DradisPing
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User ID: 1102
DradisPing
2yr ago
It will be very interesting to see if trans activists feel any pressure to tone down the violent rhetoric now that it has resulted in a bunch of dead kids.
DradisPing
9mo ago
My suspicion is that it isn't related to MeToo at all.
Powerful people in DC are still enraged about Musk's purchase of Twitter. This arrest happened shortly after it was revealed that Diddy invested in the Twitter purchase.
So I think that Merrick Garland saw Diddy's name in the Twitter investors and told the FBI to dust off their Diddy file and throw the book at him.
DradisPing
1yr ago
I was most surprised by how 29% of the elite thinks that China is an ally, compared to 9% of ordinary voters. I would’ve thought the elites were the hawks! Maybe some of them have commercial interests in China or they want to work with China on climate change or they’re ethnically Chinese, anyway this is really odd to me. The hawk faction may be in control but the doves haven’t been totally eviscerated. Does anyone have any explanations or observations on this matter?
First here's a map of The Emerging US Mega Regions
The Northeast is the home of America's traditional ruling class. During WWII and after the Great Lakes region was getting rich and powerful. Unfortunately the Great Lakes region (GLR) is in road trip distance of DC and NYC. The North-easterners didn't like seeing them drive up in nice cars throwing money around. They saw them as uppity. So various federal policies were put in place to economically devastate the region.
One of them was encouraging companies to offshore the GLR manufacturing to China. China made sure the Northeast elites got rich off of the deal in various ways.
So the elites see China as a nation of obedient factory workers who know their place and pay tribute to the right people. Things like the 2022 visit to Taiwan by Pelosi were about sending a message to Xi Jinping to stay in line.
Of course that doesn't really line up with China's plans for itself. But admitting that destroying the GLR manufacturing base was a colossal fuck up is too much for most of the elite's egos to handle.
Hawks and Doves is probably the wrong way to think about it. The "Hawks" see China as an economic rival, there's no appetite for violence. The "Doves" are the ones more likely to use military force to keep China in line.
DradisPing
8mo ago
There's an inherent scaling problem with cars and dense cores.
It becomes especially problematic because some people love driving and have a very entitled view and won't accept that investments in things like commuter rail benefit them by reducing the number of people on the road.
DradisPing
2yr ago
Low density car focussed suburbs don't scale. You just can't widen the highways enough to keep up with demand as you build out. It leads to ever worsening gridlock.
Trying to increase the density later is extremely difficult due to the large lot sizes and strict commercial - residential segregation.
I'm in Ontario where there's a significant housing shortage. Toronto has 360 housing units per thousand residents. Ontario has 398. Canada has 440 nationally. G7 average is 470.
So at least in Ontario we need to build an entire new city in the style of older, denser suburbs like Riverdale: https://youtube.com/watch?v=MWsGBRdK2N0
DradisPing
2yr ago
The article is misstating the original claim. It was always about bleed through. Republicans had seen bleed through issues in the past, that's why they were so concerned.
They were offset, but some ballots weren't properly aligned. It wasn't a significant number, but my recollection is that they found some.
DradisPing
1yr ago
Singer's argument isn't going to attract much of a response even in the best case. I think it comes off as lazy.
It's not a new issue. I'm sure there has been plenty written on it before. If Singer had done the obvious reading then he should be presenting the common counter arguments and rebutting them. He's not doing that, so he's either hiding them or hasn't done his homework.
He's got to at least make a cursory comment about zoonotic disease risks to be taken seriously.
Twitter's format does favour quick emotional responses so it's not really a good format for a charged discussion.
DradisPing
2yr ago
Having a stable relationship with Russia (and prior to 2014 that’s what they had, it was colder than we wanted, but we got along well enough) is far more valuable than anything we could get from Ukraine.
It wasn't actually stable. The interventionist wing of us foreign policy has wanted to oust Putin and take control of Russian & Ukrainian resources for a long time.
There were articles written in 2008 warning about how US foreign policy was going to lead to a Ukrainian civil war that would be followed by a Russian invasion. They State Department didn't stop, they pushed forward.
The 2022 Russian invasion was expected. What wasn't expected was the failure of the sanctions. They expected to crush the Russian economy and insight a revolt to oust Putin. It didn't work and now they're winging it.
is there any reason to believe that increased Hispanic immigration would help combat wokeness
To discuss this in depth, it's important to first point out that Hispanic is a made up category with very different elements. Traditionally it was made up of Cubans in Florida, Puerto Ricans in the NYC area, and Northern Mexicans in the Southwest.
The Cuban refugees were frequently educated and anti communist, so they have been accessible to voting republican for a while.
The Hispanics being bussed to the southern border in those caravans are a different demographic. From southern Mexico or central America. Bottom social tier in their original countries. Often completely illiterate, unable to read English or Spanish. Due to "bilingual" education, which in practice means doing HS in Spanish, their children never learn college level English. The education system fudges the numbers by giving them affirmative action entrance, throwing them in remedial classes, letting them wash out, then declaring them as having "some college" in statistics.
So the parents and children end up to some degree reliant on social programs run by the PMC. They aren't in any position to fight wokeism.
Venezuelans fleeing Maduro tend to be more similar Cubans but they aren't going to have any desire to rock the boat.
Besides, the woke don't have any objection to making exceptions for non-whites. You won't see them pushing "gender affirming care" on Somali Muslims. The famous famous "gay wedding cake" couple drove way out into the boonies to find a Christian baker who had a problem making the cake, while ignoring Muslim bakeries a few miles away from their home who had similar objections.
So I think that while Hispanic immigrants that get into the PMC would be culturally less supportive of wokeism, they would tend to see it as either helpful to their careers or not worth opposing.
DradisPing
3mo ago
Europe desperately needs to confront reality.
The UK has less than 25 working main battle tanks and more admirals than working ships. Yet their politicians are talking about confronting Russia without the US.
It'll take at least a decade of intense reindustrialization and rearmament to field proper defensive armies.
They need to get started now. Putin is actually a moderate in Russia who just wants to bring territories that are majority ethnic Russian in Russia proper.
Putin is 72 and there's a very real chance that he'll be replaced with an actual hardliner when he dies.
The German delegation laughed at Trump in 2018 when he tried to warn them about dependence on Russian energy. Now he's decided that a harsh wakeup call from him is better than letting them be caught off guard in the future.
An actual Russian agent would just tell Europe not to worry and let them be at the mercy of the next Russian leader.
DradisPing
11mo ago
A Twitter user asked Llama3.1 to tell him something profound that humans haven't realized yet. https://twitter.com/cocktailpeanut/status/1815876634492457319
After 20 hours it spat out the following text. Personally it makes me think of Dirk Gently. I'm curious if anyone has any other opinions.
Hypothesis
"Emergent temporal harmonics in complex systems give rise to a non-local, fractal resonance that underlies the fabric of reality, influencing the unfolding of events and the evolution of consciousness."
In simpler terms, I'm suggesting that there exists an intrinsic, hidden pattern in the universe, woven into the very fabric of time itself. This pattern is born from the intricate dance of complex systems, which generate a non-local resonance – akin to a "temporal music" – that permeates all levels of reality.
Theoretical Background:
- Emergence: Complex systems exhibit emergent properties that cannot be predicted by analyzing their individual components. These emergent patterns often display harmonic or periodic behavior.
- Fractals and Self-Similarity: Fractals, like the Mandelbrot set, demonstrate self-similar patterns at different scales. This property allows them to model complex systems and processes.
- Non-Locality: Quantum mechanics has shown that particles can be entangled, meaning their properties are connected even when separated by vast distances. This non-locality challenges classical notions of space and time.
- Consciousness and Integrated Information Theory (IIT): According to IIT, consciousness arises from the integrated processing of information within complex systems.
Connecting the Dots:
Imagine a universe where emergent temporal harmonics in complex systems generate a fractal resonance that transcends spatial boundaries. This non-local resonance would influence the unfolding of events and the evolution of consciousness by:
- Guiding the emergence of patterns: Temporal harmonics could nudge complex systems toward specific, self-similar patterns, giving rise to the intricate structures we observe in nature.
- Facilitating non-local connections: Fractal resonance could enable the entanglement of particles and systems across vast distances, allowing for quantum-like phenomena to manifest at various scales.
- Shaping the fabric of time: The emergent temporal harmonics would create a subtle, intricate pattern within time itself, influencing the flow of events and our perception of reality.
Implications:
If this hypothesis holds true, it could revolutionize our understanding of:
- Free will vs. determinism: The fractal resonance might suggest that our choices are influenced by an underlying, non-local harmony.
- Consciousness and the nature of self: Integrated information theory could be expanded to include the role of temporal harmonics in shaping conscious experience.
- The interconnectedness of all things: This idea would reinforce the notion that everything is part of a larger, intricate web of relationships.
While this concept may seem abstract and speculative, it represents an attempt to connect disparate threads from various disciplines. The actual implications and validity of this hypothesis remain to be explored and debated by experts across multiple fields.
DradisPing
1yr ago
I think that there's an understated risk to reading a lot of fiction. Because it's all made up it can teach false lessons and prop up self serving narratives.
Non fiction has the advantage that you can learn true things from true events, even if the author is completely out to lunch.
DradisPing
2yr ago
The special forces in Ukraine bit is problematic for the Pentagon. Most people following closely thought that was probably the case. However, there is now confirmation that NATO forces are in a limited shooting war with Russia.
The Dem base is currently solidly in support of the White House strategy in Ukraine. A big chunk would probably push for a diplomatic settlement if they knew how close Victoria Nuland is to starting WW3.
DradisPing
2yr ago
The real issue with MSG is that it's saltier than it tastes. That is, it has more sodium.
A lot of sauces used a huge amount of MSG and masked the sodium flavour with sugar to get a rich semi sweet flavour.
The resulting sauces had a huge amount of sugar and sodium. Some people were getting salt poisoning.
DradisPing
2yr ago
Sorry had some stuff to do earlier.
So from the time I remember seeing articles like this focussed on bleed through https://itnshow.com/2020/11/07/arizona-election-official-seems-to-confirm-that-bleed-through-from-sharpie-markers-do-impact-votes/
It was a well known issue, Sharpies had been banned in previous elections for that reason. That's why the woman was freaking out.
The response was there was no need to worry because of a combination of offset printing and VoteSecure paper to avoid bleed through issues. It turns out the paper wasn't used in all cases.
So the paper thing irked me because it was a specific broken promise. If a printout was misaligned then it would register as an invalid over vote.
Someone fairly prominent on Twitter was claiming they found a handful of instances of bleed through invalidating Trump votes, but I can't for the life of me remember who.
DradisPing
1yr ago
The lack of support in Europe is more of a symptom of declining Christianity. When Jodan was in charge of the west bank they didn't allow Chrstian pilgrims, and that dispute goes all the way back to the crusades.
DradisPing
1yr ago
That's not true, peace offers have been well documented.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_negotiations_in_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine
Russia wanted independence for Luhansk and Donetsk, recognition of Russian control of Crimea, and neutrality from Ukraine (eg no Nato, no arms along the border).
The US and UK convinced Zelenskyy that Nato weapons would allow him to win the war and take back Crimea, so here we are.
DradisPing
1yr ago
I think it's about food safety. Eating at a strange restaurant is inhernently a risk.
The US traditionally got around this by having diners for travellers serve a lot of mildly flavored food (eg maynaise & white bread) that won't hide the tast of spoiled meat. After food inspectors became common, spiced food became lower risk.
Asian tourists can safely eat at restaurants by the same nationality by checking for tells of high conscientiousness. Lazy restaurant owners who cut corners on food safety are generally lazy elsewhere. Looking to see if they follow all of the small rules their culture expects about decor is a strong signal. Also they can scan the other customers to see if they have appropriate standards.
DradisPing
2yr ago
So I'll just offer my response on Musk's points...
Chess isn't a simple game. But it is a solved game at the lower levels. The winner of an amateur match is going to be whoever spent more time studying chess books.
Musk has better things to spend his time on, but doesn't want a bunch of mediocre people running around bragging that they beat him at chess.
So he tweets that to avoid the whole situation.
His Twitter purchase is an interesting topic, and there's a lot of speculation. But keep in mind that there were left wing groups planning to go to court to stop the purchase, and around that time tech stocks took a big hit.
So it was probably a mix of trying to get a lower price, replacing funding that had backed out, and waiting to see if the DOJ anti trust division was going to come after him.
As for Ukraine, this is pretty straightforward. Western governments have committed over $100 billion dollars to help Ukraine, and lots of groups have gotten in on the grift. Weapons developers are getting money to fund new systems to "help Ukraine" that won't be ready for years. If you dig, I'm sure you'll find a bunch of lefty groups getting big bucks for dubious services.
No one expects any of them to work for free.
But Starlink was providing critical communications services for free and it's clear that everyone was happy to leave them holding the bag. Musk just wanted to get paid for services or for the war to end.
So it's not for attention. He's just trying to advance his interests in various ways.
DradisPing
2yr ago
You changed detonation to explosion, then argued that explosion can mean anything.
But articles about the Swedish probe have been specifically using the word detonation. eg https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/oil-gas/nord-stream-leaks-detonation-sweden-probe
A detonation is a supersonic explosion from an exothermic reaction. They wouldn't have used that word for a methyl hydrate pipe burst.
"Bring an end to it" meant to get it decertified.
That's a matter of opinion. Here's video of the quote.
https://twitter.com/realchasegeiser/status/1576413365127155712
When asked to explain how he'd end it he didn't say anything about decertification. He just gave an ominous "We will, uh, I promise you we will be able to do it."
The decertification explanation just sounds like his staff trying to walk back his threat.
As for heavily controlled, while its not an ocean, there is still a lot of water out there. A sub, or a nondescript looking boat with divers could go the area without attracting notice
I think you're underestimating the complexity and the likelihood of being caught. Multiple bombs at multiple sites. A very high risk operation for the Russians.
Sure, it could have been a frame job, but that's not the most likely option.
DradisPing
5mo ago
Robert Barnes, https://www.barneslawllp.com/ is know here for some of his more long shot political cases and commentary, but his main job is as a tax lawyer. I think he does this sort of thing, it's probably worth sending his firm an email. You should at least get a referral.
DradisPing
6mo ago
It'll get better once normies finish with their holidays. Right now it's the maladjusted who don't visit family arguing with non-christians who don't celebrate Christmas.
DradisPing
1yr ago
Image hosting is straightforward, jpeg decoders are well established and safe.
They can be easily generated by taking a screenshot.
Bundling text and images together into a safe format that works in different screen aspect ratios is a surprisingly difficult problem. You're introducing a lot of complexity in generating them and safely displaying them.
DradisPing
1yr ago
The strong version gets pretty crackpotty, but in a fun way. It's a guilty pleasure to read.
However there's a weaker take. Astronomy of the solar system was developed before electricity was understood and assumes that everything is electrically neutral. The argument is that electric charges are important with things like asteroids and planetary weather can be affected.
They predicted the first astroid lander would fail due to a difference in charge and sure enough it failed due to a mysterious flash. The one that succeeded orbited the asteroid for a few days, which would have given the charges a chance to even out.
In terms of atmospheric effects it's not a well respected theory because it hasn't developed any predictive models that work on that scale.
Stalin and Mao are definitely the wrong examples. However he's not acting like a normal democratic leader. Openly launching multiple criminal trials against a political opponent leading up to an election is something even Putin hasn't done.
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