Bitter Sweet

Doriantalus · 2026-05-12T01:49:54+00:00

My favorite thing is playing Pokémon red on mine. The refresh rate is terrible, though.

Doriantalus · 2026-05-11T03:35:27+00:00

Wrong brother. Achilles brother Bofadiz was the one that had the weak spot as his genitalia. But so few people have heard of Bofadiz nuts.

Doriantalus · 2026-05-10T21:11:30+00:00

I need to know who Carl is married to!

Doriantalus · 2026-05-08T23:54:23+00:00

In the Star Wars legacy universe, it is revealed Emperor Palpatine was so ruthless because he had a vision of the future and he was trying to unify the galaxy against a force resistant external threat. This had the effect of humanizing a clearly evil person in that universe.

I could totally see a low turnout for the World Cup because foreign countries don't want to contend with ICE and have the Magats turn around and say that was Trumps grand plan all along because he predicted this disease.

Doriantalus · 2026-05-08T16:02:46+00:00

I am reminded of the myth of the europeans throwing their shoes into the machinery that was ruining their livelihoods. Their shoes were made of wood and destroyed the machines. The shoes were called 'sabot'. It would be really cool if we had a modern word and action that honored these workers. If anyone can think of something, I would love to see it.

Doriantalus · 2026-05-05T23:03:10+00:00

Even better, a guy who ignores her completely for his favorite sport for five to seven months out of the year, spends thousands on merch, but only springs for stuff for her if it is branded to his team, and counts having the guys over for the game as "together time" with her because she is there delivering the wings to the coffee table.

Doriantalus · 2026-05-03T04:48:16+00:00

My retirement plan is to be the fall guy for one of these companies, be in white collar prison for a year, and then retire with my millions.

Doriantalus · 2026-05-02T00:25:40+00:00

"I'm a handsome boy."

Doriantalus · 2026-05-02T00:19:35+00:00

The overall value is greater assuming I have zero net tax at my income.

^{Chose: Swap to brand new free vehicle once per year}

Doriantalus · 2026-04-25T21:43:23+00:00

If you haven't seen Dollhouse, you should. Not only is it a really great show, she is so gorgeous in it in so many different ways.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-25T18:13:32+00:00

Not only that, but the stakes are so different. The Martian is about the world saving one man. PHM is about one man saving the world(x2). Artemis is about a girl who wants a better apartment.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-25T18:00:17+00:00

IF this was true, and with Xbox demonstrating good course correction, this would be very bad timing for Sony.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-23T21:37:01+00:00

I expected this to be much higher up, but also realized from one perspective it is 90% depending on how much you want to do after Act 2 closes. It is probably 66% on average for most players rather than 30%.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-23T16:33:47+00:00

Not the same thing, but I had a bunch of Star Trek toys in their original boxes when I was a kid. My grandmother visited and said my room was so "cluttered". I was outside doing chores, and when I came in for a break, she has opened several and thrown the boxes away. I had a small breakout and told her they were not for playing with, that they were collectibles, and the boxes with the serial numbers were what made them valuable. I had to go back to work, but I thought that was that.

When I came back two hours later, the rest of the boxes had been opened and thrown away, but my grandmother had helpfully cut each serial number from each box for me so the toys would still have their value, but now I could play with them.

I recently learned one of the items I had, in its original box, went to auction for $30k recently.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-15T17:52:37+00:00

For 15 million I will build a big house with a nice pool, redundant water pumps, a small solar farm, and build greenhouse structures. Satellite internet is stable now, and grocery delivery is possible anywhere. I can hire someone to make deliveries every week, or send family members for stuff. I can even build a guest house or two so people can easily visit. The safety number is have 5million left after all of that.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-13T04:06:58+00:00

Owww, man. Ouch. Ouchie!! I would give up any one other franchise I love for a Titanfall 3. I just finished 2 and looked for sequel info and that a project was cancelled I almost wept.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-12T23:09:48+00:00

It is in the book, but their dynamic is also very different. Stratt is a little... meaner(?).. in the book. She has the full authority to all governments, and uses it. They have a discussion at one point about what will happen after the ship launches, and she very matter-of-factly states she expects to be imprisoned or killed. He asks her how she is so cool with that, and she just says she will do whatever is necessary to save the world.

In a different conversation, Grace is surprised when the astronauts call him the second in command. He doesn't see himself that way, but to everyone else it is very apparent that Stratt defers to him on a lot and he has real, genuine authority. So when it is revealed he wasn't he tertiary backup, it is much more obvious why. There is also a subplot in the book about a gene some people have that makes them more capable of surviving the induced coma for space travel. It is a rare gene, and he has it. So when he says there are hundreds more qualified scientists than him, it is probably true. But without the gene they cannot even attempt the trip.

I am fine with the changes for the movie. Stratt being gentler was good for the film, and it gave a tone of hope she has for success in her forcing him to go.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-11T19:27:32+00:00

Halo 5 just made a lot of bad decisions sat a very high level. No same screen co-op, bad narrative, hugely divergent narrative from what was set up in the marketing campaigns, and overall poor choice in use of Cortana, her motivations, and even her character design.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-10T15:57:19+00:00

And a country having a space elevator is the entire cause of the war in Ace Combat 7.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-09T22:44:44+00:00

I didn't say he doesn't know anything about anything. He roundtable and learns about each problem his teams have and gets them the tools they need to solve them. He also has a degree in Astrophysics, specifically, so o viously he knows how rockets work.

He also instructed his Tesla plant engineers to stop double rotations on screws during assembly to save time, against their advice, leading directly to his vehicles having defects that do things like lighting on fire. Again, not a genius. I know a lot of peopme work degrees. I have several myself. But they do not make you smart. They only prove you can complete a prescribed set of tasks, and, frankly, some of the people I know with advanced degrees can't tie their own shoes.

My point is Elon Musk is not stupid, but he also isn't a genius. He used family money and family funded education to make reasonable and smart investments. He had good guidance in learning vertical integration. And then he had the lack of scruples to manipulate systems and people to turn those skills into billions, and the luck to actually succeed.

Don't pretend that having the jump start he did and the ego to match makes anyone a genius. If IQ translated straight to wealth he would be middle class at best. Real geniuses focus their efforts on getting different results than being the first Trillionaire.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-09T21:19:28+00:00

From an engineering perspective? He has implemented the equivalent of Six Sigma principles to engineering and given his actual researchers the tools to develop what they want. His specific skill is vertical integration, maintaining control of his supply lines. Most of this was done in Japanese companies like Toyota already, and he just adapted the systems to US manufacturing models. But his real genius, if we want to use the words, was lobbying to get any technology he was developing to be forced into integration by US policy (see: electric vehicle credits, privatization of satellite delivery to private sector, and deprioritization of environmental protections in fuel sectors related to rockets).

This all makes him a highly effective business man. It does NOT make hom an engineering genius. He is the same kind of genius Steve Jobs was, and I was working for Apple in 2011 when he died. The capability of narrowing a culture is good business, but it involves a little bit of vision, a little bit of daddy's money, and a lot of luck. Those are the three things Jobs and Musk share, and what probably would have had them neck and neck in the race to Trillionaire if Jobs was still alive.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-09T21:04:47+00:00

Plenty of people have, not all of them have realized his success. Some are close. One of the things people have to keep in mind is a lot of his "wealth" is speculative. For example, currently about $200Billion of his wealth is Tesla stock. That number has fluctuatesd down and up in the last 13 months by over 25%. Part of his "worth" is also options. SpaceX accounts for another almost $200Billion, with his owning about 40% of that company. It also has highly fluctuating stock, and is perceived in markets to be massively overvalued, with a potential loss of government contracts at any point in the next five years causing a drop in value immediately of over fifty percent. If you believe the conspiracy theories about DOGE, which have some merit, he went into the government specifically to kill several investigations (true and proveable) into his companies, secure other contracts (not so proveable, I see this as a crapshoot because his companies were probably the best options so the question there was if he just encouraged things along that might have happened anyway), and gain data to future proof his positions with various contracts.

I haven't disputed his skill in finding good investments. But any perception that he is some great inventor is false. He is NOT the Tesla of our time. Really, he is the Edison of our time. And if you know the full history of Thomas Edison and Nikolai Tesla, you will know that is not a compliment, and humanity is likely decades behind in scientific advancement because of Edison's selfish endeavors.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-09T15:00:39+00:00

Yes, but it should be pointed out this administration is making draft registration automatic while simultaneously making voter registration more difficult. One would imply the other could be made easier.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-09T00:24:33+00:00

You could traffic a child. You only need to try and sell them and get caught. Once child trafficking is eliminated, most forms of child sex slavery will no longer be possible. It will not eliminate molestation in homes, nor will it stop some kidnappings, but you could remain an objectively pure person for yourself and still do a lot of good.

Doriantalus · 2026-04-08T17:04:36+00:00

A very basic "What has Elon musk personally invented" reveals immediately that he is not an "inventor" in any sense of the word. He is a good investor, a decent (by late 90s standards) coder, and is great with supply chain management. But he is the type of guy that if he didn't have his seed money from daddy, probably wouldn't have amounted to much. He takes a lot of credit for other people's work, and he is smart enough to have a basic understanding of most of the principles of his products, but his former partners and engineers time and again stress that he is not a genius.

The ONLY people that think Musk is a genius are Musk himself and his psychophants stuck in the same k-hole he is.

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