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Are you sure about that? Straight courses are used for drag racing.

Almost makes me wonder if this is a mechanical turk situation.

Oh, another thing about secret votes. It transfers blame from individuals to congess itself. If votes are public, and a popular bill fails, then the individuals and parties are blamed, if secret, then the whole of congress gets blamed and you could see incumbents lose reelection not because of how they individually voted but because of how the body as a whole did. That could force cooperation, but it could also introduce a new form of gamemanship.

This isn't an ideal solution, but a practical one. A simple hack for the U.S. would be to make congressional votes secret. Yes, this means congress people would be less accountable, but think about where their accountabilites lie. These people are far more worried about their parties' strongmen and sponsors than their gerrymandered constituents.

Impossible to implement in the present U.S. climate, but more idealistic is to divide the US into 50,000 person districts (greatly expanding an individuals access to their rep), then group those into evenly sized super districts. The reps choose from among themselves a super rep to attend congress, who they can recall at anytime. This should make gerrymandering more difficult, and dilute the effectiveness of corporate donors while increasing the influence of individual voters.

Yeah. I felt the same about "No Longer Allowed in Another Word" at first, but it grew on me. I think it took about four episodes to establish itself.

It is also the origin of the anime "wow" sound effect. https://soundeffects.fandom.com/wiki/Anime_Wow_Sound

Changes could have so many repercussions even well meaning actions could make things worse. The safer bet would be to collect lost books and art.

That said, stopping the Lincoln assassination is tempting. I'd hope to change reconstruction to better wipe out the confederacy, prevent lost cause doctrine, and better integrate former slaves into full citizenship and society.

VR - It has been through a few hype cycles, but never quite makes it. Cost, weight, battery life (or tethers), lack of highly desirable games, required floor space, nausea (in some people), etc.

Starlink - when announced it sounded like the solution to ISP monopolies and rural broadband access. But the roll out was so slow that other solutions have caught up. For people with no option other than satellite internet, it is still great (if they can get it) but for a lot of people, better options now exist.

The "media" has spent the last week setting the bar so low that when Trump comes out hopped up on stimulants, nothing in the debate itself will matter, and he will get a huge boost from simply not appearing as old as Biden did.

One second ago I put a dollar on my dresser. That's on pace to be 30 million in a year.

Same here only it was 20 years ago. UML professor was convinced it would replace programming.

Oshi no Ko - Finally picked this back up and binged all but the latest episode. I had high expectations and it easily exceeded them. 5/5

Dungeon People - Really enjoying this one. The characters and setting are fun. It doesn't do anything big and seems a bit simple at a glance, but something about it just clicks for me. 4/5

I Parry Everything - I was on the fence about this one earlier on, but it really hit a stide in the last few episodes. The total absurdity of the situation is hilarious, but I'm not sure that can be sustained in a way that works... 3/5

Slime - First part of this season was largly a bust, but the current arc's been fun. 3/5

Journey Through another World: Raising Kids - DROPPED. I'm not sure who the target audience for this was but it seems like it is for young children. Very boring. Dropped weeks ago. 2/5

A Nobody's Way Up to an Exploration Hero - Somehow this show strays into so bad it is good territory for me, but that's after skipping some of the duller bits. 2/5

Bye Bye, Earth - I really wanted to like this show, but it just refuses to do anything redeemable. The characters are awful. The world building is a disaster. The plot is nonsense. The world itself seems interesting, but is so poorly explored and executed that it is just a waste. 2/5

Dahlia in Bloom - I'm very behind on this, but what I've seen was a disappointment. The leads had no chemistry and much of the dialog (in a very dialog heavy story) was dull. (I enjoyed the light novels so the story itself is good...) 3/5

Failure Frame - I'm still on the fence on this one. I generally enjoy the isekei game system thing, but this one hasn't quite "clicked" with me. 3/5

Nokotan - Extremely hit and miss. Some episodes are gold and some are just meh. The show has a bad tendancy to stretch a joke to far so that it stops being funny. 3/5

My wife has no emotion - Really enjoying this one. Yeah it gets a bit weird at times, but the show owns that and works with it. I really enjoy how Mina's personality is conveyed with limited facial expressions and at odds with her assumed lack of emotions. 4/5

No Longer Allowed in Another World - The first few episodes were rough, but once it got going this turned out to be surprisingly good. 4/5

Pseudo Harem - The name suggests something trashy, but the show itself is actually incredibly sweet. I'm enjoying it, but it is almost too much at times. 4/5

Quality Assurance in Another World - Solid overall. I enjoy the characters, the world, the goofy dragons, etc. But seems to be lacking something that would take it from good to great. 4/5

The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant - This one falls into guilty pleasure territory. The combination of sweet and absurd just works. 4/5

Ossan Newbie Adventurer - A bit of a rough start, but it has improved as the story moved along and got passed the overly long intro arc. 3/5

The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord's Army was a Human - A bit hit and miss. Some of the characters are fun. The story is unremarkable but fine. 3/5

Why Does nobody remember me in this world - I watched through the first arc with the fight against the demons, and just lost interest. Soft dropped. 3/5

Wistoria: Wand and Sword - This one is barely holding my interest. The visuals are good. But the rest of it just feels off somehow. I'd say it is cliché, but I like a lot of cliché shows... 3/5

Spice and Wolf - I honestly forgot this was continuing. I'll binge it later. Overall I alike and appreciate the show, but it can be exceedingly melancholy at times without enough comic relief to balance that out. I hope that has improved from where I dropped off.