Liffguard

No mention of Blackadder yet? Definitely one of the best finales in my opinion. Total tonal whiplash but it works.

Not directly SpaceX related, but astronomers have, for the first time, been able to directly capture an image of a black hole (or rather, the accretion disk).

On the topic of incentives for innovation and entrepreneurship, I have to ask, what possible incentive is provided by the prospect of billions of pounds (dollars, euros, whatever) that isn’t equally provided by, say, ten million? I know that sounds facetious, obviously a billion is a bigger number than ten million. But actually, what does a billion pounds provide you with that ten million doesn’t? A multi-millionaire already has a really nice place to live, a really nice car, maybe a boat, the best food, the nicest clothes, the fanciest gadgets, international travel to beautiful destinations. Any personal luxury that money can buy, a multi-millionaire already has access to. So what does a billionaire have that a multi-millionaire doesn’t? A better house? Maybe they have more of them, and they’re ludicrously big instead of just pretty big, but you can only sleep in one room at a time. A fleet of Ferraris instead of just the one? A multi-millionaire eats the finest food, and so does a billionaire. A multi-millionaire lives in extravagant luxury, and so does a billionaire. Honestly I don’t really see how having more super-fancy things is going to make you measurably happier than having “only” a few. So what does a billion or more buy you? Well, it buys you power over other people. Whether through political influence or control of businesses, it buys you control over other peoples’ lives. It means you can direct the actions of politicians, set the working conditions of thousands of people, use media and tech companies to influence the direction of society. Is that really the sort of incentive we want to use in society? I can potentially get behind “invent something really useful or invest in a successful business and you’ll get to spend the rest of your life in luxury and never need to work again.” I’m not sure I can get behind “invent something really useful or invest in a successful business and you’ll get to be a new feudal lord.” I find it funny that libertarians are so utterly obsessed with protecting private property rights that they disregard what should be the core of their philosophy, namely that people should be free, and not under the thumb of concentrated power, which is exactly what billionaires are. I’m not necessarily opposed to society having a system of incentives for the creation of real social value; be it through invention, entrepreneurship or whatever. If someone creates something of real value to society and as a result gets to live a really pleasant, luxurious, secure life, then that’s fine by me. But for an individual to own a billion pounds or more of wealth, that’s just utterly disproportionate to any contribution any one individual could possibly make. It’s functionally infinite wealth. In conclusion: nice house, nice car, nice food, fine. The ability to control the lives of thousands of people, not fine.

I think when people talk about Brexit being a result of harking for the days of empire, this is kind of what they mean. I doubt many people are specifically drifitng off to dreams of gunboat diplomacy and a third of the map being pink, it's more subliminal than that. As you say, a more generalised sense of humiliation. A lot of our national stories and mythmaking have an underlying assumption of exceptionalism built in, and a lot of people seemed to just inherently resent being only one nation amongst a group of many, regardless of what the actual merits of the situation were.

Terry Pratchett - Lords and Ladies

I'm gonna be that guy, but Homecoming didn't really do it for me. It wasn't terrible or anything, but I found it pretty forgettable. I think mainly that it didn't seem like it knew what it was trying to say. The purported theme didn't match the plot beats.

Personally I would have used this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtb-ZPOkMyI

Relative to my normal expectations, this is very soap opera-ish. I've already tried talking to her about where things might be going. Not even looking for a definitive answer, just an insight into her thought process. She got very evasive and just said "we'll see how it goes" before changing the subject. I'm not totally giving the situation up for lost, but I'm not going to invest any more mental energy in it either. The way I see it, she knows how I feel and exactly where I stand. The ball's in her court now. If this is going to progress then she's going to have to be the one to express that she wants that to happen. Until/unless she does I'm just going to keep being a friend, but not pushing for anything more. The thought has definitely crossed my mind. For what it's worth, I don't think she's being deliberately manipulative, just indecisive and wary. The behavioural outcomes are the same, but I think motive matters here as well. The last three guys she dated were total arseholes. Sorry to come across all Nice Guy-ish, and I'll admit I'm biased, but it's true. All three also caused some level of friend-group drama and cost her some of her social circle. So if she's extremely cautious about potentially starting something new, I understand that. Still gonna do my best to not be strung along, but I don't necessarily blame her either.

I...have absolutely no idea. It was a good day out, I just don't think it was a good date. I had fun, she said she had fun. But it was no different from dozens of other fun days out we've had together as friends. She's said she doesn't want to kiss or escalate to any other sort of affection, which is fine, totally her right to decide that. But I wonder what's actually changed then, if we're just acting exactly the way we were as friends anyway. Okay, this next bit is gonna make her sound like a bit of an arsehole, which isn't my intention, but it's left me super confused. Whilst we were talking she confessed she'd hooked up with someone literally the previous night. Which, again, okay she can decide to do that if she wants. We're not in a relationship, I have no claim to any fidelity at this point. But did I really need to know? Why even bring it up at all? It's the sort of thing we'd have been totally okay talking about as friends, which basically just further increased my impression that this was just a friends' day out. Like, my gut says she's not interested in me at all, she gave absolutely no sign that she was interested. The only thing I had to go on was that this was her idea, she asked me out completely out of the blue. And then we were in a group setting yesterday. She was being super flirty with a bunch of other people, and almost entirely ignoring me. So yeah, every indication is that she isn't interested. And honestly I'd be happy to leave it at that, except she's also said she wants to go out again. What the fuck? I just want to know where I stand. Edit: I definitely don't need to worry about idealising her. I really like her, but I'm very aware of her numerous flaws. Many of them are endearing, many aren't, but perfect she ain't. Edit 2: When did my life become such a fucking soap opera?

I don't necessarily consider those words to be mutually exclusive. And for what it's worth, I'm mostly taking the piss about the beard thing. Mostly.

I've had a weird month dating-wise. The "let's get back to my place so we can get naked and fuck" woman ended up becoming single pretty soon after that night out, at which point I was more than happy to hook up. So we ended up doing that for a couple of weeks that were a lot of fun. But the funny thing is that actually I ended up looking forward to the weird rambling conversations we had more than the actual sex. And neither of us were looking for a relationship with the other, so we've decided that we make way better friends than anything else. That doesn't preclude further hook ups, and we were both happy to keep doing that every now and again... Except... That friend I've been head over heels for. The one that I finally got the nerve to ask out. The one that kindly but very firmly turned me down. That friend came back to me earlier this week asking if the date offer was still on the table. So we're going out tomorrow and I'm currently dedicating most of my mental energy to not freaking the fuck out. I'm really happy she's apparently changed her mind. But if it ends up not working out, that's gonna hurt way worse than coming to terms with the initial rejection. Still, I have to give it a shot, couldn't live with myself if I didn't. And here's the thing, in addition to these two developments, I've had at least two other women casually expressing an interest. That's more female attention in the last month than in the previous two and a half years. What's changed? The only thing I can think of is that I've grown a beard. That's it. Was that seriously the missing component this whole time?

Jair Bolsonaro has won the presidential election in Brazil. https://news.sky.com/story/far-right-candidate-jair-bolsonaro-wins-brazil-presidential-election-11538800

He abhors multiculturalism, so he created multiple cultures? Kind of a dick move.

I actually know the boyfriend, and I'm pretty sure that wasn't on the cards. Her co-worker on the other hand... It was a weird weekend in general.

Unfortunately I didn't feel right taking her up on the offer, since she's not single. But still, it's nice to be appreciated.