Always assuming any of those promises were true of course. Have they deployed these miracle technologies anywhere else in the years since?
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I donāt think so? In 2020 the new Google CEO axed all of their bluesky departments that werenāt making money right now, and Sidewalks Labs was most definitely not making money.
But I donāt know. Thatās one of the problems with Big Tech: the ideas only get done if they immediately make money (or almost immediately).
So hopefully there are bits and pieces of the work still around? Waterfront Toronto still exists, they still have Big Plans, but nothing as flashy or ambitious over the last 4 years.
I suspect nothing will happen due to an overabundance of caution because Canadian Liberals hate doing anything, and then a Conservative will be elected and they will sell the entire thing to a foreign company for peanuts because they hate nothing as much as they hate anything that might make peopleās lives better.
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Tonight was Princess Mononoke, which is my fave Ghibli film.
Might go for Nausicaa or the Boy and the Heron next. The latter I havenāt watched yet
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No, its just a problem with capitalism, specifically shareholder demandsā¦ And probably things like venture and angel investing and stuff. People expect returns immediately.
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re: Crunchyroll
I made a big watchlist from everyoneās suggestions and have watched 2 episodes of Mushishi which is very poetic both visually and story-telling wise. My colleague also added a few: Frieren, Dan Da Dan, The Apothecary Diaries, Vivy Fluorite Eyes Song.
I figured out that most of the anime I watched yearās ago have cyberpunk themes (Akira, Ghost in the Shell, even Evangelion), so I unsuccessfully looked for Alita. We watched the live action movie back then and found it enjoyable enough.
Anyway mostly weāve been watching what we got it for: weāre somewhere in the low 80s for the One Piece anime.
And I love it. Maybe not for the usual reasons or maybe I doā¦
- the German translation is hilarious. Whoever did this seems to have had so much fun translating some apparently quite colorful language. I sometimes forgot how creative German idioms can be. āIch glaub mein Schwein pfeiftā was the best one last night.
- One can almost guess at some Japanese puns
- If this isnāt based on a roleplaying campaign ā¦ this is exactly how a lot of our RPG sessions felt.
- Lysop (German names are different from English, sorry about that) tells a madeup story of a giant goldfish that shits islandsā¦ 50 episodes later ā¦ what appears? Classic GM move.
- Physics and plot logic ā¦ never mind that. But when they arrive at island X, suddenly Zorro has to stay behind to guard the ship? Thatās totally an RPG thing
- And thatās just yesterdayās 2 examples. But more often than not something happens to the crew that seems to be made up on the spot to defy playersā expectations and thatās just so wonderful
- I used to play the Exalted RPG which is as far as I remember based on Anime logicā¦ so it brings back some fun memories
- Itās mostly very light hearted and I can really use that.
- The sound is so interesting, very much like a computer game with themes for fights, themes for characters and certain themes are extremely reminiscent of some Nintendo games that I suspect it must be just some Japanese thing.
I had no idea one of the most referenced shows on reddit back when I was on there was something I was going to watch one day with so much enthusiasm.
I am reasonably sure some language/art/plot choices would not be made the same today. I feel that some parts may not have aged very well ā¦ I canāt quite put my finger on it but I think we all got a little bit more sensitive about racist tropes since then and I am a bit hesitant to research it because all my forays to tv tropes have given me major spoilers. I am curious to see if more current episodes (weāll get there) will be different.
Itās not all great: Lysop is grating on me and the constant screaming can be a bit much. Because it was a weekly from pre-streaming days the overly long recaps can take up a lot of time.
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Youāll probably be amused by Frieren, as all the character names are just German words (thematically appropriate to the character in some way - or sometimes just literal).
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I might have guessed from the titleā¦ āFrierenā is just the German verb āto freezeā meaning people feeling cold. āI am freezingā = āIch friereā
Oh, it gets sillier. The warrior in their party is named Stark.
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The recent 4K remaster of The Crow is a pain for anyone wanting it in 2K Blu-Ray format. Theyāve produced a Blu-Ray version, but they are only including it in the super-expensive āSteelbookā edition of the 4K disc. The options were ā4K disc onlyā or ā4K + Blu-Ray in a metal case for, like, twice the priceā. I donāt have a 4K player (and, not possessing a screen the size of a commercial cinema at home, have never been motivated to get one), so this was a bit infuriating. So I waited, and finally had the good fortune to get it for a price I was actually willing to pay (which was still a lot, but I do love the film).
Being used to only paying anything remotely like that price for the Criterion releases I want, which typically come with fairly lavish booklets, I was further astonished to discover that the case contained absolutely nothing other than the two discs. It really does come across as the studio wanting to gouge the fans. Also, whatever special features are present are not included on the Blu-Ray disc. Maybe theyāll produce a nice Blu-Ray edition down the track, but the current option is a pretty hard sell.
So anyhow, I watched The Crow tonight for the first time in quite a while, and I still love the film! And my partner watched it with me and liked it, and we each ended up with a cat curled up on us :).
I did also realise that if anyone ever asked me to quote something from this film, I would respond with āOnions make you fart big-time.ā.
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Another new arrival was a set of the five Mad Max films. My favourite has always been The Road Warrior, but Fury Road is pretty astonishing, and I havenāt seen Furiosa yet. I decided to watch the opening sequences of Fury Road last night, and then just watched the entire film :). (there really isnāt a good place to stop!)
I donāt have any particular urge to re-watch the original or Beyond Thunderdome, but now that I have them I guess maybe I will.
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Fury Road is astonishingly good. Theres a lot of talk online about how miller focus all action in the centre of the frame and other type design choices.
And who am I to say anything else about the writer/director of happy feet.
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The fact that so much of the insanity in the film was done as practical physical stunt-work in/on/around moving vehicles is mind-blowing. In the age of CGI everything, the fact that people agreed to even attempt making this film the way they made it amazes me, let alone that they pulled it off. Itās a heck of a thing.
(But enough about Happy Feetā¦)
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Having just watched Furiosa there were some moments of blatant CGI that spoiled the rest of it for me. I mean, hereās the distinguishing characteristic of the film series, that you have actual people (or at least dummies) doing actual things, and then you have a blatantly synthetic shot like the death of the Octoboss and from then on Iām picking apart each shot wondering where itās been messed about with. (This may be a Roger problem, and in any case coming soon to a podcast near you.)
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Its great fun tho!
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Again, this is why im glad the CGI was only limited to scenes where it was absolutely needed in Happy feet.
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I donāt dislike CGI on principle butā¦ I very much appreciated seeing how many sets Dune built to film on. How much was filmed on locations. How much was not filmed with a stupid green-screen. There is of course CGIā¦ but it can just rip right through the suspension of disbelief.
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Obviously I donāt dislike it overall but a lot of CGI is used for spectacle that doesnāt manage to look realistic. Inertia in particular is often just a bit wrong; when a big thing is flailing about and crashing into stuff, it moves in a particular way and deforms more than people expect it to. When I see a thing like that, Iām thrown out of my suspension of disbelief. (If that doesnāt happen for you, congratulations, youāre able to enjoy more film/tv than I am. 
)
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Moving onto the series: itās Howlās Moving Castle last night. I love this film. Good amount of whimsical and good amount of wonder.
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Since we switched over to using only one streaming service at a time using store-bought cards with Netflix or Disney credits (no more payment details for them), our streaming has regularly ārun outā and we take breaks. Saves some money.
In any case. If Netflix wasnāt still the most versatile Iād be tempted to never resubscribe: they send me emails at least twice a week while we are not subscribed and now they send one that is really annoying: āResubscribe until December 5 to make it easy for you, only until December 5 will it be easy! Do it or elseā¦ā
WTF? There is no else in the email but it suggests it will be harder to resub after their funny deadline has passed.
We only went streaming because it was comfortable. And versatile, inexpensive and not like US cable TV.
Now it is like US cable TV. Thanks but no thanks. I can watch anime on CrunchyRoll forever. And for the handfull of good movies that come out in a year that we want to watch at home, I hear there are blurays.
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I recently let Netflix go away as it was bundled with my broadband and it went when I swapped.
I think of all the streaming platforms Iāve tried Netflix is the best for precisely this kind of content
Scrolling for an hour hoping there will be something worth watching.
All the other services donāt have the historical āwe have everythingā and are in practice too easy to scroll through everything anyway. Basically they donāt engender any hope theyāll have something good and are best when you know what you want.
Paramount also got the heave ho recently because itās 35 pounds for one year rand out and I had no interest in 70 pounds for 1 year just for Yellow jackets s3.
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