Random Rant Thread

[miscmisc]

Finally the US lifted the import restrictions placed on some Japanese food products after the 2011 nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima. It persisted for years for no good scientific reason at all, and I don't even know why they lifted it at this timing. I almost assumed that they would keep it on the moronic _just in case_ basis.

Obviously Fukushima was a catastrophic event, but the worst thing that it did to the world was that it severely damaged the public image of nuclear energy.

Germany shuttered all the nuclear plants as a result, and its reliance on coal and Russian gas went through the roof. That was almost as catastrophic as the Fukushima accident itself.

Nuclear energy is not exactly "clean" given the high-level radioactive waste, but there is absolutely no reason to believe it's not a technologically solvable problem. It's much, much, much less of a problem for us at this point than the greenhouse effect for sure.

Most of the "issues" around nuclear energy are basically emotional occult hysteria which prevents the actual, real technological problems of nuclear energy from being addressed in a truly rational way.

[K1power]

As much as people like to give Disney shit for what they've done with Star Wars (a lot of it being justified), The Mandalorian and now Visions are easily the best things in the franchise I have seen. One of the episodes even had Masako Nozawa voicing its main character. It was perfect.

I'll take a few so-so films in the main storyline as long as I also get great stuff like this.

[miscmisc]

Haven't seen Visions yet (will watch them soon), but I liked The Mandalorian. I liked the consistent film noir tone. They set the tone in the first episode, and stuck with it throughout. This sense of being on a journey together. That's what was missing in some of the mainline films.

[miscmisc]

This guy keeps doing what he accuses his opponents of doing.

I wouldn't even put this into the "spinning a story to suit their ideological agenda" category. He clearly has ZERO idea what he's talking about. The AICP is definitely not what he thinks it is. Hell, neither is the CDC, so what the fuck is he blabbing about?

This guy is so far gone with his pathological hatred of liberals that I will simply call him names from now on. What a fucking idiot.

[miscmisc]

I see an article or two that are basically identical to this one every fucking week on various media outlets these days.

It has become so prevalent, especially among the anti-woke crowd.

Maybe they think they are contemplating some profound issue there, but in reality it's yet another stupid version of the same old "Why doesn't any girl want to fuck me?" genre masquerading as a social commentary. The answer is always ever-so-simple "because you suck."

And it's funny in the way they didn't intend. Zany, superficial crap.

[miscmisc]

Kyrie Irving is like a pro-basketball category champion of Conspiracy Theory Bingo Competition (flat-earther, too), so there's absolutely zero surprise there, but there's something profoundly funny about these fools.

"Hey sheeple, the master computer tracks all of us blacks with the vaccine, so fuck that shit! (sent from my iPhone)"

Like, do you even understand anything.

The NBA’s Anti-Vaxxers Are Trying to Push Around the League—And It’s Working
Conspiracy theories in the locker room. Mask police in the arena. Superstars trying to avoid the shot. After bringing back the culture from Covid, basketball confronts its own civil war
www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/nba-anti-vaxxers-covid-1231988/

Irving, who serves as a vice president on the executive committee of the players’ union, recently started following and liking Instagram posts from a conspiracy theorist who claims that “secret societies” are implanting vaccines in a plot to connect Black people to a master computer for “a plan of Satan.” This Moderna microchip misinformation campaign has spread across multiple NBA locker rooms and group chats, according to several of the dozen-plus current players, Hall-of-Famers, league executives, arena workers and virologists interviewed for this story over the past week.

[miscmisc]

This kind of a chart is always a bit useless because the definition of Free Market varies greatly.

Large-scale regional protectionism, which the EU is, is very different from the American idea of free market, for one, because, well, you know, "tariffs, regulations and draconian inconveniences for thee but not for me" doesn't sound very free-market-y, is it.

Germany is most satisfied with their Free Market because the country is by far the biggest beneficiary of that peculiar non-free-market Free Market institution called the EU. Meanwhile, the French are like meh, predictably, and Italians are really having second thoughts, predictably.

What about Japan? Well, if you don't know the country's unfortunate experience with Free Market, well, this is perhaps not a topic for you in the first place. It's even a little unfair to Mr. Free Market, but for a majority of people the downfall of the country's once-mighty economy is closely associated with the failure of that ideology.

[miscmisc]

This one is really typical.

Dutch protesters march through The Hague against ‘corona pass’
www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/25/dutch-protesters-march-through-the-hague-against-corona-pass

In an interview with the Telegraaf newspaper, Keijzer questioned whether the requirement was justified. “If we end up in a society where we have to be afraid of each other unless we can show proof, then you really have to scratch your head and ask yourself: is this the direction we want to go?” she was quoted as saying.

OK, doesn't this Dutch politician understand that we ALREADY live "in a society where we have to be afraid of each other unless we can show proof" - it's been that way for god-knows-how-many months in fact - and that has fuck all to do with any "corona pass," and everything to do with this little virus called SARS-CoV-2?

The whole point of that kind of "proof" is so that people feel LESS AFRAID of each other. You "scratch your head and ask yourself" about what? That most people don't want to get sick or die? Yeah, everyone does scratch their head about that, for sure.

It's not necessarily wrong to have doubts on such a policy, but if your reasoning is this childish and even ass-backwards, you are arguing in bad faith, or just being an utterly asinine talking-point machine.

[miscmisc]

Air cleaner/filtration/purifier is the New Normal, folks.

Incidentally that's something on which the Japanese are way ahead of everyone else too. There has been a gigantic air cleaner market for more than a few decades now. May partially explain why the country has had it comparatively easier than many others despite the mostly-crap policies.

[miscmisc]

I have a friend who moved from Medellin (Colombia) to Dallas, and he was harassed by some redneck cowboy with a lecture on how "grateful" he should be that he could live in such a modern Texan metropolis instead of his shithole home town.

To a guy who moved from Medellin to Dallas in 2019!

I guess the crime rate is still higher in Medellin, but those parochial clowns have no idea how much nicer Medellin - and many other South American cities for that matter - is now than Dallas can ever be. Those cowboys don't know there is such thing as urban engineering/planning, and about half of the major American cities, certainly including Dallas and Houston, are C- at best on the global scale. Medellin is easily several classes above a trash park like Dallas.

[miscmisc]

Amazing how many things these days need only one reply, and specifically this.

[miscmisc]

About half of the Mexicans - meaning Mexicans born in Mexico - that I've met treated me literally like a god upon learning that I had talked to Akira Toriyama more than a few times. One guy almost fainted when I showed him a picture of me and Toriyama-san goofing around. Mind you he was just a regular guy with a regular job. Creeped me out to no end. DBZ seems incredibly, incredibly popular down there, even after all these years.

[K1power]

Wait you actually did? I'm starting to feel Mexican too, lol.

Jokes aside, I think what makes that not just 'cool' but also special is that very few people seem to physically meet the man. When's the last time he actually physically showed up at an event or anywhere public?

Can barely find a picture of him that is less than 20 years old. He's almost like a unicorn that only a handful of people have access to. And even then - from what I'm reading and hearing - he communicates mostly through email.

And yes, there are videos on YouTube showing thousands of people gathering in Mexico (and other South American countries) to public viewings of the final few episodes of DragonBall Super when the anime ended a few years ago.

Thousands of people from all age groups and different walks of life. It's incredible.

[miscmisc]

Well, he stopped doing PR stuff years ago because he didn't like the publicity. He used to be super-accessible, and didn't care at all. You could just talk to him at a restaurant asking for an autograph and stuff. Not anymore, though.

I guess it just became too much at one point. But he's not exactly a J.D. Salinger or a secluded zen monk. Very down-to-earth, common sensical nice guy.

[miscmisc]

British Lions Outwitting Nazi Krauts is one of the most boring, pointless film genre ever. Nothing but wankfest. The world needs another one like I need herpes now.