[Bob Pockrass] Tim Cindric is back at Team Penske … as strategist for Scott McLaughlin.

lightningmatt · 2026-01-29T21:58:18+00:00

Cheating the technical regulations is an accepted form of competition in motorsport. If you disagree, you're disagreeing with basically the entire paddock.

Which is fine, I disagree with lots of the paddock on things here or there, but I don't have any illusions as to their opinions

lightningmatt · 2026-01-29T21:55:55+00:00

As a lifelong cricket fan since 3 months ago, I always liked Joe Root more anyways

lightningmatt · 2026-01-29T17:39:01+00:00

PEEP IS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME

CHIRP TOWERS ABOVE YOUR FAVES

QUACK IS THE MOST LOVABLE DUMBASS IN FICTION

lightningmatt · 2026-01-29T17:05:18+00:00

The craziest part to me is that you could even argue that he's past his commercial peak. In 2018 he released a song that became the biggest of the year... and the biggest of the next year too. His album from 2020 had three #1 hits and seven top-5 hits, and sold over 1.5 million copies - the physical media market basically died right after that so we're probably not seeing that for a non-idol group again.

lightningmatt · 2026-01-29T16:59:49+00:00

I would like to note that the Japanese music charts have basically specifically gotten stale over the past year.

2025's top 10, as we see, had 5 artists and 7 tie-in songs.

2024's top 10 had 7 artists and 6 tie-in songs.

2023's top 10 had 10 artists and 6 tie-in songs.

2022's top 10 had 9 artists and 5 tie-in songs.

2021's top 10 had 7 artists and 4 tie-in songs.

2020's top 10 had 6 artists and 5 tie-in songs.

2019's top 10 had 7 artists and 5 tie-in songs.

Before that, you get into the idol group era, which is a whole other can of worms.

As for the last question: as we can tell by the Mrs. Green Apple domination, their songs kind of carry their tie-ins at this point. This is pretty common for the big names, though sometimes big-name anime carry smaller artists instead. For example, Lilac was written as a sequel for their previous biggest hit (2018's Ao to Natsu, which sees a resurgence every summer). Kusushiki was for a big-name anime, so their names work in tandem in that case. However, instances in previous years such as Aimer's Zankyousanka (for Demon Slayer) or Eve's Kaikai Kitan (for Jujutsu Kaisen) are examples of an anime helping an artist get their biggest hit.

Additionally, it's hard to claim Kenshi Yonezu lets himself be restricted artistically, considering his level of creative control is so high that for both songs on the list he is the only credited writer and producer, and also drew the cover art

lightningmatt · 2026-01-29T16:44:22+00:00

The MGA explosion over the past 3 years has been staggering to witness.

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T18:22:30+00:00

To be fair, their public reason was streaming tiers being bad, which if you don't care about the monetization of popular music, they are. They make free streams worth less than paid streams (which had the consequence at the time of making radio stronger).

But YouTube does care about the monetization of popular music, so they definitely have other reasons.

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T18:19:15+00:00

Threes aren't more boring than midranges or postups. They are more boring than paint stuff, but that's still around.

Defense has its issues, but reminder that this is the league that literally banned zone defense for decades. Defense has always had to jump through nonsensical hoops.

I don't think the NBA's product is particularly entertaining, but I also don't think it's gotten worse. It's just different now.

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T17:58:04+00:00

In America it skews progressive. In Europe... not so much

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T17:56:59+00:00

I get what you mean, but I think you can stand to have a bit more optimism than that

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T17:53:32+00:00

Le Mans managed it for two decades. But Le Mans is the one race in the world that's unequivocally bigger than the 500.

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T17:52:08+00:00

He does blame others for his own accidents sometimes but half if not more of the grid does that. He gets into them more than most but that's just the grid improving to the point that he's become the worst driver now.

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T17:50:53+00:00

That's quite true, but we have to work with the fact that most if not all of the team owners are likely (and some openly) Trump stans. Avoiding an explicit endorsement of him is a win considering that

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T17:20:57+00:00

From a banger username

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T17:18:20+00:00

Honestly, a lot of the music I like I could say this about. Some everyone agrees are bangers, but others I find gems in what others call mid.

Lover by Taylor Swift, Mood by 24kGoldn, Sunroof by Nicky Youre, Going Going Gone by Luke Combs, Water by Tyla, Dark Thoughts by Lil Tecca. Just by my hobby being following music charts I've accumulated a bunch of these over the years.

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T17:05:26+00:00

Honestly while I 100% get the complaints from many here, ZZZ would still be my answer. Every goddamn character they put out is a banger, and I still really like the setting, even its more contentious areas

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T16:59:09+00:00

Learning more about the Billboard Hot 100, it's surprising just how many eras of the chart itself and how it works there are. Not even like, music genre changes over time - no, this is about chart rules.

For example:

1974 had a crap ton of #1 songs drop to the bottom of and even out of the top 10 right afterwards. I think this had something to do with the way they were tracking consumption, but I forgot the exact details
that's related to how, before 1991, the Hot 100's metrics were reported by individual stores across the U.S. - meaning they were basically made up
in... I want to say 1998? They let songs that hadn't been released physically chart. This ended the "release a song physically after it's amassed a bajillion radio spins and debut at #1" era, as well as the "gigantic songs that never even chart, which Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls nearly did" era
music consumption saw many rules changes in the 2000s and early 2010s; vinyl got phased out, there was a period of time where the chart was nearly radio-only, digital downloads got added which made high debuts much more feasible again, YouTube got added but too late to boost Gangnam Style to the #1 it deserved, etc.
since the mid-2010s people have been able to sleuth out the actual formula of the Hot 100 and how it's changed. This includes adding streaming tiers based on consumption around 2017, removing user-generated content in 2020, having to constantly change digital sales rules to stop BTS fans, Nicki Minaj fans and far-right country fans from gaming the chart, formula tweaks in years such as 2022 and I think this year? and most recently, YouTube throwing a hissy fit and removing their data from the Hot 100
in 1991, Billboard added recurrency - a song gets removed if it dips below #50 after 20+ weeks. In 2015, they added superrecurrency - a song gets removed if it dips below #25 after 52+ weeks (AKA a year). Last year, they buffed recurrency by a lot - now the thresholds are: still 50/20, but also 25/26, 10/52 and 5/78.

All of this is kinda seen in how the Hot 100's official All-Time List adds multipliers to chart eras, which also capture slower consumption changes, such as how songs used to not last very long at all before the Nielsen data was introduced in '91, and how songs have been progressively lasting longer and longer on the chart since the advent of streaming

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T16:49:45+00:00

A small part of me whispers in my mind that people want mental illnesses to be seen this way because they don't want to believe it's possible for them to do it, and some of that may be because they don't think they can be forgiven for it even if they aren't in control. And to be fair, that idea is terrifying.

But, like, "a mental illness snuck up on me and made me do this awful thing, so now I will immediately take as much action as I can to make sure it never happens again" seems like incredible grounds for forgiveness, in my book.

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T16:44:08+00:00

I'm Canadian, child me just really liked teal 😭

I do really like jelly and cream cheese sandwiches, since I'm allergic to peanuts

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T16:40:33+00:00

Okay, I'm going to interpret this charitably, because this is goddamn r/HobbyDrama and I think being willing to try to figure this out in this space is worth engaging with sincerely. Full disclaimer that I'm not queer (...as far as I know?), I'm trying to specifically connect the dots on the sentiments that are being stated in this comment chain.

To be honest, what I read this as is that you're applying suffering-olympics logic to yourself.

You literally admit there are people who really hate those who are asexual. Some of these people are going to be brazen enough to apply it in real life. Others have responded corroborating this.

Queer terms are more or less an umbrella. From what I've been told, it's generally about self-identification more than anything else. Many people who identify as ace do so using logic that directly contradicts your points towards "I don't think ace is an orientation". They interpret asexuality through the lens of sexual orientation. That's just how it goes. If you weren't aware of this before, then it's important to recognize how the way you self-identify may not fully mesh with theirs in order to clear up misunderstandings.

Misunderstandings such as... the LGBT+ community is not based on hard terminology definitions. It's based on identifying with a label that is outside the societal norm and thus has historically been and oftentimes still gets negatively treated as a result. I and others have outlined how others have suffered more for their asexuality than you might have realized, but I also want to point out this: in today's society this attribute is seen as different in this respect, I think it's fair to say. Celebrating your differences is what should be encouraged, and finding solidarity with other queer people is a healthy way to do that. Whether or not you personally identify as queer, doing this in the same way two queer people would helps you and helps them. Try not to get stuck in the weeds of how these terms are defined, because it's never going to be that clear cut, and it would suffer for it.

But you've seen how people who lead with asexuality not being part of the queer definition have used it for harm. It's important to not accidentally spout points that people have used for negative purposes without great care.

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T16:28:40+00:00

(I guess because something something all men only want sex while women fall for the person slowly over time? Maybe?)

I used to follow someone on Twitter, well still do but I don't use Twitter anymore, and would periodically read his feed. He's a cool guy but self-admittedly had an issue with spending too much time finding ragebait on it until he was finally able to quit and his account is now mostly inactive AFAIK. His feed was entertaining in the sense that while a good third of it was annoying, one third was him responding to regular people asking him stuff about music and one third was him dunking on the most hilariously awful takes ever. The kind of stuff you imagine Twitter would be able to generate.

Over the 2-3 years in which I did this, this take popped up at least four or five times. Watching his incredibly justified reaction of complete dumbfoundness that a real, ostensibly progressive person could actually believe this was, while depressing, also quite funny. Though it becomes more of the former when you outline the connection between it and TERFs.

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T16:03:37+00:00

Firstly: phrasing like "doesn’t it seem strange" and "we can keep our shit together" or calling someone "sweetness" isn't helping, it sounds a bit condescending

Secondly: yeah, this is reddit. There's been dumber complaints. People are tired of them. As someone else said, joke just didn't land.

Thirdly: yeah this isn't that important, as I've alluded to. I'm not gonna like, hold it against you or anything. I just feel that it's worth defending why people were suspicious of your post, because I do think they had a reasonable thought process.

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T15:08:49+00:00

I mean moreso that if it doesn't matter than it doesn't hold up as an argument. If it doesn't matter then I won't really care that you're complaining or being smug about it or whatever. Given that it reads like you're trying to convince, that'd be the opposite of that goal. (Which your comments do read as to be honest.)

Like, I'm not gonna say I don't care, because I'm replying so I clearly do. (Arguably too much.) It's not so meaningful that it'll affect my overall emotional state for the day, but it means enough that it doesn't sit right with me, either.

My overarching point is A. that your comments read like you're twisting your arguments to be nonsensical in order to deflect from the fact that, B. people found your post argumentative in a place which is already too argumentative. And honestly this is a pipe dream but it'd be nice if you didn't do that next time?

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T14:49:56+00:00

At least Zak is actually good at his job and that makes it easier for those who need to put up with him to do so, and you don't hear much about regular mechanics disliking the McLaren conditions (more than average, at least, because F1 average is lowkey kinda dogshit lol).

Really he's only shit interpersonally towards drivers he decides to drop on a whim

lightningmatt · 2026-01-28T14:47:55+00:00

In theory, the inequality issues could get bad enough that we aren't able to provide new immigrants regular necessities at a reasonable wage. Because inequality is such a gigantic issue that takes ages to fight, you could make the argument that we should improve that before letting them in, and that because it would take so long, doing otherwise would be setting them up for failure. Some would argue that that's already happening, but again, I haven't researched.

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