It's insane how casually the calls to end a genocide, not just the students in Columbia University but pro Palestinian views in general, are labelled as terrorists. The audacity to still publicly support Israel's actions even after the horrific bombings these last months and then turn around to say that the ones who oppose it are violent anti semites is just baffling

Because you don’t know what’s actually happening. Palestine has in infected by Antisemitic Extremism. Hamas is a Terrorist Organization and before this radical Muslims were indiscriminately attacking and in some cases killing Jews. The attacks on Gaza were started because Hamas taking hostages and killing them publicly. You have NO IDEA what you’re actually fighting for. The Son of Hamas’ Co Founder Mosab Yousef has turned against them and is making public speeches in support of the War on Palestine and against Hamas because it’s the Second Coming of Nazi Germany. If you Support Hamas then you should use the appropriate Flag so here you go. Fly this at your next protest.

Incredible power move to make one of the most beloved crpgs ever made using a modified dnd 5e system, make a ton of money and shit on most AAA game studios in the process, then say “cool. Anyway fuck dnd 5e and wizzards of the coast. We’re doing our own thing now.”

Fuck yeah, I’m ready for more Divinity: Original Sin

I mean, the thing about Zim is that despite what he might say, he is absolutely capable of love and affection. It’s just that he only expresses it to a very select assortment of people.

First and most obvious one is probably his relationship with the Tallests. Which tends to be a lot less just a ‘loyal soldier duty bound to serve his leaders” and is coded a lot more like…. “Child overeager to please his neglectful parents”. I mean, the entire emotional crux of ‘Enter the Florpus’ is built on this. 

Zim isn’t just motivated by a pure ideological belief in the Irken Empire’s conquest, or by the desire for the fame and accolades that come with being a successful Invader. I mean, those ARE factors. Zim is both a true believer in Irk’s imperialist ideology and very interested in feeding his ego. But he’s also looking for a more personal sort of emotional validation specifically from the Tallests. One that he’s desperate for, but we know that he’s never gonna get.

(And that’s not just because Zim sucks. Even if he could somehow stop being a walking disaster area and a giant millstone around the Empire’s neck, that desire for the Tallests’ love would still be a fool’s errand. We’ve all seen how they treat poor Skoodge.)

In addition to that doomed attempt at an emotional connection, Zim can sometimes be kinda affectionate with his various robotic minions, which obviously goes back to the whole…

Yeah, that.

And that same episode ends with him having a very similar sort of response to Robo-Dad and Robo-Mom picking him up.

And then there’s, of course, his M-Lab Robot Minions in 'Enter the Florpus'. All named - and all grieved by him. 

His extreme reaction to Lawrence specifically dying shows he did apparently see them as individuals.

But as far as we can tell both the Roboparents and the Robot Army are not, like, sapient? I mean, AIs like GIR or the Computer are characterized as basically Machine People - but these robots barely seem more sapient than my laptop. And as much as I love my laptop it’s not gonna, like, love me back.

Speaking of GIR, he’s another example of someone Zim shows genuine care for. I mean… he can absolutely be pretty mean to him at times…

But any sort of kindness from Zim has to be graded on a Curve because he’s so terrible. ‘Hobo 13’ demonstrated to us very well just how horrible Zim can be to his subordinates - rude, inconsiderate, pretty much deliberately sacrificing them not just for his personal gain but also just for his own petty amusement. 

And it’s notable that’s not how he treats GIR. Who he expresses actual concern for…

And he pretty easily acquiesces to GIR’s capricious desires even when he clearly sees them as Stupid and frivolous. 

This scene is especially notable. I mean, this is Zim actually feeling bad about the fact that he made someone cry and trying to de-escalate the situation. Maybe for other characters a moment like that would be no big deal, but this basically the softest Zim has been through… all official IZ media. And it was a scene with GIR.

 And meanwhile GIR himself… didn’t really register any of this - either Zim’s frustration or his attempts at sort-of comforting him, because he was only sad about having eaten his cupcake and not being able to eat it more. 

Because that’s the thing, while GIR does have some level of affection towards Zim at times…

He doesn’t really show that same level of care. I mean, in pretty much all of these examples, GIR puts his own desire to give Zim physical affection over Zim’s clear discomfort and disgust. And in general, while GIR vaguely acknowledges that Zim is his master - he often disregards or ignores Zim’s orders and requests. And not just when it comes to being ordered around in yet another evil scheme -

But also when the situation is just clearly basically hazardous to Zim’s very life. 

(Which is very much in contrast to Zim, who, again, is actually emotionally invested in GIR’s safety)

While some of GIR’s inability to fulfill Zim’s commands can be attributed to his lack of mental focus and general stupidity - his absolute lack of care and regret about these situations seem to imply that, like, GIR might follow some of Zim’s orders when they seem fun, and he might like Zim in the sense that GIR is generally incapable of genuine malice. But GIR is never going to care about Zim, as a ‘Master’ or as a friend, as much as he cares about his own hedonism.

And of course, we all know that if GIR was capable of actually focusing on anything and remaining grounded in reality - he would very quickly realize that he actually hates Zim quite a bit. 

And that’s, like, the whole Tragedy of Zim. He is a being capable of kindness and friendship - but he always ends up only caring about beings who will never care about him back.

Due to Irken indoctrination and also self-inflicted due to his own ego (like, it is no coincidence that the People Zim Actually Cares About are the two beings Irken ideology obliges him to acknowledge as his superiors and then a bunch of robotic minions who are supposed to be 100% obedient to him.) Zim only loves those who will not love him back.

Except for Minimoose. That relationship is 100% wholesome.

Zim’s entire value system of love is entirely Transactional. When he looks for a human friend it’s measured in usefulness. All his attempts at getting respect from the Tallest aren’t from the angle of getting them to like him. It “I’ll do such a good job they’ll have to acknowledge me”

This is likely another reason why he likes Robots so much that he humanizes them. They’re machines designed to do what he wants and because Love is a Transaction to him this means they’re also designed to like him. Even if this isn’t actually the case it’s probably how he interprets it internally.

His “minions” will always be family. An army of faceless mindless robots all get names and he mourns their deaths.

He treats Gir almost like a little brother

He has an attachment to the robotic arm that “birthed” him

Minimoose is his Golden Child that can do no wrong.

Zim will fail to get respect from anyone that isn’t a Robot because he doesn’t understand love in the way others do. Doing things for other people or them doing stuff for him is the only way it translates as respect or care.

what if Father Gregor was projecting his own insecurities and guilt about parental negligence onto Lila here when he was scolding her.

Look at how absolutely broken and afraid he looks here with Dexter

Much like how some of the most extreme Athiests are people that had a bad experience with Religion, the most Serious and Stalwart Theists are the ones that made the worst decisions. They made bad choices or had a bad life and when they find religion and turn themselves around they’re the ones that take Faith the most serious. All this to say Father Gregor probably has skeletons in his closet that led him to take his duties as a Priest seriously.

Also I’m not sure if it’s just because of the unfortunate stereotypes Priests have these days or if it’s something about him personally but a lot of people were concerned when they saw Gregor with Skid and Pump.

Conan O'Brien on Hot Ones

"Conan O'Brien Needs a Doctor While Eating Spicy Wings", 4/11/24

The rant he had involving this was perfect. I won’t quote the whole thing but he said that when writing comedy don’t just look at the joke from the last 10 years. Comedy has existed forever, it was even in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

My two favorite jokes within the Bible was when Jesus was wandering around absolutely starving and spotted a singular Fig Tree. He was so excited to eat a Fig but when he got to it the Tree had no delicious Figs left and in anger cursed the Tree.

The other was an Angel struggling to convince Peter to wake up and escape Prison. The Angel tried waking him up and Peter ignored him and went back to bed. The Angel forced him awake and told him to get ready to leave and Peter basically said “10 more minutes” and went to sleep again. The Angel lured a guard away and opened the damn door and told him he could just go. Peter didn’t want to. So the Angel grabbed his shoes, threw them at Peter and said “put your damn shoes on and go to Mary’s House!”

you can't keep telling me that people don't get it's satire, I don't believe you

they have to know

it's a bit

it has to be

they have to know

Depends on what you think the Bit is. The Helldiver fanbase absolutely understands its satire and the fanbase are a bunch of LARPers. So if you say Super Earth is evil many of them will (in character) deny it. However theirs also a large amount of people who don’t understand that don’t understand the joke and think the fanbase is serious.

"oh Astarion is SOOOO effeminate" wrong. You are judging Astarion by human genders. Astarion is first and foremost a high elf and by high elf standards he is actually INCREDIBLY masc. Other high elves look at him and he reminds them of that one annoying straight guy in their elf-economics (elfenomics if you will) class in elf-college who loved playing devil's advocate. And then they see him kiss a guy and they almost die of shock.

If Astarion is an elf frat boy then Ketheric must be like, elf Arnold Schwarzenegger

Don’t forget Halsin. The first thing most people mention about him is how this elf is a mountain of muscle. Elves, especially Druid Elves aren’t usually that jacked. Astarion even jokes about how it’s good to have him around because next time they get attacked he can use his muscles as a shield.

Reading a book about slavery in the middle-ages, and as the author sorts through different source materials from different eras, I am starting to understand why so many completely fantastical accounts of "faraway lands" went without as much as a shrug. The world is such a weird place that you can either refuse to believe any of it or just go "yeah that might as well happen" and carry on with your day.

There was this 10th century arab traveller who wrote into an account that the fine trade furs come from a land where the night only lasts one hour in the summer and the sun doesn't rise at all in the winter, people use dogs to travel, and where children have white hair. I don't think I'd believe something like that either if I didn't live here.

I remember hearing an account of Black Africans seeing white people for the first time and it sounds like they were talking about magical sea creatures. I think we were called “Sea foam Men” on account of the fact we came from the sea and had the skin color of Sea Foam.

On a similar Note theirs the early accounts of Sasuke the Black Samurai. I forget the actual reason he was there but as a sign of Good Faith a black man was sent to work under Oda Nobunaga and was named Sasuke. At first The Japanese and Oda in particular didn’t believe what they were seeing. They thought it was a trick because they never saw a man that dark and tried to wash off whatever they put on him. After they realized his skin was actually that dark he started training to be a Samurai and became so loved and trusted by Oda that his other Samurai were jealous of him.

The stories of races meeting each other for the first time is always fascinating because it’s always some variation of “I didn’t think people could look like that”

This article is actually about a very serious problem. If you overgenerate electricity it increases the phase frequency of the power grid, and if that goes out of sync with your generators (including solar panels) it can destroy them. In the kind of way where your power grid is fucked for months. It is very very very very bad.

California started a program to make solar panels more affordable by offering very low interest rates for solar panels, to allow people to benefit from their lifetime $/energy cost that's below fossil fuels, without having to worry about the high frontloaded cost. However they did not do this for batteries. And power grid quality batteries with massive energy storage and serious charge-discharge lifetimes, are expensive.

And they did this because while solar panels are cheaper than fossil fuels per kilowatt hour of electricity over their lifetime, solar panels plus batteries are not. And California wanted a supplemented free market solution and didn't really want to think about the part that direct government intervention in the form of taxation and paying for this change would be necessary.

So everyone in California just kept adding solar panels to the grid with no disconnect mechanisms, until eventually it hit a point where at noon, solar panels generated more power than the entire grid needed. With no batteries to store the excess. This is a motherfucking power grid killer. It is a scenario where people get left in the fucking dark for months because of how badly it destroys the powergrid.

So the power grid authorities did the only thing they could do. They called up every industrial plant with heavy duty equipment and ovens they could and paid them to turn it on full blast (because using that equipment costs money in wear and tear even without the electricity cost). And in doing so, avoided disaster.

That's what this article is talking about. They are solar panel researchers criticizing a capitalist adoption strategy and promoting direct government intervention to create renewable energy. However as with most newspapers they don't get to choose the title, the editor picks the most provocative title that will get clicks.

Suffering from success basically. Instead of a Blackout from not enough power, you instead risk a power outage from too much power. Maybe it’s more serious than that because I’m not sure what destroying the Power Grid looks like