Shows that “nobody” watches tend to get cancelled. And if everyone is waiting five years to watch the first season… “nobody” is watching.

But I do agree that Lost/JJ is part of the problem. Not so much because of the concept of cliffhangers (the Alf series finale is one of the funniest things ever made) or even serialized stories (that goes WAY back). Like a lot of things, it comes back to being about media illiteracy because every single influencer who paid half attention to high school literature class is there to spend an hour explaining to you why HIMYM’s ending is still bad. And Lost was very much during the rise of this kind of content.

Yes, some shows end on a genuine cliffhanger. The vast majority don’t. They know they might get cancelled and the showrunners try to make for an “okay” stopping point. PLENTY of youtubers love to point out that Stargate SG-1 had like four series finales.

But “Warrior was fucking good and season 3 ends with a really interesting status quo change that I really hope we can somehow explore. But the themes of the show, and particularly the season, are such that this ISN’T really a status quo change and symbolizes how we are doomed to suffer if we don’t unite against hate” is not “good TV”. Instead “Fucking Zaslav fucked us again. Fucking Warrior ends on the biggest cliffhanger in TV history and retroactively ruined the show for me. I am going to spend the next month rewatching every single episode and talking about how it is now shit because of that bullshit finale. All of this is going to really hurt my mental health. Do you know what website I like to use when my mental health needs a tune up? Well that is the sponsor of today’s video!”. Let alone any “and the adventure continues” style ending (… can you imagine how horrifying the reaction to Quantum Leap would be?).

At the end of the day? We all have limited free time. it isn’t “am I going to watch Seinfeld or Frasier re-runs?” it is “am I going to watch this new show or play fortnite or watch twitch?”. And having an easy out like “Well, I guess I won’t try this new show because it might end some day” or “Ugh. I want something new, not something in a cinematic universe” is an easy way to downselect to a “known good”.

Everyone says they want a fully new IP and blah blah blah

But how many people then immediately jump to say that they’ll wait for season 2 (or 5, because god forbid it gets cancelled) before they watch? Or that they’ll wait for it to hit netflix (who actually ARE doing a lot of new IPs).

Like, I fully admit I am part of the problem. I slept on Warrior until Season 2 had aired and then realized it was literally my dream show (a show with really good choreography, amazing action actors, gratuitous nudity, a really nuanced approach to racism against Asian Americans, and all based on the philosophies of Bruce Lee) and now have to acknowledge it is never getting a Season 4

But also? You need something REAL good to get me to give a damn about a new movie. Either a ridiculously solid actor (still gonna watch the new Gareth Edwards movie even if I hear it is mid) or for it to be tied to something I know I like.

6 billion seems REAL high

But reddit, like twitter, has demonstrated it is a brand/service (just service in the case of xitter) that people are addicted to and will not quit. And stuff like AMAs and astroturfing demonstrate it has a lot of marketability.

Combine that with it being a treasure trove for LLM training and I could easily see it pulling 2-4 billion. More if the FOMO model works out for them and they have /r/wallstreetbets do another “the greatest act of democracy in all of human history” or whatever the tagline for rich people to convince idiots to help them manipulate stock prices.

So it would be less about buying a product to keep for a long time and more about something to exploit for a few years and throw it away.

I mean… good luck dodging someone who completely ignores a stale red and just floors it through an intersection (almost got jackknifed by one of those dumbasses just last week…) or someone who decides they want to merge into your lane and don’t care that it is “bumper to bumper” on the highway.

Defensive driving is about minimizing the likelihood of a crash while acknowledging some are just unavoidable. Hollywood stunt driving is the idea of being able to swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid getting pti maneuver’d.

I definitely agree that automakers are trying to replace “ability” with technology. I know that I very much rely on adaptive cruise control at this point (although, I was pleased to realize I can still maintain speed without it). And while I think that is mostly about safety, I also know I have swapped out my sunglasses or grabbed a beverage in ways I never would have fifteen years ago.

But also? A lot of the cabin stuff is about safety. When your driver’s side window is at bumper height, you can’t really rely on that glass to do much at all. So you need to make sure the frame can take an impact. Which means thicker metal, more airbags, etc. Which means thicker pillars and worse visibility.

Which gets back to the original point: Yeah… you kind of do need bigger (or tankier) cars to survive on the road these days.

I think that more has to do with the cabin design.

I personally drive a Subaru Crosstrek which is literally a Subaru Imprezza on a lift kit. So I have good visibility and have gotten used to the blind spots that my frame creates and know to lean forward a bit when approach a roundabout or intersection to make sure a car isn’t coming in from the left at approximately the same speed as me. Same with changing lanes on the highway (and knowing that the headrests on my back seat completely block vehicles in my rearview mirror…).

That said, my rental a few months back (it might have been a Camry? I forget) had a HORRIBLE interior and my blindspots felt massive because so much of the frame obstructed my view. Some of it was that I only had two or three days to “get used to it” but the frame genuinely meant I could not see traffic when I was doing tighter merges on the highway. Again, I know that means I physically move in my seat but a lot of people never learn that or are used to “check your blindspot” just meaning looking slightly farther back when glancing at a mirror. So they kind of just start changing lanes and get honked at or suddenly see the vehicle they are about to pit maneuver and need to quickly swerve back.

Part of that is by design and is crumple zones. EVERYONE makes fun of “whiplash” but people really do underestimate the kind of injuries caused by even a simple rear ending. And if your car got that fucked, it was probably for a good reason.

Of course, then we also have assholes who want cars without crumple zones to drastically increase damage to other vehicles. But… yeah.

Agreed.

But also? I care a lot more about me and my loved ones than a nebulous “society”. And I am not going to drastically increase risk to me and my partner in the interest of standing on principle*. Especially when “society” continues to get giant pickup trucks on lift kits with fucking spikes for bumpers.

*: Although, I WILL be one of those weirdos who does a LOT of research on fuel economy and efficiency so that I can feel better about technically driving an SUV.

This is also a bugbear for me. Since even in countries with genuinely amazing public transportation (such as Japan), people who live in more rural or remote areas are still up a creek. You might have a bus but you basically have one or two routes per day and if you need to “head into town” at any other time… you need a car.

But there are various youtube channels by rich white people who live in some of the more expensive cities on earth that basically say “fuck the poor” under the guise of better city design. And… don’t get me wrong, living in a city with public transportation is amazing and America as a whole REALLY loves unwalkable towns. But there are always going to be situations where private transportation is needed (even if it a few cars that the entire town “shares”).

I mean… kind of?

10 or 20 years ago? I would never have driven an SUV and thought anyone in one is stupid.

Five or six years ago? I needed a new car and ended up getting a “crossover” (so basically a hatchback on a lift kit). Still tiny compared to a lot of the cars on the road but a lot bigger than what I ever expected to drive.

Because in a sedan (like my rental a few months back)? My head is literally at bumper level for a LOT of the vehicles on the road. And now we have shit like the cybertruck where the bumper is a jagged metal wedge. I have a lot of faith in modern safety specs but that is still terrifying. In my small suv? I am still grill height for a lot of trucks but at least I am not weaving around monster trucks in a clown car.

Don’t get me wrong. I very much enjoy the increased ground clearance and ability to haul an entire car worth of camping gear comfortably. But I also know that I am “never” going to go smaller. And… that is kind of the problem. People are dragged kicking and screaming because the alternative is to feel like you are going to die the next time someone decides they are going to ignore a red light.

Because it is expressed as digits (numbers)

All of which is still two syllables?

Yeah. One of my best friends literally stripped her way through law school.

But it is also just a bog standard thing to say during a lap dance or whatever. “oh, I’m just doing this until I get through veterinary school” and so forth.

And he is considered a massive creep and the same level of freaks how as most “true crime” (speaking of: it is generally bad form to use the names of people like that because it is just giving them recognition).

As opposed to the norm and the expected behavior.

Not really.

Onlyfans is more or less a strip club. It is not (just) about seeing titties. It is about “the fantasy”. Ask any stripper and the best possible “gimmick” is to be “working my way through (grad/law/nursing/whatever) school” since that lets clients feel like they are “saving” you.

And, on a surface level, that is similar. Pop Idol better not have a boyfriend because she is a permanent virgin and blah blah blah.

But that is where it ends. Because the guy who starts getting overly possessive of a stripper/sex worker/OF model/whatever? We, as a society, think they have issues and there is usually a support structure to get them away from the person they are going to stalk.

Whereas with k-pop (and, to a somewhat lesser extent, j-pop and the like): The support structure encourages that mindset and punishes the performer for daring to ruin “the fantasy”. And, as can be seen here and every other time this happens, “society” encourages that.

And… South Korea is so fucked that it makes Japan look like a good place to be a woman. Like, it is a genuine problem to the point that voice actresses have gotten “cancelled” because someone thought they made a rude gesture that insults men.

It is a one syllable difference, at most. Fif-teen versus Quar-ter-Past. Or Thir-ty versus Half-past. And for-ty-five versus quar-ter-till.

But it is also about precision. If I say “Let’s meet up at 4:45” that implies a lot more specificity than “let’s meet at quarter to five”. The firmer is an exact time people should meet at and the latter is “around that time”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeopkvAP-ag goes into the difference between analog and digital time and what that means with thought processes. But a lot of it boils down to thinking in terms of “parts of a whole” versus “specific times”.

Pagers are still fairly popular for hospital workers because (among other things) they are cheap, minimally distracting, and not that useful if stolen. And they are still very popular among people who have to work in secure areas or on airgapped machines because it is (effectively) one way communication.

But for the vast majority of people? SMS provides all the same benefits (I mean, pagers are basically just one way SMS boxes) and emergency alert systems already exist.

Hexbear are hardcore and basically only tolerate people who worship Xinnie The Poo and Putin. Ml are more your bog standard tankies who are radicalized to hate all liberals but don’t understand by who

Obviously consult a doctor and blah blah blah, but I finally bought a couple of those hot/cold ice packs. I keep two in the freezer and one in the cabinet above the microwave. Because you never know when hot or cold will help but oh sweet Erastil does it help when you need it.

Also: a good pair of trekking poles are great to have. Awesome for a longer hike but also a great way to have a cane (or even a crutch in a pinch) for when you SHOULD be letting something rest but don’t because you got stuff to do.

I don’t judge people based on their instance. Although, there are a few instances I have just straight up blocked because their users just cause way too many problems.

That said? If someone is being a jerk, I will look at their instance and quite often have a “yeah, that checks out”. I don’t really have any issues with lemmy.ml but I have definitely noticed a “type” of user. Not bad enough to block the instance but enough that it often counts as two strikes as far as I am concerned. Be a jerk and I see you are from lemmy.ml? Good odds I just block you then and there rather than checking your comment history to see if this is a recurring theme or not.