Jump to content

Lee

HERO Member
  • Posts

    210
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation Activity

  1. Like
    Lee reacted to L. Marcus in And now, for your daily dose of cute...   
    Looks more like a CSI crew. It's a murder investigation.
  2. Haha
    Lee reacted to Certified in Funny Pics II: The Revenge   
    In the early 2000s, I worked at a bookstore. A woman asked me for the Idiot by Homer Simpson. While this sounds like a humorous book that the creators of the Simpsons might have produced, no such thing exists, or existed at the time. The customer refused to believe us, going so fat as to show her the inventory system. After a bit of de-escalation, we pivoted and asked why she wanted this book so badly. They needed it for their child, who had to read it for English Lit class. At that point, the manager asked, do you mean the Iliad by Homer?
     
    That was the book. 
     
    End. 
  3. Like
    Lee reacted to Logan D. Hurricanes in Funny Pics II: The Revenge   
    Mini rant: I hate what April Fool's Day has become...
     
     
  4. Like
    Lee reacted to unclevlad in Marvel Cinematic Universe, Phase Three and BEYOOOOONND   
    What basis do you have for any of this?  
  5. Thanks
    Lee reacted to Logan D. Hurricanes in And now, for your daily dose of cute...   
    The ‘Rainbow Bridge’ has comforted millions of pet parents. Who wrote it?
  6. Like
    Lee reacted to Logan D. Hurricanes in "Neat" Pictures   
  7. Like
    Lee reacted to Cancer in Extra! Extra! Read All About It!   
    You are far more charitable and optimistic than I am.
  8. Like
    Lee reacted to Lord Liaden in DC Movies- if at first you don't succeed...   
    I see some validity in your point, Hugh, but I would say that the Marvel movies, at least through the first two Phases, stuck to the core of who their characters were as people, whatever other details were changed around that. Tony Stark was a cocky super-rich genius whose view on his life changed when confronted by the consequences of his actions. Thor the arrogant warrior god-prince was forced to learn humility and compassion for others. Bruce Banner was a good man with a raging monster inside him, always at risk of coming out. Captain America was physically frail but an heroic idealist in mind and heart, granted a body to match his spirit. And so on.
     
    Most of the changes to the characters were superficial details which didn't change who they are, in some cases making more sense. I mean, the feats we see Captain America perform in the comics, there's no way a "peak human" would be physically able to pull off.
  9. Like
    Lee reacted to Pariah in Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)   
    Hey, I have a radical idea. How about we celebrate Veterans Day in the U.S. by demanding that our 'leaders' fund the VA and other programs to take care of all of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines when they get home from deployment? Someone who survives action in Kandahar or Fallujah shouldn't die from homelessness or suicide once they get back home.
  10. Sad
    Lee reacted to Pariah in Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)   
    From NPR this morning: Concerns of violence grow as Election Day nears
     
    I wasn't born in a Third World banana republic, but it sure feels like I'm gonna die in one. 
  11. Like
    Lee reacted to slikmar in Marvel Cinematic Universe, Phase Three and BEYOOOOONND   
    On one of the web comics I read, the main writer's daughter had discovered the MCU - due to She-Hulk. So he is watching his way through the MCU with her. He made a great comment that I think shows a major difference in why I liked Favreau's directing vs Waititi:
    The Favreau Effect
    I say “somehow”, but it’s largely thanks to Jon Favreau. He made a lot of decisions that established the MCU formula. In fact, the first Iron Man addresses some common complaints of later MCU movies. There are plenty of jokes, but it doesn’t feel like the movie needs to hit a quips quota. And not every character is funny. Really, it’s just Tony and Happy. Everyone else is serious.
    Speaking of serious, the film takes its villain seriously. No jokes about the villain’s name, not off hand comments at the villain’s expense, no scene of the villain looking foolish. In fact, the finale is the longest stretch of the movie without a joke.
    Director Jon Favreau knew when to emphasize the fantastic and when to ground Iron Man. Stark Industries weapons, for example, aren’t outside the realm of modern military possibility. And the Iron Man suit doesn’t have a technological solution to every problem. It has, like, two weapons. This emphasizes that without the suit, Tony Stark still has superpowers.
    Jon Favreau got a lot of credit for directing the movie that launched the MCU, but these days Kevin Feige seems to be the name equated to its success. I know Favreau still regularly appears as Happy Hogan and he works with Disney on Star Wars, but I wonder if we’ll ever see him direct another MCU film.
     
    Basically, he knows when to be funny and when to be serious. Ragnarok had way to many moments of try to be funny when it should be serious.
  12. Like
    Lee reacted to Cancer in Hey Cancer, quit trying to destroy the universe!   
    Ah.  You are invoking theological concepts.  We're done.
  13. Like
    Lee reacted to DShomshak in Hey Cancer, quit trying to destroy the universe!   
    Yeah, that was a bit more of a jump than I intended. I'll try to fill in the blanks.
     
    I gather that attempts to explain dark matter using stuff that's known to exist have not gone well. As Cancer says, gravitational lensing studies haven't found enough MACHOS. IIRC there are also arguments that if there was enough normal matter in the universe to supply the needed gravity, this would have altered the proportions of helium and lithium produced in the very early universe, though such arguments are well beyond my Physics 101 level of understanding. Simulations assuming "hot dark matter" don't generate a recognizable universe, so that rules out neutrinos. And so on. So theoretical physicists have become steadily more speculative. WIMPS were one such. (There was an experiment to detect them, based on the premise that once in a very rare while two WIMPs would collide and make particles that could be detected... though it's beyond me how you know what to look for, when you don't know the masses or other properties of the WIMPs.) Or swarms of quantum black holes that are individually too small to be detected through gravitational lensing. Or let's try modifying gravity so it works differently on the necessary scales.
     
    Okay, some of these are marginally testable, but the more ad-hoc the proposals, the more I think of how the properties of the luminiferous ether got steadily more contradictory. And when the proposed dark matters become even more otherwise-undetectable, I get impatient and mutter, "Yeah, but legions of angels moving the stars and galaxies would also explain the observations." Because the proposals seem less and less like science, and more like miracles clad in technobabble.
     
    It isn't just dark matter. I'm annoyed by physicists making confident pronouncements about multiverses, string theory, what dark energy means for the fate of the universe, and similar speculations. As one of my friends puts it, they've slid from theoretical physics to theological physics. A faith that they can slip the surly bonds of observation and experiment to encompass the universe (and more!) by pure math.
     
    Arguing for divine intervention wouldn't be scientific either, but it might be more honest. Not that the "God of the Gaps" hypothesis has a great track record either...
     
    Or just admit that at this point, we don't know, and don't even know how to find out.
     
    Dean Shomshak
  14. Like
    Lee reacted to Old Man in Hey Cancer, quit trying to destroy the universe!   
    Congratulations sir, here is your Nobel Prize in Physics®.
  15. Like
    Lee reacted to Starlord in Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)   
    They did, but don't call them Shirley.
  16. Like
    Lee reacted to Ternaugh in Marvel Cinematic Universe, Phase Three and BEYOOOOONND   
    Hey! That's pretty close to Jenny's number!
  17. Like
    Lee reacted to Lord Liaden in Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)   
    Okay, I don't want to escalate this debate, so I'll simply answer your questions, then I'm done.
     
    Personally, I've never used a knife for anything more violent than carving a turkey. I do have some police friends, including an officer in a tactical unit. Among the things he told me, "A knife's a bad as a gun. It never jams, never runs out of ammo, and you don't need training to use it."
     
    With respect, if you only look at numbers of casualties, without looking at the context of times, locations, and conditions, that's blowing smoke.
     
    You protect the weak and disabled by building a society with enough respect for law and rights, and sufficient control of the means of violence, that incidents like the one we're talking about are very rare. I live in one.
     
    (BTW just FYI, while per capita gun violence in Canada is a small fraction of that in the United States, police statistics say that most of the illegal hand guns used for crimes in Canada are smuggled in from the US. So, thanks for that.)
  18. Like
    Lee reacted to unclevlad in Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)   
    That's much of the issue we have...not that you have training, but that the vast, overwhelming majority of people *don't*.  And that's the concern.  Only 8 states require any kind of training.  And how often does that training, for a civilian, extend beyond proper handling and safety?  I also think the de-escalation training is huge.  Gun possession in itself feels like it creates an escalation mindset, not a de-escalation one.  What's going to be the fallback reaction during a threat?  Pull the gun.  
     
    Got that number (8 states) from an anti-gun site, EveryTownResearch.org.  I'll tend to buy it because it's easy to fact-check, and because figure there's lots of states that are very lenient.  A point that's less supported, but still makes sense to me, from that site:

     
     
    Also, you commented about cases where guns protected the elderly/less capable.  Question:  how many of these were at home?  There's a difference between gun possession at home, and carrying in public.  Another angle, tho:  how many impulsive home shootings, how many accidental shootings, are there, relative to the number of successful defenses?
  19. Like
    Lee reacted to Ragitsu in Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)   
    Improving an individual's economic standing goes a LONG way towards abolishing or at the very least diminishing many of those factors which lead to acts of violence.
  20. Like
    Lee reacted to Starlord in Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)   
    Perhaps someone who lives outside of the US could better answer this....  They may provide a better perspective on how society protects itself every day without guns and without living in the only country in the solar system where one needs to fear gun violence on a constant, everyday basis.
  21. Like
    Lee reacted to Ragitsu in Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)   
    One question: do you want to live in a society where civilian gun ownership is a necessity or do you want to live in a healthy society?
  22. Like
    Lee reacted to unclevlad in Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)   
    So many flaws.
    I'm over 60, never particularly muscular, and these days, the usual aches and pains don't help.  In many cases, I could offer up some defense to a knife wielder, tho...while I scream my head off.  Your only notion of defense is the counter-attack...escalating the situation.  DARN well better hope my attacker can't disarm me or I put myself MUCH, MUCH worse off.  Against a knife, I might be able to find something for defense in many places...but I'll have to find my gun if I'm at home.  Depending on the nature of the disability, do we really want a disable person with a gun?  Do we really want a LOT of people to have guns?  With people with anger triggers?  Escalation from words to *shots* does happen.  
     
    Go back to the summer of 2020.  Numerous incidents where Trump supporters actively tried to intimidate or disrupt Democratic rallies.  And things were very tense.  Now throw in 15-20% of the attendees having guns, and the enormous anger of that summer.
     
    Protecting the vulnerable is a major problem, I completely agree, but you wouldn't just be arming the vulnerable.  You're also jumping straight to the highest degree of personal escalation without ever considering if some middle ground is possible, and ignoring both the difficulties in using a gun, and the risk of misuse.
  23. Like
    Lee reacted to Ragitsu in Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)   
    One could say that, but then one would be entirely silly. Not only are firearms force multipliers, but they also making killing easier from a psychological standpoint.
  24. Like
    Lee reacted to Old Man in Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)   
    If knives are just as lethal as guns, then no one needs guns for self defense.  They can just use a knife.
     
    Social issues do need to be addressed, though.  In America, one party seems to be better than the other when it comes to actually funding social work and mental health.
  25. Like
    Lee reacted to unclevlad in Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)   
    So instead of 10 dead and 15 in the hospital, which is horrible enough to be sure...you'd rather it was 20 or so dead, and who knows how many in the hospital?

    Secondary:  how many mass stabbings have there been, versus mass shootings?  
     
    A stabbing event will almost always be more contained.  This one is horrific...and probably wouldn't be as bad had guns been used.  Knives do tend to be quieter.  But it's an aberration among mass attack, I think.  Pre-dawn, planned, one might think targeted.  You'd think this would be a more contained, targeted incident.  Sounds like the cops suspect there were specific targets, and the rest were "hey, while we're at it...."  
     
    Now, if your point is that gun control is not the be-all and end-all...I completely agree.  The point of gun control is to make it less easy to pull off a Pulse, Mandalay Bay, or Parkland.  That when guns are in an incident, lethality is FAR higher...the damage to any target tends to be higher, and more victims can be targeted in a short period of time.  It doesn't address the root causes;  it simply hopes to disenable them to a degree.  Trying to actually prevent incidents like this in the first place is far, far more difficult.  Who knows when someone transitions from frustrated and angry to murderous?  Presumption of innocence is a MAJOR problem here.  What constitutes sufficient cause to detain?
     
    And, a really, REALLY cynical perspective?  Some Republicans love these.  Adore them...in private.  Because they advance the progression to a police state that they want. 
×
×
  • Create New...