Pretty good animation - would be cool to continue the show as an animated series like this...

The Dresden Files is a fun series of fantasy stories. Recommend.

The collapse happened just a year after the tower was renovated following minor damage to the roof.

Ouch.

RogueSix wrote on May 16, 2025, 13:59:

Yup. That sounds very fitting for pieces of shit like Helldivers 2 .

lol @ your obsession with Helldivers 2.

If it's more than 20 years old, it's edgy!

I had learned recently (last year) that soda in plastic bottles, like those 2 liter ones, are not truly airtight. The CO2 will eventually leak out. And I think it actually leaks out of the plastic, and not just the cap! What the hell haha.

I've mentioned my Baratza Encore electric coffee grinder before. I've had it for 6 years now. Still works. Easy to get parts for it, lots of online guides for maintenance and DIY hacks and so on.

If Nolan directs a Bond film, we would need to turn on the subtitles to understand WTF everyone is saying.

Speaking of air traffic controllers...
The FAA's Hiring Scandal: A Quick Overview

I wonder if Simu can even speak Cantonese. I'd be disappointed if he only speaks mandarin - since people of Hong Kong speak cantonese, and so did the characters in the videogame. Also, he is not a very good actor. Yes, I watched all of Kim's Convenience haha.

To guard against fraud, medical research should be a profession

Richard Smith, a previous editor of The BMJ, wrote recently about clinical trials: “We have now reached a point where those doing systematic reviews must start by assuming that a study is fraudulent until they can have some evidence to the contrary.” When someone as experienced as Smith makes such a statement, it is past time for us to put our house in order.

Medical research is already a mess.

I wonder why RogueSix is so obsessed with Helldivers 2? Got rejected at the job interview?

It's better to kill pixels in a game than real animals in real life.

MeanJim wrote on Jan 21, 2025, 20:34:
I'm looking for some headset recommendations. I love my 1000w surround sound setup for gaming, but I've been randomly losing or getting crackly sound from my right rear speaker. I checked all of the cables, so I thought the problem was my sound card. It fixed itself for a while, then came back right as I was building my new system, so I got a new sound card. The problem is still happening, so it must be something with my surround sound system.

You might have a bad speaker. My left speaker, a Paradigm Monitor 9 from 1996, has a dying tweeter and it would sometimes buzz randomly when certain frequencies are played. To diagnose, I swapped the left and right cables. Still got the buzz on the left speaker. Definitely was the speaker that time. I finally replaced the speakers in 2020, upgrading to KEFs.

So my advice: Check that the speaker isn't blown first.

Cutter wrote on Jan 17, 2025, 01:58:
I haven't had dental insurance for about 20 years now - almost 60% of Canadians don't. Getting an implant and crown here is $5000 - at least it was a few years ago which means it's probably even more expensive now. That reminds me to start doing research again on the dental tourist thing.

It's about $4500 to $6000 in Calgary. At least for my 2nd molar, lower jaw. Was going in for a root canal, but 2 days before the operation the tooth split in half. Luckily, the nerve was already dead from the infection, held at bay with antibiotics. I think it was cracked the year before, but the cold sensitivity was intermittent and the minor pain would go away after a few weeks, then come back. I could not tell which tooth it was (fricking jumped around), and would need a 3D CBCT scanner and some advanced equipment to find it. Only after it swelled up after my senior dog died (younger one is still kicking) did I figure out which tooth!

BTW, implants aren't covered under corporate health insurance either. Including bone grafts - which is kind of annoying because it would be nice to have the option to pull a bad tooth, fill the hole to prevent gumline collapse and neighbor tooth shifting, but not get the implant.

I also have a front upper tooth implant in 2016 - I went to Costa Rica for that one. State of the art. First attempt failed, but luckily the (world famous?) dentist was trying out a new implant technology where it could be done in a few days - no bone graft needed. Redrill the hole, screw in the implant screw (wide fins!). Wait 24 hours for the crown to be milled, install, then fly home. $1500 USD back then, plus airfare + lodging.

Zerg wrote on Jan 15, 2025, 22:25:
That is a good point. We really do not need hyper realistic representations like that.

Spec Ops: The Line.

Jivaro wrote on Jan 16, 2025, 00:43:
Myspace is still open and even accepting new accounts. I have been kinda wondering if we will eventually see a social media platform like Myspace go out of style but stay functioning long enough that a new generation adopts it. Like when bell bottoms come back into style every 10-15 years.

Forget Myspace - bring back GeoCities and make LiveJournal great again!

Jim wrote on Jan 10, 2025, 12:38:
imagine working for a game developer and getting death threats. toxic gamers. what other jobs does this happen to? Maybe in politics, but WTF

Police officer, fast food worker, waiter, redditor, reddit mod, nurse, bank teller, soldier, jet fighter pilot, doctors without borders, ordinary person trying to get to work on the subway train, women's shelter attendant, bus driver, journalist, whistleblower, former Boeing employee.

Cutter wrote on Jan 6, 2025, 20:56:
Considering it's a $320M dollar company that made 30 or 40 mil on that title alone that's a pretty shitty gift and bonus. Profit sharing/employee owned or GTFO!

Other game studios would just lay them off as a reward. Hmmm now that I think about it - the Japanese game devs usually keep all the employees around for years. Not sure about the Korean ones.

Heh, great story Bent.