Skip to content

General Discussion

A place to talk about whatever you want

39.0k Topics 355.0k Posts
  • Collection of Pinned Threads

    Pinned Locked
    1
    1 Posts
    7k Views
    No one has replied
  • Chaos Islands

    9
    9 Posts
    59 Views
    Doctor PhibesD
    @Mik said in Chaos Islands: He’s quite intelligent. Maybe 20 years ago. He's sounding more and more like a mad old bastard of late.
  • Geek humor

    233
    233 Posts
    33k Views
    MikM
    Brilliant. The crazy hot scale in geekspeak.
  • The Bluebirds of Happiness

    7
    7 Posts
    35 Views
    89th8
    @Mik said in The Bluebirds of Happiness: That's where you went, isn't it? JMU? Haha yes, undergrade JMU. Masters at Syracuse. We're only partially bitter about JMU because with the portal system, players use JMU to get exposure then they leave. We're basically a stepping stone for players so it's extremely hard to build the program, especially since we just joined the FBS a few years ago. Yet we did somehow make the playoffs this year and put up more against Oregon than any other team.
  • Invading Greenland - suicide.

    38
    38 Posts
    422 Views
    RenaudaR
    @Mik said in Invading Greenland - suicide.: Yes, but you’re not wildly impaired and bored. Bad combination. Especially when that combination gets behind the wheel and goes for a joy ride.
  • Hi Fi on the cheap...

    10
    10 Posts
    151 Views
    Doctor PhibesD
    @kluurs said in Hi Fi on the cheap...: @Doctor-Phibes said in Hi Fi on the cheap...: @kluurs could I ask what headphones you use? I have strange compulsion to spend a lot of money, and I'm looking at options.... That sounds totally unreasonable to me. I have a few headphones - but pertinent to this discussion are the Sennheiser 800 - now somewhat superseded by the 800s and a pair of HiFiMan HE1000SE. Both are considered some of the best for natural music - classical music. I also have a pair of Stax electrostatic headphones - that really sparkle - but that's a rabbit hole you don't want to consider unless bank fraud, lottery wins or spouse inheritances are considered. If I were to choose a single pair - I might try the Sennheiser 800S or the HD600. They're well made - decent quality and great sound. The HiFiMan HE1000SE is a great one for classical music. Check out your local Facebook Marketplace for a deal if you're not in a rush. Sometimes, one can find a great deal on a new or nearly new set. There are crazier people out there. Thank you! I'm in no rush. My Sennheiser HD 580 are supposedly quite similar to the HD600, but they're about 20 years old, and I've replaced quite few bits over the years, but they still sound reasonable to me at least. However, there's always a bigger fish, or something.
  • Funny Pics

    8k
    8k Posts
    2m Views
    jon-nycJ
    [image: 1768929901010-img_0022.jpeg]
  • The Never-ending Grift

    181
    181 Posts
    19k Views
    jon-nycJ
    But the paintings.
  • Trump sends a totally deranged letter to Norwegian President

    18
    18 Posts
    153 Views
    89th8
    Hey, I liked GWB. I always go back to his 2004 convention speech... from 2:39 to 4:21, and you can see his heart breaking at 3:25. Link to video
  • Still nope

    8
    8 Posts
    82 Views
    89th8
    This is how I leave the house every day. It's safe.
  • Everybody gets a trophy

    42
    42 Posts
    647 Views
    kluursK
    Link to video
  • Cow Scratches Ass With Tool

    2
    2 Posts
    24 Views
    jon-nycJ
    Which tool? Dave Rubin or Gavin Newsom?
  • ChatGPT validates your worldview

    45
    45 Posts
    3k Views
    HoraceH
    in Shadows over innsmouth, the narrator seems intentionally unreliable. Is Lovecraft ever intentionally reliable in his writing of his mythology? Short answer: yes—but only in a very narrow, strategic sense. Lovecraft is selectively reliable, and when he is, it’s usually to make the universe feel more unstable rather than less. Let me unpack that. The Unreliable Core: The Shadow over Innsmouth You’re right that the narrator here feels intentionally unreliable. But the unreliability isn’t just psychological—it’s ontological. He begins as a rational observer Gains information through fragmentary, biased, or decayed sources Ends by embracing what should horrify him That final turn is crucial: the narrator isn’t merely mistaken; his values have inverted. From a human perspective, he has become unreliable precisely because he has become more accurate within Lovecraft’s cosmic framework. This pattern is deliberate and repeated. Is Lovecraft Ever “Reliable”? Lovecraft almost never gives you a humanly reliable narrator—but he does sometimes give you narrators who are cosmically reliable, meaning: Their conclusions are consistent with the actual structure of the Lovecraftian universe, even if those conclusions are insane, incomplete, or self-annihilating. When Lovecraft Allows Reliability Lovecraft tends to be “reliable” only when one or more of the following is true: 1. The narrator is limited but sincere They don’t understand everything, but they aren’t lying or delusional in a conventional sense. Examples: At the Mountains of Madness The Call of Cthulhu These narrators: Cross-check documents Acknowledge uncertainty Avoid grand metaphysical claims They’re “reliable” in the sense that their evidence-gathering is honest, even if the conclusions remain partial. 2. The narrator is already broken—but lucid Lovecraft often uses narrators whose sanity is compromised after revelation, not before it. Example: The Whisperer in Darkness Here, reliability exists briefly—then collapses. The horror is precisely that the narrator was rational, and thus what he learned must have been real. 3. The narrator’s unreliability is the message This is where Innsmouth fits best. Lovecraft sometimes writes narrators who are unreliable because the universe is incompatible with stable human cognition. In these cases: Madness ≠ error Sanity ≠ truth Acceptance = accuracy The narrator becomes “reliable” only by abandoning humanity’s moral and epistemic framework. Lovecraft’s Mythology Is the Only Reliable Thing Here’s the key insight: Lovecraft does not trust narrators—but he does trust his cosmology. Across stories, despite contradictions and retcons: The cosmos is ancient, indifferent, and non-anthropocentric Human perception is fundamentally inadequate Knowledge corrodes identity Even when narrators disagree, panic, or collapse, the ontological facts remain consistent: The Old Ones existed Humanity is incidental Revelation is corrosive So Lovecraft’s reliability is structural, not personal. A Useful Way to Think About It You might think of Lovecraft as writing like this: Narrators: epistemically unstable instruments Documents: partial, decayed data Mythos: the only thing that never lies In Innsmouth, the narrator doesn’t become unreliable because he’s wrong—he becomes unreliable because he’s right and can no longer afford to be human about it. If you want, I can: Compare this to Poe’s intentionally unreliable narrators Contrast Lovecraft with Borges (who inverts this logic) Or drill into whether Lovecraft accidentally undermines reliability through inconsistency vs doing it deliberately Just say the direction.
  • Messing with Ohio's Haitians

    5
    5 Posts
    82 Views
    MikM
    @LuFins-Dad said in Messing with Ohio's Haitians: @mik I would suggest that you read Asra Nomani’s reporting on it. While they are registered and documented, there is a shit ton of illegality and corruption surrounding the process of the process, their employment, and their housing. It is essentially a modern day slavery/indentured servant status that is resulting in the community turning to heavy drug use, which is leading to more and more problems. These people are victims as well, and maintaining the status quo will make it worse. I've lived in that blighted city for several years. It ALWAYS had heavy drug use, even in the 70's. We've had the equivalent of slavery by illegals in this country as long as I've been alive. I'd venture to say it's still better than their prospects in Haiti.
  • From child star to literary heavyweight

    2
    2 Posts
    52 Views
    Doctor PhibesD
    I can't read the article, but I seem to remember she had a lot of problems with eating disorders, alcoholism, and a truly horrendous mother pushing her.
  • Mildly interesting

    3k
    3k Posts
    572k Views
    MikM
    Wow. I was there on opening day when umpire John McSherry dropped dead on the field. This story is wilder.
  • Just one unforced error after another

    45
    45 Posts
    835 Views
    MikM
    I suspect his chairmanship will be declared over by his successor.
  • The Cookbook

    567
    567 Posts
    106k Views
    MikM
    The sauce is fantastic. Spicy and sweet. Will be great over rice.
  • Stranger Things

    15
    15 Posts
    725 Views
    LuFins DadL
    @Mik said in Stranger Things: I watched a couple episodes over Christmas. Meh. Reminds me of Lost vapid and spins and really goes nowhere. They had 3 years to get it right… I wonder if that was actually too long? They were reportedly still writing the last episode during filming. Maybe they had too many ideas and got indecisive?
  • Don't forget about Artemis

    3
    3 Posts
    217 Views
    89th8
    I feel like this should be a bigger news, they rolled out Artemis 2 to the launchpad this weekend, it’s cool that they use the same crawler I believe that was used during the Apollo missions. I believe the earliest possible lunch date is February 6, with other launch dates spanning throughout the spring.