#a solid case of i did it just to do it and sunk cost fallacy converging in a gifset

[yangjeongin]

HYUNJIN | 230910 • MIC & BRUSH @ 5-STAR DOME TOUR 2023 OSAKA

[crepes-suzette-373]

Oh my GOD YES on all those points you made about Judge! Essentially everyone on their first WCI watch just sees him as a mustache-twirling villain with no ounce of good, which is FAIR, he's certainly fallen far from whatever love he might've held. But I always think back on those panels where he lovingly hugs all his children (Sanji excluded from the hug ofc) b/c there's no reason for him to do this. They're your perfect engineered weapons of war who cannot even feel love, why show them physical and verbal affection? wouldn't this be meaningless to them lmao? and somehow, he's shocked when they don't even fear dying?? like how much of this is his own hubris coming back to bite him and how much is it that maybe, just maybe, even he overlooks his mods and humanizes these living weapons in his head, despite being the very cause that stripped them of their humanity.

another point with the cover story. I agree with you that there's NO WAY reiju and ichiji just snuck off to save their brothers behind judge's back, that seems nigh impossible. but we also don't know what's really going on in his head. is he sad that the grand plans with big mom fell through, that they ended up worse for wear after everything? does he actually MISS his two sons, or does he mourn the loss of half his team of perfect soliders? of all the scientific effort he poured into their creation? his children were huge expensive 20+ year investments, it could really be a desperate case of sunk cost fallacy. we don't really know, oda never spells it out. the cover story is more emphasis on his relationship to caeser and their history in MADs. and despite everything both of them went through, they didn't learn anything. they're willing to form neo MADs just to spite vegapunk, and blame all their career failings on him. it's as if oda is waving a giant banner in our face "these two will never change!! they're the same lunatics they were in their youths!!"

I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say, though I'm glad that you liked the post. I mean, I was trying to be brief because I didn't want to make it overly long, but well, I guess I need to explain more clearly.

Like, I completely disagree with the popular idea that Judge sees them as "tools", "machines", or "weapons" (it's why I strongly disagree with the English dub changing Judge's dialogue from "my beloved children" to something like "my beloved creation").

Oda-sensei is an old school Japanese man. As I said in the previous post, I'm of the opinion that he was basing Judge on the sort of "tiger parents" that was very common in previous decades. Heck, I still hear comments that sometimes even today this kind of parents still exist in China or Japan or Korea. A lot of them were raised the same way by previous generations, and never knew what they're doing was harmful. They think what they're doing is done out of love.

That's why I think Judge was concerned for Niji and Yonji genuinely because in my understanding does love his kids. It's just that he holds them to a certain standard, and he despised Sanji for completely deviating from it.

Sensei clearly understands that this "tiger parent" sort of culture is not right, though. I believe it's why he had Sanji have the internal monologue about how biological parents aren't automatically deserving of respect and love, and then cutting ties completely. If someone is harmed by it, they have the right to walk away.

At the same time, even if a child was disliked by their parents, it doesn't mean that the other children who did receive "love" weren't genuinely loved. It just means that the parents were biased and didn't love equally. You can argue that it's not "real love", but as messed up as it is, that's the only kind of love that they know how to give.

I'd directly counter that "20 years of investment" because he doesn't keep upgrading them like robots either. Not unless you count general daily life consumption like food as "investment".

What the manga indicated was that modification was made once during pregnancy, and when the training starts all the scientists were doing is track and monitor progress. Nothing in the text suggest that further experimentations were ever made on them. They probably just train and spar regularly, and that's it.

I have nothing against fanfictions/headcanons that say otherwise, all things are fair game in fanfics, but I mean in terms of the actual canon I just don't think that's how that works.

I think the "They should be monsters" line from the scene with Sora is partly what's throwing people off, and this is a mildly incorrect translation. I would suggest that the better translation should be "I don't mind even if they become monsters".

I'm sure that even if this was written more correctly there would still be people who don't see the difference, but I think it is a difference that matters. His main focus was that wanted them to be strong, and he wanted them to be fearless and not have mercy, and at the moment in his mind it doesn't matter if they become "monsters" as Sora said.

It was only during the wedding murder attempt that he realises what "being monsters" looks like, and clearly he didn't expect that.

Although I must mention that I think this is more because of they "don't fear death" rather than lack of compassion. In the subsequent chapters they were concerned when Big Mum hit Judge and rushed to save him. The reason why they just shrugged off death is because, as they all said, they were completely trapped and they felt like they can't do squat anymore in that situation. If they had seen a small chance of fighting back, I feel like they would have tried to do something.

(also this is why I have questions about Ichiji's powers because the Vivre Card says that he has the ability to make blinding lights with Sparking Valkyrie, but Queen's attack indicate those are lasers, so which is it and why did he not use it?)

Anyway, removing fear is one thing, but I feel the need to ask why was it necessary to go that far with the mods. Did something negative/bad happen in the past that made Judge think that it's detrimental to have a "heart" that allows for mercy and compassion?

I want to bring up again that it is very important to remember that Judge wanted revenge. Or rather, he claims that his whole reason for wanting to conquer the North is for the sake of "avenging" his ancestors. He spoke of 300 years of people dying in regret, and what a disgrace it is that his ancestors are wandering ghosts that have no land to return to. Too many people hyperfocus on the conquests and I'm not seeing enough people try to discuss what's going on here.

Maybe their ancestors showed mercy to someone, and only ended up betrayed. Maybe then after that the subsequent generations of royalty strictly educated their descendants to have disdain for mercy and kindness.

I also suggested that maybe there's an "inherited will" in the royal line to be the ones to avenge their ancestors. And perhaps that was why it has to be his own children that gets the modification instead of, say, experimenting on the human citizens or making an army of superpowered clones.

Certainly in the meta it's just necessary because Oda-sensei wanted to give Sanji the upgrades, but in-universe you have to ask "why" again. It's maybe the "honour and duty" of the royal family to fulfil their ancestor's wishes.

I've seen someone say that Judge was being hypocritical in being this obsessed with his ancestors, and yet berated Sanji for cooking and telling him to stop chasing after the dead. It could be, but it's not without reason. In his view it's probably the difference between duty and sentimentality.

Also in regards to Neo MADS. They're not blaming Vegapunk. The subsequent content show that they wanted to be "better scientists" than Vegapunk, and they were brawling to at least be the number two.

When they said "Vegapunk is the problem", I don't think it means "we blame him". I think it means "why are we fighting when the one we should be trying to defeat is Vegapunk?" Why settle for fighting over who's "number two" if you can just be "number one"?

In the scene where Vegapunk kicks out Caesar, amidst all his rambling Caesar repeatedly says that he wants to be known as better than Vegapunk. And Judge, well, he didn't say it but it was implied from how he and his others were horrified when Vegapunk received the Evil Prize.

Forming Neo MADS to defeat Vegapunk as scientists and them just doing science research is probably "their true self". They're mad scientists doing psycho batshit insane stuff, but the main point of it is still "being the greatest scientist". I'm personally of the opinion that Neo MADS is actually more about Judge "regaining his old dreams", in a weird way.

Like, since we haven't seen Judge talk yet, it's not overly clear, but if he's spending all this time after Caesar showed up focusing on science research then that implies he's stopped caring about the North Blue revenge.

Also I'm 100% overthinking it, but for a while I had been thinking that the clones is proof and/or symbolic of Germa going off track and not actually fulfilling "their true calling" yet. I feel like various aspects in the series has been hinting that Germa's real science specialty was technology. Yet Judge was spending all their effort and funding to make a ton of clones instead and not even bothering to arm them with high-tech weaponry. The clone army was just using normal swords and spears. Why?

In one of my theories I mentioned maybe they were originally science-warriors, and something just got really messed up in the process. Like, maybe their bitter need for revenge made them hyperfocus more on the "warrior" part rather than the science. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Germa had been the ones who resurrected Emet 200 years ago in service of whatever it is that they originally wanted, but it failed because Emet deactivated mid-way.

Anyway, this has been a long one. I hope I've explained it better.

[davidpires578]

A Ming-Inspired Cabinet (95)

I've been working on the final steps in preparing the bonnet assemblies for these two cabinets. The bonnet provides a visual way to 'crown' the cabinets, so they don't end up looking simply like a pair of boxes on stands. It's an unnecessary thing from a functional perspective to fit bonnets, but vey much a necessary thing, it seems to me, from an aesthetic one. This is where I leave minimalist/modern behind, not that I even see eye to eye with it anyhow. If I remove the bonnet from the composition, something seems missing, and not in a good way. It's not shibui, it's simply incomplete: something is lacking. I did tone down the lines of the bonnet top beams, as detailed in an earlier post, and what I was left with was a raised section on of framing on a shedua stand off, and there was as a result a bit room in there for a storage compartment.  "Oooh, a hidden compartment" raises now into a specter of the possible. The thing is, while concealed compartments at one time served a necessary security function - in the case of early American secretary cabinets, for example - or, in the case of pieces made by the Roentgen's for French nobility, an entertainment function, when it comes down to what makes sense today, it was less a fixation on a secret compartment than it was on having a discrete compartment. This is a compartment which is not entirely obvious to view, though if you went looking for it (what kind of nut bar does that but a furniture maker?) the access would be obvious enough. I didn't want some sort of obsession with secrecy to affect the aesthetics of the cabinets, or to become a central idea of the cabinets, or to require any complex means to achieve realization. Just wanted to make use of available space in a practical manner, and wanted to create a space where things might be tucked away, requiring only occasional access, perhaps got at once in a while for the fun of it. This made more sense to me than the 'secrecy' aspect. If you truly want to hide stuff away from those who might pry, then get yerself a heavy duty iron safe with some complex lock, and make it clear to view (then hide your stuff elsewhere, perhaps, thus providing a fake target with the safe (?)). Anyway, I wanted a compartment with a removable lid, and wanted to have the lid openable by simple means, and, oh yeah, all parts in solid wood. A lid in bubinga, keeping it decently thin, still ends up being a bit of a lump. So, working out a catch mechanism took some mulling over to be sure. I thought I had worked out a good solution and then spent a day and a half milling up some mounting blocks in brass. This was the result:

I've learned a bunch about milling brass in the past few days. A closer look at one of the temporarily-clamped side-mounted blocks, with the fitted spring pusher mechanism:

That set up proved the basic concept of catch paired with two blocks and sprung pushers did work, however further consideration let me to conclude that the system may not be the best over time: I was worried that the constant pressure of the sprung pushers on each corner of the lid, relative to the catch in the middle, might, over time, induce the lid to become deformed. It was enough of a concern to lead to the scrapping of the above machined brass blocks. So, out with that, setting aside the fallacy of sunk costs and all that, and onto the Mark II design, which incorporated both catch and spring pushers into one wooden block. Here, I'm tapping for the M12 threads required for the sprung pushers, using a center punch in the chuck to keep the tap handle plumb:

As you can see, an insert (1/4" x 20TPI) had already been fitted in the middle. The completed mounting blocks:

The spring pushers are a device from the CNC fixturing world, and are from Misumi USA. They are good to deal with. I also obtained the tool to screw the pushers into place:

In the middle is the pointed marking pin which had served duty earlier with the bifold doors. It's nice to find it useful again.... These are the second set of spring pushers I had to obtain. They come in four strengths of spring, and the first set proved to be too weak. A while later, I have mounted one of the blocks to the inside of the compartment using inch-scale stainless fasteners, namely #10-24 Allen cap screws:

One of the quirky things about inch scale bolts arises when you go below 1/4" in size. Unlike metric, where everything is on a even round 1mm incremental pattern, like 10mm-8mm-6mm-5mm-4mm-3mm, etc., with inch scale, it's a tad more complicated. While larger sizes of bolts from 5/8" down are on even 1/16" increments, stepping along 5/8"-9/16"-1/2"-7/16"-3/8"-5/16"-1/4", when you go below that 1/4" mark you do not arrive at the next 1/16" division (3/16") as might be expected: suddenly it switches to a #12x24TPI designation.  That #12, however, is an uncommon size, and the next regular sort of size you come across at the hardware store is #10-24TPI. And #10 is not exactly 3/16" (0.1875"), but a hair larger at 0.1900".  Hah-hah-hah..... Take another drink Jim. It's one of those weird things, which, if you are 'used' to it, is not terribly consequential - you go to the hardware store and find the appropriate fastener which fits what you need - however if you are not used to it, being used to, say, the metric system, this standard will seem baffling and illogical, maybe ripe for a suitable amount of derision even. I understand, and please feel free to refrain from extended soliloquies in the comment section relative to this point. I get it. I didn't create this system, I merely live within it, and a little kookiness is okay I guess, keeping poor blighters like me on my toes at the very least. When you dig into it, you find that threads which are smaller than 1/4" are defined by wire gauge standards, and the sizing is based on a sweet l'il formula:

The following formula is used to calculate the major diameter of a numbered screw greater than or equal to 0: Major diameter = Screw # × 0.013 in + 0.060 in. For example, a number 10 calculates as: #10 × 0.013 in + 0.060 in = 0.190 in major diameter. To calculate the major diameter of “ought” size screws count the number of extra 0’s and multiply this number by .013 and subtract from .060. For example the major diameter of a 0000 screw thread is .060 – (3 x .013) = .060-.039 = .021 inches.

Okay, you can wake up now. The above quote is from the wikipedia entry on the Unified Thread Standard. I chuckle as I read it. Some things in technological societies get fossilized while some do not, what can you say?

Anyhow, I used 10-24 stainless bolts to mount the blocks to the framing. I could have gone with 5mm, which is fairly close to 0.1900" at 0.1968503, but whatever, it worked out and I got to amuse myself with thinking about archaic thread standards which are used today in the US instead of more apparently 'rational' systems, and I have a 10-24 tap already so let's move on. It gave me a certain amount of perverse pleasure - I'll admit that much.

In the next photo I'm marking the underside of the compartment panel to the sharpened pin temporarily fitted to the position in the block (a position later to be occupied by the catch itself):

Once the location is marked, I could proceed to mortise for the catch using a couple of different forstner bits:

The underside of the board is similarly mortised, and the catch is secured by a fairly large brass nut:

The catch itself is a custom made piece from Quik-latch products - they make latches designed to hold the hoods of hot rods down at the front. I did extensive research to find something suitable, and this turned out to be the best thing I could find - and I am more than happy with the product. Quik-latches are normally made in aluminum or steel, however at the time I got in touch with them they were in the middle of fulfilling a large order from a Scandinavian furniture company for a series of door latches in brass, and they were able to make me a set in a few days, also from brass. They sent me the 'mini' latches in parts, and I patinated them, sent the pieces back for assembly and then the complete units were delivered a week or two later. Quik-latch is one of the best companies I have ever dealt with in all my life: excellent, prompt communication, a 'can-do' attitude somewhat rare to find these days, and an excellent product shipped in a timely manner. Was it a weird dream, I wonder? All the same, highly recommended! Here's a closer look at the latch and its 1/4"-20 pin, with the catch itself flipped upside-down:

The rod engages with a satisfying snap!:

Another view show how tolerant the latch is of misalignment:

Here's the Quik-latch installed and about to be closed for the first time:

'Click':

This mechanism worked just as I had hoped, providing a discrete means of accessing the upper compartment in the bonnet:

I later added a small relief cut to provide easier purchase for the fingertips:

A few views of the top with the latch installed, and in order to see this view in the completed cabinet you would need to stand 6'-8" or more (203cm):

All for this round. The second cabinet is about half an hour away from reaching the same stage, and then I will be doing the final assembly on the bonnet and last coat of finish. Then a little more work awaits with the bifold doors as the magnets have now arrived. More to come, so please stay tuned....