There is a huge industry around political communications, which for some time now has been intensely focused on social media. You throw enough money at these platforms in the right way, and your message comes out louder.

Lots gets done quietly, often outside of formal campaigns by aligned actors.

I think a big part of 24, terrible Democrat candidates aside, was the large quantities of very tech-savvy money flowing into Republican campaigns at the national and state levels.

All this stuff can be and is bought.

I'm sorry, a single anecdote does not invalidate the above.

Ads are evil. They make us desire things we don't need, undermine our self-esteem, and in the large part just sell scams. I'd be happy to ban most forms of advertising. It's a plague.

Pairs particularly well with cannabis and ample free time. God I miss Magic.

Local bookshops are great, use them or lose them.

"..But sometimes better than a master of one", is the oft-forgotten coda. I'm mediocre at _a lot_ of stuff, and love it. Wouldn't run my life any other way, and it's far too late to change.

I'm, of course, in awe of folks who dedicate their lives to a single craft, but there's a rich, interesting, and productive life out there for us dabblers.

Different strokes for different folks, aye.

The rocket attacks come because Israel periodically invades, as it is now.

It has murdered UN peacekeepers, journalists, medics, aid workers, and so many civilians. And this is before what it does internally.

It is utterly transparent that land is being grabbed, up to the Litani. Next will come settlers.

There is no justifying this flagrant aggression, nor the countless atrocities Israel has committed in the last few years.

You should be ashamed.

Hezbollah, whatever you may think of them, are the main security actor in the South. Why should they not defend their civilian population?

There is also a difference between why we fight and how we fight. Fighting in self defence does not give a state the right to conduct a war in any way it chooses.

There are numerous ongoing conflicts in which we've seen states shed hard-won agreements on how wars should be fought. It's an incredibly dangerous trend which is leading us into a new era of horror.

Where would you put the limits on Ukraine's actions? What is beyond the pale?

Biological and chemical weapons could help you win, nuclear weapons could help you win. We don't use this stuff for a reason.

Apparently the deal back then was that theatres had to buy films in packages. If you wanted the latest blockbuster, you had to buy a bunch of terrible dross, and commit to showing it X times.

I set ZDR to true, and it only calls from the third party ZDR Deepseek APIs. Bit more expensive, but my client wants it.

AI has completely ruined this for me. Its boring having someone else do stuff for you. And worse, I feel I'm un-learning at a rapid rate.

The magic has gone, I'm not sure I want to be in this game in another five years.