One of the key mental tricks conservatives tend to pull is that they convince themselves that “I’m just trying to do the best FOR MY FAMILY”. This is a neat maneouvre, because it allows you to couch selfish acts as selfless ones: your family includes you but it also includes other people who depend on you. You can…

The one thing I’ve found Pixel phones really suck on is batteries. I have had to return four Pixel phones (well, maybe three Pixel, one Nexus) due to battery defects. Never had an issue with any of Apple’s devices. It makes me wonder if Google phones have charging logic that overfills the battery just so they can…

You can generally turn it off, though, right? It’s generally set to be on by default because it makes the TV look good in the showroom. But there’s (almost?) always a menu option to deactivate it.

I still have my 50" plasma from 2013. And, honestly, it’s still pretty good.

I wish somebody sold a totally stripped-down OLED that was essentially just a giant monitor. Ideally without speakers.

The question is whether Trump was a worse president than Bush. From a consequentialist perspective, Bush was far worse, especially if you widen the scope to look at the world outside America; Americans tend to have 99% of their attention on domestic matters, and most American liberals will therefore assert instantly…

Do you mean “snowflake”? Its modern usage comes from Palahniuk’s “Fight Club”. (Is Palahniuk regarded as an alt-right thought leader?)

Yeah, all he did was destabilize the Middle East and cause around half a million deaths. But they were only poor brown people, so it wasn’t that important. 

Biden? Doddery old chap, means well, not particularly corrupt or idiotic, not a visionary leader, but surrounds himself with a capable cabinet. Obviously a lot better than having Trump in charge, although Trump didn’t cause all that much damage directly (when compared with George W. Bush, for instance). Biggest…

I’m a social liberal, pro-choice, supporter of gay marriage, think religion and politics don’t mix, think Trump is a moron, think the state has an important role to play in business regulation, think affirmative action is defensible (although requires caution), in favour of much higher estate taxes, have never voted…

I’m a left-leaning progressive in most areas. But I have become sick and tired of the Gen Z creche. People need to stop thinking they have a right to police the opinions of others. It’s not only annoying; it’s actively dangerous. 

Sounds like Musk is musing on having various “safety levels” for using Twitter anyway,…

While Trump is a buffoon, it has been gently amusing watching Gen Y fly into a panic over the loss of Safe Spaces.

“Carpet”? What is this “carpet”?

Are you kidding me?
The top two places should be “Sea of Love” and “Body Heat”. But they aren’t even on the list.

It’s kind of hilarious how few people grasp what’s going on in this scene. I’ve seen so many people who seem to think the shots of the epaulettes and insignia are about Keefer being willing to deliver the news to a male authority figure but not to a flight attendant.

This is a complete misreading. Keefer sees the…

Rhapsody was originally intended to be a “solid single player game” but they pivoted after a year when upper management decided the market was shifting away toward GaaS. They laid off half the team at that point, in early 2018. 

At least it portrayed Superman as being a nice guy, rather than as Balding Angry Murderman.

I watched Bayona give a director’s presentation of JWFK at Skywalker Sound in Marin. It was one of the worst movies I’ve seen in the last five years, but we all applauded politely at the end. I mean, I guess the sound design was good. (Shrugs.)

Don’t be too mad about that either: it’s a commonly-used term among engineers. (Maybe too much of a nerdy in-joke for a mass audience.)

I watched Ferngully SPECIFICALLY to see how similar it was to Avatar. Verdict: not very similar at all. Some thematic overlap, and one or two scenes (the bulldozer/tree scene). Not much else. I was disappointed.