Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
PaperclipPerfector
4hr ago
(text post)
139 thread views
Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Apropos of last week's conversation, I'd like to propose that our good friend @self_made_human try dropping some salvia. It has a penchant for revealing the truth of things. Although, you might also get trapped in an alternate reality for 8 years and come out the other end with radical permanent belief/personality changes, so, maybe it's not worth the risk...
More options
Context Copy link
What’s everyone reading? (Sorry guy who usually makes this one)
I’m 1/3rd through a reread of The Player of Games by Iain M Banks.
I’ve been rereading a lot of Banks this year since I’ve finished most of the sci fi author i think I would like. Before this, I went to reread Use of Weapons and quickly realized I had not in fact read it before! I had always put off reading it for some reason but I ended up really liking it
One of my favorite qualities of banks is that everything is so low stakes, but memorable and satisfying all the same. The plot is at best, a neat device. But there are so many memorable and creative vignettes in his books that it makes him one of my favorites
Speaking of The Culture series, I’m saving the Consider Phelbas reread for last. It was my first culture book and quite contrary to public opinion, one of my favorites. Perhaps because the MC is so disgusted with the Culture. Ever since I read that, I can’t help but notice even in the later book the undercurrent of critique of the Culture. It’s puzzling to me because Banks wrote an essay where he swears up and down that he earnestly believes The Culture is the best possible outcome for humanity and his preferred societal structure. Even after reading that, I can’t help but believe he’s still just yanking everyone’s chain.
Also, I find it very odd how many smart people I know don’t reread good books or rewatch good films or tv shows. Anything that is good or enjoyable the first time around is often just as good or better when revisited. Particularly if what you think of as good includes some decently complex theme or subtext that’s impossible to fully appreciate without knowing where the characters or story is going.
More options
Context Copy link
Item 1 of 7
The arguably-illustrious Ozy semi-recently penned an article on the internal workings of a jury trial, which reaffirmed that person's faith in the justice system. Here we find a detective story that may push opinions in the opposite direction.
Branning and Stark are two workers at a manufacturing business in Pennsylvania. They are on non-overlapping shifts, and rarely interact. On October 15, Stark switches to a different shift that overlaps with Branning's. Neither of them returns from work, and their families report both of them missing within a few days. An investigation determines that, after work, (1) Branning and an unknown person (possibly, but not definitely, Stark) drove Branning's car to an ATM and withdrew 500 dollars from Branning's bank account, and (2) Branning's car, Branning's and Stark's cell phones, and Stark (no direct sighting of Branning) moved from east-central Pennsylvania 120 miles to southern New Jersey and then 90 miles to Philadelphia before dropping off the radar. The police eventually find Stark 600 miles away in Detroit as of October 27.
In December, Branning's car is found abandoned in Virginia. The steering wheel bears DNA from Stark and an unknown man, but not from Branning. At this point, Stark is arrested and presented to a grand jury, which indicts him on a plethora of crimes—robbery, kidnapping, murder, et cetera.
More than a year later, a nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying unidentified corpses identifies a corpse found in a Maryland drainage ditch on November 2 as Branning's. When the corpse was discovered, the Maryland investigators found time of death to be October 29 or later, and could not determine the cause or manner of death (due to decomposition). However, the Pennsylvania investigators reassess the Maryland autopsy records and decide that the time of death could have been as early as October 11 (before Branning actually disappeared, but the "forensic anthropologist" told to do the analysis doesn't know that).
At trial, the prosecutor introduces evidence of three robberies that Stark committed 25 years ago. In those crimes, he brandished a gun and demanded money from a business, but did not harm the employees. The jury convicts Stark on all charges.
The appeals panel vacates and remands in a very angry opinion. (1) "There are absolutely no commonalities between Stark's 1990s robbery convictions and the instant events." So introducing them in this trial did nothing but prejudice the jury against Stark. (2) "None of the experts can say how Branning died. Not only can none of the experts explain how Branning died, but the investigators also never located a murder weapon or evidence of one. Finally, none of the experts could even conclude that there was a homicide in this case. Because we cannot say with any degree of certainty that there was even a homicide, let alone that the other offenses were committed, we conclude that there is not overwhelming evidence to sustain Stark's convictions. Accordingly, the trial court's error cannot be and is not harmless, and we are compelled to vacate Stark's convictions and remand for a new trial consistent with this opinion." (Emphasis in original.)
Remember, the jury convicted Stark of a zillion crimes under the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard! But the appeals panel points out that there was a whole two weeks between Branning's disappearance on October 15 (assuming he made it to Philadelphia alive) and his original estimated death date on October 29, and what happened in that period may or may not have involved Stark at all. Obviously, it seems a bit far-fetched that Branning would randomly skip town with Stark of his own volition. But is the idea that he was kidnapped and killed by Stark (and not by the unknown third person whose DNA was also found in the car) the only reasonable explanation? According to the appeals panel, no.
Item 2 of 7
Year 1993: A 51-year-old divorced immigrant from Japan works as an interpreter (and later the general manager) at a golf club. She enters into a close friendship with a 25-year-old chef at the same club.
Year 2003: The golf club is sold to a new owner (and eventually is redeveloped as housing). The woman (age 61) retires. Her friendship with the man (age 35) continues.
Year 2023: The woman (age 81) suffers from delusions and temporarily is committed to a mental clinic. The man (age 55) visits her while she is committed, and after she is released she begins to rely on him more. He hires housekeepers for her, finds lawyers for her, drives her to medical and legal appointments, et cetera.
Year 2024: The woman gives to the man power of attorney, transfers ownership of her house to him, and writes a new will giving 60 percent of her estate to him and 20 percent to each of her two sisters (who still live in Japan).
Year 2024, later: The woman's sister and niece come from Japan to visit her for the first time in years. Upon discovering the situation, they try to persuade her to return to Japan, but she refuses. They file a lawsuit, (1) accusing the man of exerting undue influence over the woman, and (2) seeking guardianship over her.
Year 2026: The trial judge finds that the woman now is incapacitated, but also finds that the man did not exert undue influence over her, and awards to him guardianship over her, rejecting the claims of her Japanese relatives. In particular, when the woman visited several lawyers in year 2024, they all were suspicious of the man, but after interrogating the woman they all were convinced that she was not incapacitated or unduly influenced at that time.
I'm sure that this website's resident weeaboos can imagine a cute (or sexy) visual (or kinetic) novel inspired by these events.
Item 3 of 7
A municipal govt. on the Jersey Shore™ claims that, "for many decades, it has experienced substantial numbers of unsupervised minors who rent rooms during the months of April, May, and June to celebrate high-school proms and graduations", and these crowds of minors are responsible for "unlawful and unsafe conditions". On that basis, it passes ordinances increasing the minimum age for renting a hotel room during those months, first to 18 in year 2018, and then to 21 in year 2023. In response, two hotels sue under a litany of theories.
The trial judge rejects all of the hotels' arguments (including the idea that the ordinance discriminates against Hispanics who celebrate Cinco de Mayo and blacks who celebrate Juneteenth—the hotels offered no evidence to support this assertion). However, the appeals panel reinstates two claims (equal protection and due process) that obviously fail under the federal constitution's rational-basis review but under the state constitution's balancing test have a chance of success.
Item 4 of 7
Ugly custom house update: More delay. The contractor claims that ordering the countertop was not possible before the cabinets were installed, and the countertop manufacturer has an unexpected backlog. But I guess I'm not actually suffering any damages.
Item 5 of 7
A side-splitting family case:
Item 6 of 7
Apparently, recently-deceased low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines was infamous for the low quality of its passengers. Here we see one in the wild.
A woman is sitting in a wheelchair, waiting to board a Spirit Airlines flight. Upon being told by an employee that she will not be permitted to board due to intoxication, she stands up from the wheelchair and starts screaming profanities. Four police officers escort her out, and she continues to curse at them. Upon being warned that further outbursts will result in arrest, she continues to shout. She resists the officers' subsequent attempts to handcuff her and to put her in a police car.
The woman is acquitted of public drunkenness, but is convicted of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and is sentenced to six months of probation and 125 hours of community service. The appeals panel affirms.
Item 7 of 7
In year 1989, husband (age 34) and wife (age 49) get married. Just seven years later, they separate, but don't bother to get a divorce. The husband voluntarily continues to provide financial support to the wife—500 k$ over 28 years.
In year 2024, a house owned jointly by the husband (age 69 and apparently still working) and the wife (age 84, incapacitated, and living in a nursing home) is sold. The husband gives the entire 300 k$ of proceeds to the wife, and in exchange stops sending support payments to her. The wife (through her daughter as guardian) sues, alleging that she never agreed to this exchange and she's still entitled to spousal support under the law. (The 300 k$ of house money that she got apparently already "has been depleted" in the space of a year.)
The trial judge rejects the wife's arguments, and the appeals panel affirms. Setting the husband's spousal-support obligation to zero is not unreasonable when he already has given such a huge amount of money to the wife for a separation period that was far longer than the marriage.
Item 2 is uncannily similar to a Pulitzer Prize winner from NYT: https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/katie-engelhart-contributing-writer-new-york-times
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Fragrance thread. As you know, I spent my latest digital fast looking for new scents. Since I already have several bottles, I tightened my rating scheme: good stuff that doesn't show me I have a gap in my collection gets a zero.
This time the fragrances are sorted chronologically.
Essential Parfums Mon Vetiver, +1. One of the basic man smells: citrus and vetiver. Smells more complex than Escentric 03, but I actually prefer the straightforwardness of the latter. Has the same background note as Tabarome, which I can't really describe.
Wife: not bad
Houbigant Duc de Vervins, -2. The smell is too sharp for me. Grey Flannel is sharp as well, but it's bitter and fresh. This one doesn't have the freshness and neither is it aromatic. Again, my poor fragrance vocabulary can't explain what the notes are. Acrid is probably the word I would use.
Escentric Molecules Molecule 03, 0. As you know, I quite like Escentric 03, which is a fragrance based on vetiveryl acetate. This is just this single compound alone, and I bought it to see what it smelled like. It's a pleasant woody smell, but I quickly lose the ability to sense it.
Escentric Molecules Escentric 04, 0. I like it, but it doesn't smell like a revelation. It's a mix of citrus and flowers and sweet woods, I can't really separate one note from the other.
Wife: hated it, called it cloying and sweet
Mauboussin Une Historie d'Homme Irresistible, -1. Pleasant, but not my style. I says it's for men right in the name, but I see it more as a sophisticated women's fragrance. People say it smells like Ombre Noire, but I find them quite different: MUHdHI is very smooth, with none of the oriental notes from ON.
Wife: meh
Byredo Mojave Ghost, -1. It's really a ghost: the scent is very weak. It's sweet and floral, with the same synthetic undertone I usually notice in MMM perfumes.
Wife: weak and feminine and synthetic
Max Philip Cypress, 0. It does smell like cypress when you spray it: that briny smell that was the feature of Cipresso di Toscana. The sharpness recedes quickly, and you start noticing the oily vetiver like in Etro, but, again, it's more subdued.
Issey Miyake L'Eau Bleue d'Issey Pour Homme, +2. Wow. It smells incredibly fresh and green, with the citrus notes providing the backing vocals. If Terre d'Hermes or one of its flankers isn't fresh enough for you, this one definitely is. The only drawback is its poor longevity. Oh, and its name is impossible to remember, like one of a Turkish all-inclusive resort.
Wife: wow, this one it so good, I didn't expect this from you
Frederic Malle French Lover, -1. It's not bad, but the overall effect is spoiled by the presence of some kind of incense. I find practically all of them irritatingly stifling. Other than that, it's a nice mix of herbaceous and woody notes.
Wife: loved it, but she's a big fan of Middle Eastern resins.
Cerruti 1881 Men, 0. A very sharp dark green fragrance. A bit like green Polo, but without the vapor rub note. There's a bit of a mothball in it, though. Of all the fragrances I've tried, it's the most "old man" one. I'm not exactly young, but still too young to wear it.
Wife: that's just Fahrenheit.
Byredo Bal d'Afrique, +1. My first association is a fruit-flavored milkshake. Sweet, sour, cold. Not herbal at all, at least in the first hour. I quite like the result, it's a literally attractive scent that is unusual enough to make you want to investigate its source. Not aggressively masculine.
Lalique Encre Noire A L'Extreme, -1. While I loved the OG Encre Noire, this one has a cold sweet synthetic note that I don't like at all.
Wife: that's amber
Bonus round: Creed Spice and Wood, 0. From my wife's stash. Maybe it's a very old tester (the rubber band around the phial crumbled when I touched it), but it completely vanished on my skin in less than half and hour. While it lasted, it was a rather generic woody scent with just a hint of pepper.
Lalique Pour Homme (Lion), 0. Kinda smells like Duc de Vervins at the start, but less aggressive. Mellows out quickly into something soapy. I can't say it's bad, it's nice, but I want my fragrance to either smell like something or to make people wonder what it smells like. Lion smells nice, but it's a large ensemble of very familiar notes. You can't tell exactly what they are, but it smells familiar.
Wife: that's a basic bitch fragrance
Lalique Pour Homme (Equus), +1. I like the horsey more that the kitty. Smells like an Orthodox monastery gift shop: pryaniks and expensive wood.
Initio Parfums Prives Side Effect, +1. It's exactly like Narcotic Delight by the same company, but without cherry. A very nice sweet tobacco fragrance.
Wife: you know I hate sweet fragrances, why do you do this to me?
Diptyque Tam Dao Eau de Parfum, 0. Eh. Smells like some exotic wood. I think Equus is the better choice out of the two.
Laboratorio Olfattivo Vetyverso, 0. By that moment I got tired of testing new fragrances myself and just gave everything a zero by default. None of them had anything surprisingly good or bad about them.
Roja Dove Elysium Pour Homme Parfum Cologne, 0.
Roja Dove Vetiver Pour Homme Parfum Cologne, 0.
Houbigant Duc de Vervins L'Extreme, -1. I expected it to be worse than regular DdV, but it's a bit better. Still acrid, but not offensively so.
Summary:
I ended up getting a bottle of Equus and bought a fresh batch of testers with it. It's this close to being my final fragrance, but it's been discontinued, so I keep looking for a potential replacement.
Lalique White, -1. I like Lalique in general, but White smells like toilet freshener. It gets better when the first notes evaporate, but it's not worth the wait.
Aesop Hwyl, -1. Recommended by an LLM as a Sycomore replacement. It has this "nasal bacterial infection" note that I hate.
Chanel Antaeus, +1. I faulted Lalique Pour Homme Lion for smelling like everything, but the difference in price between Lion and Antaeus is understandable. It's another fragrance that is a complex blend, but it delivers. The opening is sharp, bitter herbaceous, then it mellows a bit and you can smell various flowers, but the overall presentation is still incredibly masculine. When you're wearing a suit at night, you should smell like this. In my first review roundup I wrote that I didn't like chypres, but it looks like I simply didn't try the right one. Unfortunately, the longevity is abysmal. It very quickly cycles through its various notes and in just an hour smells like nothing at all.
Alain Delon Hommage, -1. It has this base note that I don't like. I think it's supposed to be musky, but it's unpleasantly synthetic.
Caron Yatagan, -1. Smells like Duc de Vervins when first sprayed. I don't think this acrid note is lavender, which is what "Fragrantica" claims they have in common.
Diptyque Oud Palao, 0. I wanted to try what out smells like, and this was recommended to me as natural, but now overpowering oud. The smell is... interesting. Like a leather warehouse or a taxidermy workshop. It's also incredibly resilient, if you put it on, you'll have to wear it.
Issey Miyake L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme, -1. Unlike the "blue" version, this one has a generic sweet and fruity scent that I don't find appealing.
Gucci Love At Your Darkest, -1. Doesn't smell like anything. Supposed to be pepper and cedar, but I didn't get anything from it.
Eight & Bob Eight & Bob (Original Inside Book), -1. Smells a bit like furniture polish
Antonio Puig Quorum Silver, 0. Bought as a potential Equus alternative, but it is less sweet-spicy. Not bad, but not what I was looking for.
Cerruti 1881 Bella Notte Man, 0. Another Equus alternative, a bit worse than Quorum Silver. There's a pickle note in the beginning, and then it's just nutmeg.
Escentric Molecules Molecule 02, no rating. That's pure ambroxan and I can't smell it! My wife can and hates it, which explains why I'm find with certain fragrances and she can't stand them.
Escentric Molecules Molecule 01, no rating. I think I can smell Iso E Super, but the concentration in 01 is too low.
Jo Malone Hinoki & Cedarwood, -1. Smells like a bit like one of these gummy candy stores at first. Then it smells like the drum of a washing machine: clean wet clothes and detergent. I don't know why I thought Jo Malone would be any good.
Bottega Veneta Bottega Veneta Pour Homme, 0. Smells nice, but is quite weak to my nose. I might try higher concentrations later, they surprisingly have the same notes.
Yves Saint Laurent La Nuit de l'Homme, 0. It smells like shampoo that makes you cry. Which is a nostalgic scent, but I was looking for an Equus alternative.
Perroy Blueforest, 0. I was looking for another peppery-woody option, and this delivers, it smells like black pepper and cedar, but in the most boring way possible.
Diptyque Vetyverio, 0. Nice vetiver fragrance, but kinda feminine. Like a mix of Mojave Ghost and Bal d'Afrique, but with some vetiver in the background.
Boucheron Singulier, 0. Cheap, pleasant, derivative. Nice if you want an inoffensive summer fragrance.
Caron Aimez Moi Comme Je Suis, +1. The first blast is coffee latte and cumin. Then they decay into hazelnut and vetiver. The scent is natural and distinctive.
Lalique L'Insoumis, 0. Pleasant, but weak and not distinctive. A bit of the washing machine in the base notes.
Chanel Paris - Edimbourg, +1. Finally, something similar to Sycomore in woody quality! Of course, being Chanel, it's the Indian tailor joke all over again: it's again as weak and impermanent as it is delightful.
Eleven testers left, which I plant to finish by the next FFT, along with some final thoughts.
Crazy. I've smelled only a small handful of these, but I admire your thoroughness. Nonetheless, might I suggest that the job of perfume (cough, what? Cologne) is not to be fragrant to the wearer, but to others. To what degree have you looked into pheromones? I remember in the 80s Polo did it for all the gals, and of course we boys dutifully followed suit by buying it...until it became yesterday's (at this point yesteryear's) fragrance. I remember some students once came into my office, when I was wearing Polo Sport, and said it reminded them of....their host father.
My point is that smells say different things to different people, in particular I think even unisex fragrances have different hits for men and women, and even in men and women individuals will vary.
Also you must have spent a fuckton of money. For science, I applaud you.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Video Game Thread
I haven't had much time for playing games this week, but I put a couple more hours into Deus Ex.
In a dialogue in the Hell's Kitchen bar, you run into Jock the pilot, who 'flies your brother Paul to Hong Kong.' After being bribed with a cold(!) beer, Jock talks about how Area 51 was turned into a secret base for Echelon IV, the United States' massive AI + surveillance system, when 'the government promised to stop spying on people'.
That's an interesting notion vis-à-vis what's actually happened IRL. This game was developed in the late nineties and released in year 2000. Which means there were rumors about 'Echelon' and mass surveillance even before 9/11 made it more 'necessary' and palatable to even start building such a project. And the writer assumed that when such a program was discovered by the public, the government would be forced to shut it down, at least ostensibly.
IRL, after 2011's Snowden reveal, we've seen new, enormous data centers for complete electronic surveillance of every citizen (and non-citizen) being built to expand the program. And most other developed countries have followed suit in undermining their citizens privacy and liberty.
The real world's human species is more docile and sheep-like in their surrender to government overreach than what the Deus Ex dystopia writer envisioned.
Edit: typo.
I have been turned off from single player recently. Several games rot in my backlog after having been launched once or twice.
For multiplayer, I'm enjoying co-op Slay the Spire 2 and... "enjoying" is probably the wrong word for Marvel Rivals.
For non-video games, I've hit the 10th session of storytelling Exalted 2.5e for my party of five. We're still on the initial scenario, and I've probably been horrible at pacing, but what the hell, we seem to all be having fun. My players have just slain a major antagonist (a BDSM-clad deathknight wielding a huge artifact scythe, and no, I didn't make her up, she was in the printed adventure) with minimal losses yet appropriate tension.
More options
Context Copy link
Tried playing Rollerdrome, and while it is a lot of fun, it's more challenging than I expected, and I'm not really in the mood for a twitchy game with a time limit.
Instead, I fell off the wagon, and reinstalled XCOM 2 last night (didn't have a chance to play it though). God help me, I will beat it on Commander Ironman mode.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link