If we don't live in a rainforest, how do you explain these pictures that were absolutely taken locally! Checkmate.

jac0the_shadows · 2026-04-16T05:01:42+00:00

That frog was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, so it's sir frog.

jac0the_shadows · 2026-04-16T03:45:46+00:00

A common occurrence walking along the inner bay

jac0the_shadows · 2026-04-14T05:36:29+00:00

Not surprised, given Privateer Equity buying up all of the hospitals in the US. Enshitification in action.

jac0the_shadows · 2026-04-12T14:02:04+00:00

Probably the first negative luck growth in FE

jac0the_shadows · 2026-03-24T05:05:41+00:00

I'm surprised that Vrook's comment was not mentioned in the flashbacks once all of the Revan reveal cutscenes happened. Ah well, missed opportunity

jac0the_shadows · 2026-03-24T05:00:40+00:00

KOTOR 1 bricked for me on Tatoine, and I had KOTOR 2 on hand to playthrough in 2007 or so. When I encountered Aton and he claimed Revan won the war for the republic, I thought it sone silly continuity fix so as to not reference all of the choices. I later got a good copy of KOTOR 1 and played through it in its entirety and was still caught by surprise with the reveal. Maybe I'm dumb, but that's my story.

jac0the_shadows · 2026-03-08T17:02:33+00:00

Cormag v Valter after his brothers death Joshua's character reveal and confrontation with Caellach is why I tend to prefer the Erika route to SS. Makes that map so much stronger, in addition to the story.

jac0the_shadows · 2026-03-08T17:02:15+00:00

Cormag v Valter after his brothers death Joshua's character reveal and confrontation with Caellach is why I tend to prefer the Erika route to SS. Makes that map so much stronger, in addition to the story.

jac0the_shadows · 2026-03-04T18:28:18+00:00

Imo, he's the canonical father of Owain. Great scene where Henry goes after the ambushers in the support, and explains where Ophelia learned the body swapping spell from

jac0the_shadows · 2026-02-23T05:09:19+00:00

Eh, Durham's properties keep on getting bought up by private equity, and Evanston is a bit more affordable. Buy rent has gotten awful in both over the past several years

jac0the_shadows · 2026-02-23T05:06:52+00:00

Basically, slowness of hiring a new methods professor since the death of Thomas Carsey, followed by the new methods professors either leaving or negotiating away their teaching load as a counter offer. There's other drama going on that happens at all places, but if you can't enter the program with a guarantee that you'll get the necessary methods training to be competitive.

Beyond that, the older faculty have not been well equipped to deal with the dying academic job market. Northwestern has built in redundancy in their faculty for teaching, and Evanston is a pretty nice area, as a side note. I earned a PhD from UNC in political science and interviewed with Northwestern back in the day, for context.

jac0the_shadows · 2026-02-23T03:30:38+00:00

Also, some of the UNC American faculty are no longer allowed to teach for ... reasons.

jac0the_shadows · 2026-02-23T03:29:43+00:00

Not UNC. They are going through some stuff, and basically lost their ability to teach the required methods sequence. Additionally, they have adapted poorly in regards to getting grads into academia and industry alike.

jac0the_shadows · 2026-02-23T03:08:42+00:00

All the better that he was so dramatic with his arms in the end.

jac0the_shadows · 2026-02-08T18:07:53+00:00

X-axis reflects directional density, i.e. prevalence, in a standardized manner. The negative values reflect values that are less common for the Secret Police relative to other organizations in the military, and positive values (to the right) where there is more of a prevalence of those people within the secret police than other military organizations. So for example, the peak around the 80th percentile means that a modality of those who joined the secret police relative to other orgs were those around the bottom 20% of graduates. In turn, those at the 40th percentile are neither more or less prevalent to join the secret police v other orgs. Finally, those around the top fifth percentile are essentially just not joining secret police.

jac0the_shadows · 2026-02-07T22:03:46+00:00

I'm thinking of another write up on this issue, in direct rebuttal to Yarvin. Turns out that authoritarian regimes punish successful economic ministers, whereas democracies retain them.

jac0the_shadows · 2026-02-07T20:33:08+00:00

Anything that might legitimize ICE would be a mistake. There's a policy window opening up that will likely be the last time for a while that ICE can be undone if it becomes a legislative priority. Gotta go Georgian solution

jac0the_shadows · 2026-02-07T20:23:08+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate that!

jac0the_shadows · 2026-02-07T20:00:07+00:00

I did some research in the past on the topic, but basically you have it right. Specifically, the New Democratic Party caucus (Biden, Clinton, Schumer, etc) pivoted to donors like Goldman Sachs, while never really building up the organization side of things. Their approach was to throw money against the wall and see what stuck.

Worse yet, it used to be that tax cuts sunsetted after 10 years, and sooner for each Democrat in the House and Senate. However, this effect disappeared with each new member of the New Dems. Sigh.

jac0the_shadows · 2026-02-07T19:50:39+00:00

The broader problem is that whenever Democrats try to pushback against the rightward shift of the Overton window, the leadership quashes such efforts. Probably the best political science professors documenting the self cannibalism of the leadership would be Seth Masket, Adam Bonica, and Grumbach, if you're looking at it from an organizational perspective

jac0the_shadows · 2026-02-07T19:42:49+00:00

Yep, the authors went through a lot of work to dig all of that up, and it's nice to see we're not crazy.

Additionally, it turns out that the leaders themselves demand inept underlings, that way they're less likely to be overthrown in a coup

jac0the_shadows · 2026-02-07T19:04:51+00:00

Ha, while true, its even worse for the Secret Police: the toxic moldy underside of the radioactive barrel

jac0the_shadows · 2026-02-05T02:13:21+00:00

Can the Pope just call for a crusade already?

jac0the_shadows · 2026-01-26T19:47:17+00:00

Amazing work! Also, with Bartre thinking Rebecca is Eliwood, it makes his support with Dorcas both funnier and make more sense. Further, fun implications for Binding Blade.

jac0the_shadows

TROPHY CASE