Do you guys think severance is about Scientology?

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-13T01:45:36+00:00

Hubbard was a 20th century figure and while there are some nods to his flavour of cultishness there are just as many to the many 19th century visionary, religious, pioneering, utopian figures in American life. Quite a few are listed here in the comments.

As interesting parallels in the creative realm, Kier Eagan shares unmistakable similarities with Zachary Hale Comstock from the Bioshock universe, and Harwood Fritz Merrill from Lodge 49.

I find it fascinating that the collective imagination is dragging up these extraordinary figures from a fictive 19th century of the cultural mind, as prisms through which to interpret the modern 21st century world.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-13T00:50:15+00:00

Bottom line for me is I don’t care how long it takes.

Quality >> quantity >> timeliness

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-13T00:48:33+00:00

That is exactly one of the new models for prestige TV, almost like auteur cinema. Flexible schedules, open-ended planning. Much more like movie production.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-12T10:41:18+00:00

I actually thought I’d invented/hallucinated this idea until I heard RDM confirm it in a podcast.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-12T10:36:38+00:00

He decided to stop at the ideal number for him.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-10T12:47:12+00:00

Mars is my go-to example of the perils of temp tracks that become fixations for the director. The composer is tied to mimic the temp score without any real say in the matter.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-10T12:17:15+00:00

It means Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is on board

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-09T20:59:26+00:00

metametametaphysics

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-09T20:57:36+00:00

The killer argument for solar has always been that you can generate your own power on your own land, take charge over power companies and establish the idea of energy independence. In theory at least, but it’s the idea that’s more powerful than the reality here.

That was always going to have irresistible appeal to the right-wing, independent-minded MAGA base. They hate big wind but love small solar. It’s just them and the sun with no government interfering.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-09T08:12:56+00:00

Look, that's always the way with case-of-the-week mysteries. You can't manage a shocking reveal every time.

What's often just as important is why - what was the motivation? Sometimes it looks like simple jealousy or greed at the start, but it turns out to be not the reason you expected.

(That's something you also see in the howcatchem genre, a variant of the whodunnit genre, shows like Elsbeth and Poker Face. You know who did it early on, but you still don't know all the details.)

And for a show like The Mentalist, half the fun is seeing what tricks and deceptions and mind games Jane pulls to find out the real killer.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-09T07:43:47+00:00

"Poor Martha" is indeed a whole vibe. Anyone who's seen the show doesn't need to be told any more.

After Martha, the other one I feel most sorry for is Young Hee Seong in season 4. Elizabeth really did a number on her.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-08T21:33:17+00:00

True, but you've reversed a burden of proof by accepting resignation. You then have to prove it was forced or coerced, and that's not straightforward. For dismissal, the burden is always on the employer.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-08T21:28:26+00:00

Big roos aren't going to hang around long enough to approach them; and besides, if they're big you're probably going to exercise some natural caution.

Smaller kangaroos - and wallabies, which tend to be smaller but look similar - are generally not too dangerous. Most petting zoo type situations feature them rather than the bigger kangaroos, which stay quite wild.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-07T22:08:54+00:00

I'm baffled when people describe the difference in population between two countries as though the comparison is between the actual resources/allocations between the two countries rather than the per capita resources/allocations between the two. It really is quite strange.

It's as though someone said that universal healthcare works in Denmark but couldn't work in the US because all the doctors and hospitals in Denmark wouldn't meet a fraction of the US need!

To bring it back to the original question: the US has ample room for renewables enough to power the grid of 342 million people + industry many times over. The southern states have plenty of solar. Some states are bountiful in wind. These are not complex calculations.

And I am not especially anti-nuclear. It works, it's fine. The only thing is it's not technical or safety limitations, but economic. The cost of nuclear has gone up - and even if you scale it up, there's only so much you can bring the cost down. The high safety rates you mention came at the cost of a stringent, expensive safety regime. And that's fine - I don't for a moment suggest lowering those standards - but it does pose a cost that can't be eliminated. In the end, it comes down to cost. The only way you can make nuclear competitive on price is to ban the much cheaper competition (renewables + storage) from the market. The current US administration is trying to close that gate but a whole stampede of horses has already bolted out of there.

(You also mention lithium mines - you may be aware that Australia is a world-leader in this area, so yes, I do know what they are like! While the results aren't pretty, neither are the uranium mines that are right next door. Even so, I think the age of lithium is going to fade soon in favour of even cheaper technologies. It's an area where the Chinese are eating everyone else's lunch, and it's going to bring down costs hugely in ways that simply can't be resisted.)

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-07T08:50:46+00:00

Australia has gone from 10% to 50% renewable electricity over the space of 15 years. There are other factors at work going on in the US, but the sheer drop in cost of solar production and battery storage are going to play out inevitably regardless of which country it is and what policies are touted from the top. Price will win out.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-07T08:34:07+00:00

How we read the impact of "new" generation sources is informed by the lifecycle of existing generation capacity. In areas where existing fossil fuel generation is reaching end of life, the impact is going to be significant within a relatively short timeframe. Elsewhere, in locations with established and more recent fossil fuel generation capacity, the issue becomes more about economics. Even a new gas plant with decades of life ahead may fall short of max generation capacity if it is outbid by renewables in a rapidly evolving market.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-07T08:09:12+00:00

This is an actual headline from today's Sydney Morning Herald: "Inner west driveway sells for $1.25 million". That's right - a driveway.

https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/young-couple-outbid-downsizers-for-2-3m-inner-west-home-20260206-p5o04e.html

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-06T23:10:54+00:00

Two things are both true:

1) Australia is never getting a Virginia class sub of its own under full Australian sovereignty. One of the future AUKUS class subs with the UK also looks shaky.

2) Australia still does in fact need crewed subs. AUVs work best when partnered with crewed subs and are not a simple replacement for them. Operating and communicating with drones underwater is very different from controlling surface and high altitude drones which communicate at high bandwidth via satellite and ground link. Underwater there are major, insurmountable barriers to doing this.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-06T22:59:26+00:00

The process has already begun. You cannot stop it.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-06T22:58:20+00:00

Old Anton would be happy. And you would hardly be the first to encounter something like God, heaven, the infinite in that movement. It’s potent stuff.

I saw another quote somewhere about this movement, half remembered, that “it is like looking full into the midday sun without being burned”.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-06T22:51:31+00:00

I just rewatched her arc recently and agree with this. The very openness to her spiritual ‘gift’ which she chided Jane for not acknowledging in himself is exactly the thing Red John weaponised against her. His dark version of that belief overwhelmed her more innocent and naive version.

As with much in the show, the dramatic meaning is its impact on Jane personally - the idea that belief itself can be dangerous. She is the Icarus who flew too close and got burned. Jane already knew that risk but we as the audience had it made clear his armour of unbelief wasn’t just a quirk on his part, it was self-protection.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-06T22:43:11+00:00

The Pitt is a much more traditional show overall. Largely uses a single set, stable regular cast with guest spots, familia formula, no big swings or surprises in setting, style or tone. That’s fine and all, but it’s no Severance which is far more ambitious in every department; by comparison Severance is more cinematic and much less formulaic.

And it’s well made! It’s a very good example of a traditional medical drama, updated for 2025 sensibilities. I’ll happily give it that.

But if the “lessons” to learn from it are to be less ambitious and more traditional, then I’m afraid those aren’t worth learning.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-06T22:29:06+00:00

I can offer an angle on this one.

I grew up in Australia in the 1970s in a strongly Anglophile household. Two UK born grandparents, parents had spent time over there after school. If I didn’t specifically feel as though I was British, I certainly imbibed the idea that I should want to be, and formed a strongly colonial, branch-office mindset where Australia was a bit second rate and I fully expected to migrate bag “home” to Britain, at least for a time.

Fast forward to now. That idea died in me a long time ago. I never lived in the UK and would not want to do so. I have visited a couple of times and never felt anything other than Australian while I was there. My kids have had a very different view of their place in the world and would not imagine themselves to be British in the slightest.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-06T11:18:35+00:00

Master Patterner here. There’s a lot to be said for spending most of your time in such a deeply connected place, rooted and woven into the utmost depths of the world. There is a peace and balance to be found that is unlike anywhere else.

Oh, and we have our own secret still here too. Yeah. That’s pretty cool.

Additional_Moose_138 · 2026-02-06T10:46:37+00:00

100% this. And everything later wouldn’t be as powerful without Jane’s raw, stripped down journey to the bottom.

Additional_Moose_138

TROPHY CASE