domain:astralcodexten.com
quiet_NaN
7m ago
The CW angle is that Trump and Doge downsized the National Weather Service. This made sense ideologically -- meteorologists are basically climate researchers, and thus likely to be more worried about climate change than immigrants, plus college-educated pronoun-bearers. And I am sure that some of the NWS people were installed there by previous administrations for political reasons (which I happen to be sympathize with). But separating the wheat from the chaff would require a scalpel, not the chainsaw of doge.
Anyhow, in this case, the Guardian reports that NWS cuts did not contribute to the tragedy:
Despite funding cuts and widespread staffing shortages implemented by the Trump administration, NWS forecasters in both the local San Angelo office and at the NWS national specialty center responsible for excessive rainfall provided a series of watches and warnings in the days and hours leading up to Friday’s flooding disaster.
The forecast office in San Angelo has two current vacancies – typical for the pre-Trump era and fewer than the current average staff shortage across the NWS – and has not been experiencing any lapses in weather balloon data collection that have plagued some other offices.
[...] In a final escalation, the NWS office in San Angelo issued a flash flood emergency about an hour before the water started rapidly rising beyond flood stage at the closest US Geological Survey river monitoring gauge.
faceh
19m ago
Flash floods and earthquakes are probably my most feared natural disasters, since they give very little warning and there's no real workable contingency for their occurrence.
But as far as disaster preparedness, we humans simply aren't (yet) capable of holding back the forces of nature when they run amok.
Occasionally we get reminded that even our most destructive wars barely hold a candle to a single "act of God."
There's almost nowhere on the planet you can keep your kids that won't be vulnerable to some natural disaster or other.
Civilization has mitigated so many threats that it is easy to feel safe and sound, but every single year there's a set of dice rolls that determine if a particular human settlement gets obliterated or not.
Unless we're willing to spend the entirety of global GDP attempting to disaster-proof every single town and city, we are to left with the option of praying to whatever higher power we believe in.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
24m ago
Here's a normal X link for people who want one.
but a lot of the terminally online right-wing personalities don't look very different that the terminally online left-wing to me.
Like who? Lomez and Raw Egg Nationalist got doxxed and they look like normal dudes.
Redditors are blaming Orange Man for DOGE's cuts to NOAA and NWS which they claimed contributed to the loss of life. I'd be less skeptical if this didn't sound almost exactly like the claims that Orange Man's cuts to the CDC caused grandma to die of Covid. From what I can tell, the flood deaths were mainly due to (1) the county not having a [modern?] warning system, (2) the camp leader not erring on the side of caution to evacuate [to be fair, this was a 100 year flood], and (3) the flood happening in the middle of the night. Did I miss anything?
Also, please say a quick prayer for the families of the victims if you're the praying type.
Jiro
34m ago
If America isn't clever enough, organised enough or stable enough to compete with China on an even footing, why should it be in charge of the globe?
Because the comparison isn't America to some hypothetical perfect country. It's a comparison to China, and China's government is pretty shitty. If you have to choose between China and America and you're not in the Politburo, America is loads better even if you don't like some of the things America does.
quiet_NaN
39m ago
I would argue that there are important differences here. A central example of Taqiyya seems to be to pay lip service to whatever religion the local strongman tells you to follow. At the worst, this creates an ambiguity about whom of the locals are still faithful to Shia Islam.
The grand ayatollah proclaiming false doctrine would be much more serious than that, because it would create ambiguity about the teaching of Shia Islam.
Indeed, WP states (My emphasis) :
By Shia, acting according to religion is incumbent on every one, but if the expression of a belief endanger one's life, honor and property, he can conceal his belief as the verse 16: 106 implies. It is as a weapon for the weak before the tyrants.[186] If Dissimulation cause the disappearance of the religion or the fundamentals of the religion, it is forbidden and Muslims are to give up their lives but if there is no advantage in their being killed, it is to dissimulate. There is no place for Dissimulation regarding the teaching of the doctrines of the religion.[187]
Obviously, this is also doctrine, so if a religion allowed preaching false doctrine, this would be suspect. Realistically, clerics will balance temporal advantages and the need to keep their faithful unified. If pretending to be anti-nuke had caused the world to send tons of HEU to Iran and sped along their nuclear weapon program by two decades, then perhaps a cleric might be tempted to proclaim false doctrine (at the cost of his followers forever worrying if he and his successors mean what they preach).
But the world predictably did not update on the fatwa a lot, it being proclaimed was not the difference between life and death for Iran. Not worth setting up a precedent weakening religious unity for.
The_Nybbler
In the game of roller derby, women aren't just the opposing team; they're the ball.
50m ago
Is that a zone that historically floods?
It's part of an area called "Flash Flood Alley". So I think your most relevant question is
If it was reasonably foreseeable what was the plan to mitigate this risk and why did it fail?
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
52m ago
This statistics-laden article is applicable to Duolicious, a free (gratis and libre) dating website recently developed by a 4channer.
coffee_enjoyer
☕️
55m ago
I like that he referenced Tertullian in relation to the mystery of the Mass, in criticizing evangelical worship for being insufficiently mysterious and reverent.
disposablehead
Hipster eugenicist
55m ago
Does anyone have any good links to blogs or posts about how to use dating apps optimally? I figure someone has this stuff figured out
disposablehead
Hipster eugenicist
57m ago
Finishing The Possibility of an Island, which has been mostly excellent. It’s plays with the ideas of Elementary Particles a bit less successfully, but it’s still Houellebecq and therefore still funny and romantic and sad. I’ll be officially finished with the œuvre and slightly heartbroken when I’m done.
TequilaMockingbird
Brown-skinned Fascist MAGA boot-licker
59m ago
If a "genocide" is still ongoing after 4 generations it's not much of a "genocide" is it?
coffee_enjoyer
☕️
1hr ago
Because if it’s rebuilt it’s like a whole thing. Sacrifices have to resume daily etc. And just the idea of the holiest of holies land becoming contaminated is a dissonant thought.
MaiqTheTrue
Renrijra Krin
1hr ago
I think the combination of overeducated and over sensitive people (quite often women, but not always) and social media are creating a dystopian society in which anything that might bother anyone anywhere must be removed and destroyed. This destroys even the chance of social bonding because unless you can actually go out and do fun things with an exclusive group, you can’t form close relationships. These people need to find their own jobs and hobbies and fix whatever is broken in them that turns them into scolds the minute anyone starts having fun.
As a non-American, I find the notion that America should permanently kneecap anyone who might contest their dominance very off-putting. If America isn't clever enough, organised enough or stable enough to compete with China on an even footing, why should it be in charge of the globe?
I would also argue that even America benefits from having an actual rival that can go toe-to-toe with it. When America was competing with the USSR, it had to be focused and cohesive and attractive to its citizens. When the USSR died and the USA was left without rivals, it seems to me that it sickened and started to alternate between flailing around and infighting. (The same of course applies to China in reverse).
sun_the_second
could survive a COD lobby and a gay furry discord server
1hr ago
Why would it be impossible to rebuild the temple on Temple Mount if it's nuked? Just have the builders wear hazard suits.
pigeonburger
1hr ago
I'm not sure I'd put this on kids or parenting attitudes. The important questions here are:
How foreseeable was this flooding? Is that a zone that historically floods? What was the worst ever flood there? Was this not the worst, only a bit worse than the worst ever, or like completely out of proportion with anything that ever happened in the area?
If it was reasonably foreseeable what was the plan to mitigate this risk and why did it fail?
And finally, if it was foreseeable and the plan was inadequate, whose idea was it to let kids in a vulnerable area there?
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
1hr ago
In Project B, create a Private Connectivity Configuration under DMS → Private connectivity. Select the VPC from Project A that holds your source instance’s private IP
IIRC Gemini gave me this too. It's correct except this one line, where it hallucinates that it's possible to select a VPC from another project (you can't), and therefore the whole set of instructions are useless.
wayfarer
1hr ago
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AFAIK noone claims that fireworks are deadly for dogs - rather that they are distressing and unpleasant
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AFAIK Ukrainians (1) care about people hurt in attacks (2) they took serious actions to reduce rate of this happening
I smell a psy-op.
likely it is not psy-op but deranged dog-lovers treating them as children and/or people caring about dogs and valuing them over enjoyment of fireworks
plus impotent and ineffective attempt to target assholes launching fireworks at utterly random hours
why you expect psy-op?
ZanarkandAbesFan
1hr ago
East Asian women were the first counter-example that came to mind for me. Do white women tend to win out over them when it comes to revealed preferences?
Quantumfreakonomics
1hr ago
80+ dead and rising in Central Texas floods.
Kerr County is the Summer Camp capital of Texas. It's rugged hill country terrain and proximity to the Guadelupe River is perfect for exotic adventures outdoors, and it is close enough to major population centers to be convenient for parents to drop-off their children.
The downside is that low-lying cabins get completely wiped out in flood events. Camp Mystic for girls has double-digit casualties alone.
It is a common refrain to bemoan the fact that, "we don't let kids be kids anymore," and that may be true, but a big part of it is that we as a society simply don't consider the inherent risks acceptable anymore. I shudder to think about making 10-year-olds sit through a 30-minute site-specific emergency preparedness seminar, but that's where this is going, and given what's happened, I'm not entirely sure it would be a bad thing.
Similar to how I've advised previously with x.com, I'd advise others to consider blacklisting reddit.com in their machine's hosts file. There is utility in refusing to allow the darkest thoughts of the most troubled people into your mind space.
Imagining Mother Earth opening up and swallowing the children of your enemies as some kind of quasi-divine retribution for opposing your preferred flavor of government spending is insane. It's good to remember that quipping about how the "finding out phase is beginning" in response to little children dying at a real dinner party would earn you some pretty thick stares regardless of how blue the company.
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