I remember hearing from some friends I had in the engineering program when I was in college. They had gone to China with the business school to see some construction projects (an office park aimed at foreign companies, specifically), and the engineering students were interested in how fast they were building it.
As they are being lead around by their handler who is explaining all of the wonderful amenities that will be available and the profit that stands to be made, but the engineers were becoming more and more concerned as they saw more structural defects, construction errors, and other things that are considered baseline equipment missing. Eventually, one of them worked up the courage to ask a question: "Where are the cement mixers?" as they had not seen any the entire time.
And with a smile beaming on her face, their handler informed them that they didnt have any, as in order to ensure "maximum employment opportunities" they created concrete in small batches by hand.
The business students spent the rest of the trip talking about the money they could stand to make doing this. The engineering students spent the rest of the trip panicking at every noise they heard and keeping their head on a swivel for the nearest exit at all times. And this was back in the early 2010's. I can only imagine how much worse it is now, when you have Filipino fishing boats capable of punching holes in Chinese destroyers.
No, their older carriers are the ones that used the ski ramp. What they did was they tried to replicated the electromagnetic catapults the US is switching to to replace the steam based ones (the EM launchers being capable of heavier planes and/or higher payloads). BUT it still uses diesel engines instead of the nuclear reactors US carriers do, so they very quickly discovered they dont generate enough electrical power to actually run the catapults. They also apparently fucked up the build quality (like usual), and it was spotted in drydock with cracks running through the flight deck.
The Chinese military is a joke, and the only threat they pose is subversion. And even that is starting to wane as their economy sputters and dies.
Yep, obviously covering a lot more than the movie though. But if you are interested in it, look for the Complete version by author Dave Stevens (since he wrapped up the comic when he found out he was dying of cancer). IDW since tried to reboot it and do the usual woke things to it, but it never took off and people still only know OG Rocketeer. Razorfist did a breakdown of the comic version if you are interested.
I recently got the complete version of The Rocketeer, and have been rereading what was always one of my favorite superheroes. Very refreshing to look back on when things were better.
I mean along with bens argument that retiring at 65 is stupid and no one should do that
What's wrong with that? If you feel the need to retire and have the means to do so then you can, or if you have worked to the point you literally can not anymore (and he wasnt even arguing against that). But for most people, retirement is a scam and when you look at the longest lived people in the world, you will find they never stopped working. Even if it is something as simple as "chopping firewood to sell for a little extra money on top of pension."
The thing that I want to know is what people like him even "do"? He hates video games, he hates anime (which I will at least admit is an acquired taste), he hates modern Hollywood (with good reason at least), so...what is left that people actually do. Sports I guess? Reading? And what of these are where most up and coming people (including younger conservatives) are?
Honestly, everything after Season 3 is an absolutely crapshoot. It is scraps of actually decent fights and potential lore, sandwiched between mountains of "What the fuck are you talking about?!" and dumb plots. Also a chronic case of the head writer (who is the most soy of boy you have ever seen) deciding that Team RWBY are always right, and giving any character who the audience decides has a point of RWBY being given the idiot ball to make RWBY right again (I will never forgive them for ruining my boy Ironwood).
Not going to lie though: It was hilarious watching Reddit go from finding his opinion interesting and worth listening to, to immediately freaking out about Andrew and trying to tear him down because they found out about his other videos.
From what I have seen, it is because All Might is how most Japanese people see Americans: Big, loud, obnoxious, and in your face. But when the chips are down and you need a hero, they will bulldoze over everyone in their path to be the hero and save the day. And quite frankly, they are sadder when they arent like that.
Honestly, I think it is only really on politics that he is wrong. It is the economic stuff he is better at, and that is usually because he actually has raw data to back it up.
More importantly, I am all for space exploration from countries that are friendly with us.
Meanwhile, China is still dead in the water and Russia fucked theirs up.
I dont think he cares. He was already on Twitter telling the usual suspects "Fuck off" when they were complaining about characters in the game being too sexy.
The other thing that is important is that not everyone needs to be foaming at the mouth screaming about wokeness at every given turn. Yes, your Ryan Kinel's can, but they will turn off the average normie who is only starting to realize there is a constant "Message" in everything they watch.
So you show them Critical Drinker or Film Threat, who is very approachable and talks about movies they do like instead of just constantly harping on the ones they hate. Then as that starts to click and they realize there is a coordinated campaign in Hollywood, maybe they move up to the likes of Nerdrotic, Az, and Disparu (who are a bit more aggressive in calling it out, but still in a fun way). And then maybe some of them will take the next step to Ryan, and go "This situation is so out of whack we need a political change just to fight it."
Speaking from what I have heard through him, my dad sells schools busses. The company he sells for offers almost any fuel option you can think of, from diesel and gasoline powered, to CNG powered, to propane powered, to electric busses. And he has said that while he has had a few school districts buy electric busses for fixed routes, he has sold more of the flex-fuel busses (the CNG and propane) than he has electric.
He also said some of the people who were interested in the electric were pretty much only interested under the idea that they could make money off of it. The specific story he told was that this one school district thought that they could have the busses charging at certain times, and then sell the electricity from the batteries back to the grid at times when the price was high and/or on weekends and summer break. Only to immediately abandon the idea and go with traditional busses when my dad informed them that doing that would count as hours against the battery for the purpose of the warranty and you would run through your warranty in a matter of months.
Dont get me wrong, I am absolutely agreeing that there is a huge discrepancy. I am probably have just been lucky in that most I have listened to for dubs have actually been at least good. There are plenty I still watch sub over dub (like you said, Goblin Slayer is much better in Japanese). It is just that on average I will take dub over sub because I would rather be watching what is going on instead of trying to read the subtitles. Sometimes stuff didnt get a dub, or sometimes the dub is an absolute trainwreck, and I will watch subs then. But if there seems to be no real difference in quality to me (like Rising of the Shield Hero), then I will take dub.
Just for my own example, Kayuga-sama I think is better as dub than sub, but a lot of the changes in tone and extra lines on the part of the narrator were changes signed off on by the studio so it is still staying true to the vision (and the over the top nature fits the anime more, IMO).
I feel like there is a growing resentment of foreigners messing with their culture in Japan,
Fully agree on this one though. I know that most Japanese are still OK with Americans and still love it, as well as loving America itself (I recently saw some clips of a few Japanese Hololive Vtubers who went to vacation in LA and said how they loved it there and liked how open and friendly Americans were, even if they thought it seemed kind of dangerous at night). But that is because most Americans like Japan for being Japan. Ironically, it is the "We are totally not racist" Woke Twitter Freaks who are the most anti-Japanese. But that tracks since they are anti-everything that doesnt live up to their California Bay Area sensibilities.
I tend to think most dubs arent that bad, but will also admit that I am in the minority.
Also, I dont think saying "dub bad" helps here, because I have seen more than a few times where they changed the subtitle version. And when people pointed out that issue, some of these ass-munch little shits said "Guess you should learn Japanese if you dont like it then, Chud."
I am just so shocked the Japanese are kicking these people to the curb and saying "Nah, we are going to have bots do it because it is better than the gaijin doing it."
no remake of English Dub
remake of Japanese voices
Things that make you go "hmmmmm".
Probably more signs that Japan is getting wise to the "localizers" messing with their things, and deciding they are having none of it. So they are going to be far more picky about getting English VA's and as we have already seen will have AI perform the translations (with an English speaker on the Japanese side to make sure it comes out without errors).
Like I said, highly recommended on Last Train Home. I am on my 3rd run right now, and it is the furthest I have made it thus far (about 3,700km, halfway to Vladivostok). The only advice I will give is to upgrade your barracks cars first, and make sure you have at least two of them with upgraded bunk space by the time you get to the second major station (Penza I think?). I didnt on my first run I made it there, and it turns out I had rescued some Legionaries but didnt have the space for them, so had to leave them behind. Needless to say, I am trying to get as many out as possible and it was early, so I decided to restart my run.
I have also been enjoying anime, but it is not something that I really keep my ear to the ground over like with video games. Usually I will just watch what I am interested, and leave it at that.
Maybe it is just a difference of perspective. I thought the game was fairly good to Hades, and when you beat it the first time you learn that Hades was right to say you cant go to the surface. And while he does eventually change his mind (yes, after being humbled in defeat), he is still the only one of the gods that cares about you, as the Olympians see you as merely a pawn even after you beat the game.
I also dont think I would count Persephone having sway over him, since she can do that even in the actual lore of Greek mythology.
women always right
I dont know if I would say that. The Olympian gods are shown to be aloof and uncaring about your situation except maybe Artemis (which would make sense as she is the only one not in Olympus), and see you as a toy in their own games against Hades.
I also dont think they showed Hades as particularly evil. Harsh yes, but not evil. And the game does kind of show Zagreus as being rash and impulsive for wanting to go to the surface so bad he is willing to fight and kill anything in his path to get there. The "You have to kill your father to escape" thing also kind of rings hollow for me as a slight since Hades is both A) By far the hardest boss in the game and will therefore whop your ass most of the time, and B) is immortal, so it is kind of moot in the grand scheme of things.
But then, I am also not one of those people who thinks the characters in the game look that bad, and that they all fit the style the game set out for. Even the Muse being what it is seems like a reference to the Disney's Hercules rather than a malicious destruction of Greek lore.
On that note though, I think that as the Woke system starts to fall apart over the next few years, we are going to see more of this. Where companies try to have their cake and eat it too, by still trying to not piss off the SJW's on Twitter or in the Press, but also try to not piss off the now obviously much large portion of paying customers. And it will end when they decide they finally have to pick a side.
And as much as some people want to be doomers about it, I think it is only a matter of time until a Western AI comes up that was made out of the bubble. Much of what we are dealing with in tech and entertainment is a product of the fact that this was all done in basically two places in California. But tech has already been taking off in other parts of the country with people who were never in the bubble (there are more tech companies in Dallas, TX than Silicon Valley now) and entertainment is slowly doing the same, eventually someone is going to decide they are leaving money on the table.
Feuerschwanz
Actually yes. And I really like their cover of Warriors of the World. As for their originals, I kind of have them in the same field as Rammstein: I like the beat and the metal, but I dont know enough German to know what they are saying.
Although on the note of interesting things: Both STARSET and Smash Into Pieces I had funny interactions with for trying to figure out where they were from just on the first listen.
Starset, I thought they were a British band because the lead singer sounded similar to some British bands I had heard before. I look them up, and...nope, they are from Columbus, Ohio. Fine by me, I have always tried to find new American metal, because there isnt a lot of American power metal bands out there (most American is black metal, which is not up my alley at all).
Meanwhile, Smash Into Pieces I was convinced was from the Pacific Northwest, either Portland or Seattle. Even more so when I saw one of their music videos showed them driving across the Golden Gate Bride with their tour bus. And then I look them up...wrong again, they are Swedish. And have that fun thing where the singer sounds fine with no accent when he is singing, then has the thickest Swedish accent when talking normally. Turns out they are among the bands that loves the US more than Europe so that is why they have so much US stuff in their music videos. Which does make the lyrics for the chorus of their song Heathens kind of funny ("Show'em how we do it down South!"....you arent from the South?).
Because they set the limits when 65mph was the limit of a car being safe, and then never updated them after the fact.