hydrogen7800

That's sort of the point of fiction, though, isn't it? Sure, a more complex fiction might be more rewarding, but simple ideals can also be very satisfying and can be grounding too.

Ugh, I've just been listening to Gojira the last few days, and now I wonder if they have been using it themselves. Easy for me to dismiss this phenomenon as "that pop music over there". Do you have some examples? Some other impossibly fast metal bands come to mind as well, like Ne Obliviscaris which I explored briefly. I'm a longtime Dream Theater fan, and they've always been very metronomic without assistance, which has sometimes been a criticism of them. They are resistant to outside producers, so I suspect they have not been using "gridification" in the studio. Though, for a stretch before their original drummer returned, they played live to a click track which some portion of fans did not like.

I remember when "Your Inner Fish" was popular 15-ish years ago, I was introduced to the idea of evolutionary prediction. Something like tiktaalik fossils were hypothesized to exist, with certain features, in a particular part of northern Canada, in rocks of a certain age, etc.

Ha, that's a good one. Reminds me of Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law".

I am too young to have lived it, but I have read about the Malaise era. To me, it's just when American car manufacturers had to start competing globally, and couldn't, so kept making the same giant V8's, but with 160 hp.

>Car culture has a unique flavor of regressive entitlement. Every bit of societal and legislative progress that has made cars cleaner and safer has been fought tooth and nail by this group.

I'm a newcomer to this hobby, and am amazed how this resentment has perpetuated since their muscle cars were neutered in the 70's by emissions regulations. The resentment has transferred to subsequent generations who were not alive then, who still complain about all the emissions and efficiency efforts that carmakers undertake. Too much unnecessary machismo hanging around.

Thanks. I did later read this BBC article describing his frustration being a whistleblower with the FCA. It's certainly more than just headline clickbait.

I saw this the other day and was looking for discussions elsewhere than reddit, but wherever it's mentioned, his death is correlated to his being a whistleblower. Is there any original reporting validating any of that?

I worked at a deli from age 16 to 18. Working alongside people 2 and 3x my age who had been doing that their whole working lives taught me more about life than almost anything since.

I got downvoted, but I don't think its evil to work within the bounds of the law to minimize your tax burden. This is the entire point of "doing your taxes" every year. What I do think is evil is using your wealth and power to corrupt the bounds of the law to enrich yourself. Further, however, I acknowledge that this self-interest is inherent in any person/entity and while I have a moral opposition to it when taken to the degree of bribing lawmakers, I don't just throw up my hands and say the incentives can't/shouldn't be changed. These incentives are an expression of what society finds acceptable.

>The task of government was not to stop selfish striving—a hopeless task—but to harness it for the public good [0]

I agree we should not let the rich and powerful corrupt our government. I don't know your mind, but I have heard this argument before, usually by folks who consider such efforts to be government overreach. This also ignores the placement of burden in such a corrupting influence; that it is the fault of government allowing itself to be corrupted, not the "selfish striving" person/business/organization. I guess amoral sociopathic behavior is permitted behind the corporate veil and there is nothing that can or should be done about it.

[0] From Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton.

>How many of us in this thread wouldn't take advantage of legal loopholes to pay less in taxes? How many corporations are doing the same?

How many of us in this thread can afford lobbyists to bribe lawmakers to change the law to benefit ourselves?