Blueberry
6d ago
Here is a compilation video of them:
Interesting, I think this is an Anglo thing? In the US Asian Indians are the top earning ethnicity, even wealthier than jewish ethnicity, and many tech CEO/managers are Indian. And in the UK the Tories get the Hindu vote, because they are richer than Muslim Pakistanis, and Rishi Sunak (who is upper class himself) was Prime Minister. Doesn’t this give social status? In Central Europe I think the stereotype is mildly positive/exotic, but there are not many Indians around.
Blueberry
7d ago
Wiki says this was the sect of her mother/parents:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_of_Identity_Foundation
Butler's teachings included condemnation of homosexuality,[1][3] hostility towards Islam, and skepticism of science.[2][10][2][11][12][13]
Blueberry
7d ago
Her brief stint as a Democrat is a bit odd
She was 20 years a Dem? She was 21 when she was voted into the Hawaii House of Representatives as a Democrat.
Blueberry
8d ago
Interesting.
So yes, Rubio is the senate's most important China hawk. He also has a hawkish record on both Iran and Russia. ...But he also has given speeches on the failures of globalization, and the need for a new international economic order. If I had to wager which of those things Trump cares most about.... I would choose the last item.
Blueberry
8d ago
I have never seen an efficiency or anti-bureaucracy agency having much influence. They are politically sidelined and no one cares too much about waste of a few millions here and there, when the government budget is trillions.
Firing hundred thousands of government workers are also a no go, because of its effect on the economy and midterms and the media reporting extra hard on any adverse effects it will cause.
My bet is DOGE won’t closing the budget deficit and after a few month Elon Musk will get bored/frustrated and leave.
Blueberry
8d ago
Secretary of State is one position that really does benefit from having career politician in it. The politics of diplomacy is wild. Some say Rubio is a foreign policy wonk, so maybe simply that was it?
The right-wing conspiracy theory is that it will allow DeSantis to appoint a lightweight and run himself for Senate. He is term limited. And it Rubio could run for Florida Governor.
Blueberry
14d ago
In the replies there is some interesting info on the French whale:
https://x.com/mbateman/status/1854278584338436386
https://www.wsj.com/finance/how-the-trump-whale-correctly-called-the-election-cb7eef1d
He hired a major pollster to ask people who their neighbors is voting for. The idea is that people might not reveal their own preferences, but will indirectly do that when asked to guess their neighbors preferences. The results were "mind blowing in favor of Trump". And with this info he bet $30 million on Polymarket.
Blueberry
14d ago
Just hearing this month old banger:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3BrCvZmSnKA
Was there now proof that they were eating the pets of people that live in Ohio?
Blueberry
14d ago
Biden congratulated Trump and invited him to the White House:
This happened hours before Kamala Harris concession speech. Which is starting right now in this second:
Blueberry
15d ago
Yes. And Elon only has experience with high margin companies, or at least potentially high margins, and for which people want desperately to work with and are ok to burnout for, eg because they are a cool entry on the CV and stepping stone for a better job down the line, but I have less confidence he could turn around a boring company in a boring established industry, were people just want to have save job and retire in 20 years. And I am very sceptical he could reform a government bureaucracy.
Blueberry
15d ago
What is the criticism of Silver? A few weeks/month ago when he said Trump was leading the liberals on X accused him of being a Thiel shill. But somehow the right also dislikes him?
What I got from reading the occasional tweet by him was complaining about "herding" and the polls showing the election as really close, but this is suspicious and probably means the polls are garbage.
Edit: Oh I see a bit of pushback which is discussed downthread.
Blueberry
15d ago
Apparently Florida posts almost real-time data about who voted.
Why is Florida so efficient at counting votes? What do they actually do differently?
Blueberry
15d ago
People often have a glowup after high school, Nate Silver had to wait until midlife crisis! He looks so much better with a beard and losing the dorky nerd style!
Blueberry
15d ago
never come down
Regardless of politics I think this song was pure meme magic. The band (Brave Shores) hated that their song was taken and how hard it slapped.
But who would have thought that in 2024 Pets lives matter?
Blueberry
15d ago
Today I learned that the Constitution does not explicitly require the speaker to be an incumbent member of the House of Representatives, although every speaker thus far has been.
Blueberry
16d ago
Btw: Many countries ban polling before an election:
Blueberry
16d ago
I wouldn’t put Tucker in that bin. He said he bought after the demon attack a bible to read it (very slowly in a year) but that he is not coming from a tradition of faith and dislikes pastors.
Blueberry
17d ago
giving all candidates a goverment backed x amount of money and a right to get small donations.
Living in a European country with state financing of political parties, it is utterly alien to me to donate to political campaigns. I know it happens, but I would never do it (aren't you psychologically locked-in after donating to Trump/Harris?) and the amount of effort and time American politicians have to raise funds seem gross.
I looked up how UK does it and they actually harshly restrict political expenses:
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/election-spending-regulated-uk
Each party can spend £54,010 for each constituency that they contest. A party that chooses to contest all 632 seats in Great Britain at the election will therefore be able to spend just over £34m.
A small proportion of spending at elections is conducted by third parties – groups like charities and trade unions that do not stand candidates of their own, but campaign for particular outcomes. … Several spending limits are then applied to registered campaigns.
If the UK (or Canada or Australia or whichever country) is better governed is debatable, at least theoretical raising funds could also be a useful signal in a democracy, but I wonder how an election cycle in the US would look like if Democrats/Republicans (and GreenParty/Libertarian) could only spend $100 Million each?
Blueberry
1mo ago
To be fair, the Mobile Launcher 2 tower is indeed mobile
That is … why? Couldn’t they have built a mobile transport, maybe with a simplified support pillar so the rocket can’t topple over, and then at the flame trench a launch tower as a static structure? That would have simplified the requirements for both.
are not a fledgling industry that needs a financial boost
SpaceX was much smaller 4 years ago in 2020. The year before they “only” had 13 launches, instead of the 100 launches per year now, and actually it was a struggle for them to finance Starlink and Starship at the same time and maybe this money would have accelerated both.
I am not arguing for subsidies, but we/they got a bit lucky that it still worked out ok.
Blueberry
1mo ago
Landing legs are heavy and any mass you lift up lowers payload. You also prevent damage from the engines (which are much more powerful than the Falcon 9 Merlin engine) blasting the surface and reflecting heat/shockwaves back to the ship.
https://x.com/WalterIsaacson/status/1844870018351169942
He [Elon Musk] was not enamored with the landing legs being planned for Starship’s booster. They added weight, thus cutting the size of the payloads the booster could lift.
“Why don’t we try to use the tower to catch it?” he asked. He was referring to the tower that holds the rocket on the launchpad. Musk had already come up with the idea of using that tower to stack the rocket; it had a set of arms that could pick up the first-stage booster, place it on the launch mount, then pick up the second-stage spacecraft, and place it atop the booster. Now he was suggesting that these arms could also be used to catch the booster when it returned to Earth. It was a wild idea, and there was a lot of consternation in the room. “If the booster comes back down to the tower and crashes into it, you can’t launch the next rocket for a long time,” Bill Riley says. “But we agreed to study different ways to do it.”
A few weeks later, just after Christmas 2020, the team gathered to brainstorm. Most engineers argued against trying to use the tower to catch the booster. The stacking arms were already dangerously complex. After more than an hour of argument, a consensus was forming to stick with the old idea of putting landing legs on the booster. But Stephen Harlow, the vehicle engineering director, kept arguing for the more audacious approach. “We have this tower, so why not try to use it?” After another hour of debate, Musk stepped in. “Harlow, you’re on board with this plan,” he said. “So why don’t you be in charge of it?”
You need a drivers test as proof that you know how to drive a car. The test for understanding medications is being a physician.
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