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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 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It flows back to societally valuing youth in women and age/experience in men (common idea in this thread), doesn't it?  "Boy" is almost insulting to an of-age male in various instances (some related to racism), while "girl" is acceptable because it's considered flattering.


Not endorsing, just observing linguistic implications.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
"[Cultural leaders] are always preparing to fight the last [culture] war" sounded funny when I initially considered it, but I think may have a ring of truth to it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I would be rather interested to interact with an intelligence that only knows the natural numbers on this basis, but I suspect all the existing LLMs are too polluted with children's books with counting.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'd like to add a third theory: properly doing immersion is more expensive than single-instructor blackboard teaching.  I'm not sure you can do it properly with the same resources you'd have for some other class.  From personal experience taking Spanish, "to can only speak Spanish until the bell" doesn't help that much if only a few native speakers are in the room, leads to "immersive" conversation between two students are barely speaking the language.


Although maybe there is a space for "fun" language learning media to exist --- I know a at least a few people who learned Japanese to read manga and watch anime.


ETA: LLMs probably introduce ways to do authentic immersion better/cheaper, but also can automate translation in ways that abrogate language learning requirements.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
One philosophy question I've wondered about is how pure pure mathematics truly is: questions like whether "the integers" a true abstract concept, or can it only be explained to an intelligence that has a world model that includes the notion of "counting" or something similar.  The math definitions seem crafted to be purely abstract, but my thinking about them always ends up grounded in the real world.  Can a true abstract intelligence (which an LLM trained on human text isn't, but is perhaps closer than a flesh-and-blood human) derive all of modern mathematics given only the selected axioms?  Some of this, I think, comes back to the IMO still-poorly-answered "what is intelligence?" question.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah, most of the phonetic ones that come to mind predate standardized spellings, so a few hundred years.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
IMO English is at least in part "as she is spoke" because we tend in modern times to borrow loanwords from Latin alphabet languages as-written, but inconsistently keep the pronunciation as-borrowed, so the phonetics are literally all over the place and you need a decent understanding of etymology to know why the "ll" in quesadilla is (usually) pronounced so differently from allay.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Battles over loanwords are pretty common:  The Académie Francaise (nominally the authority on French as a language, but opinions differ) would love to excommunicate Francophones who use "email" rather than «courriel».  IIRC Spanish as a language isn't quite as centralized given among other things how many countries use it: a decent chunk of its speakers even call it "Castilian".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There already are categories for SNAP EBT: you can't use it for hot foods (rotisserie chicken is probably the most common complaint).  WIC also exists and has comparatively tiny set of eligible products.


We should do better about teaching basic cooking, though.  Removal of life skills from k-12 education (compared to what my parents' generation talks about: home ec, shop class, etc) has been, IMO, a bad choice overall.  Although I'm not sure I'd bring those back exactly as they were.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I will observe that EBT exists in parallel with WIC, which does have a pretty set of eligible items --- judging from the WIC signs on the price tags at my grocery store.


WIC covers literal rice-and-beans, but not frozen dino chicken nuggets.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Title IX dates to at least 50 years ago.  Admittedly, the Civil Rights Act they're leaning on to push ending affirmative action is even older.


I think there is an element of truth to this, but it also doesn't apply to every progressive value, only those that have become widely-adopted and successful.  Most conservatives aren't strongly in favor of organized labor, or the century-ago progressivism of eugenics and temperance, but probably are okay with the Pure Food and Drug Act and the CCC/TVA/adjacent infrastructure (some progressives would advocate for removing dams these days).  And I'd be skeptical of the conservativism of anyone who embraced "indigo children" and such in the current era.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				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.