*pouts* I only know one person as into Tolkien as I am, and they refuse to watch #RingsOfPower so I have no one to nerd out wiiiith. I want to gush about the good (Celebrimbor š) and whinge about the bad ("Grand-elf" my ass). I just want a nice community of Tolkien fans who can talk ROP respectfully
It reminds me a lot of Star Trek #StrangeNewWorlds, where some episodes are wonderful, and some episodes are plagued by prequel-itis, where the writers, knowing that a character will do a thing in the future, become incapable of writing that as a natural development instead of inevitable destiny.
Finally finished #RingsOfPower and ... hoo boy, what a mixed bag! The Siege of Eregion, the torture of Celebrimbor, the tragedy of Adar - all fantastic, really loved it! SO GOOD. But it's mixed with a lot of very lazy references-instead-of-story with Gandalf. It's such a weird clash of quality...
"No one complains of the flexibility and strength of female gymnastsāit is merely amazing. A powerful triple axel on the ice is perfectly feminine when done in a skirt. But a powerful punch? A cheetah-fast sprint? Variation is suddenly of deep concern." www.scientificamerican.com/article/spor...
Human anatomy is delightfully varied, but female athletes are heavily criticized for not conforming to socially accepted bodily norms
I've barely blogged this year, and I keep promising more posts on climate modelling since that's my job and I like explaining it. But no, instead I'm posting AT LENGTH in defence of Rings of Power, an okay-I-guess show from an evil, evil corporation. haggishashbrowns.wordpress.com/2024/10/02/a...
I donāt love Amazonās The Rings of Power. But I donāt hate it. Some aspects of it I love, some I hate, some I like, some I dislike, some Iām neutral about. Overall, as a bigā¦
Trump and Vanceās mass deportation plan would lead to a humanitarian (and economic) disaster and concentration camps, according to a historian of concentration camps. www.scientificamerican.com/article/trum...
Trumpās language about immigrants āpoisoningā the U.S. repeats past rhetoric that led to civilian detention camps, with horrific, tragic results
most of the states in the South are not democracies, at the state level. i don't think most folks have internalized what this means. the state governments aren't representative, and many local governments are worse; most are exclusively oriented towards curtailing rights and exploiting citizens
This essay exactly. The president of wash u demanding that Richard Spencer be allowed to speak now having students and faculty arrested for speaking. It gives the lie so clearly.
"A strange paradox: in his freshman year, my former student ... was required by Martin to read a book insisting that free society tolerates Nazi protests. A year after [he] graduated, Martin had him arrested for pro-Palestinian protest."
These contradictory standards display what activists call āthe Palestine exception.ā