mildly_benis
No bio...
User ID: 1305
Certainly a good thing for Israel. They would prefer an ethnic cleansing fully realized, but a sea of ruins, 100k-200k dead and maimed, Hamas and allies crippled, with US support unwavering, is still satisfying, I imagine. I wonder if they will make serious efforts to keep the conditions in the area abysmal, and try to push the locals to emigrate, or take a different approach.
mildly_benis
6d ago
Return from the Stars was my favourite, though it has been a decade.
mildly_benis
8d ago
Perhaps https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2022/10/11/why-high-speed-rail-hasnt-caught-on/? I remember it making a good point for airports over high speed rail, at least good enough to sway me.
mildly_benis
10d ago
Why attempt such a brazen, obvious lie, with approximately nothing to gain? Just baffing. Make me think I'm being psyoped somehow.
mildly_benis
11d ago
timer rigged to the voice recognition too
Nothing so fancy! I did not try using triggers, holding out for AI assistants instead. By 'quite closely' I meant more that I tracked essentially every hour of the year, but making extensive use of Edit->Action->Divide functionality whenever I forget to switch activities.
I was going for detail initially, but unsurprisingly that risks burnout - I instead settled on pretty broad 'activities' that serve as baskets for everything other than distinct activities I definitely want to track - 'Sleep', 'Books', 'Anki', 'Mealprep', 'Exercise' etc. Baskets like 'Routine misc' (tasks that keep you from falling apart), 'Tasks misc' (small tasks that get you somewhere you want to be), 'Nothing' (exclusively bad, mindless web browsing goes here). I don't bother with activity tags, it's more clicks, more decisions, and rarely a tag is more justified than another activity.
It also helps the app has the widget that cuts the interaction to just Touch Widget -> Touch activity.
Working to have 'Nothing' diminish as % of total hours tracked, while remaining honest, is a nice goal, most tangible positive effect the app had for me.
I was tracking my daily activities quite closely this year - Simple Time Tracker (ignore the screens they show, dark version is far more visually pleasing) is one of those best-in-category things I wish I knew a good list of. I intend to continue, it's motivating and therapeutic both.
I'm at 429 hours of books for 2024, +/-13k pages, only 30 pages/hour. Far, far more than the year before - in my case at least, it came down to the combo of accessibility (god bless Anna and her archive), seamless switching to 'audiobook' with text-to-speech (Voice Aloud is awesome for books in all formats, or any text really, especially with the new Google Journey voices) and a wireless headset. Now if only I had an endless supply of genius-tier literature recommendations.
Safe in South America, as far as I can tell.
mildly_benis
26d ago
I did try it a while back, based on a weak recommendation from here, as well. Was mostly curious if they managed to make at least one good show under the IP.
I hated it. Paper thin on all fronts.
mildly_benis
1mo ago
The panic in Canada, Mexico, and Europe over Trump's tariff proposals
My impression is that this 'panic' is considerably overstated, triumphalism and wishful thinking that translates into deranged twitter takes about Trump charming entire rooms of pliant European elites. Reminds me a little of the "we're the good guys again!" atmosphere among American plebs and elites both after the war in Ukraine began.
would European politicians be willing or able to accept it
It is, unfortunately, much easier to argue the opposite, as you do. And past the atlanticist status quo and soft power, there are tools like natgas supply blackmail, devastating sanctions liftable when negotiations with the Authoritarians are broken off, outright assassinations.
On the other side, I can't really think of anything other than business community revolt, establishment self preservation attempt after economic hardship translates to electoral sweep for the "far" right, uncharacteristically well executed Chinese influence campaign, some significant US blunder or distraction.
Great men of history urgently needed.
mildly_benis
1mo ago
I'm somewhat surprised they wouldn't wait for Trump to actually show he can do something, instead of reacting on his babble.
In any case, I very much hope this heavy handed approach backfires in the case of Europe. As things stand, helping to maintain US hegemony looks like certain pain, dubious gain. It's perverse how little the US is willing to offer, given their advantages and prosperity. Ideally the Chinese would come up with a straightforwardly superior counteroffer that gives Europe time to restructure while on the side-lines of the broader conflict.
mildly_benis
1mo ago
US is prosperous, prosperity is desirable, hardly a reason to pat yourself on the back. If you blur the distinction between the country and the empire, of course the enmity will be diluted.
mildly_benis
1mo ago
DO NOT GET INVOLVED!
US obviously is involved, has been for more than a decade. The proxies are remote enough for this to be an opportunity to throw a bone to the part of his base that wants less adventurism/imperialism. Trump is still a philosemite and for hostilities with Iran.
mildly_benis
1mo ago
I'm so glad you linked that manga, it's a ton of fun.
mildly_benis
2mo ago
There can be multiple losers
And there is a clear winner, too, the US.
Even Ukraine being ruined is a good thing if you take the longer view - sure, there will be tensions and resentment for some years, decades maybe, but these are people with a common language and culture. You can't rule out another reorientation in 10 years, so squint a little, and civilizationally degraded and depopulated Ukraine is weaker future Russia.
mildly_benis
2mo ago
I assumed no liability applies to known and expected side effects, and that for proven vaccines you can cheaply and reliably test for any outright manufacturing trickery since it is possible to just settle on a standard.
The motivation in part is that I think diseases like polio or mumps should be a separate conversation. Clearly those vaccines had gigantic positive effects, and take attention away from questionable products and tactics used to push these products onto the public.
mildly_benis
2mo ago
They are shielded for liability. Arguably the fox is guarding the hen house.
I think there is a distinction to be made here between proven, old vaccines for serious diseases, and everything else. I'm much more comfortable with no liability for the former. I don't know to what extent this distinction is feasible in reality, tho.
mildly_benis
2mo ago
I quite enjoyed this album, thank you for the recommendation.
Can you explain how the green policy helped the US?
Fair question. Germany adding a ton of solar/wind (before it is economically reasonable) shifts their willingness to conflict themselves with Russia and accept some pipes being blown as a nothingburger after all. To the extent the reduced dependence is real, good for Germans. To the extent it is only an impression that will resolve into a crisis, 'unexpected' costs, too bad.
I also think reduced German/European competitiveness is something the US is pursuing. Drains the talent, conflicts European nations with each other, generally makes us easier to manage.
Yes, they added baseload natgas over nuclear, as others pointed out. Not as much as I thought, something between 50-100% increase since 2000, looking at some charts? And fossil fuels suppliers are fungible (at significant cost), some more natgas does not anchor them to Russia permanently, as we've seen. But fair enough, I should have done more hedging myself, was thinking of last few years too much.
mildly_benis
2mo ago
He says it's actually the Russians funding the German Green party, not even hedging or speculating.
Greens were pushing for no fossil fuels, of which Russia is the default European supplier. Greens were pushing for continued war in Ukraine. These are policies that benefit the US.
Surely he knows this. I can't think of it as anything other than a blatantly dishonest narrative in the usual vein of 'Europeans are incompetent, not pulling their own weight, Russians doing with them as they please, they need a savior, that's us (again!)'. Genuinely infuriating. Sobering, too.
mildly_benis
2mo ago
I meant internet in general, especially reddit; it was not my intention to suggest 'transparent pro-Israeli astroturfing' is noticeable themotte, just the genuine supporters.
Terrorism is pretty consistently using violence targetted specifically at civilians in order to enact political change
I meant 'discredited' in the sense of 'terrorist' label being a superweapon abused to the point of ineffectuality. I don't really have an opinion on whether you can formulate a useful definition of terrorism, maybe. Issue is, your formulation I think describes Israeli Gaza operation pretty well, but they are a 'legitimate military force'.
parading kidnapped naked women through the streets
I really wish this sort of labeling would be backed up by videos of something resembling a Roman triumph. But I'm guessing you are referring to the non-naked corpse of a woman on the back of the truck clip? I don't think female Israeli corpses are special, and the amount of attention that is being demanded for them and other Israeli victims (in broad Israeli astroturfing) is disproportional, at times downright deranged.
So the Palestinians get to demand to live in a judenrein society?
I think in a case where this means keeping Jews from coming to them - not even as refugees, but in a settlement campaign under state umbrella - the answer is an unequivocal 'yes, of course'.
mildly_benis
2mo ago
Israel has offered peace multiple times
Settlement expansion, supported by the Israeli state, is essentially enough for me to conclude Israelis were never serious about peace with Palestinians.
Goal always the same - dispossession and/or expulsion. Slowly with settlements, domestic opposition mostly unserious - happy with the end result, only preferring the optics of serious concern and stalwart disapproval. Faster with aerial bombing campaigns.
mildly_benis
2mo ago
From actual Israeli supporters to transparent pro-Israel astroturfing, the insistence on the 'terrorist' angle is striking. Does this really resonate with American normies?
I would think 'terrorism' a discredited label, counterproductive in most cases, especially in the context of distant desert squabbles. Is it not the 'common sense', dominant narrative in the US that the 2000's were a mistake born out of lies and a hysteria? Of course the actual costs to the Americans were miniscule, practically irrelevant, so I don't expect emotional investment, just disinterest and cautious 'this will not work on me twice' attitude.
Ok, removed.
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