WhateverHappenedToNorman
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User ID: 3324
WhateverHappenedToNorman
23d ago
I don't know if this is what you meant, but there was actually a lot of money to be made by betting against Musk during the Twitter acquisition saga: What seemed like an open-and-case of "you have to buy the company you committed to buying" was trading at a steep discount, seemingly only because "It's Elon, anything can happen".
What I find bizarre is the claim that pop music used to be more differentiated and varied, but that it has recently started to all sound the same.
Depending on how you define "recently", is it really so bizarre? Why couldn't popular music be moneyballed into a garbage incredibly formulaic product like so many other things?
WhateverHappenedToNorman
25d ago
I truly believed he loved Microsoft, probably even more than Bill
Their respective portfolios certainly seem to imply so
WhateverHappenedToNorman
25d ago
I believe the contention is that the devs should also be designers, or rather, that the designers should rise up from the dev mines.
WhateverHappenedToNorman
26d ago
Maybe, but we're not many, we're few and (usually) subject ourselves to a higher standard. There is such a thing as conspiratorial thinking, which is distinct from just being stupid, and it could be that, as of right now, it's more prevalent on the right.
Now, I'm of the opinion that Richard Hanania and his consequences have been a disaster for the rat-adjacent discourse, but I wouldn't dismiss the idea out of hand.
WhateverHappenedToNorman
26d ago
Innocent black men are routinely killed by corrupt police in large numbers,
Not a conspiracy theory, just a retarded belief.
and the murders are covered up.
Are there (a significant amount of relevant) people who believe this?
Brett Kavanaugh is a rapist, and the Republican machine helped him cover it up.
This also seems like a strained framing, a lot of blue tribers believe that Brett Kavanaugh is a rapist (unlikely but unknowable) and believe that Republicans don't care about it because they hate women/whatever (wrong, Republicans just don't believe he is a rapist).
2 and 3 are one point stretched into two. But it's true that Russiagate stuff is definitely conspiratorial thinking, but it's miles more believable than QAnon (so is the Stop the Steal stuff, for whatever that's worth).
No offense, but is this some sort of intra-elite career path feud? Like the management consultants who are mad that software engineers make too much money now?
(Yes, I'm aware that management consultants are striving fakers, and sofware engineers are the white collar equivalent of plumbers, but you know what I mean)
My dad's theory of gifts has long been that the best gifts are something you'd want, but would never buy for yourself because you wouldn't spend the money. To this I would add things that the recipient wouldn't think of or know about, though this always has more danger of the recipient not actually liking it. There's a long theory of "buying experiences" but I generally try to avoid it unless I can personally take them there and know their schedule well enough to know they can go with me, I hate the gift card as a concept ever since I worked retail for a couple years and realized how few giftcards are ever actually used.
I broadly agree with both your dad's and your theory. The general issue with personalized gift-giving, is that often you end up muddling into subjects in which the gift-reciever is more knowledgable and idyosincratic than yourself: For example, I have a friend who really likes romantic novels, and I don't know much about them, should I gift her a critically acclaimed one? A silly, but popular one? Am I going to end up gifting something that she has already read?
My own advice, that doesn't overlap with what you've already said, would be:
- Look for things on the edges of the area of overlap of your interests: You might not be able to figure out which are the best rugby jersey to gift your rugby-obsessed cousin, but you might be able to find him a great rugby-related book.
- Rather than "gift experiences", gift consumables: Even if they're willing and able to buy it, a coffee-head will always appreciate a good bag of coffee.
- Contary to the neuroticism of my first paragraph, an obvious gift is often a good gift, most people aren't thinking too deeply about this: A lion plushie for your friend's newborn named Lionel is likely to stand out, the bar for thoughtfulness is that low.
WhateverHappenedToNorman
27d ago
I'm just riffing on the subject of the movie, which is very much about fictionalized Salieri's inability to cope with the fact that he was unable to "speak with the voice of god".
I'm aware the real Salieri's story does not neatly fit a morality play.
WhateverHappenedToNorman
27d ago
My dharma is not to achieve great things but at least I am at the point where I am capable of truly appreciating greatness when it is presented to me (unlike most humans) and I am thankful for that.
Well, you're doing better than Salieri, then.
WhateverHappenedToNorman
27d ago
For added hilarity: Gaetz is now on cameo
WhateverHappenedToNorman
28d ago
This seems like a problem that fixes itself: while not perfectly, status does eventually follow money. As it does, these jobs should start to get filled with more competent people.
I'd be more worried for countries with socialized medicine, particularly those that don't have that high median income: there's only so many immigrant doctors to prop up your system.
WhateverHappenedToNorman
29d ago
Also, suspected former CWRer.
WhateverHappenedToNorman
29d ago
I have a lot of sympathy for the heavily gender dysphoric: their existence seems to be very painful, and the apparent best treatment currently avaiable to them, gender transition hard and early, cannot be reasonable healthcare policy with today's screening methods: You're going to ruin the life of many a confused child (or the children of histrionic psychos).
The problem is that their plight gets used as a cover for a bunch of perverts, fetishists, political actors and other assortments of malcontents. As such, trans-acceptance discourse is not properly framed as what it might be: an act of kindness, for which boundaries need to be set, and in which some people who are suffering are not going to get everything they want.
WhateverHappenedToNorman
30d ago
Schafer usually gets cast as trans characters, so I wouldn't say they're the "pinnacle of passing", because they being noticeably trans is part of the point.
I'd probably go with someone like Ángela Ponce: if you already know, you'll find a lot of tells, but they clearly resemble more an attractive woman than a man.
WhateverHappenedToNorman
30d ago
We require people to get car insurance because we know they will make the wrong decision (not getting insurance)
Specifically, though, people are forced to get third party liability insurance, because there the costs of their wrong decisions is very much borne by others (the argument could be made that ultimately wrong medical decisions could end up like that, but it's a greyer matter).
WhateverHappenedToNorman
30d ago
One more thing: A generally accepted good way to measure your hair loss is using a hair catcher your shower drain, this gives you a good idea of how much hair you are losing (compared to baseline shedding).
I have never done this, so I don't know what the proper metrics are, but you can probably google it.
WhateverHappenedToNorman
30d ago
I presume that's oral finasterise
Yes.
and the topical version is less effective?
No idea.
And doesn't the impotency go away if you stop talking it?
Supposedly, yes. There are accounts of people who claim it remained after suspending treatment, but eh, who knows.
WhateverHappenedToNorman
1mo ago
Finasteride is the best available treatment. Topical Minoxidil helps promote growth, but isn't great for hairlines (works better in the crown), leaves your hair looking bad and the hair you gain falls off if you suspend it. There's a lot of hype around microneedling (particularly when paired with Minoxidil), but it's even more annoying, and the evidence for it is not as strong.
Finasteride is known to cause impotency in rare cases, and, most annoyingly, you can't donate blood if you've been taking it the previous month.
WhateverHappenedToNorman
1mo ago
If I knew a crazy dude who wanted to know more about this, where would he go to learn more about it?
If you (general you) want a good source of info on TRT/Steroids, benefits, risk profiles, etc. Unironically the best source I know is the youtube channel More Plates More Dates (he has a site in which he posts articles, if you don't like video/audio content).
If what you want to know is which clinics provide these services, not being in the US/Canada, I have no idea (I don't know in my country either, tbh). Back in the day Bodybuilding.com forums were the place to go, I assume there's subreddits specifically dedicated to this, as well.
If you want to know how to get your t lower before a test, some stuff that can help: Get fatter, sleep like shit, jack off a lot... though I'd probably google for more systematic approaches.
If you're asking if you should be hopping on TRT... well, it depends: age? time lifting? children? family history with heart disease? what do you hope to achieve with it?
Well, for one, a lot of TRT clinics are, as you seem to have noticed, whitewashed ways to get roids, and you can absolutely game the measurements to apply for it.
However, you might be underestimating the effects of actual-factual-true-to-form TRT: with normal hormones, they fluctuate throughout the day, are affected by sleep patterns, diet, etc. A TRT dose that keeps you at a stable 1000 ng/dL, no matter what, is very different from someone who measured at 1000 ng/dL naturally (and even them are generally on the upper range of test levels), you can expect significant muscle growth on TRT, on doses far below of what would be considered a "proper cycle".
WhateverHappenedToNorman
1mo ago
What about the position that it’s perfectly fine and dandy for the Jews to have somewhere they can exist, but that it should be somewhere other than the Levant?
"Should be" or "should've been"? Because they're already there, and as the US immigration discussions tell us, deporting 10M people is pretty hard, particularly if there's currently not an existing country to deport them to.
WhateverHappenedToNorman
1mo ago
impossible to determine which comments may be valuable on ACT, for instance
That's just because Scott doesn't want likes, the rest of the blogs have "Top" sorting, and you can see who liked the comments, if "total like count" is not a relevant metric to you.
WhateverHappenedToNorman
1mo ago
Funnily enough, both are the Casino-world tax haven of a bigger polity.
I think this is simply a matter of watching being the price of admission for (productively) commenting. if you say "these new shows/movies are slop full of woke garbage", and your response to "well, have you seen them?" is "no", your argument loses a lot of weight, even if it's completely correct. As such, there is a complicated line to walk between "I don't want to waste my time with this" and "I don't want to cede this cultural battleground". The latter might sound unhinged, but if everyone refuses to engage, and the normie majority acquiesces as it is wont to do, then you end up in the state we've been for the last decade.
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