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11 votes
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The build-nothing country
7 votes -
Why it's impossible to find an open squat rack at the gym
7 votes -
Humble Turkey-Syria Earthquake Relief Bundle
8 votes -
I just discovered a free, accountless graphic design web-app, in the vein of Canva and Crello
4 votes -
Join the Counterforce: Thomas Pynchon’s postmodern epic Gravity’s Rainbow at fifty
6 votes -
The rise of self-hosted apps
14 votes -
What programming/technical projects have you been working on?
This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's...
This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?
5 votes -
The Blackening | Official trailer
3 votes -
Mars will have a lot of wicker furniture
8 votes -
The Reemergent 1977 H1N1 Strain and the Gain-of-Function Debate (2015)
7 votes -
Rally Finland have announced this year's World Rally Championship event will feature a heavily revised route, featuring new stages and the return of iconic roads
3 votes -
Disgust is awful!
Oh no! My friend thinks she shouldn't use her nice ornamental coffee pot, because it is made of aluminum! Nevermind that there might be science developing somewhere that this substance may be some...
Oh no! My friend thinks she shouldn't use her nice ornamental coffee pot, because it is made of aluminum! Nevermind that there might be science developing somewhere that this substance may be some kind of innocuous which is not total. It's just horrible that that is how people make decisions
sometimes!I got really defensive when I started hearing that people would avoid plastic bottles. Seemed like the kind of discernment that could only put me out of touch with things which are available. Go get your coffee pot! I doubt that you'll ever be able to tell if it ever impacted your health. Another friend of mine has a whole crop of prohibitions. He liked some of my clothes and talked about borrowing them until he found out they included polyesters, at which point he completely dropped interest and then I just felt put down for going on with something he had rejected. I thought, why did he speculate to me at all, knowing he had that sort of judgment still pending? Disgust should be unspeakable! but people bring it out with such righteousness, like "wouldn't you like to be healthier, away from all these awful things"? I also feel this way about smells. I hate how people respond to perceptible odors. Everyone is so sure of their opinions. Someone please come out with me for this. Unless you're struggling to breathe I really do not want to hear what you think about a smell. You're just going to interpret the world as being a worse place to be and that habit is what disgusts me!
3 votes -
LockPickingLawyer (literally) slaps open a MojoBox digital lockbox
22 votes -
What programming/technical projects have you been working on?
This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's...
This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?
6 votes -
I'm buying my first ever new car tomorrow
EDIT: See final update here ...and I'm a little worried the dealership might try to screw me over. Some backstory: In 2021, Chevrolet announced the Bolt EUV -- a slightly larger version of their...
EDIT: See final update here
...and I'm a little worried the dealership might try to screw me over.
Some backstory:
In 2021, Chevrolet announced the Bolt EUV -- a slightly larger version of their Bolt EV.
Right after it got introduced, all Bolt EVs and EUVs underwent a battery recall. Dealers were unable to sell these until their batteries were replaced, despite the high demand for the vehicle.
In June 2022, Chevrolet announced a $6,300 price drop for the EV/EUV.
My current car was due for replacement (it's a 2003, lol); I wanted my next car to be an EV; the price drop made this something I could really afford; and it turns out that the EUV is literally the only electric vehicle at that price point that I can actually fit in (my head hits the ceiling in a Kona, for example).
In June 2022, I attempted to buy an EUV, only to find out that there were waitlists everywhere because the price drop increased demand, while the recall decreased supply. As such, I put in an order for a 2023 EUV with a deposit.
2023s went into production in July, but it turns out they're not made in order (which makes sense: the factory makes batches of similar types) and it also turns out that different dealerships have different "allocations" which means that they only get so many of a certain type of car -- even if it's been directly ordered by a customer.
I didn't know this at the time of ordering, but, the dealership I went with had a very low allocation for EUVs.
I have waited this entire time (which is not uncommon), and my car has finally arrived at the dealership. I'm slated to pick it up tomorrow and finish the purchase.
My concerns:
The dealership knows right now that they have me over a barrel. I've waited eight months for this thing. There is no other available inventory anywhere, as the EUVs sell immediately or, in most cases, are already spoken for before they arrive due to waitlists. People trying to get them complain about huge markups because of this.
I have a "motor vehicle purchase agreement" from the dealership from when I ordered the vehicle and made my initial deposit. That paper shows that I'll be paying MSRP for the vehicle, which I'm happy to do.
My question is: is the dealership going to try and make me pay something different, knowing that I'm not going to walk away from this? I feel somewhat comfortable that I have an agreement for the MSRP in black and white, but is that enough?
My other question is: is there some other way they're going to try to get one over on me? Something more subtle or that I don't expect? The last time I bought a car was ~15 years ago, and I pretty much stood there while my dad did the talking (also the car was used and super cheap).
I will be financing a loan through the dealership to pay for the car.
Basically, what can I do to make sure tomorrow goes as smoothly as possible? I'm hoping that it's easy, cut and dry, and there's no funny business, but I've also heard some horror stories -- especially from people trying to buy the particular car I'm getting.
17 votes -
Giant California greenhouse signals a big bet on cannabis legalization
4 votes -
The vertical farming bubble is finally popping
20 votes -
‘M*A*S*H’ said goodbye forty years ago, with a finale for the ages
5 votes -
5 Microservices Misconceptions
2 votes -
In the oppression olympics, don’t go for the gold
13 votes -
Fortnightly Programming Q&A Thread
General Programming Q&A thread! Ask any questions about programming, answer the questions of other users, or post suggestions for future threads. Don't forget to format your code using the triple...
General Programming Q&A thread! Ask any questions about programming, answer the questions of other users, or post suggestions for future threads.
Don't forget to format your code using the triple backticks or tildes:
Here is my schema: ```sql CREATE TABLE article_to_warehouse ( article_id INTEGER , warehouse_id INTEGER ) ; ``` How do I add a `UNIQUE` constraint?
3 votes -
TV Tuesdays Free Talk
Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here. Please just try to provide fair warning of...
Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
5 votes -
Danish parliament urges lawmakers and employees to remove TikTok on work phones as a cybersecurity measure, saying “there is a risk of espionage”
4 votes -
Party patellas: The knee makeup fad of the '20s and '60s
10 votes -
Käärijä – Cha Cha Cha (2023)
4 votes -
Request: Alternatives to the Raspberry Pi?
I will shortly have need for a small, low power (power as in watts, not compute power) system for always-on Home Assistant use. However, Raspberry Pis are out of stock everywhere and while they...
I will shortly have need for a small, low power (power as in watts, not compute power) system for always-on Home Assistant use. However, Raspberry Pis are out of stock everywhere and while they can be had for extortionate prices on various auction/marketplace sites, I'm not sure I want to spend a load of money on something which might not even be what it claims to be.
Home Assistant suggest Odroid which I'd probably go for the C4 edition but it's relatively expensive (I need to add an MMC and a psu and various other things to the listed main board price)
Any suggestions? The Asus Tinkerboard looks overkill and is very expensive. It needs to be capable of running a standard Linux distro, ideally Home Assistant's own OS. Low power consumption is a definite, 2-3W at idle is probably the maximum I'd be happy with. Wifi is a bonus although not required right now - but the ability to add it if needed is essential. Some amount of expansion capability would be good if I want to add hardware sensors or bluetooth or a Zigbee transceiver or whatever. It needs some reasonably amount of compute grunt I assume but I don't think HA is all that hungry for number crunching power. The machine will more than likely be headless at first but a little bit of GPU and graphical IO would be handy if I want to stick a display on it in the future, which I might want to.
Any ideas? Oh, and also must be easily available in/to the UK.
15 votes -
Isolation combined with an inhospitable environment can be a cause of stress on Greenland – but locals have found a way to deal with it: tuning into nature
3 votes -
Ted Lasso | Season 3 official trailer
5 votes -
Black holes are accelerating the expansion of the Universe, say cosmologists
9 votes -
You can make handmade holograms just by etching lines into a shiny surface. All you need is a compass with two points (a divider). And to be able to get your head around the mind bending geometry.
10 votes -
Why aren't more sports in 4K?
8 votes -
Fine-tuning to enable Stable Diffusion to generate very dark or light images easily
4 votes -
Weekly megathread for news/updates/discussion of Russian invasion of Ukraine - February 23
This thread is posted weekly on Thursday - please try to post relevant content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Especially significant updates may warrant a separate topic,...
This thread is posted weekly on Thursday - please try to post relevant content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Especially significant updates may warrant a separate topic, but most should be posted here.
If you'd like to help support Ukraine, please visit the official site at https://help.gov.ua/ - an official portal for those who want to provide humanitarian or financial assistance to people of Ukraine, businesses or the government at the times of resistance against the Russian aggression.
12 votes -
Sir Curse - Babooshka x Rasputin (2023)
7 votes -
Inside Denmark's opioid crisis – more teens are abusing opioids because they take the pills both to get high and to cope with anxiety
3 votes -
Old, but Interesting programs
7 votes -
What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking?
What food and drinks have you been enjoying (or not enjoying) recently? Have you cooked or created anything interesting? Tell us about it!
4 votes -
Activists block Norway's energy ministry, protesting against wind turbines built on land traditionally used by the Sámi indigenous people
4 votes -
Emeril's Sitcom | Forgotten Failures
3 votes -
SAG Awards: ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ wins top film prize; Michelle Yeoh and Brendan Fraser take lead acting honors
7 votes -
‘Dilbert’ author Scott Adams tells White people to get away from Black people, gets dropped from US newspaper
19 votes -
Alone and exploited, migrant children work brutal jobs across the US
11 votes -
The internet is already over
7 votes -
Barrett .50 Cal.
8 votes -
Tennessee becomes the first state to pass a ban on drag shows. The bill is so vaguely worded it could also target trans people and Pride celebrations generally.
12 votes -
SolidGoldMagikarp and other words that cause buggy behavior with ChatGPT
18 votes -
The Boy With Green Hair - a review
I just watched an old movie on television: The Boy With Green Hair. It’s a boring afternoon, with nothing to do, and I thought this old 1948 movie would be a pleasant way to kill an hour or two. I...
I just watched an old movie on television: The Boy With Green Hair. It’s a boring afternoon, with nothing to do, and I thought this old 1948 movie would be a pleasant way to kill an hour or two.
I was wrong.
It moved me to tears.
It stars Dean Stockwell, whose name I recognised from ‘Battlestar Galactica’, as a child actor, which is one reason I decided to watch it. He gives a great performance. Doing a bit of research, it looks like he was dragged into acting by his performer parents. His Wikipedia page quotes him as saying he didn’t enjoy acting. Despite that, he was great in this movie.
It also has ‘Nature Boy’ as its theme song, which I know from ‘Moulin Rouge’.
The movie itself is a powerful anti-war message. The central character is Peter, a war orphan (the aforementioned Stockwell). After being placed with a number of different relatives, he ends up with a kindly old ex-Vaudeville performer he calls “Gramp” (who he’s not actually related to). Gramp’s a sweet old man, played very sympathetically by an actor called Pat O’Brien.
Peter doesn’t know he’s a war orphan. He thinks his parents are still on a trip. (A very long trip!) His school holds a charity drive to collect clothes for war orphans, and one of Peter’s classmates tells him, quite matter-of-factly, that Peter is a war orphan: their teacher said so. Peter rejects this, and they get into a fight. Gramp is there, and he confirms the news.
Later that evening, Gramp is reminiscing to Peter about his old flame Eileen, who loved having “a spot o’ green” around the place (a plant) to remind her of Spring and hope. To cheer Peter up, he promises him a surprise in the morning.
The next morning, after taking a bath, Peter’s hair has turned green. He assumes this is Gramp’s surprise, and it cheers him up. It’s not. Gramp knows nothing about it. In fact, the cause of the green hair is never revealed.
When Peter finds out the green hair is not from Gramp, he hates it and wants to get rid of it. However, they’re unable to figure out a cause, and Peter’s unwilling to “paint” his hair (dye it) or cut it off, so he’s stuck with it.
It’s hard to explain why this movie moved me, without giving away certain important plot points. If you don’t want too many spoilers, watch this trailer and stop reading now, until you’ve watched the movie for yourself.
If, like me, you’re not fussed about spoilers, read on. (Spoiler alert: spoilers make you enjoy stories more)
Here be spoilers!
Peter runs away after the other boys try to cut off his green hair, and he meets the war orphans from the posters at his school. It’s not clear whether this is a vision and the war orphans are actually speaking to Peter, or whether it’s just Peter’s dream, but it’s real enough to Peter. The orphans tell Peter that his hair is green because it represents Spring and hope. They further tell Peter that he should use his noticeable hair to spread the message that war is bad for children.
Interestingly, the girl who says this to Peter tells him that he should spread the message to all the countries, and then names five countries – who just happen to be the five permanent members of the recently formed United Nations Security Council.
Peter goes home to tell Gramp. When Peter says he wants to keep his hair green, it brought a tear to my eye. He then goes around town, telling everyone that war is bad for children.
But things turn bad. The other kids don’t like his green hair; he’s different, and the kids make fun of him. The adults don’t like his anti-war message; he’s different, and must conform.
This leads to the scene that moved me to tears. I never thought that watching someone getting his hair cut could make me cry. But seeing Peter give in and agree to have his green hair shaved off brought tears to my eyes. For some reason, half the town turns up at the barber shop to watch. Halfway through the process, Gramp realises his error in advising Peter to do this, and he turns away in shame. Meanwhile, I couldn’t take my eyes off Peter as his green curls fall to the floor.
I have to say there were some plotholes in this movie. It’s far from perfect.
Reading the backstory, it’s based on a short story which doesn’t mention war: it’s originally an allegory for racism, which is reflected in one scene in the movie where Peter’s teacher takes a roll call of students by hair colour. The adaptations to make it an anti-war message were inserted by the director, which makes it a bit clunky and obvious.
And, supposedly, the progressive movie studio executive who signed off on the movie was replaced by a conservative executive during production, who tried to change it into a pro-war movie. The movie is therefore a bit patchy and disconnected at points.
But it has heart. The two central actors, playing Peter and Gramp, carry most of the movie. The actor playing the teacher is also sympathetic and warm.
It's not a great movie, but the central performances are strong and the messages are powerful.
Some sources I found tell of Stockwell talking back to the conservative executive when the executive lectured him in favour of war, so Stockwell supported the message of the movie, even as a 12-year-old boy.
This was just supposed to be an old movie to distract me for an hour and a half on a boring afternoon. Instead, it grabbed my attention for the whole 90 minutes, and moved me deeply. So deeply that I just had to share it with someone. I considered putting this in @kfwyre’s Tildes Pop-Up Movie Event thread, but the 1940s slot is already taken. Not that I’m upset by that. I’m very glad I watched this movie, for its own sake.
4 votes -
PGA Awards: ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ takes Best Picture
4 votes -
Armand Duplantis set a new pole vault world record, clearing 6.22m in winning the All Star Perche 2023 event in France
3 votes