Chemtrail conspiracy theorists in absolute shambles.
Chemtrail conspiracy theorists in absolute shambles.
That’s basically a plot point in Heinlein’s The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, where visitors have to pay for the amount of air they intend to breathe while visiting the moon.
Also, Idea: invent a copyrightable method of filtering or otherwise treating air. Release you’re “specially modified” air into the atmosphere. Start charging for every time someone inhales one of your AyreMolecuulz™.
Not a widely beloved performance, but on this episode of Prairie Home Companion, he plays Jim from Huckleberry Finn, catching up with ol’ Huck. One of my all-time favorite bits.
Relevant part starts at 9:45
It’s not just sad, it’s one of the fundamental problems of our time. There are all of these obvious good things that government could and should be doing, but because they seem scary and revolutionary, the Democratic party is afraid (perhaps rightly so) that if that try to do them, they will lose to the Republicans. Then, people get upset that the government isn’t doing enough and seems stagnant, and that’s why candidates who seem disruptive get more attention.
On the good side of that equation, you get Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders, who became much more successful than one would think on paper, because they branded themselves as Change candidates. The dark side of that is Trump, who appeals to people who think he seems not like a normal politician, and probably to a fair number of accelerationists, too. Obviously if you think about it for thirty seconds you can see that Trump is a fucking con man first, middle, and last, but the outsider branding might be his most potent tool.
Democrats have got to acknowledge that anger at the system feeling fucked, and they have got to make real changes to noticeably improve people’s lives. If all they do is try to maintain institutions and return to the pre-Trump status quo, then the fascists who want to set fire to everything are going to have that advantage over them.
For sure, the technology and fashion is all VERY late-90s. But the way that The Matrix informed SO many action and scifi movies to follow, and spawned so many cultural touchstones made it break containment.
And then you’ve got subjects that it brings up, like mixed technophobia and technophilia, gender identity, anti-authoritarianism, and so on that are still at the forefront of our cultural awareness. The Matrix has stayed relevant and meaningful in ways that very few works have managed to.
Hackers
Romeo + Juliet
There’s a filter that I apply to these kinds of questions, and it’s that there are some works that are of a particular time, but they ascend beyond that time and just become a part of culture, broadly. Like, Wizard of Oz just IS, Bohemian Rhapsody just IS; they aren’t bounded by their decades of origin.
I’d argue that at least Jurassic Park, and arguably also The Matrix, are above and beyond the '90s in ways that other movies can’t quite achieve.
Clerks is a lot closer to real people’s experience of the '90s, as opposed to quintessential '90s fictions, like Pulp Fiction or Hackers.
I grew up near Calais, Barre, and Charlotte, and none of them are pronounced how you’d think.
I didn’t even consider how many people with cardiac issues must be looking at that screen.
“Shrunken SUV” or “Took a normal 2- or 4-door and injected it with experimental growth hormones.”
I swear I see one once a week that would make sense and carry the same number of people and stuff at half the overall vehicle volume.
Qi users need not apply.
Most bugs do groom themselves, but here’s a fun fact! Bed bugs don’t groom themselves, and this makes most standard insecticides ineffective, because they won’t ingest any of the poison they might get on their bodies!
Another fun fact: bed bugs are the fucking devil and I don’t hate them, I haaaaaaaaaaaaaate them.
I bought a warhammer. Then I bought a second warhammer. Don’t regret either purchase.
“Trump Secures Coveted Worm-Eaten Brain Demographic”
“Experts Say Worm Eating Brain May Induce One to Endorse Trump”
“Man with Worm-Eaten Brain and Man with Adult Diaper to Form Unstoppable Super-Ticket”
Sexual positions are locked behind tiered paywalls. The most basic ones are free, but as they get more interesting, you have to pay increasing royalty fees.