aghst
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On 10/10/2023 at 6:17 AM, Laurie4H said:
I wasn’t bored but can’t say I liked it. The man’s actions were crazy but the woman didn’t have any redeeming qualities. The sex scenes were not erotic. Dirty bathroom and the other thing I won’t say since it’s probably spoilers was gross.
On 10/10/2023 at 8:38 PM, SeanC said:Huh? She genuinely tries to be supportive of her partner and his career, and is undermined at every turn by his aggressive insecurity.
This isn't really a movie about heroes, but she's hardly devoid of likeable characteristics.
Everyone was horrible.
She did try to get him promoted but her wielding the knife and making him whimper wasn’t great either.
She also made up the stalking story but her boss didn’t care as long as she made money for the firm.
They probably knew they were a couple but didn’t care as long as she produced.
It’s a cutthroat world and she learned to be cutthroat herself. Was she going to keep hiding their relationship? It looked that way until he couldn’t take not getting promoted and acted like a prick.
Sure it could be seen as gender politics, male privilege and fragility.
Or they’re just all awful people, willing to do anything for money.
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Jonathan Haidt says teens started having emotional problems such as depression in 2010, which is when the smart phone became common.
So he supports the bill DeSantis signed, banning social media until teens are at least 14. And flip phones until the same or similar age.
But when did giving smart phones to kids, including kids under 10 years old, become a common thing?
I was under the impression that parents were giving hand me down phones as they upgraded themselves.
In any event, the iPhone came out in 2007. It didn't really take off, have big volumes, until iPhone 4 which was announced in June 2010 and started shipping in fall of 2010.
Were parents giving their kids the newest, state of the art phones in 2010?
I'm guessing it became more widespread, with kids having phones which had reasonable performance, not antiquated, more around 2015.
Does that time line match when kids supposedly got more depressed?
I agree that social media have made kids depressed, like girls with body issues.
But it's not a new thing, weren't there depressed kids or girls with poor self-esteem and body-image issues before the 2010s?
Now maybe Haidt would say those issues existed but the problem exploded in the last 10-15 years.
I quickly Googled his name. It appears he's written books, given talks and interviews so it's his thing now, even though his day job is a professor at NYU business school.
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I can kind of see long hours on the yacht, away fro restaurants and cafes, could be boring for the guests.
They get good food and get to drink as much as possible.
But it could still leave several hours and rather than turn in, guests may want some kind of entertainment.
So while I think the shows and theme parties are mostly driven by producers to make the crew do things, guests would want to be entertained.
But I doubt they're saying "put on this theme party for me." It's more like "surprise me" or they're given a list of possible choices and they choose.
They could give them some board games and let them fend for themselves. Or just offer tender service to the coast so they could go to some town.
Producers would want the crew to entertain them but it's the fiction about the guests asking for these things that viewers roll their eyes at.
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Lot of things to nitpick and question but I found myself wanting to keep watching and finish it.
I haven’t seen any other movies or shows about alien invasion. But the human reaction to the existential threat is interesting.
Yeah if we extrapolate how we’ve responded to things like climate change and the pandemic, it’s probably true that at least half the population would deny it’s a problem or just go about business as usual, unwilling to give up comforts or certain lifestyles.
Here the governments all come together and make all science research about defeating the invasion. Wade has almost unlimited resources — well they only got 300 instead of 1000 nuclear bombs.
Auggie and Saul are the only ones who aren’t willing to change their lives or ethics in Auggie’s case for this cause, even though the aliens got their friend Jack killed.
But they just showed how easily they could have killed Wade. So the San Ti may not deceive but they will mindfuck.
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On 3/24/2024 at 11:03 AM, PurpleTentacle said:
Yeah the plan isn't great. It kinda hinges on the dude getting a new body, being allowed to roam the ship, somehow figure out their FTL communication and then phone home.
That must be from the book?
All these Oxford classmates are all involved in the PDC but didn’t Chinese Mom recruit or make sure they all came to Oxford?
So maybe the San Ti chose them, got them into Oxford.
I’d guess the San Ti go and retrieve the probe anyways. Presumably that is why they devoted so much time to Will on the show.
Only way any of these character last until end of the show would be they freeze themselves?
Chinese Mom gets to enjoy one last sunset at the top of the mountain with the radar dish. Tatiana has been sent there to kill her. Why? Well they let her go back to China instead of killing her before she left the UK.
They must have hacked her flight reservations and sent Tatiana ahead because they can’t read minds right? Maybe the books don’t have these inconsistencies or what looks like inconsistencies.
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6 hours ago, chitowngirl said:
Episode 4: Italy-La Dolce Vida. Eugene dives deeper into his favorite European country to visit. On the agenda: truffle hunting, wine harvesting, and jousting. Episode drops March 29.
Loved it, you can’t get enough of Italy and Tuscany, though the $800 a night hotel in Monteverdi is close to the border with Umbria.
They didn’t drive him from Florence to Monteverdi in that little tuk tuk thing and all the way up that hill.
How much do you pay truffle hunters to go hunting? BTW, it’s a serious business with some dogs being poisoned.
Bending down to pick grapes would be serious work, especially for an older person, as fit and healthy as Eugene is.
The jousting must also be costly, to feed and house those horses.
So bespoke. But you can enjoy the beauty of the Val’Orcia without these customized activities that they arranged for TV.
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Snookie started online and the. Went brick and mortar? So any level of TV fame and you can make money from peddling tacky junk, like Kristin Cavalieri trying to get her name out there.
Vinny wants to refrain from porn in case he meets his “gal” soon.
Pauly is gossiping to the AC repair man. Does he not talk to Nikki any more? And a neck pillow? He’s flying commercial? He’s not flying first class?
Guido and country music culture would seem to be a bad fit. Why would people going to Nashville buy JS paraphernalia.
But this whole QVC and sales of reality show merchandise are baffling. Anyone regularly on TV can get millions of followers and use that to hawk crap. Like Craig from Southern Charm with the dumb pillows.
The appetite for kitschy Americana is immense. Speaking of kitsch, they think the jacket Mike was wearing with the tassels hanging from the sleeves was stylish?
Maybe guido and country western does mix.
They go to an old movie theater whose name is spelled like one of the senators from Arizona, not the former astronaut guy, the other one. Semi-literacy is cool!
Deena and Nicole should get higher salaries than the rest because they’re willing to get loaded and give them more footage of drunken antics than the rest of them.
Sammi cutting Vinny down to size was good.
So much buildup for the arrivals. What made JS work was how spontaneous the cast was, so that it came across as unscripted compared to other reality shows.
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On 3/24/2024 at 1:17 PM, shrewd.buddha said:
I was shocked .. at how little happened in this episode. Why is the unrequited love between cancer-guy and Jin even a plot point? (Had to look up his name: Will.)
Yeah it kind of feels like it went from this fast-moving plot about alien invasion and the conspiracy to enable their conquest to this very emotional story about the characters, even Ye Wenjie at the end trying to reach out to the San-ti, like they're her lifelong best friend.
Auggie is angry that her nano fibers killed a thousand people, Will has this unrequited love story thing and you have the melancholic soundtrack.
Everyone is up in their feelings about this. A lot of smoking, a lot of drinking, some puking, sobbing.
These are the people who are going to use their brainpower to save the planet? Maybe Wade being a bastard is what they need.
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13 hours ago, BAForever said:
Shocked they picked the beach. Agree kids are short timers there. I would have picker the beach too. Hope hubby said it kiddingly that he told them all a year, but really was planning forever. If not, that's crappy.
Beach kind of reinforces it as a vacation.
Especially if they have to make compromises to adapt to a smaller home.
Both parents are working remotely on CA time.
So it does seem like an adventure, not a serious move.
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Yeah I'm curious how sophons changed the sky.
They work at the sub-atomic level!
So they can change other matter quickly and disrupt all electronics all over the world?
That is how they scrubbed Tatiana from surveillance videos, you know super sub-atomic particle just changing pixels or getting into Auggie's optic nerve to impose the countdown?
But there are only two of them yet they can pretty much paralyze the earth, like say take out the power grid of whole continents which would pretty much lead to them spiraling from a modern civilized society into barbarism?
Davos was a boss but Wade is a bossy arsehole. Maybe that's what the earth needs but you would think regardless of which secret UK agency he works for, organizing a planetary defense would be way above his pay grade.
You'd think it would be some American who eventually is put in charge.
But he didn't trust Raj or Auggie, told each of them to double check the other's work.
So nano fibers are apparently virtually invisible except they have infinite tensile strength?
It's sub-molecular!
I'm guessing they find a way to cure the cancer of the one guy? Or maybe after this season, the cast turns over except they somehow find a way to get a couple of characters to be around way beyond their lifespans to still lead the cause.
Saul is suppose to be a brilliant scientist but every other scene he's in, he's hitting the weed. Have we seen him do any science?
Speaking of gender politics, yeah the brilliant scientists and engineers are women. Wade questioned whether Auggie would be ruthless enough to kill to accomplish the mission. So Jin will be tested? But just as Wade wouldn't be leading the effort, I would think they'd call in all the best scientists, many of them much older and probably male, instead of relying just on Jin to come up with some science-based strategies. She's a theoretician on multi-dimensional worlds yet she's going to problem-solve a technological deficit?
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Maybe he thinks he can return with reinforcements and make Japan trade with the English.
But before they give him more money, he's got to show that it's going to be worth another expedition. This time probably for military conquest.
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On 3/23/2024 at 6:37 PM, shrewd.buddha said:
On a more common sense level, why would the alien helper cult think that Jin would be okay with the murder of her friend Jack? They were not even subtle or mysterious about it.
Yen Wenjie (Chinese Mom) is a lot less of a sympathetic character now .. but she also seems a lot more naive (dumb) about trusting an unknown alien intelligence she knows nothing about.
On 3/24/2024 at 5:53 AM, marinw said:The Irony is painful. Ye goes from watching her father be killed stating that the existence of God can neither be proven or disproven to leading a cult.
Traitor to the human species.
in the first episode she was sneaking kisses with the guy in the labor camp, maybe you hoped she could build a life after the way her parents were killed and she was sent to do hard labor.
But then she welcomes the alien overlords, leans into betraying the human race.
She finds a partner but unfortunately the partner also wants to help aliens exterminate the human race. Presumably as long as they subjugate and kill all humans except the cult members.
She has a child, who grows into a brilliant scientist in her own right but the daughter must not have gotten with the program so she had to go?
The motivation of Chinese Mom — Tiger Mom from Hell — and other cult members don’t make sense either. Sure people believe In a cause greater than themselves. They’re usually religious fanatics but at least they are being enticed by the carrot of eternal life or rewards in the afterlife.
These cultists OTOH are smug and think aliens will improve life on earth, though they themselves will be long gone. For all they know, the aliens are not humanoid as represented in the game but some kind of reptilian predators which are coming to feed on humans.
Plus Ye Wenjie represents all humans, inviting them?
They’d be easy to ignore and bat away like flies except they have alien technology as well as belief that the lord will protect them. Though Tatiana uses a gun and survives being shot, maybe the aliens didn’t tell them how to make weapons.
Real time communications with the lord shouldn’t be possible, unless again they sent some blueprints for alien communicator but it looked like Jonathan Pryce was using an old-school analog microphone.
But the aliens don’t believe in subterfuge or deception and they think ultimately they can’t trust or coexist with humans who are capable of deception. The aliens don’t hide that they’re sending an invasion force, intent on conquest.
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On 3/23/2024 at 3:56 PM, marinw said:
How could life evolve on a planet that unstable? Was there a super-long stable period? Did San-Ti evolve super fast? Or did they evolve on some other world?
Their calendar must be a mess. How can the San-Ti even measure days, months and years with any consistency?
On 3/23/2024 at 4:28 PM, shrewd.buddha said:Things have escalated. I wondered if Jack's murder was going to be made to look like a suicide .. but the other suicides seemed genuine.
I appreciated when the one character (Augie?) called them crazy for interacting with advanced technology they didn't understand - - not that it stopped them.
Three episodes in, and I'm still feeling a bit detached from it all. The flashbacks to 60's, 70's China seem more grounded than the rest.
That’s my thought too. Not only did civilization develop, they have much more advanced tech than human beings, despite an unstable environment or solar system.
They’re capable of interstellar travel yet if not for Ye Wenjie inviting them, they wouldn’t have sent ships exploring other possible homes?
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China in the ‘60s was minimally industrialized I believe. They would need help from the West to build factories, learn to manufacture at scale, which wouldn’t occur until like the late ‘80s or early ‘90s.
So it seems unlikely that they had an advanced SETI project, so shortly after they purged all the intellectuals, any that they suspected would believe in Western ideas, including science.
Let’s say Ye Wenjie turned out to be a world class scientist and engineer. Even with blueprints from the aliens, they wouldn’t be able to fabricate those HMDs nor make the skies blink nor make an assassin who is human not appear on video cameras. Sure maybe an AI-like device to photoshop every frame of a video, in real time, maybe.
Or make Auggie see the countdown based on her shutting down her project. They could see what she was doing at all times and know about her research to consider her work a threat?
These sci fi devices make for striking images and scenes. But something humans, even those in communications with an advanced alien species, can pull off in the current time? Not plausible.
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I haven’t read the books but the description of this story made it sound like a cool, soulless tale or one that fails to connect emotionally, kind of like Westworld.
It’s striking how much the short opening credits look and sound like the WW opening credits, probably done by the same people perhaps.
The scene of the young daughter witnessing her father’s execution is right out of Game of Thrones. I thought cool, this could be the Arya Stark moment.
But this character would turn into a vengeful, smug, misanthropic figure, not eliciting the sympathy that Arya does, because the viewers witness her journey over several seasons whereas in this, Ye Wenjie revels herself as just as embittered and awful as the young woman who murdered her father.
Traitors to their own species, that’s quite the ambitious goal for evil villains.
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On 3/27/2024 at 6:51 PM, Browncoat said:
Bad taxi karma even with water taxis! That sucks for mom and son.
They must not have been allowed to switch even though there were other water taxis that teams arriving at the dock after them were allowed to take.
That could have really hurt them but fortunately the cousin dudes went back and forth between the detours and burned a lot of precious time.
Yeah 60 floors is crazy. I just stayed at a skyscraper, the 54th floor. Nobody was taking stairs, everyone was queueing up for the elevators.
Even the young racers were bent over by the time they reached the top.
That dish was weird, it was like a plate of everything including the fried plantains as desert? Probably tasted good but they were different tastes piled together.
The abuelas were enthusiastic when they went thumbs up.
Coffee beans task was cool. The male nurse probably did it the fastest. I thought they had to roast the beans as well but no, just husk them through the grinder.
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London to Eindhoven. First of all the pronunciation of the city name is nothing like I imagined it.
Family of 5 moving for her promotion. Husband will freelance. They want 5 bedrooms, yard near city center where her office is for their $900k budget. Also need parking.
Marianne the wife tells Floor it’s a permanent move.
House 1 is in the forest outside city center with 5 bedrooms, 4 baths. Has plenty of outdoor space but Anish the husband finds the maintenance daunting. They don’t like the small cut off kitchen and the layout of the bedrooms including one with en-suite bathroom but no doors. They complain the rooms are dark because the tall trees block the light coming into the house.
House 2 is near city center, a neighborhood that they like more than the isolated first house. But while there’s a yard and a large terrace upstairs, they can be seen by passerby’s on the busy road the house is on. Plus no parking and just 1 bedroom.
House 3 is a villa near the airport but has 7 bedrooms and 2 baths, roomy inside and a big garden. Parking also but the catch is plane noise, which Floor says they will get used to in weeks.
First two homes are $900k, on budget, and house 3 is $870k.
They eliminate House 1. Anish wasn’t going to do all the yard work and the oldest kid was only 9.
They like some aspects of House 2 but lack of privacy and parking.
So they choose House 3, both say they love the move to the Netherlands, the more relaxed pace.
Marianne says they had central London on their doorstep. If their home had several bedrooms, they probably sold the London home for a lot more than the $900k budget they set. She talked about going out as a family to a cafe or bakery but looks like they don’t get that in their new home.
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That hair ...
Appears they could afford well more than their budget than the husband let on and they were willing to pay for amenities.
Husband didn't really push for the cheapest option.
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Blackthorne took how long to get to Japan?
It was an ambitious mission, to contest Portuguese dominance of trade with China and Japan.
So now, he wants to leave and have what to show for it when he gets back? Sure he has a wife and a child he's never seen, but a guy who embarks on a voyage like this isn't just going back like a tourist after he got some lay of the land.
In any event, Toranaga wanted to placate Anjin but he smelled it was relationship troubles, so he first asked Mariko what was up between them and then orders her to take her to a brothel. So that if there was a thing between them, he'd draw it out.
Thing is, my recollection of the book was that the Japanese supposedly had no hangups about sex and monogamy. In fact the swimming contest between Toranaga and Anjin, Mariko takes part, she undresses in the book in front of all those men, including Anjin, who notices.
So was Mariko going to be jealous of Kiku sleeping with Anjin? She's at least going to be able to hide it.
The negotiation of the price was amusing. But isn't Toronaga ultimately paying? He gives his subjects their income.
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Wait until you see the next episode, shows why she kept him around, in prison but still around.
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1 hour ago, Raja said:
In an earlier episode it came to my mind was the Smith's universe was much like the John Wick universe. With all the mayhem going on without police showing up.
I guess that the Smith's can copy la feme Nikita and try take down at least their Hihi.
Never seen John Wick.
Is it that it's some alternate universe where they can go around shooting up crowded public places, where people who aren't in the game get killed -- In the Lake Como episode a couple of Italian cops are killed by the bad guys -- or is it just bad writing, just ignoring what would happen in the real world if the recklessly shot up public places?
It would be huge news if some of the scenes they show happened in real life, a shootout at a ski resort, then around Lake Como and on and on.
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Supposedly it was one of the most-viewed shows in Amazon Prime Video history, at least the first episode.
You figure they will bring it back so they get out of the safe room. Then what, HiHi is going to employ them again or try to have them killed again?
So there are many John and Janes causing mayhem all over the world? That raises more question about the nature of the organization. John and Jane are very good killers but they left a huge trail of bodies. Why isn’t law enforcement all over them?
Yeah not realistic at all to talk about having babies in their world. Not to mention 78 sociopathic marbles or acts committed by Jane/Alana. That doesn’t seem like the type who’d want to become a mother or GAF if John/Michael wants to have babies with her.
He has to have sociopathic tendencies to be in this line of work.
But they’ve been sloppy, not covering their trail and they almost walked into becoming “finalized.” They don’t seem the types to evade this super John and Jane couple.
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Kerry raved about the beach but they showed some reef and that thin beach. He said it was worth it for them to risk beaching the boats and possible injuries to guests and crew. Guests seem to enjoy it but more than any other beach?
I think in BDDU they went to this small island which was basically a mound of sand that stuck out at low tide. When high tide came in it was almost all underwater and the crew had to rush to get guests on and off the island, probably for a short photo opportunity and the suspense of whether they’d get off the island in time.
Guests also seemed to enjoy the Murder Mystery but they just laid clues in those envelopes until the reveal. It was more like laying breadcrumbs. Whatever, guests got to play dress up and booze made them enjoy it. I just scratched my head, wondering what the big deal was. Oh they were down two crew and still had to entertain the drunken guests.
Anthony had to spend 3-4 hours cleaning up the galley by himself. On other BD shows deckhands did dishes all through dinner service but here the deck crew was setting up the underwhelming Murder Mystery game.
So is the chef’s lack of “organization” a real thing? Anthony even noted that he doesn’t have a sous chef, which suggests that he should given the workload.
New guy the women swoon but they joked that as soon as he opened his mouth, they just wanted him for a one night stand. Let’s see if he’s competent since Ben said he may be in running for lead deck hand.
Previews for rest of season, another firing and looks like they revisit insubordination so Fraser and Barbie clash again.
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Larry may be an ass but that valet unplugging his car?
For one thing, those plugs lock while charging.
You can't forcefully unplug without damaging the car.
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S01.E03: Destroyer of Worlds
in 3 Body Problem
I can see how they made Tatiana disappear from the security cameras, which will be revealed a couple of episodes later.
But why didn't the Benedict Wong character not see Tatiana pressing Jack against the wall to floor windows?