eightpix

There’s a bunch of these thought experiments that try to posit scenarios where C is violated.

Here’s one I remember from uni involving scissors. Similar to what OP was thinking, but really really big scissors.

I lived in Seoul for 3 years. 청계천 is one of the happiest places of my memory.

Magneto’s power set could be very useful and easy to manage. Magnets can certainly be made stronger and weaker. He/I would need to build up to any dangerous level of magnetic power, so meditation before sleep would be clutch. Bullet-proof, flight, what amounts to telekinesis, and the ability to manifest any metallic object is fairly incredible, yet unobtrusive.

Also, Forge’s power set would be pretty nice to have. Can engineer, build, fix, and invent literally anything. Solve any technological problem at will. The photocopier would never be broken. Wait, does anyone still use a photocopier? The only thing that’d be annoying is becoming everyone’s IT department.

Jamie Madrox is also a great contender. Instant dupes of myself at will (and, yes, magically, they come with clothes).

These are my answers.

How annoying is it to have idiotic anti-intellectuals running nuclear superpowers?

Socrates.

This man upheld his right to think his own thoughts and to go where the evidence led him. He stood trial and was sentenced to death.

Now, the most powerful people do not think, have zero principles, disregard evidence, and would gladly have others die to secure their power.

That the Xanatos gambit is what I now expect from all good villains. Any villain worth their salt has a way to defeat the hero — even captured, killed, or frustrated.

December 23, 1995: On a wooden basement staircase, in an empty house, with no heat, with my dog. My parents lost the house. All our stuff had been moved out. Our nervous dog wouldn’t settle. I couldn’t leave him. That was the last night I slept in the house where I grew up.

December 1998: On a basement floor near Ottawa. At least it was carpeted. Hammered after some party near a college. In the night, some angel draped a blanket over me. Best feeling of my life to that point. Some guy’s sister was kind to us.

May 2009: Coober Pedy, Australia. Slept in a hostel that was in a mine. Slept underground in a room with bunk beds and no windows. It was weird. Felt like a bomb shelter.

December 2011: Wadi Rum, Jordan. Slept outside under the stars on a sleeping mat on a rock of biblical proportion. The guy in the tent next to ours was snoring. Loudly. My partner couldn’t take it. We dragged our mattresses out onto a rock 300 m from camp. I reasoned — scorpions were less likely to find us. Coulda been wrong. Still here to tell the tale.

I’ve slept in some weird places.

Prolly should read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

Not the same, but, some similar elements.

Epstein. 'Nuff said. There’s even a herpesvirus.

And Douglas. This may just be in my life. Nonetheless, it is what it is.

Act to honour and recognize all humans as human. This is Said’s Law.

Act to sustain human security. This is Cura’s Law.

Act to accept responsibility for each action, especially where it guides future actions. This is Sartre’s Law.

Nicely done.

Bought the book. It’s the only dictionary I’ve enjoyed reading.

Inequivocal yes! Grew up with Batman:TAS.

I have never ridden a horse.

It was a cycle for me:

Not swearing led to swearing.

Swearing led to learning to swear in other languages.

Learning to swear in other languages served me well as I moved out of North America to teach.

Being out of North American led to me being more humble and less the brash North American. Also, I spent a lot of time with children.

Being less brash and speaking in other languages led me to think more about what I say before saying it.

Thinking about my speech led to downgrading swearing to make a point. I’ll swear, depending on the audience.

Specifically — like L-Boogie said — “I’ll add a MFer so you ign’ant ****s hear me.” (Fugees, The Score, “Zealots”) If I’m cursing, it’s prolly because there’s some ignorance in my area.

I admit, sometimes it’s mine.

Also, the irony is not lost on me that L fell off not too long after this rhyme. Celebrity culture can be a scene full of ignorance. I don’t blame her. I blame the industry.

Ixcanul

Submitted and short-listed for Oscar nomination in the international film category, this Guatemalan film had Spanish subs for the parts delivered in Kaqchikel.

Never saw it after its initial release in Guatemala City.

Yes. Almost every time.

This is an impossible question to answer. But, I’ll give it a shot anyway. I’ve expanded the meaning of “franchise” to include “all properties sublicensable for the purposes of profiteering.”

If “popular culture” refers to the recognizable and persistent elements of living in society that the majority people share in common without having to communicate that recognition, I’d regard the following franchises as having broad impact worldwide:

• McDonalds/Subway and all attendant advertising as a signpost for food. Franchises abound.

• Esso/Shell/BP as gateways to modern conveniences and transportation. Every gas station, residence, farm house, hen house, outhouse, and dog house is connected to these franchises in some way.

• G4S/Securitas/Garda as the front line protecting the ‘haves’ from the ‘have-nots’. Franchises abound.

• Most athletic, luxury vehicle, and brands as the status symbols they want themselves to be. Franchisees promote the brands as a means of collecting clients.

If, on the other hand, “popular culture” is, ‘traditions and material culture of a particular society. In the modern West, pop culture refers to cultural products such as music, art, literature, fashion, dance, film, cyberculture, television, and radio that are consumed by the majority of a society’s population. … types of media that have mass accessibility and appeal’ (ThoughtCo.) then the following are some fairly strong indicators of popular culture:

• Hello Kitty (be pleasant)

• Pokémon (pursue goals)

• Superman/Batman (masculinity, vigilantism)

• Paw Patrol (institutions are essential)

• the Olympics (do athletics)

• Michael Jordan (be excellent)

• Mickey Mouse (dream big)

• Star Wars/The Bible (G vs. E)

The ones I wish would take hold and have more of an influence:

• X-men (biodiversity is good)

• the Expanse

• Battlestar Galactica (genocide, rebellion, impersonation, terrorism, coups d’état, civil war, infidelity, succession, military conflict, asymmetrical warfare, treason, mutiny, pirate broadcasts, nuclear warfare… and that’s just the first half of the series)

• Tony’s Chocolonely (ethical economics)

Charging for cell phones. So much better than a decade ago.

By the same token, and I consider these a different category, headlamps. Camping got a whole lot better with a solid headlamp setup. The red light is crucial.