I have a sony as well, and you can use it as dumb TV, by not agreeing to their privacy policy. If you want to connect it to wifi afterwards, it points you to the privacy policy again, so it seems like the TV follows that. But I’ve also purchased it 4 years ago, so not sure what the status is now.

So far, I’ve seen no ads. I mostly use it mostly via HDMI and sometimes for watching freely available TV via antenna.

Oh brother, where art thou?

Man of constant sorrow. Nuff said

I think the full phrase is De gustibus non disputandum in contradictorium (declinations might be off somewhere)

Ah, yes. My mistake, did not read the entire wikipedia article there for sardonic grin.

Huh. I was thinking Aconitum species when they mentioned carrots.

Sardonic grin just mentions strychnine poisoning, which comes from a tree.

Surprised it’s not Nessie

In the southeast of Ireland I’ve heard it ‘bodder’, almost like the Danish soft d instead of the th, but it was just a couple of guys so maybe the sample size is a bit off.

Ha. Today I learned. I read it in a Scottish tone, seemed to fit

I’m also a fan of the Scottish way.

A close second is the ‘no bodder’ from Ireland.

My phone has IP68 with an usb-c and headphone jack, and the SIM/SD tray. Not a rugged phone though.

Right back at you, fellow hobby and eldricht horror appreciator!

Aside from the Shub-Niggurath worship (I’m more of an Azathoth person, myself), I agree with most things here. I’d just add to the list, group B I guess:

• aquatic animal husbandry and aquascaping (freshwater preferably, saltwater if you are really masochistic and have money to burn on corals and expensive equipment)
• model railroading

I feel these are more ‘apex’ hobbies, wherein you need a bit of everything (chemistry, electronics, an artistic sense, lots of patience) and they will occupy most of your time. You’d think electronics and aquaria are not the closest things, but just you wait until you feel the need to build an LED lamp with simulated day/night cycles and moonlight, controlled by an arduino.

The barrier to entry is fairly low - there are starter sets available and I’ve found that hobby shops of this sort are usually staffed by very knowledgeable people, eager to help newcomers. And, you can go as deep as you want and still have fun. You will also learn an absolute fuckton of things about what you choose to model with your hobby.

An honorable mention for homebrewing, which I don’t even regard as a hobby at this point, but more of a necessity, like cooking.

Manowar had that one song titled ‘Pleasure slave’, if memory serves. No idea if it was a serious song or not. Those were some weird times for music.

you’re fighting a losing battle. ‘having kids is a good thing’ is the only piece of propaganda that is distributed to probably every human. and probably the oldest one, too. it’s also a base instinct, sort of hard to override by reasoning, as anyone who’s ever been horny or hungry can probably attest. this is probably the best example on here related to the posted question.

for what it’s worth, I do think you are correct

because saying you’d need to build a power plant for every 72 homes would not make the technology very attractive

it certainly has some ‘war is peace, freedom is slavery’ (and all that) vibes

quoth Rage Against The Machine:

‘fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me’

Sounds to me like an advancement on what Black & White started many years ago. Or what Spore should have been like at the end stage.

especially the looting, that was done for the woman and the children. I bet they’ll donate looted items to some charity /s

How dare you wish to be in control of the device you purchased? The inqusition will be in touch.