Alright, kids, while you’re waiting for your turn, try not to get mangled by the death propeller.

Why would you ever not need air support? Better question, was Marshall the “This looks like a job for Aquaman” character?

Just what my relaxing escapist hobby needed, debt.

Very interesting history lesson there. The Communist Party of Greece had been banned in 1936, but these revolutionaries played a significant role in the Greek resistance to Nazi occupation. The guerillas stymied the invasion forces, and it’s a source of civic pride among Greeks that even though Athens fell to invasion, Greece contributed to the Allied victory by making it a pyrrhic victory.

However, immediately after the war, the same guerillas were prosecuted as criminals, leading (among other things) to a Greek civil war which ended in victory for the monarchy. The same heroes were demonized by the government they helped restore to power.

Of course, there’s way more to the story, and there are far more shades of gray than I’ve described here. But photos like this should serve as a reminder that history is truly written by the survivors, and then edited by the victors.

Someday, that old planter will become a fountain.

This is a good idea even if you don’t think they will do it. When they don’t do it, you can negotiate money back from the purchase to cover the cost of hiring a junk removal team. Then you can pocket the cash and do it yourself or you can pay someone else to do it.

Really? I think I sunk 100 hours into BOTW. I would also go with TOTK all things being equal, but I never felt like BOTW was a tech demo.

I use ostensibly a lot lately. Seems like an appropriate word for our times.

I’m glad you have data, because I was just thinking that cultural attitudes towards tattoos and nudity don’t seem to be related, but I can’t prove that.

Isn’t that like negative zero?

Sure are a contentious bunch.

Yeah, enjoy it now before the atheists destroy it with their atheism.

Are you saying those things don’t exist? I’m a white male, and I can acknowledge the privileges I have experienced without feeling responsibility for the injustice.

Not exactly. Like every good urban legend, there’s an element of truth to give it legs.

Tryptophan does metabolize into serotonin, some of which further metabolizes into melatonin, which can make you sleepy. But there isn’t more tryptophan in turkey than there is in other meats and some vegetables. It is an essential amino acid that you get from pretty much every meal that contains protein. Also, an overabundance of tryptophan doesn’t necessarily mean more seratonin or melatonin.

People get sleepy after eating a lot of turkey because their bellies are full of turkey (and probably stuffing and corn bread and mashed potatoes and gravy and pie and a few glasses of wine)

That’s actually a myth.

I mean, it’s also entirely possible you’ve heard a failing magnetic drive, a humming battery, or a squeeky mechanical thing like brakes or bearings. Those are all strong indicators of a significant problem with the car, and should be fixed immediately. But if you hear it every time, as soon as the car starts moving in a parking lot, that’s the safety feature.

Others have addressed your other questions, but I want to add that the “coil whine” that irritates you is probably the car’s slow-moving warning system. EVs are effectively silent at slow speeds because there is no engine noise or road noise, so they are required to make an annoying sound when maneuvering to get your attention. While it is an important safety feature, I agree some are very obnoxious.

Competition is good for the consumer. More options from more players will encourage more charging infrastructure and (ostensibly) more innovation. It’s not just Elon Musk vs China. Every automaker that wants to sell cars in the USA is on notice. If they want to compete in the EV subcategory, they need to focus on price and performance. People want budget-conscious EVs.

This is an easy case. Using published works to train AI without paying for the right to do so is piracy. The judge making this determination is an idiot.

It also highlights a fundamental misconception about what criticism is. It isn’t about knocking someone down a peg, it’s about identifying and remediating flaws. Criticism should be supportive, otherwise it’s just cruel and rude.