deadhappy
15.1K posts

deadhappy
@smithian451
Optimistic skeptic, shy extrovert. Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated (Confucius) NUFC
Katılım Aralık 2012
1.1K Takip Edilen161 Takipçiler


@TrungTPhan I wish the Hail Mary Project had been directed by Ridley Scott
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Andy Weir describing how he wrote The Martian and film got made is very entertaining.
He said, “I wanted to make sure dorks like me would enjoy it, so made it as scientifically accurate as possible”
Here the play-by-play:
▫️started writing full time in 1999 after getting fired from AOL (which had just merged with Netscape)
▫️he was a programmer and had a ton of stock options…because he was fired, had 6 months to excercise them and sold at AOL’s peak before bubble popped
▫️spent 3 years on book ideas that got “no traction” (and no agent wanted to sign him)
▫️went back to work as software engineer and wrote online as a hobby (webcomics, short stories, serials)
▫️The Martian was one of three serials he was working on 2009 (other one was about alien invading earth, another about a mermaid in 19th century New England)
▫️sent stories to a mailing list of 3,000 readers he had built up over a decade
▫️took 3 years to write The Martian, “posting a chapter at a time [every] 2 months” or so
▫️ “spent more time researching than writing, because researching was more fun than writing” (very relatable)
▫️readers corrected him along the way and when he was done, a bunch of them asked if he could make a Kindle version because reading it on his website sucked
▫️Weir didn’t want to charge because was making solid living as programmer…but Kindle has minimum of $0.99
▫️all his fans started buying the Kindle book and leaving positive reviews
▫️this “sales spike” pushed book up charts and hit bestseller lists and just snowballed after that on Amazon
▫️within a short span, major book publisher reached out…then Matt Damon expressed interest on a film project…then Ridley Scott threw his hat in the ring
▫️Weir negotiated these deals while “debugging code” on his day job
Described the process as “one of those things where everything just snuck up, bit by bit” before boooooooooom!!
Film came out in 2015: made $630m on $105m budget (and Project Hail Mary might pass that now).
***
Link to vid (2017): youtu.be/EXD3b6OLtsg?si…

YouTube
Zack Stentz@MuseZack
Weir is exactly the kind of tech-obsessed, vaguely libertarian nerd who used to be an SF mainstay but science fiction publishing at some point decided they wanted to move beyond. But it turns out there's still an enormous audience for his brand of problem-solving techno optimism.
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🚨Pam Bondi just snorted the strongest copium in the Cabinet room:
"President Trump, your DOJ seized 22 million fentanyl-laced pills and 3,400 kilos... which saved are you ready for this, media?
258 MILLION American lives."258 MILLION. Not 258 thousand. Not even 2.58 million.
Two hundred and fifty-eight million people.
That’s damn near 3/4 of the entire United States population.
In 100 days. She started with 119 million the day before like it was a humblebrag... then upgraded it overnight like she hit the slot machine on "lives saved" and doubled down for the cameras.
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The Face of God.
Seemingly countless galaxies crowd into this Herschel observatory image of the distant Universe. Each dot is an entire galaxy containing billions of stars.
Source: tinyurl.com/2yxdp3br

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@Teoyaomiquu This would be more convincing if you didn’t look like you just stepped out of the dry cleaners. Just saying..
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Hello everyone. I have not fundraised for two months to give my followers a bit of a breather over the holidays. However, requests for aid keep piling up, and I cannot ignore Ukraine’s calls for help. Please share and like.
I am starting a new fundraiser for more engineering equipment. Donation link at the end.
As Ukraine shifts to heavier use of drones, both ground and aerial, more and more units realize they cannot simply stand in a field, and to operate effectively and safely, they cannot waste time digging positions with shovels.
Instead of providing reconnaissance, evacuation, resupply, or defense with drones, crews are forced to spend their time digging frozen ground. This is a long and exhausting process, and without proper tools it is almost impossible to build safe positions to operate from.
I did not want to publish this video. This UAV battalion recorded it in December and sent it to me asking for help. However, in the current media environment, I feel I have no choice but to publish it to draw attention to the fundraiser.
We are raising funds to buy two excavators and two evacuation trucks. The total goal is $120,000.
Every donation matters, whether it is $10 or $10,000.
donation link: paypal.com/donate?campaig…
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@OlenaRohoza @RirieSteve I’m only here for the replies that mention nukes, borders, laptops and emails
GIF
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Neil White, English writer:
Why do the British dislike Donald Trump?
First of all, Trump lacks some of the qualities traditionally valued by the British.
For example, he has no class, no charm, no composure, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity.
We like to laugh, and although Trump can be funny, he has never said anything witty or even mildly amusing—not once, ever.
This particularly bothers the British—for us, the absence of humor is almost the same as the absence of humanity. And with Trump, this seems to be the case. He doesn’t even appear to understand what a joke is; his idea of humor is a crude remark, an illiterate insult, or a random act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll, and like all trolls, he is never funny and never laughs. His mind is simple—like a bot running on petty prejudices and various nastiness, with no layer of irony, complexity, nuance, or depth. Everything is superficial.
Some Americans may see this as a refreshing, progressive simplicity and authenticity.
But we, the British, do not. We see it as a lack of inner life, a lack of soul.
In Britain, we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are brave underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.
Trump is the opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich boy or a greedy fat man—he’s more like a bloated white slug, a privileged Jabba the Hutt.
He breaks all the rules of basic decency associated with the Marquess of Queensberry—he hits below the belt, something a gentleman would never do. He especially likes to strike the vulnerable or voiceless—and kicks them when they are down.
His flaws are hard to miss, and the fact that at least one-third of Americans fail to notice them is shocking to the British.
It is impossible to read any of his tweets or hear him speak even a couple of sentences without peering into an abyss.
In fact, if Frankenstein had decided to create a monster made entirely of human flaws—he would have created Trump.
“A man without a sense of humor is almost crippled to me,” — Pierre Richard.

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@OlenaRohoza The thing you missed is that the alternative to Trump is a gang of incompetent phony baloney grifters out to steal every dime Americans earn while lecturing them about “fairness “ and “justice “.
But they do have wonderful table manners. And that’s the important thing isn’t it?
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@nighttimemedia @OlenaRohoza Trump scuppered the existing (effective) uranium enrichment agreement that Iran had signed because it had Obama’s name on it. Surely you knew this?
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So it's more desirable to have a president who lets Iran get nukes, but speaks like an upper-class British snob from a big-name university, than it is to have a president who doesn't let Iran get nukes, but speaks like a peasant?
This might explain part of why Britain is overrun with Islamists, both in the government and not, who are raping tens of thousands of underage girls, and implementing sharia.
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@DianeCoffeecrzy @LucasSa56947288 So sad (the use of the word ‘mild’)
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@thisisanfield #NUFC fan just here to gloat after all the arrogant crap you were posting last summer 😀
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“Another incompetent display from the team led by the ever clueless manager. Whoever still thinks he can turn it around and blames the ridiculous “mitigating factors” must either need psychological help, is just a fake fan or both.”
thisisanfield.com/2026/04/liverp…
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@ricwe123 I know its hard, but try to image if the Mullas did finally produce Nuclear weapons. Those bricks would have been vaporized, along with everyone else within the blast radius.
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