Interesting model choice.
“A lush, blood-red faux-fur coat that looks like the lion draped over Godfrey’s shoulder.”
“Marvel Comics is celebrating Disney+’s X-Men ’97 with a slew of beautiful variants.”
“It’s free to join on LEGO’s official site, and it’s essentially a loyalty rewards program.”
Or maybe comparing shrinkage to sales across the entire country doesn’t mean shit when you have regional cases of MASSIVE organized shoplifting. If that’s being outweighed by the rest of the country not stealing retailers blind, that doesn’t make it any less of a concern when oh… businesses are having to leave entire states.
Apparently they give “Writing Fellow” at economic foundation credentials in Cracker Jacks boxes now…..
You’ve got organized groups blocking semis and looting them at this point too.
What percent of total retail sales makes up Amazon, who, as the article points out, doesn’t have to deal with “shoplifting”. I suspect when you take Amazon’s numbers out, the percentage increase is significant on the remaining players.
You wouldn’t think they would — but there is the looting of the FedEx trucks, the trains going into LA, etc… I’m assuming that affects them and their partners — though I fully expect the physical location stores are getting hit worse these days still.
Amazon might not have to deal with shoplifting, but they still have to deal with stolen items of of porches.
Shrink is shrink.
Or what he said.
The writer did touch on that possibility.
Xe makes some good points, especially the increased media scrutiny maybe making make it only appear worse.
But… I saw no mention of the one thought that ran through my head as I was reading that – all the recent store closures.
Things appear to be more concentrated in certain areas where they weren’t before. that is the real story that is elided by looking only at industry-wide rates.
But wouldn’t that have to be balanced by much less theft everywhere else? That seems unlikely.
I’ll admit to just scanning the stores and comments here, but my understanding is that rates are up, reversing a long downward trend.
Wait… that wasn’t a game about being a Michael Jackson impersonator? Because that’s what the model picture suggested to me….
Thank goodness it wasn’t just me.
It’s just dead-on. Who else could it be?
Oh… another cynical attempt by Disney+ to cash in on ‘member berries? I don’t care… baby…
I mean, my only expectation for all these modern writers, but especially Disney and Marvel when picking up a beloved property of the past is that they’ll take a giant crap on it.
The one good thing is it gives an excuse to watch the original animated show again. I already know the girlfriend is invested in the continuation, I’m much more… concerned. Especially since Disney is also trying to do a reboot of Gargoyles, but as a live action show.
Oh God… the uncanny valley on that would be extreme. And part of the magic of Gargoyles was the writing, which Disney already proved (with The Goliath Chronicles was lightning in a bottle… very difficult to recapture). Plus I doubt most of the ST:TNG cast is up for their roles at this point, so that’s a good bit of magic lost (and the kids wouldn’t give a crap anyway probably)…
It would make more sense to continue Gargoyles (or reboot it as an animated series) than trying to make it live action or continue the X-Men cartoon. I’m guessing Frakes would be down for it though, he seemed to be having fun making fun of himself in his couple of appearances in Lower Decks.
Well… that’s just prime.
I was wandering around the toy section at Target the other day looking for a toys-for-tots type gift and thought some Legos might be ideal but I wanted something general like the set I grew up with, not some stupid Hollywood tie-in. It was all stupid Hollywood tie-ins, and some other very specific genres that you can only build what’s on the box, not use your imagination.
I wound up with Spirograph. 🫤
You can find them, but it’s usually just 1 or 2 options in a sea of targeted projects.
I have nothing against the targeted projects, but I did notice, while helping the 3 year old put together a Lego project, that there has been an increase in pieces that have no use outside of the one project they’re designed
for. The end result looks better, but at the sacrifice of reusability.
Yeah…. no. I mean, okay… I “might”… but given I might want to try to get more than an hour or two into the game after putting it down with all the constant micro-patches and just not feeling the urge to come back to it…. I likely might not.
At least it isn’t Starfield where I know I was just flipping bored of a warmed over Skyrim/Fallout blend wandering the first planet.
I’ll be getting into BG3 once the holiday sales hit. Recently found a game that the girlfriend and I both like, Dave the Diver.
I’ve also got the Super Mario RPG remake sitting loaded on the Switch…
I didn’t know your name was Dave.
*snickers*
Same on both counts.
Yeah… I think we’ve heard this one before. Fine if it happens – I just expect a lot of mysterious “redactions” and “retractions” before it actually does.
I foresee a DNCDoS.
Shall see…first 23gb of data uploaded
https://cha.house.gov/cha-subcommittee-reading-room-fe781e74-d577-4f64-93cc-fc3a8dd8df18
Many of you might remember hearing about the recent two week manhunt in Chester County, PA for a convicted murderer who escaped prison. The incompetents (Democrats) who oversaw shoddy prison security were all comfortably re-elected on Nov. 7th. Now, the escapee – who is serving a life term with no parole- is being put on trial for escaping, and more than 20 other counts associated with his evasion of capture. Of course the asshole is pleading “not guilty” which will of course prolong and run up trial costs. Understandable, perhaps , as the trial avoids some boredom in a cell and gives him a chance to show the middle finger to society. But what pisses me off is the d.a. and rest of justice system bothering to spend more time and money to get a verdict for which no additional time can be served. Publicity hounds!
And the defense actually asked for bail, which was denied!
Thats funny. I almost wish parole had been granted, is that wrong?
Full-length white mink coat with a shawl collar/lapel or GTFO.
Just for you.
Gah…. that’s a rather unflattering look. What made her think, that he was one of those boys?
$189? I can smell the Chinese plastic stink from here.
I like Chinese plastic
There are no problematic scenes in John Wick. *grips pencil
It’s been so long I forgot how to line quote.
I’ve yet to see one xD (Seriously, he’s always skipped past that part for me.)
Serious question: what do you mean by “problematic scenes”?
Asking because I’ve never seen any John Wick anything, but just literally two days ago my son said I might get a kick out of it.
Maybe all the scenes where they mistranslate / misconstrue Baba Yaga as “The Boogeyman”? 😉
That bothered me too, especially as a person of tracksuit extraction.
There is some kind of simulated human-on-beagle-puppy violence.
Yes, I know the dog was not actually harmed, but that doesn’t matter. I don’t want to see/hear any of that.
It was needed so you would wholeheartedly root for Mr. Wick to take out every last bastard who had anything to do with it.
Daisy was sweet and adorable and a good, good girl.
Oh… this is awesome!
https://nypost.com/2023/11/17/metro/nyc-councilwoman-to-be-cleared-of-gun-charge-over-firearm-at-pro-palestinian-rally/
It totally didn’t have the spring in it when she had it at the rally. There’s no way it could have been removed prior to turning herself in.
shouldn’t be a crime anyway.
*whew*
Finally caught up on all the glibbing I missed while I was away.
I’m having trouble getting into BG3. Part of it is the WTF interface it has.
Fair criticism. It took me some time to get used to. You’ll get there.
Feels like a tiki night as it’s fixin to rain, though it could be colder.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87821224358?pwd=eW55MTRDbDNtQkh2aHd3M1Nmenlzdz09
I suspect it isn’t enough rain to transition you from Pro Tiki to Kon Tiki, thank goodness.
It rained here, and then it got grossly humid. X.X
I’ll try to join from ATL
Wow… So much for Honda quality. Anybody with a recent V6. But Tesla!!!
https://www.autonews.com/regulation-safety/honda-acura-vehicles-recalled-risk-engine-damage
The recall covers certain 2016 and 2018-19 Honda Pilot, 2017 and 2019 Ridgeline and 2018-19 Odyssey vehicles. It also covers two models from the Japanese automaker’s luxury brand, Acura: the 2015-20 TLX and 2016-20 MDX.
Improperly ground crank. The remedy is to have your dealer “inspect” it and if out of spec replace it. My assumption is that it isn’t all of them, but they don’t know which. This also assumes your dealer actually properly pulls the oil pan and properly mics it. That ain’t guaranteed.
As he works on a new iron law, Evan might be interested in what Betrand Russell said about the four basic desires.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1950/russell/lecture/
***
When the Arabs, who had been used to living sparingly on a few dates, acquired the riches of the Eastern Roman Empire, and dwelt in palaces of almost unbelievable luxury, they did not, on that account, become inactive. Hunger could no longer be a motive, for Greek slaves supplied them with exquisite viands at the slightest nod. But other desires kept them active: four in particular, which we can label acquisitiveness, rivalry, vanity, and love of power.
***
I was thinking of spending $800 or so to see if I can break the world record for overclocking. Based on this video, it looks like the CPU or the water jacket around it was covered in some kind of cloth rather than having liquid nitrogen poured directly on the chip. The cloth must be there to absorb the condensed water vapor from the air and keep it out of the computer. An oil-cooled computer like mine would not have a water condensation problem.
https://youtu.be/CzAZxx_aLdo?si=mXKFgl2kE7VNkkt2&t=248
More signs that the great woke recruiting is going so well…. I’m sure the PPP admin’s giant “fuck you!”s to serving military (Afghan withdrawal, mandates, chasing down “extremists” who believe in the Constitution) will let them woo these folks right back…. That’s the ticket!
I was expecting the pr0n music to kick in at 22:21
https://youtu.be/CAcxxknP8BM
Improperly ground crank.
That covers a lot of territory.
I saw the stories but didn’t read any of them.
After mandating the COVID vaccine, and forcing separation of military personnel for refusing it, the Army has reversed course and has suspended the COVID vaccine requirement for the men and women in uniform.
I’m sure those guys (and gals) will all just come stampeding back.
A key note is that it is just ‘suspended’ like the sword of Damocles over your head…
“If the connecting rod bearing seizes, the engine can be damaged and run improperly, stall, stop while driving, and/or not start, increasing the risk of a fire, crash or injury,” the report stated.
If the problem occurs, drivers might experience abnormal engine noise, stalling or decreased output with the “check engine” light on.
Keep your foot in it. It will clearance itself.
Yeah, I linked that story because it had the actual filing in it.
The MSM rarely sources to stuff like this when it should.
Apparently that increase in shoplifting is all in your head.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/17/business/shoplifting-retail-crime-stores/index.html
*taps out*
I tapped out before I got to that. I guess I’m just not interested in reading people who don’t have anything intelligent to say. Getting too old for that shit.
RC Dean correctly said my suggestion for an Iron Rule was too “general…Needs to describe some specific and unavoidable aspect of human organizations/societies, have some predictive power.” I agree. My version with brevity was “Iron Rule: Human beings are social primates.” My idea is directly attached to “Money and Power.”
Edited Iron Rule: “Human beings are social primates. Money and Power directly lead to Status, the currency of humans to attain, maintain and expand access to territory, resources and mates.”
Not sure if that’s specific enough. Status being our social currency is the predictive factor. It is universally how we get laid, eat, sleep, etc. It provides the backbone of “Why?” things are done in our species. Our biological niche as social primates is an overlooked, I’d say forgotten, fundamental aspect of human nature.
It explains all human behavior, even those who reject being social. I thought it wise (?) to not include outliers. Scribbled In my notes: “Outliers are just such. Even “non-social” humans, or mateless ones, represent a “rejection” of being social. ‘Not being religious/etc’ is still a reaction to the social reality of their existence in society.” Being desirous, but incapable of finding a mate reflects an inability to socially attract a mate if enough are available.”
Just spitballin’. It’s an obvious reality of why people are the way they are. Across time, culture, location and more. It’s what we ARE. People think we’re special, and we sorta are. We’re just mammals, but of a rare sort.
And I’m not cocky enough to think it should be ‘enshrined’ in the Iron Rules or anything, but I do believe it’s fundamentally overlooked and explains just about everything. Our evolutionary path to get here is important. Money, Power –> Status, the ‘true’ or underlying goal of all human action. Status is our social currency.
It’s at least an interesting, ‘fun’ biological truth that’s been running around my brain for quite a while.
The great philosopher Tony Montana said: first you get de money, then you get de power, then you get de women.
^^That man spoke the truth.
We choose (?) to get there in different ways, but finding mates, through obtaining/maintaining territory and resources, is the name of the game.
In general, apes are nomadic. Being at the top of the social hierarchy is what counts, and that comes from dominance displays mostly rather than fighting. Dominance displays are mostly picking fights with smaller/weaker opponents.
Case in point: at the golf cart factory, this big dumb asshole kept insulting me and putting his hands on me. It stopped when I jammed an impact gun in his face and told him not to touch me again. Fortunately, that was caught on camera and the jackass left me alone after that. I didn’t see him for the last 3 months I worked there, so maybe he got fired.
Here’s what was really weird: in November of 2022, I got invited to march in a Veterans Day parade in Tennessee where my parents live. It was on the Saturday before Veterans Day. The night I got back home, I bought some beer, and the card reader kept malfunctioning. When I tried to listed to music on YouTube, my headphones blasted static. That what on for 5 days until I posted a pic on my desktop of me holding a large machine gun and a video of a rattlesnake preparing to strike. The only one who should have been able to see that should have been me. The computer and the headphones were both new.
The night I went into work on actual Veterans Day, there was an assembly, and the speaker asked any veterans to step forward. After a few moments, I did because no one else in the crowd of about 100 did. I know for a fact I wasn’t the only veteran working there. I was invited to eat first at the Veterans Day dinner in the cafeteria. To my surprise, the big jackass was in there too, seated by himself with no food. We were the only two diners there. I ate my meal at another table and left.
When I got home from working the following morning, the static in my headphones had stopped. I mention more incidents like this in my autobiography which I’ve been publishing here in installments.
I thought Q had some wooden laws or something. I may be misremembering. I have to do more research, carefully examine his postings and get back to you.
We are fundamentally a stupid species, with only occasional breakthroughs in that default behavior.
Illegitimate
The White House is hitting back against House Republicans and their impeachment inquiry into the president by demanding that GOP lawmakers withdraw their subpoenas targeting Biden family members and administration officials.
In a letter obtained by NBC News, White House counsel Richard Sauber called the requests for information and interviews “unjustified,” and characterized the overall impeachment inquiry as “illegitimate.” The letter, dated Friday, was addressed to House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
“Your latest steps follow an irresponsible set of subpoenas and requests for interviews that you launched last week, directed to multiple members of the President’s family, all of whom are private citizens, including for example the President’s deceased son’s widow and her sister,” Sauber wrote. “These unjustified requests were sent despite the fact that, after a year of investigating, voluminous records and testimony from dozens of witnesses have refuted your baseless allegations about the President.”
Biden should dissolve Congress for their impudence.
“after a year of investigating, voluminous records and testimony from dozens of witnesses have refuted your baseless allegations about the President.”
If you repeat a big enough lie enough times it becomes true, right?
How long was Trump under Congressional investigation? Or is the complaint that the Democrats rushed it?
Members of the president’s family who are private citizens? What an unprecedented outrage.
After multiple attempts to post a portion from this story, I’ll just put this here:
The Nation
Israel’s Ludicrous Propaganda Wins Over The Only Audience That Counts
Maybe this will work:
***
Then Hagari pointed to a list on a wall and claimed, “This is a guardians’ list, where every terrorist writes his name and every terrorist has his own shift, guarding the people that were here.”
As those fluent in Arabic pointed out, the supposed “guardians list” was nothing more or less than a calendar with the days of the week on it. The IDF blamed the fiasco on a “translation error.”
On November 15, Middle East Monitor reported, “The Israeli army killed an elderly Palestinian after using him in a propaganda campaign promoting its ‘safe corridor’ in Gaza.” The IDF circulated a photo of the 79-year old man, Bashir Hajji, talking to IDF soldiers as proof of their careful shepherding of refugees fleeing the bombardment in the north. This photo was undermined by the fact that an Israeli sniper shot Hajji twice in the back of the head.
***
“an Israeli sniper shot Hajji twice in the back of the head”
That needs some verification. Also the circumstances. And I gotta say, the “twice” makes me twitch, because I don’t think that’s the way snipers work.
He’s definitely dead. Here are before and after pics:
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/17vn1fu/the_idf_took_pr_photos_with_bashir_hajji_and_shot/?force_seo=1
There are no exits wounds from the forehead, so while it is possible the IDF killed him, it wasn’t a head shot.
Wouldn’t something like a hollow point bullet slow a bullet down enough that it might not exit the forehead?
Maybe, but:
***
M89SR sniper rifle is a gas operated semi-automatic sniper rifle produced by Technical Consultants International (TCI), an Israeli company based in Tel Aviv.[1]
The M89SR was first introduced as the Sardius M36 Sniper Weapon System (SWS) in the 1980s. The rifle is based on the American M14 rifle in bullpup configuration, and uses the same 7.62×51mm NATO ammunition.
***
Hollow point ammo is mostly for pistols. The 6.5×55mm Swedish is a rare hollow point rifle round. The Hague convention of 1899 prohibits expanding bullets but not hollow points.
This is a tough question. Do I trust the IDF or BBC more?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/17/idf-evidence-so-far-falls-well-short-of-al-shifa-hospital-being-hamas-hq
The lack of much stuff at the hospital has not gone unnoticed.
Would that the media put the same level of scrutiny on propaganda from Hamas (or, in other areas, environmental groups).
Our “friends” at Fox always note the Hamas control and lack of verification of Palestinian casualty figures.
I don’t read the BBC coverage enough, but I believe they completely bought the IDF vs friendly fire hospital middle attack story.
Yeah. I don’t have a problem with being skeptical of the IDF, but their bias shows when they are skeptical of only certain groups.
Is trusting neither an option?
+1 fog of war
But I certainly don’t trust anything from the BBC.
The greatest Friday news dump of all time. The Jan 6th tapes, first segments.
https://cha.house.gov/cha-subcommittee-reading-room-fe781e74-d577-4f64-93cc-fc3a8dd8df18
The problematic scenes in the first quarter? There’s an interesting definition of problematic in there, since nobody (but the pup) gets shot, knifed or otherwise violently killed until after then.
It’s hard to watch the dog get it, IMO.
Stealing his car put him into a rage, but killing the dog put him into a murdering rage?
It seems like a really ridiculous premise, that those two things lead to such a killing spree. I never could buy into that. At most. take out the jackass in charge, plus anyone trying to stop you.
Been a while since I watched it but isn’t there something about a dead wife who gave him the dog, and thus his seeming overreaction is a manifestation of his rage over losing her?
That would be correct. The puppy was a last gift from his wife, who had planned the delivery to happen after her funeral.
You have to watch part II to get the importance of thencar
We rewatched the original John Wick last weekend, with Mr. Riven doing the real work to skip past the problematic scenes in the first quarter. Never been a big MM fan, but this song is great.
That song worked great where they put it in the movie and I had no Idea it was MM. The dog did not like it when I played the link.