fionwe1987

This conversation is surreal when most states allow home "schooling" with no standards or no reporting requirements of any kind.

They've said they've removed Sozin's Comet, for now, to allow for time jumps between the seasons, given that the actors will age significantly between the seasons. So if they do bring that vision ahead, it'll be replaced by something completely different than the threat of Sozin's comet returning. Probably some threat to Tui and La, or some more generic threat of the Fire Nation destroying the Northern Water tribe.

Sigh. I suppose I'll have to get used to saying "What live action show?"

https://ew.com/avatar-the-last-airbender-live-action-cover-story-what-to-expect-8551028 The heck? I get why they'll need time to elapse between seasons. But why does that mean no Sozin's comet? Just extend the friggin clock!

Firstly, why on earth does the show need to be "properly" anything? It isn't obliged to follow its inspirations 100%, and neither does ATLA. Secondly, no, Vaatu being held captive didn't mean evil ended. Nor is that true after his disintegration in the end of Season 2. He carries on, and the chaos and darkness he embodies never goes away. Hence the need for balance, which Raava initially provided by battling him constantly to keep his powers in check after he forced open the Sprit portals, and achieved later by Raava and Wan fusing. No. Normal possession kills the human. Raava and Wan fused, and were only able to do so during Harmonic Convergence. Same for Raava and Korra, who is the first Avatar of this new cycle. It is not a possession, because if it was, killing the Avatar in the Avatar State wouldn't end the Avatar, since Raava could just repossess the reborn spirit of Wan. I'd like some proof of that, given how obviously wrong so many of the statements in the link are. They were the only ones who were physically in the mortal realm. Zhao specifically says so, and it is why they're susceptible to his fire bending, unlike other spirits like Hei Bai, who were not affected by bending one bit. As manifestations, not as physically present bodies. They were not affected by bending, unlike Tui and La, and unlike the Spirits who roamed the human world during Wan's time. Physically, no, they are not. They're able to cross over as projections, just as humans can project themselves into the Spirit World, which is different from when they physically enter the Spirit World through the portals. Uh huh. The Lion Turtle specifically says "In the era before bending, we bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves. To bend another's energy, your own spirit must be unbendable, or you will be corrupted and destroyed." And this knowledge is used by Aang to energybend Ozai's bending away. So are you arguing energybending works only one way? That the opposite is possible, and that the Lion Turtles themselves can do it, are both clearly implied and stated in the bit of dialog from ATLA. There's no retconning here. Not sure what this has to do with anything. The Lion Turtles are the only ones, outside of the Avatar, that could energy bend. Who is the rando who you're objecting to? Again, not mutually exclusive. By the time of ATLA, bending is hereditary, but you had to train to do it well. In the time of Wan, just being granted the ability didn't mean much. Wan stood out because he practiced his abilities with the help of dragons, and got spiritual connection, and then with the help of Raava, learned the other elements. Nothing Yes, they're merely mentioned and don't fit in with any of the lore, and play almost no part in the main story. Which is why compariosn to Beginnings is nonsensical, because it is both consistent with ATLA, and what is revealed there drives the story not just for the rest of Season 2, but also S3 and S4. Well I'm sold. Especially given how many details you missed from S2, clearly you have a great eye for substance. Huh? She surrenders to Zahir in S3, and very clearly does her hardest not to punch in S4, and only ends up succeeding when she takes a punch for Kuvira. Again, you have every right to dislike the show, but sticking to facts might help sell your criticism a tad more. I don't disagree on the last, but that also seems to have been because Nickelodeon refused to commit to more than one season at a time. Honestly, replace Unalaq as the villain of S2 with Noahtak/Aman, have Korra not regain her bending right away in book 1, and S2 falls into place much better. S3 I'd leave largely unchanged, except to dwell more on Kuvira's character, make her more prominent so then what happens in S4 flows better. I'm far from believing LoK was perfect. Neither was ATLA. But I think LoK made for a worthy successor that successfully expanded the world and mythology without rehashing anything at all, and made very restrained use of the original cast members, despite the easy temptation of just introducing them as oldies and making them major characters. While Mako is an annoying and totally one dimensional character, and they criminally underused Asami, Tenzin, Lin, Su and Jinora are all great secondary characters. And they somehow made me go from total loathing to confused fondness for Varrick, which I never thought would be possible. The villains, barring the truly dismal Unalaq, were all better drawn and more interesting than the ATLA villains, especially Zaheer, and Aman also was excellent, if underused due to the small number of S1 episodes. Seriously, if they gave another season to Aman, and expanded Kuvira's role in S3, I'd have precious little to complain about. Oh, and Nick should have let them openly explore Korrasami from S3, rather than forcing them to do the small hints that felt like queerbaiting before finally at least allowing them to hold hands. I still love that moment, but it is just so fecking unfair.

Methinks he'd prefer the other Terry, of the Yeard and Evil Chickens, given his rants against American society.

Yes, Season 3 was definitely firing on all cylinders. And that rough ending for Korra lead to Korra Alone, which was the best Korra episode overall, I think. Definitely devastating for her, though. I remember wet eyes all around the crowd who watched the S3 finale.

Except the "good" spirit, came from where? The heart of the "evil" spirit. Precisely as in the Yin-yang symbol. The heart of darkness is light, and correspondingly, in the heart of light is darkness. Ummm that is what the Avatar is, an entity that is both a powerful spirit, and a human. Did you perhaps just read about the episode? These are not mutually exclusive, as, again, the show makes very clear. What source is this? Why is the Avatar a "him" only? This seems like a fansite explanation based on someone's (bad) interpretation of the show. The original series already deviates from the classic concept of an Avatar in multiple ways. For one, said Avatar is always alive, not just incarnating at need. For another, the Avatar may be male or female. They already were extradimensional. Tui and La, the moon and ocean spirits, we are told, "crossed over to the mortal realm", which made them susceptible to bending, which is exactly what we see happens to the spirits in the normal world during Wan's time. Whereas when humans project themselves into the spirit world, as Aang does in ATLA, they cannot bend. Didn't the Lion Turtle teach Aang how to remove bending? Using, one might add, the exact gesture they use to grant it? Nothing about Korra season 2 is remotely as terrible as the midiclorians. It fits perfectly with what we got about the spirit world and bending in ATLA, and yes, they're explaining the mechanics in greater detail, but not in a way that is contradicorily. That said, I'm not a great fan of the Dark Avatar too, but that's more because Unalaq made no sense as a character, and in a series with excellent villains, he manages to be even lower dimensional than the one-dimensional Ozai. But Korra isn't just Season 2. Whatever your issues with that season, 3, and most of 4, stand right up there with ATLA. Season 1 has that one dreadful love triangle episode, and a rushed ending because they had no clue how well the show would be received, but manages to still be entertaining and a nice expansion of the world. The animation in the show is amazing (barring the first 6 episodes of season 2, where they had to switch studios), and Korra's arc and character growth is fantastic. The world expands in sensible ways. The stories are different enough while still feeling part of the same universe. As sequels go, I can't think of many that do a better job, especially after such an excellent original.

You may dislike it, but Korra definitely measures up to ATLA. Lolwut?

Sorry I worded that badly. The comics aren't excellent, though I definitely dislike them less than you seem to have. But they also weren't written by the Konietzko and DiMartino, though the guy who wrote them "collaborated closely" with Bryke, for what it's worth. I'd say the comics are more like the Star Wars novels or something. Expansions of the lore, but not by the original creator. Korra, on the other hand, was by the original creators, and disagree all you want, I found it excellent.

This. What crap with the comics? They're not all excellent or anything, I see nothing Lucas-like here. They also put out Legend of Korra, which is pretty great, AND manages to not be a rehash in any way. Yes, and they mock that relentlessly. The episode where they find Toph being a classic example of this.

Hmm I dunno if that's exactly what the show implies happened. Her mom definitely favoured Zuko, but that seems to have stemmed from Azula being a bully, and Ozai encouraging that while coming down hard on Zuko as weak. Of course, that would still hurt, but I think Azula being crazy is primarily because her dad encouraged it, and she wanted his approval so very much. They can do good work here, expanding from the animation, honestly. Yeah I do hope they keep that stuff. It's part of what drives Aang's decision in the end to not kill Ozai.

I suppose. Though does that mean they'll make Zuko a more charming and kind guy, too? Will Iroh not have his dark past? Avatar is wonderful in many ways, but its insistence on redemption as an option for anyone is so very crucial to the show. It'd be sad if they decide to water this down.

I'm just hoping this means the content of his sexism is different, due to the change in mediums, rather than that he isn't sexist at all. I always found it amusing that Karara's rage at his sexism is what freed the Avarar and saved the world. It'd be sad to see that gone completely, because it's not sexism that's there for the heck of it, and its not like it goes unaddressed for most of the season. It gets called out right away, and Sokka gets his ass handed to him in episode 4 for it.

Evidence is one thing. It's there, I agree, but evidence can clearly be misinterpreted , and there can even be genuine difference of opinion about it. I want to know how anyone can imply or claim there's something fundamentally impossible about this, though. That's a get out of jail free card that's awfully risky to give out to anybody. And I'd argue insisting that no one who's Jewish could possibly do anything Nazi-like, and enforcing that insistence, is actually an invite for impunity and brazenness.

Are we saying that it is fundamentally impossible for components of Nazi ideology to adopted by and enforced by anyone who's Jewish?

Too many words. Ooh good casting!

It would have to be called "Four Seasons Total Landscaping".

You're not alone in feeling discomfort. Outright disgust is called for, honestly. There were some religious leaders who objected to this rank politicization of a temple opening. But lets be clear: the BJP (Modi's party) and its partner orgs started this whole thing. It was their goons who tore down the mosque, and their political functionaries who made this Mosque vs. temple issue a thing. The politicization was baked in from the beginning. Secondly, the BJP explicitly loathes that India became a secular republic, post independence. They call it "sickularism", and think the Hindu majority gave up all its advantages of being a majority. Their entire platform/philosophy revolves around Hindutva, or Hinduness, and making India more and more explicitly Hindu. That said, Modi may have slightly overplayed his hand here. There were banners where he was shown standing as tall or taller than Rama, the god in question whose birthplace this temple supposedly commemorates. I know very very Hindu, very pro-Modi folks who expressed discomfort with that. Doubt it'll make much difference in the elections, though. Yet, they were all kept behind a barrier, while our dear leader got to take the stage alone, the sole source of strength and power for Hinduism... Yep. Per Hinduism, you're not even supposed to consecrate a temple before its inner sanctum is ready. It won't be till the elction, but Modi went ahead with this anyway. Also, Ram's birthday is celebrated in the Fall, after the election, so a temple built on his supposed birthplace is being opened on a totally random day that just happens to be suitable for electoral purposes.

Question is, will we have the bed bugs seeking asylum, after spending some time in his properties. If so, we really would have an immigration problem!

Um, did you happen to read beyond the headline? This "instability" is about how they respond to noise, and while "inherently unstable" sounds like a deathknell, the level of instability is variable (as proved by this paper), and the paper also says it can be reduced/the replicability boosted. Goedel's theorem is for formal systems. AI/ML, in this current iteration, are not formal systems, in that sense. They're probabilistic, not formal logic based.

I think anyone who's for continued bombing in Gaza is deluded if they think this is the pathway to peace, lasting or otherwise.

Whatever management's intentions, finding fibs buried in well written sentences is hard, and humans just haven't had to do it at such scale before, nor does past evidence suggest we're particularly great at it. Yeah, whether replacing humans, or merely helping them be more efficient, a lying language model is not going to cut it.

The problem with incorporating AI right now is that all the reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) and other techniques used to shape and constrain the AI responses are processes that leave giant gaping holes for all kinds of attacks, and don't end up coming close to eliminating the propensity of AI to hallucinate. This means you can integrate an LLM into your workflow, but someone is going to have to go through the output with a fine toothcomb. But that's a fundamentally different job that coming up with text of your own, so you're left with a major component of your workflow that you cannot trust. It's like hiring a super well read employee who is (relatively) inexhaustible, but you have no guarantee said employee won't reveal your secrets, add bad code or exploits based on cleverly worded prompts, or straight up make up shit. The hype machine would have it that these are trivial problems, but I've read nothing to support that view, and there's nothing published by the big AI companies in this direction. A lot in the opposite, especially from Anthropic, whose recent work seems to show that deceitful behavior in current LLMs is not something you can train out: https://www.anthropic.com/news/sleeper-agents-training-deceptive-llms-that-persist-through-safety-training So yeah, I don't think these systems are ready to be reliable parts of any critical workflow.

What should happen is a national and campaign from Biden and the DNC saying that Trump and the GOP are for open borders, and not doing anything to stem the tide of immigrants at the southern border. Flip the script, quote these morons saying Trump is blocking the bill, make the case that they want to have a defeat for Biden more than they want to solve the border problem. Doubt they'll do it, though.