manish vij

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Countercyclical terrorist

T•••• runs a genuine-sample con like Musk. Handed a mid-econ cycle racket by his dad—putting up buildings—he proved too dumb to run it. Fell down to the ass end as vulture buyer, then brand licensing / money laundering. He’s still coasting on the initial image of

Malign Mr. Bean

Biden blocked / delayed T•••• prosecutions, then declined too hard to take advantage of his gambit. He’s malign Mr. Bean. Now he’s ensuring a coupist / rapist / felon will get nukes. Like a roomie who gambled away the rent money. He’s covered up his inability to do the job,

The evolution of tech demos

Evolution of tech demos: product works, we’ll prove it in a bake-off (LANs) → features are real, we’ll pretend they're stable (iPhone) → features sometimes work, we’ll cherry-pick (AI, self-driving) → just fake some BS, maybe we’ll ship it or nah (Tesla, Nikola, Rabbit…

Political trust-busting

Goop vs. Dem = sweaty-toothed fanatics vs. Best Buy middle managers. Racket Dems, who are mundanely crappy and short-sighted like any mediocre corp, are not up to stopping ’em. Red team’s convinced browns will repay their brutality in kind (when they mostly just want to prosper), and have

Over the hump

Me watching Pelosi block T•••• impeachments: I can’t believe Dems would risk nuclear human extinction. Me watching Dems re-run an impaired Biden: I can believe Dems would risk American democracy, oh I can believe it. Reasonably bright people following crude racket incentives do incredibly stupid things. Need to

Indulging Elmo

Tesla’s styling update cycle is way too slow. People lease EVs because they’re improving fast. Leases end every 2-3 years. Model 3 is 7 years old, Model Y is 4. A legacy automaker would’ve done a Model 3 refresh in Y3, full redesign Y5-6. E.

Monkeying around

Monkey Man is fun: great action, ok writing, shallow politics. Does next to nothing with supporting characters Alphonso and Sita. Why water down the Modi satire so much if it’s going to get banned in India anyway. Tries to reclaim Hanuman from the Bajrangis, back to fighting for the

Fallout: La La Land

In Fallout, a major plot point happens because someone’s mad their partner ran off with Sarita Choudhury. And who could blame them? Sarita Choudhury as raider leader “Lee Moldaver” Raiding a vault In her civil rights era (as a fusion researcher) Worshiped by the vault cult De-aged Choudhury,

The Washington Generals

Over time, Dems have engineered it so they pick their own voters, the rival parties allowed on ballot, their own primary challengers, and in the case of T••••, their Washington Generals. At every step when the US pol system would’ve flushed a criminal like T••••, Dem elites threw a

Criss-crossover

Test-driving EV crossovers. Overall niceness 1. VW ID4 2. Nissan Ariya 3. Hyundai Ioniq 5 — Toyota BZ4X Cushy driver seat All top 3 are comfy. 1. Ariya 2. Ioniq5 3. ID4 — BZ4X cramped Ride on rough road 1. Ariya: mid-smooth – 2. Ioniq 5 : meh 3. ID4: meh Value

Kumail Nanjiani

The Last Firebender

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire: Aykroyd explains djinns to Kumail Nanjiani 🤦🏽‍♂️ :D Kumail plays “Nadeem Razmadi,” a slacker who eventually dresses up as a Mughal warrior. “I’m Nadeem. I’m a Firemaster, turns out, like my dadi before me” Kumail enters secret room behind spice cabinet: “This is my dadi’s

Punjabi ‘Wish’

Paint-by-number rom-com Irish Wish puts Brigid, mother saint of Ireland, in a Punjabi salwar kameez, with trim vaguely like an unwound Celtic knot. Punjabi Ichha (Wish)? :) (via Ravi Swami) The Bollywood refs are quite explicit. Here she is in a khet / farmer’s field, the headscarf a

Love the spice, hate the spicers

Dune 2 strip-mines Arab culture more than spice while casting no Arab leads. Souheila Yacoub gets a sidekick role and (spoiler) is summarily dispatched. Full of Arab customs / names / vocab, Muslim clothes, Egyptian architecture. Florence Pugh in a taqiyah, kurta, zari work. Ferguson in Arab jewelry. Witches in burqas.

Crossing over

Am test-driving crossovers for parents. Stunning how far back most legacy automakers are, just not competitive on EV price/performance. VW ID4 Plus top trim had choppy zoom, scroll and control animations. Slow charging. 275 mi. Voice control didn’t recognize “play radio.” Rough ride and creaks on a

Afeela need, a need for speed

Afeela EV mockup (Sony / Honda JV) No handles, face recognition Streaming PlayStation game from cloud, also Sony movies. Whole demo was heavy on Sony IP, devoid of car stuff (range, charge speed, autopilot). Built-in seat speakers Screen above front bumper can show charge status, images, and text like “Happy

Highlander

Surprisingly, the new Model 3 Highland isn’t as fun to drive as the Chevy Bolt. It’s quiet and cushy, corners much better than Bolt on stock tires, deep bucket seats, swaddled, limited visibility. Feels like a Honda. I loved driving the old Performance trim, effortless power and maybe

Off-piste with Vision Pro

Played with Vision Pro off-script for ½ hr. I told the saleswoman I’d had the scripted demo already. She was like, have at it, I’ll watch and learn from you :) Like a car dealer who tosses you the keys and says come back in an hour. This was

‘Kung Fu Yoga’

Jackie Chan doing a Bollywood-style dance in Kung Fu Yoga, lyrics in Chinese. 2017 Chinese action adventure comedy… sequel to The Myth… ending dance number choreographed by Farah Khan… Jackie Chan's highest-grossing film in China [Wiki] Co-stars Disha Patani, Sonu Sood: Trailer:

Baby food

I'm… not a child with the luxury of wishing a candidate into existence, or abandoning my civic duty to chose the best among available options [Elie Mystal] Mystal: Rewrite this slaver constitution which structurally rigs the system against minorities. Also Mystal: We are bestowed 2 elderly, cross-eyed

‘Breakaway’

“Breakaway” aka “Speedy Singhs” (2011): “Bend It Like Beckham” for hockey. Sad-sack Sikh amateur hockey team coached by Rob Lowe. Camilla Belle love interest, cameos by Russell Peters, Akshay Kumar, Ludacris and Drake. 17% 🍅. Also Anupam Kher, Sakina Jaffrey, Noureen De Wulf, Lilly Singh. How they solved “they won’

‘Allegiance’

“Allegiance” 🇨🇦: Standard cheesy cop show but with Sikh actors everywhere, lines in Punjabi, desi directors and lots in the production team. Set in Surrey, BC, with a large Sikh population. Starring Supinder Wraich, Stephen Lobo. Premise: Sikhni cop recruit’s turbaned politico dad set up for terrorist smear by white

Dirty fasting

Been experimenting with dirty fasting and caloric restriction. Whether I eat 10, 20 or 67% of normal calories, I lose mass at half the rate of a strict water fast (0.6 lb / day vs. 1.2). Kicks you out of ketosis too often. OTOH, you keep your normal energy

Shabana’s century

Absolutely wild seeing doyenne Shabana Azmi, who started out as a sloe-eyed naïf in Bolly romances, playing a ball-busting general in Spielberg’s Halo. It’s the Shohreh Aghdashloo in The Expanse arc. Indian female leader / general is a sci-fi trope: an evolved society does not discard

Vision Pro demo

Remember how fun the 3D ViewMaster toy was? Vision Pro feels like a dynamic ViewMaster: realtime-rendered 3D apps, movies, and your own pics and video, minus the brilliant colors. Cool * Scroll and two-handed zoom feel very sci-fi, “Minority Report” with micro screens rather than holo. * Custom gestures