That makes a lot of sense. Katamari Damacy is also an excellent game with such a bizarre story. I’m guess I’m a fan of absurdity.

My favorite game in the series was Super Mario 3. I first played it on the SNES when it was part of the Super Mario All Stars cartridge. I really liked the levels, especially the variety of landscapes and the secrets you could find if you had the right powerup.

Super Mario World is just as good imo. Everything I liked about 3 and more, plus the star road levels, that was a good game.

The most recent game I loved was Yoshi’s Wooly World on the WiiU. Excellent art style and super fun levels, especially the unlockable bonus levels.

Oh and let’s not forget Legend of the Seven Stars. That was a fun and bizarre story.

That being said, does anyone else think the Mario universe is just fucking weird? How did the creators come up with Italian plumbers who can jump really high saving a Princess from an oversized turtle in a fantasy land with walking mushrooms? Who thought that was a good idea? What inspired them? I think the only reason it became popular was because Super Mario on the NES was one of the first decent games, and most players were kids who didn’t care about the game’s universe and narrative beyond saving the princess.

If Mario wasn’t the first popular platformer in the 80s and was instead introduced today, nobody would take it seriously. Since we all grew up with Mario, it’s a thing we accept as is. Of course high jumping Italian plumbers discovered the mushroom kingdom and rescued their princess from Bowser, again and again and again. Of course little dudes with mushroom heads are ruled by a blond haired human. Of course giant pipes are a normal mode of transit. Of course goombas and koopa troopas are the baddies.

Seriously, how did this universe come about?

Did this leak happen before or after NYT published an investigation detailing how Israeli forces were raping and torturing defenseless Palestinian detainees brought in from the Gaza Strip?

Why are you doing this?

Water can move freely across the membrane, but the stuff that’s dissolved in the water cannot move across the membrane.

No? Water can’t carry anything across the membrane.

We don’t know what molecular mechanism creates the pressure.

No one really knows how osmosis works.

Evolution and natural selection never stops, we’ve only changed what the selective pressures are.

It’s like we’re going back to the pre-internet era but it’s obviously a little different. Before the internet, there were just a few major media providers on TV plus lots of local newspapers. I would say that, for the most part in the USA, the public trusted TV news sources even though their material interests weren’t aligned (regular people vs big media corporations). It felt like there wasn’t a reason not to trust them, since they always told an acceptable version of the truth and there wasn’t an easy way to find a different narrative (no internet or crazy cable news). Local newspapers were usually very trusted, since they were often locally owned and part of the community.

The internet broke all of those business models. Local newspapers died because why do you need a paper when there are news websites? Major media companies were big enough to weather the storm and could buy up struggling competitors. They consolidated and one in particular started aggressively spinning the news to fit a narrative for ratings and political gain of the ownership class. Other companies followed suit.

This, paired with the thousands of available narratives online, weakened the credibility of the major media companies. Anyone could find the other side of the story or fact check whatever was on TV.

Now what is happening? The internet is being polluted with garbage and lies. It hasn’t been good for some time now. Obviously anyone could type up bullshit, but for a minute photos were considered reliable proof (usually). Then photoshopping something became easier and easier, which made videos the new standard of reliable proof (in most cases).

But if anything can be fake now and difficult to identify as fake, then how can you fact check anything? Only those with the means will be able to produce undeniably real news with great difficulty, which I think will return power to major news companies or something equivalent.

I’m probably wrong about what the future holds, so what do you think is going to happen?

Yeah what happened to that one out of South Korea?

Nah I asked first and looked later. I was so overcome by the need to pop someone’s little righteous justice boner I couldn’t help but comment first.

First sentence says where they deployed them, dingus.

Thank you

1. I don’t care how they feel about the source. I think we’re all grown-ups here and are capable of seeing through any propaganda the source may have added to the facts. I’m here to discuss the factual content of the article, which is rather interesting. I haven’t been following the drama of northwestern Africa’s territorial disputes.

2. Don’t guess, because you’re just wrong. 1st sentence. “The received tanks were immediately deployed to the southern part of the country, specifically to the disputed Western Sahara region.” Some other commentors added more relevant info, so nice of them.

3. “has received” is indeed misleading, if you’re in high school. No one receives weapons for free, not even Ukraine or Israel. Obviously Morocco paid for them.

How about we engage with the content? They didn’t make up the numbers, so why is Morocco getting more tanks than Ukraine and why do they need so many?

How is a microchip edible? Big as a sand grain? How does it work? How long has this tech existed? How many microchips have I eaten? Do they stop working if I eat them?

It’s just a ship dropping out of warp a safe distance from our system. While inconvenient, it’s considered best practice to drop out well away from the system’s center to shed the particles you’ve accumulated in your warp bubble during transit. They are extremely energetic and can cause immense damage if released irresponsibly close to an inhabited planet. This is especially true when visiting a primitive world that hasn’t set up any sensible warp safety systems.

The US is just getting ripped off by private contractors and the rest of the military-industrial complex.

[gestures broadly at everything]