XantheSpace

5/5 But hey. At least when it comes to battles and shit, at least it just fucking looks cool. That...saves it for me a little bit. I put the Gate 2: Tides of Conflict novels in my backlog, hopefully I'll read it before the anime starts. Wonder how fun can the JMSDF action get!

4/ Not to mention portrayal of media and politicians. If they're not connected to the main characters, they're somehow the most insufferable and incompetent people who get in the way or keep stabbing the Glorious Soldiers of the Japanese Nation in the back.

3/ But I can't take "China wants to send millions of people there" kind of stuff seriously. Is there anyone who does? Besides Sanseito voters, anyway.

2/ And sure, screw it, I can live with the "the rest of the world wants to get a piece of the otherworldly pie", that makes sense - as an only accessible example of an exoplanet, the Special Region is a pharmaceutical gold mine (NOBODY WOULD CARE ABOUT THE OIL, DAWG)...

1/ Thought to catch up on #GATE manga after so many years, given the anime season 2 news. While I adore Satoru Yao's work (and all the Ace Combat references lol), the ultranationalist utter gobbledygook in the plot about evil media and evil foreign powers is so...god damn stupid

サンタリアメロンソーダの缶の画像

ロシアの街にあるショッピングモールに、日本の飲み物が買える自動販売機がありました。好奇心からサンガリアのメロンソーダを200ルーブルで買ってしまいました。

買って本当に後悔しています。

oh come on

US Victory Parade in New York, 1946

US Victory Parade in Washington D.C. in 1991 after Gulf War

I know big American military parades aren't tradition there, and I hate that it's Trump who wants one for his birthday. To US libs: democracies can do parades too, it's not only for North Korea. And I think it should be held for the semiquincentennial anyway, you only get 250yrs birthday party once

What else did I like this year...Albania was fun, I think?

Eurovision is weird because I basically forget what songs even were there as soon as they're over (most of the time), and then later I re-listen and may add some to my playlists

It's been a personal tradition of mine to watch Eurovision every year for the last few years, and last night was...weird. Less songs I liked, the whole Israel public vote thing (people boycott it and then act surprised Israel surges). I wish I could've voted for Latvia, but I'm Russian, so...

Was courting a college groupmate and was denied in very concrete terms. I feel confused bcs she said I made her uncomfortable (and I didn't pick up on it at all), heartbroken a bit (like her a lot), but also quite happy and relieved because I get *clarity* out of this.
At least I tried!

🧵
Here is Earth's rotation realized in an unusual way: using a camera scanning the landscape of Tivoli, Namibia, Bartosz Wojczyński focused on the sky.

He created a timelapse spanning 24 h that has a focal point in the sky rather than on the ground.

➡️ apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap20070...

🔭 🧪 #galactic

Considering problems *outside* of America, I don't see why they should wait for Americans to sort out their politics. Either come save or don't.

Group chat with college mates. Lighthearted jab convo. I jump in, make a bad attempt at a funny wordplay. One person replies
"You seem smarter when you don't say anything"
:(
Damn skill trap. You stay silent, you don't learn talking to people. You open mouth, and you learn to keep silent.

Been thinking about some people I talked to years ago. When I first joined Discord...checking the friends list or messages history, I can't find anything from the period I've thought of. And I don't remember if I myself pressed "delete" or it's gone some other way. And it's kinda sad

It's not his fault that the reality is screwed up like that though, come on

American discussions on proof of citizenship for voting are interesting, because where I live IDs are mandatory and are issued by the state. There is a fee to pay, but it's like getting a coffee ig.

In the US it's an entire mechanism of oppression. How did you yanks weaponize IDs?

Western arrogance blinded Fukuyama and the Atlantic-centric liberals to the true struggle taking place
The End of History is not the result of struggle of liberal democracies v authoritarian regimes.

It's the result of struggle of Deng Xiaoping Thought vs Mao Zedong Thought. Trump is just Team Mao.

Markets crashing, while Trump says he'll keep the tariffs until the trade deficit is gone (good luck with that). Get ready for the Second Great Depression, folks.

It's bad enough that I have to use a VPN to access YouTube in the first place, but I have to deal with this random bullshit as well. This looks so random. Fuck you and any licensing excuse there may be for geoblock, #SNL

That #Severance season finale. Ouch. Rollercoaster and a gut punch. Why'd you do us like that, Ben Stiller?

I hope they got the future plans *truly* ironed out. Don't wanna end it like Mass Effect ("it's gonna be a trilogy", bit BioWare made it up as they went along and the ending was subpar)

Thanks for the article. I only really briefly followed Starship dev news through Scott Manley updates, so I know about some problems, but this paints a bleaker picture

I wonder if Artemis III would be happening at all then, since the Starship HLS is supposed to be the lander

While I generally agree with the sentiment, looking at the ruins of Roscosmos' funding which was messed up even before 2022 (partly due to loss of the launch market to SpaceX), I'm not sure Musk being a dipshit moron means that they can't ever get to Mars. Ambitious deadlines for sure though

A logistical challenge for sure, but I dunno about the "inadequate radiation shielding and comms tech" part, at least for a Mars round trip. Musk isn't the first person to think and dream about going to Mars (NASA had the Constellation program in the 00s for example)

Could be worse for him, the Soviets had 4 tests of the N1 rocket and didn't get to the Moon. I don't see how recent SpaceX failures are an indicator of a Mars trip being unachievable (unless my ESL ass didn't understand the point of your reply)

Given that I'm not watching Severance on Apple TV, I didn't know until recently that every episode comes with a "previously on" recap, that those were a thing on streaming services
Just like in the good old days, eh?

At least nobody does previews/spoilers for episodes like Battlestar Galactica did

Well this feels familiar

ok wait I just remembered Starships get launched from Texas

another 145 trillion yuan to CNSA
another 20 trillion dollars to NASA

Wishing for an ideological adversary to take a W may seem odd, but it's only big shocks like these that may cause the Americans to fucking reflect on the state of their country in a bipartisan manner.
Imagine TV show For All Mankind, but the 2020s onwards. Wonder how that'll go!