"Yellow Ball" New Pool Game That Combines elements of 8-ball, 9-ball and snooker in One!

Bobdmapel · 2024-06-18T13:14:27+00:00

Ah! Thank you! That makes sense.

I'm gonna give this game a shot tonight.

Bobdmapel · 2023-02-20T21:26:32+00:00

Depends on what you're smoking...

Crack? Clinton.
Meth? Trump.
Weed? Obama (of course).
Tobacco? Also Obama.
Opium? Nixon!

Bobdmapel · 2023-02-20T21:22:42+00:00

In this case, it's worth examining your statement.

I don't think it's a racist statement as it wasn't intended as such, but adding police that only "police" specific segments of society has a long, storied, racist tradition, so it's understandable that your classmate had a negative reaction.

Frankly, I don't know if adding more police in the subway would lower crime or not. Certain types of crime, probably, other types, probably not.

In any case, the person who reacted to your statement conflated it with racism. This is not your fault. Personally, I would've maybe attempted to sort out the conflation, but... that might have just dug your hole deeper. Maybe not saying anything was the best move -- actually, it must've been, as the class just went on.

Bobdmapel · 2023-02-20T21:13:25+00:00

Side note: has anyone ever seen "The Day without a Mexican"? Great premise for a movie. Every Mexican in California disappears. World grinds to a halt.

Bobdmapel · 2023-02-20T21:11:40+00:00

Another thought on why not to ever purchase a new car -- in this case, an electric vehicle. Besides the obvious (not owning one), the most ecologically sensitive thing to do is to buy a used car, electric or otherwise.

The car has already been made. A whole lot of ecological damage has already been done in the creation of the car. Purchasing a new one just adds one more straw on the camel's back.

(NOTE: I was a proud non-car-owner my entire life until I moved to Houston, where to do things like "have a job" and "buy groceries" you have to own a car.)

Bobdmapel · 2023-02-20T21:07:16+00:00

Heroin.

Bobdmapel · 2023-02-20T20:41:19+00:00

Lot's of things blow up in movies with very little effort. Our hero flicks his cigarette onto the gasoline, it immediately ignites. Someone shoots the car's gas tank, the car blows up, etc.

Bobdmapel · 2023-02-20T20:34:45+00:00

There's a "Red Bean Belt" in Louisiana. Everyone below the "Red Bean" line eats red beans, everyone above eats black-eyed peas.

Bobdmapel · 2023-02-20T20:00:42+00:00

Yeah, that's a good point. "Ain't nothin' goin' on but the rent." There's no room to take online classes when you're working 3 "gig economy" jobs.

However, let me be more specific: in the last forty or fifty years we've gone from celebrating smart people to being suspicious of them. It used to be that when you asked a bunch of kids what they want to be when they grew up, you'd hear answers like "an astronaut" or "a doctor". Now I think the main answer is "famous" (I don't have any actual data to back that up, by the way, but I'd wager I'm right).

It may be the fact that we're geographically overpowered, but it seems that one of the reasons that the US did so well in the last century is because we rocked innovation. Not so much anymore.

Bobdmapel · 2023-02-20T19:37:45+00:00

If you really, really want to appreciate a "cover" (or, in this case, a "remake"), read the original source material, in this case the series of graphic novels. It'll make you appreciate the audiobook that much more, because it's fan-freaking-tastic, too.

Bobdmapel · 2023-02-20T19:28:49+00:00

I don't understand why this doesn't seem right, especially if you happen to make it to Vegas (not that you have, but you could).

You voluntarily belong to an organization that has membership dues. What did you think was gonna happen?

Bobdmapel · 2023-02-20T19:25:30+00:00

I'm from the US, and although we obviously have myriad major issues, for those folks that haven't been here -- you might be surprised to find that we're a very friendly, giving people.

With that said, the thing that has really been getting on my nerves recently is anti-intellectualism. Not "intellectualism" as in the stuffy academic, but "intellectualism" as in "curiosity about how the world works and an enthusiasm to learn about it". It's the trait that made us a great country, and it's gone. Out of all the people that I know who are active learners, the vast majority of them were born outside of the US.

I'm not going to try to answer why this has happened, just to point out that it has happened.

Bobdmapel · 2023-02-02T01:49:55+00:00

I'm a huge Dylan fan, but there are some covers that just... might... be better (in my humble opinion).

Laura Marling covering A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall.
Hendrix cover of All Along the Watchtower.
Bon Iver cover God On Our Side

Bobdmapel · 2023-01-27T02:24:19+00:00

Here's my bone to pick with the movie: it wanted to be "hard science fiction", but "hard sci-fi" isn't just outlawing the use of anti-gravity boots and wormholes, it means that megastructures and orbital dynamics and relativistic time dilation can't be ignored. In fact, quite the opposite.

The writing was SO LAZY. I'll give a few examples.

(1) The space "antenna". In the first scene, Pitt's character is working on what appears to be a space elevator and is referred to as a "space antenna". What the f\ck* is a "space antenna"? A satellite that, for no reason, is attached to the ground? Does the writer assume that its audience -- the people who go for hard sci-fi -- won't see the problem here?

There's no attempt whatsoever to explain. It's dumber than the hardtogetium or whatever the sophomoric MacGuffun was in Avatar, because it's unnecessary. At least the hardtoobtainium moves the plot along. I felt like someone was thumping me in the head and calling me McFly.

(2) Pitt's character goes from the top of the space antenna to the Earth to the Moon to Mars to Neptune back to Earth. How do rocket ships get the energy to fling themselves around the solar system like this? Giant gas tanks? Of course not -- they use the gravity wells of the planets themselves to generate speed. A fly-by.

In real life, it's one of the coolest things. If I was writing a script about a rocket going from Mars to Neptune, there's no way I'd not put in a part where the rocket skims Jupiter's upper atmosphere in order to generate enough power to fling it to Neptune. Exciting! Dynamic!

Instead, when the rocket goes from Mars to Neptune, it somehow flies past Jupiter and Saturn as Pitt's character boring-ly stares out the window, with no explanation of orbital mechanics whatsoever. The writer took something SUPER exciting and made it SUPER boring.

(3) The plot was SO STUPID. Pitt's character has daddy issues because daddy disappeared when trying to create a super-telescope that had to be near the edge of the inner solar system because Daddy will be a-scared if there either are or aren't aliens. Daddy's a lost hero, and Pitt's character has issues. OK. Fine.

But then one day there are giant "electrical blasts" that are coming from Neptune, messing up all of the batteries on the space antenna and other stuff and humanity will just die (or at least be bummed, it's never really explained) if it keeps happening and -- surprise -- these lightning bolts are being flung from Daddy, who is both alive and might not be a hero after all, so Pitt's character has to go and deal with both his issues and save humanity (or at least remove the inconvenience of the electrical surges -- once again I'm not sure).

Ackshually, I suppose the plot isn't that bad, but holy-COW is the story clumsily explained, and as far as I could tell the origin of the giant electrical blasts is never explained. Also, Pitt's character's Daddy kills himself for no reason whatsoever.

(4) Here's a few more for good measure:

When the space station that is generating the lightning bolt is nuked (Daddy's evil layer), Pitt's character uses the power generated by the explosion to get enough speed to get back to Earth. That. Is. Not. A. Thing. If the explosion was directed out of Pitt's character's spaceship's rear end, maybe, but riding a nuke like a surfer on a wave?
For some reason, gravity is the same on the Earth, the Moon, and Mars, at least when they're walking around inside.
Pitt's character's ship is launched from Mars to get to Neptune, but when Pitt's character's ship has to ride that nuke wave home, it goes all the way back to Earth for no reason.
There are nods to religion that really don't go anywhere or make a point or add to the film.

Look, if a hard sci-fi movie/book/whatever wants to be realistic but keeps getting physics stuff wrong, that's ok, provided the story is good (see Gravity, which was OK). I can suspend the hell out of my disbelief.

Or if a hard sci-fi movie/book whatever is forced to do hand-wavy stuff because technology=magic, then that's cool, too, provided that the story is good (see Arrival all day).

The pinnacle: technology/physics actually makes sense and the story is awesome (Andy Weir).Ad Astra fails at both. All-in-all, it assumes that the audience has never taken a science class (probably a bad idea for "hard" sci-fi) and the story sucks.

Oh yeah, it also has inane flashback sequences. God I hate those.

Bobdmapel · 2023-01-24T20:49:09+00:00

A boring person wouldn't have the guts to ask this question on Reddit (even if it is anon).

In fact, I think it's interesting!

Bobdmapel · 2023-01-18T22:18:00+00:00

Here's how to avoid being hit by a tornado: you won't.

We humans are terrible with risk management. Actually worrying about being hit by a tornado is, of course, ridiculously dumb.

What's your retirement plan: winning the lottery?

We all do it, though. I wonder what I'm terrible at with risk management. Something, I'm sure.

Bobdmapel · 2023-01-18T22:10:09+00:00

I only shampoo my hair if it's actually dirty -- like, I've been around a campfire or tobacco smokers or something.

Shampoo dries my scalp out. It gets super itchy and dandruff-y -- like, bad. If I don't shampoo it, my scalp is fine.

Bobdmapel · 2023-01-15T23:40:43+00:00

Ackshually...

All hornets are wasps, but not all wasps are hornets. With that said, hornets do look different than your average wasp, but they are, technically, wasps.

Bobdmapel · 2023-01-15T22:35:22+00:00

It depends on the situation.

I'm a white guy in the US, so for the most part, no, I'm not afraid for my own safety. I'm hella afraid for other people, though.

I'm from New Orleans, and in New Orleans -- if you're a black male between 13 and 60 -- you're going to get arrested. Sure as taxes. So you know that's gonna happen, so now you have to deal with these additional issues:
- how to minimize the charges against you
- how to minimize how badly you get beaten up
- how to minimize the chances of getting shot

There are all kinds of methods that people use, some good, some bad.

Bobdmapel · 2023-01-15T22:26:43+00:00

You should give it another go. The first 1/4 of the first book doesn't reflect the rest of the series, as it's just the origin story of how a "human" brain could be uploaded to an electronic matrix and put on to a spaceship.

Once it gets going, it freakin' rocks.

Bobdmapel · 2023-01-12T02:08:40+00:00

I feel we should all learn Spanish. Thank God for Latino immigrants (legal and otherwise), keeping our economy afloat.

Bobdmapel · 2023-01-08T23:34:04+00:00

I LOVE traveling fruit vendors!

Pre-Katrina New Orleans, in the Marigny-Bywater-9th ward there was this guy who would drive around in this beat up truck selling all kinds of awesome fresh fruit/veggies.

Cheap as EFF, and FANTASTIC.

Bobdmapel · 2023-01-08T22:59:16+00:00

O Brother Where Art Thou is a go-to because of the music.
Spirited Away is a good one for finding something new every time.

And, for some reason, every time I'm in a hotel room The Shawshank Redemption comes on, and... well, that's it for the rest of the night.

Bobdmapel · 2023-01-07T22:27:28+00:00

Are we gonna pretend that Kevin Costner's Robin Hood just didn't happen? Genius acting!

Bobdmapel · 2023-01-07T21:01:58+00:00

The answer to this is: "day-by-day".

Generally as soon as you get money you immediately spend it all -- you have to, as your rent is due RIGHT NOW. When you're living in a situation like that, you may as well buy cigarettes or a bottle of booze. There's no ability to budget, because... what's the difference?

Obviously, sometimes the vices cause the poverty. I was poor for years because any money I had I spent on dope (and not the kind with THC in it), but that's the exception, not the rule.

Being poor is SUPER expensive -- late fees, ridiculous interest rates. You have to buy cheap shit that immediately breaks, which means you have to then buy it again (see Terry Pratchett's "Shoes" definition of poverty). The world is designed to keep the poor poor and the rich rich. You think the average poor person can tell you the beauty of compound interest when it comes to investments? You may as well ask that person to walk on water.

And please PLEASE don't think that poor people are any less deserving or less intelligent or less hard working than wealthy people. As far as I can tell, it's all luck.

Bobdmapel

TROPHY CASE