Inb4February LC

I find it hard to believe that holds true if you generate most of your own power via solar panels on your roof. And in any event, cost isn’t what is being debated. Those tweets seem to imply that electric heat doesn’t work, not that that it’s more expensive.

Probably? James Woods might be dumb but is he dumb enough to not know that electric space heaters/furnaces are a thing that exist? I don't know, seems dubious.

But what I was taking issue with was jman saying that there are currently electric heating solutions that work as well as gas or oil. If he means that they will keep your house just as warm, sure. But they will cost way more, even with dirt cheap coal powered electricity. A BTU of coal fired electric is much more expensive than a BTU of natural gas. And renewable plus storage would be at least double the cost of an already much more expensive heating option.

Again, maybe James Woods and Carlson don't know that electric space heaters exist. Who knows, who cares. But electric heat is a horrible option for heating in cold climates, which is why no one uses it. And renewable electric heat would be even worse because it would be even more expensive.

And the electrical energy produced in the winter by a typical rooftop solar installation wouldn't be even close to be able to heat your home. A pretty big installation would provide 10,000 kWh over the course of the year. So round up and call it 1000 kWh a month. But in winter you're going to produce half as much as average because of the length of the day and the angle of the sun. So 500 kWh. A small space heater is a 750 watts. There's 720 hours in a month. So you've got enough electricity to run a 750 watt space heater the whole month. Bundle up!

Wtf February is almost over.

in b4 lock

Hoping the space elevator talk dies with this thread as I have no clue why people are talking about it an also zero interest unless we’re sending Trump up in it

Hope someone listened to this. And Letters and Politics is generally a great show.

last

Nope

What about Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder?

No one talks about that, was it just because he was playing an Australian, playing a black guy and did a great job of it?

Is a white guy playing a white guy playing a black guy okay? If so, there's nothing wrong with Soulman either.

Jesus, everyone keeps concentrating on the blackface, which is terrible, and ignoring the guy dressed in ku klux klan robes which is light years worse.

I wasn't referring to this saga at all, just commenting on blackface in general.

If you must though, would about when Cartman dressed up as a Klan member?

I'm pretty sure Cartman did a lot of things on South Park that would disqualify an adult from becoming governor.

cite?

I'm trying to figure out if bigt2k4 is serious with these comparisons to Tropic Thunder and South Park. Notsureifsrs.gif, if you will.

I’m not sure I understand why you’re referencing a cartoon.

So I'm still confused on blackface. When is it okay? Only when it is a white guy playing a white guy playing a black guy? Or never? If never why didn't Stiller and Downey Jr get any flack?

bigt,

You're telling on yourself.

I think I had a flow chart that explained this, but tthe bottom line is please don’t wear blackface. And don’t dress up like Hitler.

10 point infraction for "Just asking questions" trolling.

Also that year, I dressed up as [checks script] Michael Jackson. I'm a huge fan of Michael Jackson.

ahahaha gtfo

I thing bigt24k's question is legit. Why did Downey catch basically no flack for Tropic Thunder? Heck, he generally received praise for the role and the movie came out in 2008.

FWIW I asked this exact question many years ago here. IIRC, [Phill] who I don't think posts here any more before but is/was about as liberal as it gets, basically said that is because, in his case, the execution was perfect.

Maybe someone better with the search function can dig up the whole exchange. But I don't think anyone at the time claimed Tropic Thunder was racist.

I think that the true answer to the big's question has to do with the execution. For example, if someone were doing a documentary or even a fictional movie where the point was to criticize the use of blackface, then I think if there are actors in the movie using it, they will likely get a pass. it Even today. That of course is the best case scenario.

There are probably some other gray areas where blackface can be pulled off without it offending anyone. Apparently Tropic Thunder was one of those, and I'm not quite sure why. I don't think it was really used in the way I described above. Maybe if TT is released today, it gets a very different reception.

The simple answer is that Tropic Thunder wasn't making fun of black people like Minstrel shows did.