And here I thought California would at least be a little better about maskers.

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Omg, that analogy is perfect. I think I’ll start using it.

One of the crew were nice and answered my question. Idk what factors are important, but the white security guy sitting down at the terminal refused to even listen to me as I tried to ask my question, demanding I keep moving. The Hispanic man working on some security railings smiled and kindly explained that the US wasn’t doing any COVID stuff when I asked him.

On that note, it was surreal coming back from China during COVID. The absolute shutdown Beijing was in as I left. Like, a week straight of near-empty metro, temperature checks, etc. Then get to the US, and they were like “Flight from China? Nah, you guys just come on in.” It was also jarring to see the narrative change from “China is super evil for locking down Wuhan” to “China is evil for letting COVID spread all over the world”. Honestly, coming back from China did more for my political development than any other single factor.

First thing I experienced coming back to the US was rudeness from airport security when I was trying to see where I needed to be screened for COVID, then finding out the US wasn’t doing shit about it (this was February 2020, mind you). Second thing I experienced was racism as white Americans loudly complained about the POC airport employees with accents.

I regret coming back a lot, lol.

God I miss China. I got to live there for 5 months while teaching English, and the only thing I hated was my job and the other Americans. Insufferable libs to a man. Not being able to speak or understand Mandarin, I couldn’t make friends with the locals, sadly. There was this place I’d always eat. 14 yuan for a massive bowl of pork, peppers, and noodles. I think that’s, like… $2.

If I could go back and do a job I’d like, I’d take it in a heartbeat. Thank you for sharing your experience. It brings back good memories.

And it’s not like either of their deaths were particularly clean or quick. Cooper’s actor did a really good job with his last line. Felt like genuine terror. And Nash? Poor bastard had way too much time to suffer.

But hey, funny poop joke pulling out their bones and being stinky.

2000s were fucking wild.

Oh yeah. Hammond in the first film was only slightly better than in the book, from my understanding. Exploitative, rushing things, wanting quick and easy solutions, and thought he could fix shit just by throwing money at it.

Muldoon wasn’t evil. He was the warden, tasked with park safety. He wasn’t super fond of the dinosaurs because they were ludicrously dangerous, especially the raptors. Honestly, he was a pretty good guy, trying to find Hammond’s grandkids, and dying covering Ellie while she ran for safety.

I was just watching JP3 and feeling bad for Nash (and Cooper), because they die badly and are later part of a poop joke.

Still love the movies overall, but yeah, that trope is certainly… well, a trope. It really is everywhere. Only include 1 or 2 black characters in a cast, then kill them off. Fucking wild the shit media did in my childhood that I can only notice now.

Muad’Dib points the way.

Stuff like this wouldn’t bother me if it wasn’t for the fact states (like mine) are lowering the working age to 14, and it’s all my damn students talked about when I taught middle school - how excited they were to make money. If we still had some semblance of child labor laws, then something like this would be pretty benign; I wanted to work fast food when I was a kid, and plenty of kids like to pretend they’re store clerks or chefs. Not surprised it’s Chik Fil A.

I’m trying to get into factory work. I’m looking at going to tech school and getting a job as a technician. Everything else has kind of fallen through.

They’ve got some demons.

If it’s that important, just have 501 other guys have a kid in his place. Probably better from a gene pool perspective than having one guy produce that many children.

Also, if it’s that important and we have a trolley that smart, maybe we could just use some kind of medical science to rebuild the guys balls after the fact. Stem cells or cloning or something.

How is this an ethical dilemma?

I live in the freest and most powerful country on Earth, and certainly not a crumbling dumpster fire of a dying empire.

From what I’ve read, most modern scholars agree it was likely a sperm whale. The Roman records about how it sank ships, and descriptions of the body after it washed ashore (before being butchered and consumed by the locals), support the idea.

This video is a good breakdown of it: https://youtu.be/K9rZ9OFQEgw?si=7rF8KuHKQfMi-Joc

I feel your pain. Reading and understanding ML theory while growing up in the Imperial Core is a uniquely painful experience. Thank God for spaces like Lenmygrad, where we can actually communicate and realize we’re not going insane.

I’ll confess I don’t know the full details of what went down there. I definitely need to do more research.