Grade A

Chill Movies

The warm, natural color grading of 80s and 90s movies shot on film.

I’d like to point out that none of these movies have anything resembling “natural” color! The “warm, natural” vibe people remember from a lot of ’80s and ’90s movies isn’t some untouched neutral image. It’s just as crafted a look as any more modern film. Back then, the look and feel was created using the chosen film stock, lenses and filters, lighting, lab timing, and was optimized for the way those movies would’ve been viewed at the time. (In fact, many of those films would have had digital intermediates.)

How those films look is no more “natural” than the films created now. And those films were all produced using wildly different techniques and technologies.

By the way, of course there is NO SUCH THING as a “natural” image. It’s all constructed. It’s similar to philosophy. If you believe it’s pointless and shouldn’t exist, it just means you are then following someone else’s philosophy without even being aware of it.

Chill Links

The Great Student Swap. For years, public universities have aggressively recruited out-of-state and international students, charging them higher tuition. But those pipelines may be drying up.

The Grave Threat Posed by Donald Trump’s Attack on Jimmy Kimmel. The President and his allies are using the power of the state to silence speech they dislike.

Home Insurance as You Know It Is Doomed. You’re Not Ready.

Russia, China and Iran Use Kirk’s Murder to Stoke Conspiracy Theories and Division.

Congress Has No Good Excuse to Keep Trading Stocks.

How Much Training Should an Airline Pilot Need? The government requires 1,500 hours of flight time to serve as first officer as an airliner. Some aviators say the rule is excessive—and doesn’t actually make flying safer.

The political mood feels like 9/11 again.

EVs Have Gotten Too Powerful.

Fee Fees

Chill Cool, Political Economy

Trump imposes $100K fee on H-1B visas in new immigration action

That’s awesome. H-1Bs are used to suppress American wages and so that the plutes can have an obeisant slave class of coolies1.

H-1Bs should be banned altogether, but that’s a good first step.

  1. Yes, I use this term deliberately and intentionally.

Testing the Waters (and Airs)

Chill Evil, War

We’re already at war with Russia.

My guess is Russia will take Estonia first. The supply lines are more favorable and they have a weaker military than the other Baltic States. And from there, it’s easier to invade Latvia and Lithuania.

Gonna be a lot of death in non-Ukraine Europe in the next 2-10 years. And I blame Russia shills as much as anyone.

Wave For Him

Chill Clowns, Evil

It bothers me that as Russia takes the Baltics and Poland and kills hundreds of thousands, all the Ian Welshian Russia shills will come out of the woodwork talking about how all of those countries are “really Russian” and how it’s a good thing.

I hate those people so much. They really should go sign up for Putin’s meat waves if they are so invested in Russian imperialism.

Chill Links

The Illiberal, Transphobic Pipe Dream Of Banning Porn Reaches Michigan Republicans.

DNA study reveals origin of world’s first pandemic.

Gemini AI solves coding problem that stumped 139 human teams at ICPC World Finals.

Taiwan Just Unveiled Its Own High-Altitude Anti-Ballistic Missile System.

Our Sun Is Becoming More Active And NASA Doesn’t Know Why.

Jerome Powell says the Gen Z hiring nightmare is real: ‘Kids coming out of college…are having a hard time finding jobs.’

What Happened to “the West”? As America Drifts Away From Its Allies, a Less Peaceful World Awaits.

Driven

Chill Annoying, Clowns

Driving is pretty great. People like doing it, generally. It offers a lot of freedom. It’s a weirdo urban-leftist myth that people hate driving. What they actually hate is commuting, which is a different sort of thing altogether.

Method To It

Chill Annoying, Evil

Indeed. I grew up in North Florida, among a whole passel of North Florida meth-heads. And I can tell a North Florida meth-head on sight in about 0.00001 seconds. Other people marvel at this skill. And I’m always right.

In the liberal mind, I’m discriminating. I’m being unfair. An obvious nasty meth habit doesn’t mean they’re not a good person, right? RIGHT? Tell me that as they’re stealing all your shit and perhaps stabbing you. Then you’ll be glad I did the discrimination.

Liberals are just wrong about all this stuff. Self-harmingly so.

Incivil

Chill Evil, War

A civil war in the current United States would not look at all like what people imagine, or the Civil War from 1861-1865.

It’d manifest more like the Rwandan Genocide combined with the political violence of the late 1960s and 1970s. Mostly, it’d be right-wingers killing Democrats, liberals and leftists with some retaliatory attacks going the other way “justifying” the attempted purge.

It might turn into a wider war, but that’d require geographical sorting that I find unlikely. Even most red cities are ~35%+ blue for instance.

So it’d be nasty. And long-running. And you would not like it. The economy would crash and food shipments would be disrupted. Some areas would starve in the worst cases.

But it’s certainly possible. I give the above scenario a 15% chance in the next decade, which is way way too much.