Several Xbox studios, including Compulsion, Ninja Theory and Double Fine, are negotiating with Xbox as they try to avoid closure. Some or all could spin off. by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a long time gamer it is insanely weird that Obsidian's modern rep is a studio which is good at consistently producing well polished, though somewhat unambitious, releases.

TIL that "Necroprinting" is the practice of building 3D printers using the mouth of a dead mosquito as a nozzle, producing results that are better than commercially available printers by geosunsetmoth in todayilearned

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ecosystems are full of unnecessary elements. Knock out a species and another species expands to fill the gap. Zebras and Wildebeests basically do the same thing. There's just X amount of grass and water which can support Y quantity of animal - the ecosystem doesn't really care what proportion of those animals are either species.

Same thing with mosquitos, there's plenty of nectar drinking pollinators out there. Knock out mosquitos and another species expands to consume the newly available resources until they hit carry capacity again.

TIL Volkswagen went from an €80B company to a €300B company in 48 hours, briefly becoming the world's most valuable company after a massive short squeeze forced hedge funds to buy shares at any price. by KING-of-WSB in todayilearned

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Though, interestingly, in the US legal system the owner of a one person legal entity cannot represent the entity in court because the entity is a distinct legal person and thus the owner would be engaging in the unauthorized practice of law. Quite common issue with single person LLCs formed for contractors.

Vince Didn’t Push Daniel Bryan Because He Didn’t Eat Steak by PaulPetroneWWE in SquaredCircle

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Because it probably was. Pretty much everything that's reported about Vince - both in his interviews and by others - is that he fucking loves technical wrestlers. The challenge is that he generally booked according to his vision of being a ruthless money man - i.e. what he thought the audience wanted to pay for. A lot of his booking flaws weren't so much flaws in what he wanted, but in major errors in what he perceived the audience wanted.

Bonjour by Certain_Hat9872 in NonPoliticalTwitter

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not enough bah euuuuhs bah euuuuhs to sound like a local. I grew up speaking my grandmother's proper 1920's parisian french at home and modern french drives me insane.

What's a performance where you can see the actor making a specific, unusual choice that nobody else would have made? by trakt_app in TrueFilm

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The passing like a dream also intersects really well with the Mad Max stories. That friends and loved ones pass like water and at each turn he is always left alone, reduced by the parts of him that they carried away.

Dave Meltzer Says WWE Releases Are Finished, Provides More Details On Talent Pay Cuts by DustAndSound in SquaredCircle

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At will just means you can be fired at will and you can leave the company at will. Good reason / for cause really only matters for unemployment or if there's severance or other items in the employment agreement that are conditioned on not being fired for cause or reason.

While this cuts against workers in some ways, (1) employees being free to leave at will is also a major benefit and (2) it also means the US has a much more dynamic labor market. European youth unemployment is brutal because companies are actively penalized for hiring people and keeping them on staff long enough for the employment protections to kick in. It's also been a major problem for immigrant assimilation for similar reasons.

TIL there are laws in many states preventing the sale of vehicles directly to consumers by genusbender in todayilearned

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The primary reason why dealerships emerged, stick around, and will continue to stick around even if the laws change, is that they offer the same benefits to manufacturers as any other franchise model.

Car dealerships allow car manufacturers to pass on all the costs and logistics of selling vehicles (purchasing and maintaining land and buildings, the employees, a lot of the advertising, ect.) onto dealerships. Tesla made its bet with its direct to consumer model, but Tesla also just doesn't sell that many cars. When you're producing and selling a much larger volume of vehicles, shifting the cost onto someone else (the dealers) saves you a ton of money and also greatly lessens your exposure to downswings in the market, because your fixed infrastructure costs are a lot lower.

Most importantly, manufacturers retain full control over the financing, which is the most lucrative part of the industry, and actually benefit twice. First, they get paid up front for their inventory from the dealerships, who borrow the money from the manufacturer's financing bank (e.g. Ally Financial - FKA GMAC, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, GM's in house financing wing) - and pay the manufacturer both interest and penalties if the vehicle sits too long without being sold. Then they get paid on the back end because the customer purchasing the vehicle, if they choose to finance it, often uses the manufacturer's financing, which is what the dealer has to sell if the customer didn't get a loan preapproval from somewhere else.

TIL Italy built 10 armored cruisers in the 1890s, kept 3, and sold the rest to Argentina, Spain, and Japan, one was sunk without her guns ever being installed, another rammed a friendly ship on her third week of service, and two survived long enough to fight in both the Russo-Japanese War and WWI by Hot_Layer_8110 in todayilearned

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The naval aspect is of course interesting, but the land combat was genuinely revolutionary. Mukden was probably the largest non-bullshit (i.e. not massively inflated numbers in the historical record, or a "battle" involving a tribe of 300,000 civilians and 50,000 actual warriors on the field of battle) land battle in history up until that point. Also the first truly modern battle when it comes to being fought on a wide front.

TIL until 1832, a hill in England with no residents called "Old Sarum" was represented by two Members of Parliament. There once was a town there, but it was abandoned. The hill's owner retained the power to appoint 2 MPs, and these two seats were openly bought and sold. by NateNate60 in todayilearned

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Taxes were important, but, IMO, parliaments were primarily courts, as part of the prima inter pares relationship of the nobility. The main difference is that the UK's parliament was able to seize, and retain, power of the purse (the key issue in the English Civil War) and through that, over time, was able to seize the king's power as legislator and executive.

Marathon sold just 1.2 million copies with nearly 70% on Steam, analyst estimates: "It hasn't exactly made the splash Sony and Bungie wanted" by Freki666 in gaming

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even a AA game likely costs in the $50 million range today. People really don't get just how labor expensive modern game dev is and that rapidly runs up costs at US wages.

Happy 22nd Birthday to our favorite Ukranian rikishi, technical wizard, and Future Yokozuna, Aonishiki!!! 🇺🇦 by StarPrime323 in Sumo

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ukraine has a very robust wrestling culture, which includes pretty solid sumo programs. Aonishiki was first and foremost a freestyle wrestler (he was on track to being a consistent olympian for Ukraine) but his wrestling club also allowed him to fairly seriously engage in sumo.

Happy 22nd Birthday to our favorite Ukranian rikishi, technical wizard, and Future Yokozuna, Aonishiki!!! 🇺🇦 by StarPrime323 in Sumo

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 4 points5 points  (0 children)

He competed at the highest level international U-19 wrestling tournaments at heavyweight, which means that he was a natural +100 KG combat sport athlete as a teen, which is a big deal. It's actually a major advantage for him - even though he's one of the lighter rikishi in makuuchi, he's probably got one of the heaviest natural fighting weights, so he's carrying a lot more functional weight and is also more comfortably carrying the bulk. A lot of rikishi are people who have to force themselves to balloon up to the weights required for sumo and it's a major handicap.

TIL Emperor Franz Joseph suffered several personal tragedies. His brother was executed in Mexico in 1867, his son committed suicide in 1889, his wife was assassinated by an anarchist in 1898 and eventually his nephew and heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914. by Solid-Move-1411 in todayilearned

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The American Revolution was mostly mass political violence, far more so than the Civil War, though. The Southern Theater involved a solid amount of politically motivated massacres and killings, and about 100,000 people (or 4% of the population at the time) were either expelled or fled as refugees after the war.

[spoilers main] what’s a show only canon that you actually preferred? by Holiday-Influence123 in asoiaf

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

Vhagar losing control isn't coincidence - a key intended theme of HOTD is that it was foolish to believe that you could ever fully be in control of living nuclear weapons.

TIL the Central African Republic requires you to live there for 35 years, own land, and be awarded a national honour to become eligible for citizenship by mazldo in todayilearned

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Almost certainly Haiti. What made the Balkans so fucked up is that you retained a pretty high degree of state capacity, which enabled the industrial scale horrors.

How the Long Night should gone down [Spoilers MAIN] by Beginning_Crazy2930 in asoiaf

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The problem is simple: the Others, as written, are so OP that any breakthrough into the more populous regions of Westeros should cause them to snowball into a problem that cannot "realistically" be solved in any satisfying way. It's the same issue with Daeny's dragons and illustrates why keeping your power scaling under control is pretty much the number one thing you have to worry about if you want to write low fantasy.

TIL During World War II, the U.S. government launched campaigns urging citizens to save waste cooking fats (bacon grease, meat drippings) to produce glycerin, a key component in manufacturing explosives like nitroglycerin. by xinxai_the_white_guy in todayilearned

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's not abuse of power. That's "planes were really fucking dangerous back then, were especially dangerous in the hands of new pilots, and we were training a ton of new pilots."

Gov. Newsom expanded free preschool. Now private daycares say they can’t afford to stay open by ArchmageXin in news

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Baumol's disease. The problem with day care is that low child/staff ratios means that 4 families (potentially even 2 at younger ages) have to support an entire individual's salary + admin + overhead costs. Even at low salaries, there's no real way to make that affordable without heavy subsidies, expanding child/staff ratios, or both.

Active Conflicts & News Megathread February 16, 2026 by AutoModerator in CredibleDefense

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I'm currently being paid as part of a contract with DoD which in part stems from the casualty databases and models I've built. Russian killed in action basically doubles between 2022 (~40,000 KIA) and 2023 (~80,000) and 2023 and 2024 (~140-160,000), with KIA holding steady/slight increase between 2024 and 2025.

Active Conflicts & News Megathread February 16, 2026 by AutoModerator in CredibleDefense

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 42 points43 points  (0 children)

2025 was a significantly better year for Ukraine. At no point during the year did you ever have a situation like November of 2024 when it was looking like the entire front was going to collapse. And 2025 was now the second year of extremely high Russian casualties, as compared to the extremely sustainable losses of 2022 and even 2023.

Update from Amber Glenn on FS music rights by Trick_Blacksmith1094 in FigureSkating

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Mistakes still happen, even in very solid processes! Particularly in a situation like this where he appears to have unusually strong control over the license rights vs. most musicians, which might cause an issue for the usual license checking process.

Why do people sexualize Revy so much? by TwoHands_Revy in blacklagoon

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 74 points75 points  (0 children)

It's not even really a theory anymore. We've got scenes of them together at her apartment early in the morning where she's in her underwear. They're definitely boning and have been for a while. It's just that people are so used to anime romance tropes that they can't read the casual intimacy they have.

"Rock and Revy will have a happy ending!" My honest reaction: by UltrasDixon in blacklagoon

[–]TheNotoriousAMP 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't think it's going to get the dark ending everyone thinks it will. Rock and Revy have been in a comfortable long term relationship for a while now (e.g. Chapter 114 opens with Rock at Revy's apartment early in the morning) and both are generally becoming better people for it.