arctanthrope

isn’t 165 safe for poultry?

what’s the difference between “abstained” and “did not vote”?

I don’t know for sure actually. definitely Sauron would have commanded the Balrogs during the Years of the Trees when Morgoth was imprisoned by the Valar. but then the Balrogs fled and scattered during the War of Wrath when Morgoth was defeated at the end of the first age. and then my knowledge of the 2nd and 3rd age history is pretty fuzzy, so I don’t know if Durin’s Bane (or any other Balrogs) would have been in contact with Sauron, or if he tried to regather them (which I imagine he would if he knew of any that still existed), or if they were all just isolated in hiding for thousands of years. but in any case, if the confrontation with the Fellowship had gone differently, Durin’s Bane might have been flushed out of hiding, and gone out into the world to discover that Sauron was regathering his forces, and in that case I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t agree to ally with Sauron

even if this was accurate, “she was elected by her community to represent their interests in the government” isn’t a flaw in the system to be corrected, it’s the literal definition of representative democracy

“after a traumatic brain injury I now think exactly like musk” is a hell of a burn

good points but I have a nit to pick. I don’t think Flame of Anor refers to Narya, the Ring of Fire. keeping the 3 rings secret was imperative, so much so that Aragorn chides Frodo for mentioning that Galadriel has one, even though that’s a pretty obvious guess, and they were completely alone in the wilderness when it was said, and assaulting Lorien to get it would be difficult for Sauron’s forces. so for Gandalf to say directly to one of Sauron’s highest captains that one of the 3 is directly in front of him, carried by someone unexpected, as easy to take as defeating a single enemy (powerful as that enemy may be), just doesn’t make sense

Anor is the sun, so I think Gandalf is just saying “we both wield fire, but mine is bright like the sun, and thus superior to yours which is dark”

well mostly it’s explained by the fact that it didn’t happen.

"In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face.

All save one. There waiting, silent and still in the space before the Gate, sat Gandalf upon Shadowfax: Shadowfax who alone among the free horses of the earth endured the terror, unmoving, steadfast as a graven image in Rath Dínen.

‘You cannot enter here,’ said Gandalf, and the huge shadow halted. ‘Go back to the abyss prepared for you! Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your Master. Go!’

The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark. From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter.

‘Old fool!’ he said. ‘Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!’ And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade.

Gandalf did not move."

and then the Rohirrim arrive and the Rider leaves.

8 years after the announcement trailer for elder scrolls 6, we have a new elder scrolls release trailer. it’s for Skyrim again

I’ll save you a read, nobody knows. a theory that connects it to the 27 club (various celebrity musicians who died at the age of 27) is debunked. it’s proposed that a white lighter could be more easily stained by cannabis resin, and thus be a giveaway

shloon

exactly, the real Luddites weren’t opposed to technology, they were opposed to wealthy factory owners using technology in a way that eliminated or cheapened their labor to extract more profit. what Sanders and most others are citing as threats posed by “ai” are actually perfectly in line with the Luddites, but they’re not allowed to say so because the actual history of the Luddites has been smeared and propagandized to make them look like unreasonable morons who are scared of things they can’t comprehend

it’s not a joke, the National Socialist Party of America was headquartered in Chicago. there was a famous supreme court case about their right to hold a demonstration in the mostly-Jewish suburb of Skokie that took place in 1977, three years before the movie came out

edit: to clarify, the legal case took place in 77. the Nazis won but the demonstration never actually happened

he drinks two drinks in the morning he drinks two drinks at night he drinks two drinks in the afternoon it makes him feel alt-right

the square-cube law is the fact that a larger object has a lower ratio of surface area to volume than a similarly-shaped smaller object; i.e. as the scale of an object increases linearly, its surface area increases as a square function, and its volume increases as a cubic function.

thermodynamically, this means an object twice the size has 4 times the heat transfer (which occurs at the outer surface), but 8 times the heat capacity (since heat is stored throughout the volume). so it’s heat loss is by raw numbers greater, but lower as a percentage of the total, i.e. the internal temperature is more stable

yeah we just call them “rich assholes”

Terry Pratchett died ten years ago

you are allowed to stumble on the first line. and it may come off poorly. and if it does the other person is perfectly valid for not wanting to engage further. therefore if you want the other person to continue to engage, you should try not to come off poorly. this isn’t some newfangled social phenomenon, it’s how basic human interaction has worked for millennia

that’s not illegal actually. if it were, administrations could try to invent felonies for opposition leaders to have committed. now this particular felon should also have been ineligible to run under the 14th amendment, but he was never charged or tried for those crimes, let alone convicted

fun fact: Sauron did not create the Palantiri (btw, the word Palantir literally means “to see from afar” in Quenya, Tolkien’s high-elven language, the same etymology as the English word “television”), but he was able to gain control of the stones and influence the thoughts of others who looked into them by showing them visions of only the things he wanted them to see, which would bring those who were susceptible over to his side, or for those who were less susceptible, drive them to hopelessness and despair (this is what happened to Denethor, the Steward of Gondor; the movies decided to remove that plot point and make him look like an asshole for no reason). anyway, just a random fun fact about a fictional world, definitely no real modern relevance to powerful malicious actors gaining control of “television” or other means of rapid communication to bend the thoughts of others to their will

would it be possible to solve this problem by making different inks? or would any ink that doesn’t have this problem just inherently be non-permanent