I received a couple but only from the two majors. No texts and no public advertising either (due to SA’s new laws). Very refreshing!

The game must be a fair ways off then, considering how long it has taken them to balance the existing roster.

I am not a horror fan either and I really enjoyed Sinners. I would almost go so far as to say it has more in common with dramas and musicals than it does horror.

and companies would just give up trying to design a separate app for the Chinese market

I’m not so sure about that. Some of these brands (and their sub-brands) enjoy significant market share outside of China. I suspect it would be in their financial interests to continue to maintain “global” versions.

To be clear, that’s not a quote from Lithgow. It’s a quote from the author of the article. This is what Lithgow said:

Shortly after he picked up the role, Lithgow received a letter from the mother of a trans-identifying child, titled “An Open Letter to John Lithgow: Please Walk Away from Harry Potter.”

“That was the canary in the coal mine,” Lithgow said. “I thought, ‘Why is this a factor at all?’ I wonder how J.K. Rowling has absorbed it. I suppose at a certain point I’ll meet her, and I’m curious to talk to her.”

When asked if the backlash made him consider ditching the role, though, Lithgow said, “Oh, heavens no.”

I saw Sinners today. Amazing film that works on a lot of different levels. A lot of time is allocated to the introduction of the characters, including side characters, so that you actually care about their fates later in the film (rare in this genre). There are some very strong themes around family and its sort of a celebration of African American and minority culture. I was surprised by how moving Sinners gets for a “horror” film, you can really feel that the writer/director had something to say and was passionate about this piece of work. The soundtrack is also amazing, the film is not really a musical but it’s also not afraid to let music come to the forefront and really dominate everything else for extended periods. There’s even an R&B track written specifically for the second half of the credits, which was totally unexpected but ties in very strongly with the themes of the film and makes a lot of sense as a musical coda.

I don’t know why you’re complaining about downvotes in response to me, I don’t even have vote scores enabled. But in general I agree with you, I think the only console I got at launch was the Wii and that was a Christmas gift when I was still living with my parents so I didn’t spend any of my own money. It was also because Twilight Princess was a launch title and I didn’t own a GameCube so I was yet to play it (Zelda is my favourite Nintendo series so that made it a worthwhile purchase at launch).

Why would someone sign up for a party if they do not trust that party’s leadership?

I think it’s simply due to personal ambition. That’s ultimately the problem with a lot of these micro-parties - they are formed by people who have rejected larger, more established parties because they didn’t feel like they had enough influence (or because their efforts to exert influence rocked the boat so much they were essentially expelled). That doesn’t necessarily mean ambition to become a career politician and make a lot of money, it could also just be ambition to change Australian politics and pass more ambitious policy. Although the former would explain why I have this generic business undergrad running in my seat. This is why I don’t particularly like this idea of writing off entire micro-parties based on controversies or internal drama, because ultimately you might actually still have a local candidate who otherwise aligns with your values who could end up splitting from the party altogether.

At the same time, I think it is very fair to question the narrative Fusion is trying to push about these new, seemingly unsuitable, members and parties working harmoniously with the rest for the greater good. Maybe some of them genuinely believe that, but the much more likely reason is because these people or groups feel they can use Fusion as a springboard to advance their own agenda and/or career.

I don’t think that aspect of the film is actually relevant to the central themes or story, though.

I actually rewatched it tonight and I’ve changed my mind that the “power corrupts” theme doesn’t go anywhere. On a second viewing (where I could concentrate 100% without someone eating popcorn loudly in my ear) I thought there was actually quite a well rounded arc built around that theme,

Okay, so you’re asking what the point is in buying it at launch…in which case I’d agree. The same could be said for many consoles throughout history, and particularly for Nintendo consoles which are always primarily about the games.

It has microSD and up to 3 major Android upgrades (so probably 3 - 4 years of security), according to GSMArena. If it’s anything like the first one, the “modularity” aspect has nothing to do with repairability and is just a gimmick.

What’s the point of the Switch 2? It seems like it’ll only have a small handful of exclusives that’ll cost maybe $1,000… that seems crazy expensive for like.4 games.

The “point” is that more exclusive games will be developed for it over its lifetime, which will last a lot longer than the year of release. You can point to many consoles throughout history and ask “wHaTs tHe PoInT???” based on their launch titles.

But it’s also not just “what happens in Victoria”. The linked review shows the official national Facebook page for the party

Yeah that’s a fair point, I did miss that those comments were made on the national page. In line with my argument, I would say that the social media accounts for a micro-party are not necessarily as reliable as those of larger parties and are more prone to individual influence. You can see in one of the screenshots in the article at the top of this comment chain that whoever was operating the Twitter account at the time was actually out of touch with decisions that had been about HTV cards in one electorate. To me, the whole fiasco looks a lot more like the usual micro-party clusterfuck where you have too many different competing egos and influences, leading to a disorganised and poorly communicated mess. I wouldn’t definitively state that it’s evidence of some party-wide shift to the right, like some in this thread are claiming. But I can see why voters on the left would steer clear of Fusion at this election, particularly when there are some more stable and cohesive left-wing micro-parties like the AJP running in the same electorates.

Yeah I definitely saw this and was a little disappointed it didn’t amount to anything. I left it out because I wasn’t actually sure it was really there, or if I just read it into the film without serious evidence.

I had the exact same experience. I went with some family, so we were talking about it afterwards and I mentioned that I was kind of disappointed that this seduction of power element didn’t go anywhere and no one else even knew what I was talking about. But I think we’re right, it was definitely in there…we’re not crazy!

I agree with you and I think quite a few other people have shared similar sentiments here too. There is nothing wrong with any of the narrative components that comprise the ending, but they aren’t given enough time throughout the film to match everything that has come before. All the political thriller tension type stuff leading up to the finale is consistently excellent and there is a lot of time spent on this sort of personal crisis the lead is going through, with quite a bit of foreshadowing that he is going to be corrupted by a lust for power. Yet that never actually comes, and instead we get a different ending which is fine but hasn’t received anywhere near as much attention. It’s like a 9/10 film for 85% that drops to a 6/10 right at the end. I left the cinema feeling somewhat disappointed but if I reflect honestly on the entire film it was still great and absolutely worth the watch.

Take a look at this list. SHIFT from Germany is somewhat comparable to Fairphone in terms of modularity, HMD from FInland has also recently introduced some modular design into their phones. Note that these phonse are not manufactured in Europe, I’m not sure if any smartphone is. Another option not listed on that Wikipedia page is Mudita, from Poland, which is in the process of launching its first minimalist e-ink smartphone the Kompakt.

Again, you are missing the point if you assume that what happens in VIctoria has any connection to what is happening in other states. You are vastly overestimating how organised party politics is at this level, it is much more about powerful and loud individuals making acting on behalf of everyone else (often without even informing them) than it is about collaborative decision making. People are often there for their own selfish reasons, that’s why these micro-parties tend to implode and have loads of weird drama that you just don’t see in larger parties. I very much doubt my SA candidates are even aware of the preference deal controversy happening over there.

Android journalists do the same pump and dump with the 9 - 12 month newer Motorola every year now. It’s quite funny how they all just collectively ignore desynced release cycles and pretend like their comparison between the 2025 Motorola and the 2024 Samsung is a fair and/or useful one. Wouldn’t you know it? The newer Motorola wins every single time! How surprising!