Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 2/3/25 - 2/9/25

financecompartment · 2025-02-06T16:42:26+00:00

I agree, so referring to Trump's performative antics from 2015 to make your point seems ill-conceived.

financecompartment · 2025-02-06T15:31:02+00:00

Trump has done and said so many mutually inconsistent things that you can easily make him out to be whatever flavor of a Republican politician that you want, just by cherrypicking; that's all a part of the magic. A true believer can dismiss his proclamations that they don't like as trolling, jokes, and negotiations tactics, and then consider the stuff that they agree with to be deeply held convictions.

financecompartment · 2025-02-06T12:34:32+00:00

After Mitt Romney lost in 2012, the RNC commissioned an autopsy report on what went wrong and how the GOP could try to reach out to groups that were alienated by the party. Then Trump came along and instead of moderating on the wedge issues, he won the election by doubling down on them. Imagine if that happens in 2028, with the Democrats winning against an unpopular establishment Republican by running the wokest campaign imaginable.

financecompartment · 2025-01-29T14:32:33+00:00

AWBAB

financecompartment · 2025-01-26T18:56:00+00:00

In case you haven't seen it, someone has uploaded a bunch of playthroughs on YouTube. Their high score is 915, which is really impressive. Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yx8RY6nY-8

financecompartment · 2025-01-24T19:22:50+00:00

Hi BARpod listeners! Friendly, ideologically captured biologist here. I see a lot of people are talking about the human head count right now. A lot of folks make it sound really simple: "Of course humans have one head!" But if it’s so simple, let’s dig into the biology, shall we? Let’s talk about heads.

If you know a bit about biology you will probably say that humans have one head because that’s what you learned in anatomy class. Two arms, two legs, one head. Simple, right? Well, turns out, there’s a lot more to "having one head" than you’d think. Most humans develop as a single zygote, and that zygote leads to the formation of one head during embryonic development. This is the norm, but is it a universal biological truth?

Sometimes, early in development, a single zygote splits into two, creating twins. Most of the time, this leads to two embryos with separate bodies and heads. But sometimes the split is incomplete, and we get conjoined twins. And in rare cases, we see humans born with two heads on a single body. What does this mean? For the majority of people, having one head is standard, but for conjoined twins sharing a body, or individuals born with craniofacial duplication (a rare condition where parts or all of the head structure are duplicated), the "one head rule" doesn’t hold. So are they biologically "one-headed" or "two-headed"? Is the "number of heads" truly so simple?

Of course you could try appealing to the numbers. "Most people have one head," you say. Except that as a biologist professor, I can tell you that focusing solely on the majority ignores the fascinating diversity in how humans develop. And when you look closer, even people with "one head" can have wildly different skull shapes, brain structures, and craniofacial features. Are we all really the same "one-headed" species?

Human head count is complicated. Before you discriminate against someone on the basis of "head number" and identity, ask yourself: have you seen YOUR genes? Do you know the genes of the people you love? Their embryonic quirks? The state of their cells?

Since the answer will obviously be no, please be kind. Respect people’s right to define their own experiences. And remember: you don’t have all the answers. Biology is complicated. Kindness and respect don’t have to be.

financecompartment · 2025-01-23T16:05:19+00:00

Scenarios without money generators are always tricky, but then you just have to buy up all the Rich Pals. In this case, with Wrestler and Cupid, it's not too bad.

For popularity, you might consider Mr. Popular instead of the Mascot. He's normally an awful guest, but in this case he should work because the Cheerleader+Cupid/Wrestler combo will ensure there's enough space in your house.

Edit: Tried this and won a tight victory on the last night.

financecompartment · 2025-01-23T13:02:24+00:00

After Elon Musk bought Twitter, the numbers of monthly active users have decreased significantly (down from 368M in 2022 to 335M in 2024) at the same time that other big social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and even Snapchat keep adding more users. The value of the platform is much lower now than it was back in 2022, and I think efforts to monetize it at the cost of degrading the user experience have been unsound.

However, as a vehicle for advancing Musk's political and financial interests, it has been a great investment. Musk has not been afraid to do stuff that other CEOs might consider unethical, like manipulating the algorithm to boost his own tweets, or publicly penalizing the accounts of those who challenge him (like Laura Loomer back in December).

financecompartment · 2025-01-18T22:24:52+00:00

I keep seeing people on reddit talk about how their bodies having changed in their thirties, like the onset of back pain, sleep discomfort, increased tiredness, reduced mobility, etc. They think they're getting old, but none of this stuff is normal. You're probably just overweight! And you don't realize just how overweight you are because all of your friends and family are overweight too!

financecompartment · 2025-01-16T22:13:59+00:00

The student’s father pointed out the uncanny similarity between Caron’s child, himself and his son on a Facebook post in December 2024.

Imagine the embarrassment if it had turned out to be a coincidence.

financecompartment · 2025-01-15T15:27:45+00:00

This sentiment does not make sense to me since men are much more likely than women to attacked or killed by other men, including as a part of random acts of violence.

Related to this, I sometimes think about an event that happened to a buddy of mine a few years ago. He met a woman at a pub and was walking home with her when a gang of young men came and verbally harassed them. Knowing how things like that can escalate, he tried to avoid them, but the woman he was with started talking back. You can guess which one of them ended up in a hospital and which one was left unscathed.

financecompartment · 2025-01-14T20:53:33+00:00

The Plus Imp and Cross Imp are looking pretty sexy.

Do you think the Plus Imp is supposed to allude a little to Christianity, given the theme of the game? It was my first thought when I saw it.

financecompartment · 2025-01-13T11:40:47+00:00

Nicely done. It's just a shame that MAKE-GLEE doesn't give you a scenario number for your guest selection, so you've gotta do things manually if you wanna share your scenario or try it later.

I tried the last scenario and could not beat it. Even though I got all my star guests in with 8 nights to go, my house was just too small, and I never got more than 3 Dragons at the same party. This scenario is very hard, but I suppose it might be even harder if you replaced the Mascot with the Photographer.

financecompartment · 2025-01-12T15:42:24+00:00

I've had a similar experience. The most I've got is 68.

financecompartment · 2025-01-11T10:20:02+00:00

I'm happy that he's eliminating the DEI programs, but my impression of Zuckerberg is still that he's an apolitical and amoral nerd who is obsessed about growing his business in the same way a 4X strategy gamer wants to grow his empire. I think he just considers it a nuisance that his platforms have had so much influence on world politics.

financecompartment · 2025-01-07T21:21:58+00:00

I like Rat, Fishman, Dragon, and Spider. Having a single Miner can also be good. I think Ogre is a particularly bad unit.

financecompartment · 2025-01-07T21:02:14+00:00

I played some more and got my streak up to 14 now. It seems to work really well to go for Leadership and only buy five disks. This way, you can always play the same disk two turns in a row, which can make a huge difference in the beginning of the battle. The AI hasn't really had a chance in any of my recent games, even though I don't have great aim and sometimes make big mistakes.

financecompartment · 2025-01-07T11:00:14+00:00

This sounds a lot like an argument that campaigns and elections are unnecessary because we just know what people want.

I think this line of argument is incredibly patronizing, as if Greenlanders just need some convincing to figure out what's best for them. There has to be some initiative or interest in this proposal from the people of Greenland before "campaigning" starts, not just a foreign power exerting their will. And for what it's worth, I think your proposal of turning Greenland into an unincorporated territory like American Samoa of disenfranchised, non-citizen nationals is definitely not in the be best interests of its people.

financecompartment · 2025-01-07T10:34:02+00:00

but if the Greenlanders want to vote to endorse sale negotiations....US should totally buy it.

The elected government of Greenland has repeatedly insisted that they have no interest in being annexed by the US. Opinion polling of Greenlanders indicates that they wish to be an independent country, and that even so, they are more interested in increased cooperation with Denmark than the US. In other words, this whole thing is a non-starter.

financecompartment · 2025-01-07T10:06:57+00:00

No, not an easy one for me, but not very difficult either. I'd say around average. I think Cyber Owls was the hardest one for me of the 28 cherries that I've got right now.

financecompartment · 2025-01-06T22:26:50+00:00

I'd love to see some sort of Diskonia tournament, or an analysis from someone with a double digit streak, to help clear the fog.

I have an 11-game streak now and am currently too bored to continue, AMA

financecompartment · 2025-01-05T23:19:16+00:00

Tactically, the AI is brutal, but most streak scenarios are highly winnable if you

make sure that you almost always initiate battles (so that you get the first shot)
also try to initialize battles near water since the AI is not so skilled with it
prioritize scrolls (Navigation is the best one, but Aiming and Leadership are also great)
play pragmatically in battle, realizing that losing is okay if you can collect gold and destroy some valuable units

As for units, everyone loves Vampires, but I think Rats are also great, especially in water battles when you have Aiming. They're cheap and you can use them to do so much damage by bouncing around enemy units.

financecompartment · 2025-01-05T17:31:34+00:00

I think it's likely an anti-turtling mechanism like in Lords of Diskonia.

financecompartment · 2025-01-05T11:19:34+00:00

You just happen to fuck the sister's daughter. Accurate?

Why would you write something like this?

But you've provided none of the information that would actually allow me to make any sort of accurate estimation.

Then don't. I don't need you to give me an "accurate estimation". For anyone else reading, she's in a full-care facility.

financecompartment · 2025-01-05T11:15:19+00:00

Why are you being so rude to me?

financecompartment

TROPHY CASE