While the new film’s familiar title might conjure images of a certain caped crusader, executive producer Michael Roesch pointed out that “our movie is very different from Chris Nolan’s movie, so there is no danger of confusion.”

Well I’m still pretty confused. So it’s not a Batman movie, but it’s about a crime-fighting vigilante called The Dark Knight. Great, no confusion at all. Nolan didn’t come up with that moniker, Batman has always been known as the Dark Knight. This seems like a classic bait and switch to get people to watch a movie they would otherwise avoid.

I’m very glad to see practical research like this being done. I’m sure it’s not popular with the Evilcorps of the world, but at least people are thinking about real solutions.

The question of how much production is necessary to end poverty cannot be answered by assessing PPP-based incomes or aggregate GDP. It is necessary to assess what is being produced, and whether people have access to necessary goods and services. Development strategy should focus on ensuring the efficient production of and universal access to the specific goods that people require to achieve decent lives and good social outcomes, including nutritious food, safe housing, healthcare, education, sanitation, transit, information technology, and household durables. This can be done while also reducing less-necessary forms of production, particularly in high-income countries, in order to bring resource use back to sustainable levels.

So basically, money is not the whole answer, but providing everyone with the fundamental/essential things they need to live decent lives will get them most of the way there. Seems pretty straightforward and doable to me, if a few powerful people are forced to part with their insatiable greed.

(PPP = purchasing power parity, for those like me who didn’t know.)

This was a surprisingly awesome game. The Sabacc mini-game alone is worth the price of admission.

The UK has a population of just over 69 million.

These numbers are legitimately mind-boggling, I’m having a hard time believing it:

Thirteen vapes are discarded every second in the UK, adding up to more than a million each day.

For fucks sake, this is infuriating. Choosing between a young, extremely popular, highly effective congresswoman and a dying man few people have heard of, should have been the easiest choice ever for one of the most important House committees.

In the face of blatant propaganda, the best you can do is stay grounded in reality, and only rely on sources that have proven themselves to be independent, fact-based, and free from corporate influence. ProPublica and Democracy Now are the two outlets I always recommend. You won’t miss much if you read them exclusively with maybe some AP and NPR sprinkled in there.

I think it’s also important to be aware of and sometimes read the sources that consistently spout propaganda and misinformation, as long as you can keep the fact that you’re reading bullshit front of mind. Not everyone can do that naturally, but being able to spot propaganda is the best first step in defeating it.

That’s just how I approach it though, I’m sure others have better ideas.

Time to put the Capitol Switchboard on speed dial, gonna be calling them a lot these next few years.

For those who don’t know, here’s the switchboard number:

202-224-3121

Call, tell them where you live, and they’ll connect you to your representative’s constituent services. It’ll only take you a few minutes, but they keep track of every call. It matters.

I’ve been needing a new big game to sink my teeth into, but I haven’t played any of the other Dragon Age games. I watched the glowing euro gamer review for Veilguard and it looks amazing to me (the slightly stylized look doesn’t bother me at all). Do you think I’ll enjoy it without much context? I don’t usually buy full-priced, but I make the occasional exception for games I know I’ll play for a while…Baldurs Gate, for example.