VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
No bio...
User ID: 64
Alarm fatigue is a real thing. I know lots of people that have mentioned disabling alerts like this because they're tired of Amber Alerts (missing kids, often custody disputes) or Blue Alerts (for police getting fired at) from hundreds of miles away, or to be honest, even lots of NWS alerts, which IMO seem to have started appearing more often for less severe weather. I feel like I get weather alerts that are well meaning, but not surprising: "severe heat warning" for most of the South in summer isn't wrong, but I didn't need a klaxon to tell me that (uncertain if I've gotten one exactly like that, but not too far from it).
There is a tier of unblockable alerts, but we've only tested that once. I think we need to better-align the alerts with the people that need to see them.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
17d ago
I bet 'perceived crime rates' includes observations of crime-adjacent activities that wouldn't ever be measured in 'actual' rates: the appearance of ubiquitous graffiti (see pictures of 80s subway cars), or of loitering ne'er-do-wells in the park isn't necessarily a wrong perception about crime rates.
You don't have to fully endorse the broken windows theory of (causing) crime to accept that frequent observations of broken windows can cause a true perception of rising crime rates.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
14d ago
You could do far worse than Terry Pratchett, IMO.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
21d ago
My advice for rulers, especially ones on the outs with major geopolitical powers...
It seems like "on the outs with major geopolitical powers" is doing a lot here. It's not even "be a democracy": nobody is threatening to invade Eritrea (not far from Yemen, also a dictatorship). It's not exclusively Muslim nations either (Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea are in the club).
As best as I can tell, the only consistent rule seems to be "don't be jerks to your neighbors beyond your borders," but I'll accept there's some level of Realpolitik at play.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
25d ago
It would be 2000 cruise missiles a day for three weeks before there was any kind of landing attempt.
And the presumed response looks like 2000 anti-ship missiles (or pre-placed torpedos) denying navigation to the entire strait, plus long-range anti-ship missiles used to declare a blockade of Chinese ports (see the Black Sea, but with potentially less regard for continued commercial traffic). Which isn't to say that would work out either, but the idea that Taiwan's defenses would crumble immediately like Iran's have isn't a guarantee either.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
5d ago
Basically every other western nation manages to spend equivalent or less amounts of healthcare than the USA, and has equivalent or better outcomes.
Observably, this statement is (still arguably, but commonly presented as) true if you replace "healthcare" with "education". But the typical solutions presented by the left are in the opposite direction there: few are suggesting we adopt European (or more extreme, Korean or Japanese) norms in education and cut funding. Is education different, or is this just a case of "conveniently, this evidence supports the action I already wanted taken"?
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
26d ago
VSCode is just the spiritual successor to emacs: it's an operating system in search of a good text editor.
but plenty of civilized countries like to play that game.
"So there I was in a pub in Belfast enjoying a lovely Imperial pint and watching the local match, when my accountant back in Boston called asking about retirement contributions. I got lots of weird looks at the bar when I said 'I want to contribute as much as I can to the IRA', and you'd think the room went cold."
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
17d ago
Who is stealing detergent?
A while (a decade or more, now) back, there were a series of articles about Tide being used as street currency for drug sales. I'm uncertain if that is still true, or even was ever particularly common, but it probably is at least known to store managers.
https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/01/14/why-would-drug-dealers-use-tide-as-a-currency
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
18d ago
It missed its chance to be the one and only 10th Amendment precedent.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
24d ago
"what is a woman?"
I will (weakly) defend her non-response on the basis that SCOTUS are the constitutional Platonic philosopher kings, to whom this sort of seems-trivial-but-actually-has-subtlety question like "is the ACA fine for not having insurance a tax?" (whether or not you agree on the depth of this particular question I think the category still stands), and that generally justices are discouraged from discussing potential cases during confirmation hearings.
That said, I quite likely disagree with her answer to the question regardless.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
14d ago
public high schools in the US average around $19k in per student spending, no correlation between spending and outcomes.
Is that true across public schools? I've often wondered if the extra funding thrown at Title 1 schools that typically underperform actually makes the correlation negative, but I've never found an actual dataset.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
15d ago
The Jet A open air burn temperature is 1,030 °C, considerably less than the melting point of even lower melting point steels.
True, but the theory isn't that the beams melted, it's that they weakened due to the temperature. Structural steel loses half its room-temperature strength at 500 °C, and the chart I can find doesn't go much past that. Structural factors of safety are high, but not that high, and it's unsurprising IMO that they'd fail at "extended structural fire" temperatures, which is why we mandate automatic sprinklers in such buildings these days.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
19d ago
And yet no one is seriously accusing them of being genocidal.
I think "no one" is excluding a lot here: the governments of several NATO member states have made such claims, and the ICC (which admittedly isn't held in the highest esteem everywhere) has issued arrest warrants for Russian leaders on genocide or genocide-adjacent charges.
I'm not suggesting you have to agree with those descriptions, but I think it falls well short of "no one."
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
24d ago
I've heard lots of accounts of regular medical (and dental) patients crossing the border to Mexico (and maybe Canada) for procedures because it's much cheaper there and the quality is equal or at least close enough. A few horror stories too, though. Usually not too distant travel, though.
I think cancer patients travel pretty regularly for specialist treatment too.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
24d ago
The pro-life side will probably happily point you to the apparently slippery slope of MAID in Canada (and elsewhere): have you considered euthanasia as a treatment for PTSD?
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
24d ago
A brief search suggests that the average Democrat in the House is two years older than the average Republican. And the last 8 members of Congress to die in office have been Democrats.
Although it's quite possible those numbers are pretty dynamic and shift with major elections though: I couldn't trivially find a time series.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
25d ago
“Best” is a meaningful term because Israelis don’t have the means to actually destroy the facilities themselves
IMO it's not inconceivable they can figure out a way. WWII had the Grand Slam and Tallboy bombs built specially on fairly short notice for attacking hardened German targets. Desert Storm was a short war, but special bunker busters were developed and dropped in combat within a month.
Israel has had quite a bit of time to consider the problem, and given that they have total control of the air, dropping something very heavy with a modern guidance kit from a cargo plane doesn't seem that inconceivable.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
3d ago
I think the prequel trilogy proved that Lucas wasn't the single voice behind the writing for Star Wars: he had to bring in new editors (including his then-wife) to redo the first movie, and then shared writing credits on Empire and Jedi with Lawrence Kasdan. When in charge of everything, the writing quality got noticeably worse, although maybe I'm still too salty about the "Special Editions".
Yes, if you want to run the world on solar cells and batteries, you need two ramp industrial capacity, hard, for at least the next decade.
Does this account for shifting heating loads in northern climates from combustion to electric heat pump? I think what you're talking about works for the Sun Belt, but I am not convinced that, for example, Sweden, can ever keep its citizens from freezing in winter (when it's dark most of the time, the sun is low, and frequently cloudy) without like 3-4 more orders of magnitude battery storage than currently exist. Current storage is on the order of what, grid-minutes? It's not going to adequately transfer energy from summer to winter, and I honestly don't see a viable non-carbon approach there without (1) superconductors solving the transmission problem, (2) evacuating northern latitudes (lol), or (3) nuclear and maybe wind picking up the tab all winter.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
4d ago
I don't think "something that can float" helps much in raging floodwaters, unfortunately. As an experienced (if a bit rusty) camper, you really want vertical above the river in this situation (maybe not the very top of the hill in a thunderstorm). But it's much easier to say that academically than to expect a bunch of little girls to know they should seek high ground and actually charge out into the torrential rain.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
5d ago
If you can't afford chemo you sell everything you have until you run out of money to pay for it and die.
I believe the system as-designed has you sell everything until you qualify for Medicaid, at which point the state/feds should pay for almost all of the treatment. Now, Medicaid-accepting providers have a bit of a reputation for being, well, worse than other doctors (true also for Medicare, but less so because it pays out a bit more, IIRC), so the quality of care might drop. But it isn't supposed to be a death sentence there (in practice, I'm sure it happens).
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
9d ago
I think it'll be hard to explain to the next generation, but the effects in The Matrix were absurdly groundbreaking. But they also were groundbreaking enough that pretty much any movie with a VFX sequence will copy some of its visual language. If you've seen a bunch of modern action movies, though, and then watch The Matrix, you're going to feel that a lot of it is just playing to standard visual tropes that have been done well, maybe even better, in lots of movies. But the thing is, most of those were new in 1999, and you won't appreciate it unless you can compare it to the zeitgeist of 1998 cinema -- without a lot of effort, you really have to have been there.
I'd compare it to The Beatles: I wasn't around when the originals were published, and I find it hard to appreciate the novelty that my older friends and relatives attribute to them because very few features in their catalog haven't been done better (and with better recording and mastering) by other artists since.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
10d ago
The "leads to genocide" observation is hardly exclusive to white people, though. See also: Japan/China in WWII, Rwanda, any number of sectarian feuds in the third world. Realistically, it seems like it was largely the norm or at least not uncommon among almost any group with the power to do it until largely-European philosophy eventually decided it was a morally repugnant idea (to which I'd agree).
Sometimes it seems like "genocide" only applies if European-descended folks (er, Volks) are doing it, otherwise it's just "sparkling ethnic cleansing" or something.
I will at least observe that Red states have been, even in this era, pushing back on the prevalence of online porn. Pornhub, notably, has blocked a number of states that have passed relevant legislation to require age verification. It's Very Possible Nowadays to circumvent such things or find sites that don't care about (American) jurisdiction quite so much, but it is happening.
Notably, though, the argument is less "this content is sinful", and more "this content is demonstrably poisoning the relations and sexual health of our children".
More options
Context Copy link