Planetes (2003)- Excellent anime series dealing with Kessler Syndrome and debris collection: PlanetES Trailer - YouTube[^]

The original radio play is on the internet archive. That's my favorite version of HHG.

March Comes In Like a Lion is a great series, and it probably added to my thoughts about learning it. I don't think I'd ever go to the extent of studying famous games for anything. I have learned to play Hanafuda Koi Koi, a card game that's much easier. It shows up in Summer Wars and a number of other shows. I've played Hanafuda at SF cons. The other goal is to learn the Japanese version of Mahjongg. My wife and I got tired of the American version, where you get a card each year that says what the winning hands are for the year. You spend all your time studying the card instead of just playing. I would buy a set of Nyan shoji pieces in a heartbeat!

I've been thinking of learning shogi, which is a Japanese chess-like game. Some interesting differences: The lower-ranked pieces can be promoted by flipping them over- so a rook can become a dragon, and the dragon has additional movement options. Captured pieces can be returned to the board on the side of the player who captured them. The idea is that they're mercenaries who have switched sides. The downside is that I'd have to memorize the characters designating each piece, and how they move, but there are programs and apps to teach you. I got to try Wingspan, and that was fun. I'd like to play it again.

I'd look into a manual corn (coffee, nut, flour) grinder. Inexpensive ones are around $30US. They look like the old-fashioned meat grinders that used to be a kitchen standard. I just used one in a class to make tortillas, and it ground the soaked corn into a paste. With something like a blender, some of the material is always going to escape getting chopped by the blades, but if it's going between two plates everything is completely ground.

It's sad when parents and school counselors push kids into computer work when the kids have no interest or aptitude for it. And people shouldn't talk about salaries for non-supervisory people- hourly is what matters.

I think there's a similarity, but a lot of it may be related to balancing choices rather than a fixed arithmetical one. There are a lot of ways to structure a program- favoring clarity or modularity over speed, etc, and you make choices balancing things out. Same with phrasing, harmonization, tempo, microtuning- whatever. Choices you make lead to different results. If you're playing with other people you need to adjust so things work together. Jam sessions are fun. I've been a substitute string bass player at contradances where I don't know half their tunes. Just tell me the key and I'll watch the guitar player's left hand. Even stranger has been playing 1-key wood flute in Celtic jams. I found I was watching the fiddle player's left hand. 2nd finger -there- on the A string means it's a C, so I put down the middle and ring fingers on my left hand. I wasn't thinking of how to do this, then realized that I was translating from a 4-string instrument tuned in 5ths to a woodwind instrument that overblows at the octave, where different combinations of 7 fingers give you all the notes. (and in some cases an a-flat has a different fingering than g-sharp!, etc)

Don't underestimate the Power of Schadenfreude.

Tribel.com seems to be mainly left wing, fwiw. I'm enjoying mastodon a lot, but picking a home server aligned to one of your interests can be important. If you go with one of the huge servers your local feed will be plastered with lots of things you aren't interested in. You can join several servers for different interests, and transfer your account if you find one you like more. I'm still on fb for a couple groups, and friends that are still on there, but mastodon is an entirely different world. No algorithm pushing ads and clickbait, no romance scam friend requests. People tend to have interesting discussions instead of just posting memes. Another thing to look at is the moderation policy on different servers. The good news is that you're likely to be dealing with a real human instead of an idiot algorithm.

Agreed. I was originally going to say "total compensation" but simplified it.

When the CEO and other management cut their own hourly pay by almost half, then they can ask workers to do the same. That money can go to paying overtime. Quality of work plummets when people are working so many hours on a regular basis. They end up creating so many problems that the net benefit goes negative. All for the schadenfreude and ego boost of seeing your workers suffer.

Might be "Drop Da Bass".

My peeve is the constant promotion of zipper merge. It depends entirely on all the drivers being courteous. From my years of commuting in Michigan with almost-constant construction and road repair, I can tell you this would take some universe-bending magic. The other is construction of roundabouts where there's an unending line of traffic from one direction- a shift change or parents dropping off and picking up their kiddos from school. If you're on the downstream leg of the intersection, you can get trapped in a mile-long line of unmoving cars.

Imagine the outcry if there was a push to change the date system to something from another religion. I like the Japanese system of counting an era with the new Emperor. Fans talk about Showa-era Godzilla movies, or Heisei Super-Sentai. I want to see a Sengoku Mothra movie, or Meiji Kamen Rider. :) Oddly, nobody seems to date anime or manga after the era.

One of the most ridiculous examples of this was after an airliner crashed and sunk in the ocean. A news channel was showing an image of water- probably a local river or pool in front of their building from the size of the waves.

Nice that it rates below art history and archaeology. Anytime businesses start yelling that there's a critical need for such-and-such workers, that's the career to avoid. What they're really saying is "We're paying to much for these workers, we need a huge number of unemployed ones to create downward wage pressure."

Here are a couple based on Land of the Lustrous: Houseki no Kuni AMV - A Gem's Calling - YouTube[^] Tough as Diamonds - [Houseki no Kuni] - YouTube[^]

Semi-related, fan-made anime music videos (AMV) can be a lot of fun. They take a song they like, new or old, and an anime series, and edit a music video. Sometimes they work to synch mouth movements to the song. Here's a combination of "Pink Elephants" from Dumbo, with Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Pachyderm Panic [AB 2019 Best Editing/Sakuracon 2019 Best Concept/AAC 2019 Best in Show] - YouTube[^]

Weeding out people who think and plan before hitting the keyboard sounds like a great way to get the workers they deserve. And they're probably the ones who complain that they can't find workers. I have no problem speaking to an auditorium full of people, but I do *not* want people to watch me type.

Required standardized testing is a major factor in eliminating critical thinking from schools. A couple science teachers I know lament how "teaching to the test" ties their hands. The focus is on memorizing predigested facts, and not on understanding how things work.