Mantergeistmann
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User ID: 323
Mantergeistmann
1mo ago
So a quarter of American soldiers - who had suffered zero effects back home, other than a bit of minor rationing - still "really hated" Nazis. And that wouod be, to my understanding, before really being too aware of the Holocaust. Imagine if the Nazis had committed the same atrocities to Americans on American soil as Hamas did on 10/7.
Mantergeistmann
14d ago
I'm not sure why Iran getting a nuclear weapon is such a disaster.
I suppose it depends on how seriously one takes their maximalist rhetoric against Israel.
Mantergeistmann
6mo ago
I believe that clawback provisions on training costs are legal.
I work for a company that doesnt wipe its own arse without government approval signed in triplicate, as the saying goes, and we have something like this: if you get a degree with the company contributing money, you have to stay at least one year after completion, or you owe all that money back. Seems very reasonable.
I think it only applies to degrees/university courses, though, not other generic training/certificate opportunities (i.e. if I get reimbursed for getting my Project Management Professional certification, it doesnt matter if I leave the very next day after the reimbursement shows up in my account; I don't owe a dime of it back).
Mantergeistmann
1mo ago
If America gets to "let's stay out of it" Israel is doomed.
I mean, if Israel gets fewer precision munitions from America, that just means they'll have to use things that have a higher error ratio/cause more collateral damage. And if the Iron Dome and other missile defense systems get depleted, they'll be forced into greater offensive action. I think Israel will still come out alright, but everyone in the region including Israel will have a worse time of it than otherwise.
Mantergeistmann
6mo ago
These jobs should be more or less easy-in-easy-out temporary employment for people who need cash to pay their bills. If you read some of the mid century "road" novels, you'll see how a pretty common modus operandi was for the protagonist to roll into town on his last dollar, pick up a few days work doing janitorial work at a auto garage or something, and then go on his merry (usually drunk) way of philosophizing. I've written about this before. It's not so much that people in the 50s/60s were raising full families on these unappealing jobs, it's that these unappealing jobs were the equivalent of day rate motel stays.
I think you're the first person I've seen in the wild who seems to agree with me thay not all jobs need to pay a "living wage", and that that's okay! That some jobs should be just for the high school kid after school or during the summer, or someone who isnt trying to support a family on it ling term. I don't know how you deal with people getting stuck in a rut and eventually not being ready for retirement, though... I'm sure many will say that it isn't their problem to make sure others don't make poor life choices, but that doesn't help convince the general population when the news is publishing sob stories.
Mantergeistmann
1mo ago
stroad
I can honestly say this is the first time seeing that word ever used. But then again, I don't think I've ever really made a distinction between a "street" and a "road" before, let alone thought of something in between.
Mantergeistmann
5mo ago
It is sometimes depicted with this jpeg.
Am I missing some context? Presumably it's that anyone who scores... some way on some metric that results in that chart isn't worth listening to?
Mantergeistmann
6mo ago
"In this country, it is good to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others."
Mantergeistmann
24d ago
To this end it has been the official position of the Isreali government for decades now that a nuclear armed Iran poses an existential threat
I'm curious: is there any other set of countries where this is considered the case? I honestly can't think of another that would have a legitimate concern that some other specific country getting the Bomb would be that big of a concern.
Mantergeistmann
1mo ago
I mean, most countries don't do the pager-supply-chain-explosive thing. I don't think anyone has managed to infiltrate a foreign military's boot supplier, for instance.
Mantergeistmann
3mo ago
Speaking of tarriffs, can someone help me with the economics/math I've seen? How does a price level rise of by 2.3% in the short-run, the equivalent of an average per household consumer loss of $3,800 work? Is it saying that the average household spends over $150k per year (and that thosr at the bottom, losing $1,700, spend almost $80k)? What am I missing? I've seen these numbers floating around (sometimes as much as "$5,000 per household"), and I cannot seem to figure out that math.
Mantergeistmann
3mo ago
Any recommendations on a decent cheap laptop for writing on the go? I just need battery life, word processing software, and passable keyboard ergonomics. Drop survivability and lightness are secondary concerns. I'm thinking something like a Chromebook, but something about the name just puts me off.
Mantergeistmann
10mo ago
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' Chuck him out, the brute!" But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
Not really a new concern, though, is it?
Mantergeistmann
5mo ago
That nuclear baseload is a beautiful line.
Mantergeistmann
6mo ago
It seems arbitrary that we get to decide that all species must be preserved as they are now. Extinction and speciation are integral to how evolution functions. How can we justify trying to preserve the animal kingdom in aspic? Especially when the preservation mostly takes the form of preventing us from building anything.
It feels remarkably similar in some ways to First Nations: whatever land a given tribe/confederation occupied at the time of contact with Europeans becomes permanently and historically theirs--like a game of Civ ending at an arbitrary cutoff year, then that save state being imported to the expansion/sequel. Doesn't matter when a people took possession of a given tract of land, or who might have been there prior.
Mantergeistmann
11mo ago
I'm absolutely convinced that on a minor policy matter, something Trump has never really thought about or understood, anyone with a strong verbal IQ has at least a 50/50 shot at convincing Trump to take a stand on anything.
I'm convinced that if the Democratic Party was just willing to let Trump get the credit, they could have had their entire wishlist of infrastructure/green energy projects during his presidency on a scale unprecedented since the CCC.
Mantergeistmann
14d ago
AOC has concluded that a president ordering an airstrike without congressional approval is grounds for impeachment
I'm assuming there's no good analysis as to why this airstrike is grounds for impeachment whereas all the other airstrikes and drone attacks over the decades weren't?
Mantergeistmann
8mo ago
if you ask me, I wouldn't say that it's bad that AI learns from "stealing" from artists. Honestly, ask absolutely anyone who's learned anything creative: learning art is all about learning how to steal from people. I know it's not completely analogous, but I don't personally believe that it should be bad for AI to learn by stealing while it's okay for human artists to learn by stealing.
The concern isn't about learning by stealing, it's about earning by stealing: the thought is that AI will put (some) human artists out of business.
Mantergeistmann
15d ago
Yes. I think if Iran were preaching peace with their neighbors instead of having a countdown clock to Israel's annihilation, the world would treat Iran's nuclear program very differently.
Mantergeistmann
1mo ago
even Stalin and Mao haven't been as effectively pariahed
I think those two are helped by the sheer number of intellectuals who either fell for live propaganda about how great life was in the USSR, or who are generally pro-socialist/pro-communist and would rather not draw attention to such high-profile failure states.
Mantergeistmann
4mo ago
Curious for people's thoughts on the Dept of Education getting shut down? Personally I think it's a good thing - our education system has had terrible outcomes with no accountability for far too long.
Is there a good breakdown anywhere as to what the Department of Education actually does, aside from administering national standards of achievement and the testing thereof?
Mantergeistmann
5mo ago
using depleted uranium rounds
My understanding is that the impact of that has been vastly overstated, usually by the same sorts of people who think the radiation from being near a nuclear power plant is worse than the radiation from being near a coal plant.
Mantergeistmann
9mo ago
So hypothetically, what happens if you get stopped by Police and they ask to see your license? Or is that not a thing that they ask for where you live?
Mantergeistmann
9mo ago
I loved the branched conversation style over single-threaded forums like PHPBB that dominated the web before.
It's funny you say that, because I honestly really miss forums, and how they've been completely displaced by Reddit and Discord.
I mean, that style of villain death is a Disney classic.
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