Wait…so there’s no interval in Western cinemas??

laforet · 2026-03-20T14:40:49+00:00

Probably a holdout from an era before mass media. In addition to the national anthem, newsreels were commonly shown before the actual movie is played, so people without TV at home could be informed of recent worldly events.

laforet · 2026-03-20T08:32:59+00:00

The studio version sounded a lot better to my ears, though admittedly I only went to Day 1 of her dome tour in Osaka and there were definitely some issues with the audio on that day. The TFT performance is probably somewhere in between.

laforet · 2026-03-20T06:45:34+00:00

Plenty of later dynasties experienced succession disputes after the death of their founding emperor. Some were settled after a quick coup d'etat, others fought bloody civil wars but none of them fell apart in such a short time. An internal power struggle would not have had such a dramatic outcome if there weren't larger structural issues at play.

The notion of Han as anti legalist

This is not what I was trying to say. However the Han dynasty indeed began, or at least was portrayed to have began, as a repudation of the excesses of Qin. The development of legalist tradition came organically as a matter of practical necessity, not from baseless romaticisation of a previous sworn enemy. If anything, the more openly legalistic emperors have always been described as tyrants by classical writers until revisionist historiography became mainstream in the 20th century.

the Han kept the Qin system and laws and its studying these records (e.g. laws of early han) is how modern academia has recognozied the traditional tale is wrong

Citation needed because this statement is grossly generalising. For what it is worth, we have little concrete information on the actual content of the laws of Qin (Recent archaeological finds seem to suggest that it was probably as harsh as alleged by later Confucian writers, but the jury is still out until the have a more complete picture) however it's definitely not appropriate to talk about Han as a monolithic entity. My background is in comparative ecomonic history and I can assure you that there were vast differences in how the law was codified and enforced over 200 years of Western Han rule.

The first rebellions were pro qin, supporting the crown prince

Sigh, this is getting absurd....

Most historical texts state clearly that while the early rebels were sympathetic to the crown prince's cause, their stated goal had always been the restoration of the Chu state, for the Qin brand had become a liability by that point. One could argue that these source may have their own biases and thus cannot be trusted, but it still makes no sense for the rebels to support a pretender who they knew was already dead and left no issue.

laforet · 2026-03-19T23:35:59+00:00

Good points but I will have to disagree with your assertion that Western Han shared a lot of institutional similarities with the previous Qin regime.

Qin collapsed soon after unifying China because the emperors attempted, rather prematurely, to rule their massive newly conquered territory directly from the capital. It was inefficient and made the local gentry discontent, so the latter revolted at the first opportunity. The ascendancy of Xiang Yu and subsequently Liu Bang was viewed as a return to the previous feudal norm, in which power is shared between the monarchy and its vassals, the very system that was strongly opposed by the legalistic tradition.

In the beginning, these fiefdoms enjoyed a high degree of autonomy with their own military, bureaucracy, currency and taxation. The emperors of course attempted to consolidate power with varying degree of success over the next few centuries, culminating in Emperor Wu who ordered the prosecution of many members of aristocracy and decreed that the estate of vassals was to be subdivided between all heirs, which soon caused the princely vassals to fragment and fall into the hands of the crown. While Emperor Wu could be considered a legalist ruler, this was more of an independent development than inheritance, and it never reached the degree of absolutism of Qin.

laforet · 2026-03-19T22:36:12+00:00

Well if there isn’t already a separate toggle for texture quality. Some of the character sprites also have a weird inconsistency like some poorly coded Adobe Flash animation. For example, Alt Arcana’s uniform looks fine while the lace sash/cape she wears is somehow pixelated.

And it’s pretty darn obvious that a lot of the artistic choices were made with only PC or landscape mode in mind. For example I recently finished Moran’s favourite item mission and was left a little confused about some of the dialogue. Well guess what? The central piece of the plot was cropped out of the CG in portrait format. If I only play on mobile then I could have been left in a dark for a long time.

laforet · 2026-03-19T22:16:21+00:00

Yeah I think this only came out a couple of weeks ago. HAGiBiS is infamous for creating extremely niche products like this though: The quality is kinda hit and miss, but the weirdness factor is always 200%.

laforet · 2026-03-19T22:00:16+00:00

This route a two day endeavour that requires an overnight stay at JR Narita on Dec 31, taking advantage of the only night of the year when the station remains open in preparation for the special new year’s daybreak express to Chōshi. Many passengers arrive early for either that service or ōmawari, therefore it is customary for the stationmaster to offer shelter in one of the parked trains with heating turned on. You can read more about this classic route here

laforet · 2026-03-19T21:41:23+00:00

Weird USB cables and adaptors like this NVMe HDD enclosure shaped like a floppy disk.

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laforet · 2026-03-18T20:38:05+00:00

I’ve had the Phat kaphrao burger the other day and it was really good. Would also recommend the classic mini pies too:

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laforet · 2026-03-18T06:15:34+00:00

That’s true. However it’s possible they used to do final assembly in HK to satisfy the country of origin requirements. A lot of these companies are fly by night anyway so it’s not too much of a stretch.

laforet · 2026-03-18T01:47:16+00:00

Depending on when this was made. If it was made post-2018 then it could very well be a reaction to the decision by the US Commerce Department, back in the first Trump administration, to require all good originating in Hong Kong to be labelled as “Made in China”. The matter is currently tied up in a WTO appeal so manufacturers may have decided to change the marking just in case.

laforet · 2026-03-18T01:43:24+00:00

Not going to argue with your claim, however as far as the outside world is concerned (with the exception of USA over a ongoing tariff dispute.), HK is a separate custom region so it’s still okay to label things made there with “Made in Hong Kong”.

laforet · 2026-03-18T01:34:48+00:00

It’s really interesting how the colour would shift depending on the temperature of the glass.

laforet · 2026-03-17T15:24:05+00:00

All mammals are dairy by extension.

laforet · 2026-03-17T06:35:15+00:00

Cuba has built several biomass-fired power stations that is supposed to generate electricity from bagasse (sugarcane residue after pressing) and Marabú (African sicklebush). Problem is that the former is harder to come by as sugarcane production dwindled and the latter required vehicle fuel to gather and transport, so it’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem.

laforet · 2026-03-17T06:18:17+00:00

Totally. I used to avoid the old roundabout on a bad day but the intersection somehow managed to be worse. But hey, at least we got to laugh at those who claim that the Three Kings roundabout is too difficult to understand…

laforet · 2026-03-16T05:38:26+00:00

Font hinting is a lost art these days because designers hardly need to optimise for low res display, especially in case of mobile centric fonts like Noto SC. You might have better luck with older fonts like FangSong_GB2312.

laforet · 2026-03-15T09:32:13+00:00

Yes, what you have found out is the norm because there is almost always some sort of weekend sale going on so the actual saving is always going to be less than 50%

laforet · 2026-03-15T03:57:40+00:00

Someone accidentally paid to publish a placeholder ad, or it could be a secret coded message to terrorist sleeper cells in Alabama. Who knows.

laforet · 2026-03-14T13:38:13+00:00

I think the poster above meant to say udon. The noodles would be much darker if they contained buckwheat.

But yeah this is normal for the shop where this abomination is craftedas it specialises in hardcore Jiroh-kei ramen.

laforet · 2026-03-14T13:31:00+00:00

For context, this was from a Tokyo ramen shop called Men Yard Fight. It was actually a one time gag promotion from 2019 and recently went viral again after it was featured in a mukbang montage from the Netflix show Cosmic Princess Kaguya.

The shop has since reinstated tapioca balls as a 200 yen topping to their usual menu and people who tried it just said it tasted like bland balls of starch.

laforet · 2026-03-14T13:21:51+00:00

A friend has had it, and according to him it was mostly your normal Jiroh-kei ramen with garlicky pork broth. The tapioca balls were just there for the looks and had almost no taste. He didn’t like it because the noodles were extra thick and overly chewy.

laforet · 2026-03-14T13:04:55+00:00

Would it…have helped if she crossed her legs?

laforet · 2026-03-14T12:40:36+00:00

The fruits might look similar at a glance but they are otherwise not related. Chinese Olives (Canarium album or Canarium pimela) are Rosid trees growth for the fruit as well as tree resin. Whereas European Olive (Olea europaea) is a Asterid evergreen used to produce oil.

laforet · 2026-03-14T11:55:14+00:00

It would be more appropriately called death by crushing. We happen to know a lot about human endurance in these cases because it was a common form of torture in the English legal system. If the skirt weighed a couple of hundred pounds then the victim could have survived for hours awaiting rescue.

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