u/LeilLikeNeil

Spoilers for Cibola Burn, I can’t remember if the inciting event is the same on the show.

>!How did the landing platform explosion cause the shuttle crash? The shuttle is described as still being pretty far off, and I know the shuttle is large, necessitating a large platform and therefore a large explosion, but I’m still struggling with how an explosion on the ground did that much damage to a shuttle presumably still several thousand feet up.!<

I’ve been through Final Architecture, Children series, Shroud, Alien Clay, Service Model, and Green City. Other non-AT favorites of mine include Murderbot, Expanse, Captive‘s War, and Dungeon Crawler Carl. Votes on where to go next in the Tchaikovskyverse?

People will make disgust faces and say using mayo on a hot dog should be a federal crime, but then just act like covering a hand-held food in hot, wet meat so it’s impossible to eat without making an entire mess is perfectly reasonable.

Saw another post asking if a non-mammal alien species could theoretically evolve milk glands, and obviously yes, but that made me think: “mammal” comes from mammary; milk glands are definitionally linked to mammals. So, would aliens with milk glands be mammals? Would they be part of the animal kingdom?

First, yes, I know, I don't have to shop with Amazon, and among all the other reasons that exist to avoid doing business with this company, the fact that this is my final straw is ridiculous. Acknowledged. For what it's worth, I did go somewhere else for the thing I was about to buy on Amazon.

That said, I am genuinely stunned by how stupid and bad this feature is. We've all seen the deluge of "assistants" that nobody asked for. Usually we can just close a window or otherwise ignore them. I hadn't even noticed this thing on the Amazon app. But now, when you search on the website, an Alexa for Shopping sidebar pops out, taking up fully a quarter of the screen. You close it, but every time you do a new search or return to the main page, it pops right back out again. It actively gets in the way of your ability to shop. You can't opt out. You can't disable it. Any attempt to complain or provide feedback just leads to a goddamn oubliette of customer service bots.

Definitely my favorite part was when Alexa recommended I use a goddamn ad blocker browser extension.

https://preview.redd.it/uschjynwrmhh1.png?width=406&format=png&auto=webp&s=6547a4f67165f5003ca73230e72c8b042b51c35e

I know it’s not a remotely new observation, but I’m just getting to this part of the Iron Tangle again, and Critical Drinker’s performance is just so shitty. like, completely ignoring every other reason there is to not like that guy, his read on this book is just absolute trash. That is all. Fuck that guy.

Am I the only one who thinks Carl’s anger is generally pretty rational and proportional under the circumstances? I just started back at the beginning, and when Carl finds Rebecca W’s body, he says the fact that Frank murdered her makes him irrationally angry. This seems like a pretty rational thing to be angry about. And back in Parade of Horribles, when the Tigrans run over his mercenaries and he goes ape shit on them, which also seems like a pretty proportionate response. Do I just have the same anger control issues Carl has?

How are these two used differently? Is one or the other more commonly used in any particular region(s)?

I have a colleague who uses “out of pocket” any time he’s on PTO or otherwise not reachable, etc. I will never correct him. I just imagine his mild-mannered ass getting absolutely spring break ratchet every time he says it.

edit: the more you know. Apparently the « unavailable » usage is older, dating back to the early 1900s, while the « out of control » usage arose in the mid-1900s.

I still intend to imagine this dude getting white girl wasted whenever he says it.

Carl is 27 you guys. That is all.

https://preview.redd.it/z9b4yuiot29h1.png?width=713&format=png&auto=webp&s=367150378f1fc9492efcf11c3c9617e2823a3522