Indeed, the political and diplomatic usefulness of sanctions is declining. For a long time, one could argue that sanctions were, despite their imperfect record, at least a preferable alternative to open war. After the US attacks on Venezuela and Iran, this claim no longer seems convincing. Instead of averting military action, sanctions are now just as frequently paving the way to violent escalation. A world of persistent economic wars will, sooner or later, spiral into actual warfare.

Yeah, because depriving an entire population of food, medicine, energy, and other critical supplies that inevitably leads to thousands of deaths isn’t “actual” warfare. Warfare is only when we’re put at risk!

Actually, whipping your dick out at the omakase is very legal and very cool!

Another signature?!

Seems like the FBI nabbed him for CSAM, yeah. Anecdotally, my poops go significantly more smoothly in that pseudo-squat position. And nothing beats actually squatting over a hole when it comes to biomechanics—that shit’ll just slide right out.

J. Edgar Hoover was Director of the FBI for a long-ass time (clung to that shit until he died in office)

No, Netanyahu has two right hands and the Plus price has two decimal points (it’s AI slop)

Always better to go straight to a dictionary/Wikipedia than trust Google Translate:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanjian

In China, the word hanjian (traditional Chinese: 漢奸; simplified Chinese: 汉奸; pinyin: Hànjiān; Wade–Giles: han⁴-chien¹) is a pejorative term for those seen as traitors to the Chinese state and, to a lesser extent, Han Chinese ethnicity. The word hanjian is distinct from the general word for traitor, which could be used for any country or ethnicity. As a Chinese term, it is composed of the Chinese characters for “Han” and “traitor”. Han is the majority ethnic group in China; and Jian, means treacherous, and in Chinese legal language, it could also refer to illicit sex. Implied by this term was a Han Chinese carrying on an illicit relationship with the enemy. Hanjian is often worded as “collaborator” or “collaborationist” in the West.

If you just think hard enough, you can make a game deterministic through sheer power of will

But long term experts in media regulation have said that the process for taking away station licenses is involved and exceedingly onerous by design. The pre-eminent national communications law prohibits the government from using regulations to censor.

Famously, the Trump administration follows all laws and regulations to the letter

Direct (rehosted) image links at full size (open in new tab to see details):

The most ridiculous thing about this is the timeframe. It’s not like this was over a few days: those first two photos were taken on January 7th and the third was on March 3! Imagine putting up with this shit for 2 months to suck up to your shitty mercurial boss lmao

I made this exact face upon reading the opening sentences of the article and seeing the picture.

https://xcancel.com/thouse_opinions/status/1538099199358685184

Incidentally, grom is Russian for “thunder, roar”

TIL!

the voice acting — it’s all Microsoft Sam

Me trying to find Japanese videos about speedrunning to practice listening to native Japanese speakers but every time I click on one it’s just those got-dang 2hu TTS thingamabobs (but as you say, I’d totally be the one using the TTS if I were a Japanese person making videos about vidya on NND 15 years ago, so I can’t be that mad)

Fanime is to me something defined by its “spirit” first and foremost: the spirit of making things for the sake of making things, even if the end result is poorly drawn, poorly acted, and poorly written, or otherwise “cringeworthy”.

Hear, hear! Even though I’m not a fanime enthusiast in particular, this is absolutely how I feel about art more broadly. I want to see the actual human who made it in the end result!

Adam Neely did a great video on AI generated music recently, and one of the interesting things he teased out is that people who use AI to “compose” don’t cite any influences—AI or otherwise. Personally, one of the most gratifying things about music is understanding it on a deeper level—both from analyzing the notes/techniques/textures themselves purely in the context of the song, but also tracing the lineage of musical ideas: “Oh, that kind of chord voicing comes from X composer” or “That lick is definitely a reference to Y’s solo” or “That production technique was made popular by Z”. This gives the listener an idea of the unique blend of music that shaped the composer’s style, and can point to more things to listen to in order to broaden their musical palate and historical perspective.

I think she might’ve also shown me another song in the intermissions but I didn’t make note of it, alas.

I’m fairly certain it was just the one song, but if there was another, it can’t have been very good if neither of us remember it

Apropos anime I’ve already seen before, Gurren Lagann: It fucked way harder than when I watched it for the first time yeeeaaars ago, but the movie was disappointing.

Never saw the movie—from what I’ve heard, it’s a recap with a bit of new animation, no?

Courage the Cowardly Dog is another old cartoon I’d wanted to get a taste of just to familiarize myself with others’ nostalgia. I was surprised that the dog talked, I kinda thought the dog only whimpered. Frankly, I think it would’ve been better if the dog only whimpered.

Genuinely never seen any of this show (see above: no cable)—only know what it looks like from still frames—so I’m curious to know what you mean but I think I prefer to keep it a mystery (at least in terms of direct experience).

Archer

I remember enjoying it well enough, but that was a long time ago and I doubt I’d enjoy it as much now, as much as I like H. Jon Benjamin. I watched it with a friend, so like you said, that may have contributed a lot to the enjoyment.

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

I think I’ve only seen the transformation sequences and maybe some random scenes which I’ve forgotten. Doesn’t seem like my kind of show, but I’ve heard that the music (courtesy of prominent Japanese composer/producer TeddyLoid) is pretty great.

I guess for me Yotsuba&! is good because one doesn’t need to understand much of it to follow along on the plot

This is also a case of having different needs from an immersion text: I’ve now gotten to a point where I actually want something on around a high school reading level without furigana (or without copious furigana, at the very least) so I can really test and reinforce my kanji and vocabulary knowledge. But early on, I was much happier to read something along the lines of Yotsuba&! which I could get through without giving up in disgust. It’s all about finding that right balance of challenge and enjoyment.

are you saying it’s because a daily doubling is itself exponential

Yup, that’s what I’m saying! I’m not the kind of person who will get on someone’s case for using exponential colloquially to mean “growing really fast”, but when you explicitly describe an exponential function and then imply that it’s not exponential, that’s just sloppy. Bringing in nonlinearity, which makes it seem like you’re being more mathematically formal, makes it even less acceptable.

Episode 15 of Pokémon is “Battle Aboard The St. Anne”, which was the first English-dubbed episode of Pokémon to broadcast on Turtle Island, before the rest of the series was broadcast in order.

Honestly didn’t realize this until you pointed it out!

it was very good to find out that so much of the Norwegian dub of Pokémon is available for free on YouTube on Pokémon’s official channel

extremely rare The Pokémon Company W

I played the original Game Boy games (Red & Blue) through online emulators without save features as a kid. This meant that I had to start at the very beginning every time I played, and accordingly I never finished either game, because how the heck’s a kid supposed to beat Pokémon Red in a single sitting, right?

My first experience was on the Game Boy, but my second experience was also on a janky emulator where I lost my save a few times and thus never completed the Gen II games. It’s amazing what you’ll put up with as a little kid! But it’s also interesting to learn that playing on online emulators was a thing even that far back. My only interaction with them has been via the Internet Archive, which uses them for old PC platforms like the Apple II, but given the light system requirements of a Game Boy emulator it makes sense that someone would set up a website with one and slap some ads on it. From the earliest days I’ve always preferred downloading over streaming so that’s a whole subculture I’m not familiar with (e.g. I know that KissAnime existed but I never actually went on there).

I think I was especially fond of the antics of Jessie and James — which figures, they’re the adult characters.

Yeah—I have no idea how the series develops, since there’s over a thousand episodes, but the Team Rocket trio is by far the highlight of the show for me (and also the highlight of the English dub, if you ask me).

Avatar: The Last Airbender is another thing that was popular when I was a kid that I missed out on, and, although certainly flawed, it is genuinely a very good cartoon.

I also missed out on it (no cable + too old + L + ratio), but I watched it as an adult and enjoyed quite a bit! It’s no Owl House, but it’s a good un. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend Korra due to the horrifically lib politics, which I’m sure you’ve heard about…I think I tapped out by Season 3).

My mom and I are getting very close to the end of Steins;Gate.

Looks like I’m gonna have to admit defeat on this one.

Ranma ½ (reboot) is a a very cute show with a very good dub

I really ought to get around to watching the original Ranma ½ at some point.

I already mentioned in a previous thread that SungWon Cho plays Mousse in the dub.

I couldn’t confirm it but I’d certainly suspect that Grace Lu probably grew up speaking Chinese, because the /ɻ~ʐ/ in how Shampoo says “Ranma” is very distinctive.

Sasuga Erika! It’s always fun catching little things like that.

We started Kodocha basically just to have two English dubs in rotation. We’ve only seen the first episode so far, but it looks very promising, we burst out laughing at several points.

Ooh, I’m not familiar with this one (I’m sure I’ve seen a few random clips/images, since the MC seems familiar), but you’ve piqued my interest! I want to watch/read more shōjosei, so this’ll go close to the top of my PTW.

This activated a neuron of me as a brand-new weeb watching my “first anime” (Little Witch Academia) and just looking at the episode list when I was halfway through it just to see how many of the episodes I could remember.

Cute!

My Journey to Her (Boku ga Watashi ni Naru Tame ni, abbrev. BokuWata)

Great recommendation! But perhaps too good of a recommendation, since I’ve already read it I guess I could re-read it in Japanese, but I read it relatively recently so I don’t think I’d have that same pull. Incidentally, that’s the second manga in the “autobiography of a Japanese trans woman going to Thailand for SRS” I’ve read, the first being Umareru Seibetsu wo Machigaeta (I Was Born the Wrong Sex) which I think I’ve read in both English and Japanese.

As a dutiful Japanese learner, I do have Yotsuba&!, and I’ve read a few chapters, but the kind of thing that really gets me hooked is well-developed characters and emotional turmoil (hence Ikoku Nikki). I think when I get to the point where I can easily read in Japanese at about the same pace I can in English, I could read something more lighthearted, but in the meantime I need something properly dramatic to keep me plowing ahead.

literally me meaning to respond to this yesterday