AN ANIME EXPLANATION
When we left our young couple at the end of the prior lesson things were looking up. They had touched hands for the first time and were well on their way to romantic involvement, or so we thought.
VIII. A Regression
The shock of touching fingers at such a momentous moment is entirely too stimulating for our couple. Both of them will spend the remainder of Summer Break too embarrassed to call or text the other, miserably staring at their phone hoping the other will call or text them and desperately longing for school to resume so they can see each other again. Unfortunately this will build that first meeting up to such a daunting level of importance that neither will be able to speak to the other, or even make eye contact.
This dismal state of affairs will last the entire trimester, and will end our budding romance unless one or more members of the friend group find themself in danger of failing exams. This academic failure will make possible the all-important study group, without which the Post Summer Break Regression cannot be resolved.
As you can imagine, this makes it absolutely crucial to have stupid friends if you want to have a relationship. This is a possible explanation for the well-known tendency for the best educated to have the fewest kids.
IX. Study Group
The Study Group offers three key elements for the foundation of our couple’s relationship. First, the urgency of helping whichever member of the friend group is at risk of academic doom will distract our couple from their self-absorbed angst. allowing natural conversation to resume.
Second, through innocent conversations between classmates trying to avoid boring studies, one or both of our aspiring romantics will be prompted to recall a deep memory of their long lost childhood friend. That innocent childhood friendship carried the remembering party through life altering events in the past, and will play a pivotal role in determining the fate of this romance.
Finally, the study group will be held in the bedroom of one of our prospective lovers. This offers the other one another key first! Their first time in a member of the opposite sex’s bedroom! Depending on which bedroom is chosen surreptitious searching will reveal either panties or porn, and such sights will get the hormones in high gear, allowing a chance at overcoming bashfulness. This should be approached cautiously! As the study group is made up of the friend group, any in group romantic rivals will also be present, too blatant of an exposure of the sartorial, or masturbatory, secrets of one’s crush risk exciting such rivals to renewed intensity.
This Study Group is also the earliest opportunity for a staple of Japanese romance, the indirect kiss. It is likely that someone will provide refreshments while the group studies and our love birds will have the chance to either deliberately, or accidentally, find themselves taking a bite from the other’s food, or sip from their drink. Overcoming one’s excitement and shyness about this is crucial. It is bad for the budding romance if the second person tears off the bitten part, or wipes the glass or straw, rather than indulging in the traditional intermediated lip contact. If this opportunity passes, have no fear, this was merely the first chance at that development, another will come later.
X. Exams
The friendly atmosphere of the study group, assuming successful exam results, results in an upwelling of camaraderie in the group. Thus, we see that while stupid friends are necessary for success, they must be appropriately stupid. If your friend is too dense to be coached across the finish line of a minimal passing score, their failure and the resulting dismay can interfere with future steps.
Presuming you managed to get Rockhead Dullperson through the exams, it is almost certain that the exuberance produced will result in plans for a Christmas Party. Christmas, being an entirely secular, largely couple focused holiday in Japan offers a perfect opportunity for confessions of love. Our lovers, freshly reinvigorated and heartened by overcoming the post summer regression, each decide that they will seize this opportunity and confess their feelings.
XI. Christmas Party
This is the moment for the return of our couple’s nemesis from the School Trip. The Christmas Party confession plan will be foiled by one or more of the following; classmate crushes, teacher trauma, inconvenient illness, or a new entry, parental plans. Yes, our lover’s plans will once again fail to materialize because a clueless classmate with a crush attends the party and despite everyone’s efforts to separate the lovers from this intrusion, no private moment for confession will be found. Alternatively the creepy teacher may crash the party, and either end the party before the confession can occur, or stick to our lovers like a limpet and prevent it by their presence, and over the top, utterly inappropriate, sexual teasing.
In yet another possibility one of our lovers may find themself exposed to cold weather without a coat, resulting in being too ill to attend the party. This susceptibility of the seemingly healthy Japanese teen to sudden illnesses whenever exposed to moisture or cold weather, is a serious problem, which someone should address.
Finally, one of our lover’s parents may decide that the family tradition of eating chicken at home is far too important to be abandoned by a teen wanting to spend time with their friends. Regardless of the cause, Christmas Party confessions don’t materialize, and despair begins to return.
XII. Last/First Shrine Visit of the Year
Our unhappy couple is sinking back into the dismal state in which they spent the entire autumn, and their friends are not going to go through another trimester of depression. Taking advantage of the culturally important tradition of making a shrine visit on New Year’s Eve to welcome the New Year, the friends concoct a plan to invite both our lovers to a group shrine visit. The plan being to then either have the other friends pull a no show, or to slip away after arriving. In either case the friends’ actual plan involves watching over the couple from hiding to prevent the clueless crush, troublesome teacher, or problem parents from interfering. Oaths are taken, weapons readied, and the couple will greet the New Year on a forced date if the friends have to overthrow heaven!
Various adventures will try to interfere, but this is the moment when friends prove their affection, memory montages summon up images of swimsuits, the couple discovers that their long lost childhood friends are none other than each other1, and despite it being virtually guaranteed that one of them will select a shrine fortune dooming them to bad luck for the year, they will end up sharing a magical moment possibly even holding hands as the New Year begins! Their love has blossomed in full, but remains unconfessed.
XIII. Chocolate Plans
Because our budding romance has been only nine months in the making and has already managed to include standing in the cold at a shrine, possibly even holding hands, our lovers will spend January basking in the glow of their joyous New Year. As February opens, the crucial importance of Valentine’s Day begins to loom. Our heroine is in a panic, she knows that she is duty bound to make special chocolates for our hero but doing that is tantamount to confessing the feelings consuming her heart. Our hero is likewise panicking, what if she gives him special chocolates, how shall he react? Does he dare let her know he loves her?
It is not relevant that random strangers observing the couple for longer than 7 seconds immediately assume they are a couple. It is not relevant, that both of them blush and stammer every time they look at each other. The chocolate ritual is all important!
Our heroine finds the friend who is a gourmet chef, possibly because her family owns an udon shop (nota bene this must be an udon or soba shop, ramen will not work in this context and somen is right out,) this begins a montage of spoiled chocolates and many band aids on fingers.
Our hero’s role at this stage is simply to endure an anxiety ridden couple of weeks.
XIV. Valentine’s Day
Our heroine has triumphed. Chocolates that would satisfy the snobbiest Belgian, Swiss, or German have been produced, wrapped with loving craft and hidden away in a bag. Lesser, but still quality chocolates are readied to be handed out to the other friends, and are handed out, but alas…
Fate is fickle, and the fortune which caused our lover’s fingers to touch in the summer, will now demand recompense. As our heroine awaits the perfect moment to present her cacao dusted love token to her chosen swain, disaster will befall. This is the moment at which her rival will appear and present our hero with chocolate that shames our heroine’s offering (as our heroine watches and despairs). Or, should no such rival exist, a chance collision, spill, bag exchange, or exposure to heat will render the chocolates unsuitable for her confession.
One might assume such a setback would be overcome by a simple explanation, a shared laugh, and a statement of intent, but the bashfulness in love of the Japanese High Schooler is not so easily overcome, and rather than explain in any way, our heroine will now run home to cry her eyes out, while our hero, having watched the girl he thought was about to express her love, instead gift everyone in the class but him chocolate, resigns himself to eternal solitude.
****
2. Interlude the Second
Again I remind my audience that it is important as we follow this relationship from beginning to baby not to get too involved with our couple. Emotional connection will just leave us unhappy as this process seems interminable to western sensibilities. Accordingly I have broken it up into several parts to allow my audience to digest the material in more manageable lessons. This also allows me to turn one really long submission into multiple shorter ones to help with the lack of content being submitted.
****
- If it turns out that they are not each other’s long lost childhood friend, the whole house of cards comes down. If you find yourself a parent in Japan it is absolutely crucial that by age 7 you find your little one a friend of the opposite sex, and then suddenly move far away, or have that friend’s family move far away. It is also important that one or both children suffer a severe trauma at around this time. Death of a parent is often a good choice. So if you want grandchildren, it may be advisable to kill yourself ↩︎
When do we get to the pixelated porn?
First comes the accidental extended groping of the highly prominent boobs of the girl by the guy, followed by extreme panic and blushing.
“Those aren’t pillows!”
Train delay – personal injury.
I’ve been enjoying this. Sadly, because I know the tropes so well. I’m still eagerly awaiting the the “complex” sister relationship in upcoming posts.
If you haven’t included it the first name trope is also both a staple and legitimate relationship point. Japanese people generally don’t use first names with people that they don’t have a significant relationship with. In the west most people will use a first name after an introduction. To only use a last name seems rude. For Japanese it’s the opposite using a first name too earlier implies an embarrassing amount of closeness.
There is whole different discussion about what suffix you affix to both first and last names to show respect and at what point those suffixes will be dropped. That occasionally comes into play above, but much more rarely. For example my Japanese friends still refer to me as FirstName + san in Japanese. I do the same with them.
Too complicated, and implies the existance of someone superior to me.
I’ll just be rude.
It’s not. Just default to last name +san. Nobody will be upset.
“…implies the existence of someone superior to me.”
This. A large part of American culture comes from throwing off the rule of kings. We largely dont have the pecking order mentality that is a staple in almost all other cultures. “He puts his pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else” and a zillion other expressions like that are common here.
Having said that there is a fine distinction to be made between assuming superiority and respect that is rightly earned. There is also the basic respect one has for all other people upon meeting them. Different cultures see that basic respect differently. We often give everyone the same basic respect, other cultures level of basic respect is dependent on other’s station in life.
I could just sum this all up with “They are different than we are.”
The subtle differences in thinking that pervades every aspect of cultures is why humor doesnt cross cultures.
Japan probably does have some implied superiority or inferiority built in, but using san is basically the equivalent of a kid being expected to call their teacher Mr. Smith or Miss Smith rather than just Smith.
I didn’t have any respect for teachers once I had to start teaching them as they were too dumb to be in the grade level they were instructing.
I use the appropriate Sir or Ma’am all the time as a form of mutual respect.
On reflection, the recent years of language policing trying to pose as “politeness” or “common courtesey” to dictate speech has made me anti-honorifics. I can’t recall the last time I used either sir or ma’am in regular speech. (Online snark doesn’t count).
We largely dont have the pecking order mentality that is a staple in almost all other cultures.
A considerable portion of our society wants it, since it is a standard part of social behavior.
Suthenboy:
–Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay
Yet we keep wanting to creating the pecking order again. Look at the bullshit like the Met Gala and our politicians.
“I use the appropriate Sir or Ma’am all the time as a form of mutual respect.”
When I was still working, I did, too. Although, probably more ma’ams than sirs, probably because I used it with bosses and peers in some contexts, and in hospitals I had more women at the top of the food chain than men. It used to amuse my last couple of bosses (both women) when I called them ma’am. Generally it was just a simple “yes, ma’am”. They chalked it up to being raised in Texas.
I wondered what I would say if meeting, say, the Pope or King Charles or the President. I do have a little anecdote about a Harvard rowing coach who rode by Queen Elizabeth on his bike and said “Hi, how you doing?”
I didn’t touch on the name use or honorific tropes. It felt too inside baseball, but maybe I should have. You’ll be waiting a while for Siscon. It’s the very last thing and I just uploaded it lol.
I also didn’t go deep into the social conformity thing where the classmates will actively, even violently oppose any friendship that they believe crosses status lines. That one bothers me too much to be funny about.
So, celebs with a single name (sting, cher, madonna) throw the whole system into chaos?
Nah. Just take the single name add +san or +sama if are providing a hospitality service and you are good to go!
That implies I want to show any respect to these people.
Ok, UCS-kun.
Is that what you call an insult? I’ve been insulted by better than you. Up your derogatory game, man.
Using the affectionate for isn’t necessarily an insult. (I am not sure it even has the insulting connotation Sensei?)
That’s actually the way Japanese insults. They have “bad words” just like any language, but the way you insult properly is by changing politeness levels inappropriately.
Every time I try to do it they assume is because I’m not a native speaker and it never lands properly. There was only one time I really pulled it off (in a good natured way) and cracked up everybody around the table at restaurant with getting mad at a friend.
Like Sensei+san?
(((Jarflax – see my explanation above. In this case it works because you wouldn’t use this with a peer as another man. Boss to subordinate or similar.
Up to college -kun would be OK. Not so much in the adult world. However, a woman you’ve know since high school might still use -kun with you.
Rat on a train – Sensei is a bit unique because it can be an honorific by itself.
Sensei – means doctor or teacher. For example I refer to my Japanese teacher simply as Sensei. But I could also refer to her as (not her name) Yamada-sensei. Just Sensei is slightly less polite, but still polite.
In my last Japanese class, sat next to a chick who would call me senpai during pair work. Yes I was older but not that much and her fluency was way beyond my own. It needled me a bit. Like an enlisted man getting called “sir”.
Most likely a cultural thing, family being more important than the individual vs. individual being distinct from the family. I’d be curious what they think about the fact that here, using a last name for someone can either be formal (if used with an honorific), or amazingly informal/casual (let he who doesn’t have at least one friend who’s referred to by last name/modified last name call me out).
Cultural things like this intrigue and interest me.
Using last names was fairly standard even among friends in the west a couple generations ago. Historically our easy use of first names in business and formal social contexts is the outlier, not the Japanese formalism.
There is a whole “in group” and “outgroup” in Asia that is reflected in the language.
For example you use different words words to refer to your own family as compared to another person’s family.
My:
Mother = haha
Older sister = ane
Younger sister = imouto
Your:
mother = Okaasan
Older sister Oneesan
Younger sister = imoutosan
(In the above the “O” in front of the older people here is yet another honorific. It’s not part of the actual word.
“Using last names was fairly standard even among friends in the west a couple generations ago.”
I was about to say “Hey, we did that when I was young and that wasn’t a couple of generations ago”>
But yes, yes it was.
I gotta tell you (((Jarflax, reading that made it hard to breath…and I thought the English had a stifling culture. Jesus.
To be fair, this is mostly a humorous (hopefully) description of rom-com anime tropes, which are tropes because they exaggerate the actual stifling culture.
What is their suicide rate like?
Incredibly low thanks to gun control.
Don’t forget swords too!
Converging on ours these days lol. Theirs has been declining as ours rises.
It was mostly a rhetorical question and a joke.
Suthenboy – It’s Glibs!
Here we have the American left’s dream:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_and_Sword_Possession_Control_Law
The left’s dream…and here is why (from your link) “… historic influence have made weapons to be seen as “the mark of the rulers, not the ruled”.
If anyone tells you that you dont need a gun….you need a gun.
That’s charming. 🙄
That is true in almost all places historically as far as I know. Weapons were only permitted for the ruling classes. The US Is the only place I know of that has never been that way. Our founders were well aware of that and thus the 2A. That should tell everyone all they need to know about gun grabbers.
Gonna leave this here
https://youtu.be/NMOXl_xbFOc
Sadly blocked at work.
Explanation of yajuu senpai meme.
Because our budding romance has been only nine months in the making
Time for labor and delivery.
I never figured out hoe to properly navigate American mating rituals. This is well beyond my pay grade.
I figured in your neck of the woods it was more like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers – just nab someone and hold them until stockholm syndrome sets in.
Calling her a ‘hoe’ is probably a bad way to start, unless money is actually being exchanged.
Being able to dance at the time swing music was popular again hid a lot of my faults (apparently).
In my day the female mating call was “I’m drunk” and the male mating call was “I’m rich”. Not sure what it is now.
Meanwhile, back at the cultural suicide desk
The British government said on Thursday it planned to give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in all UK elections in a major overhaul of the country’s democratic system.
The government said the proposed changes, which are subject to parliament approvals, would align voting rights across the UK with Scotland and Wales, where younger voters already participate in devolved elections.
“We are taking action to break down barriers to participation that will ensure more people have the opportunity to engage in UK democracy,” Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said in a statement.
GOOD
AND
HARD.
Abolish all restrictions on voting. The government effects all so all should vote.
It will be fun when they start voting for lower ages for drinking and higher ages for military service.
Devolved elections is right.
You say this, but all of the Korean dramas my wife loves seem to always end with someone running in the rain.
Maybe the Koreans are made from sterner stuff?
Japanese are creatures of fire, exposure to water makes them ill.
Koreans are people of water, the rain doesn’t hurt them.
Possibly, but as I understand it Koreans instantly die if they are exposed to any air movement from ac, or even open windows, at night.
They evaporate.
This phenomena impacts Japanese people as well.
Maybe, her dramas are every bit as overwrought as these anime’s.
I haven’t delved into K Dramas, but from everything I have heard they are very much the same type of thing as romance anime
My wife loves K dramas, but she also likes teleseryes …
Fan death.
Man, it’s a good thing we don’t have any silly beliefs like that.
/sits and waits for an hour after eating before swimming
That’s silly. It’s only 30 minutes.
Who knew I was Japanese.
https://youtu.be/dQkVIRz45dg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kare_Kano
KareKano is awesome on so many levels. The manga author and Gainax got into a huge disagreement and basically killed the anime after the first season. Having read the manga, the anime is much better. The author hated the humor in the anime version, but it’s the best part.
My other favorite bit is that it was the studio follow up from Evangelion. From Shounen to Shoujo.
I get both perspectives.
Audience “I like the humor.”
Writer “That’s not what I wrote, you changed it all.”
Interesting deep dive on who might have engineered the Trump / Musk fallout and why.
Don’t know how much of this is true. This is a high profile guy on X so this will get a lot more attention. It does fit the pattern of Trump taking terrible advice from terrible people.
https://x.com/amuse/status/1945669778359918919
As long as they do the right things (kowtow and flatter Trump, be personally “loyal” and a yes man), Trump will choose those over someone who pushes back on the bullshit Trump comes out with but is aligned with the same strategy.
Even if this is true, the fault for the conflict still rests with Trump for surrounding himself with servile bootlickers.
Fauci and Brix come to mind.
What in the long winded tweet is that?!
Is that a thing now?
UnCivilServant: Here is a possible reason that solid state electronics might not be usable while vacuum tubes might still be viable during your theoretical FTL travel. If your FTL travel is within a medium or universe where quantum effects are different or amplified, then quantum tunneling might become easier and thus cause thin insulators to become conductive. Thin insulators are required in all modern MOS semiconductors. This might also affect bi-polar potential barriers as well. If electron tunneling through a potential barrier requires an order of magnitude less energy, then semiconductors that work in “normal” quantum conditions would not work or be destroyed by spontaneous turn on.
Vacuum tubes would be more resistant to any of these effects if they were designed to. You would have to assume thermal electron emission not field emission based tubes. There are no really thin conductors in vacuum tubes and the potential barriers are across much more macrosopic distances. Biological processes could be affected by proton tunneling changes via increased mutation, but electron tunneling would increase some functions.
Biology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_tunnelling
“Quantum tunnelling is among the central non-trivial quantum effects in quantum biology.[32] Here it is important both as electron tunnelling and proton tunnelling. Electron tunnelling is a key factor in many biochemical redox reactions (photosynthesis, cellular respiration) as well as enzymatic catalysis. Proton tunnelling is a key factor in spontaneous DNA mutation.[27]”
The FTL travel method could use something similar in the marco as its means of shortening travel time, thus the effect. Your ship quantum tunnels from point a to b instead of crossing the higher barrier that exists.
Tubes are less suspectable to being knocked out by EMP. I used to have to carry a damn PRC-105 radio that still had tubes. Was like a cinder block in my pack.
But you can also shield and harden solid state systems when you expect them to be subject to that effect.
Drake, that was my first thought as well. Radiation in space alone is a problem. Most electronics need to be shielded from radiation if they are to be used long term. Making radiation hardened semiconductors also require special manufacturing process steps or designs. It is usually easier and cheaper to shield.
Even low level radiation from the materials you use in the construction can cause early failure.
Pb (solder) is used extensively in packaging the Si and connecting it to the outside world. Pb isotopes within the bulk can decay emitting an alpha particle. This continuous Alpha particle emission over time can result in changes in the device threshold voltage and lead to drift over time.
I love that lead has been contaminated by nuclear testing.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0168583X9195569Y
Some semiconductors and extreme science experiments are using lead from pre-atomic testing.
The same is true with Steel and instrumentation. I can’t imagine Fe or Pb mined deep within the earth would be contaminated by fallout, but they likely re-use materials in the melt that are contaminated.
There is big money in pre-nuclear steel.
Used for sensors where the radiation built in would throw off the result.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel
Ron, there used to be.
My dad had several pre war trucks and a crawler tractor. All pre nuke.
Couldnt get a dime more for them than regular scrap.
Thank you.
🤔 Would that effect do anything to data storage methods? I’ve forgotten how solid state storage was set up, it’s been a while since I looked at it at that level. for example, might it lead to data corruption, erasure of some forms of storage to have that kind of effect roll past? Would it be different of powered off at the time?
This would completely screw up and erase SS storage. Turned on or off. The floating gate in the flash memory bit would change state. Magnetic storage should be fine.
This is having a big impact in the pacific too. CCP survey ships are going around and tampering (ie. Looting) WWII ship memorials for pre-nuke steel.
https://news.usni.org/2023/05/25/u-k-royal-navy-distressed-and-concerned-by-illegal-chinese-salvage-of-wwii-wrecks
Interesting deep dive on who might have engineered the Trump / Musk fallout and why.
I can’t even force myself to read that. Junior high lunchroom social pecking order bullshit.
On naming in Asia: In Korea I was “Evan Teacher.” Always.
Teacher = 선생님 and Koreans would sometimes add 님 (Nim) after Evan.
In Singapore, I was Teacher Evan. Always, without exception. Kids all over would just say “Teacher!” to get your attention or if they didn’t know your name. Unimportant, but I always thought the difference was interesting. I was told “Teacher” was an honorific, Just like ‘Doctor’ would be, and used the same.
High schoolers in Korea go to at least two, often three, private academies after regular school. Certainly English, usually Math, and often an instrument or ‘elective’ option. I can’t imagine the shit *China* adds on top, especially for ‘gifted’ kids. (The Obey Boot is firm.) The lack of individuality, assisted with school uniforms and a short list of allowed haircuts, is paramount, and why I don’t worry about Chinese innovation or power taking over. (They’ll take over with numbers, not ability.)
I wish this series had Asian ladies seducing me. (I’m not a hard target, but please, do send your Best.)
Love Motels and whoring would be an interesting article. Apartment-homes are smallish, and every block has several of ’em for couples to have fun away from the kids. They’re always open and a good hideout, but are also cheap hotels and ya can stay overnight. Not in a weird way, when our bands played outside Daejeon, the bar owner would sometimes provide lodging in ’em.
Speaking of Prprivacy: I’ve stayed in a couple capsule-hotels, and they were astonishingly nice. Comfortable place to sleep, your own TV and plugs, and a (nice) dormitory, though totally private, shower. To imagine size, you can lay down and keep your torso up in ‘Reading Pose.’ More space than you’d imagine, but I’m also 5’6″ and 135lb. I slink into plenty of spaces.
Your pod is in a room with several in ‘em, but it’s not like you can peek in on other folk sleeping. If you’re claustrophobic, best to avoid. Tired after a flight or simply want a cheap place to ‘comfortably’ sleep in Tokyo+? I strongly approve.
…and the lamentations of their tinpot potentates
Governor Gavin Newsom issued the following statement today in response to the Trump administration illegally terminating federal grant agreements funding California high-speed rail. This comes as the project enters the track laying phase, is actively building across 171 miles, has built more than 50 major railway structures – including bridges, overpasses, and viaducts – and completed over 60 miles of guideway.
Trump wants to hand China the future and abandon the Central Valley. We won’t let him. With projects like the Texas high-speed rail failing to take off, we are miles ahead of others. We’re now in the track-laying phase and building America’s only high-speed rail. California is putting all options on the table to fight this illegal action.
Hold your breath until you turn blue that will work.
Please don’t stop at ‘blue’. Try ‘cold and gray’.
There are people that do that.
One of my brothers had a serious girlfriend after High School, they were talking about getting married.
He told me one time her dad wouldn’t let her go out with him until she did the dishes, so she held her breath until her dad relented.
I told him there was no way he should marry her, he needed to marry an adult, not a child.
Eventually he started to see what I was talking about and wound up marrying a very nice girl.
Hahahahaha!
Yes, we are in competition with China to blow the most money on useless social engineering projects.
Socialists and their fucking Choo-choo scams.
Obligatory: You know who else liked people in trains?
Authorized in 2008. Was planned to be completed 2020. As of July 2025, only the Initial Operating Segment (IOS) has advanced to construction. Initially billed as costing 33B the project is now projected to cost over 135B.
This is like Biden’s electric chargers – billions of dollars soaked up into the aether with nothing to show for it.
Our government at nearly every level is indistinguishable from a crime syndicate.
This comes as the project enters the track laying phase
Pardon me, but how many billions have you spent without laying any track? May I suggest you FUCK RIGHT OFF.
Don? Is that you?
Make America Healthy Again!
https://www.wsj.com/business/fda-authorizes-juul-e-cigarettes-6ad37963?st=ygPYL2&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
My tuping seems to be worser than usual today.
That or my proofreading.
Yes, we are in competition with China to blow the most money on useless social engineering projects.
Japan has high speed trains. That’s how they’re kicking our ass.
Japan, leading us to the future of shrinking, aging populations!
Reason 1,001 why is housing is so expensive in the cities of progtopia!
https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2025/07/ac-requirement-may-hit-rentals-in-portland.html
Renters can’t buy window or portable AC units themselves?
Why are you racist? And what are you doing to stop being racist?
(((Jarflax:
I was called a honky and a cracker as a kid. Deep scars from the confusion that I was supposed to be insulted have haunted me for years.
I’m offended that we don’t get better slurs.
Agreed. Is that the best they can do?
I will say that Bleach Devils or White Devils has a great ring to it.
The best that they can do is fall in love.
I’m offended that we don’t get better slurs.
It’s white privilege, we get individuated slurs at the national population level, you mick.
I would think Portland would ban AC instead of mandate it.
My thought too, but that’s probably asking for too much logical consistency.
Instead, how about the Indian approach?
https://apnews.com/article/india-climate-change-extreme-heat-air-conditioners-29dc15ba12cb4142e0670ca8466ba61f
I’ve seen those videos of people in India climbing a utility poll and splicing into the power grid. They will find a way around that temperature restriction.
“No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater… than central air.”
Ban for light skinned homeowners, mandate for dark skinned low income renters. It’s a compromise between the wings of the party.
If I buy an ac and the thermostat won’t go lower than 68, the thermostat is being installed in the attic.
We keep our AC at 80 during the day. At night Mrs. Dean turns hers down to, I think, 75. Mine is set at 78.
I set mine to “GF wears a sweater” in the summer.
We keep our AC at 80 during the day.
That’s what, 25-35 degrees below the outside temp. I’d be setting mine to 60 if I did that.
Out of curiosity, what does Oregon consider hight temperatures?
Looks like Portland, OR touched 95 twice in the past 30 days. Ooooo! Scary.
Most of Oregon is 96-105
Multonoma county is soft. And usually wet and cool.
TOK – sounds like your SIL got to ride a C2 Greyhound. We have a few of them left but the Osprey is replacing them in the short term.
Have never ridden an aircraft off any ship yet. Got to ride a RHIB (inflatable) in to shore at least once though for quick transfer (routine to save the cost of pulling all the way in and mooring).
That looks right. I see this headline today: Satellite Photo Captures US Aircraft Carrier Deployed Near Iran
He flew off the ship into Oman, maybe they just wanted to get close so the flight was shorter. 😉
https://www.newsweek.com/us-aircraft-carrier-nimitz-iran-satellite-2099090
MS – no idea if they’re being exported over there but I’m finding the South Soul brewery (Campania italy) has some really good stuff in cans – and on tap at some drinking establishments locally. Recommend looking them up. I’m going to try and snag a shirt or glass eventually.
Breaking news: Shocked scientists discover that we are coming out of an ice age. In 3000 to 5000 years the earth’s surface is expected to be completely ice free. No polar caps, not snow capped mountains. Not to worry, this interglacial is on track to being where we should expect it to be only slightly cooler than the last interglacial period. Women, children and minorities not expected to be disproportionally affected but ski industry will be hardest hit.
Also, in 30,000 to 50,000 years there will be 2 miles of ice over Michigan and the British isles.
I thought we knew that in the 70s when Nimoy covered it on “In Search Of.”
I guess modern science has re-discovered it?