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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • you probably already know this, but for anyone else:

    The Cosmere Series (of which the Mistborn Saga is a part of) does heavily feature Sci-Fi as well as post-apocalypse themes alongside (mostly) fantasy (Sci-Fi: the sunlit man, tress of the emerald sea; post-apocalypse: Stormlight Archives, Yumi And The Nightmare Painter), which made me think OP was talking about this series specifically.

    In some of the other books it is mentioned that all of the powers originally came from a being called Adonalsium (basically God). what fuels all these manifestations of powers is called Investiture. Each Shard of Adonalsium manifests different Powers, Allomancy is just one of them.

    so it’s a unique mix of classic fantasy, sci-fi, and post-apocalypse genres in a single gigantic saga, in which the sci-fi and post-apocalypse themes are intentionally kept vague and in the background.

    highly recommend all of the other books!

    they are great in their own right, and also give a LOT of extra bits and peaces of the overall lore!

    what’s best about the series is, as you’ve already explained, the “hard-fantasy/sci-fi” approach to powers: all power requires some kind of source, everything comes from something.

    best to do the Stormlight Archives after Mistborn (either order works), then the rest; order doesn’t really matter, although i recommend Tress of the emerald Sea and The Sunlit Man to be read last, because they contain a lot of sci-fi lore, which is best enjoyed last (imho)

    also: Stormlight Archives Book 5 is coming relatively soon, i think it’s december?








  • generally a very good point, however i feel it’s important to point out some important context here:

    the pedophiles you’re talking about in your comment are almost always members of tight knit communities that share CSAM, organize distribution, share sources, and most importantly, indulge their fantasies/desires together.

    i would think that the correlation that leads to molestation is not primarily driven by the CSAM itself, but rather the community around it.

    we clearly see this happening in other similarly structured and similarly isolated communities: nazis, incels, mass shooters, religious fanatics, etc.

    the common factor in radicalization and development of extreme views in all these groups is always isolation and the community they end up joining as a result, forming a sort of parallel society with it’s own rules and ideals, separate from general society. over time people in these parallel societies get used to seeing the world in a way that aligns with the ideals of the group.

    nazis start to see anyone not part of their group as enemies, incels start to see “females” instead of women, religious fanatics see sinners…and pedophiles see objects that exist solely for their gratification instead of kids…

    I don’t see why molesters should be any different in this aspect, and would therefore argue that it’s the communal aspect that should probably be the target of the law, i.e.: distribution and organization (forums, chatrooms, etc.)

    the harder it is for them to organize, the less likely these groups are to produce predators that cause real harm!

    if on top of that there is a legally available outlet where they can indulge themselves in a safe manner without harming anyone, I’d expect rates of child molestation to drop significantly, because, again, there’s precedence from similar situations (overdoses in drug addicts, for example)

    i think it is a potentially fatal mistake to think of pedophiles as “special” cases, rather than just another group of outcasts, because in nearly all cases of such pariahs the solutions that prove to work best in the real world are the ones that make these groups feel less like outcasts, which limits avenues of radicalization.

    i thought these parallels are something worth pointing out.



  • all of the words you listed that use a soft g are loanwords from other languages (pretty sure they’re all french) soooo…yeah. no wonder those have different pronunciation.

    when you look at anglo-saxon words the difference becomes clear:

    • gift
    • graveyard
    • ground
    • gay

    all hard g’s.

    mixing up languages is the common denominator here.

    the G in GIF stands for graphical, neither english nor french in origin, hence the confusion about pronunciation.

    alternatively; English is a terrible mess, and the only “correct” pronunciation is reached through general consensus. if the majority pronounces something a certain way, that’s how it should be pronounced.



  • you don’t have a choice when it comes to data collection:

    if it’s allowed literally every manufacturer WILL do it!

    see: the exact situation we’re currently in!!

    so, no, you don’t have a choice (other than buying an older model).

    this isn’t how “the market” does anything.

    there’s no downside to outlawing spyware in cars.

    and it hasn’t made anything cheaper, what the hell kind of cope is that??


  • i absolutely love it when it’s paired with manual transmission and an auto-break function:

    when you stop, for example at a red light, and press the break while standing still for a bit, it goes into auto-break mode.

    when you then release the clutch while in gear (neutral gets ignored), it automatically releases the hand break, so you can perform a hand break assisted start from standstill without having to touch the actual hand break!

    this is excellent when you’ve stopped at an incline, and generally really useful!

    but i get the skepticism…i was extremely skeptical at first too, but you get used to it quickly and then it feels weird when it’s missing or turned off in another car… there’s just no reason not to use this feature it’s simply great!