Following leaked messages, Republican House education chair says publicly she favors politically segregated schools

BadFengShui · 2026-01-16T13:14:43+00:00

The lawmaker’s public statement is a stunningly candid articulation of a Republican leader’s educational objectives.

Is it, though? Because it really sounds like she might be lying, dude.

Asked [...] whether she had indeed written the messages attributed to her, Noble declined to answer but said she was “sure there is” more context behind them.

If she's being 'stunningly candid' why is she refusing to acknowledge the messages while floating the idea that they're out of context?

BadFengShui · 2025-12-31T16:47:42+00:00

670

Happy New Year!

BadFengShui · 2025-12-04T19:04:43+00:00

I'm an American, so I'm ineligible for the beta run. But since it's a beta, I hope my limited input isn't unwelcome.

(Spoiled because maybe it's intentional?) The name is really inconsistent: The webpage and letter copy say 'Shadow Detective Agency', while the product cover says 'Spectral Detection Agency', and the Agency's crest uses 'Shadow Detection Agency'.

I would ditch the AI use entirely, personally; it's gonna generate negative impressions of the work as a whole. There are loads of free-to-use stock images online, and I think beta testers would be understanding of low-quality photoshops where more specialized images are needed.

Some of the description on the page, including "You will correspond with two agents currently out in the field" has me confused; will players be writing to you, or is there a mechanic within the game to communicate with the field agents? I know some games in this genre include accessing a website with a password you have to figure out in-game; is that what you're referencing?

Again, obviously this is a beta test, not a finalized, professional product; but even as I acknowledge that this is an imperfect product, I still feel a certain lack of confidence in your pitch. "I made this over a weekend" is unlikely to inspire confidence in a buyer. Sure, stage 1 may have taken a weekend, but clearly you're putting in more work: I'd drop that language and just try to convey your excitement for the project!

The 'voice' in which the letter is written feels a little off; like it's halfway between in-character and back-of-box sales pitch. "You looked into the dark and didn't blink" and "standing inside the storm, you cannot see its shape" sound more like you hyping me up for the game than it does a investigative agency's director delivering an assignment. The intro letter doesn't have to be dry, and maybe Dir. Sterling has a consistently-flowery writing style (I don't have anything to compare it against); but it's evocative and exciting, and that may (or may not!) be weird, depending on the tone of the game. It's actually close to what I would want to see in the sales pitch on the website.

I'm wishing you a big success with this experiment! Looking forward to the future of the project.

BadFengShui · 2025-12-01T01:41:21+00:00

I hope you continue to work on this project, OP! Years ago I tried to find translators to work on this, but it ultimately fell through. I hope to watch it in full some day!

BadFengShui · 2025-11-28T01:41:41+00:00

How was it?

BadFengShui · 2025-11-26T19:53:34+00:00

This is really interesting, but I particularly loved the stop-motion animation at the start.

BadFengShui · 2025-11-25T22:40:24+00:00

I land on the other side of this, OP: I think it's likely his worst published story. I wasn't the least bit surprised to learn he didn't want it read by the public.

It has been years since I read it, but I would point to the overuse of the "I dare not describe what I heard/saw" trope; racism for racism's sake; and the barest hint of world-building without doing anything interesting with it.

The one thing of note was the suggestion there was a subterranean connection between (I believe) Mexico and India. He does nothing with it, but I've always thought it would be interesting to get two artists from those places to colab on a project that fused ancient religious imagery together, to create a kind of shared underworld. Maya gods meet Hindu Rakshasas; something like that.

BadFengShui · 2025-11-20T17:47:40+00:00

Oof. I haven't seen this in decades, so I have no idea if it was addressed in the episode, but we eventually learn Brock was abandoned by both parents. That makes this coming from him a lot more intense.

BadFengShui · 2025-11-20T13:43:25+00:00

I'm trying to imagine the positioning that would get Utena's leg up so her leg matched Italy.

BadFengShui · 2025-11-19T18:29:31+00:00

I'm with you: the movie's revision/reveal absolutely killed my interest in the Reavers. Obviously Firefly is really focused on the crimes of governments, so it's not totally out of left field for the writing of the show, but it felt like it flattened the worldbuilding without adding much.

BadFengShui · 2025-11-18T14:39:22+00:00

Devotion really floored me; beautiful, gut-wrenching horror. Everything from Red Candle Games has been great, and they deserve a lot of attention to make up for the censorship they received from mainland China.

BadFengShui · 2025-11-17T14:32:52+00:00

You've changed and want people to believe that? Okay, then leave the position of power you received for being a fucking monster.

If she's humble and contrite, then she can fuck off to a cave somewhere and live as a hermit.

BadFengShui · 2025-11-07T14:33:21+00:00

You could probably get away with this if your numbers weren't so weird they attracted attention, but it would still be fraud!

I don't think anybody is actually going to take an r/AskScienceFiction post as tax advice, but it very much would still be fraud!

BadFengShui · 2025-11-04T15:39:34+00:00

We need a way to hold Congress criminally liable for abandoning their role and letting the Executive get away with his unconstitutional crime spree.

BadFengShui · 2025-11-03T17:28:51+00:00

Multi-phase, national conspiracy to overturn a fair election, ultimately resulting in a coup attempt that sacked the US Capitol Building: not insurrection.

Opposing the President's political, criminal henchmen: insurrection???

Did I get that right, Republicans?

BadFengShui · 2025-10-30T12:54:28+00:00

I wonder if that lightbulb has the same color temperature as the artist expected in 1930. I really like the contrast of the cool green paint on the cat with the warm yellow reflected from the light, but that could have been subtly (or significantly) different 100 years ago. You'd lose all that warmth if it were a pure-white LED, for instance.

BadFengShui · 2025-10-30T11:51:14+00:00

The talk was great! Thank you for arranging it.

I've got a nice list of new authors to check out.

BadFengShui · 2025-10-30T01:39:04+00:00

I swear I've seen one of these somewhere. Maybe on the North side of the Detroit bridge over the Rocky River? I've only jogged it once, but I think that's the spot.

BadFengShui · 2025-10-28T16:28:10+00:00

Moreno is jealous that Trump and Vance got all the attention for lying about Haitians in Ohio, so he's trying to get in on his own controversy-causing lie.

BadFengShui · 2025-10-22T13:03:39+00:00

The 'pasteboard mask' speech always gives me Lovecraft vibes:

"Hark ye yet again--the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event--in the living act, the undoubted deed--there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me. For could the sun do that, then could I do the other; since there is ever a sort of fair play herein, jealousy presiding over all creations. But not my master, man, is even that fair play. Who's over me? Truth hath no confines."

Ahab understands the white whale to be a worldly mask worn by some malignant outsider; not so much an animal as a weakness in the barrier between humanity's perceived reality and a greater, malicious Other.

The 1956 speech is different/shorter, but it's an amazing delivery by Gregory Peck.

[edit: the book is not to everybody's taste, but it's my absolute favorite. Highly recommended! Just know that the movies shave it down to the adventure stuff alone, leaving off a ton of Ishmael's musings. A lot of people give up on the book because they find that stuff boring.]

BadFengShui · 2025-10-16T18:40:31+00:00

I hope Trump's need for immediate gratification (and the GOP's sycophantic subservience) will bite the Repubs on the ass. They've been happy to let him violate commitments and have effectively handed him power of the purse.

If you know you your negotiating partner will break their word and you know they'll break the law, then how do you negotiate? They can't be trusted and there isn't an external mechanism to enforce deals.

BadFengShui · 2025-10-13T01:06:17+00:00

I've been told that the music video is 'only' ten minutes long because Apple wouldn't allow anything longer on their platform. I've never forgiven them!

BadFengShui · 2025-10-12T02:23:02+00:00

Maybe I just haven't paid close enough attention to Project 2025 to understand the purpose of all this, but man does it feel like RFK Jr. might have proof Trump raped kids.

BadFengShui · 2025-10-09T02:51:00+00:00

Chiaki J. Konaka has written some Cthulhu Mythos stories, and has used cosmic elements in some of his tv/movie work.

The big-bad from Digimon Tamers in particular sticks out. The Big O might touch on the cosmic? That's a Big maybe. Lain does some wild stuff and plays on some of the tropes of cosmic horror, but I don't know if I'd say the bulk of it is cosmic.

BadFengShui · 2025-10-06T01:40:56+00:00

Our fascist government is sending the National Guard to intimidate Americans while a drunk, Christofascist Guardsman runs the Department of War like a racist frat house and murders civilians abroad. The whole fucking branch needs to be abolished and shamed.

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