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Not sure what you mean there. I'd say Tolkien's interpretation of the Ring's destruction as 'divine intervention' is just one of many as the way he wrote the story can also attribute to Gollum's clumsiness or simply a lucky coincidence. Well, me, of course, as it is my take on the stories. I'm quite sure you won't try to tell me it is a crucial feature of Christian beliefs (or the substance of the average Christian story) that there are Elves and Half-Elves who can choose immortality and who are then going to spend eternity in a literal ship in the sky playing the role of Venus ... rather than, you know, be with his wife and children. The idea that heroes are transformed into stars in the sky is a rather crucial feature of various non-Christian mythologies. You conflate history and religion again. The FA of Middle-earth isn't religion, it is history for the people we talk about. Again, the kings literally wield the sword of Elu Thingol. And all the histories and lore they would have access to are not comparable to religious texts but rather to historical texts. And nobody walks around and claims that a well-attested era of our history only a couple of generations in the past (which is actually the case for the long-lived people we talk about here) was invented or faked. That they started to view things differently than their ancestors is also clear - but the way it is written it makes them appear to be stupid morons as no sane person would end up believing Sauron over the Valar or actually think it was great to worship Morgoth. And the same also goes for the inaction of the Valar and Eldar who effectively did nothing to prevent the tragedy. That is the kind of thing which triggered the whole discussion. Most of those stories are rather, say, badly written tragedies where people actually do walk into the dragon's mouth knowing what they are doing. That effectively goes for all the 'evil' or 'tragic' figures, starting with Melkor (who knows that Eru is in charge and all his efforts are in vain), Feanor, Thingol, Turgon, Túrin, etc. The Fall of Númenor is just one of the most glaring examples, I think. This also includes Sauron in the early SA as well as Saruman and Denethor later. They all know what's right and what's wrong, but they do the bad thing, anyway. For 'reasons' that are rarely, if ever, clear. They were in contact with Gil-galad since Aldarion's time, and certainly would have had contacts with him and his people once they established their colonies. I do agree that Pharazôn wouldn't have cared much about his or Elrond's opinion, but there is a long time of decline there. Thinking a bit about it, the textual history of the Akallabêth shows how Tolkien also failed to truly connect it with the later texts, i.e. LotR. Interactions with Elves mainly/only mean Tol Eressëa in that text when the long history of colonies in Middle-earth would mean that most contacts with the Elves would take place on that continent. It is also rather odd that they never invited any Elves to live with them in days after Aldarion went back to Middle-earth or that the island didn't become a place Eldar going to Tol Eressëa would visit there. Well, Elrond isn't a real person. The way to phrase that issue is that the author failed to portray him in a manner that would make sense due to his family connections. Boromir is clearly lacking the insight his father and brother have ... and Denethor is not tricked by silly stories about Melkor being the good guy, but rather by a magical stone showing him real images in a wrong context. Not to mention that the man is also pissed on a deeply personal level that the returning king will take everything he deems his from him. Senile Pharazôn pulling a Denethor and worshipping Morgoth etc. does make a certain sense as I conceded above ... but an entire people - many of them younger people whose deaths will be decades or even centuries away - following suit not so much.

Interesting! My reaction is the complete opposite to you both, even though those tastes are associated with a bleak time for us financially they're very nostalgic for me in a positive way. Tinned tomato soup is a go to comfort food for me if I'm feeling sick. The way food makes us feel and the memories it evokes is fascinating, honestly

For some reason I feel like I really need a trailer to wrap my head around this movie. I just can’t visualise what a Gunn Superman movie with this many characters looks like at all. Suit looks OK, I like that it’s a casual thing and not the classic pose. Although the loose bunching at the shoulders is kinda odd, it makes it look like it’d be hard to move in.

I think the last one was slightly better than Rebel Moon. but on par with it for this-feels-like-a-D&D-campaign-setting-ness.

Oh man I didn’t even think of that.

Vin Diesel’s ‘Riddick: Furya’ to Begin Production in August https://variety.com/2024/film/news/vin-diesel-riddick-furya-production-august-1235993037/

That is a very strongly worded letter, but they don't actually have the authority to do anything of the sort -- they're part of the Senate minority so unless the US administration shares some part of their attitude, these threats are rather empty.

Change the URL to twitter.com. The embedding code the forum has isn't updated to handle x.com links as of yet.

Canned tomato soup.

It's ridiculous and the double standards are so infuriating. ICC is fine as long as it's not US or Israel being held to account. Rules for thee and not for me etc. I hope hell (if it exists) has a special place reserved for unrepentant hypocrites.

Was able to blow it up better at home. Doesn't appear to be shoulder padding in there, just odd wrinkling. Loose suit. Interesting choice. Good to see the trunks back though. Again, better look-- seems like some Lantern energy going on around that sphere in the BG. If I'm right and that's Guy Gardner scrapping with someone/thing, I can see why Clark might not be so enthused to chip in >.< [Gardner better have that carrot top bowl cut too]

It's completely demented! They even threatened his family? And we're not talking about the usual House MAGA shit show, these are senators and even Mitch McConnell! People have just completely lost their fucking minds... also just saw a clip with a woman saying the US "doesn't deserve to be called a friend by Israel", WTAF???? It's about the only friend they have left, a friend who is hurting itself b/c is doing so much for you! Absolutely insane, they keep dissing their only staunch supporter and carry on just doing whatever they want after barking orders for US officials to crack down on the protests, which the US immediately does.

Then why did you bring this up? Which it clearly is going by the text. No other religions in the present time are mentioned to be burning down symbols of other religions. Even the Dothraki just steal them. That's a silly comparison because there are multiple instances of R'hlorr followers engaging in iconoclasm and only one example of that. Unless, of course, the Braavosi authorities clamped down on that sort of thing. Obviously this man is completely onboard with religious tolerance then and totally won't try something when he's in a position of power to do so. I think my theory that R'hlorrism is less tolerant than other religions is a tad better than your theory that it is just as tolerant, given my theory actually lines up with the text. But I don't see a point in discussing much further given you just ignore or handwave away what is written in the actual books. So I will bid farewell.

Great win for Landon in Miami. It’ll be really interesting to see if McLaren’s upgrades propel them forward like they did in the second half of last year. Piastri was doing well too until contact spoiled his race. A rare mistake for Verstappen, hitting that bollard and damaging the floor of his car. He’s not inevitable, just freakishly good. The late SC made for some exciting racing and dueling over the last 15 laps, although it effectively reduces the full race to the sprint format, which most think is an inferior format to begin with. The Miami track does not seem popular with the drivers because of the downforce conditions and tire wear on the track. I wonder if that means it’s more likely to produce random results, which could make it more popular with bored fans.

Yeah, I saw that. It's crazy. If they did something similar to pressure a US judge, that would be a criminal act under US law.

What's your refund policy?

SMH

Better ask the High Septon what he and his crazed followers want to do to 'devil worshippers'. The point being there is that Stannis burned his own property, not the property of a religion or even other people. He didn't decree that his bannermen on Driftmark, Claw Isle, Massey's Hook, etc. also do burn their own property. That is irrelevant. The point of our discussion is your characterization of R'hllorism as an 'iconoclastic religion', not the real or imagined flaws of this or that follower of that religion. Tywin happens to be an Andal and a lord. Does this mean all Andal lords have their guardsmen rape their minor daughters-in-law? It also has to do with the religion as practiced in that city. The Braavosi red priests obviously have not yet taken over Braavos nor driven out all other religions ... which is what they should have done if they are as aggressive as you paint them since exploiting religious tolerance is a rather easy way to win converts. Nope, in light of the fact that R'hllorism is no new religion and a huge red temple is standing there in Volantis this issue raises the same question as in Volantis. Your theory is just pretty bad, obviously. It is also rather interesting that 'R'hllorism' is even a particularly united religion. There is no leader running things and there are cultural differences to the various types of red priests we met so far. Volantene red priests are slaves and tattooed whereas Myrish are neither, and Braavosi red priests can't be slaves for obvious reasons. The author himself has already told us that Melisandre's own motivations and beliefs are decidedly different from that of other red priests. Not that we needed him to say that - it was obvious since we met Thoros and even more so after we met Benerro and Moqorro.

There is only one reason Israel agrees to a temporary ceasefire with partial release of hostages, and it's not a good one. There is only one reason Hamas proposes a temporary ceasefire and partial release of hostages, and it's also not a good one. This isn't progress, it's a halftime show.

It's rather interesting how CNN, BBC and France 24 all had headlines along the lines of "Hamas accepts ceasefire proposal" without having any idea of what was in the proposal and to what extent it overlaps with what Israel might accept. It's a nice trick on the part of the Hamas media team, but it only works once: next time, the news agencies will not be so quick to bite. That said, the BBC now says: If it really means an end to the violence altogether, then that might be worth it to Israel even at the cost of a permanent ceasefire. Of course, it's all very vague and it's hard to see how Israel can possibly trust Hamas to follow through on such a thing.

Money was pretty tight for the first few years my family was in the US, and sometimes dinner would be a can of pork 'n beans and a pot of rice. I am not a fan of pork 'n beans to this day.

I'll be honest, that was quite poor.

Evolved from the Dragon IVA flight suits (used as a precaution for emergencies during launches and landing), the new EVA suits are intended for short spacewalks, similar to Apollo 8 spacewalk in LEO. Suits intended for Moon or Mars will take further evolution of the spacesuit project. These ones will be used this summer for the first spacewalk by a solely private civilian space mission, Polaris Dawn. Speaking of Polaris Dawn, interview with the Today Show: Two of the crew are SpaceX engineers who were invited to join the mission based on their expertise in training and operations.

I would say Jon's parentage is a kind of Schrödinger cat issue right now. Regardless of whether R+L=J is true or not in the long run, GRRM leans on the assumption that he is quite a lot, to weave symbolism around Jon. Like the 'bastards must not hit princes' foreshadowing in the training yard with Joffrey. In fact he does this so much that the finally revealed truth may end up being less important than the symbolism clues he is able to plant around Jon being the 'hidden king'. Another famous one is: I mean, GRRM is within his rights to have Jon be the son of whomever he pleases come ADOS, but ... in the meantime the R+L=J assumption makes the symbolism that much more meaningful. So I think using symbolism to tell a story is also very much GRRM's style, even more so than using red herrings or subverting expectations. But to do so he needs he and the reader to be working from some common (albeit unstated) assumptions. R+L=J is one of the foundational blocks that enable him to do so, so for me at least its useful to assume its 'generally true' but with the caveat that there may likely be wrinkles or additional details, rather than it not being true at all.

Heinz? Fancy! but yes. That's all, very simple and wonderfully satisfying. Its also a very cheap go to for families on a budget - we'd buy supermarket own brand so it was like 7p a tin or something stupid like that. Mushrooms on toast, if I'm doing that I may as well go the whole hog and make it garlic mushrooms, in which case its got to be super garlicky, on well toasted good quality bread - a sourdough or similar, something robust