From the article: "There’s something about the freedom of mobility and there’s something very American about it, and so, I also think that there’s a lot of people around the world that think about American cars, and they think about American road trips, and we want to invite the rest of the world. They’re going to come for FIFA’s club games, or they’re going to come for the World Cup, or they’re going to come for the Olympics, come and see sporting events, but then you can also take a week or 10 days with my family to travel around this great country. Stop at our great restaurants. Stay in our wonderful motels or hotels. Gas up your car with great American energy."

THIS is actual car-brain thinking. I see a lot of memes in fuck cars attacking individuals and the choices they are forced to make, but this article illustrates issues that we have to fight. It's got all the delusion you expect from a government source written by car companies: tying car ownership to freedom, oddly thinking that non-americans think about our car culture as a positive experience, and that wonderfully tone-deaf tagline.

Your city likely has some form of a transportation committee. Join it. Go to the meetings. The switch to Zoom has made it even easier to do so. My experience with our local zoning committee has reinforced that you have to fight like hell, even with your own neighbors, to do simple things like decrease parking requirements. Car-brain is real and it's propped up by decades of propaganda and policy.

And then saying "inflation is down," as if that has any real day-to-day impact on our travel plans.

Will do, thanks.

Connections Puzzle #751

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I'm going to watch but I have to wait until it has been fully released. I can't carry a narrative on a corporate schedule. I hope that it still reads positively for Disney Plus analytics and rewards those involved.

In the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event, this response is completely warranted. After 9/11, it was difficult in America to celebrate anything immediately after. You had to address it. "I know we are all in pain, but my son was born today and I'm happy."

The reelection was traumatic for those that remember the insanity of the 1st term. And it ended in a worldwide trauma that we are all still trying to wrap our minds around.

After a while, though, it can be seen as performative. But let's give people time to grieve if they need it.

I have a dedicated windows 10 PC for gaming only. Microsoft is actively trying to brick my machine. I have to read the fine print to make sure I'm not agreeing to the 11 "update." I feel held hostage - it sucks.

I'm thinking of going to steamOS - I'm a casual gamer that just needs it to work when I have the spare minute to fire up a game. I don't have time to do much troubleshooting, but I will make time so I don't get locked into a console. Shrugging emoji.

Wordle 1,471 4/6

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"We surveyed the mother-in-laws and high-school bullies of our participants to gauge personality traits."

The meat of the article: "Overall, people were fairly consistent in how they judged tattoos. Raters tended to agree with one another about what certain tattoo features might suggest about personality. For instance, cheerful and colorful tattoos were linked to impressions of higher agreeableness. Large, traditional-looking tattoos were associated with higher extraversion. Tattoos that appeared low in quality or included death imagery led raters to perceive the wearer as more neurotic or less agreeable.

However, these judgments were largely inaccurate. When the researchers compared how participants were rated with how they described themselves, most of the links between tattoo features and personality fell apart. Except for one pattern: people who had tattoos described by raters as “wacky” were somewhat more likely to score higher on openness to experience in their self-assessments"

"No women, no kids" is good enough for me.

Wordle 1,469 2/6

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Connections Puzzle #747

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A fairly poor quality YouTube link to the episode: https://youtu.be/4rQLnL9FRzI

It's listed as S07E08 if you want to use the better quality link in the thread.

Wordle 1,468 4/6

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Finally getting around to Andor S2 (I wanted to devote full attention so I had to wait for a break in my schedule) SPOILER AHEAD: I just watched the Ghorman massacre today. Wow. And so many notes from current events.

Andor S1 did an excellent job of characterizing the start of a revolution, I knew S2 wouldn't let me down.

Connections Puzzle #745

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Alien, roust.

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Got it in 2 today!

Connections Puzzle #744

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