Lek

Just in case no one noticed, the complete authoritization of the commons is happening right now. And just like all the sci fi writers said, you're begging them to do it. #coronavirus #coronapocalypse #COVIDー19 #SocialDistancingNow #yougetwhatyoudeserve

@JudgeJohnGalt A cover recreation by a friend that gifted it to me.

Conan the Barbarian #132 (March 1982) - The Cimmerian enters a contest of strength, speed, and skill to win a jewel-encrusted sword... but there are those with other plans. #Conan #comics

@CatPlissken @TheGoblinnn @pipkinpippa Figure 8 racing is insane. I love it.

@TheGoblinnn @pipkinpippa I miss going to the figure 8 races. I once saw a drunk couple fighting and then fall off scaffolding onto the track. It was like watching Jerry Springer w/ the possibility of vehicular manslaughter. Good night out with the family. Great times!

This is what racing should be. Fuck NASCAR, give me a race with 10 drunk dudes who stole the family truck & escaped to the track without the wife knowing

@thevivafrei I'd have to meet him.

For those who do not believe in / unsure about the existence of God: What would the evidence need to look like in order to convince you?

@TheBlackHorse65 They can "regret" all they want. Not fucking one of them (outside Danielle Smith) has apologized. Broke my trust in this country forever.

You were the leader of the official opposition. What kind of man behaves this way when recalling his role in fascilitating the largest scale violation of civil liberties in Canadian history? Absolute worm.

@Matty3343 George is a wanker. I'm on the "anyone but George" team.

20 and 21 Hamilton and 21 verstappen would've genuinely done inhumane things to him

@jpalmiotti @elonmusk Not ever. Humans weren't built to live on other planets... Maybe around Venus where the gravity would be essentially the same but Mars? A pipe dream.

@elonmusk Will never happen, not in our lifetimes.

Yes

@CryptoMikli Jordan is better than LeBron for sure... but what was Mike's record against Bird in the playoffs?

Stephen A. Smith explains why Michael Jordan is the GOAT over LeBron James “I don’t call Lebron James the GOAT. Michael Jordan is the GOAT, there’s nothing to discuss. When people say otherwise, all you’re showing is your age and your ignorance” “Michael Jordan has 10 scoring titles, nine time All-NBA Defensive Team member, won six titles, six NBA Finals MVPs, and never once allowed a championship series to get to a Game 7. Never once. That was in his 13 years in Chicago, and we’re not counting the two years with the Wizards” “It was significantly more physical back then. You can’t even touch him today, but back then you could mug him. They created rules to stop him. Watch The Last Dance, when they were talking about Michael Jordan, and John Salley said one of the biggest components of the Jordan Rules was to attack him before he got airborne, because he wasn’t human”

@AcademicAgent_X what exactly does life mean...

Grey, then I’m winning the World Snooker Championships and going from sport to sport amazing everyone with my abilities and becoming rich.

@IanP23ABQ @cosyposter a fair hypothesis, corvids are known to pass along fondness or hatred of individual humans, it would follow that avoidance would be taught generationally

There's speculation that in early human societies, women may have historically targeted smaller prey like birds, while men focused on larger animals. If women were historically more likely to gather small game, eggs, or hunt birds for food and feathers while men were away or focused on larger mammals, it would make sense for birds to develop a specific "alarm" for them. It’s a survival strategy: learn the profile of the person most likely to be looking for you. If that’s the case, it means these birds are essentially carrying around an ancestral memory of us!

"A European study found urban birds flew away sooner when approached by women than men. Men got about 1 metre closer on average before the birds scarpered. It held across 37 species and five countries. Scientists don’t know why. They controlled for height, clothing color, direct gaze, and long hair being visible.."

@MrPitbull07 Going to be great when the girl guides come to sell you cookies.

Man captures a mountain lion hiding in his garage and a month later she’s hire for security. After coming home from work, a man heard low growls coming from inside his garage. Thinking it was something small, he opened it, only to freeze when he saw a mountain lion staring back at him. He backed away immediately and checked his house, relieved to see the door was closed and his dogs were safe. He knew he had to get rid of her, so instead of panicking, he managed to get the mountain lion out and released her away from his property. That should’ve been the end of it, but for some reason, she stayed nearby. Weeks later he began leaving food out, and the mountain lion kept coming back. Now, he says when he pulls into his driveway, he sometimes sees her up on the roof or moving around the house like she’s guarding it. What started as one of the scariest moments of his life somehow turned into the strangest kind of “security system” he never asked for.

@shapesandlines @AlysssaHazel @cirsova no? well I guess you can't believe everything you read on the internets... I'll take your word for it. It's getting harder and harder to tell.

@Lordoflek @AlysssaHazel @cirsova Gates of imagination is not AI voiced.

>Be Me >Finish Robert E Howard's Conan Stories >Need a palate cleanser >Starts reading a best-selling thriller from the past five years >The Characters and Prose have the depth of middle grade fiction >Only "Adult" because the Characters are in their thirties and they cuss.

@shapesandlines @AlysssaHazel @cirsova pretty sure those are AI voiced as well.... the Cybrarian has a full cast of real people doing the voices. Sometimes it's nice to hear a woman say "Oh Conan" instead of a dude.

@Lordoflek @AlysssaHazel @cirsova Oh they're pretty bad. Gates of imagination does a pretty decent job

@shapesandlines @AlysssaHazel @cirsova there's a few audio narrators that do a decent job on Howard's stories, notably the Cybrarian... I haven't been brave enough to try out any of those pretty obviously AI although my recommends are flooded with them. How bad are they?

I just accidentally started listening to what I'm 90% certain are entirely AI generated Conan short stories on YouTube. I put the list on to listen to when I went to sleep. It wasn't until I caught the beginning of several of them that use the exact same phrasing repeatedly that I started paying attention. ...they were not good

@AlysssaHazel there's a reason it wasn't published until over 3 decades after Howard's death.... it does have some more experimentation w Lovecraft type horrors which I guess is notable. In my opinion, although still enjoyable, it's the weakest of them.

Crom! We continue our re-read of Howard's Conan with Vale of the Lost Women! Like our last story, we have some with an audiobook version due to sleep schedule changes. Besides Hour of the Dragon and God in the Bowl, this story has been one mentioned in comments. So here are my thoughts. Vale is probably the worst of the Howard Conan Stories for a few reasons. First, Livia is fairly insufferable, evoking a "Whyyyte Women" air. Second, Conan's introduction into the story is him making an alliance with the village chief. Then he has no qualms in breaking it. Conan is well established as being a man of his word, even sneering at the "civilized" men's lack of honor. He also usually refuses to throw away his word when pressured by the society around him. He is capable of cunning and trickery, but not treachery. It makes little sense for him to say "everyone else is doing it" and backstab someone, even if he knows the alliance is quick to fold. This isn't Conan. Finally there is a disjointed nature to the two halves of the story. I'd have rather there been a full story of tribal machinations (Conan in a battle of wits to gain full control of the two groups) or a tale of horror and madness in the Vale. As such neither parts end up satisfying. Between the poor plot, the insufferable lady of the week, and the out of character nature for Conan, I gotta give this 2 out of 5 Beef Bones as Improvised Weapons. Last story is ahead, The Frost Giant's Daughter.

@Semiogogue @CSandbatch lycra* damn it all.

@Semiogogue @CSandbatch the males wear coveralls and the females of the species, the rare times they appear, are in lygra skin suits,

Had a really weird dream where one of you pulled an odd black metal stake out of my hip & that somehow convinced me to join your time travelling psychedelic cult. Yes, it was a *dream*. I checked.

@AlysssaHazel it's nice to have a hard cover... found mine unread second hand for twenty bucks so I will never complain about it, not once.

As much I'm fond of this edition, the binding is beautiful and it has all of the stories (including drafts), I do believe the Del Rey Collections are peak since they have Howard's intention as a priority over publisher whim. Plus the illustrations are top tier.

@AcademicAgent_X no love for Horatio Hornblower?

It’s between Popeye and Sinbad but now I think about it do we ever actually see Popeye do any “sailoring”?

@jpalmiotti do you mean like how they framed Nixon?

@GreenTextRepost @ShadyIndividu4l MW is AM radio.

Submission by @ShadyIndividu4l