Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen, because I didn't have enough to worry about already.  Technically fiction, but I'm putting it here because it is a highly plausible scenario based on years of research and interviews with people who have been at high levels in the U.S. strategic armed forces.  The good news is that I already had a pretty good grasp of the effects of nuclear weapons, perhaps because I own a copy of The Effects Of Nuclear Weapons, a cornerstone reference book in the field.  The bad news is that there are some new weapons systems, and some old systems that don't work very well, which alter the calculus of responding to a potential nuclear threat, and not in a good way.

A quick read--300 pages--partly because global thermonuclear war only takes an hour or so, and partly because that hour is really packed full of action and drama. 

3 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

Sorry, didn't mean to be repetitive. But it just sticks in my craw, because it encourages people not in the know to downplay how serious the charge is. But of course "hush money" is an easier sell to an audience who don't follow the details of a story.

 

It does highlight how Trump has managed to retain his personal fortune despite his managerial ineptitude. He uses other people's money.

The "crowds" of Trump supporters appearing outside the courthouse during the past two days of the trial have numbered in the dozens. That must sting Donnie as badly as the mean tweets.

I've come to some grudging acceptance of the "hush money" label simply because large swaths of the electorate wouldn't pay attention at all if it were a "mere" election fraud trial.  I know my fellow Americans well enough to know that high treason isn't nearly as interesting as a porn star.

6 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

I'm getting pretty annoyed with the press continuing to call this a "hush money" trial. There's nothing illegal for paying someone to not reveal details of actions which aren't criminal. This is a campaign-fund misappropriation felony trial, over a significant amount of money explicitly raised for funding an election campaign allegedly being diverted to another purpose, deliberately mislabeled as "legal expenses," and the payment not being reported to the FEC.

 

EDIT: Added "allegedly" for legal reasons.

Great minds think alike.

Where do I send my resume?  D&D fandom will love it when I switch their game over to Hero.

4 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

That said, I think ALL the Star Wars movies get far less criticism than they deserve, because we so WANT to like it that we overlook the many faults.  Who doesn't want a lightsaber and a starfighter???  Who doesn't want to be super-cool Han?  Vader's WAY more cool as the Mysterious Villain than he is as the Fallen Savior.

You're right, of course.  AFAIC the only actually good films are IV, VI, and maybe III.  Opinions vary, but suffice to say that my kids have no idea what the fuss is about when it comes to Star Wars.

1 hour ago, unclevlad said:

 

Hayden Christiansen.  Nuff said.

In my opinion Christensen was done dirty by Lucas.  Even Portman and MacGregor did poorly in that trilogy; Christensen didn't stand a chance.  I mean look at the script he was given.  "I hate sand."  DiCaprio couldn't have pulled that off.

2 hours ago, Pariah said:

Yes, zombies are real. I call them "Third period". 

Is that the one right after lunch?  Been there done that.

2 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

 

I've been watching a bunch of older films lately (including a bunch of B movies), and I realized just how much I missed the smaller productions of the past. 1984's Night of the Comet, for example, was made for about $700,000 (about $2M in today's money), but grossed almost $14.5M during its 6 week run in theaters.

I fully expect a significant drawdown in movie budgets in the very near future.  First of all you have movies like Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Time that cost 1/3 of a billion dollars--there aren't enough moviegoers in the universe to make that much money back.  Second, the streaming services have achieved saturation so they'll go straight into cost cutting/ens***tification mode.  Third, you have movies like Godzilla Minus One proving you can make an effects-laden film for 1/5 of the cost using, like, brains. 

But it remains to be seen whether Hollywood has learned to value good scriptwriting.

15 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

Trump just 'touched the third rail' in hush money trial: former prosecutor

 

1/3 of the jurors already selected today.  At this rate the trial might get fully underway by Monday.

Also, I'm getting tired of corporate media headlines burying the lede.  This isn't a "hush money" trial, it's a campaign finance violation trial.  Paying off your porn star is not a crime, but laundering the payments in violation of campaign finance law, and thereby cheating in the election, is a felony.

9 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

It's why SO many movies are remakes/rehashes like the latest Godzilla vs. Kong or Planet of the Apes. 

This.  To be fair, if it was my $100M, I'd be less inclined to take risks too.

That said, the current Planet of the Apes franchise has been massively underrated.  Rise, in particular, had no business being as good as it was.  Idk how the upcoming fourth installment will be without Andy Serkis Caesar, though.

35 minutes ago, Pariah said:

6.5 GtC/yr

Just need to get that down to zero by, like, 2010.

55 minutes ago, Pariah said:

"For every vision, thee is an equal and opposite revision."

 

Practical application: Proofread your exam before making ~100 copies. 

Also proofread them before handing them out to the students.  The most notable example I lived through was the electromagnetism class where the professor would work out the answers while we took the exam.  On one exam, fifteen minutes in, he goes, "Is anyone else having trouble with question three?"  To which the entire class* responded with a resounding and irritated "YES!!"

* I think there were eight of us.  Might have been ten. 

Civil War starring Kirsten Dunst and a smidge of Nick Offerman.  First things first--the writers tried really really hard to make sure that neither side in the conflict directly correspond to real life sides in the civil war that's coming this November.  It did this to convey the horror and confusion of actual modern civil war in a U.S. setting, and it did a pretty good job of it in spite of the fact that the protagonists are combat journalists trying their best to be dispassionate.  Lots of gunfire, explosions, and blood, not so much torture and gore.  It could easily have been more shocking, but I've been watching Russians blow up every day for two years so maybe I'm just jaded.  Worth seeing in the theater for full effect, and as a bonus, if you see it we can discuss the dystopian setting.  One post credits scene with Steve Rogers.  No, not really.

13 minutes ago, DShomshak said:

Even more unfortunately, I can imagine many of his backers thinking this wouldn't be bad. Just sit him behind the Resolute Desk, send in a stream of sycophants, put things in front of him to sign, and you can do anything with, or to, the country that you want. One of Trump's weaknesses as a figurehead for a radical reactionary movement was his tendency to go off script. But if he's coccooned in a layer of movement-loyal underlings and too incapacitated to recognize his confinement, why, such a figurehead President could be quite useful. A horrible thought, but Trump has taught us that what used to be horribly unthinkable is now all too plausible.

I can only imagine the kind of backroom dealings going on right now as people vie for the VP position on his ticket, since that person is guaranteed to become president at some point if Trump wins.  You could even defenestrate Trump on Inauguration Day +1, literally or figuratively via the 25th Amendment.

6 hours ago, Iuz the Evil said:

There’s also news that most of the Israeli hostages may be dead. Hamas stating they can’t come up with 40 to exchange (of the IIRC 136 In captivity).

 

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/04/10/middleeast/hamas-israel-hostages-ceasefire-talks-intl

Last time I read that article it said that there weren't 40 women, children, and elderly for the initial exchange, but that there were still ~100 hostages left that haven't been bombed, shot, or starved to death by the Israelis.

Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever

Potter, Harry

Hear that, Pariah?  You're rich!

Online searches for "why do my eyes hurt" and visits to eye doctors spike after eclipse

Panicked by eclipse, astrology influencer fatally stabs boyfriend, shoves children out of car on freeway

Not to mention slightly eccentric. 

Foxbat

X-Ray vision.  Only X-Ray vision.

21 minutes ago, death tribble said:

Vietnamese Billionaire sentenced to death for fraud. S44 billion worth of fraud

 

Great, now do the rest of the billionaires.

Didn't realize he was that old.