Tilde Lowengrimm

Maybe somewhere there's someone who doesn't at minimum have a junk drawer full of these, and who can't just go out and get one. But in the vast majority of cases, it's a redundant waste which makes your packaging bigger and heavier and needs to be shipped around the world. Stop it.

Forget straws, please stop including cables. I don't mean if your thing has weird pogo pins or a magnetic whatever, you're fine keep it up. But if your gizmo has a standard USB port, there's no need to include a six-inch flimsy cable with a micro/mini/C one one end and USB A/C on the other.

Of course none of these are as good as the absolutely metal "prohibited by federal law".

Y'all probably know some of the more popular administrative antigenders. Things like "prefer not to disclose", "none of the above", "tax entity only", "APO/FPO mail". Well, I raise you: "reserved for official use only". Dang, if that isn't me, I don't know what is.

This wand's name is _Manifest Destiny_ and it provides a bonus to colonialism, but can only cast healing spells if you sacrifice an equivalent quantity of gold.

This wand is made from a good old-fashioned all-American railroad spike with a core made from the heartstrings of a high priest struck down by Cortés himself on the steps of the templo major in Tenochtitlan.

Forget namby pamby Eurotrash wands made from the heartwood of an ancient oak and the mane of a majestic unicorn.

Victim blaming is wrong and bad. Unless you were bitten/scratched by an animal or a child, in which case it was entirely your fault and you should think long and hard about what you did to provoke it so that you can avoid being a bad mean jerk like that ever again.

So sad that Netflix cancelled the sequel to the fun queer action movie *The Old Guard*. Too bad we'll never get to see Uma Thurman & Charlize Theron's witty banter during their climactic battle, or finally realize the onscreen chemistry between Theron & her long-lost wife Veronica Ngô.

Next time someone tells me that they asked an LLM, I'm going to tell them that I received an obscure prophecy from a divine oracle which disagrees. I think that this will be more effective than just giving them facts — **which I also have** — because clearly that didn't work the first time.

Same.

I know that Stellaris has some of these sorts of mechanics, but it's very much ~✨in space✨~, and I think that this sort of thing has a really different feel when it's plausibly _on Terra, with our tech_.

(3) Russia's conquest of European and caucasian neighbors to form the USSR, followed by the economic tensions (and choices) which led to the USSR's dissolution? This is mostly about the formation & collapse of hegemonic unions, and how economic system/synergy choices can trigger those failures.

These mechanics might be internal unrest causing secession, technologically-mediated advanced/limited resources, and longstanding war goals.

(2) China's revolutionary split and ROC's retreat to Taiwan with subsequent remilitarization and posturing over advanced semiconductors, the threat of PRC annexation, and the countervailing US military build-up?

(1) Hong Kong's exchange back to PRC, autocratization, and unrest? This might be independent city-states, hundred-year agreements, cultural affinities, and conflict over control.

Serious question: do any of the current Civilization or Civ-like games have rules/mechanics which might be a reasonable model for any of the following? I'm not looking for precise simulation — I'd just like the system to support these sort of dynamics & the possible ways they might play out.

NYC Mass Shooting Was Nearly Impossible to Prevent, Experts Say

Holy shit, they did it. They wrote the headline.

(3) is an excuse to push your spectacles up your nose and say "Um, actually, that isn't a robot.", and — finally and most importantly — (4) constitutes clear conclusive proof that being a depressed sad-sack doesn't automatically make your art good.

Some people say that Evangelion is a worthless pile of trash, but I don't think that's true. Evangelion (1) helped give people from western Christocentric societies a taste of what cultural appropriation feels like, (2) has a theme song and credit sequence which absolutely slaps…

Yeah, I'm getting into Netrunner. It's kinda like a Magic except (1) run by a community foundation rather than Hasbro/WotC, & (2) way more community investment in alt art. When everyone owns all the cards, you need something else to collect and that's what alts are for.

It feels like a personal attack that _Arissana Rocha Nahu_, the Netrunner character/ID wearing a literal frog shirt isn't canonically nonbinary.

We have fully abstracted advertising into its most rarified form. No product currently exists. No transaction or purchase is possible. It is *purely* about materialist desire.

Ads aren't great. Ads for crowdfunding campaigns are somehow more annoying because — what? — you're telling me you haven't even made it yet? But now I've started getting ads for crowdfunding campaigns which are "coming soon".

But that lazy wrist on the hilt is what says loud and clear that they're just here to chew gum and have a good time — and they're all out of gum.

Sure, they might be wearing the tightest of pants which leave absolutely nothing to the imagination when they lean forward. And sure, their thigh-high leather musketeer boots might not be fastened all the way, letting the last six inches fold down languidly, exposing their toned calves.

Is there anything sluttier than the way someone in masc period costume rests their palm on the pommel of their rapier and dangles their limp wrist casually over it?

A depiction of the angels Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelov, with their names inscribed in them, from the left side of a medieval Jewish amulet containing a spell to protect a woman giving birth and her child from Lilith. The angels look like marginalia doodles. Senoy and Sansenoy have plump oval bodies with two little cross-hatched leggies on the bottom. They have thin necks, a single visible eye, and pointed curved beaks, with a feather-like appendage or tail behind them. Semangelov is a narrow rectangle, with longer but still adorable leggies, and a diagonal squared-off neck and little sharp corner beak. The feather or tail on Semangelov is also squared-off and trapezoidal rather than curved.

First of all, Lilith did nothing wrong. But also, does anyone else think that Senoy, Sansenoi, & Semangelov have strong just-a-little-guy energy? These three weird birds are supposed to protect me? From what, lawn seed?

The issue is not fixed.

You can't just keep saying that everything "probably has ritual significance", please, I'm begging you.

Archeologist, pointing at seagull: "…mostly likely has ritual purpose…"