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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 17th, 2023

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  • Here are a few that I find have consistent high quality content:

    The B1M… His videos seem to really get into the nitty gritty logistics of various large construction projects.

    Caitlin Doughty (Ask a Mortician)… I feel like each video is better than the previous. The historical death documentaries are incredible.

    Climate Town… Videos about climate change & has a really fun sense of humor.

    Neo… Lots of really cool explanatory videos. The editing is really good as well! The recent video on the presidential motorcade was very cool.

    And one more… Reckless Ben… IDK if it really fits within the prompt of this thread… The channel is tough to watch with all the annoying humor & there is a lot of hit-or-miss videos, but at least lately, it seems to really be doing some very interesting things. I enjoyed his series on mckamey manor.


  • I actually really disagree about the whole diamond thing…

    In addition to it being the primary plot device to get rose to actually tell her story, it plays a pivotal role in the story aboard the ship & is a key element in one of the main themes of the movie (money doesnt buy happiness).

    Regarding the 1st part (wearing it for the drawing)… the drawing was intended to be malicious… effectively a way to tell cal “we’re over”… hence the note that accompanied it saying “darling, now you can keep both locked in your safe”. It was effectively a vulgar display to cal showing that she cant be “bought” (essentially what her arranged marriage was… selling her as effectively a slave so that her mother would remain wealthy).

    Regarding the shooting scene, id argue it wasnt about the diamond at all, but about what happened just moments before… jack and cal were both trying to get rose on the lifeboat. It was super macho aggressive where they were both kind-of attempting to one-up eachother to win her affection (hence cal removing jack’s blanket and giving her the coat). This is also when cal gave his “i always win, one way or another” remark. Rose jumps back onto the ship and right into jacks arms (passionately kissing in front of cal). Enraged by this, cal chases them with the gun… id argue, this is cal’s last ditch attempt of “winning” (attempting to force them apart through murder). I think the comment about the diamond was just more of an afterthought once the adrenaline wore off.

    Regarding throwing it overboard, what was she supposed to do? Give it generously to bill paxton? Rose’s entire presence on the modern ship & all of her actions are purely malicious. Bill paxton getting the diamond is literally the worst case scenario.

    Think of how rose got involved… Bill paxton was showing off the drawing on tv to essentially say “see, we arent grave robbing, we are simply preserving history”. Rose saw right through that though due to her knowledge of where the drawing was (in the safe). Her phone call to bill paxton saying “have you found the heart of the ocean?” Wasnt a sincere question, but more of a “i know exactly what youre doing” threat. She is there to stop them, not reward them… her excessive luggage & wasting a whole day of their time to ramble about old grandma stories prove that. (on a ship like that, schedule is everything and wasting a day to listen to old grandma stories is most certainly a worst case scenario that will cost them millions).

    Sure in theory, she could sell it, but doing so would create 3 issues…

    1- the sale of such a priceless artifact would garner tons of attention. Everyone with even the slightest potential stake in it would likely come after her with an armies of lawyers (think insurance companies, cal’s heirs, the UK government/royal family, bill paxton’s company, etc)… Sure, enough time has passed that different statutes would limit their effectiveness in achieving success, but she (and her family) would be put in a precarious position of spending years entangled in legal battles while simultaneously being both “rich” and “not rich” (cant exactly buy a lawyer with a diamond that may or may not be yours after the fierce legal battles)… its really being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

    2- it would go deeply against her moral compass. Her entire life story was essentially being enslaved by wealth & escaping/ living an amazing life it by essentially faking her death to become poor.

    3- The diamond is really the only tangible item associated with her past life, jack’s entire existence, and an event that played such a pivotal role in completely changing every aspect of her life. likely not a single day goes by where titanic isnt in her mind… Considering this, id argue the sentimental value of such an item likely holds more value to her than all the money in the world.

    Personally, I always saw her throwing such an item in the ocean being similar to putting a cherished possession in the casket of a deceased loved one… frankly, i think it is the single most profound scene in the movie. Ive watched the movie literally hundreds of times & that scene is without fail when i start crying. The solitude nature of the act coupled with the look of relief on rose’s face just get to me. Its like shes been holding her breath for the last 84 years & that moment was the first time she was able to finally breathe.



  • I live in an apartment that is right next to active train tracks… a few floors up, i have a prime view of the tracks from my windows/balcony… its a heavily used corridor that sees both freight and passenger service.

    While im not really into trains, (more of a nuisance for me… being essentially right above the tracks), i will say, ive seen some really cool shit that really gave me a real appreciation for people who enjoy trains… since moving here, i find myself actually going to the window to watch them more often than anticipated.

    Personally, the coolest stuff ive seen hasnt been the freight or passenger trains, but the ultra specialized equipment used to maintain the tracks… some examples:

    1- one day, they replaced the railroad ties under the tracks. They had a really cool set of machinery that i can only describe as a robot on rails… the front of it pulled out every other tie, the back installed a new tie in its place with a bunch of other steps in-between.

    2-they were shipping a bunch of railroad rails. The rails were in long continuous segments that spanned the entire train’s length… my apartment perch is on a relatively sharp curve in the rails (really pleasant for noise /s), so it was cool to see how they handled it… the train essentially shimmied back and forth only a few feet at a time to allow their rail payload to bend and adjust to the curve in the track.


  • When i was a kid, a mexican restaurant chain shut down after a bunch of people got sick/died of hepatitis A in my city.

    The day they reopened, it was highly publicized on the local news, and my family went there to eat… i asked my dad if he was concerned about getting sick. He stopped, looked me in the eye, and told me with the upmost confidence “i guarantee you that this will be the cleanest restaurant meal you will ever have in your life”…

    i feel a similar concept applies to this situation… with all the eyes on the 737 max8, there is no way management is going to sell one if it has outstanding flaws/safety issues.



  • I’ve been enjoying it… Lots of cool new features & fun gameplay… Have about 6 hours in it right now. Overall, i feel like the game has lots of potential even if some of it is unrealized at the moment.

    PC Specs: laptop with i7-9750H, RTX 2060, 16gb ram… (below recommended hardware, but above minimum hardware)

    Regarding performance: When I first got in, it was pretty rough… lots of blurry blobs of textures, invisible buildings, and lots of lag… Once I played with the graphic settings though, these issues effectively disappeared. The game looks very good and is very playable. It does still studder on occasion, but nothing that makes the game feel unplayable.

    Regarding playability: The gameplay feels like a real upgrade compared to CS1. I know it sounds cliche, but the cities really do feel super alive. The progression feels natural and exciting. I actually got so inveloped in the gameplay that i completely lost track of time & ended up going to bed much later than i wanted lol.

    While overall I really enjoy the game, there are a couple things to note that I find particularly annoying: 1 - The achievements… IMO, achievements are super dumb to begin with (wish there was a way to blanket turn them off), but CS2 really takes it to a whole new annoying level. Example: one achievement is to cure 6000 sims in the clinic/hospital. It literally gives you a popup notification for every… single… one of those 6000 sims cured. So incredibly annoying. 2 - I’ve encountered some minor bugs here and there… nothing game breaking, but they did get slightly annoying… 1 in particular was little invisible pockets of water on the land that made road placement difficult.


  • And the same still applied in 1860… nyc was double the size of the next largest city back then.

    And to answer your question, they did do the same… chicago for example also built lincoln park in 1860 even though they were 1/10th the population at the time. The only difference between central & lincoln park is that lincoln park is larger than central park & not as square… its entirety (that isnt water) is surrounded by skyscrapers & is very much central to the city…

    To add more, central park is 4 miles away from the citys financial district… lincoln park is 2 miles away… it is MORE “central” than central park lol


  • Well, youre not going to find something “on the scale” of central park in other cities because no us city is “on the scale” of nyc…

    -Size wise, nyc’s population is nearly double the next largest city… -Density wise, nyc’s population density is nearly double that of the next densest city -skyscraper wise, nyc has nearly double the quantity of skyscrapers as the next most skyscraper heavy city…

    See the trend??

    If you look at it proportionally though, many US cities have something similar, many of them have been brought up itt…

    Personally, id say pittsburgh and chicago have roughly what youre looking for…

    -chicago has a few large urban parks that are surrounded by skyscrapers… the only difference is that they are next to the lake… pretty much all the amenities in nyc’s central park can be found in lincoln & grant parks…

    -pittsburgh also has a large urban park in the heart of downtown (hell, they bulldozed 1/3 of downtown to build it)… while it only has skyscrapers on one side, it is literally 1/10th the size of nyc, so give it some slack lol.


  • Completely agree! Its why in addition to making relatively lighthearted insults on the internet, i actually advocate for such changes by regularly attending government meetings and contacting my elected representatives.

    Hell, just this week, i participated in a meeting to change my city’s zoning code to allow more density, wrote to all of my representatives (granted this week, my email to them was about the lack of worker protections associated with PTO…) and researched all the agenda items for the upcoming city development and transportation meetings.

    If there is anything im missing that would help advocate for such changes, im all ears! No really… i actually enjoy going to these meetings as dull as that sounds and would love to know more! Its been kind of an emerging hobby for me lol.

    Its the dryest and dullest thing ever, but for some reason, ive been really into that! As a perk, the people watching at such meetings is amazing. Id love for more people to experience the wonders that is a local government meeting.



  • I know that a short visit doesnt give great insight into a place, but the following 2 things were very striking to me when visiting:

    1 - the smoking… i found it disturbing just how many people were smoking 2 - the graffiti. I was surprised by just how much graffiti there was. Do people not take pride in their property enough to wash it off? I know Graffiti is common everywhere, but it seemed to be on a whole other level in europe… like it wasnt just on the back alleys, but on the front facades of buildings too. The front door of one of my airbnbs was covered in graffiti.

    There was 1 thing though that was totally the opposite though & made total sense… the dual function windows (where you turn the handle 1 way to open them like a door & another way to lean them in to provide ventilation. These were everywhere & i found them to be the most functional thing ever! I wish they would catch on in the usa… with that said, the first time i discovered this functionality, it was accidental. I panicked as i thought i broke the window lol.