I’d happily sit through and actually pay attention to ads if they were always and only in the language I’m trying to learn. I suppose that may be a hard sell for advertisers, but I’d counter that I don’t need much language skill to recognize most brands in any language.

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Yes, that is the subversion of expectations that makes this a joke.

The Hunger Games owes everything to Stephen King. They basically just took The Long Walk novel and glittered/mashed it up with The Running Man movie. Neither of those took place during or after any apocalypse. They were each just set in either the now, or the very near future, in an America that has gone fully corrupt as a result of being morally, politically, and economically bankrupt. King was (and always has) written very local and topical stories set in what is literally his here and now. When he lived in Maine, he wrote Maine stories. When he moved to Florida, he wrote Duma Key. So, it’s no surprise that a YA story as derivative as The Hunger Games would have the same blind spot for Global events as the inspirational works.

But, also if we were really going to descend into an apocalypse (or a dictatorship), news of the broader globe would be one of the first casualties. People inside most apocalypse (and fascist dystopian) stories don’t usually have a lot of knowledge about the “outside” world. If they do, it’s usually an unreliable narrative.

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The cardinal directions are north, east, south, and west, as on a map. They are not left, right, up, and down because the cardinal directions are not relative to the observer. The problem of differentiating D-Pad, Stick, shoulder, trigger, etc. can be frustrating too (especially when they are shown on screen as icons with confusingly minor differences instead of text), but that is another matter entirely.

I felt like Rachel Brosnahan’s performance as Lois Lane was either inspired by or an homage to Margot Kidder. They both seem to effortlessly balance smart, funny, feminine, and powerful in an apparently effortless way. Both have maad rizz, no cap.

This whole post is a lie to manipulate people into engaging with an astroturfing bot.

AI engagement bots like OP.

What’s up with the ridiculous AI slop picture? It seems to have little to do with the article. It absolutely does not depict what a gator or crocodile nest looks like or would have likely ever looked like. Not how those kinds of nests by cold blooded creatures work. I can only assume the rest of the article is similarly meaningless AI slop too.

I guess the BBC is doing lazy AI slop now. Cool.

Your comment history doesn’t exactly shy away from hyperbole and antagonizing either. If you smell shit everywhere you go, check your shoes.

Sea lioning in my DMs really just proves my point. Sure, there are trolls out there, but your attitude also attracts and encourages incivility. Don’t feed the trolls.

King has almost always written his stories in the immediate present. There are a few exceptions, but they are intentional and critical to the plot. In all the others, it is fully in keeping with his style to update cultural references to set the story in the recent past, the now, or the very near future. He is a contemporary writer of contemporary stories, that is fundamentally the reason. King also seems to feel no loyalty to preserving his past works. He is alive. His stories are more about the lives of the characters than fashion or pop culture. I’m not always a fan of his revisions either (The Gunslinger being a good example), but it’s part of the total package of his writing philosophy.

I really wish the article would at least attempt to clarify the WHY and the HOW of what I assume is some sort of deed restriction. National Park with residency restrictions? Home Owners Association? Not actually a sale and in fact just a lease? With little to no actual reporting going of in the article past the headline, this feels like either a nothing burger or plain fake/false/misinterpreted reporting to generate engagement. And that, discourages me from wanting to engage any further with my own research.

There’s no due process anymore. Why do you believe you’ll ever be granted a lawyer, let alone a phone call, or a court date? They’re just out there assaulting and disappearing people.

Paging Cathode Ray Dude

Isn’t this basically in line with the plot of the prequels anyway?

Pie is just a sweet quiche with fewer eggs.

This gives me God Emperor of Dune vibes.

More like big squirrels with civilization.

It is amazing foundational science fiction story. Once you’ve read it, you’ll see many of its ideas and themes in many other great works of science fiction literature. Perhaps the most recognizable is as the inspiration for the Ewoks from Star Wars. (In my personal opinion inspiration is a bit of a stretch, Ewoks are pretty much a direct copy.)