"Good person" might be a stretch, but plenty of autocrats come to power in situations where people's real needs are not being met, and they are able to present a plausible-enough case that they ought to be given extraordinary powers in order to provide for them. Whether it's a good person looking to sweep away a corrupt old system or a prospective dictator looking for a way to exploit vulnerability, the pathway can be much the same.

I'm thinking maybe "Because if you subtract 40 from my number you get a negative number," but I could be either over- or under-thinking it.

Harrison Ford went on an intensive regime of exercise with a famous fitness trainer in order to get into peak physical condition for Temple of Doom:

Someone asked me if 7 Deadly Sins was good, and I told them "It's lots of fun, but if you've got some negative preconceived notions about anime, it's not going to subvert any of them."

And we modeled the most powerful warship in two universes after them!

I don't believe in a world of endlessly spiraling downwards, forever. If things can get worse, then they can also get better.

They knew they were in a time loop, but they couldn't know how many times they'd done the loop.

It's worthwhile to acknowledge that movies don't all exist along a Good-Bad axis, but also along an axis of Watchable-Unwatchable.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie with Bob Hoskins is Bad and Watchable.

La Dolce Vita is Good, but I would be hard-pressed to call it Watchable.

Morbius is Terrible, but not even remotely in a fun, Watchable way. It's just cold dog shit.

And of course all of these categories are 100% subjective relative to the individual viewer.

US divided up into 50 approximately equal-population states:

Maybe keep the traditional state borders if you like, but divide up the Senate by those boundaries or something like them. Probably still vulnerable to a certain amount of gerrymandering, so that's a concern, but almost certainly better than our current arrangement.

Just watched the finale of DS9. It features an orange-hued dictator with bad skin and weird hair at the top of a dictatorship staffed by religiously-devoted yes-men, hyper-aggressive murder troopers, and cynical opportunists, who even as the whole thing is falling apart around their ears, keep trying to find another patsy to take the blame for the ever-deteriorating situation.

So, spot-on depiction of the future, really.

William J. Johnston (July 12, 1850 – September 16, 1941) was a drummer boy in Company D of the 3rd Vermont Infantry during the American Civil War. When his division was routed during the Seven Days Battles during the Peninsula Campaign of June to July 1862, he was the only drummer to come away with his instrument. His superiors considered this a meritorious feat, given that the regiment's other soldiers had thrown away their guns and equipment to lighten their loads as they retreated. As a result, he received the Medal of Honor in 1863; at age 13, he remains the youngest recipient of the award.

I still struggle with how animators in 1937 were able animate the ripples in the water in Snow White at about 1:36.

An economist visits a site where a canal is being dug. He asks the foreman why the workers are digging with shovels, when a diesel-powered excavator could do the work of a hundred men. The foreman explains that the canal is a jobs project.

The economist exclaims, "Why didn't you say that it was a jobs project earlier?! These men should be digging with spoons!"

The best bathroom I ever used, at a Thai restaurant in Washington DC:

One hallway. Four toilets with doors and full floor-to-ceiling walls that provide total privacy. One row of sinks. I don't care about the genitals of the person in the stall next to me, and I certainly don't care about washing my hands next to them, either.

Costco still sells coffee in huge tin cans.

And covered him up with a piano blanket!

Ever heard of Darn Tough socks? Expensive per pair, but they come with a lifetime guarantee.

It's an astonishing accomplishment, what with how realistic it looks.