Exactly my thinking as well. Super Mario Brothers was the game that made “couch gaming” popular for more than just kids. Adults were getting into it as well. I still have fond memories of my dad trying his best at it and thinking sticking his tongue out in the right direction would somehow help his jumping ability.

Without the NES, the couch-gaming scene as we know it wouldn’t exist. And Super Mario Brothers was the game that brought it to the masses.

My oh my. Check out Mr. Optimist over here thinking that they’ll be time to be “historians” in between scavenging for scraps and battling the nuclear mutants for the last bottle of fresh water at the bombed out Tesco.

gawddammit. I’ve been hoisted by own grammar petard. I’m usually pretty careful.

Our only hope is that his ego and stupidity prevent him from succeeding. Unlike Caesar who saw the need to consolidate his power with the people, Trump just assumes he already has or doesn’t need it, and instead is focusing on petty vindictive bullshit.

a sickened plutocratic oligarchy refusing to listen to its people for long enough that the people became directly hostile to the state

Exactly. The only real difference is that modern Caesar (Trump) happens to be an idiot. But it’s the same hostility to the status quo that gave him power.

Except that what we are living through isn’t the collapse of the Roman Empire. It’s the Birth of the Roman Empire and the collapse of the Roman Republic.

If we don’t put a stop to it at it’s beginning, we’re looking at a few hundred years of oligarchy under a line of emperors who vary from corrupt and stupid, to capable but evil.

On a brighter note, I’m pretty sure Katy Perry’s boobs would look absolutely fantastic in zero gravity.

I agree with you.

However…there’s an argument to be made that the post itself is a form of criticism and falls under the free speech rules where it regards political figures. In many ways, it’s not any different than the drawings of Musk holding Trump’s puppet strings, or Putin and Trump riding a horse together. One is drawn and the other is animated, but they’re the same basic concept.

I understand however that that sets a disturbing precedent for what can and cannot be acceptable. But I don’t know where to draw that line. I just know that it has to be drawn somewhere.

I think…and this is my opinion…political figures are fair game for this, while there should be protections in place for private citizens, since political figures by their very ambition put themselves in the public sphere whereas private individuals do not.

He hasn’t saved the country unless more people follow his (regrettable but at this point unavoidable and necessary) example.

Is there a meme of Margaret Atwood looking horrified yet? Because there should be.

In the eyes of MAGA, the only qualification is loyalty to Trump.

What happens when I ignore the cookie preference dialogue on websites?

You get stuck with the leftovers; which is usually the maple flavour or those really really dry shortbread cookies that feel like dust in your mouth. And you’re not allowed a drink of milk to wash it down.

It helps to get in line early for your cookie preferences.

What? … Wrong cookies?

Sorry about that. I stand by what I said however.

For me it was because I was living in an apartment where the heat register was directly beneath the toilet paper dispenser, and so in wintertime when the furnace was running, if the TP was over it would flap around like one of the wacky inflatable tube guys you see at car dealerships. I started putting it under at that point and the habit just stuck.

But yeah, cats is absolutely the most common reason. Toddlers as well…dumb ones anyway. The smart ones figure it out regardless.

I’m currently replaying all of them via emulator the last few weeks, and I have to say I respectfully disagree.

IX’s combat system just feels simplified compared to the depth that VIII had.

Could you absolutely cheese the draw system…of course. But if you avoided the temptation, the almost limitless mechanics of stat pairing was fun to play around with when taking on different enemies.

Looks like something i’d attempt in Kerbal Space Program before I understood what Centre-of-lift meant.

Once a Canadian, always a Canadian^*. It’s in our DNA.

^* Offer void if last name is Musk.

Some men just want to watch the world burn…

One of my life goals is to write a Broadway musical based on the life of Mata Hari.

Okay, to put it another way:

Once the child is born, it stops being literally a part of its mother and instead becomes an individual.

but it’s not like any sudden development occurs at the moment of birth.

You mean other than breathing its own air and no longer being physically connected to its mother’s womb? I’d call that pretty significant. I would argue that the moment it breaths its first breath on its own rather than as a part of its mother’s uterus, it becomes a murder victim, not an abortion.