I started reading the Discworld novels in high school in the early 2000s. I definitely felt a change in the writing around Going Postal. The novels were no longer creative chaos the way the were in the 90s. Less plot threats running in parallel, less chaotic stuff happening. But the transition seemed to me so gradual that I wouldn't have made the connection to Pterry's state of mind. It seemed more like he was changing as a writer.

Of course it was a ritual. It was a form of necromancy, to start you had to invoke the name of an ancient Roman emperor

Might mean the US government warming up to the new leadership in Syria. The new president was seen as a terrorist until last year.

I just tested myself and burst out laughing. Apparently Surviving Mars is woke because the little models of the colonists are too diverse 🤣

Outer Wilds. A game that genuinely made me reflect on my place in the universe.

I did, and I am.

In my experience, a lot of these politics are purely performative. Politicians get elected on the promise of 'reducing regulations' to 'release the economy', without any connection to reality. In office they than have to do something that looks like the thing they fought for. We've seen the same after Brexit. The 'bad and idiotic' EU regulations were dropped and untreated sewage was let into the sea.

It's even more confusing: Emojis were invented in Japan, which adds another layer of cultural differences. Holding your hands flat against each other is a common sign for prayer in Christianity, but in Japan it is a commen gesture for giving thanks. Hence the "official" meaning: Thank you

Maybe they mean lupus? I think wolfes were already extinct in the 1600s on the British isles.

Principal Skinner and Miss Krababel where in the closet together. And he had a thousand hands, like Vishnu. And they were all busy.

That's why the dwarfs where helping him with his decision.

The numbers were code for emperor Nero. If you assign every letter in the alphabet a number based on the alphabetical order and add up the values for the name, you get 666. But only if you use the Greek name NERON CAESAR, in Latin, he would be NERO CAESAR, and the missing N gives you only 616. So some scribes in the western part of the empire would calculate in their head and write down 616. So we got two versions of the number going around in manuscripts from the time.