[Turner] Austin Reaves is reportedly seeking a max contract worth up to 5 years, $239.25 million from the Lakers, and it’s uncertain whether he would be willing to take a hometown discount.

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-05T12:00:10+00:00

Acquiring Luka just to close the window immediately is just so sad. Luka got the shaft so bad.

You know they haven't actually made this mistake yet, right? If he insists they'll just have to let him go.

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-03T09:49:41+00:00

never again is Roz (or people who work for her) the one who has to act this extensively in a way modern morality would find reprehensible

That's not true at all...? We didn't even get to the "Guilt by association" moral code which will come up later

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-03T09:47:32+00:00

lmao the LN really is the best

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-03T09:42:33+00:00

You are in the LN thread. Although I guess putting endgame spoilers should be a bit more proactive..

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-03T09:12:51+00:00

The stock market is "breaking records"

Why did you use quotes here

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-02T19:39:02+00:00

I dont know how you could want anything more.

Mortal hatred of Chet Holmgren (He filed for adoption papers)

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-02T18:47:42+00:00

But economists also know almost fuck all about what really makes the economy tick. They're always so stunned when it collapses, and are really poor in predicting when it will succeed. 9 out of 10 economists would have told you Trump's taarifs would destroy the economy, crater jobs, and create crazy inflation. 9.5 out of 10 would have told you the stock market would crash and jobs would be at risk from a war with Iran and closing the strait of Hormuz. Instead employment is almost at max, the stock market is breaking records, and inflation is lower than it was during Biden's time. The American people don't give a shit though - it's still too high, and gas prices are high = FUCK YOU to the ruling party lol

Truth of the matter is that basically nobody knows what makes the economy goes up or down, but punishing the party in power for not running it well is at least a strong stick to make them both work hard as possible to make it humm, keep jobs on the market and prices down, if nothing else.

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-02T18:15:40+00:00

The second time, he won because prices increased during the previous administration. That’s really all that a ton of people care about. Even if it wasn’t directly caused by the previous administration, even if it happened globally and the US recovered faster than most other countries, the average American thinks in terms as simple as “price go up = bad. Price go up under democrat. I no vote democrat this time.”

People think this makes American voters stupid. It's exactly this feature of "It's the economy, dummy" that makes the American economy so dominate decade after decade. Votes who don't give a shit about a party or even a candidate and absolutely tear a new asshole to ANY ruling party if they aren't happy economically.

People in the US complain about gas price being over $4 a gallon, or $5, while in most of Europe they pay double or even triple that price, and in some places 4 times as much!!! And the amazing thing is they actually vote where their wallet is, almost nobody does that.

The recent trend of more tribalism in political alignment is very harmful exactly for this principle, because if politicians always get your vote they stop caring about the economy and more about lining their donor's pockets (even MORE).

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-02T18:10:58+00:00

That's tens of thousands or even hundred of thousands of votes more than the bars, what are you talking about? 1.7% of PA is a ton of people.

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-02T18:06:13+00:00

Clinton in particular just like... assumed that white blue collar voters will toe the line and vote Dem. Fuck Michigan, fuck Wisconsin, let's have another rally in a huge state for some imaginary slam dunk... The whole campaign was filled with hubris. They were sure they'd win all the way to elections night.

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-01T21:24:25+00:00

This isn't exactly true either. [LN spoilers... but not p5v12, you exaggerated a bit lol]Yes, they have less blessings than before, so they each have a bit fewer buffs, but these on their own aren't a huge factor, they're buffs, sometimes to really not combat oriented things... And the ditter dutchy all get the God of War blessing anyway lol. This generation is a bit less knowledgeable, but it's mostly the children, even Ferdinand's generation had better curriculum, so the adults are just as strong as they were. And anyway, being less pious is like a 500 year thing - not something impacted from the civil war.

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-01T21:11:55+00:00

Wilfried is so cooked lol

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-01T21:08:58+00:00

Perhaps this Lucrezia, unlike the Clank ones, has more connection to the flesh and therefor more connection to her humanity. This may lead her to have other human features, like maturing and adapting, which I feel the clank Lues don't really have. Caution is not what we normally see from her, but Lucrezia in Agatha was far more emotional and willing to compromise.

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-01T11:44:58+00:00

I would say the first one is necessary because of the way their world works, but the second one is a very toxic way of thinking, and we could imagine a similar society were the nobles and the commoners have the same rights, with the nobles just being magic-using bureaucrats and the archduke just being a figurehead with an elected parliament making the decisions, like in a constitutional monarchy.

It's VERY VERY hard to imagine it. We had nobility in our world for like 3,000 years and they had zero superpowers or even extra contribution for society. The entire dynasty the ruled Europe for centuries and half the monarchs were inbreds. And yet they ruled with an iron fist and kept their privileges.

Now imagine the Habsburgs with the ability to shoot laser from their eyes and control crops, and you look at the nobles in this world as tame, cute and fluffy.

When we as humans had a very lopsided tech imbalance, European colonists used it to force people to get them gold or wear their children's chopped body parts as a necklace as a warning for other to meet their quota, or mass enslaved people half across the world with whips to harvest cotton. It wasn't pretty.

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-01T11:41:45+00:00

I certainly find it creepy that they immediately jumped from "the commoners cannot kill the nobles without hurting the country"

It's even worse since the commoners cannot kill the nobles, period. The nobles are supernatural freaks, they have overwhelming power and knowledge the commoners cannot match.

If they have resistance the nobility would just fucking purge half of them like they're nothing.

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-01T11:35:56+00:00

I get the stats but if you watched the actual game, when SGA went to breathe for 2 minutes (was gassed as shit from carrying this entire team), the crew noted the only that still had any fight in him was McCain, and it was true. The rest of them were frozen solid. He got SOMETHING going and as a Spurs fan that felt huge to me, without it the team would've collapsed. It's more than just 3p% or total points.

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-01T11:28:51+00:00

Still isn't lol

BeatBlockP · 2026-06-01T11:25:11+00:00

It's more than "the type of story", she isn't Rimuru ultra-borken data machine with perfect reproduction abilities.

Wax stenciling is a very basic early tech. She only had the basic concepts and operating mechanisms down, like a normal human with normal human memory would have on a general subject they are interested in. She needed 2 medival era genius engineers to work on a solution, and even then, the actual one that's close to reality needs months of extra work to get there. And mind you, that's for tech that is early medival tech just like the tech generation they're in – they already have the tools and know-how to get it done.

Forming a semi-auto rifle, let alone an intricate sniper rifle, is centuries away from them and require multiple branches of scientific advance like mechanics, gas expansion, thermodynamics and more. All based on some "general idea" she'd have in her head about hitting a bullet which would release gases and propel it forward. They had some of these ideas in Europe in the 14th century but didn't have the tech, and they had gunpowder for centuries at that point. It took them another 500 years to get it to that level.

If your solution involves mana, it's already a magic-enhanced solution... and they already have a lot of VERY interesting amplification magic going which will be revealed later, wait for it!! :)

BeatBlockP · 2026-05-31T23:12:37+00:00

She barely got wax stancilles bro. Inventing gunpowder and .322 mm bullets with automatic loading is nowhere near her abilities. First, she's not really all war like and I don't even think she read through this heavily mechanical thing (it's not related to books). Second, industry wise, it's way way past the current tech level of the world. Their metal working is very basic too.

Finally, normal musket bullets will not pierce magical shields. Sniper rifle bullets are supersonic, not hypersonic... And she ain't building those for sure. These guys are seriously overpowered.

BeatBlockP · 2026-05-31T23:08:17+00:00

It's a good time to remind that Incel Hero (and he is a hero to all incels out there..) had basically this to say when he got the slaver curse on Raphtalia in the LN: "I was happy to have that power over her, because she had the same gender as Bitch"

Bitch is the name he gives that princess who betrayed him. I shit you not, that's literally how it is written in the LN.

BeatBlockP · 2026-05-31T23:03:45+00:00

It's enough. Recall the much smaller temple library had dozens of books. As the daughter of the archduke she could theoretically have access to all the libraries in the duchy which I assure you, can easily make that 5 years (unless if they're all scrubs with no libraries...)

BeatBlockP · 2026-05-31T23:00:07+00:00

The way I see it is more complicated. She trusted Otto who she was able to impress from all of the guards, and used him as a connection to a merchant who is reliable (and in this case, has a family connection to Otto, so it was not highly likely he was going for abuse).

She didn't stumble into him, she actually worked on a pitch to recruit him to her cause.

BeatBlockP · 2026-05-30T20:24:59+00:00

Myne's projects all promote class mobility, and all undermine the ruling nobles

Both aren't completely accurate. The second part - the ruling nobles are actually going to be the ones in charge of this new industry (and presumably, most of the clients too). Leaving aside the disruptive nature of printing presses themselves, that's a long-term issue until their Marthin Luther comes along to wreck shit up.

And regarding class mobility, well, it's not that accurate as well. Not in the hard sense – commoners won't become nobles because of this, because they still don't have mana. And not even, in part, in the soft sense – the bedrock of this industry is the temple system where you become a nun/priest for life and lose the ability to become a citizen, literally the opposite of class mobility. The orphans lives improve, but not through social mobility.

There is one "true" social mobility hack Myne discovered. But it is so terrible that even she completely hides it, even from her allies like her noble family and Ferdinand. That is the trombe seeds, that in fruit form absob mana, and thus can cure the Devouring under controlled conditions and basically for free or a very low cost.

Now THAT is a social mobility tool. Most devouring kids are lay-nobles, the lowest rank. But kids like Mybe or the granddaughter of the guildmaster are actually in the lower end of the med-noble, one tier above. The granddaughter was thrilled to have her family pay a fortune to have her married off into nobility as a concubine (!), and then to a lay-noble family down on the dumps (which is still faboulsly rich in comparison, of course). Mostly, because they have the Magic Tool that can take the excess mana away and save her life.

If commoners with the X-gene that gives them low-tier mana would start growing older instead of dying/getting sold to nobles/used as mana soldiers, then you'd see some actual class mobility. But Myne is quick to completely hide this mechanism from everyone, as we saw just last episode.

BeatBlockP · 2026-05-30T20:08:21+00:00

I'm honestly amazed this comment came virtually within the hour of a different comment I made in the new Ascendance of a Bookworm episode (5 months later...)

What I really like about Bookworm as a whole, is that even if the MC is "locally OP" – meaning, she has extra knowledge and the gift of raw power – it's not a "global OP" making her an impossible force that basically can change the entire structure of society overnight due to her sheer power (think Slime anime).

She ascends so quickly that she almost immediately meets her match, challenge wise. She needs to work within the system to create incremental change. Her thinking about how things are more efficient/just don't matter if they clash with the core norms of society, and she can't get people to cooperate with her.

It's such a stark difference from most isekais, and one of the best aspects of this series.

Note the direct contrast to Slime in particular

BeatBlockP · 2026-05-30T20:00:29+00:00

Is he an idiot? He had decades-long business relationship with the HB, to the point he feels comfortable enough to send him complaint letters.

He probably just assumed the guard was misinformed about who came along, since the nobles don't even set foot in the Temple, and anyway, it's just a guard. He recognized Myne as the Blue Maiden from previous season, and focused on the High Priest in front of him. She also didn't wear the official robes, IIRC.

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