It is in one sense and isn’t in another. Someone saying “basic biology” is generally ignorant of the wide world of biology out there, either through lack of exposure or purposefully so.

The truth is that biology’s definitions are all humans’ ways of dividing up phenomena into neat little categories, but nature just exists as it is and doesn’t need to follow our linguistic rules.

For every definition we come up with, there are invariably multiple exceptions that don’t cleanly fit, because that’s just not how nature works. Even basic definitions like “sex,” “species,” and “life” itself start to get shaky the moment we try to eliminate all the exceptions.

The truth is that for humans there is no single, universally accepted definition of sex or gender. And even attempts to reduce them to something tangentially related like genotype quickly fall apart when you start looking at the exceptions. The person who says that there being two human sexes (usually to the exclusion of gender identity) is “basic biology” is not only categorically wrong, but they’re either ignorant of or ignoring the granularity of our own species. The whole of human sex and gender identity cannot be neatly summed up as “Boys have a penis, girls have a vagina” from Kindergarten Cop.

So are the slugs relevant? I would say yes, because if you’re not aware of the variation in nature on the obvious macro scale you have no prayer of appreciating it on the more subtle micro scale.

But it’s not, though. It’s the watered down children’s version of biology people half remember from elementary school. It’s not actual human biology.

Translation: Trump’s own party is worried that his tariffs are going to cost them elections and are threatening to 25th him if he doesn’t play ball.

Epictetus. “Some things are up to us and some are not up to us.”

It sucks that the studio forced Amy Lee to add the Nu Metal rap backup vocals to Being Me to Life. It’s aged the worst out of any of her songs because of it.

T-Rex!

No, they’ve actually been doing The Gods of Chaos (Surekh, The Toymaker, and some new ones) along with The Rani.

It was pretty obvious that was the weight of the choice: Sacrifice one person you know and care for personally to potentially save millions you’ve never met. It doesn’t hold much weight if it wasn’t going to work anyway.

I take it you didn’t read the article?

The showrunners have said that they won’t go beyond the source material, so once they’ve told the story of The Last of Us Part II video game, that’s it.

Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles: Oh c’mon, gonna cliffhanger me right after John and Sarah time jump into a post apocalyptic wasteland?

The Acolyte: I’d have loved to get Qimir’s backstory and find out what’s up with the Darth Plagueis tease.

As for abandoned arcs: Sliders with the alternate Professor Arturo.

I grew up hearing, “The initial selling point of cable was that it was ad-free, then they started adding ads.”

But the reality now is that they’re offering ads for a couple bucks cheaper, and all my idiot neighbors are foaming at the mouth to subscribe, so in a few years there won’t be a market for ad-free anymore.

Changing

Yes.

The very basics of the universe is that there was a republic that lasted thousands of years, but then was toppled and a totalitarian regime was instituted (The Empire.) After 20 years, a group of rebels toppled The Empire and made a new republic.

Andor takes place during the 20 years of the empire, focusing on the formation of the rebellion. It is significantly lower fantasy than most of Star Wars, which features characters who can channel mystical powers (The Force.) The Force is almost completely absent from Andor. A lot of people who don’t really like the supernatural elements like Andor for that reason.

I think the author just doesn’t get the story The Last of Us is telling.

It’s a story about loss, and how that changes people. Both characters start the story having lost someone, and neither wants to form a relationship again, but then they find each other. And they’re so afraid to go through loss again that they’ll do monstrous and selfish things to avoid it.

We’re not supposed to see Joel and Ellie as heroes. They’re complex characters that we’re supposed to empathize with even though we know they are broken people.

Go was the one connected to a cable subscription. Now was the cable-free subscription.

Haven’t watched it yet, but I’m skeptical of any travel show that doesn’t star Karl Pilkington.

What a terrible title.

Breakfast for dinner. I find deserts too arid for my taste.

https://lemmyverse.net/communities

Exactly. People have levied the same complaints about musicals, yet we don’t see videos floating around of musicals without music. Both are genres that aren’t trying to be entirely realistic.

I’m personally kind of over laugh track shows simply because they feel performative. I’d rather watch a comedy that has a plot than watch comedy built like stand-up: with a setup, punchline, and then pause for audience response. It’s why so many of them have catchphrases like “Did I do that?” “Bazinga!” and “We were on a break!” It’s fine if others enjoy different setups for the same joke, but I’d personally rather be more immersed in the show than constantly be reminded I’m supposed to laugh.