TwinIon

I think this might be Rian Johnson’s best movie yet. He has a real knack for playing to and subverting expectations, both in plotting and in tone, but I think Knives Out does the best job of balancing everything throughout. It can be both preposterous and deadly serious, take sudden turns while also being fairly straightforward, feels relevant without being preachy or breaking character. Not that everything needs to become an IP, but I’d totally watch more with Daniel Craig’s detective character. I gather Rian Johnson has expressed some interest in doing so. He’s so fun and hammy, but his oddity is somehow both completely fitting and also at odds with the world of Knives Out. I’d love to see him be a fish out of water detective in any given scenario.

Maybe it’s the nature of a 3.5hr Netflix movie, but I really felt like the film could lose a huge amount of screen time and probably be better for it. I really enjoyed the perspective of an older mobster looking back on things, but so much of the rest of it felt superfluous, and (ironically for such a long movie) kinda rushed through. I knew about it going in, but it’s so odd that this movie has title cards for “I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES” when that’s not the title. It’s a movie that I would like to revisit, but I don’t know when I’ll make time to anytime soon.

That discussion around Dr. M being able to appear as human sure makes more sense now. That was a hell of a reveal that I didn’t see coming in the least. When lady Trieu said that someone in Tulsa was Dr. Manhattan, my first thought was her adopted son (the one building a toy castle that resembles the one on Mars). This show really continues to surprise and impress. It lingers on the thematically significant and wastes no time in fooling around with plot. I loved the confrontation with Agent Blake. She’s such a straight shooter. I’m sure we’ll get some answers next week, but I’m pretty curious to find out the specifics of how this whole Dr. Manhattan transformation worked. Sure seems like he didn’t realize who he was, but will he remember who he had been? Does that mean he has more affinity for humans than we’ve been lead to believe? I didn’t really buy that the seventh Calvary was any real threat in containing or replicating Dr. Manhattan. Maybe if lady Trieu is behind them I’d buy it, but even Veidt couldn’t really slow him down, and I feel like I remember the book suggesting other attempts at replicating his powers were unsuccessful. I really hope we get some clarity on Veidt’s situation next week. I’m really not sure what to make of the whole trial thing.

I had no doubt that Frozen 2 would destroy the box office, but I’m glad that Knives Out made some money. It doesn’t have the “big studio picture” prestige of even something like Ford v Ferrari, and it’s easy to see it making single digit millions. They really pushed the marketing hard for such a relatively small movie though, so I guess that paid off.

I enjoyed episode 4. From the moment that Star Wars spin-off movies became a thing, doing Seven Samurai seemed like the most obvious and natural way to do a one-off. We didn’t entirely get that here, but we still got a condensed version in a Star Wars setting. I’m not certain I heard it right, but when Mando is talking about his past, I think he said “the Mandalorians saved me,” perhaps implying that he’s not a Mandaloiran by birth.

I don't understand how the debate between mortgage debt and college debt has gone on in this thread for so long. I agree that the purely economic effects of eliminating debt for certain people would be roughly equivalent, but that totally ignores all other factors. Education wasn't chosen because it was the best way to stimulate the economy in the short term, it's because there is a larger societal value to having a more capable and educated workforce. It increases economic mobility and has all sorts of positive externalities. Also, and I stressed this previously, despite the headline of this thread, debt forgiveness is only part of (and arguably the far less important part of) Warren/Sanders' plan for college. The larger part is making public college free or nearly free. The core of the issue being addressed here is about who is able to access all the benefits of a college education, and removing those barriers as much as possible.

I continue to be impressed how much they've improved this game. I think I'm mostly done with the core gameplay loop of NMS, but that seems like a very solid update. Being able to upgrade and salvage ships is very nice.

I'm slightly conflicted on this point. On the one hand, yeah, it seems less functional than a normal truck. I think the biggest issue is that you can't access the bed from the sides, or at least not very well. On the other hand, most people who own trucks don't really use it as one. Most people don't go offroad, most people don't put much, if anything in the bed, most people are not foremen or ranchers or towing boats all around. So most of the truck buyers in the US probably wouldn't hit many of the limitations that the Cybertruck presents, or at least not very often. Then again, I also feel like people who buy trucks largely want to be the people that buy trucks, and if the Cybertruck doesn't fit in that culture, you're not getting many of those buyers. In which case you're probably just selling Cybertrucks to people that likely would have bought a Model Y and not folks looking at an F-150. I think that's probably where I end up on this. They're not going to convert a ton of "traditional" truck buyers, but I do think they'll sell well enough. The real question is if they can actually make it and if the way they make it is actually a good idea. I think the former is more likely than the latter. Folding steel is easy enough, and certainly a well understood process, and my understanding is it's cheaper than stamping. However, if you're relying on that steel for structure I can imagine there being some real problems. Something I've seen a lot of questions about is what happens if you get in a fender bender. If you mess up part of the body, and the body is the structure, what do you do? Laser cut it out and weld in a replacement? That seems insane.

With a bunch of Facebook's acquisitions or exclusivity deals, I've been happy about them, because it meant funding in a space where it's difficult to turn a profit. These guys were some of the very few VR devs that were making money, so it's kind of a bummer that even they can't escape the ravenous maw of the tech giants.

I agree. It's hard to say that Mayor Pete actually did know that he was lying or if he was just that ivory tower removed to know any better, especially in a clip from eight years ago. He was four years removed from college, having only worked at a big consulting firm, and hadn't yet worked in government at all. Not that it's necessarily an excuse, but it's hard to say that he was just lying. If he doubled down on it now, I might agree.

Strange, the first impressions I saw on twitter were pretty rough, basically calling it all style over substance. Not that anything would keep me out of a theater to see this one.

I'm confused. There are two cases, this one involving McGahn, and another involving Charles Kupperman, but there are so many people disobeying congressional subpoenas. Are those cases not going through the court system, are their cases just waiting for these to go to SCOTUS, or am I wrong that the house has formally subpoenaed a bunch of other folks?

I'm surprised there isn't more talk of the Cybertruck, even if just for the hilarious window smashing demo. There are the obvious Tesla caveats, like "can they actually build it," "when will it actually arrive," "what will and won't make the final design," but even if we set aside the looks and take Elon's low poly truck at face value, it seems like there are some other questions. Like, where are the freaking side mirrors? You can't legally use cameras in the US yet, and even if you could, there aren't any displays for them. There aren't any windshield wipers. This is a truck you can order now (and 200k people have), but it seems rather unfinished. Is a roll down screen over the bed and a video rearview mirror really a good idea? I imagine it's good for aerodynamics, and therefore range (and I suspect the entire reason the truck looks the way it does), but it also presents some significant usability problems. It kinda turns the truck into ans SUV of sorts, with the payload only accessible directly from the rear. The way the bed is designed, it doesn't even look like you could reach over the sides of the bed at the rear. I imagine it's not very controversial to say that this is a truck that isn't built for most people that buy pickup trucks. However, most people that buy pickup trucks don't need them, so maybe that doesn't matter. Whatever ends up happening with this thing, it'll be entertaining to watch.

I'll buy it if there is enough content at a high enough quality to justify a purchase. I put 20 hrs or less into Control and Outer Worlds, and I expect Fallen Order to only last something below that, and I think those were all worth the price of admission. Just because I know there is more story doesn't mean the game won't be worthwhile.

I should add that I think it's probably more important that we make college affordable or free going forward. Canceling debt as a stimulus measure is fine by me, but if the goal is to have a more capable workforce and allow for greater economic mobility, the more important aspect of any plan is how to achieve that for those that haven't already worked within the existing (predatory and problematic) system to get an education. I imagine the canceling of debut is more popular among voters because it's a burden that voters are currently living with, but I think free college is far more important in the long term. It's a big part of Warren's story, and something that I also heard on Freakonomics when they were talking to President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Mary Daly: For that reason, I very much support Warren/Bernie's college plan. If forgiving debt is part of that, it'll be a nice stimulus, but the real impact is in free public college.

The letter Navy Secretary Spencer wrote is pretty damning. What are the chances that Trump even knows any details about this SEAL or his case? I was kinda curious as to how the Fox News crowd would paint this story, since it seems like a Navy Admirable appointed to his post by Trump would be a admirable figure. I shouldn't be surprised that, no matter your record or your service, disagreeing with Trump is the one unforgivable offense.

Yeah, it's hard to imagine how this wouldn't stimulate the economy. I think the ultimate question is if it's the best way to spend that money. Personally, I'd prioritize health care, and then consider if education or climate change is a better bet. Not that these things need to be either or. Still, if the question is "how do you spend money to stimulate the economy," there are a lot of worse answers than forgiving student debt.

The thing that makes the most sense to me is that another criminal use Joker as a mascot of sorts, almost like Katniss in the Hunger Games sequels. That way you don't have to make him a wholly different character, and you can still let him be something of a victim of a bigger bad. If Joker was ostensibly about how society treats its outcasts, you can make the sequel about how even those that seem to care about you are still only using you for their own gains. You can even end it in a very King of Comedy way, making Joker pay some sort of penance, but ultimately get accepted at the end.

I just signed up for Disney+ after figuring out that we don't have the right VZW plan. Went through the first three episodes immediately. I'm really into it. I think there are a lot of ways this show could have been "more by the book," and instead it feels very different. Distinctly Star Wars, but also new. It probably helps that it's the first Star Wars TV show that isn't a Saturday morning cartoon. I'm not really bothered by these Mandalorians having their own rules and culture. I think it's pretty common for any given diaspora to develop its own spin on their native traditions. This specific group has decided largely to live in the shadows, to protect themselves by hiding their numbers, their identities, their location, etc. I don't think that we need to read their rules as having applied to other Mandalorians throughout time. It was impossible to escape baby Yoda before watching the series, but I didn't expect him to be such a big part of the show. I thought it was going to be a brief glimpse or something. I'm less sold on the music. It's not bad, but it does kinda stand out.

That was a hell of a trip and a significant twist on the original material as well. I'm kinda amazed that they're willing to go there. I really thought that this show was set where and when it was in order to avoid conflicts with the comic, but that is obviously not the case, and I'm really into it. Lindelof and Cord Jefferson (co-writer) talked to the Post about the episode, and I really liked this explanation of their thought process: I also hadn't really noticed that they never revealed who Hooded Justice was in the comics, but I think their logic makes sense.

I liked that bit. The mechanics they showed off are pretty standard in VR, but there usually isn't an in game reason for why it works. It's nice that they built one into this. Also, not sure who saw the minimum requirements, but they're significant: Processor: Core i5-7500 / Ryzen 5 1600 Memory: 12 GB RAM Graphics: GTX 1060 / RX 580 - 6GB VRAM

It’s great that Valve is being so up front about their support for various platforms. I think those in the know would assume that any Valve game would work on all platforms supported by Steam VR, but it’s nice that they’re very clear they support Oculus, Windows MR, and even Quest+Link. It does seem that they’re doing some fun stuff with finger tracking if you’ve got the fancy knuckles controllers. Also, there’s a zero percent chance the gravity gun doesn’t make it in, right? Pretty cool that Valve is going to launch with mod support. It’s a real shame they make games so infrequently. They seem like they’re pretty good at it when they try.

The more I think about it, the thing that shocks me most about their lack of ambition isn’t that you have games like Sword/Shield that follow the same old formula to a T without any innovation or modernization, it’s that they don’t also have separate projects that do try those things. They have a whole generation of gamers that grew up with these games that would very likely consume riffs on the franchise. Obviously the old formula still works and sells millions, so I guess you just keep putting in the same lazy energy and put out the same lazy games. Anyone who doesn’t do that is probably foolish when there is a fortune to be made in doing so. But they’ve literally created their own market, and one of their licensed offshoots went on to be the most played game in the world for a time. Why the hell don’t you throw some money another dev and see what happens? After playing Spider-man PS4 and Fallen Order it think it would be incredible to see what a dev like those could do with Pokemon. Then again, after playing WoW 1.0 it seemed obvious and inevitable that there would be a Pokemon MMO. There probably still should be, but if they don’t have the ambition to do a decent single player title, they’re not going to do that.

“We support all those Americans that would like to use and decriminalize marijuana. We also support the government’s rights to spend untold amounts of money prosecuting and imprisoning Americans who choose to do so.”

Awesome to see some real AAA effort being put into a VR game. I haven’t tried storm land yet, but Lone Echo is one of my favorite games of recent years. Great VR is pretty much the best gaming has to offer, it’s just so infrequent. That said, I really need to find some way to be less motion sick in VR. I hate teleportation, but at least it doesn’t make me sick like smooth motion does, but it sure seems like this is very much made for smooth motion despite providing options for dash/teleport. Still, you can tell from the trailer that in at least some parts of it they’ve come up with reasons to keep you in one place.