Jussie Smollett, the failed actor who attempted a hate crime hoax to bolster his career and attempt to defame Trump supporters, has just been sentenced to five months of jail.
Did he get off way too easy? Definitely. Was the leniency a product of his celebrity status? It’s likely. Yet, it’s great to know that we live in a world where backbiters have a chance of tasting a portion of what they deserve.
Apparently, the system was pissed at something different from what the rest of us were. While we were upset at a deliberate attempt to paint a huge portion of the electorate in a defamatory light, all while attempting to benefit from the attention, what got the system riled up was the resources spent in pursuit of a frivolous and false accusation. He was ordered to pay over $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago, and a $25,000 fine.
It seems the moral of the story is, if you want the legal system to give a care about defamation, you have to demonstrate that it matters to their bottom line. Sure, it’s a shitty moral, but at least a lying piece of work is getting locked up.
I suspect that he’s not going to the real thing, but to celebrity jail, where he gets to while away his time in relative comfort, with substantial amenities, and near-limitless entertainment, all while his basic needs are met. So, perhaps his real punishment in the long-term would be the hit to his own reputation.
That aside, most people are not celebrities. So, this story is still a valid warning to false accusers everywhere. Some famous guy didn’t get away with it, so they might not get away with it, either.
As quick as I may be to pick on the Metaverse, I can admit when they have something great. Such as their community of unofficial catgirl police.
Yes, they do have such a community. And no, they don’t police the Metaverse in any official capacity. They’re called the Loli Police Department (LPD for short), and they’re a community that roleplays as police officers in VRChat.
The LPD acts out scenarios for fun, often for their own amusement, but sometimes to the bewilderment of onlookers. And because they’re trying to do it right, these catgirls are in the anime style.
It may be a little nitpicky to point out, but a more fitting name might be Nekomusume Police Department. The word “Nekomusume” means “catgirl” in Japanese, though one can also suggest the word “Nekomimi”, meaning “cat ear”. Under their current appellation, one might get the wrong idea of what the group is about.
When I first saw this group, it brought to mind a similar concept conceived years prior by anime artist Kanzaki Hiro:
It may be true that the Metaverse is a sad digital substitution for the real world, but for certain subcultures, the LPD might be a welcome sign that creative visions such as that of Kanzaki Hiro are coming progressively closer to reality.
Now for the part of the post where we “go there”. I know that for a lot of people, police women are considered attractive, and for others, catgirls are attractive, so there’s a lot of potential for wide appeal. For those with highly-specific strike zones, the LPD might end up being a selling point for VRChat and the Metaverse.
Why stop with a team of catgirl police when there is so much more potential for digital public servants with animal ears? Is a team of bunnygirl nurses far behind? Or how about rats that sell insurance?
The female protagonist for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet has just been revealed. It might be that the official art for her was revealed alongside the reveal trailer, and it flew under my radar. But however it happened, the official art for the girl is in the picture above, shown next to the boy.
My initial criticism of the boy was that he was boring and unexpressive. While the girl is cuter (as to be expected), it’s odd that she’s wearing the same outfit that the boy is. To show why this is so unusual, here is a collection of official art for the protagonists for previous games (up to X and Y):
These characters look far more interesting, and the sight of them kinda makes me want to play some of their respective games. These characters are much more colorful and expressive, and are the kind of protagonists that players would want to serve as avatars for a Pokémon experience. And because they were among the selections for previous games, they did a lot to cultivate expectations for subsequent player characters (after all, check out how many of them wear red or white headwear).
It’s because Game Freak has plenty of experience designing male and female protagonists, as well as their fashion options, that I would have expected them to be aware that males and females tend to dress way differently. As is obvious to most, there are obvious physiological and psychological differences between males and females, many of which are expressed through fashion choices. Anytime anyone attempts to dress them in similar outfits, the attempt comes off as unsettling, and a failure to properly acknowledge one of the foundational elements of their identity.
It seems I’m not the only one weirded out by the new protagonists, as artist Profitshame drew up a side-by-side comparison of these protagonists with the ones from Pokémon Sword and Shield:
I have my own theory about why the boy dresses like the girl, and it’s not just because the girl shops for him when he plays Magic: The Gathering with his buddies. I think it’s just easier to design one character instead of two. Either that, or they’re fraternal twins, like the duo gym leaders Tate and Liza.
If Scarlet and Violet are going to be like recent Pokémon games, they’ll include lots of customization options so that at least their outfits wont be so tacky. And personally, I’d prefer playing as a character that doesn’t look like the chess club punches him in the hallways.
It’s been a few hours since the reveal of the upcoming installments of the Pokémon series, Scarlet and Violet. I think that’s enough time to allow what I’ve seen to congeal in my mind, and develop a non-hot-take opinion.
For one thing, it’s obvious that expansive areas with gorgeous scenery is going to be the way forward for the Pokémon franchise. Things tended towards that direction since Sword and Shield, and Legends: Arceus took it much further. While Legends has a very Breath of the Wild look to it, I’m interested in whether Game Freak will take that style of play and give it a voice more it’s own.
It seems like open-world adventures is going to be the direction that more games go in, which Skyrim did a lot to pioneer, and Breath of the Wild did a lot to popularize. I’ve been wanting to see Pokémon games like this since the Gold and Silver days, as I’ve considered the follow-route-to-destination formula to be a tad on-the-rails, and not really living up to the potential of a grand adventure in the great outdoors that a Pokémon journey can easily be imagined to be.
I’m also noticing that Pokémon games are now showing more realistic architecture in its settings, and I know I’m not the only person who appreciates this. I remember a time when Pokémon games largely just featured a bunch of large boxes, many of them without doors, and what of them that had doors usually just had them facing one direction. I also remember a time when Pokémon had no dynamic camera, and this was often the case even though the hardware running the games was capable of this. Link could run around Hyrule with a dynamic camera in Ocarina of Time in 1998, and playing Pokémon Colosseum on GameCube, I wondered whether Game Freak would get around to making a Pokémon game with a dynamic camera.
I’m liking that Pokémon are shown wandering about like they do in Legends: Arceus. But that also comes with a concern: Are the upcoming Pokémon games going to have much about them that differentiates them from Pokémon Legends? I beat the main story and post-game in Pokémon Legends, and I’m kind-of concerned that Scarlet and Violet might just provide more of the same experience. While that’s to be expected from a new game in nearly any series (not just Pokémon), Pokémon Legends is still new, and Scarlet and Violet come out later in the same year! Considering that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were released a few months ago, I can understand if some of the die-hards would like to take a break for a little while.
But as for the Pokémon, I’m noticing that the only new Pokémon that were shown were the starters. I know that Pokémon games are getting to be challenging to make in such a way that they include all (or even most) of the many characters that have been developed up to this point. So, I’m wondering whether Game Freak is deciding to keep the number of new Pokémon low, and focus more on developing other areas of the game, and choosing from among the many designs from earlier games.
As for the starters:
At first, I thought they looked goofy. But since then, they’ve grown on me. But among the three, I still haven’t decided which is my favorite. Knowing as little as I do about them, I’d probably go with the duck, then the cat second. If I knew what their evolved forms look like before playing, that might play a factor in my decision.
Now for the player character:
Sorry, but he just looks boring. I do like the bucket hat, which is very practical for one who plans to spend a lot of time in the sun. But a shirt and tie? That makes him look more like he’s ready to spend 8 hours in the office. That blank, unemotive expression doesn’t help much, either. This is one character that would benefit from some customization options. Is the girl character going to have more personality?
So far, from what I’ve seen, I’m actually not terribly excited. There’s likely going to be a lot more to show in the months to come, and hopefully, that will do a lot more to stoke interest from gamers who are probably still busy with Game Freak’s most recent offering.
Pros:
Expansive wild areas, showing that Game Freak is serious about implementing these in their games,
The familiar Pokémon are a welcome sight,
The new region is simply beautiful, and reminds me of a Mediterranean setting. Perhaps Greece, Italy, or Spain?
Cons:
The starters look kinda silly, but they’re not off-putting,
The dullest-looking main character I’ve ever seen.
What I’d like to see:
More human characters, particularly a more interesting main character,
The return of game mechanics that players liked, such as Mega Evolutions. Even Z-moves would be welcome,
More details about the adventure, such as important locations, characters, and opponents.
Because Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are being developed in-house by Game Freak, the team who made Pokémon Legends: Arceus, it’s likely that these upcoming games are going to have a whole lot of heart. I’m looking forward to seeing more in the months ahead.
A Pokémon Direct has just concluded, and with it comes the announcement of two upcoming Pokémon games, named Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.
Here is the reveal trailer:
In the announcement, a detective investigates an apartment, then sees the trailer for the upcoming games.
We see some details of the new region, and get a first glimpse:
Like Pokémon Legends: Arceus, this new region seems to favor expansive explorable areas:
It also shows Pokémon wandering about, also like Legends:
There a town plaza, which seems very European. Perhaps the setting for this one is inspired by Greece or Italy.
The main character seems to get an oceanfront home, this time:
We were also shown the player character. There likely will also be a girl, as is the case in most Pokémon games.
We also get a brief glimpse of part of the region map:
Afterwards, we return to the detective. Perhaps the apartment is filled with clues as to the setting of the upcoming games, such as this food that’s sitting out:
Then, we see what is likely the new starters for these games:
According to the official reveal page, the cat is named Sprigatito, the croc is named Fuecoco, and the duck is called Quaxly. I like the cat and the duck, but the croc reminds me of Bubble Bobble.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are coming later this year to Nintendo Switch. What do you think?
Let’s hear it for actual journalism! As reported by Daily Mail, an undercover reporter for Project Veritas has caught FDA executive Christopher Cole on hidden camera admitting to plans for annual shots for Covid-19, saying that they’d be a “recurring fountain of revenue”, and that president Biden himself has financial incentives for pushing the vaccine.
What makes this matter particularly amusing is that the reporter disguised herself as a romantic interest, going on a date with Christopher Cole, wherein he admitted to the scheme.
It’s because of this, it’s possible that his confession actually isn’t true. It’s possible that he’s just another douchebag out to get his rooster warmed, and like many such people, he was willing to bullshit to make himself look more connected and influential than he actually is.
However, if true, this is yet another indication of a merger between corporation and state, where wealth is continually extracted from the population in the form of mandated and continual purchases of products and services, or in the cases where the products and services appear free, they are subsidized with taxpayer money, which is another form of wealth extraction.
Remember that when the Affordable Care Act was concocted, the intention was to mandate many millions of people to get health insurance. While insurance can be a great thing, the insurance industry has long since become yet another way to legally steal. If you’ve ever been in a car accident, you know that getting an insurance company to honor a claim that is explicitly covered under their policy is far more stressful than the accident itself.
Christopher Cole apparently didn’t like that his confession was obtained undercover, saying “You videotaped me talking with someone on a date – didn’t tell me anything, didn’t say it was being videotaped,”
Apparently, Christopher Cole thinks it would be more fair if his role in the merger of corporation and state were to remain under wraps, so that he may continue abusing his position in a regulatory agency to extract wealth using pharmaceutical companies that the very same agency is supposed to be regulating, while at the same time accepting kickbacks from those same pharmaceutical companies.
Either that, or he was bullshitting a woman in an effort to get his dick wet. In either case, it’s bad optics. But from what I’ve seen from the video below, he seems totally serious:
If Biden is somehow involved, the whole scheme is likely to turn to shit, anyway.
A common position of the Malthusian is that overpopulation is resulting in an overconsumption of resources, which may result in humanity endangering itself. Professing this motivation, the Malthusian feels justified in making actions that prohibit procreation among human beings, in an effort to keep human numbers in check. To this end, they encourage people to live single.
However, it’s easy to see that people living single actually consume more resources than if a male-female couple were to share the same dwelling space.
This should be simple to comprehend when you look at the resources consumed by couples, as opposed to what they’d consume if they were to live independently.
In terms of dwelling space, two people living single would require more space overall, as they would live in different homes, each with different sinks, refrigerators, air conditioners, and bathroom facilities. On the other hand, a couple would share all these facilities. Couples would easily use up half as much living space.
Next, let’s consider utilities. In the summer time, when people are uncomfortably hot, two people living single would air condition two different living spaces, whereas a cohabiting man and woman would only need to air condition one living space. Thus, the consumption of electricity would easily be halved when couples live together, and the electrical grid would be far less stressed.
Then, there’s winter time, when people get uncomfortably cold. A person with a one-bedroom flat in the northeast United States can easily spend as much as $200 a month keeping their place warm in the winter. However, a couple wouldn’t face the same hardship, as they’d share the utility expense, and their situation would be better still for the warmth the couple would provide one another.
When it comes to transportation, matters are less clear. I’ve seen couples that manage by sharing one automobile, but this isn’t always desirable for every situation. However, when people live by themselves, they each require their own transportation, which in many cases means many single people needing their own cars. This gets more significant as the result is the consumption of more fossil fuels, as well as ethanol, which is largely derived from corn. This is more significant as concerns agriculture and landmass when you consider that most corn grown in the United States is not for consumption as food, but for conversion to fuel.
As one considers all this, it’s plain to see who makes a killing off of Malthusianism: Real estate interests, utility companies, and oil barons.
If more people are living independently of other human beings, that means more people spending more on products and services than if they were to share these things with other human beings. Real estate companies profit when more people are buying homes and apartments for themselves than if they were to cohabit. Utility companies maximize the number of spending customers when each potential customer is spending for themselves, rather than sharing the benefit with another person. Oil barons profit huge when demand is increased, and this happens when more people are fueling more cars, rather than sharing cars with partners.
From this, we see that the product of Malthusianism is reduced living space, resources being depleted, and the environment being destroyed. Which is, of course, the exact opposite of what many of their own sincere believers may have wanted. But for the ones that really benefit from the ideology, it means dying rich while fucking over the entire world for successive generations.
All while pretending that the opposite is happening.
The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power takes aim. But will it be a miss?
The trailer for The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power has aired during the Super Bowl. Embedded below is the trailer, in case you haven’t seen it, and are interested:
People had thoughts, which largely had to do with whether The Lord of the Rings (LotR) would become yet another victim of corporate entities milking franchises for money with little regard for the established material, while at the same time using it to virtue signal, and subsequently using intersectionality as a high horse in the event that the fans point out its shortcomings. Similar to what’s happened with the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
Among the answers to the trailer is the following quote, attributed to J.R.R. Tolkien, and presented in different languages:
“Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made.”
While this is presented as a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien, the quote actually came from TV Tropes’ page, Evil Is Sterile, where it is used to describe an apparent philosophy to the worldbuilding of LotR.
While the quote is misattributed, I find it thought-provoking, as it brings to mind the apparent adversarial relationship between creativity and the forces of evil.
It’s long been thought that the opposite of life is death. However, this is not the case. Death is what occurs at the terminal point of an individual organism’s life. In nature, organisms do not adapt to have perpetual, permanently self-sustained lives. Their lives are of a span that takes them to the point that they’d be most likely to procreate, then perform whatever actions are necessary to ensure the success of their progeny.
In reality, the opposite of life is destruction. It’s not just the opposite of life, it’s the opposite of creativity.
As life continues onwards, organisms develop in increasingly complex, creative ways that suggests a certain guidance that is not accidental. As one considers this, one can appreciate that the Christian religion teaches that God made humanity in His own image. Of all the terrestrial creatures that we’ve yet discovered, humans are the most creative.
Standing in opposition to creativity is the forces of wickedness, which tend to destruction. The forces of destruction have an adversarial relationship to anything creative in any form, and the closer that one’s mind is to the core of wickedness, the more absolute that one is in their determination to destroy.
I have no reservation in calling those who I take issue with by their virtues: they are evil. Those who are evil hate creativity, hate creation, hate freedom to create, hate planning, hate procreating, hate expression, and even hate all forms of art, literature, music, and any other form of expression that doesn’t fit their own narrow band of preferences. But if their tendency towards evil were to be taken to its natural conclusion, they’d eventually want to destroy those, too.
The forces of evil are seldom completely evil. Their thirst for destruction does clash with their own self-preservation. The fact is, evil is able to survive for a time, by simply imitating what’s been proven to be effective, as far as they can perceive its benefit to themselves.
Sam: Don’t orcs eat, and don’t they drink? Or do they just live on foul air and poison? Frodo: No, they eat and drink, Sam. The Shadow that bred them can only mock; it cannot make: not real, new things of its own. I don’t think it gave life to the orcs, it only ruined and twisted them, and if they are to live at all, they have to live like other living creatures.
Sam and Frodo, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
While all living things imitate to an extent, the forces of evil are disproportionately reliant on it, for their own lack of capacity to create, and inflexibility of mind to adapt.
“I don’t care that they stole my idea… I care that they don’t have any of their own.”
Nikola Tesla
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you might have gotten the idea that I tend to favor the creative when it comes to disputes over sensibilities. I’m a Freedom-of-Expression kind of guy. A world where expression is not stifled is the kind of environment where humanity can be allowed to develop to it’s fullest.
Creativity does have its enemies, however. And they’re evident in what they do. It’s easy to think of examples off the top of my head, but I think they’ll be evident to most people if they were to take a moment to think of them in terms of what they accomplish.
A lot of people out there have their concerns about Rings of Power, which is coming to Amazon Prime Video. I agree that when intersectionality is ram-rodded into a creative work it jeopardizes the quality of the work.
But as I see it, there’s another problem: To a hammer, everything looks like a nail. There are people out there whose minds are so trained to see intersectionality poisoning their entertainment, that they’ll take even the slightest sign of intersectionality as a sign that a work is turning into a dumpster fire.
While intersectionality is problematic, not every apparent virtue-signal of diversity and inclusion is a deliberate move in the culture war.
Is it the case for Rings of Power? It’s kinda looking like it. But if Middle Earth ends up disappointing fans, there are other fantasies out there. Perhaps, if you feel inclined, you can express your own creativity, and share a fantasy of your own with the world.
“My apologies, Captain Slavin. I forgot not everyone is able to appreciate art as I do.”
If you’re among those insistent that fail can’t be epic, there are many examples to challenge your position. Among these being one presented by Chinese figure skater Zhu Yi.
Zhu Yi is a Chinese Olympic figure skater, and as such, she’s under a lot of pressure to perform exceptionally, as the performance of Olympic athletes has long been considered a matter of national pride.
Especially so for Zhu Yi, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, who changed her name from Beverly Zu and renounced her U.S. citizenship to defect to the Chinese Communist Party, turning her back on the abundance that a free market has to offer in favor of the strictures of Communism.
To illustrate the providence of communism, here is a photograph depicting the monthly food ration of a Polish citizen in the mid-80s:
Zhu thought she could bring honor to her communist dystopia by representing them on the global stage. But that didn’t work out, as during her performance, she fell and hit a wall, then later fell over again. She ended up coming in last for the entire competition.
Because Zhu is so fond of changing her name, perhaps it would be fitting for her to change it again to Wah Waaah.
As bad as all that was, the difficulties are only beginning for Zhu. The Olympics are such a matter of national pride for the Chinese that if a Chinese athlete were to win any less than a gold medal, they are made to issue a public apology. After that, they tend to have difficult lives from that point on.
I suppose the nice guy thing to do would be to pity her, if the nice guy were to forget that she turned her back on her country and went commie.
After her failure, the phrase “Zhu Yi has fallen” started trending on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. That is, until the hashtag was censored. Commies gonna commie.
If you don’t want to end up on That Was Actually The News, you’d be safer if you don’t fail hard while representing your new country, especially after turning your back on your old one.
The Coronavirus epidemic, and especially the lockdowns that came along with it, really didn’t tickle. People were ordered to remain in their homes, which really sucked for those of us who wanted to make a living. People were ordered to wear masks in public, which really sucked for people who like fresh air.
Making matters worse was the riots caused by BLM, colloquially referred to as Burn Loot Murder, which really sucked for those who wanted to avoid violence and property damage.
While that already sounds like a kick in the teeth, it gets even better when you understand that part of the intention behind the Covid-19 relief concerned “the increased potential for violence in underserved and disproportionately impacted communities.”
So naturally, a Democrat that received funds that were intended to help deal with violent crime under the pretense of Covid relief had allocated those funds to a bunch of violent terrorist extremists operating under the pretense of racial justice.
There comes a point where it’s no longer fitting to call someone “incompetent”, because it’s much more apparent that there’s malice involved. What else does one attribute to Pritzker’s use of the Covid-19 relief funds, which is like receiving the gasoline needed to fuel his family’s automobile, but instead throwing the same gasoline directly into a housefire?
Apparently, the Coronavirus Apocalypse is over, because governors can now afford to spend Covid-relief funds on stupid bullshit.
Magnetricity 