Cogent Sins🔎

The Hotlzman Shield in Dune is one of the perfect examples of adding a tiny thing to a setting to get a vibe you want out of it. In Dune's case: - Holtzman Shields stop fast moving objects. - Lasguns (particle beam guns in Dune) can cause a nuclear explosion if they hit a shield, so they're not commonly used. - Melee is the dominant form of combat, trying to strike slow to penetrate the shields. - Projectile weapons exist but they're designed around boring through or disrupting shields, but a skilled combatant can deflect the slow moving projectiles. - Heavy artillery can still kill shielded humans through sheer transfer of force or heat, which the shield can't block. - Anti-vehicle weapons are built around these principles because the vehicle might be shielded. Dune codified the idea of high tech sci-fi where you still have melee and the idea of "oh here's this piece of technobabble that let's me have what I want in my sci-fi setting." Gundam's Minovsky Particle and Mass Effect's Element Zero owe the Holtzman Shield their existence.

Watch how poorly this war goes down with voters and really ask yourself whether we would have the public support to withstand the economic shock of a war with China for the sake of the people of Taiwan. Hold aside good or bad, I really don't think we are remotely willing

just wrote up a baby care instruction doc for my SIL who's gonna watch the baby so we can ski tomorrow. I have never tried to explain how to keep my baby happy before and seeing it written out is pretty intense. it's basically like "just don't ever stop moving, and don't even let yourself think about the construct of sitting. he needs to be presented with a new texture to scratch at once every 90 seconds or he'll get so angry he'll vomit on you. he basically can't sit up, but he loathes lying down so don't do that either. you must clown at least once per wake window, and you're gonna need to invent noises you've never heard before. do not break eye contact. do not show fear."

People once made kids visit farms or join boyscouts in order for them to understand nature, and where their food comes from But I think adults today are probably more uncomprehending about industrial modernity and where their energy/stuff comes from, than they are about nature