Narauko @ Narauko @lemmy.world

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2 yr. ago

That depends. Yes, the cable standard did carry broadcast TV with commercials, but a big selling point in the beginning was also the existence of cable only paid TV channels that did not have commercials. Premium cable as an offshoot of cable only networks also did not have commercials, it was a major selling point. As the medium expanded and the channel breakdown shifted commercials came back in a big way, and even many premium channels got commercials. Prime examples would be USA Networks, HBO, Nickelodeon, and quite a few more.

I can agree with Archer on this one: brain aneurysms and saltwater crocodiles.

Cable TV started out as "pay for your access and you won't get ads". It enshitified into its current state, and streaming is literally a rerun. Give it a few more years and you will have price bundles for streaming services where you have to pay for peacock to get Disney. They might even bundle it with ISP services.

Even my local libertarian candidates have been hard right theocrats recently, like they failed to secure a promising outlook for a Republican run and just though libertarian was the same thing. A few are probably even too far right for the Republican ticket.

What part of "don't tread on me" includes treading on bodily autonomy and LGBTQ rights? I am starting to think some people don't actually have principles, and don't understand words too good neither.

"At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from the classic sci-fi novel Don't Create the Torment Nexus."

I hate how the theocratic right has successfully co-opted libertarian in the US to mean alt-republican.

Librewolf didn't take as much adjustment as I would have expected, and it even supports toning down specific security postures for QoL niceties like Firefox account sync. Made the switch just to try it out and haven't gone back. Excited to see what people come up with for more forks/hard forks in the future.

Just tried out Libation for the first time this week, very happy so far. Further testing of results is still required, but this was an excellent suggestion.

Finally got around to backing up my over 200 audiobooks in a DRM-free format after this post reminded me it was on my to-do list. Libation is pretty damn good.

You should if you want to be a science writer or academic, which lets be honest is a better comparison here. If your job involves latin for names and descriptions then you probably should take at least a year or two of latin if you don't want to make mistakes here and there out of ignorance.

Everything is an arbitrary division when we get down to it. Doing away with states would require a complete rewrite of the constitution, and a fundamental shift to the country as a whole. I personally like the Republic concept and ability for states to experiment with things that might not be popular or a priority for the entire country. This will have good and bad outcomes on these experiments, but it's how we have things like decriminalization, universal healthcare attempts, etc. Without the "all other things not innumerated belong to the states" this isn't possible, and removing state representation removes that.

The sun is a giant lithium battery that became a spicy pillow and then exploded, and as everyone knows you can't put out a lithium battery fire like a regular fire. The fire department just pushed it out there into space beyond the environment to let it burn itself out, which is expected to take at least 5 billion more years.

The environmental music just keeps increasing in tempo and I can't find the next geyser of air bubbles.

Except for Sprite at a McDonalds, because the water purification and soft drink system costs as much as the rest of the store combined.

I can't help but read the ph as an f, even though it is clearly a concatenation.

And there you go from the moral/intellectual high ground, mocking them as toddlers and saying it's right and normal to laugh and make fun of them.

I can't stand vaccine hesitancy and anti-science bullshit. I've had to deal with this becoming a Fox News thing in my own family, and lost too many people from alternative "Eastern" medicine over "Western" medical science. But the mockery and ridicule only feeds into the Christian persecution complex most of that rural white population already embraces, and causes the wagons to circle.

A bunch of empty calorie LitRPG desserts right now like He Who Fights With Monsters, The Primal Hunter, and Unbound, with my currently active book being the first book in the Infinite Realm series. I am eagerly awaiting Beware of Chicken 4, and I have the latest Bobiverse book queued up as the audiobook dropped this week.

Audiobooks really allowed me to get back into reading due to time constraints, so I almost always have a book going in one ear throughout the day. I cycle between "realer" literature and light fun reads, but have been on a nice trashy kick for a little while now. I am debating another attempt at Malazin Book of the Fallen because I have no idea where I got cut off in my last listen through, and possibly another thrip through of Dune due to the movies and the nearly 2 decades since my last read through.

As someone who has been a fan of the Sword of Truth series, I can confidently say that Wheel of Time is superficially similar but definitely better. Both main characters are unknowing chosen one's with mysterious lineages, who go on their heroes journey to save the world. Both have an interesting magic system, and mostly engaging and enjoyable characters. Both have a morally headstrong lead character who has a hero complex after being thrust into the position, who are genuinely fun to root for as they grow into the hero they become.

Wheel of Time is a much larger story, more grand epic in comparison, with a larger cast and 5 "main" characters that are followed with their satellite characters. The timeline and scope start out with the entire world and remain on that scale in comparison, and Jordan is a significantly better writer in my opinion. I would say that Wheel of Time is like if J.R.R. Martin wrote the Lord of the Rings, so there is more individual depth (almost too much sometimes) and so the story takes longer to tell but is incredibly "lived in".

I have a real soft spot for Terry Goodkind, having found the series in the late 90s or early 00s. It was one of my first big high fantasy series and before Wheel of Time. That said, i just couldn't really get further than Confessor in the series. It looks like there were only 4 more books in the series, so I may have to go back and try and finish it and see if it gets better. Goodkind has a habit of pulling new powers out of Richard's butt or changing how magic works when he seems to have written himself into a corner, which eventually killed my suspension of disbelief. And as much shit as Jordan gets for "men writing women", his female characters are significantly better written than Goodkind's. Both stories are rather traditional male power fantasy, but Goodkind can be kind of egregious there.

I am not ragging on Goodkind even if it seems like it, honestly, but read Wheel of Time because it is that good. The best way I can describe the difference is that it feels like going from a YA or main stream series to adult literature. You won't be disappointed.

January 6th is not seen as an insurrection but as citizens banding together to protect democracy. Collusion with Russia was always seen as a false attempt to make him look bad, especially with things like the dossier being faked. Tax evasion is considered smart if you can do it legally, and the New York prosecution for what the industry considers standard practice reinforced the perspective that it was weaponizing the justice system. Autographed bibles are no more sacrilegious than any of the megachurch/televangelist who buys a private jet because God wants him to to.

Each one of those hurtles may take someone out of his camp, but for some that will only be if there is a viable alternative. Keep in mind that the alternative on the democratic side is trying to end their 2nd amendment rights, open the borders to secure a permanent underclass voting block, and lose the national protection of God by persecuting Christians. It doesn't matter to what degree any of that is true, that is the hurtle they have to clear.

Since armed service is venerated more on the right than the left, and has higher percentages of veterans and their children, this might indeed be the straw that breaks the camel's back for some or many. He is grifting in so many areas, that if he is also shown to be a grifter on respecting the armed services in addition to being a false Christian and 1 percenter elite then parts of his base might see him as no better than the Democrats.

Still have the theme song stuck in my head to this day. Good times. The 90s was a great decade, which was definitely only 10 years ago because the 80s was 20 years ago. No need to check my math on that.