thundrpilot

[thundrpilot]

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Star Wars planets. Part 1

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not to sound like a weak, morally impure centrist over here, but i think online leftist communities need to be a little more accepting of the concept that most people are just. not that well informed. we live in a society that provides access to an overwhelming amount of information and yet which discourages actually diving into much beyond the surface level. Most of the people you meet out in the world are just not gonna know much about a lot of what you care about, but that's not the same as being against those things, or being unwilling to learn, or being unnamenable to those ideas. Our modern society is an unending cascade of information and misinformation and disinformation and filtering through that shit enough to actually have a solid grasp of a subject, let alone a nuanced antiestablishment political take, is a skill that takes time and effort to develop, time and effort that is in very short supply. It really bothers me when I see leftists talk about how capitalism keeps us down by taking up all our time and energy and making recovery, both physical and emotional, cost what little we can afford, and then turn around and get upset that people are politically uninformed. On some level, you gotta meet some people where they are, and have a little faith in them to be open to new ideas and information. Ignorance is not inherently intentional, and it's not the same as antipathy.

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not to be a number nerd on main but 2025 (45^2) will be the only square year most of us ever experience. the last one was 1936 and the next one will be 2116

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Republicans let First Felon destroy America rather than pushback on Parkinson's research.

That is the level of abusive retaliation from a malignant narcissist we are dealing with.

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If Mars doesn't have tectonic plates then why does it have mountains?

because Mars USED to have tectonic plates :)

volcanic activity was even once quite common on the red planet! but the plates have since ground to a halt, the volcanos are long extinct, and the magma fields lie under drifting dunes of red dust and frozen carbon dioxide.

and we don't really have any idea why! which is honestly just as frightening as the fact that an entire planet can just go silent like that, I think.

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in light of Trump's inauguration speech declaring multiple national emergencies that require him to take god-knows-what executive actions immediately, I'd like to remember this chapter of "On Tyranny" by Timothy Snyder:

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elon musk did a nazi salute twice at the inauguration, and republicans are defending him.

trump revoked executive order 11246, which prohibited discrimination.

trump put all dei employees on leave to be fired.

trump banned all lgbtq+ flags from being hung in government buildings.

trump rolled back biden’s executive order to lower prescription drug costs for people using medicare and medicaid.

trump rescinded the $35 cap on insulin, and prices are expected to rise to $1500 a month.

trump ordered the national institutes of health to cancel their review panels on cancer research.

trump ended the guidelines to prevent ai misuse. the guidelines prevent many things, but notably it prevents production of ai child pornography.

when sean hannity asked trump about the economy, he said “i don’t care”, after campaigning with the economy as his main talking point.

trump has withdrawn the us from the world health organization.

trump is ordering health agencies to stop reporting on bird flu and halt publications of scientific reports.

trump has pardoned over 1500 people who stormed the capitol on january 6th.

trump changed mount denali back to mount mckinley.

trump signed an executive order to rename the gulf of mexico to gulf of america.

trump shut down cbp one, an app which granted legal entry to 1 million+ immigrants.

trump is allowing ice raids at churches and elementary schools.

trump announced plans to declare a national emergency at the us-mexico border.

trump signed an executive order to expand the use of the death penalty.

trump disbanded the school safety board that works to prevent school shootings. it was comprised of survivors, educators, and gun violence prevention advocates and formed after the school shooting in parkland.

trump withdrew from the paris climate act.

trump revoked all protections for transgender troops in the us military.

trump rescinded executive orders made by biden that benefited and protected women, lgbtq+ people, black americans, hispanic americans, asian americans, native hawaiians, and pacific islanders.

trump is attempting to make it legal to refuse to hire or fire pregnant women.

multiple state legislators are drafting bills to allow the punishment for abortion to be the death penalty.

trump pardoned 23 individuals convicted under the freedom of access to clinic entrances (FACE) act for their anti-abortion activism, including oftentimes violent protests at abortion clinics.

trump signed an executive order allowing deportation of foreign students who they believe express support for hamas or hezbollah.

trump announced that the us government will from here on out only recognize male and female as sexes. intersex is not legally recognized anymore.

trump refused to swear on the bible during his inauguration. (i’ve gotten some comments about this specific point. i didn’t include it because i’m christian, because i’m not. i’m agnostic. i included it because he’s the first president in history to refuse to swear on ANYTHING, bible or not. in the bible it teaches that the only person who cannot touch the bible is the antichrist, yet that on TOP of everything else will never convince his followers that he’s unfit.)

andy ogles drafted a constitutional amendment to allow trump to be president for a third term.

georgia republican congressman mike collins called for the deportation of new jersey born mariann budde, the bishop who urged trump to “have mercy” on the lgbtq+ community and immigrants during a service at the national cathedral.

six states (arizona, idaho, iowa, kansas, mississippi, and north dakota) are planning on challenging obergefell v. hodges, which would end same-sex marriage nationwide. about a dozen more states have representatives who are also considering filing similar resolutions.

amazon revoked protections for lgbtq+ and black employees.

every single republican told us we were overreacting. trump swore he had nothing to do with project 2025 yet continues implementing details outlined in it. not a single person has the right to tell us we’re being dramatic anymore.

hope “cheaper eggs and gas” was worth it.

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DARTH MAUL In Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures

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not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe]

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The devil is a twink named luke

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HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN + the 'Obi-Ani' lightsaber spin

Hayden came up with a move when we did the second film that was like your move, like signature […] for me it always felt like your move because he was really good at it. — Ewan McGregor

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never gonna shut up about this i'm sorry

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This is gonna be quite long… and funny, hopefully. 

I was rewatching my favorite duels on the tube, this morning, and this thought occurred to me. 

Ewan McGregor is the Ginger Rogers of Star Wars. 

Yeah, I know, listen. This is our beloved Obi-Wan Kenobi, jedi master, the Master of Soresu, great lightsaber duelist, amazing fighter and all, look at him. How fast, and powerful, and lethal, yeah. I love him, right. We all do, I know. 

He was amazing from the start, so good that he’s the first jedi and padawan to kill a sith in a thousand years, and he’s the master of Soresu, so good that he gives way, against Anakin, hoping to get him so tired to talk to him out of the dark side. What a jedi, what a warrior. 

Fine. 

Then, we have Ewan McGregor, so good at it that they had to slow down the duel with amazing Ray Park because it was so fast that nobody would believe it. Look at them. 

Let’s not forget that Ray Park is an actual martial artist, and he was in his prime during this film, and they were so good and fast that the fight is perfectly believable. A choreography, but a perfect one. Two dancers in synch. 

And with Hayden? Look at them. Fast, precise, and Ewan is always walking backwards. 

the most amazing thing to me is that is Ewan actually deciding the pace, because Hayden can’t be too fast or he’ll risk to hurt Ewan, and can’t be too slow, or he’ll miss the beat. And in all this, Ewan is walking backwards, without ever looking, and without missing a beat. 

Ginger Rogers would have been so proud of Ewan. 

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If there was a sci-fi novel with a megalomaniac billionaire who was the son of an Apartheid emerald mine owner, and he was privatizing space exploration so the public no longer has a say in it...you know that would be considered bad, right? The heroes would fight to stop SpaceX.

The fact that anyone considers SpaceX as anything other than a continuation of the transfer of public sector science, that was run for the public good, into the hands of billionaires is a testament to our propaganda. Having space exploration controlled by one billionaire is bad.

Remember in the 60s when rockets launched and the credit was given to the scientists and astronauts that actually made it happen?

Now it's given to the billionaire who pillaged NASA tech and is now using it as his playground and promotion for his cars. That's bad. SpaceX is bad.

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i keep thinking all the mars rovers are the size of a medium dog but i am wrong every single time

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Anyway