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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   1770 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for November 29, 2024

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.

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It's first of December so of course I am listening to Once upon December. Classical animations are so eternal and age so gracefully or even at all. I really miss that they don't make them anymore

https://youtube.com/watch?v=K1GeGG-HHZY

It's first of December so of course I am listening to Once upon December.

Excellent taste; Don Bluth is my favorite Western animator.

Classical animations are so eternal and age so gracefully or even at all. I really miss that they don't make them anymore

Have you tried anime? Great 2D-animated movies are still being made, just not in America.

Have you tried anime? Great 2D-animated movies are still being made, just not in America.

Yes. But it is not the same. The western animations are rooted in western culture and deeply integrated with the musical theater and pop culture tradition of the USA. Not that there aren't amazing animes and I enjoy them tremendously, but it is completely different beast, that just can't scratch that itch.

I just finished reading The Cider House Rules by John Irving. It’s a great bildungsroman — a coming-of-age novel — with a large and lovable cast of side characters and subplots. Irving has a wry sense of humor, and is a keen observer of human psychology. I appreciated the non-judgmental, philosophically nuanced way he treats his characters; this is not a plot-heavy, action-packed adventure story, but rather a cozy and thought-provoking journey through the minds of people making the best of highly suboptimal situations. Irving’s carefully-researched attention to detail lends the book authenticity and a “lived-in” vibe.

That being said, abortion is a central element of the story, including graphic descriptions of both the procedure and the reasons why women seek abortions. Although some of the characters are morally-conflicted about the practice, ultimately the book presents a persuasive case for the necessity of abortion access, even given that some characters avail themselves of it for selfish or bourgeois reasons. The author’s boomer-leftist/soft-socialist sympathies shine through at times, filtered through the perspectives of his point-of-view characters.

For those here who have strong pro-life beliefs, and/or those who would be made squeamish by frank and explicit depictions of abortion and dead fetuses, I would definitely not recommend this book. I have not yet watched the film adaptation (featuring, from what I understand, stellar performances by Michael Caine, Tobey Maguire, and in-her-prime Charlize Theron) but I gather that it tones down the graphic nature of the book somewhat.

Irving's prose I always enjoyed, and I remember reading A Prayer For Owen Meany and thinking it could have been a timeless, beautiful novel if not for the constant intrusion of his politics (Iran Contra and Reagan). I still enjoyed it, and the Dickens influence on Irving is evident.

I've never read that book, but I read somewhere that this song, which I love, was inspired by it.

I saw the film back when it came out, and I think it gets about as graphic as a mass-market Oscar-bait film can get away with, i.e. not very. From what I recall we see a doctor sit down to perform an abortion and we see someone revolted after looking into a bucket implied to contain an aborted fetus, but there's very little actual blood on screen.

It's the UK Snooker Championship, the first of the snooker season's Triple Crown Series, the sport's three longest-running and most prestigious tournaments. Typically the players are introduced with a nickname, some of which are earned and some of which are plainly forced and corny. An example of an earned nickname would be Ronnie 'The Rocket' O'Sullivan (world record for fastest maximum break in competitive play) or Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins, who once headbutted a match official and threatened to have his opponent shot.

Out of curiosity I went looking for a list of all the nicknames and found https://wikimili.com/en/List_of_snooker_player_nicknames

Some of them only make sense if you know the player, like Steve 'Interesting' Davis, some are phenomenally generic like Joe 'Mr Snooker' Davis, but there's some good puns too like Hong Kong player Marco 'Cue-Man'-Fu, or Chinese player Ding 'Pot Noodle' Junhui, named after the notoriously downmarket British instant noodles (available in Doner Kebab flavour, Bombay Bad Boy flavour, and Christmas Dinner flavour, all being variations on the just-add-water formula of a plastic cup containing dried noodles with dried peas and a packet of flavoured salt).

Here is an online comic book about Snooker, titled "Giant Days: Snooker Could Be Better". It is a crossover between a comic about young women attending university called Giant Days and a comic about a man who dresses up like a bat and fights crime. I am fond of it.

https://scarygoround.com/giantdays/index.html?pg=91#showComic

Also: 'Cue-Man'-Fu is a brilliant nickname.

Who are your favorite video game players on YT or similar sites?

Civilization VI, V, and various other 4X games: PoatatoMcWhiskey https://youtube.com/@PotatoMcWhiskey

He only plays Vox Populi when it comes to Civ 5. ;(

I played a couple of games with that mod. It's pretty good, but it is no longer Civ 5. It's something else.

Rimworld: Mr. Samuel Streamer. He does excellent flavorful playthroughs with modded Rimworld. Honorable mention goes to Hazzor, who uploads far less frequently but does use Combat Extended, a mod I can't live without.

Arma and milsim games: RimmyDownUnder, Operator Drewski, Rubix Raptor.

Total War games, primarily Warhammer: Milk and cookies Total War is the GOAT for commentary and casting multi-player battles, but due to his infrequent uploads I settle for Turin at times.

From the Depths (a game that I love to watch but can't for the life of me spare the time and focus needed to play): Lathland

Paradox: RedHawk, LemonCake, some Quarbit

HoMM3: Yama Darma

Fallout: MaTN

Hitman: bigmooney06

I don't think I watch anyone else.

MtG: Magic Aids very crude but the guy is a brewing genius!

Thanks for creating links for all of them!

Man, Twitter really is crazy now. I created an account to bypass Musk’s paywall when looking people up there, followed nobody, never used it. Today I clicked a link on the UK subreddit which linked to a British political page with a reel/tiktok of some excerpts from the parliamentary debate on legalizing euthanasia that happened here yesterday.

I mindlessly scrolled down from that clip. The very next video was Japanese porn, hardcore, posted by a Japanese account with all the replies also in Japanese. I couldn’t believe it, this was the next reel after a political video posted by a random centrist, widely followed UK political news page. I’ve never used this account on X before, am not following anyone, and definitely don’t look up porn on X (or in general, really). This is the kind of thing that could get someone accidentally fired or at least called into a serious HR meeting at work, just because they scrolled down on an X reel! Crazy.

I’ve been enjoying Twitter recently but the algorithm incentivizes quantity and “fun but stupid takes” way too much. Not very efficient for finding good ideas and information.

Link?

https://x.com/gbpolitcs/status/1862554820567048550?s=46&t=0RSpQEWd71gFfa-U_NmvkA

Well played. (I was curious because Twitter has never shown me irl hardcore porn. Don't know if there's a setting or the algorithm knows not to show it to me)

I have a spare key for Path of Exile 2 early access, anyone want one? (Existing Motte accounts only).

I've been on the fence about shelling out since the announcement, if you're offering I'd be glad to have it. How does it work, is it just a separate Steam key? None of my friends bought the higher-tier packs.

I think you have to redeem it on pathofexile.com, at least it says that. I'll DM the key to you.

edit: DM sent, enjoy

Yep it worked (at least the website says it did), thanks a lot! Now I can personally participate in crashing the servers at launch.

Steelmanning Rogan’s Dragons

Epistemic status: boredom induced schizoposting. It’s in the Friday fun thread for a reason.

So apparently some recent drama is Joe Rogan feuding with the ladies of the view about the existence of dragons. So the theory on JRE goes, we know dragons existed because so many ancient cultures with no connection to each other depicted themselves fighting them, and they’re not fossilized because they have bird like bones that aren’t very robust the fossil record is incomplete etc. It wouldn’t be the first time that an animal was known to the ancients, dismissed by historians, and then later discovered to have been there after all- although the Benu Heron and hippos in Mesopotamia are quite a bit less juicy.

We know from paleontology that flying creatures of that size can exist and have batlike dragon-style wings- for example, Quetzalcoatlus northropi. We also know that flying is energy intensive, pushing animals that do it towards energy-rich foods(eg meat, fruit, seeds), and the only source of sufficient quantity of energy rich food available to a flying creature of that size would be megafauna living in open areas- a flying creature of that size cannot hunt over a forest canopy effectively. Furthermore, ancient sources are unanimous that dragons are similar to snakes- depictions of dragons as being flying lizards are more recent, contemporaries agreed that they may or may not have hindlimbs but definitely did not have forelimbs- pointing to vestigial back legs, and all snakes are carnivores. Ancient sources agree that they ate large animals, preferred hot weather, and were highly venomous, indicating similarities to existing squamates.

So dragons needed open areas with sufficient temperatures to hunt, but being flying creatures could range long distances. It’s reasonable to suppose that they needed rocky, inaccessible broken terrain to nest in, being too big for trees and all. Given the preference for hot weather but also ancient sources placing them in places that have winter, we can probably assume they migrated.

Now if their bones were bird like we can assume that a dragon’s hunting strategy would have avoided directly overpowering prey animals due to risk of injury; today’s eagles go for a quick strike but without talons, and with taking elephants, that’s likely impossible.

Instead, let’s call attention to the weapon the ancient sources describe- their breath. Ancient sources are often confused about this- some describe spitting fire, others say their breath by itself could kill, others say that they spat venom. Python is described in legend as very nearly killing Apollo with his venom. And spitting venom isn’t unknown- cobras do this. Probably the ancient sources are a bit confused as to what exactly dragons were spitting, I think it’s fair to say that they’re describing a spitting cobra-like mechanism for getting venom into their prey’s face, which weakens them sufficiently to be safely attacked, and that it tended to disperse into a cloud rather than a defined stream leading to confusion as to what exactly it was. Ancient legends don’t seem to refer to dragons setting fires, so the fire part is probably an inexact description- maybe spat venom was highly caustic and tended to burn or sting on contact.

Now this raises the question of what happened to them, and the answer is ‘we killed them all’. Specifically, the indo-European expansion spread a dragon-killing technology package of better bows and better mobility for the individual warrior. If my theory about how dragons tended to attack was correct, then a chariot borne warrior with a compound bow would have a nearly ideal attack angle on a dragon that fought, if he had the balls to use it- spat venom is mostly effective against the face, leading dragons to have an instinct for diving at their prey from the front and breaking suddenly to spit. It’s not like wild horses or elephants have missile weapons.

Now that story is especially unfortunate for our poor dragons because, geographically, the indo-European urheimat is likely the primest summertime territory sustaining the largest breeding population(most existing migratory bird species breed in their summertime territories). And isn’t Russian mythology supposedly all about rendering the territory fit for human settlement by killing a dragon? For pastoralists, a large creature that comes out of nowhere and kills their livestock is a huge threat and an indo-European tendency to be especially aggressive at persecuting dragons can perhaps be perceived, although the semites are possibly just as bad. We can also assume that people with the option would destroy their nests and kill more vulnerable young/eggs. Long story short, sharing territory with people is just not going to work out well for them(as for many other animals).

By Roman times, naturalists record them as occurring solely in India, perhaps because the Himalayas are the hardest to get to location. A small population like that is extra vulnerable to extinction and it’s not a mystery how they wound up dying out entirely.

I'm sure that if you give up on flight - which as you correctly pointed out is likely medieval addition, at least as far as Eastern and Western folklore is concerned - there must be some historical reptiles that bear some passable resemblance to some of the dragon depictions. And some of them may even be venomous, why not. Reptiles are known for being venomous.

And isn’t Russian mythology supposedly all about rendering the territory fit for human settlement by killing a dragon?

"All" is a massive overstatement, but there are certain mentions of hostile reptiles, often three-headed. It usually controls communication ways (roads, bridges, etc.) rather than territories. So one would be very tempted to write it down as a metaphoric depiction of nomadic tribes terrorizing their settled neighbors by attacking their trade routes, but of course that suggestion makes one a dull person.

they’re not fossilized because they have bird like bones that aren’t very robust the fossil record is incomplete etc.

Bird fossils do exist.

It's common for people to assume animals can fly that can't.

Take the legendary version of the tiger, the manticore.

You're out in the woods. A tiger, drops from a tree, grabs Steve, jumps back into a tree and runs off.

From your point of view the stripes on the tail could be segments like a scorpion. It came down then went up. Obviously it flew.

If you talk to hunters many of them will joke about deer flying. They get spooked, run at you, jump over your head, then when you look around they are gone. You just saw them go up and vanish.

So that's probably the source of Pegasus and flying reindeer.

So the historic dragon might not have even flown. It could just be a good pouncer who can get away quickly.

Of course that's less fun.

I think if you have this belief you're required to write a novel about the historical dragons and what they were like and what happened to them. Or at least have one ghost-written for you, if you're a famous guy like Rogan.

If somebody wants to write a novel based on my schizoposts I’m all aboard.

Who cares about dragons that don't even breathe fire? 😴

(1) Agreed. If you told me that scientists discovered that there was an animal that flew and spit venom, I'd be like, OK! I wouldn't be shocked. But I wouldn't call it a dragon.

(2) The above logic seems no more convincing than the evidence for the average cryptid. It's not impossible but I'd surely need some harder evidence before I thought it's true.

hell, i'm convinced. There be dragons!

There been dragons.

and maybe... still... on the inside of the hollow earth...

Friday Factorio thread.

I haven't played as much in the past two days cuz of travel. But I'm on my way back to my computer and can't wait.

I feel like I found good ways to deal with gleba. And it just needs to be scaled up and improved upon. With a major injection of bioflux to the system. There should be enough bioflux to keep a constant export going to Nauvis where our science is being moved to take advantage of the more efficient biolabs.

I've also been trying to scale up Vulcanus quality item generation. I have maybe a few thousand active recyclers at any given time. Working on iron, steel, and copper.

Fulgora still oddly seems like the best place for getting legendary equipment. Even with my massive Vulcanus recycling operations. I finally saved up enough for a legendary mech suit. Now I just need to keep filling it with legendary equipment.

I'm coming to realize my space platform designs for the outer system are not working. They are too big, and not quality enough. It's hard and a little annoying to build rare or legendary quality ships, since I need to see which components are in stock on the nearby planet before building.

In addition to quality changes I might need to switch the general design philosophy. Most of the current designs pass necessary resources on belts that circle the entire space platform. I think this works alright on average but is bad during extended periods of active flight. It gets too clogged with asteroids from my grabbers, and ammo/rockets run low too fast if all of them are pulling from the same belt. I instead want to feed resources in and out of the central hub for the front of the ship, and then do a circular belt for the other sides. The central hub will store up extra ammo, and if it starts running low use interrupts to stop the ship and let it build a reserve back up.

Swapped out laptops due to a hardware error. Now running a x10 science/railworld run, as per my usual style.

Just got back up to running space science again. Only shipping up raw material after placing enough platform to support iron/steel smelting. It's a slow run to craft things in space that only require iron, but the long-term resource savings are worth it, I feel.

Probably won't hit Vulcanus again until next week. I'll be more ready than last playthrough.

That's the trick for space platforms. Asteroid chunks are awful and should either be on a totally separate system or limited somehow. An inserter that throws them overboard if there's more than X on the entire belt loop is handy (nice new feature).

That is the general approach I've had. Asteroids are somewhat great as a belt storage system. A metallic asteroid represents like 15-25 iron ore. Depending on where your productivity is at. So I like to keep the asteroid belt about 80% full at any given time.

But I'm just not sure if that works for shattered planet and outer system. I probably need to play around in the testing area for once. Even though I'm sorta loathe to do that, I'd rather just actively play and over engineer solutions.

Is anyone else surprised that they never excised “chief” from modern PC English? As in chief executive officer? I can’t think of any other context for chief other than an Indian chief. Maybe some military ranks? But it’s all based off Indians.

Thoughts?

It's an old word. England had a Chief Justiciar back in 1106. Native American tribal chiefs got the name because of their similarity to Scottish clan chiefs.

Fun fact: Tycoon comes from the Japanese word taikun, and was first used in English by Commodore Perry to describe Lincoln. It's probably the first Japanese loan word in the English language.

Chief comes from french 'chef', in its original meaning of 'boss'(it's cognate with Spanish jefe and the modern day job title is a contraction of 'chef de cuisine', meaning kitchen manager). It doesn't have any etymological ties to amerinds and has always been used in lots of not-amerind-related ways.

French chef comes from Latin caput, meaning 'head'.

Natives have no cultural power in the US, they have some limited local power in a couple of states at most.

Don't confuse people who exercise the power with people who are nominally this power exercise is benefitting. The Supreme Dictator of the People's Democratic Republic maybe nominally is ruling for the benefit of the people, but he has all the power and the people have none. You can be a lily-white man and still exercise power "on behalf of oppressed minorities" - if you're lucky of course.

Tell that to the commanders.

They were wiped out in the tidal wave of black identity politics that swept the nation in 2020. Native Americans themselves had almost nothing to do with it.

This goes too far - "tribal knowledge" is considered verboten in the most PC firms (ask me how i know).

It really has nothing to do with cultural power just as it's rarely black people pushing for "blacklist" to be blackballed.

(ask me how i know)

Ok. How do you know?

I have the misfortune of professionally (well, it's not in my job description, but still) being on the receiving end of products of the DEI consultant industry such as mandatory trainings and style guides with verboten phrases and focus group approved substitutes.

You have my sympathies.

It's tangentially related, but I'd like to take this opportunity to share one of my favourite bits of linguistic trivia.

The Irish word for "President" is Uachtarán*. (The President is a largely ceremonial role: the leader of the country is the Taoiseach, the Irish equivalent of the Prime Minister in the UK and other countries with a Westminster-style parliament.) The word uachtarán was originally used for the chief of a tribe or village in pre-colonial Ireland. The President's official residence is called Áras an Uachtaráin.

When we had to learn Irish in school, we learned the words for cream (uachtar***) and ice cream (uachtar reoite**** - literally "frozen cream"). I always wondered about the connection between "uachtar* and uachtaráin, as they're obviously from the same root, but I only found out last year. Can you guess?

Uachtar literally translates as "top". It is used to refer to "cream" because the cream floats to the top of the milk. By extension, the uachtarán is the person at the top of the tribe/village/country.

*Pronounced "OOK-tar-awn".

** Pronounced "TEE-shuck".

*** Pronounced "OOK-tar".

**** Pronounced "OOK-tar ROW-it-cha".

My guess: Cream of the crop? Cream is usually important, maybe somebody who was allowed to drink it?

EDIT: cool, makes sense

I think it's because the 'chief' in CEO is an adjective rather than a noun. The brain processes the two categories of word differently, even if they are homonyms.

I wonder if this explains the bizarre reaction by some feminists to women being called "females," despite not having a problem with them being labeled as being "female." I've seen a number of weird, twisting explanations for why the former is "dehumanizing" or whatever, but all of them appeared as pure motivated reasoning, especially given that no man I've ever heard of has had any problem with being called "a male." Could very well be indeed pure motivated reasoning, meant to put a veneer of justification over what's, at heart, a pure visceral response.

More or less.

Well, if by “visceral response” you mean “heuristic.” Hearing someone choose the word “females” usually says a lot about their worldview. It’s the same sentiment that makes most men cringe at “male fantasy” or “male privilege”: you immediately know what you’re getting.

When I've seen this come up it's been in the setting of what women perceive as low status males being misogynist, however their is one community that uses females to refer to women a lot - low class/income inner city blacks, one of the groups that is most disrespectful to women.

I think a lot of the incoherence is stemming from that.

especially given that no man I've ever heard of has had any problem with being called "a male."

I'm surprised to hear that, since in recent years "male" and especially the dreaded "cis het white male" seems like something of a slur, and I'm not sure in what other contexts people would call a specific man or boy "a male." Calling oneself "a male" comes across as an apology.

"male role model" is probably the big one.

Oh yeah, that one is positive.

Along those lines, I guess a female boss or CEO sounds neutral to me, and like something I might say.

Both of these are used as adjectives It's the nouns that have bad reputations.

Yes, but the reason it feels more natural is that by saying ‘female’ in that context it was initially (and perhaps remains) a way to divorce the baggage ‘woman’ carries as ‘nothing bad about them’, scientific, natural. Mistake theory. ‘Woman’ had negative connotations in that setting.

By contrast, ‘mayle’ is intended to invoke the opposite end of that and meant to imply science and nature are against how they generally are. Conflict theory. ‘Men’ had neutral to positive connotations in that setting.

I've seen 'the group of males over there' and the like. Or 'why do males do x thing'. You're right, though, it doesn't seem regularly used for a specific referent.

And I suspect there is just a gender difference in how easy it is to get offended. Men just get offended by stuff like that less. Everyone makes fun of 'Oh he's got his panties in a wad over being called Mr Whatever instead of Bob' but its far more acceptable for a woman.

I think 'females' is usually used to refer to animals, that's why many people don't like it. Men and boys are just less sensitive.

That's one of the justifications I've heard, but it just doesn't strike me as based on anything real. It's often used to refer to animals, but not in a way that distinguishes non-human animals from human ones, like how referring to someone as "it" might. It appears to me as motivated reasoning.

Ok, now that someone’s brought up its use in black culture- which the women who most strongly object the term would associate with poor treatment of women- that’s probably the real reason. Obviously the ‘it sounds like you’re talking about dogs’ is a bit more acceptable to say in public, though.

Today I learned there are women who are offended by the term female. Really we are living in interesting times.

Think of it as the difference between 女 and 雌

I'm a native English speaker but do know the words you mention here I'd argue mesu (female) like osu (male), is an idiosyncratic use only for animals in a way that male and female is not in English. Much hay has been made in feminist circles of Mulvey's term "the male gaze" in cinema (and elsewhere), to say nothing of the general term "male chauvinism." I haven't heard any men upset with the term. It seems unexpectedly childish for women to be upset over the use of female--like an adult woman I know strongly dislikes the word moist among other words. But that's just a mild word aversion. She doesn't try to justify it.

I'd argue mesu (female) like osu (male), is an idiosyncratic use only for animals

You would argue wrongly. Someone hasn’t read enough filth in the internet :)

めす and more rarely おす can be used in relation to humans but are demeaning and/or sexual precisely because they are more commonly used for animals.

For obvious reasons, feminists tend to be sensitive about being associated too closely with their biological nature. Male and female have much more subtle associations in English, but I think it's ultimately the same thing. Men have traditionally leant into their physicality, so I don't think it works in reverse.

I don't agree with anything you're saying here, except that I concede that people may be using メス and オス for humans in a pejorative way--that simply illustrates my point, that these terms are for animals, and thus to use them with humans is considered rude.

I'm also not sure what you mean when you say

For obvious reasons, feminists tend to be sensitive about being associated too closely with their biological nature.

What are the obvious reasons? I know many women who consider themselves feminists of various stripe and I wouldn't say any of them are sensitive about being associated with biological femaleness. In any way.

It doesn't seem like a majority but I've seen not-just-generally-offended-by-stuff women dislike the term being applied to themselves because it's usually a descriptor for animals.

Yes, and that's exactly why women-generally-offended-at-everything have no problems using it for men.

I imagine it in a Ferengi voice. Or with a similar vibe to "birthing parent."

I imagine it in a Ferengi voice.

They let their females wear clothing!

I watched a lot of DS9 as a kid, but I default to imagining female-as-a-noun in a working-class black voice because it's in common usage among black people in my area (same goes for male-as-a-noun). Why this is, I could not say.

Yeah, it's definitely the crowd of women who would say, "uh, you mean women?" to either referring to 'vagina havers' or 'females' and would strongly dislike either being used as a noun for themselves.

I had the same thought and looked into this a few years back and found that it long predated European contact with American Indians. But historical context didn't matter for niggards or sniggerers, so maybe it's just a matter of time.

Niggardly isn't that common and there are plenty of alternatives.

Chief is in the top 3000 most common words, so trying to get rid of it is much more difficult.

The upsetting one is "tar baby" because it's actually a useful concept without a good alternative.

I believe it originally referred to the leaders of Scottish clans.

Wow! That’s interesting. Learned something new here.

Thanksgiving -

Happy thanksgiving to the Amerikaner mottizens, I have no clue what the real story behind it is so would be nice in case you guys could tell me what exactly is the correct origin.

Death of Web shows and Fishtank.live -

Web shows, pre netflix web shows were quite hot for a minute. Collegehumor and Cracked.com put out fairly interesting low budget things. Youtube or the internet back then was not just another medium for larger crops like it is now but more decentralised. You did not expect to find mainstream people having thier own channels, it was its own subculture. Some web shows I liked were after hours by craked, jake and amir by collegehumor, most stuff put out by them was pretty good until like 2015, they had many great shows besides these two. One web entity that stood out enough to get a TV Show was MDE with its frontman Sam Hyde, his TED Talk is a hilarious introduction in case you have never seen him before.

MDE - World Peace was Sam Hyde's original breakthrough, 6 episodes of 12 minutes, it was the funniest thing on cable till it got cancelled literally by Adult Swim for Sam shilling for Trump, the group disbanded but Sam kept at it, he kept making videos and greenlight Fishtank, an idea Jet Neptune, one of the people in his team had. Do not go into it expecting to find something meaningful, Fisthank is what you want trashy humor to be, just balls-to-the-wall funny.

I started watching Fishtank.live via daily recaps on youtube since yesterday and it is the highest-brow trashy reality tv anyone can enjoy. Sam Hyde is the perfect host and the whole host of people there doing insane things is too funny not to laugh at. I cannot name my favourite incidents without getting banned since the show is seen primarily by 4chan folks.

Unlike Big Brother, you see it live 24/7 without edits, but instead of washed-up celebrities, it's internet weirdos and washed-up internet celebrities with cameos from the likes of Frank Hassle and Alex Stein. One of the episodes in season one ended with a guy smoking crack and getting kicked out, and another with Luke Valentine teaching an actor how to yell profanities. Viewers can pay money, send tts, and meddle with the lives of the contestants. Many would be put off by Fishtank which is fine, I am too at times but it is quite entertaining, you can just pick up at any point in any season and laugh real hard. Sam has made two of the most interesting web shows

Miscellaneous

No fights this weekend and since I have started Tantra Illuminated, the online academy run by Christopher Hareesh Wallis, I am tempted to pick up his book titled Tantra Illuminated. Hareesh comes from a school of Tantra called Shaiva Tantra that you found in Kashmir, it is a non-dual theistic tradition that encourages you to read up about the nature of reality from the perspective of a yogi. This is a purely leisure thing and I have a terrible habit of putting down books halfway. Do drop your own understanding of whatever spiritual readings you have come across, I never cared much about this till now so I do find it exciting.

Have a fun weekend folks!

Thanksgiving -

Happy thanksgiving to the Amerikaner mottizens, I have no clue what the real story behind it is so would be nice in case you guys could tell me what exactly is the correct origin.

A group of English religious dissidents got permission to settle in what is now the US, a bunch of them died in the first winter but a local Indian named Squanto offered to teach them to make the local soil grow crops when he wandered over to see if they brought any beer with them. His chief then noticed they had guns and threw a feast where he convinced the colonists to sign a mutual defense pact(which he actually invoked a few times, but it broke down before King Phillips war). Thanksgiving commemorates that feast.

Samoset was the one who first met them and asked for beer in some English he had learned from fishermen. Squanto was a more effective translator because he knew more English, having been enslaved by English people, sold to the Spanish, getting out of Spain to England, and living in London until he could return home (only to discover his birth village/tribe had died out in the meantime).

Today I present the weirdest mind in the gutter moment that happened to me.

I was listening to candy candy by a vocaloid, and right when the chorus happened I swear I heard the Chorus play out as "Cummie Cummie get me Cummie cummie sweet me feed me come in love, do me do me do-me do-me doo-me cutie cutie d-d-d-do me love Cummie Cummie get me cummie cummie sweet me feed me come in love do me do me do me do me do me cutie cutie so candy love" and ever since then I realized I can switch between that chorus and the actual chorus just by changing what I'm reading or by closing my eyes it's so weird.

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This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

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Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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