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VoxelVexillologist

Multidimensional Radical Centrist

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joined 2022 September 04 18:24:54 UTC 

				
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VoxelVexillologist


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Multidimensional Radical Centrist

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 18:24:54 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 64


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


before them the anti-enclosure protests




Amusingly, "open range" versus "closed range" remains a salient political topic in the US from time to time.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'd assume statute miles (although aviators might assume nautical miles), and I would probably assume true north for all bearings, but would prefer to ask for clarification: it's about a 12 degree difference in New York City.  If you asked me 30 years ago (before everyone had a GPS-enabled map in their pocket), you'd probably have gotten magnetic, maybe with a fixed local adjustment (although declinations change over time, so it might be a different value).


I'd assume the altitude was negligible.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There is enough of a gradient in magnetic declination in the NY area that magnetic "north" and "south" are up to a couple (true) degrees different if you travel 300 miles.  I'd have to do some math I don't feel like at the moment, but it might dominate the spherical error term.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My expectation (feel free to call it "hope" or "cope") is that these changes happen both faster and slower than we expect.  You've hit on "faster", but on the slower side automating whole industries has very long tails and lots of awkward corners that move slowly.  The spreadsheet eliminated rooms of accountants "running the numbers" with adding machines.  The Roomba was invented decades ago, but my employer still has custodians and people still hire housekeeping services.  I have pictures of my great grandfather on strike for a union that no longer exists, nor does the entire profession (beyond vestigial artesanal practice), but he still lived to retire somewhat comfortably.


Part of this is just institutional friction: see the quite about science moving forward when retirements/funerals happen.  I don't see the average mid-level PHB deciding to voluntarily shrink their teams to use AI instead; that's just not how corporate budgeting works, although maybe new startups will structure things differently and gradually change whole industries.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Right, and the existence of a spherical geoid-shaped Earth doesn't well-define "flies 300 miles North" either.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


A helicopter takes off from the Empire State Building, flies 300 miles North; 300 miles West; 300 miles South; 300 miles East; and lands. In what US state does the helicopter land?




Assuming I'm understanding this correctly, doesn't this depend pretty heavily on your choice of definitions and assumptions?  If you trace it out on a cylindrical projection map (most options) and follow that on the ground, you'll end up where you started.  If you follow a magnetic bearing (and if the compass is actively followed, or a "straight line" great circle from the starting bearing), you'll get a different set of answers than using a GPS and travelling true lines of latitude and longitude.  For more subtle details, your choice of reference datums and even the flight altitude will matter slightly.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Is there a general way to balance the ubiquity of "dog bites man" stories with the novelty of "man bites dog" stories such that audiences are cognizant of the relative merits of both?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


the most valuable circulating USD coin




Pedantically, aren't Double Eagles still, in theory, legal tender?  They're worth far more than their face value, so I doubt anyone uses them as "currency" per se.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I once knew a guy that would eat the whole apple, core and all.  Lots of apple seeds might be a poisoning concern, but I hear the core is otherwise fine, if less tasty than the rest.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What did you think "mandatory reporter" meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays?


Sarcasm, obviously, but the vibe of such laws is distinctly "better some arbitrary number of questionably-founded investigations than a few children actually get abused".  For some value of arbitrary there, I'd even agree with the statement (disclosure: am mandatory reporter of some things), but of course the state considers false investigations as roughly harmless.


But I'm also not strictly opposed to the state investigating whether a kid in the hospital fell down a flight of stairs or "fell down a flight of stairs".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
IMO this is going to depend heavily on the apple cultivar.  Oranges beat Red Delicious and Granny Smith hands down.  Kanzi and Envy apples are much better, although I might call it close compared to mandarin oranges.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Would your legal chances really be that much better if you start asking lawyers about dismembering your murder victims and disposing of evidence?  I'm not a lawyer, but it sounds like the crime-fraud exemption would presumably have applied in this sort of case.  Are sleazy consigliere-types really common outside of Hollywood and TV fiction?


It does admittedly seem like some of the cases around the edges might be a bit fuzzy.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The normal slogan is about how Code Is Free Speech, and that's pretty well-established under standing precedent, but this isn't even 'just' code.




Am I wrong in thinking that someone could easily pull the Phil Zimmerman PGP gambit here [1] : find a print-to-order publisher (Amazon?), and upload the G code (text!) for your CNC or 3D printer, and buy a nice hard-back book (with ISBN!) to carry over the California border.


    

  1. As far as I can tell, those books were never printed in quantity, and these days are quite the collectors item if you're trying to get a hold of one.
    2. 



				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I don't object to having a sensitive Klingon who just wants to study medicine




This wouldn't be out of place in the earlier Trek canon either: a good chunk of the Worf-centered episodes of TNG and DS9 focus on how to straddle "warrior culture" and "modern neoliberalism" to attempt to satisfy both, not always succeeding.  Worf ends up teaching martial arts (Mok'bara) to crewmates, takes up prune juice as "a warrior's drink", and manages to be a questionable father to Alexander.


Honestly, some of the best Trek episodes are reflections on the human conditon like those.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


American media fails to publish story about news likely to be highly damaging to the preferred narrative of American media




Given the ubiquity of linking That One Onion Article every time there is a mass shooting in America, I'm always darkly tempted to post it when there is one elsewhere (it's not that infrequent).  Frankly, I feel bad even making the reference here: it's a shitty, inaccurate headline that makes people feel morally superior in their smugness and does nothing for the real people who have died, and their loved ones having to live through it.


I recognize I'm not doing much better in this regard right now, but clearly Canadian gun laws as they stand didn't stop this one (or the last one a few years ago, nor Australia's laws the Bondi massacre, and I could go on).  I'd like to think good law could do better, but it's hard to design non-authoritarian systems that cope with the idiosyncratic and sometimes violently unpredictable failure modes of the human psyche.  Sometimes there are signs (which would have lots of false positives to aggressively filter on), and sometimes people just break, it seems.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Unless you were researching rare ant species, which many of us learned about later.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Red pill's somewhat accurate read on gender dynamics is simply pure envy that women in real life can have lots of casual sex if they want and, worse, there is little punishing them if they do.




While there is certainly an element of truth to this statement, it's missing the irony that while the average woman could do this, said average woman doesn't want casual sex anywhere near as much as the men thinking this do (certainly counterexamples exist).  There is a lot of comic/tragic source material in "men are annoyed that women could be having lots of casual sex (which they don't want), while women are annoyed that men keep propositioning them for casual sex (which they don't want)."  Lots of jealousy to go around, and a relative dearth of happy outcomes.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The US declared a unilateral ceasefire after that bombing operation completed.  Iran doesn't have to accept it, but if they choose not to they shouldn't be surprised at a kinetic response.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Aren't the Japanese somewhat famous for ambivalent feelings on mixed-race children?  How strongly would a Japanese audience see her as their athlete?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Because the NBA is in the USA so he lives here for work and would never get a gold solo-carrying Cameroon.




For individual sports, this sometimes goes the other way: many sports cap athletes per country, so you sometimes see athletes that would miss a big national team fly the flag of an alternate citizenship despite training elsewhere just to make it to the competition.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My intuition is that the Internet (The Algorithm, The Feed) killed monoculture dead, and partisanship is, if anything, somewhere between a scavenger feeding on its corpse and the attempts of the cleaved pieces to cling to some minimal signs of life independently.


I see slight signs of effort to re-form the scattered pieces, but I'm not holding my breath.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
IIRC Bad Bunny made some comments about not touring in the US for political reasons (ICE) right before the halftime show selection was announced.  I'm still not quite sure what to make of that, but the actual show didn't exactly lean strongly into the direction of those comments either.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
International sporting events are generally weird: the UK competes as a single "Team GB" (and I assume implicitly Northern Ireland and overseas territories) in the Olympics, but as separate "countries" (England, Scotland, Wales) in the World Cup.


American Samoa has a far weirder political status than Puerto Rico.  The US Virgin Islands also have their own Olympic team (and drive on the left).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Kid Rock has played at a Super Bowl before: he was part of the infamous 2004 halftime show, although not as famously as Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The performance was trashy with some sort of sugar plantation theme (which were never in America




There was (and remains) a decent amount of sugar cane production in Louisiana, as well as a smaller amount in other southern states (Florida, Texas, Georgia).  Hawaii also had a sugar crop from early Polynesians until this century, but that seems culturally distinct from Latin America.