Metal Squad Party Force

elephants are pretty smart, they probably had to direct the route once it got going

hearing about Hannibal’s elephant military march through the Alps is impressive, but as a kid i thought it meant the elephants were scaling the Matterhorn or something

the line dancing to tai chi pipeline

salad melon

there should be an option in the USA where you participate in a medical trial in return for watching the olympics ad free

if octopuses could talk they’d be like, “glorb glorp blorb”

have you guys heard about ai

if you see a Mr Beast promo item at the grocery store, just imagine it’s Mr Bean instead

A. B. C.

Always
Been
Crabs

was playing my sister’s Switch 2 last night for the first time and the prices for everything made my PS5 Pro by comparison seem like a thrifty purchase

Fallout 4 has its good parts (it becomes a very fun settlement building/defending sim), my main qualm is just Bethesda charging full price for it in 2026, and how they nerfed and paywalled the mods/community. I got the same game for $8 with all DLC and better mods on PS4 5 years ago!

maybe it would be sad seeing all these creatures trapped inside, but then also it would be nice to realize that by living in an aquarium they’re safe from predators

an effective therapy program imo would microdose patients with psilocybin and then take them to a really excellent aquarium

I’ve been doing this since you first posted it. Gotta add that Hungarian paprika tho

Lore and Data being about toxic masculine identity and the deceitfulness in heredity a la Esau/Isaac is also something I missed when young, but is an incel/gender narrative arc

Last time I watched ST:TNG, I finally realized the Borg become interesting as a reference to Hellraiser’s Cenobites (they even fly in a cursed cube), and really their whole deal ends up being about these topics. A prosthetic trunk used to be something our tv shows concealed (in layered symbolism).

people should cover 4'33, but every cover must escalate the performance in a way that is actually good. for instance, someone dashes onstage and slams the lid of the piano down upon the performer's hands at 4'32

where is the reboot, where is the streaming series, where is the MDWA expanded universe lore

they'll remake any beloved 80s movie except My Dinner With Andre

more 4'33 jokes please

Ultimately I think a lot of people actually would benefit from the approach the Buddhist canons and doctrines and schools take to these core existential questions, but for some reason it's rare to encounter folks, even in American Buddhism, who clearly discern what Buddhism is.

Another crucial one that well-meaning, aspiring western Buddhists will even post here on Bsky, is translating the First Noble Truth as "Life is suffering". It's not saying that, it's saying, "Existence always comes with pain or at least background stress". "Life is suffering" has a very Xtian tone.

Then "reincarnation" is not actually Buddhism, where the concept is more accurately "rebirth". Reincarnation reflects a much older Indian cultural concept, where some core soul/being undergoes reincarnations based in good/bad actions in each life. Rebirth rejects the eternal soul and "punishment".

"Karma is a bitch" is a pretty superstitious way of looking at karma, and I'm not sure why anyone would think that's different from "God will punish their sins". It's actually more like the older or else contrasting Indian views of karma which Buddhism critically rejected with its own.

To some extent it happens with most non-western or less prominent cultures and religions, but I find Buddhism is an oddly common blank canvas for so many (western?) people to project disconnected, idiosyncratic imaginings upon. Most obvious example is how karma is assumed to be divine justice.

Frustrating that so much of N. American pop/media ideas about Buddhism are (still!) informed specifically by fin de siecle Christian missionaries/colonists/scholars, non-Buddhist Beatnik writers like Kerouac/Watts, and non-scholar non-Buddhist Xtian religious enthusiast Joseph Campbell

not necessarily meant as a judgment, just seems to be a demo i’ve come across in daily life

older/centrist readers with retirement savings (who have given up on WaPo and NYT but read this, and maybe other stuff like the new yorker, the economist, etc)

Always cool when it turns out an ancient enlightened society instead was even more violent than we even expected. Like the 20th century archaeological jump-scare of discovering the Minoans likely engaged in religious human sacrifice.

It's been really entertaining today just flipping between all of the continent's local news/weather teams's livestreams on Youtube. They only have one thing to talk about all day long, so the chemistry (or insane awkwardness) of each local team is incredibly prominent.