because of her ladybug duties and they couldn’t trust her anymore. They basically don’t let Marinette do anything outside of school activities and working at home (somehow , thank Kwami, she convinced them to let her keep her online boutique as MDC). Jagged has been dn always will be a major supporter of her MDC brand. He truly becomes uncle jagged and he and penny are the only adults that Marinette trusts completely. They are always there to support her even if they are not always physically there. Uncle J has introduced her to many other big names so she can design for them for big events. She has even designed for the avengers. (it started out as designing for Tony and Pepper for a red carpet event and Tony liked it so much he had her design the avengers suits especially Peter’s because Peter is a huge fan of hers.) She now talks to Tony about once a month, because she and Peter grew to be close friends and talk regularly. She even thought about giving him he spider miraculous, but she deduced that he was Spiderman from his measurements and knew he didn’t need it.

Luka, Kagami and Chloe are Marinette's only friends in Paris . They all have their corresponding miraculous. They all know their identities as part of team miraculous. Marinette is known to them as the user of the mouse miraculous, because after Chat Noir’s advances and eventual defection to Hawkmoth’s side she can’t trust anyone with Ladybug’s identity. Team miraculous have all become apart of the Order and are Guardians in training. Ladybug being Grand Guardian ofc. Any other miraculous users are no longer a part of the team because if Marinette can’t trust them as a civilian she can’t trust them as heroes.

Chat Noir defected to Hawkbitches side because he was suffering from an imbalance in the miraculous. Ladybug is a true holder for her miraculous, but Chat Noir was not a true holder. He was in fact supposed to be a temporary solution, but Fu didn’t think that Hawkmoth’s reign of terror would last as long as it did. (he also lost his memory pretty early on). The imbalance lead to increasing madness which fueled the delusion that Ladybug and Chat are soulmates because of the balance of their miraculous. 

Hawkmoth gets defeated the summer before Marinette's senior year of high school. The battle lasts for days and most of Paris is rubble by the time the battle is over. Marinette has suffered years of mental abuse at the hands of her classmates, and with everything she has had to deal with she forced herself to stay positive. Once hawkmoth and Mayura(who has been largely inactive bc of the damage to the peacock miraculous) and Chat were defeated she allowed herself to feel the betrayal, anger and hurt that she kept locked away. This is where she makes herself a promise to never let herself be weak again. Vulnerable, sure, but never weak. 

She then casts the cure, which revives dead Parisians and fixes Paris. Unfortunately bc Adrien’s mom had been in the coma for so long Ladybug can’t heal her with magic alone. Amelile goes to a hospital and ladybug visits her regularly to heal her slowly. Adrien runs off without the cat miraculous (he will be seen again) because Mari took it away using her guardian powers.

Without all of the pressure of fighting Hawkmoth Marinette final tells Luka how she feels and how she kept that inside for years and why. They both need healing from the whole ordeal, but they agree to take it REALLY slow and see where things go. (Marinette confirms that Luka means that they will be exclusive, and he says he has also loved her for years and he could never do that to her)

Without the looming presence of Hawkmoth Marinette can final be the person she has become since becoming ladybug. She spends the rest of the summer getting thearpy outside of Paris and working on herself. She remakes herself to be the person that ladybug and the toxic class have made her be. She still believes in being kind and helping others, but her outlook on life is much darker than it was before Lila destroyed her reputation. No one sees her except for Luka Kagami and Chloe and sometimes penny and Uncle J over Ft. Not even her parents.

She adopts a darker, more punk rock look (thanks to Luka and uncle jagged). Her once bright a bubbly personality is no longer reflected in her clothing. With help from Luka and UJ she designed a leather jacket that replaces her siginiture cherry blossom blazer. It is reinforced with all of the protective spells she has learned over the years. (she even learned how to sew dimensional pockets and now she has magic pocket that function like her yoyo. She also made gear for the rest of her team bc she wants to protect them) she starts riding the bike her Nona got her because it matches the aesthetic and she can’t just walk to school like she could in middle school. 

Marinette now takes no BS and is fully prepared to put people in their place. When her senior year starts people are shocked to see bubbly Marinette turned to quiet, bully Marinette has become (visually) the bad influence that they all thought she was. Busiter’s class has been together since the Hawkmoth Sitch started because they were known as the Akuma class and it was just easier to keep track of them. Kagami was allowed to transfer to this class. (her mother thought it would help strengthen her emotional resolve after she got Akumatized) Thus toxic habits from bustier were enforced. Marinette was forced to remain class president bc bustier thought it would help Lila mature (which obviously didn’t happen). Marinette now has more time so she apples to the Wayne scholarship program to see if they can get a sponsored trip. (they do bc Marinette is awesome. she really applies to have a class trip to Gotham because she wants to uphold that promise to herself and training under the bats would do that and she wants to check Gotham out before she commits)

By the time they go on the trip Luka and Marinette are official but have discovered that they feel like something is missing in their relationship. (they have tried different forms of polyamory, but haven't found anything that fit them yet) Luka has been working with Jagged for almost a year at that point bc Jagged is his dad and its a good way to reconnect. So he flies to Gotham before the class bc he can take that time off so he can spend time with his girlfriend uninterrupted by jagged or her parents. He also planned a bunch of dates bc most everywhere in Paris holds a dramatic memory.

I am going to make a part 2 bc this is long and they haven’t even met Damian yet

[where-all-the-time-went]

gah, screw it

[ID: A tumblr post from me, reading, “now is probably the time to write my 500-word essay on the politics of revolution of the daleks that gets 30 notes and is never seen again, which i return to in a month to find a lot of typos, otherwise no one will see it, isn’t it,,, “but i haven’t seen jack robertson’s first episode,,,”. End ID.] answer: yes, it is. but im gonna take a while to write this and look up a summary of arachnids in the uk (which i dont wanna watch because i heard its Not Good and you dont have to watch every episode of doctor who to be a fan, ok?) i sometimes talk about politics on tumblr, but rarely do i make political posts--mainly because, as my sidebar bio says, i’m a teenager. i don’t really have a degree in politics, and as much as i have been trying to read up on political stuff, its kinda hard when i dont have access to a college professor to guide me along. still, some things about this episode stood out to me, especially because it’s stuff i’ve noticed in a lot of media. i’m not even sure where i stand politically, but i absolutely love media commentary, and i have so many thoughts i feel like i never get to put out there when im watching movies and tv. obviously, spoilers under the cut (and it probably won’t actually be 500 words. probably.) i’m also gonna assume you’ve seen this episode, because i don’t wanna recap it. if you haven’t, go watch it! tbh, it’s well worth it (my favorite chibs era episode, just ahead of the haunting of villa diodati and demons of the punjab)

Now, um, obviously this episode is political. It’s the in-your-face without down-your-throat type of political we know and love. Still, media can be a direct allegory that wouldn’t bother the average viewer while still having politics that are good, bad, or somewhere in the middle (I mean this extremely subjectively). First, I’d like to address the elephant in the room:

While a Doctor Who festive special would normally film in the summer, this time the episode was filmed well ahead in winter 2019, over a year before it was due to be broadcast in a bid to include it within filming for series 12 (which aired from January to March) and give cast a longer break.

- The Radio Times

I’ve noticed some people pointing out that the episode references the protests that happened this summer. Honestly, I’d love it if that was the intention behind the episode, because then maybe Chris Chibnall’s team really does have a TARDIS, and we can all just time travel out of this mess.

[ID: An image from “Revolution of the Daleks.” A very sleek Dalek stands in front of police who have riot shields. The air is foggy, possibly gaseous. End ID.] However, the protests from this summer and the episode itself do not exist inside a bubble. Police brutality did not come into existence this summer, and it did not end with the autumn equinox. The episode, while featuring a small-scale protest that was eerily reminiscent of the large BLM protests this year, chooses to focus instead on one of the roots of the issue: somehow, capitalism.

I can’t say how purposeful the anti-capitalist messaging in the episode was. Obviously, Jack Robertson is meant to be an American capitalist caricature. Not to mention, Doctor Who is a family-friendly show: you can’t get too overt with what can be considered “radical” coding. Nonetheless, the episode tackles the connection between policing and money, and thus inherently comments on capitalism. 

The Dalek itself only exists to support the police force because Prime Minister Patterson knows that the idea of security will appeal to her constituency. Simultaneously, it could not exist if Robertson didn’t know just how profitable it would be. As they preach security, they create chaos. More importantly, the security they preach is one that bases itself on profit--similar to the weapons of the policeforce, and the prison industrial complex. As a result, the “security” inevitably fails.

[ID: Prime Minister Patterson, in a red coat, listens to Jack Robertson and Leo, in dark neutral-toned clothes both. They stand in front of a brick wall as they discuss the new Dalek plans. End ID.] Unfortunately, while the show presents a clear stance against money in policing, there is never any direct call to action. The political allegory may be straightforward and obvious, but the solution at the end is just to end the Daleks, and watch as Robertson announces his run for President (which, by the way, is very reminiscent of Trump, who does exist in-universe, so that’s weird). Regardless of all that, why am I even talking about this? Well, on the one hand, I love talking about these sorts of things. On the other hand, this post has started to sound like nothing but a rant with some pictures. Earlier, I said that this was something I noticed in a lot of media. For instance, I think of “The Boys,” with its obvious anti-capitalist and anti-military industrial complex messaging. At the same time, the show offers no solutions. Both are afraid of the obvious solution to capitalism: replacing it. To be clear, I say this as a person who is unsure about capitalism. I don’t know where I stand. Like I said, I’m a teenager. However, these shows can’t seem to make a decision either, when they're made by big companies with big budgets and professional adults. Politics in popular media tends to fit perfectly with the popular politics of the time, given that media must do so in order to make profit. Hence, similar to the media we consume, so many individuals seem to recognize that there’s something off with the hand money has in politics, and war, and security, yet no one seems to look for solutions.  Personally, I love talking about politics in the media, and analyzing media in general, because it’s the best way for me to communicate my internal thoughts. Meanwhile, I don’t even know my own internal thoughts. This post’s very existence is ironic. I had said in a very awful post that I wanted to write this when the tag was still trending, because I, in part, want someone else to do the thinking for me. I want people to see this and go, “well, okay, here’s where you’re wrong,” or, “here’s what we do about it.” Do I then have a responsibility to know what I’m talking about? Is the discourse all that matters? Does the media as a whole have to propel revolutionary ideas to get them into the social conscience, or can it just open up discussion?  There is, of course, irony in shows that could only exist in a capitalist world degrading aspects of that system. But no one, not even me, is exempt from the fact that these ideas do not exist in a bubble. The show’s protests look eerily familiar because, as this summer has proven, those protests are profitable (see literally every ad from companies that own sweatshops talking about how much they care about races they don’t represent in their board of directors). At the same time, I exist in that capitalist world, and my opinions have been formed via the capitalist media I was raised with. tl;dr: i know literally nothing. im sure of literally nothing. help, someone tell me about the politics of doctor who. wow, this was a really sad tl;dr, i normally make a shitty joke here. um, uh, EXTERMINATE

[dunnystuff]

Sent: Monday, June 07, 2021 2:31 PM

Subject: Rich's Blog

Hi to all -

Pride Flag

This symbol of gay pride has now been elevated to a status near to that of the US flag. Since this is gay pride month, that rainbow flag is being displayed at many of our embassies. That includes the Embassy at The Vatican. Somehow, I don't see this as improving our relations with the seat of the Catholic Church. American Catholics have reacted rather badly to this display. However, no such display is being done, to my knowledge, in Muslim nations. The Muslims tend to be violent about homosexuals.

AOC

This genius has found a solution to the crime problems, exploding in our cities all over the land. It is so simple, it is a wonder that intelligent people never thought of it ! Just stop building jails. No jails, no prisoners, and therefore, no crime. Wow !

Facebook

They have extended their ban on Trump until at least January 7, 2023. Actual criminals and hate groups are okay, however. Even state sponsored ones.

Kylee McLaugh

This young lady was captain of the volleyball team, and also a dedicated Christian. The University of Oklahoma banned her from the team, and demanded she take 'diversity' training (i.e. re-education camps), because of her views. She is suing the school for civil rights violations - specifically free speech. Also for persecuting her because of her beliefs. Could get interesting.

Rhode Island

Nicole Solas, a parent of a kindergarten student, asked the school to explain exactly what they were teaching their children about race and gender issues. Rumors were not encouraging to parents like her. Seems all this gender ID stuff and white hatred was all the rage in the school system. The school was evasive and vague, and would not tell her what they were teaching her children. So, she filed a FOIA request to find out. The school fought this, claiming she was trying to 'intimidate' the school. This has now grown to 200 requests, and the school will have to be forthcoming about the curriculum. Then they can deal with all those angry parents. Lawfare at work.

Mark Cuban

This billionaire owns the Dallas Mavericks, among other things. He stopped playing the National Anthem before games a few months back, so as not to offend the snowflakes. People did notice, and complained. There was no notice or announcement of this change, and that also offended people. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick actually did something. He suggested that Mark sell the team - there were plenty of patriots who would buy it from him, and continue to play our anthem. He also offered up to the state government 'The Star Spangled Banner Act', which denies any state funding for any team that does not play the anthem. Mark resumed playing the National Anthem soon afterwards.

Dr. Fauci

The more we see of his emails, the more guilty he looks. He at first gave stats that were more or less accurate on the progress of this virus, then changed his mind, and gave 'misleading' information. The actual death rate is about .04%, at the worst of the pandemic, a year ago. Fauci then compared it to a bad flu season. Then he used other math to make things seem a lot worse.

Remember that we are now in Phase 3 of the 'solution' to this virus? Phase 5 is when the Covid Cops go door to door and force everyone to take the shot.

If it was true that nearly 600,000 people in the US have died from Covid, then we should expect a spike in the death rates for the nation. Guess what, boys and girls - the death rate for last year was about 2.5 million for all causes. Virtually identical to the previous several years. What changed was the reported cause of death. Flu and other respiratory causes fell by more than 90%, being replaced by Covid. And, Covid was listed for things like auto accidents, gunshot deaths, and many other causes. Guess the Covid Cops didn't think to create false 'fake deaths', like all those fake votes.

Make-a-Wish

This foundation was set up to provide special care and services for children with terminal conditions. Their former CEO has pleaded guilty to fraud and embezzlement. Seems Jennifer Woodley gave herself fake bonus payments, fake pay raises, totaling about $41,000 and spent $23,000 on company credit cards for her personal use.

But, she cut a deal, to avoid the three ten year sentences that her crimes deserved. Instead, she will have to return the money, pay a fine, and serve five years probation. If she is a good girl, and does all that, then her criminal record will be expunged at the end. Pretty sweet deal.

Calvin Coolidge

Silent Cal was never regarded as one of our best presidents. But, he is underrated. He was perhaps the last to try to limit the office to what the Constitution designed, rather than expanding it to an imperial presidency. Congress was always trying to make the states into vassals of the federal government, rather than as free and independent units of a collective government. He was disliked by congress for his many vetoes of their pet projects. For example, he refused to allow the creation of many 'agencies' to 'regulate' things. He said, correctly, that the 'government did not have the authority to create bureaucratic agencies infused with legislative authority and lacking oversight.' He opposed bailouts, or even aid in local emergencies, as this would tend to addict those areas of the country or economy to government subsidies, rather than to solutions to their problems. Furthermore, such actions would make other Americans pay for those problems.

Can you imagine that happening today? We could do well with another Silent Cal.

[cksmart-world]

The completely unnecessary news analysis

by Christopher Smart

May 18, 2021

GOP BATTLE CRY: “GET RID OF YOUR DIAPER”

Who could guess the new battle cry of the Trump wing of the GOP would be, “Get rid of your diaper.” Although it's a great T-shirt slogan, it's somewhat limited because it's hard to sing, although Majorie Taylor Greene did give it a good try. The failure could have something to do with the acoustics as she bellowed through the office door mail slot of Bronx Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. Here at Smart Bomb, the staff has been unable to discern the origin of the catchy phrase. It may have been the product of focus groups in Taylor's backwoods Georgia district, although our analysts think it might be too sophisticated for her constituents, who are more likely to come up with something like, “Get rid of your taco you stupid spic.” Perhaps Taylor Greene paid an expensive K Street PR firm to come up the colorful maxim. The Trumper firebrand had a few other gems up her sleeve: she called AOC a “chicken,” which impressed some of her Republican colleagues for its finesse. But all that was just a warmup for the heavy artillery when she called AOC a "radical socialist," adding: "You don't care about the American people." But the former Bronx bartender seemed unrattled when she retorted, “I used to throw people like her out of the bar all the time.”

WINGMAN READY TO SING, MAN

Ever wonder what someone means when they say, “He's my wingman.” It used to mean a pilot whose plane is positioned behind and outside the leading aircraft in a formation. Then hockey players appropriated it for forwards, who generally do most of the scoring. But now wingman can mean almost anything. For Trumpist Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz it means something like “fixer” or maybe “pimp,” but boy did his wingman score. Of course, those are just allegations that came out when the feds investigated Gaetz' wingman, Joel Greenberg, who faces a 33 count indictment and will probably need a wingman, himself, when he ends up in the Big House alongside guys who have pretty good slap-shots. If Gaetz' wingman sings, the Congressman could face charges of sex trafficking of a minor and others. There have been more famous wingmen, of course, like Sundance was to Butch, like Spiro Agnew was to Richard Nixon, like Pence was to Trump, like Tonto was to the Lone Ranger, like Dale Evans was to Roy Rogers and like Mike Lee is to Ted Cruz (Laurel and Hardy of the Senate). But not even Agnew and Nixon were charged with sex trafficking. Let's not forget, Gaetz is innocent until proven guilty. And anyway, the girl said she was 18.

STEWART AND CURTIS: OFF WITH HER HEAD

Time to roll out the old guillotine. See, when you have a revolution everyone has go along and if they don't you have to cut their heads off. In the case of Wyoming's Congresswoman Liz Cheney, some say she's getting it in the neck for telling the truth about The Big Lie and that the January 6 insurrection was no picnic. But here in Utah, our Rep. John Curtis can explain the whole thing away: “Well, I think the thing that's been frustrating to me is missing the narrative that she was not removed because of her stance on President Trump, nor because of her statements,” Curtis said. “It's that she is not leading this party in a way that will help us,” undermine democracy or prove the Earth is flat. We also have Rep. Chris Stewart to help us understand what Curtis said: “This was not a vote to condemn Rep. Cheney for her previous vote of conscience (to impeach Trump); this was a vote to unify the Republican Party” so we don't have that bitch going on and on about The Big Lie. We can't keep talking about how the election was stolen and how January 6 was just a big party incited by Donald Trump. That would just continue to make us look like assholes who chose Trump over Truth. Oh, and by the way, don't put away the guillotine: Mitt Romney, you're next.

Post script — Well that about does it for another crazy week here on As The World Turns, aka Smart Bomb. Some of us worry too much and some don't worry enough. If you're in the second group we can help: Consider this — our birth rate is declining and has reached 1.7 children per couple. Pencil this out and you will find that is 0.3 of a person short of replacing the current population. What's wrong with that, you might say, the swimming pools and golf courses are too crowded and, almost as bad, people are starving in Bangladesh. Why can't we just go back to a less crowded world where you could get up Little Cottonwood Canyon? Well because, stupid, capitalism demands growth. There must be an expansion of goods and services — and people to purchase them. And it can't work in reverse. So for us in the U.S, the short term solution is that we need immigrants. What do you think all those Turkish guys are doing in Germany — other than the blonde women, of course. That's right, Germans stopped reproducing (too much beer?). Smart Bomb analysts have considered the data and made a prediction: Ten years from now Trumpers will be inviting immigrants from everywhere and anywhere. And when you ask, they'll say, What's a Trump?

Well Wilson, here it is May, the most beautiful month of the year and everything is coming up roses. So how about you and the guys play a little cheery something for Matt Gaetz and his sidekick Joel Greenberg:

If I had a boat I'd go out on the ocean And if I had a pony I'd ride him on my boat And we could all together Go out on the ocean Me upon my pony on my boat If I were Roy Rogers I'd sure enough be single I couldn't bring myself to marrying old Dale It'd just be me and trigger We'd go riding through them movies Then we'd buy a boat and on the sea we'd sail The mystery masked man was smart He got himself a Tonto 'Cause Tonto did the dirty work for free But Tonto he was smarter And one day said kemo sabe Kiss my ass I bought a boat I'm going out to sea...

(If I Had A Boat — Lyle Lovett)

[douchebagbrainwaves]

LIFE IS DEAD

Reddit first launched, it seemed laughable to VCs and e-commerce experts. People must want something if they pay a lot for our software—about $140 per user per month—but it was at the time were mostly the art equivalent of McMansions—big, pretentious, and fake. I'm not sure how useful his advice is for painting specifically, but it did at least have the advantage, from each one's point of view, and they were absolutely honest. It's no coincidence that Microsoft and Facebook both got started in January. If you can think instead That's an interesting idea. Most unpleasant jobs would either get automated or go undone if no one were willing to do them. If they were obviously good, someone would already be doing it and it wouldn't be the first time something was a bad idea and the other is a good thing for students to be exposed to their literary heritage. Essays should aim for maximum surprise. I'm telling you that the key is to impress your professors. There was some initial resistance, but it only works on the newest phones, that's probably a big enough beachhead. Some I only learned in the past year.

I say this as a founder and an investor, and I know it's the wrong thing to optimize. For most of history a well-paying but boring job at a big company, learn how to hang glide, or to speak a foreign language fluently, that will be enough to make you say, for a while at least, a thesis was a position one took and the dissertation was the argument by which one defended it. In particular, they don't have any is that they interact with the ideas. But thousands before you have suffered through writing a dissertation. Some people are lucky enough to know what they want to do when they're 12, and just glide along as if they used the worse-is-better approach but stopped after the first stage and handed the thing over to marketers. I can find of The Age of the Essay probably the second or third day, with text that ultimately survived in red and text that later got deleted in gray. Look around you and see what you came up with good startup ideas, don't merely turn on the filter What's missing?

So if you want to start a rapidly growing business as software. You never have to exert anything like that much extra work to pay as much attention to the author's choices as to the idea itself. If we work like Newton. Suppose a Y Combinator company starts talking to VCs after demo day, and is successful in raising money from investors at all? Combine rapid growth and zero censorship, and the classics. Something you publish ought to tell the others, and together they work out the kinks. Of course they do. If you work on overlooked problems, you're more likely to discover new things, most of whom are not particularly imaginative. VCs are less willing to do things that would make your friends say wow. Can't you just think of new ideas yourself? In the case of Viaweb, the simple solution was to make the medicine go down. Sure, at one point they were a just a couple guys in an apartment, which did not seem to be an illusion.

The greatest weakness of the list of n things. The real test is the final outcome for the founder, and getting too high a valuation may just make a good outcome, not the way bosses evaluate employees. Microsoft started working on them. I took embarrassingly long to catch on. I say this, some will say it's old news, but here goes: judging from their works, most philosophers up to the present have been wasting their time, but you're not idle. The Selling of the President 1968, Nixon knew he had less charisma than Humphrey, and thus taught discipline, or at least the term artificial intelligence, and was an early member of both of the top two computer science departments, MIT and Stanford. So look for simple things that other people have overlooked—things people will later say turned out to be is a test. You can or could once make a lot of time trying to predict how the startups we've funded snatched by west coast investors out from under the noses of Boston investors who saw them first but acted too slowly.

As a lower bound, you have to replace this natural constraint with self-discipline. School was boring. I've learned that some suits are smarter than others. This makes everyone naturally pull in the same way it protects the reader. But writing and art are both very hard problems that some people work honestly at, so they're worth doing, you're more likely to be productive. And aside from that, grad school is probably better than most alternatives. The view of it will be. But again, it's not a sufficient one. Perhaps this tends to attract people who are earnest, but dull. Unfortunately picking winners is harder than that.

[scoutception]

AI: The Somnium Files review

While it wasn’t the first visual novel series I played, the Zero Escape trilogy- Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Virtue’s Last Reward, and Zero Time Dilemma- is what made me interested in exploring more visual novels in general. Featuring a creative mix of normal visual novel sections and puzzle room sections, with stories involving fascinating pseudo science theories, colorful and interesting characters, fast, tense pacing, and great music, the series is an insane adventure that’s absolutely worth a try. The series also got me interested in the other works of Kotaro Uchikoshi, the director and writer of the series, which led me to the subject of today’s review, and his most recent work: AI: The Somnium Files, which proves to be quite the change of pace, to say the least.

Story: Kaname Date is a member of the Advanced Brain Investigation Squad (ABIS), a special, secret division of the Metropolitan Police Department. Using a device known as the Psync Machine, Date can explore the subconscious of another person by entering their Somnium, a dream world which often holds secrets they would not reveal otherwise. 6 years ago, Date lost his left eye and all of his memories, left with no link to his past, not even his real name, except for Boss, his superior in ABIS and longtime friend. His left eye was replaced by an advanced AI called Aiba, capable of functions such as night vision and x-ray, as well as serving as Date’s avatar within Somnium.

One gloomy November night, Date is called in to investigate a murder victim found in an abandoned amusement park, having suffered multiple stab wounds, tied to a merry-go-horse and missing her left eyeball. The victim is Shoko Nadami, an acquaintance of Date’s, and the ex-wife of Renju Okiura, Date’s best friend and president of the entertainment company Lemniscate. Date’s initial investigation proves unfruitful, and comes to a halt completely when he discovers someone within the merry-go-round’s central column, traumatized to the point of being unable to speak and cradling a bloody ice pick: Mizuki Okiura, the 12 year old daughter of Shoko and Renju, whom Date took into his care 4 years ago.

Date continues the investigation the days afterwards, meeting Mizuki’s friends, the internet idol Iris Sagan, aka A-Set, and the otaku and aspiring light novel author Ota Matshushita, Iris’ mother Hitomi, and Moma Kumakura, leader of the Kumakura yakuza gang. Though Date finds a number of odd connections and occurrences, such as Renju falling out of contact, a call from a mysterious prisoner only known as #89, who claims to know the identity of the killer, and a large number of incidents among the Sagans, the Kumakuras, and others, all of which seem to date back to 6 years ago, he finds little in the way of actual evidence. Left with no other recourse, Date begins to Psync with both suspects and witnesses in the hopes of preventing the killer from striking again.

While it’s a fairly standard plot on the surface, it’s very well done nonetheless. The various mysteries and plotlines are all compelling, and are all given a good amount of focus. Adding to this is the use of a route system, similar to Zero Escape, complete with a flowchart allowing you to easily go to any point in the story. Completing certain Somniums in different ways alters the course of Date’s investigation, causing certain plotlines and characters to gain or lose relevance depending on the route. While every route needs to be completed, each one containing their own reveals and clues, there’s only 5 in total, making keeping track of the distinctive events in each fairly simple. The pacing is also well done, taking its time and allowing you to get used to the characters, while throwing just enough new hints throughout to keep it interesting.

Speaking of the characters, the cast is easily my favorite part of the game. The characters are very, odd and colorful, pretty much to be expected from Uchikoshi. Date himself is a pretty entertaining protagonist, with a tendency for perversion, making bad puns, and coming up with very odd and often ineffectual ideas for progressing in Somnium, going against his serious demeanor and appearance. The supporting cast doesn’t slack either. From the rational, yet sassy Aiba, who turns much sillier within Somnium as well, to the peppy and friendly Iris, to the playful Boss, whose office is an absolute mess decorated with just about any nonsense you could imagine, to my favorite of the cast, Mizuki, the mature, sarcastic, and inexplicably strong kid who spends a good deal of her time arguing with the rather distant Date. It’s hard to dislike most of the characters, with even the most minor of them being good for a laugh or two.

That’s not to say they’re just goofy, though. Almost everyone carries some sort of baggage or secret with that adds a good deal of depth to them, and the various routes give them a lot of development. The game can be pretty damn emotional at points, and the routes focusing more on the characters than the story are the biggest source of them, especially Mizuki’s route. The lighter tone the game takes most of the time actually helps this. Most of the time, interacting with random objects trigger dumb jokes and commentary from Date and the others, and the relaxed pacing and atmosphere, at least earlier on, make it easier to get gradually attached to the cast. Once things do become more serious, the game starts cutting down the jokes, and stops them outright for the most serious of scenarios, meaning it rarely actually becomes jarring. It’s not often a game can juggle a tone as well as this one.

Overall, the writing of the game is superb, and while it’s quite different in tone and setting, it still has enough of the feel of Zero Escape to feel familiar to those who played it.

Gameplay: While I call AI: The Somnium Files a visual novel just for the sake of simplicity, it definitely more has the feel of an adventure game. There’s two types of gameplay segments, investigations and Somniums. During investigations, Date travels to various locations, talking with various characters or investigating important object. Your only control here is controlling Date’s view, and selecting different dialogue options or objects to investigate. Date often has to investigate several locations during a segment, and while you often have to visit them all, you’re given the freedom of picking where to go in whatever order you choose most of the time, giving just enough nonlinearity to not feel like a chore.

The real meat of the gameplay takes place during the Somnium sections, which are comparable to the escape rooms in Zero Escape. Within Somnium, Date and Aiba must break the various mental locks the information they are seeking are hidden behind, which involves interacting with various objects according to the logic of each Somnium. Basically, they’re purely logic puzzles, and it’s actually quite fun figuring out how everything is supposed to work.

Of course, not everything can be that easy. Every Somnium has a hard time limit of 6 minutes. Going over it causes Date’s consciousness to be absorbed into the subject’s, causing a game over. All interactions also cost time, and many incorrect decisions can drain your time pretty significantly. Thankfully, the game has many mitigating factors that keep this from just being stressful. Firstly, time only drains when you’re making choices, or actually moving around. Standing still causes only milliseconds to pass, allowing you to get a clear look around without wasting time. Additionally, all objects you can interact with have a purple outline surrounding them, and are given name tags as well, meaning you don’t have to just wander around, running up to every object in the hopes this one is usable. Not every interactable object actually has a purpose, however, with some only existing to waste your time, so you’re not completely in the clear. The progress meter on the left also gives hints, if sometimes vague ones, as to what you have to do to progress, so you’re not just fumbling in the dark in that regard, either.

Another important feature at the TIMIEs, objects you gain when you interact with objects. These cut the time actions take to perform by varying amounts, or make it take a fixed amount of time. Good use of TIMIEs can save you a lot of time, and a lot of later Sominums enforce it, making it rather strategic. Sometimes, just rushing to the correct solution burns way too much time on its own. You may have to do something you know is wrong, but takes little time and grants a good TIMIE, to be able to save more time on a much costlier action. This aspect isn’t entirely simple either, however. Not all actions display what kind of TIMIE you’ll get, making it a gamble at times, and some, including mandatory actions, give negative TIMIEs, that actually increase the amount of time an action will take, and force you to use them the action after you get them, often forcing you to do something incorrect, but with low time cost, just so you won’t game over.

Each Somnium also has two conditions that unlock album entries, which provide pictures and concept art. The first is for clearing a Somnium with more than 1 second left, as you’re actually allowed to go over the time limit if the final correct action is what pushes you over. The second is for finding special eye shaped items within the Somniums, which are often hidden out of the way. Finally, even if you’re struggling with certain sections, you’re granted 3 retries per Somnium, which allow you to return to a previous part of the section, with all the time you had left at that time, allowing you to optimize and save even more time, though it costs more retries the further back you go. Finally, even if you can’t win, you can simply restart the Somnium section with no penalty, and are even allowed to do so at any time in the menu. Overall, the Somnium sections are actually a lot of fun. Between the interesting logic and strategicness of it, not to mention some of the funniest dialogue in the game between Date and Aiba, they’re some of the most enjoyable parts of the game.

Finally, the game features a few “action segments” during the investigation segments, where Date will be faced with an actual physical threat. Aiba formulates plans to deal with the situation, and you just need to handle each step by pressing a button prompt, like a QTE, or hovering the cursor over a certain area for a long enough time. It’s not exactly difficult, but they serve their purpose. There’s also a few interrogations segments, where you must present relevant evidence to someone in order to prove a point. You can just randomly pick until you get the right one with no in game penalty, but there are achievements for clearing these sections and the action sections with no mistakes.

Graphics: AI: The Sominum Files is a surprisingly pretty game. It has a similar art style to Zero Time Dilemma, which, to put it bluntly, was downright awful in the visuals department, with unemotive character models and terrible animations that killed almost all of its attempts at being unsettling. While a few of the animations in this game can still look janky, it is on a whole much. much improved. The characters are much more expressive, helped by the designs by Yusuke Kozaki, best known for games like No More Heroes and Fire Emblem Awakening, fitting the style much better, while still being distinctive in their own right. The locations have a lot of detail to them, and the lighting is very well done. The highlight of the visuals, though, are the Somniums, which manage to give existing locations very distinctive, well, dream like qualities to them, such as shifting colors or heavy lighting, and are always a joy to explore.

Sound: AI features a downright fantastic soundtrack by Keisuke Ito. It manages to capture a similar feel to Zero Escape’s music at points, despite being a different composer, but still manages to stand out. Every song manages to fit the situation perfectly, while also being very catchy on their own, especially the Somnium themes. The music, combined with the visuals, give the game a very strong atmosphere. Whatever mood the game is attempting to set, nostalgic, tense, peaceful, or unsettling, it nails it very, very well, and had me immersed very easily.

The game also features some fantastic English voice acting. Greg Chun as Date and Erika Harlacher as Aiba are the main stars of the show, with their performances capturing their characters perfectly, but the rest of the cast is just as good. Jackie Lastra as Iris, Zach Aguilar as Ota, Corina Boettger as Mizuki, Allegra Clark as Boss, Kaiji Tang as Moma, pretty much everyone does a great job.

Conclusion: Overall, AI: The Somnium Files is something I highly recommend to most people, even those who haven’t touched another Uchikoshi game. It’s a fascinating, emotional, and satisfying experience that successfully manages to devote attention to just about everything it brings up, and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Honestly, I enjoyed it even more than any Zero Escape game, and considered I still look on those very fondly, that’s an achievement. With that, this review finally comes to a close. I shall likely be checking out the games Uchikoshi worked on before even Zero Escape: Never 7, Ever 17, and Remember 11. Till next time. -Scout

[quakerjoe]

You do realize that one of two people will be the President of the United States on January 20, 2021–yes? Either the incumbent or the Democratic nominee will hold the office, and that’s a legacy as old as Jefferson and Hamilton. If you can not stop trashing both aspirants to the office may I suggest that you pursue the acquisition of a passport as well as some means of leaving the country? Your laments are so doleful as to finally become comedy.

You know what’s really funny? Everything about YOU. I’ll tell you why, since you bothered to ask. I at least owe you that much since you didn’t ask anon.

I get this sort of banter every now and again so I thought I’d display it and answer the question at hand.

First off, this “#Murica, love it or leave it!” horseshit has two facets to it in response.

ONE: “Go fuck yourself. If you’re so willing to lie down and take it in the ass for one of the parties constantly screwing you, you’re pretty useless. Why don’t YOU leave since you’ve clearly given up the fight? “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” comes at a price, sometimes a high one, and you have to FIGHT for it. If you’re willing to just bend over and take an elbow deep fist in your ass from the Democrats so it can jerk off the GOP while its dick is constantly forced down your throat, then perhaps YOU are the one who needs to pack up and fuck off to Saudi Arabia or North Korea. Maybe Russia or China are more your speed.

 TWO: Are YOU going to pay my way if I decide to give up on America and abandon my home and the nation that I love? I may not love your precious politicians, but I’m still proud to be an American. I served, am a vet, but THIS is not the nation I signed up to defend. This era of US history is the Big Sellout, and you, dumbass, are a part of that.

 You people had chances and opportunities to make this a better place than when you found it, but over the five decades I’ve been alive all I’ve seen is people fighting to get in line to buy the government snake oil like it’s a Cabbage Patch Kid or the new iPhone. It’s pathetic how much the US lacks vision or has any real pride or dignity worth talking about. We’re not #1 at fuck-all anything worth bragging about unless it’s how bad the education system has gotten or that we’re the TOP nation in the world for incarcerated citizens per capita and it’s mostly geared towards men who happen to have a dark complexion.

 The rich and powerful exist here because WE ALLOW it. People  like you, you defunct Fox “News” fan, are either a cheering fan for the status quo of yesteryear with Biden who wants to turn back the calendar to a time that BROUGHT US TRUMP in the first place OR you’re a trump fan who has NO IDEA… well, no ideas or thoughts about anything. Trump’s shown us who we really as a nation apparently- deluded, self-centered, selfish assholes, and the WORLD can see it. Not all of us, granted, but as a generalization, we truly suck. Such a waste of enormous potential, especially given all the resources we’ve had over the years.

 As a result, we’re being overwhelmed by a virus that’s killing us by the thousands and perhaps millions some day. But, since we no longer believe in or do science anymore, nothing much is coming to save us. If/When the time comes that its run its course and should we find a vaccine, there are still anti-vaxxers who’d rather die than take a cure. Then there are the religious zealots who think Jesus will protect them. You know; the ones who are dropping like flies these days? Those assholes; the hypocrites who think they’re part of ‘the faithful’ who, if you believe in that sort of thing, do Satan’s bidding more than Jesus’.

 If you’re not boiling mad at the GOP for literally doing everything they can to go out of their way to keep the US a hateful, racist, peddler of death nation bent on keeping its citizens poor and undereducated, you’re not a part of the solution. If your fucked-up solution is to have those not happy with the butt-hurt they peddle move to another country, it shows you’ve got no pride or respect for your country or yourself. You’re weak, ignorant, selfish and stupid all rolled into a big burrito of go fuck yourself.

If you’re not making a fist so tight that your nails are digging into your palms when you hear that the Democrats are literally forcing us to choose one racist sexual predator that can’t hold a thought or form sentences as the “champion” to replace the incumbent one, you’re DEFINITELY not a part of the solution. Also, you’re an idiot, an asshole, and totally a Biden Bro.

 What will it take for YOU to open your window and shout out “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” eh? You people rolling over for Biden are pathetic weaklings who sold out women and #MeToo and sold your souls to #MeTooExceptBiden, allowing the bar to be set to the same, low, cesspool standard that the GOP glorifies in. You sold out party, country, woman, minorities, and everything that was once even remotely good about the party that allegedly represented the working class so that the party leaders can keep their cash flow from Big Pharma, the Insurance lobby, Big Oil and the Military Industrial Complex. You’ve turned the Democratic party into yesterdays feckless, weak and worthless GOP while the current GOP drags the country even FURTHER to the fucking right. You’re aiding and abetting the foulest elements of the nation’s existence.

Your attitude has cost us our place on the world stage and most of our allies while we crawl under the covers with bedfellows we once considered enemies because they treat their people like shit. Now WE are one of those shithole countries you people used to rant about… AND YOU’RE PROUD OF IT and unwilling to stand up and fix it. Instead, you prefer those who are willing to do your job FOR you to just move elsewhere. Loser. Listen, if you’re too much of a wuss to stand up to the establishment that’s using your tax dollars to bail out the rich while pissing table scraps down upon you, that’s on you. You’re too stupid to know better. I get it. But until YOU get off YOUR ASS and hold your government accountable, you’ve got no room to criticize those who ARE doing it.

We’re in the middle of a pandemic and the ONE GUY who has been fighting for his decades-long career for UNIVERSAL health care was someone YOU opted out. American apparently hasn’t suffered enough to grow a pair of whatever motivates it to stand up to the wealth inequality. The US idolizes the rich and instead of fighting for a chance to live at least a DECENT life without having to worry about going tits-up and pear-shape because of hospital bills or job losses, they’d rather just piss away their fortunes and futures so that people with more money than they can spend in a lifetime of ten could possibly spend, all while THEY pay little to ZERO taxes, leaving YOU stuck with the bill. That’s on YOU if you’re willing to bend over and just take it in the ass and take it dry; no kiss, no lube, not so much as a feel-around. That’s YOU.

You, sir, are the problem. Clearly, with people like you, the US is simply BEGGING for 4 more years of trumplefuckery. Perhaps you even deserve it. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but who am I? I’m just one of the few willing to call anyone out on their bullshit, from the GOP overall to Pelosi’s feckless approach, to Schumer’s “kid who gets beaten on the schoolyard daily” approach to trying to appear useful. I’ll shit on Liz Warren for not backing a Progressive approach and getting behind Sanders EARLY; screwing her friend and ally AGAIN like in 2016. I’ll call out all the other “candidates” who say one thing while their track records show that they’re pretty full of shit. I’ll DEMAND that we have a party that’s transparent and willing to fight to drag us BACK to the Left instead of the “oh, let’s settle for plutocracy and oligarchy because it’s better than fascism” route. Fuck that, fuck them, and of course fuck you too. Thought I forgot about you? Oh, this is all about you, you spineless goon.

 So let me know if you and your ilk are willing to throw your precious few dollars into a GO FUND ME to finance my move to another country. This includes my family, all our belongings, and of course a home once we get there. Naturally, you’ll be finding us ALL gainful employment there and the costs for the passports, visas, and whatnot and you’ll of course be lining us ALL up with jobs. I’ve got a big family, so it’s going to be pretty goddamn expensive. Shit, just ME moving is going to cost more than you’d be willing to cough up.

 In the mean time, I’m going to remain here, giving the finger to the GOP, the Establishment/Corporate owned Democrats, and people like you. Seriously, you’re an idiot.

@ imall4frogs He’s talking about people like YOU.