The whole "schtick" of Stormlight is that almost all of the main characters are broken in some way. That's integral to how the magic system works.
The last 2 books have had more "cringe" moments than any other pieces of Sanderson's writing.
I think the real reason is that his longtime editor, Moshe Feder, left. Moshe had edited I believe every single Mistborn and most of the other Tor books. Oathbringer (Stormlight book 3) was the last book Moshe worked on.
I don't think it's a coincidence that books 4 and 5 were far weaker. Sanderson does this whole "alpha readers" and "beta readers" feedback groups, and with a strong and good editor in place, that's manageable. Without a strong guiding hand, it's easy to get bullied around by shitty superfans.
Sanderson saw how Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time got absolutely raped by the networks. He's said some stuff that doesn't totally burn his bridges but also made it clear that it's crap and he knows it.
I'm not thrilled about it being Apple, but there's not a single producer or network I WOULD trust today.
I'm cautiously optimistic that keeping enough control will at least keep them watchable. In his announcement, he said (basically) that Apple offered him the most control.
I'm a very big admirer and fan of Sanderson. I absolutely agree that the most recent Stormlight books have been some of his worse, the gay/alien/autistic relationship is drainingly bad, and I'm very afraid for the 2nd Stormlight sequence (the next 5 books).
Sanderson is one author who treats his fans with the utmost respect, and he's a very hard worker. I respect him for that a lot. I'm sorry he's been battered by the leftwing culture warriors.
So tired of screenshot posts.
India has more Muslims than all other countries in the world except for Indonesia and Pakistan.
Between Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, there are almost 500 million Muslims.
As a side note the christian religious services was mostly Chomos too the only religious services that had a real feel to it with godly people was Jumʿah.
Even Christians in prison are pozzed? No wonder jail conversion to Islam is a thing...
I believe I did, though I couldn't tell you what. I've never been that interested in the more philosophical stuff. I enjoyed Ayn Rand as it was easy (but long), and I think "Road to Serfdom" was the other book I remember strongly.
Like many young men, I considered myself a libertarian for more than a few years. I read Ayn Rand, Mises, Hayek, and Schumpeter. I believed in individual responsibility, individual accountability, and individual rights. I believed in a small government, "social liberal, economic conservative," and all the other tripe.
It's all horseshit that relies on a small, educated, homogenous populace with a core set of shared values.
Impossible, in other words.
Today I don't consider myself a libertarian, a republican, or a conservative.
I'm an anti-leftist.
I lived and commuted there for several years. Good riddance! I never knew whether my commute would take 20 minutes or 1.5 hours...
That's absolutely true. Mistrust of the government is a good thing. Along a parallel line, I don't think the ICE riots in Minnesota are going to cause any lack of confidence in the government among those constituents. They will, no doubt, want MORE government to solve the problem.
The number of people making rational arguments (e.g., our kids need socialization and learning) is minimal. It's mostly blathering about "Well, MY road is fine!"
Of course any time you get into any discussion about school buses, the topic gets dicey fast. Rich kids (read, white kids) get driven to school, poor kids (read black brown PoC) have to take the bus. Racism! I rode the bus in elementary school. 4th and 5th grade were brutal with a coterie of black kids who just ruled the roost. (To be fair, there were plenty of non-black bullies--the school bus was just the place where racial differences seemed to be 100% fair game.) This is a common theme in school buses across the US. Do they commonly use school buses in many parts of Europe?
I haven't played this since shortly after it came out. I really enjoyed it at the time.
Any suggestions for graphics mods/updates?
It's been a long time since I played this game.
I think the official storyline is that Oghren was upset that his wife, Branka, was such a succesful smith and got all the attention. He became a drunk, and Branka started fucking some other dwarf woman. Naturally, despite cheating on her husband, it's Oghren that becomes the outcast and hated by the rest of society.
As you progress deeper into the dungeons, you find out that Branka has been surviving by resorting tocannibalism and making her followers get raped by darkspawn to produce even more darkspawn.
So, another nice role model for the LGBTQIA++ community.
Big vat of beans and pork, and I’m gonna grill a skirt steak for fajitas tonight. Good day!
You make some really good points.
IMHO, AI gains largely follow gains in computing capacity. The more computer power we get, the more powerful AI can be. If--or when--we hit the point that AI is able to start truly writing creative and novel algorithms to extend AI programming, that's when things get really interesting or scary.
Most of the AI techniques that are in common usage today have been basically been the result of decades of linear progress in AI sciences.
Perceptrons go back to the 1950s!!! The foundational ideas of neural network computing go back a decade or two before.
HoeMath seems a lot angrier now compared to when he first got started..
Lol Wikipedia:
"In an interview with Fox News in January 2022, Pompeo said he has lost over 90 lb (41 kg) in the prior six months through self-guided exercises and dietary changes. Experts were skeptical of Pompeo's claim that such changes could have produced this weight loss in a man his age, and The Guardian said that Pompeo's history of misleading statements cast further doubt on his claims."
The only proof I've seen of this is a low resolution image of a browser tab.
What's up with the catboy date video?
I don't follow Fuentes.
Rob Pike was at least troon-adjacent himself
What makes you say that? I only know a little about him.
The problem is, why does there need to be a language "community."
They're magnets for autists and troons (but I repeat myself), and more generally people who have time to waste being part of a community and NOT working.
The majority of "real" programmers with day jobs do their work but don't feel the need to consider themselves part of the "C++ community" or the "Python community" or to be a "Rustacean" or whatever.
Like all the "coders" who talk about their git commits and how many projects they work on, but their only commits are formatting changes and documentation.
This is 100% happening and even for AP and high level classes. There is a pipeline of teachers from a handful of countries--Filipinos and Jamaicans, for instance--into US public schools.
It's not all bad. I would by far prefer American born and educated teachers who are not nuts. THey are becoming a rarity. In highschool my best teacher was a US and World history teacher who had a PhD in history and, importantly, NO EDUCATION DEGREE. Smart individuals who are well-trained in their topics are the best teachers, imho.
The worst are those with education degrees, or even multiple education degrees, and nothing else. That can work for young childhood education (elementary school) but not much beyond that.
My oldest kid has had 3foreign highschool teachers. There was a Jamaican history teacher (bad), a Filipino Biology teacher (good!), and another Filipino math teacher (TBD).
The good thing is that they don't necessarily come with the same ideological baggage that education degreed Americans do, and they work hard in the classroom to get good results in order to maintain their job and immigration status.
Follow up.
I wouldn't mind a ban on screenshot posts that are completely without source. Screenshots are fine, but also provide a source or archive link. There's a lot of room for fuckery with screenshots.
My current thinking is that we now have an active mod team, and I would let people settle in for a month or two before making any big changes. Given the people involved, I'm not expecting any bad actors, but let's let users and mods alike get calibrated.
While I agree with many others that R15 and R16 can be a problem, I'm not sure removing them entirely is the answer. I've been on here for a long time, and I find it gets boring when everything is about, for instance, Jews (or natalists or pedophiles or whatever).
Very nice, I see the post now. I am also optimistic. You’re already doing god’s work with banning Imp!
Wow, I totally missed that we had mods now! When did that happen?
Dom's at the top. Is he still around?
Thank you for sharing your truth. Acknowledging the problem is the first step to recovery.
I thought Misborn Era 2 was great. Yes, there are signs of Hollyweird peaking through, but it's pretty minimal.