I wonder if GRRM was thinking of Washington DC being literally built on swampland when he envisioned King's Landing as a city stinking to high heaven due to a lack of a proper waste drainage system.

I am already seeing "it's a distraction!" takes and please fucking kill me

oh boy

Very much ancillary at this point, but once again a reminder to Tokyo that it can have its alliance or it can have its commitment to some semblance of a rules-based order but harder and harder to have both. www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZ...

Someone in this Starbucks is using the Metal Gear Solid alert sound for text messages. 🙄

come closer, no don’t

And the Special Military Operation in Ukraine was supposed to take 3 days. The enemy gets a vote, lads.

Notable that the UK reportedly did not participate in the attack. And consistent with reporting last week that the UK viewed a US attack as illegal and did not to be complicit, including through the use of UK airbases.

"Blasts were also reported in several Gulf Arab countries hosting US military forces, including Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain."

"Explosions continue to be heard periodically in Qatar’s capital as the air defence continues to intercept Iranian missiles."

I think you got a very strong argument there. Best-looking 2D retro game in my eyes has been Sonic Mania and they explicitly targeted approximately what would have been visually possible on the Saturn -- which I think was a really smart move.

Yes, and ironically it was the PC Engine CD (popular in Japan), with its many CD quality soundtracks and cutscenes, that showed the direction the next generation would take. Before there was Symphony, there was Rondo of Blood. Before there was Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9, there was Ys I, II, III, and IV.

There is only one man left who can save the situation...

I would say the Saturn aged the best, since its library of 2-D games is so vast and solid, especially all those perfect arcade ports like Metal Slug, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Darkstalkers, and all the many various shmups.

we want there to be a sense of moral memory and it's just really not there. do you remember vaccine diplomacy? remember how it was going to reshape the world whether the U.S. or China donated covid vaccines first in developing countries? made basically zero different to the image of either.

one of the weird things about the world is that, in general, people forget most stuff very fast. the only hatreds that really seem to stick are when you *occupy* a country.

The artwork of #MiraiNinja by Keita Amemiya which I have no idea what it was used for. Usual upscale/clean/retouch process applied.

Iko Kawai, portrayed by actress Mia Masuda, from the Japanese live-action (tokusatsu) series Earth Defense Girl Iko-chan. Ehhh??? Let's check in with the professor of tokusatsu here, @rattatatouille.bsky.social.

For everyone who likes the intersection between fashion and politics

Stand by Me is a story about four young people going on a journey and finding a dead body. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is a story about four young people going on a journey and learning someone's dead. In this essay I will

The resilience of lolita fashion is so remarkable. Almost every other style that came up at around the same time has faded away. Gyaru has died and then gone through a mini-resurgence that has also already quieted down. Yet you still see lolita everywhere.

After all the tankies I've had to deal with over the years, not surprised.

QTP with your favorite Princess Zelda! (wrong answers only)

So it begins.

Man, just feel terrible for the Iranian people. The regime might legitimately topple due to this, and the chaos afterwards is going to leads to a lot of suffering and death, and the West is going to do NOTHING helpful.

The human will to survive should never be underestimated.

I feel differently about this now that I have kids, which is not to say Cooper is off-base

It's so good.

It's great, and Hard Corps is even better (in the Japanese version anyway).

Yes! The jump to the next generation was even bigger, but let's not forget how much the Super Famicom, Mega Drive, and PC Engine advanced things from the Famicom.

Turns out the rule of law is whole cloth, not piecemeal

so many people in tech world made a really bad bargain

Yanaka Ginza and Jimbocho on film

4 things I like, 4 people tagged: Calligraphy Shoot 'em up Video Games Cats Flowers @boycuriousboy.bsky.social @eliasisquith.blog @markgaleotti.bsky.social @snesdrunk.bsky.social

Important thread.

According to my dictionary, the original meaning of this reading is apparently "to make a noise," so I guess is like you're a loud tourist or noisy guest. 😂

Anthropic go get their asses.

Anthropic's lawyers are going to have Hegseth's lunch money. This is going to be brutal.

Then there's the insane people like me who do everything at once.

Sailor Moon's companions represent the traits valued by humankind: beauty, strength, intelligence, and discipline. She is plain in comparison to them, but she sacrifices everything, even her life, for love of them, and for her spouse, the Earth, and so she is immortal, the eternal guardian

I think you could also recommend this anime to them : 'Maria Watches Over Us'. The story takes place in a Catholic and Marian school and spiritual environment, so it should be suitable.

Would choose Demon Slayer because it basically says that no matter how much evil you’ve committed you can still repent and be saved even in your final moments of life and to actively refuse to do so results in damnation/oblivion. Super duper Catholic.

If you're interested in discussing the body and embodiment, try the anime 'Kaiba' (no, it has nothing to do with Yu-Gi-Oh) by Masaaki Yuasa. It also touches on capitalism, transhumanism, commodification of the individual, immortality, memory, and personality.