What grinds my gears

For 30 or so years Linux, as the ubiquitous and most popular free open source operating system, prided itself with supporting a staggering amount of different hardware architectures. For a time Linux was in a kind of "soft competition" with FreeBSD to see which one would support more computer architectures, and the list of supported such architectures was long indeed. Yet, for some reason, it appears that those times are slowly but surely coming to an end. The Linux kernel itself has been steadily dropping support for more and more old and obsolete computer architectures, which in many cases is understandable (particularly when their market share is completely abysmal and even that little is quickly diminishing). Also gcc, the ubiquitous compiler used mostly in Linux, has been dropping support for different processor architectures one by one. Perhaps not at the same speed as the kernel, but still. But that's not the major problem. Many of the biggest and most important so...

There's a flat-earther called Kate Shemirani who in some kind of podcast has said this: "Do you think it's a globe hurtling through space? I don't anymore because I worked for British Airways for 10 years on long haul and I met quite a few pilots who said it's not a globe, but we can't talk about it." It should be quite obvious that no British Airways pilot would ever, or has ever said that, at least not seriously. So what exactly is happening here? There are many possibilities: 1) She's a actually not a flat-earther and she's actually trolling the guy she's interviewing (who is a bona fide flat-earther.) It's all just a social experiment or some kind of prank on stupid flat-earthers. Who knows, maybe she hasn't even worked for British Airways at all and is making it all up to make fun of the flat-earther. 2) She is a flat-earther and she is consciously and deliberately lying through her teeth in order to promote the conspiracy theory. ...

For about 10 years now riots have been pretty much a daily occurrence in the United States. At this very moment, as of writing this, Minnesota in particular has escalated to absolute anarchy. For several months rioters have been harassing people, assaulting people, destroying property, impeding law enforcement and committing all kinds of other serious crimes 24/7 without interruptions. Only a microscopic number of these criminals have been arrested, and even from those only some of them have been convicted for their crimes. It's notable that the United States is literally the only country in the world where this can happen. Yes, there have been massive riots in other countries, but in general they last a day, at most two, and usually people are arrested by the hundreds, even the thousands. In pretty much no other country have such massive riots been happening 24/7 for months on end. And do you know why that is? What is the difference between the United States and all the other coun...

Isn't it a bummer that it's so hard to distinguish the nazis, fascist and ICE agents from your own people? You have already attacked your own side numerous times. Well, here's my suggestion for you, to help you distinguish the good guys from the bad guys: You should all start wearing a distinctive piece of clothing that's easy to see and isn't very common. Like for example a shirt of a particular color. I recommend brown, as that's an uncommon shirt color. And to make it even clearer, you could also visibly wear some kind of symbol that symbolizes your side. For example an armband to be put on the upper arm. I recommend bright colors that are easily visible from a distance, like for example bright red and white. If the symbol is in black ink on the white background, it will make it extra visible. You could also have a secret sign that nobody else uses that helps you recognize each other. A hand sign is the most effective and easy to show. For example some kind o...

There was a period of time about six years ago (as of writing this) when, in the United States, for some strange reason a lot of black people were harassing and often violently assaulting East Asian people. Yes, these assaults were extremely widespread, and for some strange reason were almost completely restricted to black people. (I have never heard a good explanation of why.) Well, in one such case a young black man deliberately and purposefully (which he himself later admitted) ran at full speed against and pushed an 84-year-old elderly Asian man, extremely violently knocking him to the ground. The elderly man died of his wounds a couple of days later. In the court trial, which lasted a whopping 5 years for some reason, he admitted having deliberately assaulted the man, and he admitted that his actions directly caused his death. This is a textbook and quintessential clear-cut case of so-called second-degree murder: Killing someone in the process of committing a crime against that pe...

The current situation in Minneapolis has got so bad that psychopathic far-leftist bigots are literally harassing, attacking and assaulting random people on the streets, sometimes even people on their own side. They are in a complete frenzy. Even the tiniest accusation or even suspicion that someone might be "ICE" (which by this point is pretty much everybody) or not an extreme radical psyhopath elicits them harassing and assaulting that person, regardless of who he is. There are many videos out there of them doing this to completely random passersby who have done absolutely nothing. There's even one video where they attack one of their own in this manner. They are not only completely psyhcopathic, they have gone completely berserk. They have stepped up their common tactic that they have been using for the past 10 years of vandalizing public and private property, to just assaulting random people on the streets with zero consideration to anything. And what is the Minneapoli...

I'm not here talking about the products being defective and harmful (because that happens a lot too), but about the knockoffs ruining the lives of the original product inventors/owners. Some time ago a young American entrepreneur had an idea for and made an invention of a collapsible "selfie stick", which solved one of the biggest annoyances about those sticks (which were highly popular especially back then): Even foldable ones were a pain to carry around and handle. So he invented a multi-part telescoping selfie-stick that collapses into the phone case itself, taking essentially no space, being always available, and was impossible to lose (because it was attached to the phone itself, or the phone protective case to be  more precise.) He created a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development and manufacturing of the project. However, he made two major mistakes: He didn't patent it (not that that would have stopped the Chinese copycats, but at least he would have had a...

I wrote in a past blog post about a hilarious event that was captured on video some 10-or-so years ago, in the heyday of the "defund the police" and "abolish the police" protests in the United States. In one of these "abolish the police" protests some man stopped his car near some people who were protesting and started yelling something angrily at them. After a while of doing so he exited the car and started approaching them, still yelling and gesturing angrily. I don't remember what exactly he was saying, but what was the absolute gem and peak of hilarity was the reaction of several of the protestors, most particularly one of the women who said with a very clearly worried and panicky expression and tone of voice "call 911!" It was quite clear from the context, her demeanor, her facial expression and her voice that she was being serious, ie. she was in a state of panic to some degree and instinctively asked people to "call 911!" bec...

Many video games offer a "free demo" version, particularly on the consoles. Most commonly this version will just have the beginning of the game up to a certain point, so that you can get a good picture of what the game is like, and to entice you to buy it in order to continue from where it stops. And, indeed, if the game is actually good and addictive, and you get hooked, it really gives motivation to buy it to continue. The 2023 game Forspoken, which became slightly infamous for having garnered some hype before launch but in the end turning out to be quite a disappointment, did something rather different with its free demo version. Rather than do what most other games do, ie. just start from the beginning as normal, as in the full game, it skipped all the (what I understand to be relatively lengthy) introductory levels, storyline and tutorials, and started well into the game. In other words, completely skipping the start of the story, the setting, the idea. I don't actua...

Most European countries, particularly the Nordic ones, become sometimes famous and infamous for their often surprisingly short jail sentences for very serious crimes. Being extremely rich and peaceful free democratic societies, they believe more in the principles of reformative rather than punitive justice. Thus, you constantly hear of stories of, for example, a rapist-murderer getting some ridiculously short jail sentence, like 2 or 3 years. Not 20 or 30, but literally 2 or 3. And often only half of that is actually spent in jail. In contrast, the United States is not known for this kind of thing, but pretty much the opposite. Where the death penalty is not legal, life sentences are common. And "life sentences" are literal, not metaphorical. (Yes, indeed, in the Nordic countries a so-called "life sentence" means something like 20 years in prison. That's it. It's a "life sentence" in name only.) Yet, the US justice system is so completely asinine t...

Note that technically speaking this post contains a spoiler of the idea of these games, but said idea is actually so vague and, in fact, so unconfirmed that it may just as well not count as a spoiler at all. When Final Fantasy VII Remake was announced, it seemed that it would be just that: A modern remake of the original Final Fantasy VII. In other words, same story, same characters, same events, but completely newly made from the ground up using modern game technology. And that it was... to a large extent. The game actually contains aspects that the original game did not. And these are not just cosmetic, or something like ancillary extra mini-games or side quests or the like, but embedded right into the main story. You see, from time to time some dark ghost-like beings appear and affect the events that are happening. It is explained that these are so-called "Whispers" and it's alluded that they exist and intervene to ensure that the course of destiny is not altered by co...

An (at the time) upcoming video game by a quite unknown development company named TeamKill Media, the game itself being called Code Violet, raised some eyebrows some time ago because: it's purportedly a spiritual sequel to the popular "Dino Crisis" game (from 1999), the teaser trailers looked interesting and competent, the game would be a PS5 exclusive (which already felt a bit odd), and most prominently and what grabbed people's attention, the  reasoning  given by the developers for going PS5 exclusive. And that reasoning? Direct quote: "For those asking us about a PC version of Code Violet... the reason we are not bringing it to PC is we do not want anyone modding vulgar versions of the main character as well as other characters in the game. We hold our voice actresses and actors with high regard, as well as our artistic vision for the game and story and reject any form of destroying that with sexual mods. Making a joke out of our art and possibly tarnishing th...

Back in the mid-2000's, Marvel studios was planning an entire movie series about Marvel Comics superheros, an entire franchise. They had a problem, though: They had earlier sold the movie rights to many of their biggest and most recognizable characters to other studios, and thus legally they couldn't use them. Thus, they put their heads together and started researching which characters they hadn't sold out to others, and noticed that from the ones they had the rights to, a significant portion actually belonged to the long-established "Avengers" team. So that's the idea that they went with: With a few minor adjustments, the movie franchise would revolve about said team: The background story for each of the team members will nicely make for a movie or two each, and then they could have a couple of "full team" movies by the end of this first "phase". Superhero movies were never extraordinarily popular, and even the best of them had only a rela...

About 15 years ago several big-name video game reviewers opened the gates of Hell by making exposees about how they had been offered gifts and other services by game publishers for favorable reviews, which ultimately turned into a consumer revolt that reshaped the industry (that the far left is still milking to this day). What most people don't know, however, is that this kind of corruption in video game journalism goes way back, much farther than they would even think. Perhaps the only thing that has changed is the direction in which the requests are being originated from. In fact, it goes all the way to the 1980's, to the heyday of popularity of video game magazines. This is, quite curiously, a relatively "open secret" that for some reason isn't paid much attention to. Many developers who worked for game companies in the 1980's have over the years revealed that back in those days game journalists would directly call these game companies and offer prominent r...

A military veteran who has permanent injuries calls the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) for some kind of assistance. For some reason the dispatcher at the VA misunderstands or misjudges what the veteran is saying, and she thinks that he is being suicidal, so she calls the police to make a wellness check on the man. So to the cops several things are very clear from the very start: This is a military veteran, the VA suspects that he might be suicidal, they have been dispatched there to do a wellness check in order to see if they can help him, and he is by no means whatsoever being suspected or accused of any sort of criminal activity. In any normal country, ie. the vast, vast majority of existing countries, especially the free democratic ones, the cops would approach the situation calmly and with empathy, calming the person and trying to ascertain if he is indeed being suicidal and in need of help, and being as amicable, friendly and nice as possible. But this is the United States we ...

Iceland is an extremely small and isolated country, with a population of less than 400 thousand people (which is less than the population of most large cities), in one of the least hospitable parts of the world. Surely that must mean that it has very strong "small Nordic town vibes", ie. everybody knows everybody else and it's an extremely safe place with extraordinarily low crime rates? Nope. The amount of crime in Iceland for the population size is staggering. In fact, according to official reports there's a staggering 20 organized crime groups in the country. Yes, this country has more crime and more organized criminal gangs that most cities with a similar population size.  What could explain this? Well, the explanation is quite straightforward: A quarter of the population consists of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East. Yes, even Iceland has contracted the multiculturalist cancer and have gone completely insane, importing as many foreigners as they can must...

I recently realized the eerie similarities between modern far-leftism and Christian creationism, when it comes to one of their pet peeves, in this case "race" and "evolution" respectively. Creationists will go on long rants about how "evolution" is false and doesn't exist, and nothing but an unscientific invention and fairy-tale, and how "science proves" that evolution is false. Moreover, they argue that believing in evolution causes all kinds of evils in the world, because it teaches people that they are just animals and that there is no God and thus they can do whatever they want, and they will do evil things to other people and take advantage of them. Ironically, most creationists (especially all the famous big-name ones) will accept 90% of the theory of evolution  as long as you don't name it "evolution" , ie. as long as you use some other term to name it. If you use some other word for the same thing, like "variation...

I still find it quite incredible that completely corrupt American judges threw grandmas in federal prison for decades for merely being inside the Capitol building for a couple of minutes and then leaving, without doing anything, without breaking anything, without harassing, threatening or even saying anything to anybody, for alleged "insurrection", yet now they are doing absolutely nothing about the rampant  bona fide  insurrection that has been happening for months and months. And it's not only just regular citizens who are engaging in this insurrection. Government officials, including some state governors (such as Tim Walz), are openly calling for insurrection and civil war, which is highly, highly illegal on several levels. And what's being done to all these people? What's being done to the government officials calling for and promoting open insurrection, and even going their way to make it happen? Absolutely nothing, of course. Corrupt judges threw grandmas in...

The government of the United Kingdom has gone genuinely and completely insane with their immigration obsession. They are spending, and this is no exaggeration, millions of pounds  every single day  to accommodate and pay for illegal immigrants, which arrive to the country by the thousands and thousands every single day. These illegal immigrants are being housed in luxury hotels and given top priority in housing while at the same time a large amount of British citizens can barely survive and cannot get housing. The British police forces have gone completely rogue and putting people in jail for the mildest of criticism of immigration, even giving people longer jail sentences for protesting immigrant rapists than they are giving to those rapists themselves. At the same time, the same police forces who investigate and arrest thousands and thousands of people for what they have written online are completely failing to investigate and solve even the most basic of actual crimes. Unsu...

Nicolás Maduro had been the "president" of Venezuela for over 20 years, and he has been internationally condemned as a dictator who has engaged in oppression, corruption and numerous human rights violations in the country. Within Venezuela itself he has been widely opposed and protested by the Venezuelan people for decades, but he has forcefully kept a grip on power. Yesterday (as of writing this), the United States Army, on behest of the Trump administration, attacked the country with precision strikes and succeeded in capturing Maduro within hours (quite an impressive feat and a showcase of the effectiveness of the US military.) The president's capture by the US military was met with widespread celebration by Venezuelans, particularly within the country but also elsewhere, including very much all the Venezuelans living in the United States. But, of course, the American left has been pre-programmed and deeply inculcated into Trump Derangement Syndrome, and one of the cor...

I have seen quite many "court cam" videos on YouTube (probably in the hundreds), particularly those where the accused is either a sovcit, or in other ways misbehaves in court, causing a scene, or making completely ridiculous arguments and disrupting the proceedings, often in a manner that's outright contempt of court. For quite a long time I have noticed a pattern that repeats over and over. Perhaps not 100%, but in a good majority of cases. And that pattern is: How the judge handles an unruly misbehaving defendant seems to depend enormously on whether the judge is a man or a woman. As you might already guess: Male judges tend to be very stern and control their court quite strictly. How much they talk to and explain stuff to the defendant (especially if he is a sovcit who is representing himself) depends enormously on the judge, but in general male judges in the United States tend to not tolerate any misbehavior, and will be very stern and much more easily slap a contempt...