BahRamYou
27d ago
I have to think it's kinda different there. A small village in Alaska, with a high native population of people who are genitically weak against alcohol, is pretty different from New York City with a large mafia and a population where alcohol is part of the traditional culture.
BahRamYou
28d ago
I think it mostly just shows that they're willing to take a flyer on extremely low-odds, high-payoff ideas sometimes. It doesn't sound like they put a lot of effort into it, just gave a bit of money to one crackpot to work on "antigravity" for a while. Similarly there was the time they did some research on psychics and remote viewing which... didn't work out.
Anyway, notable that all of those top secret programs did eventually come to light. They're not good at keeping secrets!
BahRamYou
28d ago
we know that some of these projects do involve work to make super-advanced aircraft that seem to defy physics
Like what? Making an aircraft (briefly) hover in mid-air doesn't defy physics, it's just really difficult and expensive. Same with electromagnetic warfare. Defying physics would be something like instantaneous acceleration or faster-than-light travel.
BahRamYou
28d ago
It's funny to me how this is like a mirror universe version of the entire college application process. You apply to a certain number of places, and they decide whether to accept you or not. You've got one chance to get in, and that's that. Some places are higher ranked than others, although the exact ranking is kind of vague and nebulous. There are certain rules for getting in, which are also vague and ever-shifting, with the exact rules known only to insiders. Except that it's pretty obvious they care a lot about your appearance, and don't much care about your GPA or test scores, so in that case it's a bit different.
In both cases it's the same root cause I think- artificial scarcity. The whole point is to appear more desirable by excluding most people, and thus create an "inner circle" with higher social cache. If too many people start to figure out the rules and work the admissions game, then the rules will be reworked to raise the bar even higher. Arguably the greek houses at least have a better reason for this- it's a house after all, there's only so much living space to go around, whereas the school itself could just build more dorms and hire more teachers. But really they just want to be exclusive by exluding people, same as a fancy night club.
Ironically I really could have used something like this when I was a freshman. I was horribly lacking in knowledge about social skills and how to navigate university party life. But of course that same lack of skill would have exluded me from the greek system where they'd teach those skills and get you in to parties.
BahRamYou
28d ago
So, do you believe in them? or, to put it another way, what would you guess is the probability that aliens exist? Bearing in mind your bias that you want them to exist.
BahRamYou
28d ago
why don't you just stay there? or somewhere in SE Asia. Seems way better for you there than being back in pussy prison america.
As many people have noted, the decline of religion in mainstream society has left a lot of people with a yearning for something like religion. Some people channel that into politics, some into sports, and some into esoteric new-age beliefs like the idea that UFOs are faeries. Or, sure, maybe the relics of some ancient civilization that developed AI and then went extinct, leaving their robot-ufos to forever roam the Earth without a purpose.
I'm not a believer but I'm open-minded. I've never been fully convinced by any of the arguments against UFOs-as-aliens. I certainly don't buy the idea that the government has some sort of decades-long project that makes super-advanced aircraft which seem to defy physics, and has also kept it hidden all these years. They're just not that competent. We know about all their high-tech research projects, because those projects involve a huge amount of money and people working on them.
One theory I do like is that it's the opposite- it's a conspiracy by the air force to cover up their own lack of knowledge. They see all these bizarre events, they've tried to research it, and just never come to a satisfying conclusion. It looks really bad for the air force to admit "weird shit is happening in our skies, and we have no idea what it is or how to stop it." Of course the "weird shit" might just be odd aerial phenomenon like ball lightning. Or it might not be. it could also be that all the pilots are just going crazy from too much time staring at clouds, and starting to hallucinate things that aren't there, but that looks even worse for the air force to admit.
Anyway, it's clear that a large number of people really want to believe in aliens, thanks to science fiction and a lack of religious meaning in their life. But there's also a large number that really want to not believe, because it makes them feel comfortable and secure in their worldview of scientific certainty. It's hard to find people that can actually investigate this in a rigorous, open-minded yet skeptical way.
BahRamYou
29d ago
Pretty much agreed with you on everything. Like you said, I like them both a lot better than the actual presidential candidates. But I guess being VP gives a little more space to breathe and avoid the media frenzy. Vance is obviously smarter, but Walz is more likeable and relatable to average voters. The moderators were obnoxious with the interrupting "fact checks" and loaded questions ("you have one minute to explain how to fix the economy"). But I suppose that's normal for a presidential debate in the current year. At least we got to see a little bit of actual policy debate.
One moment that stuck out to me was when the moderators asked a doom-and-gloom question about climate change, and both candidates were like "yeah I don't really care about that, we're going to focus on increasing oil and gas and manufacturing." Really showed the disconnect between the media and a politician who understands what average voters care about.
BahRamYou
29d ago
did you watch the VP debate? I thought it was relatively calm and respectful, at least as far as anything in American presidential politics can be respectful these days. It's probably the sort of thing you're looking for, or at least a step in that direction. of course there was still a lot of "your running mate is hitler!!!!" but they were at least able to discuss the issues a bit and find some common ground.
BahRamYou
30d ago
Ah, OK, I missed that. I thought your wife was agreeing with the other office women. In that case, yeah, that changes my interpretation a lot. Basically in this sort of murky situation I would just trust whichever witness I knew the best, so in this case your wife.
BahRamYou
30d ago
a large group of women all agreed that this was sexually harassment, which they witnessed first-hand, including his own wife. Do you think they're all just lying? I'm not "imagining him doing those things in a maximally negative light," I'm just trusting the eye-witnesses. Why do you feel compelled to fight for the innocense of some random guy you've never met?
BahRamYou
30d ago
Im imagining him doing all three of those things together, in a tone that implies he wants to look at facebook pics of a much younger woman, and maybe buy her gifts for her birthday. I dont know, maybe its nothing, but it could be sexual harassment. I just feel like its hard to judge without being there. I dont know why you dont believe your wife about this case.
BahRamYou
30d ago
I think we're in something of a golden age for astronomy right now, thanks to better telescopes and better computing power to analyze their data. Plus youtube channels to communicate that stuff to us laymen. So maybe not a surprise that we're just now finding all these weird quirky stars that until recently would have been too small to identify. And of course it's easier to see those things if their nearby, compared to a distant galaxy where the best you could see is a huge quasar.
One thing unusual about our neighborhood is that it sits in the local bubble of unusually deep vacuum, which makes astronomy easier. And on a larger scale there's the local void where there's unusually few galaxies nearby.
BahRamYou
30d ago
These things are always hard to tell when you're hearing about it second-hand, since so much depends on the precise body language, tone, and wording. Adding in a foreign language and culture just makes things even more confusing. From what you said it certainly sounds suspiciously like he was trying to hit on her and take advantage of the work heirarchy, but there's reasonable doubt.
What do you think should have happened here? Should the temp worker just smile and accept the sexual harassment, shouwa-era style? Should she "take the law into her own hands" and scream at the guy or punch him? Just quietly quit her job and go someplace else? Sic a big mob on him on the internet? What she did (complaining to the corporate heirarchy) sounds pretty reasonable.
BahRamYou
1mo ago
This feels like one of those things where you're like "you got a source for that?" and i'm like "isn't it obvious? There's tons of examples all over the internet!" and you're like "yeah but none of those is an official peer-reviewed source (TM) so it doesn't count!" and the argument dies down into nit-picking.
BahRamYou
1mo ago
Surely the type of anime plays some effect? I don't think that standard shonen battle animes like Dragonball, Demon Slayer, Naruto, etc. are making people trans, or encouraging them at all. But there's a particular subset of anime that really plays up the "girls are so cute!" schtick. And another, smaller niche that really delves into genderbending stuff in a way that most western media avoids.
BahRamYou
1mo ago
I seem to recall there was a massively upvoted "Quality Contribution" here a while back, where a gay man wrote a similar post. Basically arguing that all gay sex was about these power dynamics. But then a bunch of other gay men clapped back at him and told him he's wrong, that's just one niche/stereotype, and there's lots of other gay men who are loving and equal. So I don't know what to think now.
BahRamYou
1mo ago
I agree, but I don't think there's any malevolent conspiracy at work here. It's just that TV, and especially books, are more of a female market. So the publishers naturally make stuff aimed at women, which attracts more of a female audience and also creates a pipeline where the only new writers getting trained are the sort of people who can write that stuff. And over time it just becomes more and more extreme. The guys go elsewhere to things like sports, video games, anime, and internet blogs.
BahRamYou
1mo ago
Or just a way to sell more VIP passes? I dont think they make much from ad revenue, so those are the only thing funding the site
BahRamYou
1mo ago
Probably worth noting that the research you cite comes from japan, where the culture is different. Lolicon stuff (in fictional form) is legal there and at least somewhat tolerated. Pretty different from the US where it will get you arrested.
BahRamYou
1mo ago
Yeah. Its a rare case where the first in the series really nailed it, to the point where there was almost nowhere left to go and they had to change things up. The first really captures the feeling of "expand, expand, EXPAND," and being the dictator of a vast galactic empire. Other games add more details, but they make it feel you're more small scale, micromanaging things. Plus, the simplicity means that the AI is actually a decent opponent.
BahRamYou
1mo ago
Yeah, if anything the average wood quality was better back then because we hadn't run out of old-growth forests yet. It's really obvious when you compare antique furniture to most modern stuff.
BahRamYou
1mo ago
I dunno man. I think you basically have it right. I recently found this: https://nuancepill.com/is-autism-the-real-black-pill/ and I felt so seen. Autism is just really, really bad for attracting women, even worse than being physically ugly.
BahRamYou
1mo ago
Of course not literally all of them, they can Always search harder and find a few. Even Russiain ww2 didnt conscript "all" their men. Like a tube of toothpaste, they can always squeeze harder and find a few more. But after so many rounds of drafting, it's become a political problem: https://archive.is/6TSk4
Then I guess I don't understand you. if you really want to start a large family, you need to get married quickly and plant roots somewhere, probably in your home country, even if you don't like it. Travelling to SEA to party is... not going to lead to a good wife and kids back home :/
America is... I don't know man. The best country in the world for making money. The worst for meeting women.
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