I have to go with Bad Lieutenant: Port Call of New Orleans. Everything has gone to shit, the main character is addicted to drugs and spiraling. You 100% expect this movie to be a tragedy with him dying. Then completely unexpectedly everything just works out. I still can’t believe a studio let that happen, but I think I appreciate the movie because it’s so atypical.

Article makes it sound like they expected just the typical barrage of rockets rather than the invasion that occurred. I’m not convinced this is evidence Israel wanted the attack - with the Iron Dome they likely had sufficient protections against rockets. Neither this nor the reported Egyptian warning appear to have provided details to make one expect what was essentially a ground invasion.

McCarthy also tried his best to cause the government to shutdown. He brought the CR to a vote with no notice, Dems had to stall the vote just to get to the floor in time to prevent its failure. Then McCarthy went on the Sunday talk shows and blames Dems for almost shutting down the gov by not getting to the vote in time. McCarthy intentionally brought the CR to a vote the way it did thinking that if it failed he could then blame Dems for missing the vote. He just got unlucky that they got there in time to save the government.

Everyone Musk defames should sue him. Death by a thousand paper cuts.

This is interesting. My Hyundai when it gets software updates (usually just updating the built in GPS) tells me the update can continue even when the car is off. Didn’t realize not all new cars could do that.

I think it’s Airheads.

Typically government employees have been given back pay after shutdowns, but it’s not guaranteed. It has to be included in the spending bill that ends the shutdown.

ETA: as noted below, a law was passed in 2019 guaranteeing back pay for federal employees. Federal contractors are still not guaranteed back pay.

The problem is a lot of executive compensation packages are based on short term growth rather than long term growth. So CEOs are incentivized to maximize profits today at the expense of tomorrow so they can get that sweet sweet bonus money. It’s a fundamental flaw with our entire economic system that I don’t think is likely to fix itself.

In addition to what others have said, Russia’s fleet has been very susceptible to drone attacks. They have gone to great efforts to protect their ships from such attacks, and in doing so it has greatly reduced their ability to quickly move the ships. It’s likely the reason Ukraine has been able to guide cargo ships out of Odessa and into Romanian waters.

Holding the platforms will likely be easier than taking them, because Ukraine can set-up anti-air and anti-ship defenses on the platform. This weaponry probably couldn’t be set-up well on small ships, but the stable platforms should provide good launching points.

ETA: Russia also likely does not want to destroy the platforms, as they are both strategically useful and useful for economic purposes should Russia ever be able to operate them as oil rigs. So, they can’t simply blow them up without giving up something they want.

Not as nice as these but I’ve seen similar lights used in hospitals. To give bed bound patients who can’t or shouldn’t necessarily be rolling over something nicer to look at than a fluorescent ceiling light.

Decades of budget cuts by Congress have made it so they just don’t have the staff necessary to untangle the web of financial transactions that the ultra-wealthy use to hide their tax evasion. Using AI allows them to do so despite the perpetual budget cuts.

Yet he’s taking DoD money for Starlink in Ukraine. At what point do his antics turn from the craziness of a billionaire to espionage and being deemed a Russian asset?

Not a great example. The artist is Gilbert Stuart, and he was very highly paid. He unfortunately was awful with finances and left his family in debt, but everything I’ve seen indicates this was not due to lack of business or payment, but rather his spending habits.

He may not be well known today, but was certainly known in his time.

If we can get an episode thread posted before the episode airs, I’ll gladly start sharing my thoughts after watching. On Reddit I generally lurked but I’ll contribute here if the thread is present. Just don’t want to start a thread and then see there are multiple competing threads. Maybe we can get the mods to make one each week?

I enjoyed the episode. Much better than episode 3 (loved 1 and 2). I am starting to wonder if this show would have been better as a movie, though. I’m also concerned that people who didn’t watch Rebels / TCW may be totally lost and uninterested. For example, Marrok being a construct of Nightsister magik requires knowledge from TCW (or Jedi Fallen Order). As a hardcore fan, super into the show. But as someone who wants as many people as possible to enjoy it, quite nervous. Hopefully the second half is more accessible to the casuals.

I was really hyped to see WBW return, even if Anakin looked off. I wasn’t sure it would make the show, but the deep lore in Rebels was my favorite part of that show so I’m excited to see if we get more here. Wonder if the show will touch on the Ones and Mortis as well (I know Mortis is very controversial).

I find Baylon to be very interesting (Shin less so, mainly because she doesn’t talk much). I hope we get more of their backstory.

Glad we saw Hera doing Hera things, and hope she becomes a bigger part in future episodes. Was surprised Zeb wasn’t with Carson. Also I’m wondering if we’ll see AP5, a Kanan force ghost, or anything else from Rebels.

It’s funny how at least American employers act like we’re not at full employment. While the market isn’t as good for employees as it was about a year ago, the employees still have more leverage than the employers.

Paris already has pretty high congestion taxes to reduce cars. They have a solid public transit system that most people use. Spent two weeks there right before COVID and never once needed a car - metro was always faster and cheaper according to Google Maps.

Thank you for the incredibly detailed write-up! My Futur clone has a satin finish like yours, but no blade chatter. I do regularly clean my razor, but the present rust no longer cleans off which makes me think it’s just reached the end of its life. Still, pretty good run for a razor I purchased around 2012 for $4. I believe my previous razor was an Edwin Jager, but I would have to dig for it to see if I still have it somewhere and confirm the brand. That was very lightweight which I was not a fan of.

Appreciate all of the recommendations- I’ll research those as well and let you know what I end up doing!

He’s literally investigating Thomas while also trying to pass binding ethics rules on SCOTUS. The article is him saying that Thomas’ sudden late disclosures aren’t going to stop his investigation or attempts to impose ethics requirements.

Wow - this was so much more detailed of a response than I was expecting! Thank you for the recommendations - I’ll have to research those two models.

As for the angle I use the Futur clone, I use it at a moderate to steep angle. I have very curly beard hair that’s prone to irritation if there’s tugging, so the sharpness of the feather blades helps a lot. I never really realized that the clone was aggressive, but I guess it makes sense that I was attracted to something aggressive so many years ago.