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CatBus

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Join date
18-Aug-2011
Last activity
14-Jul-2025
Posts
5,971

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Post
#1111950
Topic
Are there bands for who you have all they've ever done?
Time

DuracellEnergizer said:

Not for me, nope. I don’t believe I’ve listened to a band/artist yet with an oeuvre I love wholly and completely.

I dunno. I half-expected this thread to turn top-heavy with one-hit wonders. You get the single to Taco’s Puttin’ on the Ritz and Right Said Fred’s I’m Too Sexy and that’s two complete sets right there, and you haven’t even spent a whole dollar yet. Okay, maybe they technically have other songs, but really who’d know?

Post
#1111354
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

America’s pledges of allegiance and various showings of national spirit are pretty extreme on a world scale as far as I can tell – several Germans I know were visibly shaken and alarmed at what they saw going on in grade-school American classrooms.

Also, over-the-top patriotism knows no irony. Your typical guy pledging allegiance to the American flag while wearing a Confederate flag is completely unaware that they are mutually exclusive.

Post
#1111290
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

yhwx said:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-nfl-protests-may-be-unpopular-now-but-that-doesnt-mean-theyll-end-that-way/

We don’t have any polling specifically about Trump’s recent NFL comments, but a Quinnipiac University poll from 2016 found that only 38 percent of those surveyed approved of players choosing not to stand during the anthem. But while these NFL protests may be unpopular right now, particularly with white people, similar protests in the past — involving race, civil rights and varying definitions of patriotism — came to be viewed much more positively after the fact.

Marches for civil rights during the 1960s were generally seen negatively at the time. As the Washington Post noted last year, most Americans didn’t approve of the Freedom Riders, the March on Washington in 1963 or other similar protests. In fact, many Americans thought that these protests would hurt the advancement of civil rights. In addition, but many Americans held mixed-to-negative views of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. In a 1966 Gallup survey, 63 percent of Americans gave King a negative score on a scale from -5 to +5. Now, the civil rights marches are viewed as major successes, and just 4 percent of Americans rated King negatively on that same scale in a 2011 Gallup poll.

Many Americans also viewed gay rights marchers during the AIDS epidemic negatively. According to Business Insider, the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation in April 1993 drew more than 800,000 people fighting against discrimination and seeking more funding for AIDS research. But in a Newsweek survey conducted at the time, only 23 percent of Americans thought that the demonstration did more good than harm in the fight for gay rights. Today, gay rights organizations celebrate the march, same-sex marriage is legal and much of the platform demanded by protesters seems mainstream.

Nothing succeeds like success. And King was such a huge success that, after enough time passed, the very people who opposed the principles he stood for held him up as an unassailable moral standard for their own cause – and as long as nobody actually bothered to find out what King thought about these matters, it worked.

Can you see it in 2047? Senator Donald Beauregard Bannon of the InfoWars Party claims that if the sainted Colin Kaepernick were alive today, he would certainly be aghast at liberal Republican-appointed justices like Sam Alito, who say police may have some sort of obligation to provide medical assistance to the people they shoot.

Post
#1111249
Topic
Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)
Time

I’ve done an initial run of cleaning up and filling out the SDH subtitles for Star Wars. I was surprised to find that I added or changed about 100 subtitles. I’m honestly still not sure how well subtitling music works in general, but it at least solves the problem of “there are so many scenes where nobody says anything and they’re not even doing anything, just looking at the sunset or getting medals put on their necks”. At least with these revised subtitles, you’ll be aware that music is a major component of the film, which is something. And in just as many cases, I can’t subtitle the music due to subtitles for dialogue/other audio taking priority, so it’s not omnipresent – mostly for music-only scenes.

Post
#1110124
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

Tyrphanax said:

McCain is one of those guys who I respect a lot because of what he’s done and what he’s been through, but who I also disagree with vehemently on a lot of things.

Unfortunately he has a long tradition of saying how awful something is, voting for it, and then continuing to say how awful it is, without skipping a beat. Pay no attention to the maverick mouth, just watch the votes.

Post
#1110044
Topic
Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released)
Time

ml80 said:

And lastly, wow, watching A New Hope tonight was like being reunited with a long lost loved one. Ha! Seriously I never once had that moment of being pulled out of it when I saw one of Lucas’ stupid add ins. And the colors and clarity are unreal. Can’t wait to watch Empire and dl Jedi.

Heh, as far as Despecialized goes, Star Wars is currently the warty stepsister of the three films. I have a feeling you’ll like what he’s done with the others!

Post
#1109914
Topic
Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released)
Time

Not sure where you got 2.7, but lots of software players don’t handle the lossless DTS-MA tracks very well. A lossy AC3/Dolby Digital track is pretty universally playable. In my experience, VLC has no problems with multiple audio tracks, but that’s not on a Mac. You should simply be able to select one of the alternate AC3 tracks to see if it plays back without distortion. I suspect you got a remux – i.e. not the original files, probably extra compressed and put on a public torrent. Those are pretty common, because the real deal involves huge files that people generally don’t have the patience to download.

Post
#1109503
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

Okay, so I’m a little surprised that Russia organized at least 17 pro-Trump rallies in Florida during the 2016 Presidential campaign.

Not that they did it, but that it worked. Russia obviously wanted Trump elected and worked hard to achieve that goal – that’s never really been in question. But I was expecting the wave of Russian intelligence services-sponsored Facebook rallies to come crashing against the land-line demographic* of Trump supporters, like it did with the sparsely-attended event Russia organized in Idaho.

* I’m one of that demographic, BTW.

Post
#1109415
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

The Murkowski kickback has been found.

The Zombie TrumpCare 3.0 bill has section-by-section summaries describing what it does. However, none of the summaries mention this, which can only be found by reading the full bill text.

In 2026, every state would get almost exactly $4,400 per eligible person, except Alaska, which would get $6,500.

So the question is, does Murkowski think she can convince Alaskans that screwing them less than the rest of the country is a good thing? I guess that depends on if she had any input in this matter, or if this was added by leadership as a sweetener to try to win her vote. We’d only know the answer to that if she votes no.

TrumpCare iterations, by the numbers:

TrumpCare: 23 million lose coverage
Zombie TrumpCare: I forget, but not much different than original TrumpCare
Zombie TrumpCare 2.0: 16 million lose coverage
Zombie TrumpCare 3.0: 32 million lose coverage

Post
#1109340
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

Puggo - Jar Jar’s Yoda said:

Maybe he’ll bankrupt the GOP too.

This is an older story but an interesting one.

Another question is who will pay the legal fees for the president and administration officials involved in the Russia inquiries. Some in Trump’s orbit are pushing the Republican National Committee to bear the costs, said three people with knowledge of the situation, including one who euphemistically described the debate as a “robust discussion.”

Not sure if this was ever resolved, but he was at least trying to shift the costs to the RNC. Trump has left a trail of bankrupt organizations in his wake. What’s one more?

Post
#1109299
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

Ryan McAvoy said:

TV’s Frink said:

Russia and Israel are obvious but I forget… is there a specific reason the Philippines seems to distrust Trump to a lesser degree that most countries? (of course they started at a higher level of approval)

The Philippines and Poland both have their own local Trump administrations, which are both managing more local support than our own Trump in spite of autocratic red flags all over the field. So when people in the Philippines hear bellicose dick-waving and absurd levels of disrespect for the basic foundations of democracy coming from the US, at least some of them announce they’ve already got one of those, and it’s very nice. Not listed: Turkey and Hungary, with the same issue.

I’m assuming Poland is a little more wary of Trump than the Philippines due to the Russia connection – not that their own government isn’t ironically even deeper into that business than our own. Also, Trump’s anti-China blather must be playing a lot better in the Philippines than his actual China performance, and I hate to say that his anti-Muslim blather probably helps him there a lot as well.

Post
#1109175
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

The Trump admin can’t even cook up its own biased studies properly. Even when they specifically asked HHS for a study showing how refugees harm America, HHS comes back with a study showing that they don’t.

Have they learned nothing from Nixon and Cheney? You need a Team B! Competitive studies from different groups! The team producing the results the administration likes best gets to keep their jobs! Let the invisible hand of the marketplace make the best science rise to the top!

Post
#1109047
Topic
The Place to Go for Emotional Support
Time

suspiciouscoffee said:

Okay, a lot’s happened in the last week, so long story ahead.

Last sunday night I was going on one of my signature late-night, self-loathing, homophobic, text rants, but this one was to a friend who I hadn’t really talked to in years so he didn’t know how bad I was. He contacted my parents and told them about my self-image issues and my crippling fear of college, the future, and the suicidal thoughts that accompanied (I assume he didn’t mention my bisexuality because I haven’t been stoned to death yet). So they talked to me for a few hours on monday night, took me to the doctor wednesday morning, and now I’m on various medication (Prozac, a sleeping pill, and some other anxiety thing). I haven’t noticed much change yet, but now I’m worried about it because if I do start to hate myself less, then end up outing myself/end up living my life as a proud march into hell, then I’m worse off than I was before, if any of that makes sense (it does in my screwed up head, anyway).

Anyway, that’s the (short version of) the story of the last week or so.

IMO if you were even half-serious about suicidal thoughts, your friend made the right call. And if he didn’t out you to your parents, he made two difficult right calls in a row.

Keep this friend.

As for the medication, assuming your doctor knows what they’re doing; it’s honestly probably a good thing. Anxiety and depression can be crippling, and a little medication doesn’t solve your problems or change your personality so much as lift a little of the weight and let you start moving forward again. I wouldn’t worry about accidentally outing yourself on some happy pill overdose. Being in the closet is frequently not about self-loathing. It’s about self-preservation. You obviously value yourself enough already to know how to avoid a stoning, and I think valuing yourself more isn’t going to make you suddenly risk it.

And self-loathing ain’t such a bad gig. If you seem a decent fellow, the rest of the world will see your self-loathing as humility, and will infuriatingly love you more for it. And you seem a decent fellow.

Post
#1109044
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

It’s pretty common for the media to put way too much focus on intra-party criticism. Not because the criticism is any more valid or because the critic isn’t an absolutely horrible human being in his own right, but because it changes the dynamic of the day-in-day-out “talking point from both sides” news cycle – which, to be frank, is dull as hell. I’m honestly not sure it really rehabilitates the image of the critic, though. I don’t think there’s a person on Earth who doesn’t still think Joe Lieberman is an absolute tool. I doubt Spicer (or Yoo) will fare better.

But then along comes Kissinger to prove me wrong. Washed clean by the tongues of a thousand pundits 😕

Post
#1108965
Topic
Info Wanted: Legality, fan-edits, and more. Legality, fan-edits, and repercussions
Time

ChainsawAsh said:

Oh, interesting. I didn’t realize that.

Is 25p a similar issue? I know almost all UK TV series (like Doctor Who) have to be 1080i50 on Blu because 25p isn’t doable. Which is why some of the sets (like the DW S1-4 upscales) are slowed down to 24p.

I believe 1080p25 is not in the Blu-ray spec, so that’s sort of the opposite problem.

Post
#1108945
Topic
Info Wanted: Legality, fan-edits, and more. Legality, fan-edits, and repercussions
Time

ChainsawAsh said:

720p24 isn’t part of the Blu-Ray spec, so it has to upscale it to 1080p24 otherwise all you’ll get is 720p60.

720p24 is part of the Blu-Ray spec, but is not part of the HDMI spec. Which is why you can have 720p24 on disc, but it’s never 720p24 by the time it reaches your set. It’s either 1080p24 (best), or something worse.

Post
#1108937
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

Warbler said:

Bingowings said:

Warbler said:

Bingowings said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

Warbler said:

As for a change in the Anthem, Jerusalem was mentioned, the only problem I see with that is that it is named after a city that is not in the UK. Jerusalem is in Israel. That is like America using an Anthem named “Paris”. It seems odd to me.

‘Jerusalem’ the poem (set to music) isn’t literally about the actual city of Jerusalem, it’s about England.

In fact it’s specifically about Jerusalem not being in England 😄 It’s a warning about not being complacent and too nationalistic and it’s sung frequently by people who are complacently nationalistic.

"The poem was inspired by the apocryphal story that a young Jesus, accompanied by Joseph of Arimathea, a tin merchant, travelled to what is now England and visited Glastonbury during his unknown years.[2][3] The poem’s theme is linked to the Book of Revelation (3:12 and 21:2) describing a Second Coming, wherein Jesus establishes a New Jerusalem. The Christian church in general, and the English Church in particular, has long used Jerusalem as a metaphor for Heaven, a place of universal love and peace.[a]

In the most common interpretation of the poem, Blake implies that a visit by Jesus would briefly create heaven in England, in contrast to the “dark Satanic Mills” of the Industrial Revolution. Blake’s poem asks four questions rather than asserting the historical truth of Christ’s visit. Thus the poem merely implies that there may, or may not, have been a divine visit, when there was briefly heaven in England"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_did_those_feet_in_ancient_time

The poem clearly asks if Jesus walked in England. The answer being no. The point being that England is not particularly worthy of regard and has to strive to be worthy of a holy visitation. It is frequently sung by people who don’t get this really simple message.

So you disagree with wiki’s interpretation of the poem that I quoted?

Uh, yeah. As someone with more than passing familiarity with analysis of Blake’s works, I’d agree with Bingo that the wiki’s interpretation is wildly off the mark. You can fault the poem for its sentimentality and rose-tinted view of the past, but it never even pretends to put forth or support these strange religious theories, although it was likely inspired by them. The hypothetical future “Jerusalem” is created by the people of England returning to what they believe is good and right from the current “Satanic” industrial revolution – inspired by Christianity in their hearts certainly, but it is not built by the literal presence of Jesus in England. That’s never anything but metaphor in the poem.