Fun fact: through the 1800s coal-powered steamships mostly replaced sailing vessels for the transportation of people and time-sensitive cargo around the world. But steamships were highly inefficient and required frequent re-coaling, and locally available coal was dirtier and contained less thermal energy than the good stuff that Britain (who was doing by far most of the shipping) got from Wales and other places on their island. Because steamships could not efficiently and cheaply haul the coal that they needed around the world to restock the coaling stations, this was done instead by an enormous fleet of sailing colliers. So the “steam revolution” of the 1800s was actually a steam/wind-power hybrid. It wasn’t until the advent of triple- and quadruple-expansion steam engines, turbines, and greatly improved boilers in the early 1900s that steam-powered vessels could efficiently and economically haul their own fuel. And even with that, wind-powered cargo vessels remained economically viable and operating in significant numbers right up until the start of WWII (that’s II, not I).

A great read is The Last Grain Race by Eric Newby, about his time as a sailor aboard Moshulu (a large steel sail-powered cargo ship) in 1938-1939. Moshulu went on to star in The Godfather Part II as the ship which brings young Vito Corleone to New York, and is now weirdly enough a floating restaurant in my city of Philadelphia (I’ve never eaten there but I want to).

It’s almost as bad as provolone on a cheesesteak.

He’ll flee to Russia before he does a day in prison. And I think that would be better for the country as it would clearly expose him as a traitor - and some of his cultists might follow him there.

If ya liked it then ya shoulda put ring mail on it
If ya liked it then ya shoulda put ring mail on it
If ya liked it then ya shoulda put ring mail on it
If ya liked it then ya shoulda put ring mail on it

Edit: before any nerds weigh in, I know that’s not ring mail.

while Superman himself is invulnerable, the rest of the world isn’t

Larry Niven wrote a great essay many years ago about the physical realities of being Superman. My favorite bit was about how him having sex with Lois Lane would have resulted in her head being blown off.

Star Wars where the X-Wings behave more like airplanes than spacecraft

My favorite part of Empire Strikes Back was when Luke takes his (presumably) short-range interceptor X-Wing and flies it to another star system to hang with Yoda. I dunno, maybe canon explained this one somewhere (was Yoda’s planet in the same star system as Hoth or something? are X-Wings capable of FTL travel for no reason?).

Thoo Faith

Would you think those guys would know to do something about a dude on a roof with a rifle?

“Trump’s going to fix the economy … with tariffs!”
“Uh, a tariff is a tax.”
“…”

Should’ve put “John” above the “Holmes” logo and made fun of your boss’ small-dick energy when he complained.

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people mistakenly associate Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering with Gabriel despite being voiced by Phil Collins

Just saw an interview with Peter Gabriel where he said people come up to him almost daily and tell him how they much they loved Trick of the Tail. He just had this defeated look on his face when he said he had to keep telling them that was Phil and not him.

However, you may be overestimating the impact of Hackett’s departure on their shift to pop. Genesis the band was deeply in debt by that point and they really had to make the shift to more accessible pop in order to become profitable. Additionally, this was a time when all of the prog rockers (except Robert Fripp) were selling out: Asia (supergroup formed from Yes, King Crimson and ELP), ELP themselves (with their hilariously awful Love Beach album) and later Yes with 90125.

At my last company, they usually gave end-of-the-year bonuses instead of raises. They were pretty generous, usually amounting to about half of our annual salaries, but it of course prevented us from being guaranteed that level of compensation the following year. That’s why I always describe bonuses as raises followed by pay cuts.

I once quit my job at a software company I really hated. They were desperate to keep me around for the projects I was leading so they asked if I would work hourly for a while. I quoted them a go-fuck-yourselves hourly rate which they immediately agreed to, which made me even more angry about my prior years of poor compensation. I worked under this agreement for about half a year and further improved my effective hourly rate by not working very hard.

I think that was the inspiration for the B-17 scene from the animated movie Heavy Metal, which fucked me up as a kid.

It’s funny how people who get their news exclusively from their Facebook feeds have never heard of Cambridge Analytica. I can’t imagine how that could happen.

Ah, interesting.

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I tried “velveting” some beef the other day (basically marinating the meat in baking soda) and the result was absolutely disgusting, both in terms of texture and flavor. I wonder if maybe I didn’t wash off the baking soda sufficiently and got soap, although that wouldn’t explain the texture issue. The texture was similar to Chinese takeout beef but somehow not as palatable.

It’s weird, I watch a lot of Youtube videos about street food vendors in India and sometimes they brag about not using garlic or onions in their offerings. I don’t get how that could possibly be a selling point.