nyan

This is based on a light novel series. If they're doing the typical 1 volume = 4 episodes, episode 9 is derived from the beginning of volume 3, so not an entirely ridiculous place for a new character introduction.

It's almost enough to make me feel nostalgic for the DOS version of Borland Turbo Pascal, which wasn't bright enough to do any of this stuff. (Well, it could freeze up, I suppose, but the only time I actually managed to do anything like that, it involved a null pointer dereference that would have triggered a segfault on any modern system.)

Some people think that only compiled languages are true programming languages. (Needless to say, they're wrong.)

Usually that kind of thing means that either it's not obvious that such a tax credit exists, or it's too much of a hassle to apply for. Both of these things have obvious remediation strategies.

I guess I'm just in awe of the universe's ability to create bigger and better idiots.

Good grief, why is everyone so interested in these ostriches?

The poor will have scavenged the abandoned buildings in built-up areas, yes. Still-occupied buildings and those in smaller towns with no easy access to a scrapyard are more likely to be intact. So it's more likely to be a case of "these are no longer to code, they are not grandfathered, you have a two-year grace period to switch them out" (staggered geographically or by building classification to avoid a run on plastic pipes) plus "road trip!"

We might also end up mining older dumps for stuff discarded when copper was cheaper.

How much old copper piping is still out there that could be replaced by other materials to recover the copper? I'm sure there are other common obsolete applications. The nice thing about metals is that we already have a pretty robust recycling chain in place for them. That plus the remaining supply plus aluminium plus other replacements plus careful design to minimize the use of copper where it's absolutely necessary might be enough to carry us through.

The original Red was enough of a greedy asshole that his behaviour is too much in character to warrant further examination, maybe? Or Green Keeper suspects, but also knows that he needs ironclad proof in order to accuse another Dragon Keeper, and doesn't have it yet? Or he's saving it until after they've dealt with the other boss monsters? Or some other hidden reason, possibly having to do with why the Keepers' fancy ultra weapons appear to be organic?

Part of the reason D was fingered so quickly was that he really isn't that good an actor and doesn't take precautions when he thinks he's alone or with people who already know. The boss monster may be better at faking humanity.

Or I could just be completely off-base. Wouldn't be the first time.

It would actually explain a lot if the Red Keeper turns out to be one of the boss monsters. Hiding in plain sight, so to speak. Someone wearing the red uniform was in the scene towards the end of the episode with the reluctant Blue Keeper, if I recall correctly, and I don't think it was Clown Makeup Guy. So either the Red Keeper survived the stabbing, or he's being impersonated.

The Yellow Keeper comes across as an Evil Mad Scientist archetype who quite possibly isn't on anybody's side.

A good purr would be more helpful than a lot of advice I get from other sources.

They did state it was easy, not safe. Unsafe is always easier. (Until it isn't—I'd get back "-bash: sudo: command not found" if I just followed those directions without understanding.)