956 Worldwide
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Viewing Topic: I for one welcome our new AI overlords
Everything posted by 956 Worldwide
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TIL there’s something called fraud tourism. Congrats, Minnesota.
Folks, sometimes things are as they seem and one needs to surrender to reality before deciding that the NYT is being manipulated by Trump and tricksy Somaliland activists. It should surprise absolutely no one that an insular, clannish set of first and second generation immigrants from a notoriously corrupt and crime-ridden locale, who are virtually all dependent on state welfare, have become the focus of massive welfare corruption in a high-openness, high-social safety net society. This sort of thing is replicable against time and space. The comparisons to Italians are hilarious because all of that was completely true! Generations of overlapping clan/criminal networks completely took over entire public and semi-public activities in northern cities and hid within an ethic community thanks to a combination of fear, mistrust of the outside, clannishness and cultural solidarity. Those networks bought and installed local politicians, and even legit politicians were afraid to take it on because of the power of the groups and voting blocs. The Feds had to engage in generational crackdowns to get a handle on it and the same deflections got tossed out. I can agree that the DJT tactic is distasteful and politically motivated. Success against other similar crime rings and phenomena depended on a pathway to pull ordinary people out of insularity and into the mainstream and things have gotten toxic because the right doesn’t want to allow in and influential swathes of the modern left has determined that actively pushing for integration and assimilation is violence.
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Tell Me About Texas a&m
A&M went from one of the most efficient red zone teams in the nation through most of the season to shit over the SCAR—UT—Miami games. There were 9 red zone trips over those three that ended in turnovers or missed/blocked field goals. That is the type of shit that both loses games on the scoreboard and takes away a team’s will to fight. Some of that was WTF and others worrying signs: No idea what happened with Bond, who was reliable previously, this year. Clearly the shuffle attempt on “who has the hot leg” was a disaster for both kickers. It’s inexcusable in 2025 not to have a solid kicker on a P5 roster; I don’t know if Bond got the yips or someone messed him up. Elko needs to look at ST as an area of focus. Losing the crutch of Leveon Moss messed with both Marcel and Klein. It made Klein too enamored with his own cleverness and in turn put more pressure on Marcel, who is very good with guardrails but terrible without them. With Moss, they had the confidence to feed him at least twice in scoring position. Without him Klein got antsy and tried stupid shit after the first punch-in try failed. It’s a question to see how the next OC handles that; I think Reed is who he is. Someone needs to get Owens to a sports movement clinician because I’ve never seen someone fall forward into green grass as much as him, it’s like anti-vulnerability to contact. 10 wins is (likely) going to be harder than 11 this year but not impossible— LSU with a first year HC. Alabama is not a juggernaut under Kalen. UTe is beatable, Venables is also not a genius. These are hard but not completely daunting games and getting two wins of those four needs to happen. It will show whether the program is getting better in the hard ways, because the low-hanging fruit is gone. And he needs to beat UT at Kyle in year three to have me bought in. Like I said, time to do the hard stuff to make me believe.
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Tell Me About Texas a&m
Looking at single games (and really even single seasons) is never an intelligent way of judging the health of a program because very good to great programs will always have WTF games where they lose or look terrible in a win; and programs that are truly on the ropes pull off really great games all the time. This is doubly true in the SEC where nearly every roster is loaded with future NFL players and even sub-.500 teams are capable of playing like the blue chips they are. Kirby Smart delivered a L to a USCe team that went 4-8 under Muschamp in his fourth year (later lost to LSU in the SECCG). That game said very little about the health of either USCe or UGA as programs. At the time UGA fans were beginning to worry that Kirby was the next Richt, though (basically mirror images through four seasons) and games like that were a big reason why. The games at UK and MSU likewise say very little about the overall health and trajectory of either UT, MSU, or UK. You recognized this in your own post, and then came up with a reason why this sort of thing was really important for the team you don’t like but is not important for the team you cheer for. It’s kind of like when your first instinct on a test is correct but you talk yourself into a wrong answer. A&M avoided true upsets this year and was in a position to win every game they played in. Going from 8 to 11 wins is important and while some luck is involved it is not completely sufficient. That is a a change in trajectory while at the same time ugly familiar habits still popped up, especially down the stretch. That— along with things like recruiting success, and assistant decisions—of where a program is heading as well as the types of things that can really derail or stall it. Next year looks to be a much harder schedule but that is not guaranteed, new assistants will be calling plays, and the OL is going to need retooling. A 10 win regular season will be an indicator that the Elko plan is in a good place although fans will be furious.
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London Met Police To Take on…..Freemasons?
They share a family tree which (somewhat surprisingly) branches off from the sober and staid folks at your local Wesleyan Methodist Church. Holinesses started within Wesleyan churches as a “second work of grace”— sanctification and Christian perfection which follows conversion. Holiness Pentecostals added the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” which is evidenced by the charismatic stuff: tongue speaking, etc. Within that group, a second group decided Wesley’s holiness was bunk (“finished work”) and that the only acts of grace are conversion and Holy Spirit baptism. Then a third group among the finished work group tossed out trinitarianism and became Oneness Pentecostals. Snake Handlers are Holiness Christians and often Holiness Pentecostals but are marginal even within that group. I view these groups with fascination and some bit of sympathy. A lot of radical egalitarianism, a complete lack of concern with the mainstream of society, and a near total rejection of its aesthetics. And uninterested in temporal power and influence structures, just concerned with another world entirely. Definitely intense groups but not quite cults in the compound and discipline type way. Actual, real radical, counter-culture that does not get profiles in national magazines or the movie treatment.
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London Met Police To Take on…..Freemasons?
Rigjt but they’re incredibly influential and deserve at least a genealogy type treatment. The actual Met policy aimed at Masons is that anyone has to declare membership in a “hierarchical organization where members pledge to support each other.” Which would seem to include Catholics, the Church of England, Lions, and Rotary too. For the real vintage, finely-crafted Eastern European boomer schizo take, look up Rotary conspiracies which I’ve come across in the wild. I never a knew a Mason who was secretive about membership. The rites and internal stuff was not for the public, but none of them hide membership (that I know of?). I guess with the bizarre anti-masonry of Scotland Yard you might. If 2/3 of your workforce is concerned about Masons that is a cry for help and not validation.
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London Met Police To Take on…..Freemasons?
It should not be lost on anyone that among the first real, genuine, black people and white people equal and egalitarian movements in America was Pentecostalism and the Azusa Street revival, in a way that none of the progressives of the time or later times could recreate or desired to. People who are on fire with the Holy Spirit do not always behave as expected, remains true of enthusiastic religion today. Holiness Pentecostaliam is actual counter-culture. They are not larping.
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London Met Police To Take on…..Freemasons?
The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind and Fundamentalism and American Culture are sober, critical, but not jeremiad culture war examinations of Evangelicalism and fundamentalism in America, including how to tell them apart. Highly recommend. These are serious histories and not tracts. I honestly don’t know of any serious studies of Prosperity Gospel stuff. It was pretty new when I was doing my religion reading. For a peek behind the veil, The Late Great Planet Earth is deeply influential and insane and a direct line to the conspiratorial, politically chapter apocalyptic version of fundamentalism we have today, and Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life for a more meaningful look at what mainstream Evangelicals actually consume and aspire to. I am not Evangelical, BTW. And Anastasis is basically right that almost any unusual church with no clear denomination you see is basically just Baptists in a different costume. Sometimes you get lucky and it’s something fun, like a holiness inspired bunch. Down the road the real growth industry is in the Spanish speaking Evangelical and holiness groups. Everyone is in for some interesting times.
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Tell Me About Texas a&m
No, losses are losses and wins are wins. Almost doesn’t count for anything either way— whether it’s an almost win or not. Georgia had that insane come from 17 points down behind 8 OT win against Georgia Tech. Many such cases. There were multiple almost catches and almost plays in the Miami game. If Rueben Owen’s hangs on to a clear catch it’s in OT. But he didn’t and it’s a loss, period. Very good teams have some wins that they “shouldn’t” have had. Only a very few great teams clearly beat everyone up.
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Tell Me About Texas a&m
It’s not realistic to talk about any program taking a step forward or backward until portal dust settles at this point. No one will know if you’re this year’s Indiana or this year’s ASU. A few things that IMO are indisputable: We haven’t won 10 plus games in over a decade and son getting to 11 is an important milestone. The SEC schedule shook out very favorably for us, although most pundits thought it was going to be very challenging when the season kicked off. It is very hard in college football to simply win all your games against teams that you have more talent than; and that’s been especially true for A&M. We did not suffer a genuine upset much less more than one, which has not been true for years. Under Elko, A&M has demonstrated intelligent and impactful use of the portal which is key for any team looking to win big. The players on the roster next year will match up decently against any team in the SEC. Elko got outcoached by Sark again and also we had a second year in a row where Reed devolved over home stretch of a season. The Klein replacement is going to be a key test. For a guy who preaches culture and disciplined football, he put a team on the field that drew tons of truly stupid penalties, idiot special teams, and undisciplined play on both sides of the ball. Bottom line: A set of ingredients are there for A&M to regularly contend for the CFP under the current and planned future formats. If Elko can simply continue avoiding the usual 1-2 bad upsets past Aggie teams were always good for, he is already down the road of getting there. It remains to be seen if he can elevate those ingredients beyond that, or even recreate this season’s real successes. All of us have had experience really nailing a dish and never doing it again. IMO he is on far better footing than Jimbo or Sumlin.
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London Met Police To Take on…..Freemasons?
It was sort of a given thing for white Protestant men to do who were aspiring or actual pillar of the community types. And it is true as well that an earlier generation of enlightenment/democratic types discussed these ideas at Masonic lodges. The analysis of Masonry as a secret society of powerful puppet masters, though, is very much on the “wet roads cause rain” level. Also very en vogue as a Tsarist bete noir, which is equally true for many ideas later adopted by schizos.
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One Battle After Another, the next Paul Thomas Anderson film
Give it a shot @Hagbard Celine . I think it can be done in good faith. I wasn’t trying to spark a political discussion, but I don’t see how you can talk about the movie without acknowledging that it’s Trump-inflected if not inspired. In a prior era the too-close-to-reality version of America would look different; Lockjaw likely would have been CIA and his target Muslims. Which ties into the Reddit thread which got a lot of shit but has some element of truth: the French 75 is very clearly a 60s inspired activist revolutionary group of the type that simply doesn’t exist at all now. Today’s America hasn’t yet produced a Weather Underground or SLA type group.
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London Met Police To Take on…..Freemasons?
It cant be emphasized enough that these currents were all extremely modern and an attempt to work a framework of rationalism and historicism into a religious foundation. They were wrong, but that’s what it was. Many humbling similar lessons out there on various dead ends of Progress and Reason for those willing to see.
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Looksmaxxing: Body Dysmorphia For Men! Now Featuring Meth, Smashing One's Own Face With A Hammer, and Intentionally Driving Your Cybertruck Over Another Person
Of all the things that didn’t happen, this guy smashing his face with a hammer didn’t happen the most. Go Google Jake Paul hospital photos to satisfy yourself that he did not achieve chiseled features via blunt force facial trauma. He’s just a full of shit online personality.
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London Met Police To Take on…..Freemasons?
The English have a state church and also a developed tendency to encourage their zealots to decamp for other parts of the Anglosphere. As a result they missed some real theological oddities and sped up secularization. However, it has long been clear that the secularism and rationalism trains are not only on different tracks, but often heading different directions. As evidenced by Mason conspiracy posting and public policy in the Year of our Lord 2025. This is in strong contention for most embarrassing statement— public institutions category in 2025, even with DJT in office.
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London Met Police To Take on…..Freemasons?
Starmer is in the middle of a PR crisis because he bragged about bringing “home” an Egyptian extremist who inherited his citizenship from a prior government víš his mother (who was born there while his grandma is a student) without ever setting foot in the UK. He was jailed in Egypt and became a minor cause. No sooner had he landed than a series of tweets emerged from his 30s where he called gay people “dirty homosexuals,” expressed a desire to work with bin Laden to kill Americans, and to engage in mass exterminations of white people. (Of course also the requisite calls to kill Zionists anywhere; which made the aforementioned OK). Several MPs who were on board have turned against him. If it is deflection, resurrecting a 40 year old Masonic conspiracy is the most brain dead way to go about it). So it will likely work.
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London Met Police To Take on…..Freemasons?
Since everyone is a mentally ill conspiracy theorist now, I shouldn’t be surprised but somehow I still am. The London Met has decided it needs to ferret out Freemasons in the ranks, apparently in an effort to appease other mentally ill people. It’s been a while since we had a good Masonry panic, maybe Nature is Healing?
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Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Body in Congress? Oh you mean Marjorie!
She looks like she’s being hunted or is in captivity in this photo. It’s like a still from Planet of the Apes. Not of the hot fur bikini wearing retrograde woman that the actor falls for, one of the extras cast for their Denisovian features.
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AI and suggestion
Counter-point: all of the best music was made when I was young, had a lot of time to listen to it, had a lot of intense emotional and formative experiences associated with the music, a hormone dump like being on drugs every day, and basically no real responsibilities or actual concerns. But now that I’m old and my life is the opposite of those things all the new music sucks.
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Time for another ‘my dog is awesome’ thread
They wouldn’t be if people other than the owner weren’t feeding them. If you’ve been doing that then just wander over and leave the gate open one night, or get a trustworthy kid to do it. Leave some really fragrant treats outside if they are especially reluctant to come out. Take the dogs when they “escape”, next day wander over and knock on the door. Leave a note that you are watching the dogs and will take them to a shelter, leave a number. Go to a trustworthy a shelter, tell them the story: dogs got out, seemed they had been abandoned, house seemed empty. You want to adopt them after the waiting period, fill out the form then and there. Go get the dogs for adoption after they are not picked up and you and the neighbor lady can then either take them or figure out a good rehome situation. EP LEO are not going to be interested in cracking the case of the dogs that you tried to return after they got out and followed proper waiting times after their owners just left them for SPCA to come feed, assuming these assholes ever come back and want them.
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Looksmaxxing: Body Dysmorphia For Men! Now Featuring Meth, Smashing One's Own Face With A Hammer, and Intentionally Driving Your Cybertruck Over Another Person
This has every indicator of a fake bullshit moral panic scam. It’s not that there aren’t incels or dudes obsessed with their appearance and making it better. But this shit as outlined by this podcaster is not an epidemic and I frankly don’t believe he really smashed himself with a hammer or injected his girlfriend with meth. (I didn’t and will not watch the videos). Now if you’ll excuse me I have a medical appointment to make, I am getting ribs removed so I can perform autofellatio.
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One Battle After Another, the next Paul Thomas Anderson film
I agree, I think There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights are better. Part of that is PTA not being fully in or fully out of this being Trump’s America and so it occupies a weird space between explicitly political or more thematic about “big picture” America. 10 years down the line I think the first two will hold up better and be more relevant by choosing the latter clearly and by being anchored in a specific time/place but telling a more timeless story and character study. I think also in those two PTA lets his characters be complicated and always recognizably human, even the revolting characters, whereas Lockjaw is just the worst person in the world and we don’t know why really. Chase Infiniti killed it and will be a megawatt star. I think here also- she was a bit too mature, forgiving, ready with a quip, badass, and composed despite being raised by a pretty messed up single dad and thrust into a terrifying ordeal. Martial arts will only take you so far. I think also that she’s so clearly older than a teenager— and audiences do not react well to real depictions of terror and danger for kids so PTA for sure had a justification for that casting.
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Gumbo
My philosophy on chopping the trinity is the opposite: as small of a dice as I can do casually. I won’t obsess over it, but I want the chunkiness to be from the protein and okra (if using). I find that if you’re slurping down a bowl of gumbo, you don’t dislike onions and peppers though you may think you do; it’s not a salad or sandwich or fajita where you are getting them in big pieces you chew. It just kind of goes down. Not a criticism of @ROFL BOX . I am a bit of a fascist on cooking: I’ll accommodate allergies and religious restrictions, and if you warn me in advance I’ll do my best with vegan or vegetarian options. Beyond that, I cook what I like as good as I can and if it’s not your taste then I’m sorry you are so limited.
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Avatar: Fire and Ash
I have apparently missed out that it has tremendous impact on people with amazing forms of mental illness. I admit my error. Many such cases.
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Israel
“Look, the dumbest and most racist person ever elected to Congress shares my thoughts on Israel” should prompt more introspection. (Side note, the Gaza plan which is just vaporware and terrible grift does not involve money to Israel).
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Avatar: Fire and Ash
I am trying to think of a massive, record breaking property like Avatar that has less cultural impact. I cannot recall the names of any characters without thinking hard. No memorable dialogue. No musical earbugs. No real attempts to capitalize off of Avatar mania. No gifs or catchphrases or touchstone characters. I assume there are toys but it’s not like kids beg for the stuff. You go, you oooh and ahh over the special effects, you leave. It’s not like Cameron can’t do this: Titanic, Alien, Terminator— huge lasting cultural impact. But Avatar remains basically a massive SFX showpiece that doesn’t resonate beyond that. The only real impact I can think of is the SNL Papyrus sketch which is ironically about Avatar being bland and generic.