Mod Post: Off Topic Tuesday
Jan. 7th, 2020 10:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_dailyIn the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like. Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.
Well, the news in 2020 started off more or less as follows
1st - Pretty images of firework displaysa round the world
2nd - A reminder that Australia is still basically on fire
3rd - Assassination of military leader in Iran may lead to reewed military action.
Happy *&%ing New Year!
That last is of particular importance of course. No one would deny that Qasem Soleimani was a massively dangerous man who was instrumental in numerous atrocities, but his position as miltary leader in a hardline totalitarian regime which is at political odds with America has to be factored in. Previous Presidents have been in a position to order him killed, but did not, because of the resulting fallout potentially being even more dangerous.
Given Trumps's many tweets about how he forsaw Obama using military strikes on Iran to help ensure winning an election (Which Obama never actually did), it is hard to not view this action as a work of breathtaking cynicism. And his later claim that his social media accounts now count as notification to Congress about his actions is causing some concern to say the least, so no change there.
The Golden Globe winners were announced, with host Ricky Gervais pissing a lot of people off as per usual. His pleading that celebs shouldn't make political statements in their speeches was ignored of course, and whilst he might have had a point in some cases, the irony that a minor celeb was making just as much of a political statement by asking other celebs to not make political statements at all, was notable. (And to be honest, if I had to choose between Gervais' usual waffle, or Rose McGowan encouraging women to vote, it's not even a contest.)
Oh and Bong Joon Ho, Director of the GG for Best Foreign Language Film "Parasite", gave a speech where encouraged people to accept that subtitles are a thing and use them. “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films".
The trial of Harvey Weinstein has started.
Major technology show CES 2020 us taking place in Las Vegas at the moment, with it's usual assortment of "That seems like a good idea!" to "Who thought that was EVER a good idea?" tech.
And to end on a definite up-note. Series 12 of Doctor Who launched with an impressive New Years Day Special (as part 1 of a 2 parter which finished, perhaps even more impressively, on Sunday).
It immediately set itself up as being a much higher stakes, much less "safe", series (a common comment on Season 11 was that it was beautifully made, but it did tend to play it safe in terms of storytelling risks, which isn't to sell episodes like "Rosa" short).
We got to see the Doctor dealing with an alien invasion, strange humans (Lenny Henry in very creepy form), spycraft no many levels, and an unexpected old threat, as well as a couple of entirely new issues which will doubtless be underpinning this series. Oh, and giving Jodie Whittaker a chance to show more of her acting range, as well as raise sighs amongst a significant %age of the WlW community with her formalwear choices.
Just in case people haven't seen the episodes yet (it being the holiday period), I won't post any spoilers (Though I really, REALLY want to), but they may crop up in the comments below, so be careful.
Well, the news in 2020 started off more or less as follows
1st - Pretty images of firework displaysa round the world
2nd - A reminder that Australia is still basically on fire
3rd - Assassination of military leader in Iran may lead to reewed military action.
Happy *&%ing New Year!
That last is of particular importance of course. No one would deny that Qasem Soleimani was a massively dangerous man who was instrumental in numerous atrocities, but his position as miltary leader in a hardline totalitarian regime which is at political odds with America has to be factored in. Previous Presidents have been in a position to order him killed, but did not, because of the resulting fallout potentially being even more dangerous.
Given Trumps's many tweets about how he forsaw Obama using military strikes on Iran to help ensure winning an election (Which Obama never actually did), it is hard to not view this action as a work of breathtaking cynicism. And his later claim that his social media accounts now count as notification to Congress about his actions is causing some concern to say the least, so no change there.
The Golden Globe winners were announced, with host Ricky Gervais pissing a lot of people off as per usual. His pleading that celebs shouldn't make political statements in their speeches was ignored of course, and whilst he might have had a point in some cases, the irony that a minor celeb was making just as much of a political statement by asking other celebs to not make political statements at all, was notable. (And to be honest, if I had to choose between Gervais' usual waffle, or Rose McGowan encouraging women to vote, it's not even a contest.)
Oh and Bong Joon Ho, Director of the GG for Best Foreign Language Film "Parasite", gave a speech where encouraged people to accept that subtitles are a thing and use them. “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films".
The trial of Harvey Weinstein has started.
Major technology show CES 2020 us taking place in Las Vegas at the moment, with it's usual assortment of "That seems like a good idea!" to "Who thought that was EVER a good idea?" tech.
And to end on a definite up-note. Series 12 of Doctor Who launched with an impressive New Years Day Special (as part 1 of a 2 parter which finished, perhaps even more impressively, on Sunday).
It immediately set itself up as being a much higher stakes, much less "safe", series (a common comment on Season 11 was that it was beautifully made, but it did tend to play it safe in terms of storytelling risks, which isn't to sell episodes like "Rosa" short).
We got to see the Doctor dealing with an alien invasion, strange humans (Lenny Henry in very creepy form), spycraft no many levels, and an unexpected old threat, as well as a couple of entirely new issues which will doubtless be underpinning this series. Oh, and giving Jodie Whittaker a chance to show more of her acting range, as well as raise sighs amongst a significant %age of the WlW community with her formalwear choices.
Just in case people haven't seen the episodes yet (it being the holiday period), I won't post any spoilers (Though I really, REALLY want to), but they may crop up in the comments below, so be careful.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-07 01:41 pm (UTC)Though the end of the first episode seals Bakugou's fate, I need to see him own up to what he did.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-07 02:44 pm (UTC)Though I do want to point that the reason why fans hate Mineta more than Bakugo--despite the latter doing something arguably worse than the former ever did--is that Bakugo suicide-baited Midoriya once at the very start of the story, back when the author was still figuring out how things worked, and never stooped to that low ever again. Mineta has acted like a creepy pervert since his first appearance, has never been seriously called for it, and the story always treats it like it's a harmless, fun joke