redwall_hp's recent activity
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Comment on US President Joe Biden raises tariffs on $18 billion of Chinese imports: EVs, solar panels, batteries and more in ~finance
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Comment on The West doesn’t understand how much Russia has changed in ~misc
redwall_hp Link ParentIt wouldn't be the first time Coca-Cola continued operating in an embargoed market with the intention of recovering the proceeds later...Fanta was famously created by Coca-Cola's German division...It wouldn't be the first time Coca-Cola continued operating in an embargoed market with the intention of recovering the proceeds later...Fanta was famously created by Coca-Cola's German division during the WWII embargo, and the ensuing product line is squarely a part of the parent company now.
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Comment on Indiana judge rules tacos, burritos are sandwiches in ~food
redwall_hp Link ParentTechnically, tacos are more "American" than sandwiches. They are a food of a culture native to the Americas, argued to predate Spanish contact, while the modern sandwich is a British food named...Technically, tacos are more "American" than sandwiches. They are a food of a culture native to the Americas, argued to predate Spanish contact, while the modern sandwich is a British food named after the fourth Earl of Sandwich in the 1700s.
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Comment on Indiana judge rules tacos, burritos are sandwiches in ~food
redwall_hp LinkThis is ridiculous. We already have an irrefutable framework that defines all of the above as salads, in such a rigorous manner that none can hope to find edge cases. https://saladtheory.github.io/This is ridiculous. We already have an irrefutable framework that defines all of the above as salads, in such a rigorous manner that none can hope to find edge cases.
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Comment on Seattle’s law mandating higher pay for food delivery workers is a case study in backfire economics in ~finance
redwall_hp Link ParentYep...though now they're finding a way to drip price that to. DoorDash has started tacking on an additional, visible $10 fee for some restaurants that are outside of the normal delivery radius. (I...Yep...though now they're finding a way to drip price that to. DoorDash has started tacking on an additional, visible $10 fee for some restaurants that are outside of the normal delivery radius. (I assume the driver doesn't see any of that, of course.)
So you can eat the marked up menu price, delivery fee (or DashPass), a tip for the driver, and now an extra $10 for being a little further away for your fast food burger.
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Comment on Many widely used reproductive health apps fail to protect highly sensitive data, study finds in ~health
redwall_hp Link ParentThe trouble with paper books is they are easily seized and are trivially subject to subpoena. Given that we have states talking about "monitoring" pregnant women, physical tracking is major...The trouble with paper books is they are easily seized and are trivially subject to subpoena. Given that we have states talking about "monitoring" pregnant women, physical tracking is major security risk versus something with strong and trustworthy encryption.
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Comment on Florida man worries about his ruined reputation after pulling gun on Uber driver dropping the man's daughter off at their house in ~transport
redwall_hp Link ParentYes, always. I'd recommend going all-in with a vinyl wrap, though. If someone is already at that level of paranoia, it would probably make it worse, since clearly cars + Japan = drift racing...Do I need to put huge anime decals on my car
Yes, always. I'd recommend going all-in with a vinyl wrap, though.
so that people don't think I'm a gangster and start firing on me?
If someone is already at that level of paranoia, it would probably make it worse, since clearly cars + Japan = drift racing yakuza, according to a documentary they saw once.
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Comment on Chevrolet Malibu heads for the junkyard as GM shifts focus to electric vehicles in ~transport
redwall_hp Link ParentP=mv, so remember to drive n+1% faster an SUV n% heavier than your sedan, so you can still kick their ass in a collision. Any survivability comes from being able to move a lighter car (turning it...P=mv, so remember to drive n+1% faster an SUV n% heavier than your sedan, so you can still kick their ass in a collision.
Any survivability comes from being able to move a lighter car (turning it into a movable object instead of a stationary one). Two cars of equal weight and speed are effectively hitting a stationary object. If two cars of equal momentum collide, neither gives way, and the 60mph collision is more like hitting a brick wall at 120mph.
(This should be considered for entertainment purposes only and is not legal advice.)
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Comment on The land that doesn’t need Ozempic in ~food
redwall_hp Link ParentThis part stuck out a bit to me: It's basically a cultural meme to not like vegetables, which is pushed on children and spreads. I didn't realize how bad it was until moving to the southern...This part stuck out a bit to me:
I asked my translator: Is this a joke? Are they trolling me? A bunch of 10-year-olds, telling me how much they love broccoli and rice? But most of the Japanese people I discussed this with were puzzled to see that I was puzzled. We teach kids to enjoy healthy food, they explained. Don’t you?
It's basically a cultural meme to not like vegetables, which is pushed on children and spreads. I didn't realize how bad it was until moving to the southern midwest; people have absolute trash diets here, tastes that I'd describe as trending juvenile (if I didn't know better that children raised on healthier food don't naturally detest it), and it very definitely shows in the average weight. It was a bit of a shock going back to a coastal city for a visit and noticing that difference.
Increasingly, I think we need to treat sugar purveyors closer to how we treat cigarette companies...but there is vehement resistance to that, as one might expect from a place of addiction. We'd rather normalize obesity than fight it at an epidemiological level.
And broccoli and rice are superior to burgers.
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Comment on Warner Bros. to release new ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie ‘The Hunt for Gollum’ in 2026, Peter Jackson to produce and Andy Serkis to direct in ~movies
redwall_hp LinkAll you need to know: it says Middle Earth Enterprises, the holding company started by Saul Zaentz after he bought the film and merchandising rights from Tolkien, not the Tolkien Estate. They have...The projects will be developed through WB label New Line Cinema. Freemode, a division of Embracer Group, made the adaptive rights deal for books including “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” under a venture named Middle-earth Enterprises.
All you need to know: it says Middle Earth Enterprises, the holding company started by Saul Zaentz after he bought the film and merchandising rights from Tolkien, not the Tolkien Estate. They have no rights to Tolkien materials outside of the text of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, so it's just Hollywood fan fiction.
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Comment on Nintendo pre-announces a Switch 2 announcement is coming… eventually in ~games
redwall_hp Link ParentApple does an announcement for an announcement twice a year: I had an email in my inbox at least a month ago about today's product announcement, which they live-streamed. The only difference is...Apple does an announcement for an announcement twice a year: I had an email in my inbox at least a month ago about today's product announcement, which they live-streamed.
The only difference is Nintendo isn't being cagey about what's being announced; the actual details are still forthcoming, and now buyers and investors know to expect it.
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Comment on Heat death of the internet in ~tech
redwall_hp (edited )Link ParentIf is the operative word. From what we've been hearing out of the antitrust investigations lately, Google has very shady internal communications policies that avoid paper trails, and setting...If is the operative word. From what we've been hearing out of the antitrust investigations lately, Google has very shady internal communications policies that avoid paper trails, and setting expectations for things to implement without putting them in written requirements.
I'm sure there isn't an explicit function that parses the page and checks for the AdSense URI, but I wouldn't be surprised if some machine learning element in the ranking system was trained in such a way that "desirable" pages in the training set mostly had AdSense placements and undesirable ones mostly did not. "Coincidentally," of course.
Finding metrics that correlate with other metrics you can't legally use is an unfortunately common thing.
Google also controls both sides of the search and ads equation. It's a commonly held notion that SEO is the reason why recipe sites are full of expository text instead of just a simple recipe...but that's also a product of the AdSense content policies. To be approved to host ads, your site has to meet certain criteria, which incentivize the same sort of behavior as the search optimization side.
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Comment on Heat death of the internet in ~tech
redwall_hp Link ParentI put forward that it may well be intentional. The search leadership was been replaced by people who live in the ad world, after building a near monopoly on ad networks for web sites. The...inability to rein in malicious SEO
I put forward that it may well be intentional. The search leadership was been replaced by people who live in the ad world, after building a near monopoly on ad networks for web sites.
The optimization path is simple: Google no longer wants you to quickly find what you're looking for. Google wants to maximize the number of AdSense impressions they can force you to see. They want you to see the ads on the search results page, and they want to to click many links out to pages that are also AdSense partners. Spammy sites with SEO fluff and AdSense placements make Google more money, so they're optimizing for what is now the status quo. I wouldn't be surprised if the presence of the JavaScript tag for AdSense banners was even a factor in ranking.
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Comment on The biggest box office bombs of 2023; Disney leads with four entries in ~movies
redwall_hp (edited )Link ParentThe film was definitely okay. Not great, but entertaining enough. My biggest annoyance was their lexical abuse of the antikythera mechanism. Ascribing mystical properties to it is all well and...The film was definitely okay. Not great, but entertaining enough. My biggest annoyance was their lexical abuse of the antikythera mechanism. Ascribing mystical properties to it is all well and good for a turn of the century pulp adventure, but it's called "the antikythera mechanism" because it's a mechanism found off of Antikythera. Which is an island off of Kythira, hence the name.
And yes, I've read the entire "Gears from the Greeks" academic paper (De Solla Price, 1974).
Anyway, the film made me realize we need an Indiana Jones animated series. Hitching it to Harrison Ford forever obviously isn't going to happen, so we might as well have something in a medium that can fully lean into the pulp adventure style and not worry about being compared too closely to the originals. That way we can perpetually stay in the proper time frame instead of continuously pushing forward out of the era the films were intended for.
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Comment on ‘The Fall Guy’ box office disappointment hurts more than opening weekend in ~movies
redwall_hp Link ParentI have the Alamo pass and go approximately weekly, as long as there are things that seem at least interesting. If I'm going to eat dinner out, I might as well see a movie too. I've seen plenty of...I have the Alamo pass and go approximately weekly, as long as there are things that seem at least interesting. If I'm going to eat dinner out, I might as well see a movie too. I've seen plenty of films that didn't perform well or are hardly talked about, but were great. (I'd actually be tempted to rank Killers of the Flower Moon over Oppenheimer.) American Fiction, Gran Turismo, Dungeons and Dragons and A Haunting in Venice were a handful that were entertaining and underrated.
I just saw The Fall Guy last night. It was a fun action comedy and I definitely recommend it. A couple of nights prior, I saw The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which was also good.
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Comment on The biggest box office bombs of 2023; Disney leads with four entries in ~movies
redwall_hp Link ParentI'd buy quantum camp for Batman and Robin (the best Batman movie ever made) but I still had trouble finishing Hocus Pocus 2. Maybe I'll have to revisit it with alcohol some day...I'd buy quantum camp for Batman and Robin (the best Batman movie ever made) but I still had trouble finishing Hocus Pocus 2. Maybe I'll have to revisit it with alcohol some day...
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Comment on The world owes Spider-Man 3 an apology in ~movies
redwall_hp Link ParentIt has a massive amount of world building, a nice Star Trek style plot that gives it some political depth necessary to set up the fall of a civilization, and some of the best music and fights in...It has a massive amount of world building, a nice Star Trek style plot that gives it some political depth necessary to set up the fall of a civilization, and some of the best music and fights in the series. The weak points are excessive attempts at comic relief and some of the VFX could have used a little bit more time for CGI quality to improve.
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Comment on The world owes Spider-Man 3 an apology in ~movies
redwall_hp Link ParentThe prequels were always as good as the original trilogy. Feel free to read that as the prequels being underrated or the original trilogy has never been quality beyond fun entertainment in the...The prequels were always as good as the original trilogy. Feel free to read that as the prequels being underrated or the original trilogy has never been quality beyond fun entertainment in the first place.
My first experience with Star Wars was the Special Edition VHS release, and the prequels as they came out (and the Expanded Universe books). The prequel era was peak Star Wars, with its extensive world building and emphasis on the Jedi as galactic peacekeepers.
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Comment on Data show that the amount of sexual content in top films has sharply declined since 2000 in ~movies
redwall_hp Link ParentLegislators are a small group of people. I don't think the will of the people was any better represented then than today. Worse, for sure, given that was squarely in the time period of Jim Crow...Legislators are a small group of people. I don't think the will of the people was any better represented then than today. Worse, for sure, given that was squarely in the time period of Jim Crow laws.
Also, a bunch of regressive dead people decided it for a much larger, more evolved population now. Hell, I'm not even sure if that's before or after my great grandparents came here.
The Hays Code was trash then, and so are the MPAA policies that came after.
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Comment on The biggest box office bombs of 2023; Disney leads with four entries in ~movies
redwall_hp Link ParentThat's the exact definition of "cult classic." Half of the films that have stuck around from the 80s and 90s and are now being milked for every cent weren't phenomenal at the box office but had a...That's the exact definition of "cult classic." Half of the films that have stuck around from the 80s and 90s and are now being milked for every cent weren't phenomenal at the box office but had a following.
Hocus Pocus comes to mind, for a Disney film. It was reported as a loss, but built up a following and was played as cheap filler on TV around Halloween for decades. Disney still doesn't understand what made it liked to begin with, given the truly awful sequel they made to cash in.
Capitalists: "The free market will solve all of your problems."
Also capitalists: "No, not like that. We need nationalist protectionism in the form of tariffs, so people buy our garbage instead of what they actually want."
Capitalists: *arbitraging labor around the world*
Also capitalists: "No, you can't live and work where you want." *border control and visa policies*
I'd rather buy a $10K BYD Seagull, even with the tariff, than a $50K shitbox made by a Muskrat.