#is that. is that not possible in a cybertruck.

[caterpillarinacave]

so... does the electronic steering thing on tesla cybertrucks mean that you can't turn the wheels towards a certain direction when you've stopped the car? you know, the way you're supposed to when youre parked on a hill so if your car starts rolling it just goes into the curb instead of into the street???

[rlyehtaxidermist]

elon musk should bring back the dynasphere

[iam93percentstardust]

i live in one of the rainiest places in the country.

there's a hurricane barreling down on us in two days.

...in unrelated news, i saw my first cybertruck in person yesterday.

[clearlyaginger]

I wanna see a cyber truck with a sticker or a paint job on it saying, "I bought a cybertruck, and all I got was this lousy cybertruck!"

I think that would be neat

[holyfunnyhistoryherring]

[Image 1: tweet by 679 enthusiast @marionumber4 "I'm putting together a team". The tweet has an attached image, with four photos. A Boeing plane at an airport, the Cyber truck on a road, Ocean Gate submarine under water, a Space X shuttle taking off.

Image 2: screen shot of Ron Stoppable from the animated series Kim Possible. He looks distressed. Caption reads, "Uh uh, I had nothing to do with this."

/End description.]

"The Stoppables"

[greekbros]

(I just asked a question on Reddit about the current safety of going to public events like a renaissance fair or something in regards to the current political situation.. considering there are neo-nazis and deranged maga supporters straight of going to these places and making everyone's lives living hell with their own existence)

(either way, I asked a question on Reddit about this and I got a few interesting mixed responses. Some were encouraging enough stating that you were just going to see somebody wearing paraphernalia and that's roughly about it, but the most concerning statement was somebody stating that "Republicans will always go to Renaissance fairs, Your TDS is ruining your life". Although it can be assumed as a statement of concern, the numerous down votes on it says otherwise)

(but I just found out what TDS means.)

(maybe there wouldn't be a ridiculous psychosis if the so-called president elect wasn't such a psychotic dictator)

[prokopetz]

I saw a Cybertruck with Saskatchewan plates today. By most estimates there are, at the time of this posting, fewer than 10 000 Cybertrucks on the road worldwide; they aren't even scheduled to be made available in Canada until 2025 at the earliest. How many of them could possibly be registered in Saskatchewan? I feel like I just saw the techbro equivalent of Mothman.

[wilwheaton]

Hey man, I could use a few talking points to help convince a friend that Musk is horrible. I'm reading 'Think Again' by Adam Grant (good read btws) and he says to help convince people to come to your viewpoint that it can be good to have 2 or 3 strong points instead of 10 mixed points. The counter argument I get from people about Musk being good is that he did spacex and tesla, and without him we'd be decades behind. Maybe, but I don't have good ammo. Please help as I get too angry tobe critical

Well, listen, the fascism, the transphobia, the chaos, and the unwavering support for autocrats all over the planet really ought to be enough to outweigh anything else, if you ask me. It sounds like you know some people who got excited about the companies he threw money at, and they are having a tough time updating their feelings due to current events. Or maybe they share his values and don't want to admit that.

But I'll try to offer some simple facts.

He did not do engineering with Tesla or SpaceX or even PayPal. He is a fraud. He walked into these existing businesses, where people had done actual work and engineering, threw some of his Apartheid money at them, and took credit for their work. He claims, over and over again, to be a founder of these companies, and that's just straight up a lie that is easily disproved.

He literally did nothing except throw money at people and take credit for their work. Look at every Tesla up to the (chokes back laughter) Cybertruck. Those Teslas look like cars, because they were designed by engineers. Look at the Cybertruck. When you stop laughing at what a joke it is, know this: that's what happens when Elon Musk is in charge. It's like a ten year-old with some crayons drew it on a menu at Denny's.

All of the things his weird fans claim he made possible, are things that would have happened, and were in the process of happening, without him. He literally did nothing to advance the technologies or engineering. In fact, SpaceX whistleblowers have told reporters how they had to keep Musk occupied with bullshit, so they could do the real work without him fucking it up all the time with his incompetence.

But even if he were telling the truth, even if the myth were fact, it would not outweigh the damage, the pain, the chaos, and the suffering he has inflicted on millions and millions of people, all over the world with his lies, his spread of misinformation, and his incitement of angry incels.

Also, don't forget, when Ukraine was trying to defend itself, he turned off Starlink access when they could have decisively ended Russia's aggression. A lot of people have suffered and died as a direct consequence of that action, which he took to support his buddy and fellow autocrat, Vladimir Putin.

That's more information than I think your friends will be willing to hear. Studies indicate that people who are heavily invested in the myth of a person will fight hard to hold onto the myth, and reject truth and facts, because it's so jarring to them. Musk has built a cult of personality, and maybe your friends are stuck to it.

I'd gently encourage your friends to consider one key fact: he has lied about his entire origin story, he has lied about his contributions to Tesla and SpaceX. He lies about everything, except when he posts on Twitter like a 12 year-old edgelord, because that's who he is, emotionally.

Finally, and this is for you, specifically: if your friends insist on supporting a fascist, a racist, a misogynist, or a bigot, because they think rockets are cool, maybe it's time to look for new friends.

I hope this helps.

And fuck Elon Musk.

[ceilimoose]

Quick correction: the specification on Tesla's website above is that the adhesive is good to 100°C, which is actually 212°F and the boiling point for water. It's still totally ridiculous that these parts are glued on, but 212°F is well above the temperature you'll get from a normal hot day, even in direct sunlight. This is NOT a win for Elon, but it's also not QUITE as big a fail as the posts above indicate.

[cipheramnesia]

The Venom movies really show business bros are incapable of managing art mediums. Like, Madame Web, I tried to watch that in the background for free and it was unwatchable. Just such a deliberately market driven origin story movie, couldn't care even to half ignore it. But leave Tom Hardy alone browsing butch lesbian pictures for outfit ideas then set him lose in the desert with a camera crew and a bathrobe, it's a license to print money. They got no idea what works, they know when they got something that's working and re-released Venom in theaters to make more cash hand over fist but got trolled into trying the same with Morbius just to get punched in the dick a second time. You know they all gotta hate the Venom movies too. Watching a group of people getting paid to ignore as much of your market optimization as possible and then being one of only half a dozen things you have that's profitable has gotta sting. You know every Venom movie is released only with the greatest reluctance, you know they bet each time it's going to tank. White guys in bad suits they overpaid for by thousands of dollars tearing up their spreadsheets of target audiences and crying each time. It's not a revolutionary movie, it's just kinda trashy and fun and tantalizingly camp but that doesn't fit into a cost benefit analysis that people could want a movie that's sincerely glitter on a cardboard castle over the movie equivalent of a cybertruck.

[essektheylyss]

The thing about Aeor being apparently so closed off from the outside is that Avalir was basically open to the elements and had some pretty aggressive ongoing climate control, which seems way more showy. It's not that Aeor couldn't have done that, because the arcana demonstrably existed. They just didn't for some reason.

Ergo, I propose that Aeor is the Exandrian equivalent of the billionaire doomsday bunker. The arcane Titanic submersible. The Cybertruck of flying cities. If you're trying to eliminate all possible vulnerabilities in your design there is simply no amount of wizards who can replace one hardened civil engineer.

[massachusetts-official]

RE that cybertruck post there’s one with the license plate of GRLBOS that i saw at Assembly Row last month. wonder if anyone else has seen that one around

Thank you for using the cybertruck reporting hotline.

I blame you all for pulling me forcefully out of willfully ignoring the possibility that there is more than one of these monstrosities in MA.

[marsoid]

answering these in one go

i got Sugar off a craigslist ad in 2016. she was listed for $9k but i got her for $8800, the seller knocked down the price literally just because he was nice and could tell i loved the car so much 🥹 my bank wouldn't let me pull out all the cash at once so i drove her home and paid him that Monday which is CRAZY but he trusted me to pay him and i did

when i first got her she didn't have power steering or power brakes (turned like a land yacht and stopped when she felt like it) so that was the first thing to address. fixed the horn and some other minor stuff that needed it. i also made the decision to replace the carburetor with EFI, which is kind of controversial in the classic car world lol but it's more fuel efficient

the EFI i had installed actually gave me the most problems over the years it was ALWAYS having issues and breaking down. but i recently had it reinstalled by someone who is NOT an idiot and I've had no problems for like 2 solid years I'm so fucking glad lol now she's more reliable than ever

she has a 350 small block V8 and auto transmission since she's my daily driver and allows for the smoothest ride possible as a commuter car. i don't race but she is fast lmao. I've never put pedal to metal but I've gotten her up to 80mph before without even flooring it so 😭 she can fucking Go lol. she kind of defaults to 30mph coasting so i have to have my foot on the brake to keep the speed limit in residentials

what else uhhh the cabin smells so good.... i love old car smell. I'm so lucky in her 53 years of being on the road she's apparently never had an owner that smoked inside the car i would have gone crazy if it smelled like cigarettes in there lmao

she has bench seats in the front and back which are like two little sofas. i used to nap back there on breaks when i was still working at a studio.

she has no airbags and you have to tighten the seatbelts yourself. there's an over the shoulder belt and separate waist belt. the passenger shoulder belt you gotta tug on after clicking it bc sometimes it comes loose on its own 😭 she is a death machine with no crumple zone so if i crash i will die 👍🏾 but I'm a very cautious driver and i don't even drive that much sooo IT'S FINE

she is very low tech besides the EFI and if there's ever an engine problem u can literally just look under the hood and mess with stuff until it's fixed. it's very spacious in there with a lot of room to poke around. cars in the 70s were made to last and because they are still so beloved to this day there's endless info online from enthusiasts about fixing stuff that pops up. some companies are still making new parts for classics so we don't have to dig through junkyards when we need replacements... unless u want to ofc, the hunt can be fun too LOL

i get people waving me down daily to ask me what year she is and tell me they used to have a Nova when they were younger or knew someone that did and how much they loved them and IDK IT'S SWEET!! ppl are always so happy to see her......... the antithesis of the cybertruck

thanks for reading here's some thirst traps

[anim-ttrpgs]

The skill point allocation system in Eureka is very elegant.

Is the principle of evening out to 0 something that has often been used in ttrpg design? If so, can you name other games that inspired Eureka in that regard? Or did you come up with it for Eureka?

"All skills can be -n to +n with a cumulative total of 0" seems too usefull, too elegant, as to never been utilized before the year 2024.

I came up with it independently and have literally never seen it anywhere else. I have thought the same way about the Eureka! Point mechanic, though similar things have been done before in other RPGs, just never applied to mystery investigation gameplay. Why hasn't anyone done this yet?

I feel like it must have been used somewhere else at some point in the 50 years of TTRPGs that have been made, I've just never seen it. i agree it feels like too good of an idea to not, like, practically be industry standard, but then again, TTRPGs are not a very innovative industry. It's very stagnant. Most TTRPGs that have come out in the past 50 years have just been D&D clones to some degree or another, and most "innovation" I see has just been "what if we unknowingly reinvented the wheel except this time we made it hexagonal instead of octagonal," total Tesla cybertruck style innovation.

The industry is kind of uniquely set up for that. It's one of the most monopoly-dominated industries/artforms in existence, with one game (of greatly varying quality and thoughtful design between editions) completely dominating it for all 50 years of its existence and being allowed to basically fully define what a "TTRPG" is. The biggest alternative to D&D for the past 20 years has been Pathfinder, which is just like D&D but a little better designed, and before that its biggest competitor was World of Darkness, which, if you actually read their rulebooks, are also designed pretty much like D&D except for some text at the beginning which basically says "you can ignore these extremely dungeon-crawl-y rules to focus more on narrative, don't be like those dumb dungeon crawl players," which if you have been following this blog you know is a load of crap.

Call of Cthuhlu, another big veteran contender for the industry that is still going pretty strong, has been the standard for "investigation" gameplay for nearly 50 years, but it's just a Lovecraft hack of RuneQuest, which was designed for, you guessed it, fantasy dungeon crawling. That's why even though CoC adventure modules do tend to play pretty well with Eureka, most of them are still structured as a short line of like 1 or 2 clues to follow to get the PCs into a spooky scary enclosed dungeon-like monster-filled location as quickly as possible, and you have advice like (uncharitable hyperbole) "if the PCs get stuck, make evidence fall from the sky and land at their feet."

Plus, you have big "actual play" podcasts who really really champion the whole "ignore the rules when they get in the way of your pre-planned three-act-structure plot" and the mega-monopolgy with marketing money making it a selling point that if you ignore the rules enough "D&D5e can do anything."

TTRPGs are also a relatively young artform without a ton of mainstream attention until pretty recently (which, as I mentioned, has been eaten up by D&D5e, Pathfinder, and big "actual plays"), and they are a hard one to participate in because playing a single TTRPG requires a ton of time investment compared to most other popular art forms like books, video games, music, and movies.

All this results in many, many people who play and even design TTRPGs literally never having played anything that wasn't WotC-era D&D, barely one or two degrees of separation from WotC-era D&D, or "it's not important if it's WotC-era D&D or not if you just ignore the rules!" Oh and PbtA and BitD players and designers, you're not immune to this! Those are just the "D&D5e can do anything!" of the indie scene and no they really really are not the best framework/engine for every single game ever!

For all the talent, study, effort, and respect for the artform across the A.N.I.M. team, not even we are immune to this. I haven't played nearly as many TTRPGs as I would like to have before calling myself a "learned" TTRPG designer. There might be some obscure game from 2004 I've never heard of that does some of Eureka's stuff already, that if I had read, I could have made Eureka even better by improving upon and learning from the mistakes of others rather than working in uncharted territory.

So, in conclusion, to use the film industry as an analogy, it's like if, during the past 10 years of every fucking mainstream movie being about superheroes, aspiring film makers, who have watched between 0 and 1 movies that weren't about superheroes, are having the "novel" idea of "what if.. a movie wasn't about superheroes!" and then trying to make a movie not about superheroes with no non-superhero experience or study. And Eureka: The Movie is good and innovative because A.N.I.M. Studios watched a measly 10 different non-superhero movies and studied film theory before making it.

[xenosagaepisodeone]

I imagine what the tesla cybertruck has as a trade off for the lack of crumple zones is several iv bags worth of morphine behind the dashboard that'll burst open after a minor collision to make the transition from human to accordion as painless as possible

[writinggremlin]

Cybertruck whumpee.

No, not cybertruck owner whumpee; cybertruck whumpee. As in the vehicle itself. They can scream. No, seriously. I didn't know it was possible for a car to do that either.

Anygay, yeah. Cybertruck whumpee. Have fun.