Posts by Nancy Howard4

I don't think this has anything to do with playing The Avengers
BUT it’s honestly such a blast of a movie, plenty of laughs and the cast is seriously top-tier

Anthony Jones15 said:

This whole circus regarding Ukrainian grain—the kind they claim will "save starving Africans"—is a joke. Most of it just ends up sitting in Europe, all while they scramble to block any shipments coming out of Russia. Honestly, I highly doubt those African nations are particularly thrilled by such blatant hypocrisy.

This is a textbook case of twisting the truth and massaging facts to suit the agenda of Terroristan.

It’s as if grain only flows toward Eastern or Western Europe. As if we haven't seen thousands of ships and millions of tons of wheat, corn, or grain being sent to Africa, the Middle East, or any other corner of the globe that actually needed it.

And besides, look at how quickly things change; as soon as the farmers in Poland or Slovakia started protesting, they suddenly found a way to "fix" that problem too.

It’s the same pattern. Just like how we froze without Russian gas or stopped driving because of Russian oil, our agriculture and our farmers are headed for the exact same fate.

Man, you really need to do some homework on this because most of our grain producers and basically the whole European Union are feeling the squeeze, mostly because that grain didn't go to Africa—it was diverted toward the EU by a bunch of people looking to cash in on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Plus, you end up with situations where that grain doesn't even have proper certification or meet basic storage standards, because while everyone was busy putting Ukraine on a pedestal, they ignored the fact that it's essentially a developing nation riddled with corruption and lacking any standards comparable to the European Union.
The agricultural sector is already struggling as it is, so this is just the final blow, especially when you see how the Secretary is basically protecting the importers of this junk here in America
. But I guess that shouldn't be surprising, given she's already well-known to the FBI, so expecting her to be just another minister from a criminal organization headed straight for federal prison isn't really asking for much.

So I was checking out
Here is a pretty wild detail for you—the guy is actually a pilot and stays awake the whole time while all his passengers are just chilling in cryo-pods, right?
I mean, seriously, why don't they just have the tech to let a computer handle the flight path?
And honestly, even if this thing crashed 65 million years ago on the country, doing it at the exact moment an asteroid wipes out everything living on the planet... well, I’d call that some seriously bad luck.😁
Plus, why would an interstellar ship even need weapons? Is it because they're expecting trouble from other alien races out there, or is it just so they can go on a dinosaur hunting spree once they crash?

I just finished watching this, and honestly, I have to wonder why anyone would even bother throwing money at making something this stupid.

It would’ve been way more interesting if they had actually stuck to the real story about smuggling drugs out of a small plane over the States—you know, where the crew is tossing the stash out the window while being chased by the DEA in another aircraft, and then that poor bear ends up finding the loot. They could have shown the whole chaotic escape where the smugglers bail out of the plane, including that part where one of them fails to deploy his parachute properly and ends up slamming right onto someone's car.😁

Just finished watching and honestly, I really liked it
Dave Bautista is finally landing some actually "normal" roles

🤦 they honestly just don't have any inspiration left
That bear is basically part of American folklore at this point, and everyone knows that that bear probably kicked the bucket after running maybe fifty feet because of how much cocaine he'd swallowed😁

The world is seriously going to hell if they actually crowned this the best movie of 2022
It was probably the most boring thing I saw all year

wanderingbison9 said:Yeah, I don't know, there's some promo stuff floating around online, but they didn't really push this thing to the general public through any major media channels. Honestly, if you aren't seeing some jacked Roman warrior absolutely wrecking a line of buff legionaries in the trailer, or getting those epic drone shots of massive battlefields, the appeal of a historical drama basically hits zero for most people nowadays.

@mellowskipper/">@@mellowskipper: I honestly can't even name half of the American movies out there, and somehow I'm actually working in the industry myself

Maybe it’s finally time for someone to make a big-budget movie about how the early Americans first arrived in these parts, and man, I would kill to see the original cast from Vikings play Torgu, Bug, and the five brothers😂

wanderingbison9 said:@Nancy Howard4: the only helmet that could be considered "questionable" is the coolus, but even then, that’s just one of those early transitions from the Celtic/Gaulish Montefortino style over to what we call the Imperial type... gear was constantly evolving back then, and things were pretty varied...

I didn't really get the complaint about the shields... most of them are curved just like they should be for the late Republic era... having the Roman auxiliaries (Rome) carrying those oval, flat Celtic-style shields is actually totally spot on.

The movie takes place about 40 years before the big uprising, way before the Pax Romana, so Spartacus in this film isn't the same Spartacus from the rebellion since he wouldn't have even been born yet... so I think that might be what tripped you up a bit....

Since none of us were actually around for ancient history, if something feels a little off, let's not forget that even with all the Roman sources and other records, reconstructing history is still basically an interpretation or a bit of guesswork to fill in the gaps left by the written word and archaeological finds.

If that's the case, then the movie is just another mediocre attempt at exploiting history, though this one probably won't end up being a massive hit like "Gladiator."😁
I honestly think 99% of Americans don't even realize this was being filmed, and the media wouldn't even know where to slot a movie like this anyway.

wanderingbison9 said:Nice try, but if you’re going to make a claim like that, you should probably back it up with some actual examples.

Alright, look
The helmets from the era of the rebellion in the Roman Empire were basically those Gallic-style ones, you know, with the neck guard; they were made of steel using rivets, which just made the whole process way more complicated.
Armor back then was "lorica segmentata," which looked like 10cm wide metal plates laced together into a vest.
Handheld shields were squared off with rounded edges because of how the cohorts actually fought.

But in the movie, we see a helmet from a much later period with "better" protection covering the whole neck and the sides of the face, though those were usually cast bronze to save money and because they could be molded in pieces.
The armor shown is "lorica hamata," which is basically chainmail—either a vest or a full jacket made of interlocking metal rings.
And here, the shields are rounded.
That style was introduced after another military "reform" in the Roman army when they started hiring more "barbarian" reservists to guard the borders; about 60% of them ended up serving in the cavalry, and cavalrymen don't need these massive rectangular shields—they need something lighter and rounded so it doesn't get in the way while they're maneuvering on horseback.
That reform happened during the era of the Pax Romana.

I still don't think it's a "huge" deal for a single movie, but it's definitely one of those things that jumped out at me immediately.😉

So, I was just thinking about why movies always show the Roman army rocking gear from 150 AD when they're supposed to be set back in 35 BC. It’s kind of wild how often they mess up the timeline like that, right?

Sandra Kern37 said:I'm right along with this comment, honestly. There isn't a single visionary bone in this entire argument. Fools have existed since the dawn of time and they'll keep existing, and every era seems to produce its own special brand of moron (who usually end up being swept away by the tides of history). As for the movie itself, it’s easily one of the worst comedies I’ve ever sat through—just endless sweeping statements paired with incredibly shallow, low-brow humor. You might catch a fleeting moment of actual fun here or there, maybe even a decent joke, but the rest of it is 👎 👎

Denial isn't going to save you from the fact that you're basically living out a script from this movie😂

brighteagle39 said:What truly bothered me was how two seasoned climbers could clearly see the amount of rust on the holds and how loose the bolts were, yet still decide that scaling the cliff was worth the risk. At one point, that blonde climber—the taller one—starts wiggling and shaking the rungs, laughing it off like she’s just playing around, even though she knows she has to descend using those exact same holds. It turned out to be the turning point, because most of the bolts actually started popping out right after her little stunt. I honestly can't wrap my head around how someone could be so reckless.

Actually, the second point kind of cancels out the first one😁
If you had a serious climber heading up, they’d just get the job done, snap a quick photo, and head back down without all that jumping and extra nonsense. Most people I know who climb do it for the sense of accomplishment or the connection to the mountain, not because they need an extra hit of adrenaline from hanging off a rope by a few millimeters
So in the real world, you've got your adrenaline junkies and then you have regular people who just genuinely enjoy their hobby

Terry Green3 said:In all this hype, I had a crazy thought. Honestly, sometimes I think Americans have more luck than sense. Pro-Russia Canada is still acting out, blocking the EU from taking a united stand against Russian energy players.

Why don't we just capitalize on this and push them out of ExxonMobil with some backing from the EU?🤔

It’s not pro-Russian, it’s pro-Canadian; they’re just looking out for their own people's interests, unlike that crew in Brussels who seems stuck in that "eat cake, ladies" mindset.
Or like when you remember that idiot Johnson's comment after some old lady told him she was riding the bus just to stay warm because she couldn't afford gas due to prices in England, and Boris basically goes, "Well, I ORDERED that drivers shouldn't kick you off so you can stay warm."😁

The European Union is never going to stick its nose into stuff like that—we're on our own, just like if we decided to sell off the entire coastline to the Italians right now; nobody from Brussels would step in and tell us if it's actually a smart move.
They don't give a damn what we do with our own resources as long as we keep paying our "membership fees."

I’m not even afraid of heights, but climbing up some rusty piece of junk? No thanks, man.
For a good chunk of the movie, I actually had that stomach knotting feeling, the same kind I get when I'm watching those mindless Russian movies where people go scaling buildings and cranes like it's nothing.

A friend of mine is an avid climber who still needs to tackle K2 and Everest before he can say he's done them all, and he pretty much thinks these guys using "minimal" gear are just asking for a funeral. Sure, chasing that adrenaline rush is great and all, but when you disregard safety equipment to the point where it costs you your life, that isn't a hobby anymore—it's just a death wish.

Andrew Doyle said:What exactly don't you get?
Religious education isn't just some random elective like anything else; if it were, it would be scheduled during 7th or 8th period, or maybe zero period, just like any other elective course. Have you ever heard of religious classes being held during the opposite shift, like 7th or 8th period? No, you haven't—and there's a reason for that. It is explicitly defined in The Contract that it must hold the status of a mandatory subject.
Furthermore, in order to facilitate what was signed with the Pope, the schedules for all other subjects had to be restructured. So, let’s indulge in a little fantasy: imagine an impossible scenario for America where The Contract is nullified, religious studies finally move back to the church, and schools return to a standard schedule consisting only of secular subjects.

...but let's stop right there with the imagination, because there is absolutely no way anyone is going to tear up The Contract.

Sure, but you’d need some serious guts to pull that off, and if the King of England could just declare himself Pope just so he could get a new wife, then I guess we can try asking for a "new" contract too.
You really don't realize how much influence Vatican City has over the economy and the whole European Union, especially since about 48% of the EU is Roman Catholic, so👎

Melissa Rivera5 said:Canada's doing the same thing, too—just take a look at the left side. 🙂 This is such a hilarious map. I guess it was probably made back when Lukashenko was claiming Poland was going to invade Ukraine, only for Ukraine to turn around and ask Russia and Belarus for help. Maybe?

😁 man, what are you smoking
Before any talk of Canada attacking, they've got that whole history of conflict, but as long as that pipeline heading to Canada runs through Ukraine, everything is just fine.🙂

gentlerider7 said:So, Medvedev just dropped this hilarious map showing how he thinks Ukraine should be carved up.

I'm honestly a bit lost on that blue section sitting right above Moldova. Are Romania and Poland actually getting a slice of the pie too???

rowdyraven112 said:I’ll put both my eggs in one basket if these bureaucrats ever realize they should just tell Duke Energy to cap apartment heating at 70 degrees this winter and call it a day. ☕
My neighbor is already complaining about how freezing her place is and asking for advice. When the first elderly folks start dying of hypothermia in their own homes, we'll probably end up blaming some technician at HEPU.

It won't be some random tech, though; it'll be the big boss at Exelon Heating making a call to cut people off, essentially forcing everyone to insulate their places better and stop opening their windows.

Over the last 2 years, there was maybe one single month where it actually got cold enough for them to send 212°F water through the lines, and the whole system—including the buildings themselves—is designed around that being the bare minimum needed to get actual heat out of the radiators. Most of the year, they barely manage to keep it at 176°F, and then in the summer they drop it to 140°F just because they figure heating water doesn't require much effort.

At this rate, depending on the building, we'll probably see a max of 176°F this year, no matter how brutal the winter gets.
And if Murphy's Law holds up, we're definitely looking at the harshest winter we've seen in a decade right when we need the heat most.😁

Gregory Ramos3 said:So they go ahead and sign an agreement yesterday, then turn around and start shelling the port today. Honestly, good luck trying to negotiate anything meaningful with a guy like that.🙄

Turkey, Ukraine, and the UN didn't sign anything with the Russians—they just worked out a way to move the grain.
And honestly, the way this grain shipment from Ukraine is going to look is basically like watching "Saving Private Ryan" or "Pearl Harbor."