deanb

Be a bit weird to have cars counted in energy source use when it's not like you can make a car run on geothermal energy (well you can...just only once and the passengers won't make it). If anything with electric cars won't it fudge your numbers given they get their power from somewhere and it's likely a mix of all the power stations. Though funnily the Energy Administrator site has a graph which does imply cars running on renewables, 5% in fact (I will note that your lots coal use, even if declining, is still 270X more than ours on a bad day and ∞X ours on a good day/week/fortnight/maybe month) https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-how-the-uk-generates-its-electricity Did find this cool map for us UK lot. Seems my main energy supply locally is nuclear from Harlepool, followed by various windfarms (which I think look quite pretty, you can see a big one from my mums garden). Interesting given just down the road the townspeople are "smoggies" from the old shitty air pollution. Still is loads of petrochemical plants around there, and coke burning steel works (famously closed down only recently). Money pretty much is the key to getting things shifted, and US has some land ripe for renewable energy production. Nevada for example would do well as a home for a solar salt tower/energy weapon platform. Iceland is obviously the king of exploiting local geography for power, and we're kinda cheating too for our tidal power (though I think it's still a miniscule chunk), while not really able to do much on the solar front. Wind is also a big one for us, and I think parts of US would do great...not sure how tornadoes would work with them though.

https://www.quora.com/How-is-China-able-to-provide-enough-food-to-feed-its-population-of-over-1-billion-people-Do-they-import-food-or-are-they-self-sustainable This is pretty fascinating look at Chinese food production. And and interesting tone too that is both in awe of the food output and scale of the human rights issues.

"easy patch" is pretty much the go to with the US in regards to climate change. Don't renewable still barely count for 10% of your lots energy? (and current administration unlikely to put much effort in pushing that higher). So having 85% of US homes with AC on 10% renewables compared to 0.5% of homes with 35% renewables is a bit lop sided on 'greener/neutral energy'. They're also not exactly cheap things to install and run, especially in smaller mostly brick houses. And pretty much all an air con does is take the heat and put it somewhere else, which when the outside is sweltering hot only increases the electric use. This is the next week of weather here, right after the record breaking July temperatures. It's similar to the snow stuff. extreme weather accounts for 1% of our annual weather so minimal purpose in spending thousands per home to combat. Ultimately still a colder wetter country than a Mediterranean one, so the better spent home improvements are insulation (which is gov't funded). Though now I think on it, it is kinda poopy that US still relies heavily on coal (30% v UKs <0%), barely any effort on renewables (10 vs 30%), rocking AC in majority of homes and it's europe dealing with the flash heat waves n tens of thousands of deaths attributed to that. (I'm well aware none of you guys can directly impact that.)

I'll be honest, I think having the go to response to dealing with heat being "install AC" might be part of the problem.

In trying to find a funny clip segment for the embed I found that best I can tell most the episodes are up on Youtube (though not legitimately).

In lighter news I've started on Ouran Host Club. It's quite a silly little show, and there's a fair few familiar voices from FMA which is fun for me. It's a decent satire (though I've not really watched this kind of show before, but stuff like Renge the otaku is quite fun fourth wall breaking). My main *eek* issue with it is around Harohis crossdressing dad and some of the words used, which is odd as it's otherwise somewhat progressive on NB (though also the 'twincest' thing also iffy). It's otherwise quite well paced in going from super silly to some decent character development.

Everything is on fire and it's 'only' July. Apparently today is the hottest July on record. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49106092 I'm currently in the kitchen, it's at the back of the house so the coldest part of the house at the moment. I think I might drag a monitor down and make this my base of operations for a few days. Lounge is too unpleasant to sit in even if it has the bigger TV. edit: did just that.

UK currently has (depending how you measure it) - BBC iPlayer (free) - ITV Hub (free) - 4 On Demand (free) - Netflix (subbed) - Amazon Prime (subbed/PAYG) - NowTV (subbed/PAYG) - All the weird things like Mubi, Curzon, Rakuten etc. The first three are streaming versions of the main TV channels though so you can always watch them normally (and there's plans to roll them into a singular Freeview streaming service). NowTV is owned by Sky so basically a streaming rather than satellite version of their offering. Bonus is where you guys have stuff like CBS All Access and HBO Go it means it ends up on some random service over here. So like I think Discovery and Picard are both on CBS over in states, but over here one is Netflix and the other on Amazon, so there's not even consistent deals. Same with likes of Good Omens and Dark Materials, both BBC co-productions but one on Amazon and the other on HBO Go. HBO I'd guess being the better partner given Good Omens won't be hitting BBC even over here until Xmas cos of the exclusivity thing with Amazon. I think I've mentioned it before but pretty much your go to is here: https://www.justwatch.com/

Yeah, given all the Netflix shows have ended if you were watching those you're swapping out like 4 shows for 5 shorter shows. And while they're more closely tied to the MCU I've a suspicion that it won't be as heavily required viewing as the films are (What If being pretty standalone goofiness, Loki from a canned timeline, and Wandavision might be a House of M-type alt reality/dream/thing). A total aside for some FFH/Endgame stuff

~55 minute mark is the interview with Favreau and as I said on Twitter a lot of the tech discussed in making of this film (and seemingly Mandalorian too) is largely game tech; VR, Unity & Unreal, Nvidia cards driving video walls etc. As for not changing the film much Favs mentions in here that it's mainly down to a lot of people of an age will have worn out the VCR watching this. He mentions that Donald Glover could recite the film in full, so not wanting to change too much. I'd imagine there is a minor behind the scenes element of the WGA rule stuff with how writers on animated features don't get credits when reused on live action thing might have something to do with it. It's really odd how some of the remakes are massive retellings (Dumbo was really good for this) and some adhere strongly aside from a few scenes (e.g Beauty and the Beast). My sister n a few of her friends off to go see it *looks at watch* about 5 minutes ago, I'd imagine they're gonna like it for being Lion King.

Shazam Guess who has been basically hiding inside all day from the sun? Anyway it's a middling film, as expected for DCEU by now. Mark Strongs look is really strong as the villain, a very striking suit. However the film is all over the place in wanting to be "dark and broody" like the other DCEU stuff, some of the deaths are a bit OTT for a kids focused film, while wanting to be a goofy "Big with super heroes" (even has the giant piano). It's trying to toy with too many concepts; introducing a new superhero (one that's relativelly poorly known to mainstream), juggling the foster family arc, a fair bit of Mark Strongs bad guy stuff and then sort of an examination of being a super hero, not just morality elements but types of powers n such. It's not the worst of the DCEU films but that's like being the sweetest smelling cow pat.

tbh for modding/emulating your best bet in long run might be a Raspberry Pi, main bonus I guess going for the PS Classic is you get the cables n controllers included I guess. Also it looks kinda cute.

Puts on Retroarch, which means you can play the built in games with slightly amped up graphics and in theory also put on other emulators/cores (though I've yet to figure that part out).

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight Another I've not read the comic of, but otherwise quite clueless about apart from being recommended by a friend (and I generally like the animated DC outings). Was pretty good, and kept you guessing. tbh having just watched Hush previous I'd figured it almost might be a retelling of sorts of that, especially with the real jack the ripper having a surgical flair. I was also aware it didn't explicitly cover what happened to Bruces parents and I was well aware his dad was a surgeon too.

Batman: Hush It was..okay. I hadn't read the comics but I knew the general premise (which tbh they've mixed up somewhat). It was 'okay'. Not exactly a highlight of the current DCAU (but I guess ultimately far superior to the DCEU)

Got myself a PS Classic. For £15 can't much go wrong. And surprisingly easy to hack. Like once you've done the initial hack with a USB drive in the USB port on the front(which is the glowing red weakpoint on this device), you can then plug the USB cable used for power into your PC and just transfer games onto it with a pretty simple drag-n-drop web interface. So obviously mine has FFIX on it.

So in 2022? Cos GotG 3 is only announces in production, not on the phase 4 release slate so far. Also I doubt the shows will be required watching. Loki is set in a defunct timeline, What If is literally in the name, and Wandavision is a total unknown. Film wise they're massively pacing it down. It's neatly a year's until the next MCU film after 4 in the last year. I think it's justified so long since we had a Phase map laid out it's a bit of a shock to see it in one go. Their last one was massive (though also had the now canned Inhumans).

The ultimate version (and so timely)

*deep breath* On the film front we have: Black Widow, 1st May 2020. Rachel Weisz as Black Widow...cos they're having multiple! Eternals, 6th November 2020 Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Salma Hayek, loads more. Then into 2021, 12th Feb specifically, we have Shang-Chi, with Simu Liu as Shang-Chi. I'm guessing Ten Rings we might get the real Mandarin. Onwards to 7th May 2021 with Cumberbatch and Olsen in Doctor Strange. So we might see her as an actual "witch" (much like the comics have sometimes dabbled with). Multiverse atm is a loaded word though. And maybe we might, with Scarlet Witch, see a House of M like event (comics atm meant to be due a House of M 2 style event) And wrapping up 2021 on bonfire night (5th Nov) we have Thor, once again with Taika Waitti as director, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie; King of Asgard, Chris Hemsworth as flabby Thor, and returning in a new role we have Natalie Portman as....Lady Thor, Queen of Asgard. And in an unannounced date but totally also in an unannounced scrapping of the Netflix shows as cannon we have Blade (it has Mahershala Ali as Blade, and he was previously someone else in Luke Cage). *deep breath the second* on TV (well Disney+) we have: Logo says "Captain America" but the naming still very much "he's Falcon". Has Daniel Bruhl, aka Baron Zemo in it. Time hopping Loki show. Assumedly following the adventures of the time heist split Loki. Not a clue what the idea is with this one. Seeds planted in Endgame will follow Kate Bishop as (I'd guess) the new Hawkeye while old Hawkeye continues as Ronin-ish. Animated show with voice cast from the MCU and narrated by Jeffrey Wright (Bernard in Westworld) as The Watcher. (because ffs Stan Lee is "Watcher Informant" not "The Watcher") *and exhale*

This trailer is pretty much just 2 minutes of plane stunts so I'd guess that's what most of the film will be. This trailer however is pretty much 2 minutes of nightmare fuel..

This could be goooodd. Shame the actual book is a little bit....weirdly religious towards the end with like a war against heaven n shit. Pretty much look like it's done tbh, the trailer shows the whole span of the first book so I guess mainly waiting on prime christmas show viewing. I think Americans get it on HBO, not sure if on the main channel or just their streaming thingy. This is getting some good buzz, meant to be a direct sequel to the film which is interesting. Also it totally has the squids in it. Not 100% it's needed, but cool to see some more non-mainstream comic book shows coming up, but this and The Boys might hit similarish tones n kinda force each other out. Odd to see though given at the moment DC are working the Watchmen mythos into the entire fabric of the DC comics (like Manhattan is controlling shit, forcing superman to exist in all realities n what not, fucking with time hence..well fucked up time in comics).

It's possible yanks might not be able to watch this, but it's on the CBS youtube channel (where I can't watch it). I'm still a bit iffy on it looking a bit like Logans Prof X, to me Picard needs to be in a uniform not in casuals/civilian clothing. Otherwise I'm down for it, Patrick Stewart can't do too wrong. I feel I might have missed something (apart from..ya know...the borg ship) but I have seen some mention of Federation being "at peace" with the Borg in this time (which I guess is sometime after the end of Voyager) which is interesting. And Voyager...Seven of Nine which I guess we never really guessed at characters from the other shows popping up most folks took the more pedestrian Riker type gueses.

Rain. Some of it heavy, a lot of it not.

Hey, I'm not Michael Pachter.