sickamore
1yr ago
honestly coulda added a Matrix reference there - was predicted that we peaked in the 90s (in the US anyway)
sickamore
1yr ago
Hanania:
What does EA do with its women problem? Well, it starts by treating women as rational individuals, which means adopting polyamory. Why stick to an outdated practice like monogamy when one can develop multiple fulfilling relationships with all kinds of different people, as long as everyone is honest with themselves and others about their boundaries and what they want? I honestly couldn’t write that last sentence without laughing. Who could’ve foreseen that this would end up with an article in Time about how young women who entered into such relationships found them unfulfilling and are now plagued by regret? And such stories would be used to tar the whole movement as hostile to women?
https://open.substack.com/pub/richardhanania/p/why-ea-will-be-anti-woke-or-die
sickamore
1yr ago
Wow. If thats the context then I have to agree with Hanania here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/richardhanania/p/why-ea-will-be-anti-woke-or-die
sickamore
1yr ago
Ah yes the hundreds of US troops in eastern Syria occupation to get their oil….
The Kurds / SDF take all the oil revenues. Lol. The country that produces the most oil in the world does not need to steal Syria’s, and the Syrian oil production is inconsequential to the world oil prices markets.
sickamore
1yr ago
Hersh says in the article it’s supposed be during BALTOPS during a routine NATO exercise, so not covert.
Tweet thread already addresses this: https://twitter.com/joey_galvin/status/1623755578773209088
sickamore
1yr ago
My advice would be to stay in one of the nearby towns and go into Naples and parts of the Amalfi coast by train or whatever.
Any suggestions for towns for staying in? Sorrento? Amalfi town?
sickamore
1yr ago
Your source says:
The technocratic control of politics began to shift in the following years. In 2008, 41 per cent of the ministers had technocratic education, which further dropped to 12 per cent by 2013.
The current 19th National Congress (or party congress) of the Chinese Communist Party leadership rank is dominated by leaders with degrees in Humanities and Social Sciences. The party congress is the highest body within the CCP and meets every five years.
Four out of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee hold degrees in Social Science and Humanities. The majority of the Central Committee members are trained in Law, Economics, and other disciplines of Social Science.
I think that contradicts your 4/7 having engineering background figure.
And, that's ignoring that fact that if you went to school in the 70s (like Xi) and studied engineering, you spent 20% of your time studying ideology and making sure you think and say the right things.
Also, the idea that all 7 members of the 1997 standing committee had science and engineering degrees is wrong as Li Lanqing graduated from Fudan University's business management major (resume from CCTV (Chinese): http://2008.cctv.com/special/989/-1/81682.html)
To be honest, I dont think China's ability to do large scale infra is because of bureaucrats majoring in engineer and science, but because of the experience they've built up over the last ~50 years of non-stop building. Shanghai isn't able to create new subway lines in 3 years because its mayor has a STEM degree (he doesn't, though the Shanghai party secretary does), but because of all the subway building experience they've garnered since building the first Shanghai metro line in 1990.
I doubt there were more STEM grads in Aus Parliament when Australia was good at building infrastructure. And I'm pretty confident it's the same story in the US government when they were building new highways and dams and whatever.
sickamore
1yr ago
Force them to do things - many ppl I know had upper middle class upbringings but never experienced things like their parents throwing parties and them helping, regular weekend activities like going to church etc. This helps indirectly but should benefit long term.
Languages and stuff that are harder to learn later
Have multiple kids so you dont pin your hopes on 1 or 2 kids. I think 3+ adds enough variance
sickamore
1yr ago
Agreed, tho later on you see Don was very unsure of himself when younger. But those are not most scenes
sickamore
1yr ago
Succession - all the younger characters try (and sometimes succeed) at becoming more ruthless.
The Great
sickamore
1yr ago
This is probably something that differs by class or race. IE lower socio economic folks care more about being flashy / appear “not broke”. Whereas you cant really fool higher class folks (in the “i drive a BMW and have a shiny (fake) watch so im obviously rich” sense - ppl know better)
sickamore
1yr ago
I guess we shall see how China deals with more unrest. The surveillance aspect already happens in most western countries anyway, tho I assume China acts on it more (see the aftermath of the recent protests in china - police searching people’s phones for western apps and pictures/videos etc, or Chinese cops using relatives still in china to force ppl in australia to delete tweets etc). AI will be insane in china in the near future. I mean they can already ID you based on your walking gait…
sickamore
1yr ago
The issue is that 乌鲁木齐 - the "qi" character (the last one) is very much a character you learn to write in like, 2nd grade if not first.
At the same time, this photo feels very cherry-picked to me. I didn't notice any such written signs in any videos.
Any time anything like this happens in China or Ukraine or whatever, it's always "foreign operatives" or whatever. The locals never have any agency of course.
From this video in Beijing (亮马桥 area), we can see：
-
first ~10 seconds: the first person (with masked) with the microphone is asking the crowd to be careful as there a foreign anti-Chinese forces among them (“现在，在我们群众当中，有境外反华势力，在我们周围“）
-
People start yelling "we are all Chinese people / citizens" (“我们都是中国人”）
-
at the 0:24 mark, a second person (shorter, no mask, glasses) now has the mic, who asks: "Are Marx and Engels the foreign forces you speak of? ... (crowd repeats) Is it Lenin?" (“请问，你说的境外势力是马克思和恩格斯吗？是列宁吗？”）
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0:33 mark: the first speaker responds (without the mic, with his hands up) that he will forever love his country and its people.
-
0:40 mark: the first person continues that he also thinks the current policies have issues ("我也觉得现在的政策有问题，我真的觉得有问题“）before getting cutoff by the crowd for trying to change the topic ("不要转移话题“）
-
0:51: "Question: was the fire in Xinjiang started by foreign forces?" (the fire in Wulumuqi that killed people) (“请问新疆的火是境外势力放的吗？”)
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0:56: "Was the bus in Guizhou crashed by foreign forces?" (”贵州的大巴是境外势力推翻的吗？” )
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1:01: person in white jacket takes the mic and asks in the most Beijing accent: "everyone, was I called here by foreign forces?" ("大家我是境外势力叫来的吗？“ ) - crowd: "no!!"
-
1:05: "we can't even go onto foreign websites, how could we be foreign forces? How can foreign forces communicate with us?" ("我们连网都上不了国外的，我们哪儿来的境外势力？境外势力怎么跟我们沟通？“
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1:13: glasses guy takes the mic again: "we only have domestic forces that prevent us from gathering" (“我们只有境内势力不让我们聚集”)
Anyway you get the gist. The glasses guy was later interviewed by Japanese television, and his whole emphasis is "I could be the next Xinjiang fire or Guizhou bus crash".
First, some of the signage doesn't look right. They use traditional characters instead of simplified. They also sometimes use pinyin, seemingly unable to recall the "qi" in "Urumqi," the biggest city in Xinjiang, even as they were protesting on Urumqi road. Mainlanders wouldn't do this. This is beyond mere misspelt Tea Party protest signs, I'd say it's akin to protesting against Biden with an English-language sign with Cyrillic characters accidentally slipped in. It's a clear signal of "not from around here."
This seems cherry-picked. If you look at the videos from the 2am Wulumuqi protest, there weren't much signage at all. Most of the protests after have been using the blank A4 paper. You see that in the video I linked above.
Second, the protests don't make much sense if your goal is to reach other Chinese folks in China. You can't share such protests on social media, and news agencies won't cover them. However, contrary to popular narratives, demonstrations are allowed in China. You can't call for the downfall of the national government, but you can plea for the national government to come in and fix local issues. You can also take to the streets because you're really worked up about foreigners insulting China.
Just because they know censorship exists doesn't mean they never protest. Plus most of the protest isn't calling for the downfall of the government (tho some exists).
If you listen to the slogans, they aren't calling for the downfall of the government. They are saying stuff like 不要核酸要吃饭 不要封控要自由 (Don't wanna nucleic test I want to eat, don't want lockdowns want freedom).
(And yes I was at an anti-Japanese march in Shanghai a long time ago. It seemed ironic to be yelling anti-Japanese slogans as you walk near the Japanese Consulate, and then drinking your Kirin beverage (but that's just me))
Third, advocating against the national government and leaders is punished, and everyone knows it. It's unlikely that Chinese citizens would take such a risk when it's so easy to put on a demonstration that falls short of impugning the national government. I think it's likely that these were non-citizens, perhaps Taiwanese, or perhaps expats, that aren't risking their livelihoods. The use of traditional characters makes this more likely, only Hong Kong and Taiwan use them. Western media are unlikely to take note of such things, or to take note of Taiwanese accents.
In a country of 1.3 billion or whatever the number, there are weird shit that happens all the time. I can tell you with confidence that the 2am protest in Shanghai was majority local Chinese, mostly young people. This was in the former french concession (trendy place to live) so there were some foreigners there (I may or may not have been there), but all expat groups and group chats on wechat etc have been warned not to participate in these, precisely because you dont wanna be a random white guy photographed in the crowd and then used as "see, this is foreign forces!". And you don't wanna be deported and all that.
And by the way the twitter account you linked is ... questionable.
sickamore
2yr ago
If you do lifting / crossfit enough, having "unitaskers" is probably fine, no? Have you looked into zero-drop lifting shoes, like Adidas' https://www.adidas.com/us/the-total-shoes/GW6353.html?forceSelSize=GW6353_670 ?
sickamore
2yr ago
Is there any truth to this remineralization stuff, like this thread: https://twitter.com/Helios_Movement/status/1585623324482506752 ?
Seems to say:
-
avoid Phytic acid and oxalic acid - aka avoid "Mainly vegetables that are not cooked in animal fats, grains that are not sprouted and no nuts or seeds (and obviously no nut butter or nut “milks”"
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avoid Sodium fluoride - filter drinking water if fluoride is added, use toothpaste without fluoride, etc
-
avoid phosphoric acid - cokes, etc
-
"Avoid the consumption of too many acidic foods and beverages that are not naturally carbonated."
-
eat things high in calcium - "Foods high in calcium both neutralize the acid that harms enamel and can help add minerals back into tooth surfaces."
Any truth to this theory at all? Obviously cokes probably aren't good for you, but avoiding veggies not cooked in animal fats? Avoid nuts (I thought one of the reasons why we all need braces nowadays is because the foods we eat are too soft, which hard nuts would counteract).
Also fluoride was added to the water for teeth health, but actually works against teeth health? is that possible?
sickamore
2yr ago
Anyon have the link to that long article on how USA's healthcare spending is actually in line with the country's discretionary spending?
I vaguely remember this article from a blog with a name like "statistical social econ" or "analytical social sciences" or something similar. It says that actually, the US's healthcare expenditure is in line with the discretionary spending of its citizens. My vague memory of it is that basically, healthcare, at a certain point, becomes a "want" and not a "need". Though US does spend more per capita on healthcare vs other developed countries, it also spends a lot more than those countries in general - or so that's what I remember.
Does anyone know what I'm talking about and can share the link? I wanted to find it but google hasn't proved as useful so I'm turning to all the smarties on TheMotte.
Thanks in advance!
Have we had a discussion on South Africa yet?
Recently, Andre de Ruyter, the now-ex CEO of the state owned power provider ESKOM, did an interview that basically said the corruption and everything was so bad that he and ESKOM cannot do their jobs properly. He himself was a target of assassination (cyanide pill in his coffee or something?), and after the interview has been removed from his post (he put in his resignation before the interview). He has since left the country.
There are many reports that the grid can totally collapse soon, despite the "load shedding" that they have been doing. Apparently this may lead to civil war?
Unemployment is apparently 35%, clean water access and supply is apparently unstable. Crime is apparently extremely high. If you go on /r/southAfrica, there are frequent discussions of home invasion and other crimes (70 carjackings a day, 2500 home invasions a day...). One post I saw last week was a question asking "Dogs been poisoned, both dead. Typically how many days before robbery hit?"
See this recent thread for more issues: https://twitter.com/k9_reaper/status/1630436052723720193
Some blame this all on the ruling ANC party, on their policies like BBBEE (from a few years ago: https://www.revolver.news/2021/07/south-africa-riots-looting-critical-race-theory/).
In general, SA's situation is not looking good...
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