Pattern Ghost

Making fun of them is fine, but there are two problems I have with it: It wasn't interesting, and I don't believe in feeding the trolls. I'm not saying it ruined the show, but it was one of the problems I had with it. Even if they kept that as the main throughline, the execution could have been done better. They could have put some more focus on Titania (whose actress was wasted -- she was great on The Good Place) and Jen's relationship/rivalry. The villain would have been perfect for the two to play off of, as it'd give Titania a chance to be less two dimensional.

I didn't really see evidence of any mind control going on. For all we know, K.E.V.I.N. just gave Matt another case. I don't think he'd need to be mind controlled into having lunch with Jen and her family.

Yeah, having the show so far removed from the rest of the universe's rules is problematic if they want to use any of its events as canon. I'll just assume she lives on a different Earth than the main MCU for now. Does anyone recall how they handled that aspect of things in the comics? I'm guessing they just ignored it?

Quoth Jessica Gao: "The Jon Byrne comic run was the one that made me fall in love with this character in the first place. What was so great about that run was that it was so fun and light. There was this great levity to it that you weren't used to if you read a lot of superhero comics, because, you know most superhero comics are very action-oriented, very dramatic, a lot of them tend to get heavy. It's a lot of serious men dealing with serious issues. This run of She-Hulk comics was such a breath of fresh air to have this fun, irreverent, female-forward comic about this woman who, even if she was dealing with saving the city or saving the universe, she was doing it with this lightness to her." And it does seem that it's taken a cue from the Byrne run. It may not have had the best execution, but she's saying she read the comics, and I don't see any reason not to believe her. I didn't think it was great, but it was OK enough that I'd like to see a second season, but with a little more oversight from someone who understands how to structure a show, and less of an agenda of "well, let's make fun of the guys who don't like female superheroes." It'd be interesting to see something, even from the same crew, with more focus on story and less on sticking it to the haters. Let 'em hate. Make a good show. You can make a good show exploring women's issues without it being a dialog with the most toxic part of your fan base.

I'm not much of a Pelosi fan, but I have to admit she's growing on me.

I must be getting old. When I see "CRT" I think "cathode ray tube" and wonder what the issue is with bans on old TVs in Oklahoma for a minute before realizing they mean Critical Race Theory.

It's cool to see that they didn't shy away from the ankle wings.

When I see an appeal for money coupled with disinformation, I become suspicious of how that money is spent. The "why not" is that the money can be spent on things we already know are effective, and actually reduce gun deaths among older children and young adults. Edit: I'm not saying not to spend money on this. We need to make a massive spend toward unified and consistent reporting, for example. That data can then be studied. I'm just saying the appeal is done in a disingenuous manner.

Children includes 18 and 19 year old adults. There's lies, damned lies, and statistics at play here. The group most effected by firearms deaths are gang members. And yes, most of them are tragically young. But that doesn't merit lumping them in with children for the sake of a political agenda and masks the real area that should be focused on. The research should be on how to reduce gang violence. Programs like the one shown in the video posted up thread are effective, so spend that research money there.

Thanks DT! Subbed.

It could be a color calibration difference, but it looks more like mud to me. On my monitor, it shows as the same color across the weapon, with a few spots that could be surface rust. However, the metal of the upper receiver/dust cover doesn't appear to be pitted or rusted in any way. The same thread shows conscripts who were issued Mosin Nagant rifles that are even older, and those don't appear to be dirty or rusty. Russian surplus weapons are packed away in copious amounts of Cosmoline to preserve them. So, even if that is rust, it's unlikely something freshly issued to conscripts. Without a translation of the audio, we can't put that video into context. It could be someone taking video of an abandoned weapon left in the mud, for example. We don't know that it's conscript issue. Really doesn't matter much at the end of the day, though. Russian conscripts are not going to be worth anything on the battlefield as anything other than cannon fodder to use up Ukrainian resources fighting them. If the forces currently in Ukraine couldn't hold gained territory, more conscripts won't help, even if their gear is shiny and new. This stinks of a desperation move, an attempt at intimidation that can't be backed up.

That rifle looks muddy, not half-rotten. Seems to be in OK shape. Probably dropped in the mud while training.

I served in Cold War Berlin. Even in the Soviet heyday, they weren't anywhere near on par with American troops. 😉

I read "reservists" in this context as "conscripts." We've already seen the quality of their first batch of troops. If anything, I feel a little bad for those 300,000. I can't remember if it's been mentioned in this thread yet, but I'd read that Russia doesn't have Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs), which means no direct supervision over the bulk of their troops. Without NCOs to enforce discipline, keep the troops focused on their mission, train and motivate the rank and file . . . you don't have an effective ground force. Nothing changes for them over the first round of the invasion in this regard. They lack good command and control. Logistics are a shambles. Equipment budget has been spent on yachts, hookers and blow for their generals. I think this is a desperate attempt to turn things around and try to hold ground. Which means the end is near. If you can't hold the ground, punitively bombing it to rubble doesn't help with your long term goals. The main thing I worry about is that punitive bombing. Russia, and Putin in particular, is a spiteful so-and-so, and likely to simply continue the ongoing murder spree, or ramp it up via bombardment.

Legends' campiness was great. At least they managed to have fun and not wallow in too much CW angst.

While the trailer is barf worthy, I think that Time writer needs to take some implicit bias training. This isn't a new concept. Outward Bound has been doing it for years. Teaching self sufficiency, and improving self esteem through showing someone they can do something they didn't think they were capable of isn't some novel, extremist concept. The Time writer can also F *** right off on her opinions about military veterans. We're people who served, that's it. There's a whole lot of diversity under the umbrella of military veteran. The show is just being puerile garbage and playing off of generational conflict to promote itself. Nothing new there. Just don't watch it and move along. They have entire categories on Netflix that are the polar opposite of this, so I'm not seeing it as "hinting" at anything. That's just the Time writer sinking to the same level as Netflix. I tend to view any TV/streaming show through the lens of Sturgeon's Law: 90% of anything is garbage. With shows, you then need to apply Sturgeon's Law to the remaining 10% and feel lucky if you find something that's not awful to watch. Fortunately, given the volume of material available, you can usually find something you like. So, ignore the rest IMO.

Found some talent on a talent show. I suspect this young lady may have a career in music ahead of her:

I'm curious: If you were to make one big change to our system, what would it be? No limitations. You snap your fingers, it's done. I'm in favor of getting the big money out of government in the hopes of getting actual public servants in office. What's yours?

I guess I'm against the Golden Rule (He who has the gold makes the rules.) However, I didn't say all laws, did I? I said "sweeping changes," not all changes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No, I've been sleeping this whole time. Thanks for the update. 😁

Up to a point. It's important to curb some of our baser tendencies, of course. Then there's the question of who writes the laws. Currently, it's big business, whether directly or via PACs. I'm against making any sweeping changes to our fundamental laws until we get big money out of our politics and get some politicians who actually want to make changes based on responsible stewardship instead of campaign contributions and high paying post-retirement gigs.

Do they allow you to use the generated images for anything other than personal use?

Um, I'm not sure how to tell you this, but your Warlock seems to have serious cataracts in one eye and a blown out pupil in the other. Should probably get her to an eye cleric. 😁 On a more serious note, that's some pretty cool stuff, I'm going to go check this thing out.

There was a DC version of the Mutants and Masterminds rules, but it was short-lived. They did produce a few books that you could probably still get second hand. I think board games are the hot thing now, driven by the popularity of the Euro style games in recent years. Unfortunately, they do have more mass appeal than RPGs. D&D continues to be the only thing the general public thinks of when it comes to RPGs, leaving the rest of the industry in an even smaller niche within a niche. ☹️

Maybe the other sibling is married, or a sister? Or in Westeros . . . the sister is the bride