veqq
4d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roads_Must_Roll
Everything is composed of many parts, without which something will fail. Those individual parts are not all worth the entire project, but rather some function of their rarity/cost to create and necessity viewed through a Keynesian beauty contest or such. Normal values and prices already cover everything.
Consider the same story, but where you offer people $10 to use their charger for a little bit. This removes the debt and simplifies the initial acquisition.
veqq
8d ago
there is zero corruption here, no scope for dishonest people to survive, those at the very edge are people who are not only competent but just better people
This is the most shocking thing I've read in months. No wonder I didn't understand what the conspiracy was. Surely you did school projects and saw people do little getting a lot of credit, surely you've heard of Enron, Theranos and thousands of other companies...? How could you suspend such a thought for so long? How did this Bolt guy of all things break the glass?
most of what we see, believe and hear about is in fact mostly fabricated
Yes, but I'm not sure what the conspiracy theory is. It seems like a paragraph or two was lost before the edit.
veqq
8d ago
Vaclav Smil's Energy and Civilization is precisely about this. Here's a book review which answers your question: https://www.thepsmiths.com/p/review-energy-and-civilization-by
veqq
12d ago
King Alfred passed a law for universal (free male) literacy in about 800: https://cpercy.artsci.utoronto.ca/courses/1001Guthrie.htm and Old English was the second vulgar (of the common people) European language used in widespread writing after the fall of Rome (the first was Old Irish).
veqq
15d ago
Amendment 3 to legalize marijuana in Florida failed with 56% (needing 60%), while prior polls showed 63% support.
veqq
15d ago
Anecdotally, I've been visiting the US for nearly 5 months now and I've been unable to get a state ID (well, driver's permit, I only need to take the picture...) in the 2 states I've been in, waiting in DMVs for literally 10 hours 15 times so far. Appointments in the current place online are 2.5 months out, which is far longer than I'll be here. In a county of a few million, there are 3 DMV offices left. I have a passport but there are extreme barriers in place (...in these Democrat led states.)
veqq
1mo ago
Of course it's less credible. It's naught but bare faced lies with the purpose of destroying all that we hold dear.
veqq
1mo ago
I just meant the Communist space narrative; I like the song, but assumed it was quite modern.
For a decade, people on the left have called me a fascist because I believe people can be better, learn more, accomplish anything. To me, that path is straight forward: Learn the systems which govern the world and make good decisions. If you want to read, learn how the alphabet works, if you want to maintain industrial society, learn economics, physics and chemistry, then keep supply lines up. And yet, people who believe in progress believe phonics is bad, that children should spontaneously understand how to read...
There are some leftist progressives: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0i4ZETgfNuM or the 17th century levers, but it tends towards a negative correlation, sadly.
really driven home to me the idea that what counts as left or right is mostly about vibes and historical coalitions
Even less than that, really. Even people who agree entirely with each other and work for the same political program tend to be there by inertia, understanding different things etc. (unless they are so thoroughly indoctrinated to stop thinking.)
Conserve and progress are meaningless without starting and (intended) end positions, details about methodologies and purpose. You can desire to progress entropy, or progress matter's longevity etc. etc. What aspects do the conservatives want to progress, which do they ignore? Which do the "liberals" want to ignore and which seek they to progress? What if I want to progress the nuclear family into a multigenerational thing, is that reactionary, progressive or?
veqq
1mo ago
I'm more curious whether there is actually desire to implement it etc. Trump has disavowed it multiple times and many contributors were kicked out of his past administration. On the other hand, Trump is insincere and the base generally likes it.
veqq
2mo ago
plan
What of the march through the institutions, the endless attempts at entryism?
veqq
2mo ago
Aside: In 1000 AD, the Levant and Egypt were both still at least half Christian, according to most modern historian's estimates.
And they definitely are using LDR and DPR troops as cannon fodder
Nah, those reconstituted forces are mostly filled with contract soldiers from Russia now. By summer of 2022, they had been destroyed and the cannon fodder spent. The DPR itself announced over 50% casualties in 2022, after they'd already conscripted almost (3/4) every male 18-65. They literally closed down mines and factories, conscripting their entire workforces. 2 years after, no one is left.
You one part wrong: Moscow did not bend to the Mongols, it was destroyed. Vladimir (and others) bent. Vladimir had (vague) issues which led to people moving to Tver and Moscow, who then fought over Vladimir. But yes, the main part is right. Russia's national mythology's founded on bending to greater powers (like China, today.) For detail (since your main point is incoherent or evil to me):
The Kievan Rus was barely a single entity and disintegrated by 1100. Where the Holy Roman Empire for most of its existence was a very lose collection for a long period, the Kievan Rus was a section of the Rus (East Slavic lands, post facto held by Russia in the 19th century, but can also mean something like city state or East Slavic statelet). Somehow, this concept stretches far beyond Kiev's rule.
Novgorod's, Rostov's, Kiev's etc. territories are considered as one, because Yaroslav the Wise temporarily controlled them (but they didn't hold together afterwards.) Why consider Vladimir's efforts 100 years later part of Kiev, when at best, the connection by this point is Vladimir briefly conquering Kiev (after Ryazan) around 1150. None of these people wrote of themselves under the Kievan Rus or fighting for some past Kievan unity.
150-200 years after temporarily being together, Rostislav, Prince of Smolensk took Kiev (for 1 week). His son held Smolensk and Novgorod. His son took Kiev in 1215, then took Vladimir, losing Novgorod. In 2023, ~20 independent princes and Turkic tribes sent a host to fight the Mongols, half died. In 1237, Bantu Khan took Kiev. Other statelets like Novgorod and Smolensk were unaffected. The village of Moscow was destroyed at this time. A new Yaroslav asks the Mongols to become prince of Vladimir in 1238. When he dies, the Mongols give the eldest son Vladimir. The younger son, Alexander Nevsky is given (the ashes of) Kiev (not physically by their family). When the Khan died, they were to all go to Sarai and pledge allegiance, which Andrey didn't. The Mongol army returned, removed Andrey and gave Alexander Nevsky all of Vladimir's possessions. Alexander Nevsky then led a Mongol army back to Novgorod in 1259... His son, Daniel, born in 1261, founded a monastery and the first stone church in Moscow, ruling over Tver.
Records are sparse, but from 0 inhabitants in the 1240s, Moscow was able to wrest Vladimir from Tver in the 1300s, gaining the right to... Collect taxes for the Mongols. (You don't hear about Kiev again until the 1650s. The Western Eastern Slavs (ancestors of Belarusians and Ukrainians) had their own stories with/in/as Lithuania and Poland, using the Ruthenian literary language etc.) (Remember, the Polish national poem starts "Oh Lithuania, my native land..."!)
A far better connection between Kiev and Moscow forms from the 1660s, where Ukrainian statesmen, clerics and scholars move to Moscow and establish the structure of the Russian state, reform its church, found schools etc.
Stop reposting this everywhere
fought in Ukraine
On this very thread, 2 days ago @bro linked: https://search.pullpush.io/?kind=submission&until=1726297200&q=%22ryan%20routh%22&size=100 which has the group he claims to have volunteered in disavowing his membership, 7 months ago...
veqq
2mo ago
Trump really got concerned that she said people'd leave his rallies early. "We have the biggest rallies in the history of politics"
veqq
2mo ago
Oh no, they are smart. Especially e.g. Glencore.
But China currently has 150m tons of EAF capacity, with about 3 years of average construction time. (But they don't fully utilize the EAFs...) They have 900m of other capacity vs. the US at 200m total. I'm not sure if they will make a full transition or become comfortable with say 4-600m tons of total capacity (since cheap infrastructure's been largely built out for the coming decades), but both seem feasible. They don't have such plans, but I'm quite shocked how many EAFs they've erected since Covid. Previously, I thought it was impossible for met coal demand to decrease, but exited after really engaging with this.
That said, India's the main driver for met coal demand (especially higher grade like Warrior's) and they consume a lot of coal. Potentially, China could dump "green" steel into India at some point, bur if India engages in protectionism, well... There are also issues with scrap.
It's also quite interesting to see China using nat gas for heavy vehicles (trucks, construction equipment) while investing heavily in hydrogen. That's caused a 10% decrease in demand already. I suspect that in a few years, they'll be able to put up a (local) price ceiling around $80boe.
veqq
2mo ago
multi-decade process
I've been quite bullish on coal, but China's made amazing leaps here. I wouldn't be surprised if in 7-10 years they're off of met coal entirely. It is really shocking how quickly they've been erecting EAFs. India, the US etc. are different issues, also recycling vs. new steel.
Hey, I made some of these a few years ago. I tried to arrange manufacturing to sell them to hot areas. PM me and we can chat!
N.b. they make vests with pockets to insert ice packs. But even better, put material on large veins to cool the bloodstream. The PCMs do crazy stuff to ferrous metals btw.
The question is what value is encoded in the British lens and what Americans are missing by not seeing this worldview. Does it make Americans worse analysts when interacting with the Chinese etc or does it free them to do more, with less mental burdens or are they stupider because they're not constantly doing such social calculus etc etc Like preeminent American Timothy Dexter I'll put my punctuation at the end...,,,???????
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