Tango

Plus streaming services have a habit of cancelling series suddenly. Taking Lucasfilm (not even the entirety of Disney) for an example, Willow and The Acolyte were great shows that just got axed with no resolution. How am I supposed to feel invested in new shows if I have no reason to think they’ll get conclusions? It sapped my enthusiasm for the universe so much I didn’t even bother with Skeleton Crew or Maul. Thankfully Andor got an ending.

Jacking up the price repeatedly in the first few years (since every service except Netflix is still relatively new) isn’t a great way to build consumer trust. I think most platforms were banking on popular IPs (Star Wars and Marvel for Disney; DC, ASOIAF and Harry Potter for WB; LOTR and The Boys for Amazon; Star Trek and D&D for Paramount; etc) to trigger some kinda compulsive “gotta watch 'em all” response from fans of those IPs, but if you ask me, it seems more like fans are starting to burn out on those franchises. I’m a huge Star Wars fanboy and there’s a Darth Maul series out and I can’t even muster the interest to watch it.

If he’s capable of resurrection after being dead for 46 years, I’m certainly going to listen to Jean-Paul Sartre.

True but if it’s THAT obvious then there’s no need to say it, either. Every European soundbyte that urges Ukraine to accept territorial losses undermines its negotiating position with Russia in any peace talks. You don’t offer final concessions as an initial position. The optimal negotiating position for Ukraine is for Russia to be hearing “we’re behind Ukraine 100%; don’t give those Russian bastards a thing” from Ukraine’s allies. It doesn’t need to be the truth. Russia doesn’t even need to believe that we mean it. But Russia seeing its negotiating counterparties bravely hiding weakness is better than Russia seeing its negotiating counterparties so close to the brink that they’re not even capable of putting on a brave face anymore.

Russia isn’t publicly, officially acknowledging any painful realities on its side, even though we know the challenges it’s refusing to acknowledge, so we shouldn’t be the first to blink either. This isn’t a negotiation between friends.

Politicians don’t need to idly shoot the breeze on foreign policy just to please voters. There are some subjects where sharing idle opinions off the cuff is counterproductive. To quote The Godfather: “never tell anybody outside the family what you’re thinking again”.

300kg is slightly less than four average-weight grown men.

Do the buses not have GPS trackers so that an app on your phone can tell you exactly how long the wait for the next one is?