It’s definitely one of mine!

It’s quite a visceral look at how radicalization works, and how groups manipulate members and potential members through control of language, artificial camaraderie and especially, having an enemy.

And the end is amazing. When Chakotay sees the scary looking alien (can’t remember the species) on Voyager, all that fear and hatred still comes back to him even though he knows he was manipulated. Because being de-radicalized isn’t just like flipping a switch. It’s easier to learn to hate than unlearn it.

Obviously it could be better - as with most Voyager eps to be honest - but it’s definitely one of the ones I look forward to most on a rewatch.

Edit: I glimpsed a comment, now nullified: the nemesis is the Kradin

Literally the only reason I remember this person’s name.

If I move, this 👉👉 could die!

The first [of 3 catalysts], were the deaths of five adult males and one adult female - for reasons unknown - in 2014, which could have disrupted social networks and weakened social ties across the subgroups

They assassinated Archmonke Ferdinand!

Ah thanks! This is why I have manifold PTSD but also that was genuinely helpful.

This was covered fully in the only course I failed in my physics masters, lol.

It’s been a while so bits of this might be wrong. Manifolds give me PTSD.

A euclidean space is one where pythagoras’ theorem is true, like on a piece of paper. Even if you roll up the paper, everything still works the same. The angles of a triangle still add to 180 etc

But the surface of a sphere doesn’t work like that. You can’t fold up the paper into a sphere, it’s fundamentally different. Geometry changes a bit on the surface too, and you have to modify pythagoras theorem for it to describe triangles in one of these spaces. And the internal angles don’t add to 180 anymore.

These are non-euclidean spaces, aka Riemannian spaces.

So the meme is saying “ha ha you’re in a non-Euclidean space, it just looks like that because you’re small, dumb dumb! Why don’t you draw a big triangle, measure the angles and then cry yourself to sleep?”

The meme is funny, this isn’t criticism of that.

BUT this general point always rubs me the wrong way. Do people realise how fucking big space is? The observable universe contains so many fucking planets that we don’t even know exist, some of which have their own oceans we know absolutely nothing about. We have literally no idea what like 95% of the stuff out there even is (dark matter, dark energy).

And that’s just the observable universe. The rest of it likely comprises even more space than the observable universe. And that isn’t “stuff we don’t know yet,” it’s literally “stuff we could probably never know based on the laws of physics.”

Like we know surprisingly little about the ocean. That is shocking. But there is no need to make such a bizarre claim to get that across.

OK, rant over.

fairly precise

2000 pound bombs

Only one of these things can be true

Understandable. I get cringe PTSD when I know certain parts are coming up. Still worth it for me, one of my favourite comedies of all time

Recent ones:

Severance

Pluribus

Older one I didn’t see anyone mention yet:

Peep Show (amazing British comedy, truly uncomfortable levels of cringe)

I don’t think they procreate. If they were interested in continuing humanity they wouldn’t be so strict about their philosophy. They would “pick the fucking apple” as Carol puts it. It’s a feature, not a bug.

IMO all they want is enough time and bodies to send a new signal before humanity goes extinct.

Whether it’s a prelude to invasion or just a rogue virus still trying to spread itself is anyone’s guess.

Wow, he is abusive to women?! Cancel this man.

In unrelated news I’ve been living under a rock my entire adult life and I’ve been in a coma since 2015.

Trump just seems to repeat the thoughts of the last person he spoke to that actually got through to him somehow. Why Putin seems to be so good at doing that is anyone’s guess.

In any case, this will continue until he meets some European leaders again. I think the person who flipped him last time seems to have been King Charles?

But this all just shows it doesn’t even matter. As Orwell said:

“The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment.”

He is too dumb to do anything else. The record will be changed and changed back again and again.

Strongly recommended if you like deduction/puzzle-y games. Wish I could play it again for the first time

British here. You’re right. It’s the culmination of decades of intentional misinformation and stoking the fears of the racist and stupid. Appealing to the politicians spreading this (e.g. Farage) is useless. Appealing to the public is useless.

I heard a story about a friend of a friend who thought that one million immigrants entered Britain every day. As in, the population would literally double in two months if this was true. But not only did he not realise that, he repeated the “fact” to other people.

Obviously a lot of us are fine. But Reform is leading in the polls and people believe shit like that so the reality is most of us are not.

I saw! Great news.

Except this

I’m a totem loser so I will have to think of some way to do it with my dash, haha

I have to find some way to do this in my current campaign. I’m a barbarian though so as a bonus action might be a stretch

And this from the press release:

In its long history, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has honoured brave women and men who have stood up to repression, who have carried the hope of freedom in prison cells, on the streets and in public squares, and who have shown by their actions that peaceful resistance can change the world. […]

When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist. Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended – with words, with courage and with determination.

I will also accept bap.

We can come back to this comment in a few days. Israel will find some “issue” with it and derail the process.

I hope I’m wrong.