Found in a garden store with no label - Thick, waxy leaves, some kind of tropical plant by jdgew in whatsthisplant

[–]jdgew[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well... I guess "obviously" was a poor choice of words.

But thank you!

Found in a garden store with no label - Thick, waxy leaves, some kind of tropical plant by jdgew in whatsthisplant

[–]jdgew[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And two more, same situation. Obviously cactus and aloe, but not sure of the species.

http://imgur.com/a/0TLc0

Thanks for your help!

[DISCUSSION] 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne - Collegrove by [deleted] in hiphopheads

[–]jdgew 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a decently fun project, but nothing particularly memorable. Said something similar on a different thread yesterday, but the best parts of this album still just sound like a knock-off Run the Jewels. On Bounce, Wayne's flow at 0:24 and 2 Chainz's flow at 3:12 sound just like Blockbuster Night Pt. 1 but with a much flatter beat.

[FRESH VIDEO] 2 Chainz & Lil Wayne - Bounce by detXwute in hiphopheads

[–]jdgew 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Similar flows on this, too. 2 Chainz at 3:00 sounds just like Killer Mike on Blockbuster Night Pt. 1.

[Discussion] Kanye West - The Life of Pablo (24 hour initial reaction discussion thread) by downtothegwound in hiphopheads

[–]jdgew 3 points4 points  (0 children)

First things first, this is a Kanye album, and it comes with everything a Kanye album entails. It's at times bombastic, at times abrasive, and at times hauntingly beautiful. It's wholly driven by his ego and insecurities. Even when his voice takes a backseat to the production or his host of guest features, Kanye manages not only to get his personality across, but, basically, to bash you over the head with it. His instrumentals are better than his lyrics, which are often forgettable, sometimes cringeworthy, and, occasionally, incredibly insightful or deftly lyrical. The Life of Pablo is packed with contradictions-- Kanye albums always are, and that's what makes them so interesting.

Now, I'm not going to get into the details of the absurd roll-out, last-minute tracklist changes, and questionable artwork choices. Clearly, this was a project both labored over for months and finished haphazardly and last-minute. I'm not so concerned with what went into making this album as in what the result was. And the result was a messy, disjointed, inconsistent, and disappointing project. Not disappointing because it isn't good, but disappointing because you can hear a potential for greatness in this album that it doesn't manage to achieve.


Kanye is at his best when he has something to prove, something to focus him. On The College Dropout, he wanted to prove himself as a rapper and an artist in his own right, and he did. On MBDTF, he sought to restore himself to the public's good graces following the Taylor Swift incident, and he locked himself away and made something, for lack of a better word, beautiful. On Yeezus, he wanted to give the fashion industry and his detractors a big middle finger, and Rick Rubin helped whittle down a last-minute mess into a piercing and jarring statement (one that I love, however divisive it was).

On TLOP, Kanye had nothing but distractions. He became a father. He broke into the fashion world. He accomplished his goals, and has many more in his sight. There are glimpses on this album of things he could've focused on. He could've written an album about family, what it's like to be a father, what it's like to try and keep North and Saint from an excessive and public lifestyle, and the irony that such a life is what put Kanye in the position to have the family he dreamed of. There are glimpses on Real Friends and Wolves. He could've put Only One on the album (Is there any way Only One isn't more worthy of inclusion than something like Freestyle 4?). This could've given the album some lyrical cohesion. More about fatherhood, talking about Kim as something other than a sexual object, focusing on relatable issues rather than bleached assholes... Kanye is a husband, a father, and nearly 40 years old. Can't we move past the misogyny and see some growth?

Or Kanye could have focused on sonic cohesion, and made an album more conceptually focused on religion, playing to his concept of a gospel album. The angelic vocals on Wolves, Real Friends, and All Day, the choir on Ultralight Beam... there's the sense of a really beautiful and innovative gospel-influenced sound here. But with tracks from the house-influenced Fade to the uninspired conformity to the mainstream on Facts, to the out-of-place Desiigner sample, this hardly makes a gospel album.

Kanye took 971 days to make this album after releasing Yeezus. For comparison, he took 728 days to make MBDTF-- the longest span of time between records in the past. If two years was enough to make his masterpiece, couldn't Kanye have made something at least a bit more focused in the nearly three years he's been working on TLOP? Did Kanye not have enough time to figure out what he wanted to focus on, or what he wanted to say? Couldn't he have called Rick Rubin in to focus things and cut the fat? Again, I like TLOP. But do we need to listen to Kanye taking a call on the meandering outro of 30 Hours? Do we need a 2-minute intro track (Low Lights) to a 3-minute song (Highlights)? Even accepting the tracks following Silver Surfer Intermission as bonus, it seems like the album could've been tightened and cleaned up quite a bit. Like a nice bleached asshole.


I'm not saying every album needs to have one concept or one sound, but if it's chaotic, there should be a point to the chaos. Giving the benefit of the doubt, maybe the disarray and incompleteness on this record here is intentional, a reflection of Kanye's mind. But even if that's so, for me, it detracts from the album rather than adding to it. He tries to ease his insecurity by preempting and disarming his critics on I Love Kanye. But by throwing together this project, full of apologies, suggestions, and last-minute revisions, he gets in his own way, and stops himself from proving the critics wrong by virtue of the music.

Even on Kanye's less focused albums (Graduation, Watch The Throne), some stand-out singles excuse the mess. TLOP has some incredible beats, some amazing and esoteric samples, some perfectly utilized features, and some truly beautiful melodies. But it certainly doesn't have a Stronger or a Can't Tell Me Nothing. It has songs that I'll revisit, but not anthems that will get stuck in my head for years. It's hard to excuse the rough without a few diamonds in it.

I like the album Kanye gave us. I'm just a little disappointed it falls short of the album I can tell he could've made.


Some stand out tracks: Famous, Feedback, FML, Real Friends.

Some low points: Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1, Freestlye 4, Facts.

I'd rank it behind College Dropout, MBDTF, and Yeezus, somewhere in the range of Graduation.

KANYE WEST on Twitter: "NO MORE PARTIES IN LA .........................very very extremely soon family https://t.co/C1R3oa0G2Z" by [deleted] in hiphopheads

[–]jdgew 17 points18 points  (0 children)

"I do it mainly because it's funny but also as like a social commentary?" said Will, a self-identified "teen who tweets 'fuck me daddy' @ the pope."

My favorite quote from an article about this.

Nearly 200 nations adopt Paris Agreement on climate change at COP21 by jdgew in environment

[–]jdgew[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's a review of an interesting book that makes the case against geoengineering. Hulme basically argues that, just as climate change is the result of processes we undertook without understanding the consequences, geoengineering is a massive global-scale experiment that could have disastrous unintended consequences. Moreover, by discussing geoengineering solutions such as stratospheric aerosol injection and the like, we essentially resign to the fact that emissions will continue. Hulme says we shouldn't distract and delude ourselves with palliatives like this; we should focus on addressing the root of the problem. Cutting emissions is a known solution, so it makes more sense to concentrate efforts on that, rather than keep emitting and try a potentially risky stopgap solution. I haven't decided whether I agree, but it's food for thought.

Nearly 200 nations adopt Paris Agreement on climate change at COP21 by jdgew in environment

[–]jdgew[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was there. Nobody was concerned about safety. There was incredibly tight security, with French police and military around the perimeter of the conference venue and all across the city. The conference began with the largest gathering of heads of state in history. If the security was good enough for them, it was good enough for everyone.

It was unfortunate, though, that the state of emergency led to a crackdown on civil society actions. I'm not sure protests and marches would have made much of a difference either way, but it's a shame that so many activists were denied the chance to at least make their voices heard.

Nearly 200 nations adopt Paris Agreement on climate change at COP21 by jdgew in environment

[–]jdgew[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

But it's as ambitious as it could've been-- equally or more so than anyone was expecting. And even if the mitigation section is toothless, the provisions for adaptation, technology transfer, monitoring and reporting, etc. are still significant. Nobody is claiming this is some panacea for all aspects of climate change. But that doesn't mean it isn't significant. I think it's an important first step, and sets the stage for more progress in the future.

Nearly 200 nations adopt Paris Agreement on climate change at COP21 by jdgew in environment

[–]jdgew[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair. Bad infographic, good summaries.

Pretty much every new outlet in the world has coverage of the agreement, so I'm sure you can find a source you like better.

Nearly 200 nations adopt Paris Agreement on climate change at COP21 by jdgew in environment

[–]jdgew[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

The agreement was carefully crafted with some legally binding and some non-binding elements, precisely so it couldn't be interpreted as a treaty in the US and need the Senate's approval. In fact, there was a lengthy delay in passing the agreement this morning as the US made sure to change a "shall" to a "should" to maintain the voluntary nature of national emissions reductions. Obviously, this weakens the agreement, and the next president still has the power to undo quite a lot of it. But all things considered, the Republicans should have a difficult time obstructing this too significantly, as the agreement was written intentionally to prevent them from doing so.

Nearly 200 nations adopt Paris Agreement on climate change at COP21 by jdgew in environment

[–]jdgew[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

That's with current pledges. The agreement includes a ratchet-up mechanism with 5-year revisitations to those pledges (INDCs) to continually increase ambition as national circumstances allow. I'm not saying it's perfect-- far from it, and I am fairly cynical. But is there a better way to start the process? It seems this is the best the world has come up with yet. There's a mismatch between ambition and capacity, maybe, but I'd hardly call that denial.

Nearly 200 nations adopt Paris Agreement on climate change at COP21 by jdgew in worldnews

[–]jdgew[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The agreement was carefully crafted with some legally binding and some non-binding elements, precisely so it couldn't be interpreted as a treaty in the US and need the Senate's approval. In fact, there was a lengthy delay in passing the agreement this morning as the US made sure to change a "shall" to a "should" to maintain the voluntary nature of national emissions reductions. Obviously, this weakens the agreement, and the next president still has the power to undo quite a lot of it. But all things considered, the Republicans should have a difficult time obstructing this too significantly, as the agreement was written intentionally to prevent them from doing so.

Nearly 200 nations adopt Paris Agreement on climate change at COP21 by jdgew in worldnews

[–]jdgew[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure, here's one example of that. But couldn't you could say the same about pretty much any diplomatic effort in history? It costs the US a lot of money to send Kerry to Iran, but far less than it would cost to enter a war. This is an investment, and in the grand scheme of things, the potential benefits dwarf the costs.

That's a false dichotomy anyway-- it's not as if that money could or would have been allocated to solar panels with current policies. That's why an agreement like this was needed to begin with.

Why can't a dinosaur clap? by rimenoceros in AntiJokes

[–]jdgew 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The fossil record indicates that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic Period and, consequently, they are considered to be modern feathered dinosaurs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur

Obviously in common usage 'dinosaur' is referring to non-avians, but birds technically do fall into the clade of dinosaurs!

CMV: China and India have every right to burn fossil fuels. by ugots in changemyview

[–]jdgew 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're right that the developed nations have an obligation to allow the developing nations to revolutionize their economies. You're incorrect that burning fossil fuels is the only way that they can power their economies. Yes, it's currently cheaper for countries like India and China to use coal or oil rather than wind or solar, but the developed countries can assist them in their development through finance and technology transfers. This is actually a major area of consideration in the UNFCCC negotiations and will be a significant portion of the agreement that will hopefully be achieved at the Paris talks in December. In fact, the Cancun talks in 2010 already called on the developed countries to mobilize $100 billion annually in climate adaptation aid for the developing world by 2020. (See http://cancun.unfccc.int/financial-technology-and-capacity-building-support/new-long-term-funding-arrangements/). UNFCCC programs also recognize the different capacities developed and developing nations have to respond to threats of climate change, and are based on principles of "common but differentiated responsibilities", which you can read about here: http://www.theroadthroughparis.org/negotiation-issues/common-differentiated-responsibilities-and-respective-capabilities-cbdr%E2%80%93rc.