We have military bases in Taiwan
The US does not have military bases in Taiwan anymore - not since the US switched diplomatic recognition from the ROC to the PRC in 1979 - one of the concessions to the PRC was the removal of US military presence from Taiwan.
Everyone loves to credit lynch for twin peaks success but it was frost who would let lynch off the leash in season 1. But halfway through season 2, lynch gives you both barrels and it sucks.
Many people contributed to make Twin Peaks a success, but it was definitely David who is most responsible for it becoming the cult masterpiece that it has. He actually left the show in the middle of season 2, so arguably the weakest episodes of that season had little direct involvement from him - and you could definitely feel it.
He directed episodes 1 and 3 of Season 1 (and co-wrote 1, 2 and 3) and then left to do Wild at Heart. He came back to direct the first 2 episodes of Season 2, and episode 7, and basically planned the show with Frost up to the big reveal in episode 9. After that, both Lynch and Frost left to focus on other projects, and after the main plot mystery was resolved in episode 9, and without Lynch and Frost, the show lost direction at this point and kind of meandered trying to explore some of the characters. As the ratings declined the studio cancelled the show after episode 16, and these episodes (10-16) are the weakest and still the lowest rated ones of the show.
Lynch did lobby the studio to resume the show, and managed to convince them to order 6 more episodes, bringing back Lynch and Frost to try to revive the magic - and they delivered a strong finish to the season, especially the final episodes directed again by Lynch (the iconic finale is the 3rd highest rated episode of the show now) - unfortunately the ratings at the time did not recover, and the show was cancelled for good after episode 22.
If there was ever any doubt, when Lynch came back to do the Return (Season 3) he directed and co-wrote every episode, and this season is in my opinion the pinnacle of television as an art form - best TV show ever made (and I say this as someone who had extremely low expectations for the Return initially - I couldn’t imagine how rebooting Twin Peaks 25 years later can be a good idea - but somehow David not only made it work, he took it to levels I didn’t know were possible)
but in my opinion, at the end of the day lynch is just another artist who doesn’t always tell a complete story and pretends like this inability is some sort of gift to the viewer.
I understand why many people have this read on David Lynch, although I now think it’s fundamentally a misunderstanding and mischaracterization of his work. I remember when Lost Highway came out in theaters (I have seen a few of his works before that - Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, which I enjoyed, but didn’t really know much more about him at that time) my first reaction was that it was a load of pretentious nonsense. Later when the movie got to pay per view on cable, I ended up catching it late at night, initially just due to boredom, but slowly getting more and more inexplicably drawn into the movie - ended up re-watching it multiple times over the next few weeks (my roommates had a cable descrambler back then, so we could watch free cable, and pay-per-view channels would play the same movie over and over for weeks.)
After repeated viewings I’ve come to form a completely different opinion, about both the movie and David Lynch as a director - appreciating it required learning David’s unique artistic language, letting go of linear narrative conventions and expectations, and connecting with it on a different, much more emotional level.
I’ve since become a huge Lynch fan of course. His movies do often tell a “complete story”, but it’s not necessarily done the way you might expect, and it’s not because of some “inability” to tell a conventional story, it’s a deliberate choice. He is a true original and managed to put feelings and abstract concepts in his works that nobody else has.
photography might be an area where digital hasn’t caught up, since film’s resolution is down to the molecular level
Film resolution is limited by the size of the silver halide crystals that make up the light sensitive layer of the film. Crystals can come in different sizes, but their sensitivity to light depends on their size - generally you need pretty large crystals for usable photographic film, somewhere between 0.1 and 10 microns (depending on the film ISO rating) - about 3-5 orders of magnitude larger than what you would consider molecular scale.
When the film is developed the crystals are visible as film grain limiting the resolution in some ways similar to pixel size of a digital camera (although there are differences, since the crystal size is not completely uniform but rather has a specific distribution, creating a more random effect than the regular pixel grid of digital cameras)
The pixel sizes on modern high resolution digital camera sensors are actually similar, down to 0.5 micron. It’s hard to make an exact comparison, but I have seen estimates that you need a full frame digital sensor of somewhere between 10 to 50 megapixels to equal the resolution of 35mm ISO 100 film.
And modern sensors are much more light sensitive than film, which allows you to shoot more optimally and give you more flexibility (less exposure time, potentially higher f-stop with better lens resolution, lower ISO, less light, etc.) and therefore achieve potentially better results in more conditions. Add to that the hassle and costs of working with film, and most professional photo work is now done in digital as well. Film is generally only used for stylistic purposes, by purists who are not satisfied with digital simulation.
This is not actually a firestorm - the wind is external to the fire, it’s Santa Ana winds - hot dry desert air blowing in at high speed, any fire that starts in these conditions gets driven by these winds and spreads incredibly fast and is very hard to control.
This is the Eaton Fire in Pasadena and surrounding areas - video from here
It can be, but I don’t think it’s the case here - we have Santa Anas with sustained 40mph winds and 100mph gusts in some areas, and that is without any fire. The wind is also caused by the air moving in from the inland deserts that is very dry (often <5% humidity) and hot as well due to compression heating.
There are reports that the Palisades Fire grew from 10 acres when it began to 200 acres in just 12 minutes, due to conditions like this.
Meeting [redacted] on the [redacted] was such an unexpected and powerful moment for me as well. I don’t even usually get into lore that much in games, but Outer Wilds is so well done I nearly cried in that moment.
Closeup for anyone interested
It says you burn 0.5Kcal for every 2 steps you take, and extend your life by 8 seconds.
Here is even an example that shows progress as your calories and seconds added increase as you climb up the stairs.
But your citation gives both statements:
“In fact, the monkey would almost surely type every possible finite text an infinite number of times.”
and
“The theorem can be generalized to state that any sequence of events that has a non-zero probability of happening will almost certainly occur an infinite number of times, given an infinite amount of time or a universe that is infinite in size.”
So when you say the number of times is “unknowable” the actual answer is “almost surely an infinite number of times” no ? Since the probability of that can be calculated as 100%. The mindfuck part is that it is still possible that no monkey at all will type a particular text, even though the probability of that is 0.
The probability that only 2 monkeys will type the text is also still 0, same as 3 monkeys, 4 monkeys, etc. - in fact the probability of any specific finite number of monkeys only typing out the text is still 0 - only the probability of an infinite number of monkeys typing it out is 100% (the probabilities of all possible outcomes, even when infinite, have to sum up to 1 after all)
We just know that it will almost surely happen, but that doesn’t mean it will happen an infinite amount of occurrences.
Basically, if we know “it will almost surely happen” then we also know just as surely (p=1) that it will also happen an infinite number of times (but it might also never happen, although with p=0)
Ok, this is interesting, so thanks for pointing me to it. I think it’s still safe to say “almost surely an infinite number of monkeys” as opposed to “almost surely at least one”, since the probability of both cases is still 100% (can their probability even be quantitatively compared ? is one 100% more likely than another 100% in this case ?)
The idea that something with probability of 0 can happen in an infinite set is still a bit of a mindfuck - although I understand why this is necessary (e.g. picking a random marble from an infinite set of marbles where 1 is blue and all others red for example - the probability of picking the blue marble is 0, but it is obviously still possible)
That’s the thing though, infinity isn’t “large” - that is the wrong way to think about it, large implies a size or bounds - infinity is boundless. An infinity can contain an infinite number of other infinities within itself.
Mathematically, if the monkeys are generating truly random sequences of letters, then an infinite number (and not just “at least one”) of them will by definition immediately start typing out Hamlet, and the probability of that is 100% (not “almost surely” edit: I was wrong on this part, 100% here does actually mean “almost surely”, see below). At the same time, every possible finite combination of letters will begin to be typed out as well, including every possible work of literature ever written, past, present or future, and each of those will begin to be typed out each by an infinite number of other monkeys, with 100% probability.
But it also works with infinite number of monkeys, one will almost surely start typing Hamlet right away.
Wouldn’t it even be not just one, but an infinite number of them that would start typing out Hamlet right away ?
They can easily prosecute this as a federal crime in a federal court. Crossing state lines might be enough to do it, and they can probably add some additional charges like terrorism. Federal murder can be eligible for death penalty.
The Threnody is definitely his most famous, but he has used that technique in some of his solo compositions for cello as well - example
He’s playing Penderecki
Expat is short for expatriate, not ex-patriot. Both expatriate and patriot do come from the same Latin root (patria, fatherland) via French.
But yes, expatriate means someone who lives outside (ex) of their fatherland (patria) - can be used for both immigrant or emigrant, depending on context.
There are lots of black bears around Lake Arrowhead where they staged this.
Pretty sure she is on a petrol one - there is a fuel tank above the front wheel, and you can see the fuel line going into the throttle body above the single piston engine. You can also see the exhaust and muffler below and behind the piston.
Also looking into it more, I don’t think the Autoped was ever offered with an electric motor. Apparently the confusion comes from the fact that the company was bought out by the battery manufacturer Eveready, and sold as Eveready Autoped. Eveready modified the Autoped by adding a battery and ignition coil, replacing the original magneto system, but propulsion was always by means of a petrol engine.
I don’t think the one in the photo has the battery and coil however - the coil can be seen here in front of the gas tank, but is missing in the OP photo.
Didn’t the original full body scanners used at airports use backscatter X-rays, which are ionizing radiation ?
I believe these were mostly replaced by millimeter-wave scanners, and are not used anymore (even banned in some countries) but a lot of the initial pushback and debate surrounding the scanners when they were first introduced was about potential health risks of repeated X-ray exposure from those scanners, and so the idea of ionizing radiation exposure persists to this day in many people’s minds.