@castarco@hachyderm.io2025-11-16 12:05:17
I have the distinct impression that we could use most American "sci-fi" TV series (which seem to have a kink for post-apocalyptical scenographies) as a diagnostic tool for the autism spectrum.
For a moment, let's leave aside the tons of right-wing propaganda "hidden" in plain sight, and their excessive reliance on boring & worn out tropes (religious & cultish bullshit, irrational lack of communication & excess of anti-social behaviour, all vs all, ultra-low-iq characters*, psychotic & irrationally treacherous characters*, ultra-inconsistent character development used to justify "unexpected" plot twists, rampant anti-intellectualism...).
What could be used as a diagnosis tool is the incredible amount of strong inconsistencies that we can find in them**. It throws me out of the story every single time; and I suspect that it takes a certain kind of "uncommon personality" to feel that way about it, because otherwise these series wouldn't be so popular without real widespread criticism beyond cliches like "too slow", "it loses steam towards the end of the season", etc.
Many of those plots start in a gold mine of potentially powerful ideas... yet they consistently provide us with dirt & clay instead, while side-lining the "good stuff" as if it was too complicated for the populace.
Do you feel strongly about it? Do you feel like you can't verbalize it without being criticised as "too negative", or "too picky", or an "unbearable snob"? Do you wonder why it seems like nobody around shares your discomfort with these stories?
* : I feel this is a bit like the chicken & egg problem. Has the media conditioned part of American society to behave like dumb psychopaths as if it was something "natural", or is the media reflecting what was already there? Also, could we use other societies as models for these stories... just for a change? Please?
** : Just a tiny example: a "brilliant" engineer who builds a bridge out of fence parts and who doesn't bother to perform the most basic tests before trying it in a real setting and suffer the consequences: the bridge failing and her falling into the void. Bonus points for anyone who knows what I'm talking about.
@memeorandum@universeodon.com2025-12-15 02:20:32
Person of interest in Brown University shooting served in Army, worked at Arlington National Cemetery (CNN)
https://cnn.com/2025/12/14/us/benjamin-erickson-brown-university-shooting?Date=20251215&Profile=CNN
http://www.memeorandum.com/251214/p50#a251214p50
@cdarwin@c.im2026-02-15 01:14:57
HISTORIC DAY in Middle East and Caucasus
1-MIDDLE EAST
Unprecedented heat for this time of the year with
37C Minagish KUWAIT
36 Al Wafra,35 Kuwait Int. AP
Record hot nights everywhere
Min. 23.3 in Israel
first tropical night in February at
Al Qaysumah SAUDI ARABIA
https://
@wraithe@mastodon.social2026-01-14 18:30:49
I know everyone’s already dragging the living shit out of this already but 🤷🏻♀️:
All ICE/BP should have:
Clearly marked vehicles
Clearly marked names on uniforms (large TEXT for both)
ID/badges
Dismissal and/or prosecution for failing to comply.
QR codes are just unneeded “tech” complication
The current regime talks a lot of shit about ID being required to vote, but is fine with armed agents of the govt having less ID than a teen trying (and failing) to…
@brian_gettler@mas.to2026-01-15 15:30:04
Can I complain about required, subject-agnostic university writing courses? Part of the crisis in the humanities is that our institutions appear to have decided that we don't teach writing. But we do. Or maybe their problem is that we also teach troublesome substance? I haven't seen any evidence that the writing courses on my campus pay any attention to ideas, it seems to be all form all the time.
@shaun@mastodon.xyz2025-12-15 15:29:00
The Kash bureau doesn’t seem to be doing so well. This is, what, the 4th or 5th high-profile case where they’ve “caught” the wrong person, or announced that someone was in custody when that wasn’t true…
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/providenc<…
@kurtsh@mastodon.social2025-12-14 20:07:52
@… DYK Squirrel Girl took down 2 of the most powerful villains in the Marvel Universe, Dr. Doom & Thanos? 😂
▶️ Uncovering the Mystery Behind Marvel's Lost Squirrel Girl Show - CutShort
https://<…
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2026-02-13 13:33:37
Series C, Episode 02 - Powerplay
KLEGG: You were supposed to have searched the ship. These two should have been found. Where were you hiding?
DAYNA: We weren't hiding. We've...
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/302/5 B7B3
@vosje62@mastodon.nl2026-02-09 03:23:07
'Dr. Aaron Thierry @thierryaaron.bsky.social: "This is not just a slight warming; it is a fundamental change in how people will have to survive on the continent.
Once regions in Africa enter a state of almost continuous heatwaves, the human body will have no window of time to recover." '
Heat with no end: climate model sets out an unbearable future for parts of Africa
#Africa #ClimateChange #ClimateEmergency
@cdarwin@c.im2025-12-11 06:52:18
In the second of two episodes to mark the centenary of quantum physics,
we hear how the boundary between the quantum and classical worlds causes huge inconsistencies
—and a debate about the nature of reality itself.
Our guest today,
Vlatko Vedr,
explains his radical vision for fixing those problems and building a consistent understanding of the universe