FriendOfDeSoto

I read about some research (and it may have been funded by the socials, I don’t remember) that in a Coke/Pepsi blind test, users preferred algorithmic feeds. Most people do not think too much about what is happening behind the scenes and are happy to receive content they like. The unwashed masses are less concerned with things like privacy or moderation of content. I think there is a strong correlation between people who care about such things and their preference for chronological feeds. And we’re the minority.

An algorithmic feed will always be a better vessel to sell ads. Or in a more conspiratorial sense, to serve you “approved content.” So in the end, it boils down to money. Money prefers algorithms.

Mullvad didn’t donate money. One of their founders donated some of his private money to this loonie party. Money that may have come in full but in all likelihood really only in part from the payments he received from Mullvad. But it wasn’t a company decision to give them money.

Now, Mullvad, the company, in my opinion reacted poorly to this. It’s not so much the donation but the company’s reaction to the affair that would’ve been enough for me to switch VPN providers. I wouldn’t hold them responsible for the decisions one of their leaders made in his private life. But this “all politics are okay for us” PR response was the wrong reaction for me.

The party is better described as a horseshoe party. They present a mix of politics that’s mostly very left leaning except for their views on immigration where they turned hard the other way. Calling them Nazis is using the term a bit inflationarily. The real Nazis in Sweden are the Sweden Democrats and they are already in parliament.

I started a rewatch of DS9 a couple of months ago and I’m a third done with S7. I saw Oceans 11 on DS9 earlier today. Didn’t even skip all the bad Ferengi episodes in the rewatch.

I suppose it was hard for the makers of Disco to square the circle of telling Star Trek stories in a post breaking bad streaming era. In TNG S1 they use the phaser as a visual effect maybe a dozen times, most of those in Conspiracy, because it cost too much. Now they can do whatever for a dime so they overlooked that we liked the character stuff they wrote to fill the hour so they wouldn’t blow most of the budget on SFX. I hope that in a future fourth wave Trek they fill the hollowness we feel.

Yeah, I have been looking at the veritable content drought we’ll be entering since there is nothing in production any more. And in streaming TV stuff takes ages to get off the ground or even renewed. I read on the grapevine that letting all existing contracts expire is a way to kick Kurtzman out and after that there is a chance for a fresh start under new leadership. But that will take time until after Academy S2 goes online. So considering all this stuff going on behind the scenes, I’m okay with Muppets and Casablanca in space. Whatever! Better than nothing.

A prequel! What a novel idea.

This should be an org chart at the Star Trek office today when they look at show ideas: is it another prequel? Yes - don’t pursue this idea. No - Allamarain! Move along home.

Granted, they got lucky (initially) with SNW. But that needed a backdoor pilot through Disco to get launched.

If you get to that position and pet peeves are the first thing you’re thinking about you will have proven the Peter Principle correct. Again.

How would you know the baby was your deceased significant other? What have you sniffed this morning?

I think there are more grey areas in the classification. Just take recreational weed use, which is as legal as smoking cigarettes in some regions but illegal in others. Where does the drug classification start? It’s not as clear to me as you seem to indicate.

Also, the content label doesn’t tell the proprietor of a cinema who can come and see a movie. Do they have to look up a combination of letters to see if a 14yo can go see It? How about something like Trainspotting where there is violence, foul language, and lots of hard drug use. A VLD rating doesn’t indicate anything. But for me the movie isn’t R because for all the pearl clutching it may cause for some people it’s a good promotional film to stay away from heroin.

You can run your system parallel to the existing one. And some of the streamers do that, I think. But for legal reasons, in the US as well as most of Europe, you cannot not give an age limit as well.

I stopped watching Marvel movies because I found the plots virtually nonexistent. And don’t get mad at me, dear reader, if you love them. That’s okay, I’m not taking that away from you. I’m just saying how I felt.

So I don’t know if I would sign on to your theory. I did enjoy a lot of the characters but it didn’t carry an ironman or Thor movie for me.

I would like a sequel of Hail Mary though.

These systems vary by country and you’ll find fault with most of them. They are more often than not rating systems that were introduced to appease a loud group in society, possibly the pious folks were one of those. Society’s natural inclination “to think of the children!” makes these rating systems more about age appropriateness than about clearly labelled content. I can see the logic in your approach to the subject. Logic probably wasn’t the driving force behind introducing labels such as “parental guidance” or “restricted.”

I think it might be easier as a committee to be compelled to come up with an age of people, for whom the content is appropriate, and not argue over labels until they’re blue in the face. Is vaping drug use? How much blood (if any) is required to be labelled violent? Etc. Can this committee agree with a majority vote that 12 year olds probably shouldn’t see this? That’s probably easier.

Dank eines netten Mannes deines Faches lispel ich nicht mehr.

Viel Erfolg!

Dath hatht du thuper gemacht!

It’s a Tuvix level decision I’m glad I didn’t have to make. I think reuniting a child with their biological parent is a general, understandable guideline. And if you look at this clusterfuck in sequence, the first crime in this case - the illegal invasion of Bajor notwithstanding - is Rugal’s abduction by Dukat’s aide and his subsequent depositing in an orphanage. If it hadn’t been for that, Rugal would not have had Bajoran foster parents. Who were understandably not very nuanced about the Cardassians. (There must have been a way to raise him not hating his “kind” unconditionally as he does. So they carry a small dose of guilt for this mess in my opinion.) Which led to Rugal biting Garak.

The biological dad makes a convincing case that he was fucked over. Rugal is fucked no matter what. Sisko went back to where this train was sent on the wrong track and corrected that. I can kind of see the logic of that decision. He had to weigh different factors and decided to give less weight to Rugal’s wishes over the crimes that preceded him ever being in a position to express them this way.

Tough call but he (somehow, there doesn’t appear to be a legal system with a metal sphere gavel and the social worker from Mrs Doubtfire presiding just yet) had to make one. And there probably isn’t a right decision.

Dass Holmirmalneflaschebier Gasherd fest im Putinschen Rektum steckt, ist doch nun wahrlich keine Überraschung mehr. Er hat sich gerade noch in den Aufsichtsrat eines russischen Supermarkts berufen lassen.

Der Mann ist über 80. Den kriegen wir nicht mehr hin.

Meine Oma wollte nicht aus ihrer Wohnung ausziehen. Obwohl sie auf den Rollstuhl angewiesen war und es keinen Fahrstuhl gab. Wie viele alte Leute fahren mit 80 noch Auto und sollten das nicht mehr? Und Gerd fährt halt nach Moskau.

Streicht dem Mann die Bezüge. Wenn er über den Jordan geht, das kleinste aller Staatsbegräbnisse oder besser noch gar keins. Und dann können wir auch aufhören, uns jedes Mal so laut über Opa zu ärgern.

Am Ende bringt diese Abgrenzungsempörung auch nix. Es ändert nix an der Tatsache, dass er mal Kanzler war. Und leider seinerzeit besser darin als Fritze heute!

As a starter, Duolingo isn’t bad. Sure, it’s mostly slop at this point so keep that in mind. And only stick with it until you realise the mistakes.

When I hear “I’m seeing X everywhere,” I suspect you might be Baader-Meinhoffing.

It’s designed to be an Instagram alternative as it was when all you did there was look at pretty pictures. They’ve added stories (so the snapchattisation feature, which you can just turn off) but did the tiktokisation separately. I’m glad they did it this way because I liked Instagram around the time Facebook bought it. Instagram today is a bloated, algorithmic mess that doesn’t know what it wants to be. And I don’t need more short form videos in my life.

Japanese kids learn the alphabet in primary school to do Romanisation of their own language and then for English class. There are no problems with the former because they can see and read those everywhere. English is a particularly difficult alphabet language to read so that’s hard. But on a certain level there is relief that there aren’t an additional 2000 Kanji characters to learn to be able to read it. It’s a radically different language so it’s hard either way.

Mandarin learners must pick up Pinyin, at least in the mainland, fairly early. I’m guessing primary school as well.

Both Pinyin and Romaji use the alphabet to make sounds that don’t exist in English. Like rya in Japanese or the distinction between q, ch, and zh in Mandarin. Both mainly use qwerty keyboards for typing their own language.

Gendered languages flummox even learners from the country next door. The biggest obstacle to learning English in Asia isn’t the different writing system or even the insane spelling conventions of English or French. It’s mastering indefinite and definite articles, when to use either or none, that makes them pull their hair out. It doesn’t matter which European language you pick, it makes no sense, it’s vibe based more than anything, and it isn’t the same between French and German or English and Spanish. So knowing one language already is only of limited use.

I’m going to theorise that a writing system with spaces between words helps learners to grasp what is an equivalent unit in their own language. To a point because you get words like antiestablishmentarianism in English or Verwaltungsfachangestellte (an administrative assistant in the public service sector) in German and all bets are off.

I have a feeling that the people who could judge that best probably aren’t present in an English language forum.

I think if we look at the spectrum of popular international animation with South Park America on the low end and Miyazaki output at the top, the care put in to make the spoken word match lip movements often correlates to where you are on that spectrum. And there is a lot of stuff trending towards the low end. They probably don’t do 20 retakes on a line read during voice recording. No matter what language they are doing.

Shit like that can’t be planned. It either catches on or it doesn’t.

Why do you want to make it cooler? Why polish this turd?