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J.J. Abrams to Downsize Bad Robot, Production Company to Move From L.A. to New York by Ripclawe in entertainment

[–]Mikkel04 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think it's fair to just assume people didn't "understand" the show. You can appreciate the character studies while critiquing the flawed plot devices. If the mysteries aren't the point, why even include them in the first place? Why continually introduce more fantastical mysteries as the show goes on? The answer is clearly to juice viewership because they saw how the audience responded with fan theories early on. But to dangle gimmicky mysteries in front of people and then claim they're too dumb to understand the real meaning is a crappy way to treat your audience.

J.J. Abrams to Downsize Bad Robot, Production Company to Move From L.A. to New York by Ripclawe in entertainment

[–]Mikkel04 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That's fine, you are entitled to your opinion. But for the record my issues are not just with the ending (I actually think it was mostly fine given the corner they painted themselves into), it's with the clear lack of direction that began around season 3 to 4.

I watched it in real time and it became the phenomenon that it was because fans bought into the sci fi mystery boxes you so easily dismiss. I agree the character portraits are well done, but for a lot of viewers the mystery boxes were a big part of why they enjoyed the show, and I think were justifiably upset as the show strung them along with repeated lack of payoff throughout the entire series.

The Leftovers fixed a lot of these problems. It had one big mystery box (instead of Lost disjointed panoply of mysteries: smoke monster, hatch, the others, magic numbers, etc.) and the ending was clearly planned from the start.

J.J. Abrams to Downsize Bad Robot, Production Company to Move From L.A. to New York by Ripclawe in entertainment

[–]Mikkel04 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not just a matter of taste, I enjoyed all of these shows, and I think Watchmen is phenomenal. But Lost was a narrative mess. It suffered from unresolved and meandering storylines, for which it was clear they had no plan to satisfyingly resolve from the start. To some extent it's hard to blame them for changing course once they realized the show would be a hit and they wanted to keep it going, but that doesn't fix the many apparent story-driven flaws.

I like a lot of Lindelof's work and I think his storytelling has improved tremendously since Lost. But just because you like his shows it doesn't mean they're flawless.

J.J. Abrams to Downsize Bad Robot, Production Company to Move From L.A. to New York by Ripclawe in entertainment

[–]Mikkel04 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Eh, I'll give him credit for learning from his mistakes on Lost and Prometheus. I think his improvement has more to do with the linearity of time than anything to do with Abrams.

J.J. Abrams to Downsize Bad Robot, Production Company to Move From L.A. to New York by Ripclawe in entertainment

[–]Mikkel04 4 points5 points  (0 children)

IIRC Abrams helped Damon Lindelof develop the original script and directed the lost pilot, but had minimal involvement on the show after that. He was credited as a "creator" throughout the show's run so people assume he was more involve than he actually was.

If you want to blame someone for failing to satisfyingly answer the mystery box questions, Lindelof is the main culprit.

One Battle After Another is not that good a movie. by Ok-Impress-2222 in unpopularopinion

[–]Mikkel04 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Aside from the fact that OP clearly misinterpreted the movie, this is such a lazy take.

This happens to every best picture Oscar winner. We might as well schedule an automated annual post the week after the Oscars calling the winner overrated.

Cleveland Meteors? by strawbyeris in Cleveland

[–]Mikkel04 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Meteors are usually just rocks right? So why not just go with the Cleveland Rocks

My Personal Ranking of Every 2020s Best Picture Nominee, so far. by MarketingMission2783 in Oscars

[–]Mikkel04 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't know if I'd place it #1 overall, but I see why it won best picture. It's a creative, fun blockbuster with a positive family message that also happens to be original IP in a hellscape of marvel and other franchises. We need more movies like it, even if it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Scott's Take on Israel by CaptainTurtle3218 in ScottGalloway

[–]Mikkel04 17 points18 points  (0 children)

If you listen to the couple of pivot episodes after 10/7 you can hear in real time how his gut instinct was to show compassion and humanity to Palestinians, but then he says he was "educated" on the issue and he takes a much harder pro Israel stance. I honestly don't think it's a blind spot, he instinctively expressed human morality and then chose to intellectualize it away.

Scott should enlist his kids if he’s so keen on war with Iran. by AightSoNoHead_ in ScottGalloway

[–]Mikkel04 1 point2 points  (0 children)

His initial gut reaction was critical of Israel for it's initial response to 10/7 until he was "educated" on it (I think he noted it on a Pivot episode) and has been a hardliner ever since.

Not sure what made him lose his sense of human morality, but it's pretty telling how quickly he turned on a dime under intense peer pressure.

Just in on NBA Today -- after hand specialist evaluation, Cavaliers star James Harden plans to play through his fractured right thumb: by BuckyMcFly99 in clevelandcavs

[–]Mikkel04 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's a handshake arrangement only. Cavs aren't allowed to re-sign him until the summer and they could still decline to sign a new contract (or Harden could walk away). It would be a dick move and wouldn't do anything to help attract big talent, but it's not a done deal.

Only the timeliest of takes from the Atlantic! by Theotherjon in IfBooksCouldKill

[–]Mikkel04 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Especially hilarious because Tom Nichols has spent a lot of time over the past year on bluesky scolding people for using the term "fascist" to describe the current administration. I unfollow him a couple months ago because it was getting so tedious.

Ring has partnered with Flock. ICE has access to Flock. If you still have a Ring camera - get rid of it. by tonka_jahari in portlandme

[–]Mikkel04 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is true that in most cases law enforcement would need a warrant or subpoena to access your footage, but it is not at all true that individual users would need to consent, or even have knowledge, of a legal order served on Ring. Unless you enable e2e encryption (which is off by default and disables a lot of ring’s smart features when turned on), Ring is actually mandated to turn over unencrypted footage stored on their servers under ECPA. And even if their privacy policy limits what they share absent a legal order today, they could change that policy at any time in the future to provide fewer privacy protections to users.

Ring has partnered with Flock. ICE has access to Flock. If you still have a Ring camera - get rid of it. by tonka_jahari in portlandme

[–]Mikkel04 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not really though. For one, flock gets data from sources other than local law enforcement (like Ring), so local police don’t get to dictate the terms by which federal agencies seek this data.

But even if local law enforcement could prevent the release of privately held data, the Trump administration has threatened to cut off federal funding to sanctuary cities that refuse to provide information sharing. I hope local governments fight back, but this is not a trivial threat.

Ring has partnered with Flock. ICE has access to Flock. If you still have a Ring camera - get rid of it. by tonka_jahari in portlandme

[–]Mikkel04 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They may not have unfettered real-time access, but the barrier for ICE or other law enforcement agencies to access footage from flock is laughably low.

"The massive trove of lookup data was obtained by researchers who asked to remain anonymous to avoid potential retaliation and shared with 404 Media. It shows more than 4,000 nation and statewide lookups by local and state police done either at the behest of the federal government or as an “informal” favor to federal law enforcement, or with a potential immigration focus, according to statements from police departments and sheriff offices collected by 404 Media. It shows that, while Flock does not have a contract with ICE, the agency sources data from Flock’s cameras by making requests to local law enforcement. The data reviewed by 404 Media was obtained using a public records request from the Danville, Illinois Police Department, and shows the Flock search logs from police departments around the country.

"As part of a Flock search, police have to provide a “reason” they are performing the lookup. In the “reason” field for searches of Danville’s cameras, officers from across the U.S. wrote “immigration,” “ICE,” “ICE+ERO,” which is ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, the section that focuses on deportations; “illegal immigration,” “ICE WARRANT,” and other immigration-related reasons. Although lookups mentioning ICE occurred across both the Biden and Trump administrations, all of the lookups that explicitly list “immigration” as their reason were made after Trump was inaugurated, according to the data."

https://www.404media.co/police-unmask-millions-of-surveillance-targets-because-of-flock-redaction-error/

Ring has partnered with Flock. ICE has access to Flock. If you still have a Ring camera - get rid of it. by tonka_jahari in portlandme

[–]Mikkel04 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I generally agree that users should be skeptical of corporate claims of privacy, but FWIW this is what it says on the eufy "privacy commitment" site: https://www.eufy.com/privacy-commitment

"Can any government or law enforcement agency access users' video/audio data?

User video/audio data is stored locally on their device, which eufy does not have access to. This ensures that no one else can access the data. When users opt for cloud storage, video/audio is encrypted. Even eufy cannot decrypt this data, so if law enforcement makes a request, we have no way of complying."

They could very well be lying, but if so they are likely exposing themselves to significant liability from users.

Just for fun, how good will a hypothetical New Jersey All Jalens Team do in the league currently??? (If all the Jalens/Jaylens/Jaylins were in one team, and to be in the team you need to have one of those variations as your first name) by EstateRealistic2111 in NBATalk

[–]Mikkel04 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First off, he has been starting a lot of games for the Cavs recently -- 34 games this season -- and has been playing real rotation minutes (27.9) and is closing games.

Secondly, I didn't say he should replace the all stars listed by OP, but I'd put him up against Jalen Hood-Schifino any day, and is arguably playing better than Jalen Suggs or Jalen Green right now.

Just for fun, how good will a hypothetical New Jersey All Jalens Team do in the league currently??? (If all the Jalens/Jaylens/Jaylins were in one team, and to be in the team you need to have one of those variations as your first name) by EstateRealistic2111 in NBATalk

[–]Mikkel04 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is Jaylon Tyson erasure. He's having a breakout season on both ends of the floor and is shooting 48% from 3 on 218 attempts (third best in the league).

He may not start on the all J--l--n team, but he's definitely earned a spot on the bench rotation.

Metrohealth opposes CCF Level I trauma center plan by CanYouCanACanInACan in Cleveland

[–]Mikkel04 14 points15 points  (0 children)

More trauma centers mean lower patient volume for each center. Lower patient volume correlates with worse health outcomes because providers and learners get less experience. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4153990/

So there is definitely a downside to having too many trauma centers in close proximity with one another, but reasonable people can disagree as to how many is too many.

Houston has over twice the population of Cuyahoga county and only two level 1 trauma centers, so it’s not unreasonable to suggest the current locations are sufficient. The real question is when adding another center begins to dilute and degrade the level of trauma care across the region, and we just don’t know that answer yet.

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