It's nowhere as bad as the reviews I saw were for it. But I viewed it with the mindset it was a parody of Star Wars and it was pretty fun that way because there wasn't any other way to watch it.

But you didn't expound on your statement of set up for a fantastic ending as I am intrigued in your idea of how one might have taken the ending to Last Jedi and made it fantastic.

I mean, none of them are particularly great movies so the bar isn't really that high. My take is I think the whole new trilogy suffers from is that they don't seem to really know what story they want to tell and that clear lack of planning shows in its execution. So as a consequence, it ends up with a lot of interesting ideas in places and I think that much of the original trilogy characters/nostalgia are used as a crutch to get/keep people invested in this series. As a precursor, I'll also say that I think Solo and Rogue One are good movies (better than the new trilogy ones) but also boring as they really make no effort to explore the rich Star Wars universe and continue to stay centered around the original trilogy. It's probably my biggest disappointment with everything Disney has done with Star Wars to date.

Force Awakens' only real fault is that it's pretty much the same as New Hope with Han, Chewy, and Leia as crutches. It's a serviceable film with interesting enough characters even if the premise is just pretty blah. But we've got a story with new characters, a couple villains, and Rey/Finn being force sensitive folks (as my long understanding is only force users can use light sabers - pretty consistent in what I have seen but never read any books, just movies and games) means more Jedi training / future films.

Last Jedi largely ends up discarding much of the set up from the previous film and then really doesn't offer much back other than Kylo is now in charge, which is a slight problem in a trilogy. I think a lot of the problems here really stem from the overly huge cast of people and the desire to then use them as central parts of the plot. Snoke's quick death undercuts his legitimacy as a villain in rewatches of Awakens as he never really shows why anyone takes him seriously. Sure, Rise shows that he's just a stooge for Palpatine but that's not known here and had he not died so pathetically, could have been far more interesting. Or was he just the first powerful force user to appear and everyone circled around him? Poe never really has any character growth regarding his brash, shoot from the hip decision making (he just gets shot by Leia and I guess realizes what an ass he's been?). Finn and Rose get sidelined on an unnecessarily long B plot that also gets rid of Phasma in a disappointing way and puts the Resistance in a tough spot (which is another failure of Poe's). Honestly, I get why Holdo plays her cards close as she's not sure how they're tracking them but you'd think she would have entrusted Poe's replacement in command (a demotion that could have helped him grow) and the others she trusted around her - or perhaps that's a problem with the Resistance that could have been highlighted. Also disappointing for Finn as they never explore his force use (per my lightsaber understanding).

Rise is just a mess and a lot of it is down to what they're handed (but I would be intrigued to hear what your view on an awesome ending is) and how they finish things. Why do we need Palpatine as I actually liked Rey's parents being nobodies - it makes the force feel more mysterious rather than heritage and actually makes her calling herself Rey Skywalker at the end even more powerful. Why is Kylo leading the First Order not sufficient enough for a bad guy? They could still be looking for the Sith homeworld but trying to find a way to weaken the dark side to return balance to the force (given the diminished light side). The navigation module battle plot makes zero sense and honestly the sudden amassing of forces is comically silly - where did all these people and resources come from? Force revive/heal clearly exists but it's silly that a renounced Sith can suddenly make use of what is a clearly powerful power (ignoring how little training Rey really had and that all the previous Jedi had not come to her when she healed him). I don't think there's a lot of debate to be had here.

As I said, there are a lot of interesting ideas in there but it's such a mess but in different ways from the prequels.

Okay but knowing Netflix's history with productions they will cancel it before it finishes. Honestly who cares what Netflix is making until Netflix actually keeps making any sustained content.

Apparently no one reported it via feedback so it was still sitting here ten days later until I sent in something about it today. And it's since been taken care of.

Late to the party but could it be code optimization focused only on the newest devices and compile/run checks on the older ones? That might explain some of the general "why is this so sluggish now?" feeling. You might design something for current gen hardware potentially differently from (gen - n) hardware whether it's processing time, data transfer rates, screen resolution, etc. I don't know enough about Apple hardware evolution though between versions.

Could the Democrats not just select a new Speaker of the House prior to the deadline who isn't elected and therefore that person would become the new President? Insert anyone they might choose to put in that role.

I know Atala's been pushing at that for a while as it's not the first time I've seen his name in the area. I think he was one of the guys behind printed bladders. My shaky memory is that organs are hard because the challenge is getting all the blood vessels and nerves printed reliably and not failing anywhere. But that might have been a few years back and things have improved.

Digits I think are much harder due to all the pieces involved: bone, cartilage, nerves, blood vessels, skin, muscles, joints... But this is all super cool tech.

Maybe the higher use of squat toilets? We know there's a connection to sitting toilets and hemorrhoids. Perhaps there are other perks to using them we haven't really realized. Or perhaps it's related to a slight difference in life expectancy - data appears to be in the US' favor by a couple years.

Would be interesting to see how other places in the work line up as it might make for interesting research.

Regarding point 1, I don't disagree however there was that recent Porsche post about 3d printing some advanced piston designs they couldn't make conventionally getting an additional 30 hp. It would be intriguing to see what gains might be possible in ICE vehicles using the tech but I would agree the gains would likely be expensive and limited compared to the continued improvement of EVs. My next car is going to be an EV, whenever that need arises. Honestly, I'm more curious to see what improvements the 3d printing tech might provide to aviation and naval systems where electric might not be viable for some time.

Thanks for the laugh!

I think my state is finally going to get ranked choice voting going so maybe a party that isn't corrupt might come forward and gain local prominence with potential from there. Would make it easier to vote with less disgust. But I think with all large enough groups, corruption ultimately becomes inevitable...

Max of 80 years + $500k? You're not getting that money back. Even 10 years and $250k isn't going anywhere. It's nuts that anyone would think that viable restitution.

It appears she has a viable job - put her on a payment plan for the replacement vehicles and put her on parole, supervised release, or something. That actually might have society get reimbursed for her dipshittery.

They are very expensive. $500k and up depending on how fancy you want to get.

https://www.spirent.com/produc...

GPS simulators are valuable for applications where you want to test GPS performance on a lab bench but in conjunction with motion data. Not a surprise what types of companies might use them.

I'd actually do: AWS, the store itself (so video, music, photos, whatever services can be here), and the manufactured products.(amazon basics, fire tablets, video production companies if they own them, basically anything they make).

AWS can't carry the other pieces. The store shouldn't be able to leverage their sales data to decide what branded products to sell so instead they're focused on good logistics and providing a place buyers and sellers are confident in. If Amazon wants to make products, they can do that on their own and go from there and not get subsidized.

Everyone pretty much assumes that the VP will have to do a lot more labor given that many people think Joe is fading. You need someone with proven experience at a serious level. Abrams was a state legislator for ten years and the minority leader for much of her time there. She barely lost the governor's race, which is definitely exciting, but that doesn't grow a resume. I just feel like she needs something else before hoping up to VP.

What states do you think she'll bring help in that Joe wouldn't do himself? I think Joe already does well with Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania and I don't see him losing any states Hillary won.