Tolkien Tokenism is just Sam.

Tokenism.

It’s good.

It was rough on release - an empty open world(s) that funneled you through some of the weakest quests in any Bethesda game - but they added a lot more stuff to see and do and tweaked the look and feel.

You couldn’t get lost in it like in a Bethesda game before, and now you can.

The big exception is the laptop market, where they have been making some big swings recently.

But that was after more than a half decade of letting the non-phone hardware offerings stagnate.

Sauron is essentially industrialization incarnate.

Even Sauron is just a minion of the long gone Great Dark Lord, and the conquest of Middle Earth is a desperation play to unfuck his badly misfiring “One Ring to Rule Them All” scheme.

Weather Ball Barometer Torricelli (1608 – 1647) proved that air pressure was subject to variations and in 1643 he devised the first barometer. Goethe, the famous German playwright, who enjoyed scientific experiments, later ...

You can also buy gauges and doo-hickeys to keep an eye on it:

NACS was adopted as the North American universal standard a couple years, so all the major manufacturers are switching to it.

When the tariff war started, Chinese firms spilled the secrets on how many high-end and luxury brands were made in China and then “finished” in the country of origin.

There’s an article going around today about how this was what drove the Silicon Valley moguls to the far right.

They encountered people who didn’t agree with them or give them respect online, and their reaction to that became their entire personality and political orientation.

I’m leaning toward PFAS - “Forever Chemicals”, but it’s most likely an All of the Above and More scenario.

The one that people can do the most about is getting their cancer screenings, because cancer rates are way up for the 30-50 year old set.

No one knows why, but Gen X and Millennials have historically massive cancer spikes.

The GOP and the oil and gas industry are promoting a new Cold War instead, where it's Chinese EVs versus U.S. fossil fuels and AI.

Like, we are making the failure of the auto industry in the 80s the template for our entire 21st-century social structure.

The BMW i3 and other small EVs exist and are road legal in the U.S.

China built better tech while Silicon Valley chased schemes designed to eliminate workers and labor costs.

They chased a specifically American form of masculine insecurity instead of designing cars for multiple domestic and global markets.

"Ford Tough" killed Ford.

The career civil servants DOGE persecuted are gone forever, but the MAGA diehards they replaced them with will have their civil service protections honored.

In so many artistic endeavors, there is a space people should be able to build a life between "The arts are collectively a trillions+ a year industry" and "The artist would have a better life if they became assistant manager of a rural Dollar General instead."

I will die on the hill that U.S. culture suffered a grievous and potentially mortal injury when we retired the concept of "selling out"

I've been waiting for a reprint of the fourth volume to Claremont's Uncanny X-Men series for a long time.

They've reprinted volume 2 twice since the last time Volume 4 was in print.

"But that's one of their biggest titles, surely they'll keep it in print..."

"What do you mean the only copies available online are in "Good" condition and cost $1,000?"

Tedious.

Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later.

Reminder: The Trump regime cancelled nearly $500 million in federal contracts for mRNA vaccine development last year.

You are a fucking monster. I just want you to know that.

🎨 David Hockney

There's a genius idea in Starfield - No Man's Sky with stronger narrative hooks.

But they didn't commit to the exploration/base building/intergalactic economy aspect, and the narrative/exploration is the weakest in any modern Bethesda game.

NG+ further pushes the narrative into being weightless.

And the military and federal militias still follow his orders, even when targeted at U.S. cities.

I learned today in another context that Lucas was the creative force behind Body Heat, and he only passed it off at the last mile because he was afraid that people wouldn’t take a George Lucas erotic thriller seriously.

I think Leo was chosen in part to deal with the American Heresy. He’s using the scalp right now, but shit like this has to be making him think of the sword.

I'd like to think so, but every dude I know who watches sports uses these now. The constants ads and the way commentators have turned into odds-makers has had an impact.