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George_E_Hale

insufferable blowhard

2 followers   follows 12 users  
joined 2022 September 04 19:24:43 UTC

The things you lean on / are things that don't last

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George_E_Hale


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
insufferable blowhard

				
				
				

				

					2 followers  

					follows 12 users  

					joined 2022 September 04 19:24:43 UTC
				


				
					

					
The things you lean on / are things that don't last



				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 107


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
							
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				Quality Contributions Report for October 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I agree, with caveat. Kennedy has been a talented creative for years and years, early on serving as Spielberg's assistant in movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc. and giving real creative feedback to him when he was surrounded by YesMen. And she has had a lot of very legitimate gripes about being held at arm's length by men in the film industry, not allowed access, etc., over her longish career.


Unfortunately, and in my view uncharacteristically as she has historically shown very good judgment, she greenlights the 7-9 sequels with no story past the first one. And they inevitably go with the times and highlight something something girlpower. The Acolyte series and whatnot are just artifacts of this same spin. I'm not sure Dave Filoni is doing much better, though he has to swim in the same water. At least she brought in Tony Gilroy, and the Andor series was very good, even maneuvering the DEI requirements of the industry pretty well without sacrificing story or acting.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Midterms Megathread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I knew the quote, but thank you. From the point of view of Republicans coming at him, it does make more sense (as opposed to the left, which has been coming at him for a decade, hard.) Thanks for the clarity.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Midterms Megathread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What is this supposed to mean in this context? Dozens, hundreds have come at Trump, some with actual guns, and missed.  And?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Midterms Megathread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


war in Iraq




Reference to the past or mistype?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The ones going down stairs while watching Netflix I actually want to fall, just for learning purposes.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I just lost a long comment when I stupidly clicked out.


Anyway it contained this link of my family in 2016. We used to do Halloween in our neighborhood. The comment was the long story of how this brief festivity began as a tradition in our neighborhood, and how it eventually died out. I do not have the will to type out the comment again, but suffice to say it contained two jokes, one about a woman wanting to touch my stormtrooper suit, another about the resin British Sterling I am carrying. I still have that suit in a box. This year we didn't do anything, nor did anyone else around us. I expect Shibuya in Tokyo had its event, and I haven't seen any headlines of stupid foreigners destroying property this year so maybe all was okay.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
As a man married for quite some time, I'd suggest that the idea that women retain their pre-marriage characteristics post nuptials (or post childbearing) is certainly pretty to think, but may be at odds with reality. Put another way: It may be expedient to be deeply in love with or profoundly committed to the girl to whom you propose marriage. Because she will change.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Nah, bro




The complex use of "bro" aside, your interlocutor in this case is a woman. (The person you were responding to.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for October 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels killed many hours on the train for me. There were 23 books or so when I stopped reading. They only make you think in as much as if you know anything about firearms you wonder how Child got some of it past fact checkers (assuming there were any.) Otherwise they're a very easy read, and often very enjoyable.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What if they are an ethnicity from Laos?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Well put. Thanks for the response. I think the fictive scenario of the film is a way of putting this very idea into play. Gosling's character (K, I think,  was his name) is the central protagonist of that film, and his interactions with both humans, constructs like Joi, and other replicants is the meat (cough) of the story.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The use of the word 'tards here is pointlessly adolescent. If you mean Down syndrome? Thats not hard to write. It could just as easily be Asperger's or even some type of autism. If your point is specificity of language, perhaps begin by being specific yourself.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yours is a materialist view, as I'm sure you would acknowledge, which is at odds in this case with the spiritualist view. The latter would (might?) have a more ready answer to the source of the "elsewhere," namely a divinity or sacredness inherent in the human, or something similar.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There is a scene in Blade Runner 2049 that I think of when reading your comment. If you have not seen that movie stop reading this, unless you don't care and probably won't watch it anyway.


Unlike the original film, in this one Ryan Gosling's character, the protagonist in the movie, is revealed more or less immediately as artificial. Meaning not human, but not a simple robot. He is a "replicant," therefore has the "more human than human" characteristics of the replicants of the original film, though is an upgrade of sorts, and his journey living out this experience and discovering his limits is part of the story.


What I imagined reading your comment however were the scenes with his artificial paramour, Joi (Ana de Armas) who is usually confined to his home. She is not a replicant (presumably replicants are high-end or otherwise expensive), but is a product line available to the masses. She is basically a chatbot, but one whom he is able to "see" via holographic projection (she has many of the same qualities of so-called Chatbot paramours in our current age in that she remembers things, can seem to have feelings, is available to communicate at any time, and is always happy to interact, but unlike what we have this year--maybe next?--she can be hologrammed into existence, her mouth syncs with the words that she speaks, she can walk around a room, and she can even somehow pair holographically with a physical female so that she, Joi, for a brief time seems to have flesh and blood).


Gosling's character decides to take Joi out of his house via some technological bauble called an "emanator" where she can seem to be physically with him--on-the-go, as it were--like your chatbot girlfriend on your smartphone, except he can also see her moving outside in the world now, cast into a physical (if still untouchable) holographic shape by his emanator. It is made explicit to us, as the audience, that putting her into an emanator does not come without danger. In a way that seems odd technologically for us in 2026, where ChatGPT or name-your-bot interlocutors are stored on servers and not in any one physical device, once you put a Joi into an emanator she is locked there, and thus you must take good care to keep the emanator from harm. A bit of narrative telegraphing perhaps, for his transferring her does not end well. He eventually meets various antagonists, and one of them cruelly takes the emanator (and thus Joi) from him and stomps on it. This crushing of the emanator thus ends Joi. For plot reasons in the film, then, the Joi that he knew is destroyed at this moment, wiped from existence, but not before she almost gets out the phrase, directed at Gosling's character: "I love you."


The pathos here--if there is any, if you do not reject the premises--is that Gosling is himself not a human, and nor is Joi human, yet the pain he "feels" (if putting this in quotes is the right move) has been made to be understandable to a human audience observing these events unfold. Understandable to me, at least.


So my point. Think of how attached people are just to their smartphones--these non-sentient pieces of metal and plastic we carry with us. Watch the face of someone in 2026 who has forgotten or lost their phone. It's panic. It is as if you have taken away one of their senses. I predict with the advent of chatbot relationships (and I expect these will go far beyond the fairly oddball people who marry their Replikas, and will merge into the mainstream, and in the not distant future) if/when these are suddenly cut off, there will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth. And the obvious retort will be: "But it wasn't real." Indeed.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have seen it a few times and quite enjoyed it. I read the book afterward. I try not to analyze works of fiction that I read/watch if they affect me viscerally, which the movie did. I think because of the frequent use of cut scenes more than anything else.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


studies show fighting is emotionally beneficial for males




Care to link?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This may be the interview.


I'm not sure I agree with many of your opinions here, particularly that all women are apparently mostly the same. I've heard feminist women make the same charges against men and I agree with them about as much as I agree with you. Anyway I'm compulsive when people can't find things so hopefully I've found your video.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				fast-following the Moonshot: a look at Chinese AI as of summer 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I agree with this.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If it's anything like Japanese, there must be waves of argot depending on the writer and context, that change from month to month. Even LLMs used as translation tools have trouble keeping up.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Aboslutely.




Going to use this spelling in the future, though still thinking of the right context.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It would not strain credulity for me to hear that, even now, many in evangelical circles believe that satanic witches are real or were real at some undefined point. But these would be protestants.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't doubt you, but is this a newer alt or were you a lurker before?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				fast-following the Moonshot: a look at Chinese AI as of summer 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I smiled at your opening--what is the phrase? "Ignore every sentence that comes before the but."


It's not as if I do not understand your points here. I do. I also think that repeated bannings are extremely tiresome and eventually have no teeth. People will even open with "I'm gonna be banned for this..." and so on. Or some similar phrase. I'm breaking my own rule here but I often feel as if @Daseindustries has a simmering contempt for nearly everyone in this forum, in particular anyone who disagrees with him.


Also if we are to make exceptions now, that necessitates, if not sending out the ravens to beckon the permabanned return, at least clicking whatever unban button there might be for all who are in that category. Welcome back, persona grata, Darwin, or insert whomever you might prefer stay out of the party. And that list is in the hundreds at this point, though no doubt many of them are alts. Hlynka, for all his interesting posts, I believe was the guy who came at @self_made_human of all people with "Maybe it's because English isn't your first language" or some similar jibe. (I may be wrong, if so, I'll delete that. Edit: I'mnot wrong.) The issue isn't the one-off rudeness. It's that this sets a tone, and that tone is repeatedly read by everyone who browses the Motte, including lurkers--lurkers who may be very intelligent but are much more likely to remain lurkers if they get the sense that we are just another forum where playing the dozens or insulting your interlocutor for some imagined peanut gallery (aka modern "debate") is the norm. I'd personally prefer we avoid that.


You counter that temp bans are a solution. I'd agree if I thought they'd solve anything, but again the permabanned have shown repeatedly that they don't give a rat's ass about decorum, that they're above any ruleset for their own absurd reasons, and that the longer they interact with anyone who disagrees with them the more likely they are to revert to childish form. Time after time, ban after ban.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Still confused. So a dress shirt? Buttons fastened?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
How the hell do you put on a shirt inside out? Was it a t-shirt? A polo shirt? That would make sense. But you mention buttons. I'm not being facetious, I'm genuinely trying to picture this.


That no man mentioned it does not mean that no man noticed it, btw.