It was The Corporation for me. Then, I discovered Adam Curtis. Smartest Guys in the Room, some Michael Moore stuff, then I really started taking a look at War docs with Smedley Butler and Dalton Trumbo and Charlie Chaplin shouting at me from the 1930s and 40s. Errol Morris kicked ass in the Fog of War, John Pilger kicked ass in Occupation 101, and BBC kicked ass with the Death of Yugoslavia.

This was 20 or 25 years ago. All this seems trite by comparison to where we are now.

If I said yes, I’d caveat that by saying, “we’re not special.” There’s no interaction, quid pro quo or otherwise, with whatever presence, energy, or overmind that I would conceptualize as a deity.

Not an architect. Not a creator. Omnipotence and omniscience defy temporality. There are, similarly, no subdivisions of the deity; there are no places that it is present, and others that it is absent. No underboss gods, angels, demons, heavens, hells, or purgatories.

The deity, in my understanding, is simply a unity: An answer to paradoxes, a solution to the incomprehensible, a layer beneath and above all other measurements, concepts, and capacities. A holographic whole that encompasses and inhabits every possibility. It is older than the universe and beyond our feeble attempts to comprehend it, let alone write its character and tell its story.

A bearded white dude who impregnated a virgin, hates masturbation, holds vendettas, destroys cities, sends plagues, and permits humans to hide from “HIM” in the garden of good and evil… it is all just silly by comparison. At that’s just from the tradition I was raised in.

I mean, a burning bush? Or tests of faith?

We, people and all other organisms that are aware of one another, need to get on with finding ways to coexist. Biodiversity is the scorecard.

/rant

The metric is biodiversity.

How many kinds of life are there, and are they thriving? What are the bottlenecks and boundaries for species that slow or stop their progress?

Well, as a living, all-consuming, extinction-level event, I’d say we are making the experiment more impossible. We are a confounding factor, a bias most foul, and the primary flaw in the experimental design.

If only there was guidance in terms of balancing our biological impact and capacity for sustainable development. If only there were some models that have and had worked for millennia. If only there were living groups who could share their wisdom.

If only.

So, for now, plunderous expropriation rules: violent, resource-heavy, rational modern warfare; apathetic, resource-heavy, throwaway consumer culture; and ignorant, resource-heavy, industrial machinations.

What could go wrong?

Nice to meet you, too. Thanks to 세종대왕 (Sejong Dae Wang, King Sejong) for creating a Hangeul, a stronger phonetic system. I look forward to its use for a long time to come.

IIRC, the food, therefore the word, was introduced to Korea. It is a transliteration. Like “tae-kwon-do” is a transliteration from the Korean 태권도 (taegwondo).

Note: Korean is not my first language. It is first non-English script I’ve managed to learn to read and write and makes me happy every time I interact with it.

My read/spoken Korean is atrocious and barely functions.

치즈 (chi-jeu)

So there’s this Rick and Morty episode (s05e04)

3D printed buildings and neighbourhoods.

The design implications are endless and including modular rough-ins for water, power, and HVAC, which would make design accessible to all. Get an AI engineer to test the design and a human engineer to double-check the results, and you can get printing.

Hopefully, the type of concrete is getting less specialized and more sustainable. If we can jazz up the exteriors, that would also help.

I’ve seen a bunch of those. Enough to know of his April 1st gags and to be able to shill for his website.

Which I won’t do here.

I’m more wondering about doing it as a career. What’s the annoyance/danger factor? How much work do you need to stay afloat? What do start-up costs look like? What would cause a locksmith to walk away and get into something else?

And so on.

Any insights about locksmithing? Aside, of course, from odd hours

I’d also like to hear about the journey toward being a master carpenter.

There are 101 years in your question. So, no year zero then?

Still fighting for command of this very small hill.

Phrasing.

I mean, Com Truise defo had more than luck. He had pull even then. And, yes, he is just a person. He is dedicated to his art, which, I think, is running hard and making memorable movies.

• Top Gun (1986, Dir. Tony Scott, Budget $15M),

• Rain Man (1988, Dir. Barry Levinson, Budget $25M),

• Days of Thunder (1990, Dir. Tony Scott, Wri. Robert Towne, Budget $60M),

• A Few Good Men (1992, Dir. Rob Reiner, wri. Aaron Sorkin, Budget $40M),

• the Firm (1993, Dir. Syndey Pollack, Budget $42M),

• Interview with the Vampire (Dir. Neil Jordan, Wri. Anne Rice, Budget $60M),

Big directors, writers, and big hit films. Then, he became Ethan Hunt.

• Mission: Impossible 1 (Dir. Brian DePalma, Wri. Robert Towne, Budget $80M)

M:I-2 (Dir. John Woo, Wri. Robert Towne) was thoroughly forgettable. That said, I just discovered that the writers of Star Trek: DS-9 and Voyager — Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga — wrote the story. Wild. Still, no quarter given. Until, maybe, I watch it again.

The next 4 are great.

• M:I-3 (Wri./Dir. J.J. Abrams with Alex Kurtzman (latter-day Star Trek writers and executive producers))

• M:I-4, Ghost Protocol (Dir. Brad Bird (the Iron Giant and the Incredibles))

• M:I-5, Rogue Nation (Wri./Dir. Christopher MacQuarrie (the Usual Suspects and the Way of the Gun))

• M:I-6, Fallout (Wri./Dir. Christopher MacQuarrie)

Jury is still out on M:I-7, Dead Reckoning Part 1, and Final Reckoning. Full disclosure, I did not really feel Part 1.

Tron Cubes does attract/demand talent. And, his collaboration with Christopher MacQuarrie is long-standing.

No year zero. Meaning: year 2000 is in the 20th c. and year 2100 is in the 21st c.

M:I-3, 4, 5, and 6 are excellent movies. Each in their own right. I know, Tom Cruise. But, plug and play any action star, and these are still great movies. He just happened to land the role of Ethan Hunt back in '96.

The EU hears you.

https://etsc.eu/cars-will-need-buttons-not-just-touchscreens-to-get-a-5-star-euro-ncap-safety-rating/

The moment where Picard says, “we have no law to fit your crime.”

Picard on the first duty.

I came to put this scene in. But this comment informed me. I know of the IWW, but had never made the connection. Top notch comment, this.

I think that Banksy’s couch gag broke something in me. I stopped watching the Simpsons about then.

The best part about it is the subtlety. Tiny shifts across a season. Few changes in visuals across the entire run.

It is the most lovely theme song I’ve heard.

This develops into the toddler who —after you’ve given advice, demand, direction, instruction, or other adult support — looks you dead in the eye, does the exact opposite, and acts like it’s your fucking fault.

They perfect trolling.

Hopefully, by the time they’re four, they come to understand that trolling your family is not a great survival strategy. Some people grow out of it. Some are just trolls to ‘others’, outside their established ingroup.

There are some people who’d sell their own mothers on a lark. Or, reneg on a friend just to see them squirm. Or, impose tariffs on allies and inflame every enemy but one. Those people, they’re behaving like toddlers.