I don’t have the tiktok, but I support this.
“Japan Finds 7,000 Islands It Didn’t Know It Had”
“A big part of Yakuza’s appeal is the intimacy of its place.”
“It’s just a little earworm that’s super easy to sing to.”
“Exclusive Tetris Poster Gives a Glimpse at the ‘Cold War–Era Thriller on Steroids'”
If you aren’t already looking forward to the weekend, here’s a little inspiration.
“Japan Finds 7,000 Islands It Didn’t Know It Had”
They’re claiming the Philippines again?
+1 Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
The home game edition!
That poster design is so lazy.
I finished Peripheral. Any similar recommendations?
Counterpart
Devs
1899
I hear Severance is good, though I haven’t seen it yet.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (gets a little overly anime-ish at the end, but not terribly so)
Exception on Netflix was pretty good
Severance is very good. Shrinking is pretty good (I’ve always liked Jason Segel)
I second Devs and Counterpart. Arcane on Netflix is also really good if you like animation.
I’ll back both of those up as well (Devs and Counterpart). Haven’t watched the Peripheral yet, but it’s on my list.
Counterpart
Big fan of Devs. We’re fixing to rewatch it.
We’ve watched Edgerunners probably three times through now. Fucking absolutely awesome soundtrack, story, and animation.
Had an exhausting meeting with my old group because they needed stuff from my new group, and I was reminded of why I left that group.
Been there. Done that. Shall I send you the t-shirt?
I have a bunch of them already.
Riven!
Did you ever clean out the car?
“Japan Finds 7,000 Islands It Didn’t Know It Had”
*Pentagon salivates*
China thinks that’s lazy and just makes its own.
Razy.
Lacist!
“It’s*fried rice*, you plick!”
…. noooo.
._.
It’s on my agenda this weekend, though…
Why can’t it wait until spring?
😉
Hah! It’s supposed to be in the 40s tomorrow, then snow on Sunday. It -is- spring in the 406. But I ought to cleant it out, clean it up, maybe get an oil change and a car wash, and then list it for sale so some high school kid has a car for their summer job.
How much u want?
Well, it started later than was forecast, but snowmageddon is now underway in mid-Michigan. Bleah
Fortunately, it’s supposed to be warm enough to melt a lot of it off over the weekend. I’m not leaving the apartment regardless.
Did you stock up on eggs and milk?
White bread as well?
I worked in high school and college in a supermarket. People of my grandparents’ generation felt that these three items had you fully stocked up for any disaster.
Absolutely! You’ll never survive this week’s Storm of the Century without French toast!
*high five*
Lactose intolerant so there hasn’t been milk in my refrigerator since I moved in. I’ve got a half dozen eggs, but more importantly I’ve got 6 large jars of peanut butter, 4 of ‘no HFCS’ strawberry jam, 6 pounds of hamburgers, frozen, 23 slices of (lactose free) sharp cheddar, and a sous vide stick. I may get energetic and bake a chocolate cake using the old depression era oil,neater, vinegar, baking soda, cocoa powder and gluten free flour. Got everything for that, but I’ve been putting it off in favor of more protein. It might be time to splurge 😉
LOL.
I’ve been binging on pistachio butter. Om nom nom.
High-Fructose Pistachio Butter.
It’s only got 2 ingredients – pistachios & sea salt.
too much pistachio
I can’t even have pistachios in the house. I shudder to think what might happen if there was pistachio butter on the premises.
I’d binge on cashew butter, but it’s yet another item on the “don’t eat this” list for my IBS.
And oh how I miss the chipotle cashews Walgreens used to carry, way back when. Those disappeared long before the IBS diagnosis, so I’d already been through that withdrawal period ;-\
You’ve got a half dozen eggs?
Look at moneybags over here.
We’re getting rain tonight. 🙄
We’re getting crazy high wind. Been 50+mph for over 5 hours now. Power has been out for almost 5 hours.
Look at the picture in the article. You’ll note the store is completely stocked and all the items blocked. This definitely doesn’t remind me of the USA.
“I’m talking about a video game that lets you do a lot of the stuff you already do, or at least can do, on a daily basis. After you’re done adding those games up, you probably won’t find many. You might not find any at all.”
Why on earth would I buy a video game like that? Or, even if it was free, spend time “playing” it?
Pretty soon, the thought of buying readily available food could be novel and exciting.
They’re just getting ahead of the curve.
98% of the Shenmue games are mundane day-to-day crap. One of the worst videogame franchises of all time.
I like games where every building is accessible and has some kind of AI life to it. I’m wondering when chatbots will become integrated to make NPC dialogue less repetitive.
The only people I hate more than Dems are Republicans:
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3882068-florida-bill-would-require-bloggers-to-register-before-writing-about-desantis/
Posted about it this morning – it’s not even a thing.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/senator-jason-brodeur-is-a-moron-but-hes-a-solo-moron/
II still hate.
Just let me have that, ok?
I liked the bit about the FL Democrat with the equally stupid and vain “no dog’s heads out car windows” proposal.
I think that this situation absolutely requires really futile and stupid gestures be done on somebody’s part. And they’re just the legislators to do it.
Flor*i*duh, FLOR*I*DUH! FLOR * I * DUHHHHHHhhhhh!!!!
Figured.
That CS Lewis article is pretty good, albeit pretty brief.
Of course…it makes sense that he’s pulling a lot of inspiration from the guy who lead him to conversion too – GK Chesterton.
J.R.R. Tolkien had some good words to say about minimal government/anarchism. I’ll have to dig up that article; it’s not long.
I’ll have to read more C.S. Lewis, I guess. Have been put off because the biggest fan of C.S. Lewis is the pastor at church who is
the most woke, equity, and systemic racism sort of proggie so I figured if she likes Lewis he must be pretty horrible.
Yeah, definitely go read him.
A wokester liking him is quite odd and unexpected, imo.
Episcopal?
I decided that I’m done forever with woke clergy. And guitars at church.
Sad!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWxJEIz7sSA
I’ll have you know that Spotify said I’m in the top 1% of Church fans.
And if a church hired The Church, I might change my tune.
God’s frozen people, the Presbyterians.
All have you know I live near an Orthodox Presbyterian church. It frightens me just driving by it.
wtf… I’ll
A homogeneous nation like say… Denmark or Latvia should be easy to love by patriots from there. And those countries can last indefinitely unless outside invaders come along
Empires, on the other hand, deteriorate rapidly and become impossible to love. Where we are at unfortunately.
Austro-Hungarians and Ottomans sadly nod.
Ask the Latvians what they think of the Russians… 🙂
At long last, it’s the weekend. I’ll be kicking off the Zoom/Happy Hour/Third Thing at 2000 Eastern time tonight.
Hey, Neph,
We’re going to be overnighting in your neck o’ the woods next month, like to get together and have a beer and a bite.
Can’t make the zoom, no camera or mic.
Hobbit,
In April? I’m heading out of town the last week of the month, but I can make most any other day/night work. Feel free to reach out to my at my handle at Google’s e-mail.
Well, rats. We’ll be passing through on the 26th.
Unfortunately, that’s the day I’m leaving for Vegas. I can do earlier then that, but not that day. Even if we can’t meet up, feel free to reach out, and I can at least provide some recommendations.
Storms have passed. Heavy drinking to ensue
*high five*
Bidenomics
It’s getting bad out there, folks. New cars continue to get more expensive, the average monthly car payment is heading towards $800, Millennials and Zoomers are skipping their car payments, and the number of folks making monthly car payments greater than $1,000 is the highest it’s been in a decade. But people are still buying cars, and the situation may be worsening: Bloomberg reports that a record number of Americans are severely upside-down on their auto loans.
The amount people underwater is concerning to everyone, from the car owners to the dealers financing these customers. Bloomberg says dealers are reporting more buyers than ever rolling up to lots with $10,000 and more in negative equity looking to trade their vehicle and roll that debt into another loan. Take one owner Bloomberg spoke with. After he realized his family needed a bigger vehicle, they did something unusual: they traded in both of their vehicles for a Ford Explorer. Including what was owed on the two cars, plus the registration and all other dealer fees, the couple ended up paying $66,000 for a $49,000 Explorer.
That family isn’t alone, either. Data from Edmunds shows that the average amount Americans owe on their auto loans is quickly approaching pre-pandemic levels. After dropping below $5,000 between April and December 2021, the average amount has started to climb again reaching $5,500 at the end of 2022. Rising vehicle prices and longer loan terms are also worrying those in the industry. But it depends on the buyer base.
Serves them right for buying internal combustion cars instead of using public transportation.
Woman goes viral for buying a 1998 Ford Escort for $289 a month for the next 84 months [PHOTO]
That’s awful.
Holy shit. So $24,000 for an old Ford Escort. Just… wow. The lack of financial understanding will do her well when she works for the government.
That can’t be real, can it?
Could be the usual social media scam. No idea, but it made the news aggregation sites.
I doubt it.
Pre-pandemic levels? Great Caesar’s ghost! Why that would be, what – nearly normal?
Why not skip payments? Dr. Jill’s husband will be along soon with an “Emergency Order” cancelling car payment debt, calling it an “investment in our working families suffering from the lingering effects of the previous administrations COVID shutdown mandates.”
The solution to this is easy. Just buy an electric car!
They come out of the wall, right?
Allow me to present how much we in NJ pay for the privilege of living here.
Highest NJ Property Taxes: See Where Your Town Ranks On New List
And what’s the average home value?
Whatever it is, it is depressed by the expected tax payments.
Much better off looking at median. Something the original article doesn’t do.
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Tavistock_NJ/overview
Scroll down and you will see lots of $250 – $350k neighborhoods followed by $850k.
My guess us most people there pay around $17 to $22k.
The FUCK?!? You can’t hire a decent hitman in that part of NJ?
We’ve noticed that living in SC isn’t really much cheaper than NJ. Gas is a bit less, everything else fairly comparable, even income taxes. EXCEPT for those property taxes. A similar house here owes 10% of what you’d pay in Jersey.
That seems about right.
I just checked and NJ is only slightly higher for sales tax.
What’s the punishment on automobile registration and/or annual property tax?
https://www.tax-rates.org/new_jersey/property-tax
See I didn’t think that was that bad, since I pay about $28 per 1000.
“It’s going to come, and it’s going to bite us. Now, we’re selling the cars for so much more, and financing for longer, at a much higher interest rate. There are some challenges coming down the pike,” he told Bloomberg.
But it’s not all the fault of the buyer. Some models and brands have horrible resale value, which a buyer has no control over. Other factors like dealer markups — which lenders don’t usually approve if the markup is greater than the value of the car — make things worse. If buyers continue down the path they’re on, the auto loan bubble will pop. It’s no longer a matter of if it will anymore. It’s when.
I’m looking forward to the sight of dealers’ lots jammed with unsold and unsellable cars. That’s just the kind of a guy I am.
Some models and brands have horrible resale value, which a buyer has no control over.
Pretty easy to identify those (looking at you, BMW).
Buy a boring vehicle without whizbang gizmos and you will be fine.
The vehicles with the highest depreciation — or worst resale value — over five years:
BMW 7 Series: -56.9%
Maserati Ghibli: -56.3%
Jaguar XF: -54%
Infiniti QX80: -52.6%
Cadillac Escalade ESV: 52.3%
Mercedes-Benz S-Class: 51.9%
Lincoln Navigator: -51.9%
Audi A6: -51.5%
Volvo S90: -51.4%
Ford Expedition: -50.7%
https://www.autoblog.com/article/cars-worst-resale-value-most-depreciation/
Harder to find by brand. The one that I did see used a 25 year run. First was Chrysler, followed by Audi. BMW made the bottom 10 or so but it was the best of the worst.
None of those is a surprise. I’d say they are an excellent buy, but most of those will be maintenance nightmares.
I miss 80s Volvos. Buy them with 150K on the clock, drive them for a year and sell them for more than I paid.
I guarantee Toyota and Subaru top the resale value list.
As a Jeep JK owner for 10 years I actually agree with this. Bought it as an Chrysler executive 1 year turn back with like 15K and kept it for 10 years. Traded it in on my Tesla and took $5k depreciation over those 10 years.
The vehicles with the lowest depreciation — or best resale value — over five years:
Jeep Wrangler: -7.3%
Jeep Wrangler Unlimited: -8.7%
Porsche 911: -14.6%
Toyota Tacoma: -14.9%
Honda Civic: -16.3%
Subaru BRZ: -18.2%
Ford Mustang: -19.4%
Toyota Corolla: -19.8%
Nissan Versa: -19.9%
Chevrolet Camaro: -20.2%
https://www.autoblog.com/article/best-resale-value-cars-slowest-depreciation/
I can’t believe Tacos and 4 Runners aren’t on that list.
Me as well. They must be just a little below the camaro.
When my son bought his Taco, used ones – if you could even find them – were barely less than new.
All of them still better than any Honduh.
Why the Honda hate?
I’m not a fan of the direction they’ve gone the past decade and half, but mechanically I’d prefer them over some other brands.
I have owned two Honda products; an Accord and a CBR600. The Accord was a disposable car, no single part was rebuildable, it was designed as a throw away. And when I worked at an auto electricians, I quickly learned how bad the company was as far as support and parts; they just didn’t care about the products once any warranty ran out or it was a second owner. Couple that with styling that is non-existent, and you have a piece of shit that won’t win hearts, unlike a Jaguar, say.
Also, the motorcycle committed the single worst sin it could. It was boring. It was completely passionless, which is the sole reason for owning a cycle in the first place.
In a choice between a Honda Goldwing and no motorcycle at all, I would choose no motorcycle at all.
I loved my Virago. I was also somewhat fond of my Kaw KZ.
Friday Funbags offers 2.8% APR for 72 months.
https://archive.is/ZESIW
GAY
https://www.thesun.co.uk/dear-deidre/21583182/lost-interest-sex-wife-slept-male-person-trainer/
wut
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/bloke-who-lives-cutest-dog-29361124
Celebrate his mental illness.
Who let him out?
Ehh. Dude’s kind of a weirdo, but at least he’s not out fucking little boys. As long as he’s keeping his kink in the bedroom and with other consenting adilts, I can’t really complain.
The vehicles with the highest depreciation — or worst resale value — over five years:
I honestly would have guessed most of those would have lost 50% in three years.
A lot are still under warranty at 3.
“Wrong hole” usually implies the back door, not the front porch.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/woman-crystal-dildo-removed-bladder-29366664
Gah!
Bad/dangerous weather continues apace. I’ll be napping now.
It came through Texas last night. This afternoon was Tennessee. It was crap weather.
$24,000 for an old Ford Escort. Just… wow.
Well, axially…
I’d rather have the Acura.
That’s a strong price. But a damn nice car.
A green non-Type R was my college car. It got me precisely zero tail.
But VTEC!
That’s what I thought, but no, the V does not stand for what you hope it does.
Nice.
And in the sidebar, just for you…
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2006-toyota-land-cruiser-51/
Looks pretty nice. Added to the watch list!
Yeah, I’ll take the Escort, better build quality.
Interesting legal case.
California couple sues fertility clinic over embryo carrying cancer gene
It would appear they are going to unsurprisingly get stuck in arbitration of the fetal fuck up or not fuck up, but they are getting around that with fraudulent concealment. Easy prediction is this settles and we never find out how much the attorney takes 1/3rd of plus expenses…
I watched the trailer for that Tetris movie, and I noticed something, a trend amongst movies, especially movies made for streaming. It LOOKED like a movie, but it didn’t FEEL like a movie. The tone of the acting and action seemed more of an internet short satire than actual actors trying to convey character.
Also, I spent the week watching Clarkson’s Farm season 2 on Prime, that’s some good shit.
Sunshine
Dillon Ruble and Garrett Jensen, two engineers working at Boeing, broke a record in December that had only a little to do with their day jobs: They set a new world record for farthest flight by a paper aircraft, sending a sheet of paper 88.318 meters, or almost 290 feet.
Ruble and Jensen accomplished the feat with the help of Nathaniel Erickson; all three are cited on the Guinness World Records page, though Ruble is the one who threw the plane on its record-shattering flight.
From the Boeing release:
Ruble and Jensen studied origami and aerodynamics for months, putting in 400 to 500 hours of creating different prototypes to try to design a plane that could fly higher and longer.
“For the Guinness World Records, we ended up going with A4-sized paper (dimensions of 210 x 297 mm) and went up to the maximum for weight, 100 grams per square meter,” Jensen said. “The heavier the paper, the greater the momentum when you go to throw it.”
It takes over 20 minutes to accurately fold the record-breaking paper airplane design.
“Our design is a little different from your traditional fold in half, fold the two corners to the middle line down the middle. It’s pretty unique in that aspect. It’s definitely an unusual design,” Ruble said.
On the day of the attempt, they achieved the record on the third throw.
Coming soon, to a missile launcher near you.
OK, I guess they work for Boeing Defense and not commercial aircraft.
Lawmakers Clamor for Action on Child Migrant Labor as Outrage Grows
NYT Paywall.
You know how you stop companies from using illegal immigrants as illegal labor?
It’s an outrage !
Those kids should be at drag shows!
An outrage?
You know how you stop companies from using illegal immigrants as illegal labor?
Raise the minimum wage.
What did I win?
The Reich & Krugman prize for Excellency in Imaginomics. Congrats!
So….as I posted yesterday, due a failed coof test I am not en route to Tokyo but am in fact stuck in VA. That does free up a few more weeks this spring. May make it to the Richmond meet-up in a month.
Otherwise, if anyone feels like checking out Colonial Beach, I’m not doing any other reserve stuff before a weekend at the end of April – still working night shift though.
Sorry let post this to cheer you up.
Deep Purple-My Woman From Tokyo
Where my Kristen Dunst?
https://youtu.be/yP7Fp5zdKEA
Happy to help!
Danke!
Posting this, not just because of the whole arms race thing, but more for the booth bunny constantly tossing her hair and making porn faces:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ61CkKJ6QM
That is funny. What else is she going to do I suppose? Might as well make sexy face.
Brings back fond memories of late 90s Comdex. Lots of money meant absolutely stunning spokesmodels.
The 1998 Toshiba booth in particular stood out.
A lot of the booths actually spent the time to train their models on the basic features of the product. Must have cost a fortune.
That chick has a pistol brace! Report her!
No BATF at IWA.
Waiting anxiously for it to shoot its load.
An interesting way to get around Swiss importation and reimportation restrictions.
Germany to Switzerland: We want your tanks
Good news is that it is incredibly inefficient and many palms get be greased in the process.
“You sent your tanks to Ukraine, Dummkopf. Tschüss!”
In financial services there are most definitely message policies and training. Routinely ignored as the cost of doing business, but most certainly extant. OTH it would appear that the rest of you who work at large and international organizations are in for the same proctology exam
US Justice Dept warns of steeper penalties for firms that fall foul of messaging policies
The wife is following this south carolina murder trial passionately., so I got to watch the judge at sentencing. He said something that really struck me as odd.
He said he handled the warrants during the investigation and the grand jury during investigstion and charging and this murder trial and he was assigned the other financial trials and I think he alluded to other investigations as well.
That seems …. really unusual. Is that at all normal… for one judge to handle every aspect with respect to a single person? Multiple cases, warrants. Grand juries, trials….
They seem to have alluded to a lot of corruption in local politics during this case… and now a judge who quite obviously wants to see a conviction is handling every aspect of his judicial oversight?
It just seems really off to me.
Anybody have actual knowledge on this? Is it normal to have the same judge sign early warrants, then oversee the grand jury, then do the trial, then do other unrelated grand juries and trials targeted at the same person?
BUFORD T. JUSTICE ALWAYS GETS HIS MAN
Within NJ – no. But NJ has appointed judiciary.
I’d lay dollars to doughnuts that SC does not…
Also unusual was the speed in sentencing – one day. In Philly, a councilman convicted of corruption last year was just sentenced on this past Wednesday.
Cracks in the green monolith
What was supposed to be an uncontroversial final approval of the EU’s plan to end the sale of new combustion engine cars and vans by 2035 is turning into a nail-biter that could upend the bloc’s effort to slash greenhouse gas emissions from transport.
German Transport Minister Volker Wissing threw out the EU etiquette book and warned Berlin would withhold its support for the final approval of the deal — something that is exceedingly rare once legislation has been negotiated with Parliament and backed by both MEPs and the Council.
——-
Lindner and Wissing, who is also with the FDP, are demanding that the Commission allow a loophole for cars powered by e-fuels — synthetic fuels made from renewable energy and captured CO2 that have the same properties as fossil fuels. Their backers say such fuels are green and would allow carmakers to continue producing conventional combustion engine vehicles rather than switching to batteries — crucial for car powers like Germany and Italy.
However, green groups are skeptical both of the costs and of the environmental footprint of e-fuels. The EU’s plans don’t allow for them, as they mandate that new cars and vans have zero tailpipe emissions after 2035.
——-
The threat to the car legislation has created “a fear that countries like Poland start using the same tactics. That the current German behavior legitimates attacks on other climate files,” said a diplomat from a climate-ambitious EU country.
The last thing they want is principled dissent.
“uncontroversial”
Welp, I can’t think of a more appropriate word to describe the fantasy upheaval of a gigantic industry.
RIP David Lindley. I like to think he’s somewhere jamming with Warren on this.
Jamming or tearing up a hotel?
Japan discovered it has 7,000 more islands than previously thought thanks to advanced survey mapping technology.
How many have hold-outs that think the war never ended?
17 but since they were born in 1926 they aren’t much of a threat.
“Japan Finds 7,000 Islands It Didn’t Know It Had”
Those look like very cool islands.
Fuck this wind!