birb_cromble
No bio...
User ID: 3236
birb_cromble
11hr ago
I know women who have published mil-sf.
I'd keep them away from your carburetor.
birb_cromble
1d ago
This is why I only submit to mil-sf outlets anymore. If you can't bench press your body weight, march ten miles in full kit, and fuck a hole through the carburetor of a 1963 Chevy Impala, you're not even going to get out of the slush pile.
birb_cromble
2d ago
Spending is $2,130.86 lower than the same day last year. I just mailed the check for the last part of my home repairs, so next week won't look as good. I think I'm still on track, though.
birb_cromble
2d ago
They care about you. Asking about all those little things is their way to make sure that you're healthy and safe. If you're not eating right and your car's on the fritz, the "important" things get a lot harder.
birb_cromble
3d ago
I should expect a significant amount of people freaking out trying to figure out some sort of solution to a major issue.
Go through the archives here and on /r/themotte and you can find precisely that.
birb_cromble
3d ago
If one very seriously believes that the world was attacked by an artificial bioweapon
You're engaging in a rhetorical sleight of hand that I've repeatedly decried in the past. A lab leak doesn't necessarily have to be a bioweapon, and immediately reaching for that term limits the discussion space in a lot of ways. It also doesn't imply there's an attack.
"Lab leak" could mean "accidental release of a natural virus"
"Lab leak" could mean "accidental release of an engineered research virus".
"Lab leak" could mean "accidental release of a weaponized virus strain".
"Lab leak" could mean "intentional release of any one of the three aforementioned categories".
"Intentional release of a weaponized virus strain" represents one sixth of the possible scenarios that can be described as a "lab leak".
The other five don't necessitate the kind of response you're describing, so why are you instantly privileging the one case that you can discard and not engaging with the others?
birb_cromble
5d ago
I don't disagree with any of that.
The point I'm trying to make is that even if the Confederates were to try and disrupt Union supply lines, they'd be trying to interrupt those supply lines while Union troops were merrily burning down entire cities. They simply couldn't be in both places at once, and like you said, the Union could ignore the pain longer than any Confederate force could maintain the pressure. Sherman was not shy about pillaging the countryside, so supply chain interruptions would have been even less effective.
As for the guerilla warfare aspect, you're probably correct in the tidewater, but the battle of the Wilderness and... basically everything that happened in Kansas makes me think that a more ruthless Confederate approach probably would have had legs further inland. The Confederacy could have potentually maintained a rump government for several years.
birb_cromble
5d ago
Most historical accounts suggest that the segregated Colored Troops performed bravely and reasonably well, given their limited battlefield experience. Their high casualty rates seem to stem from how they were employed during battles, and a general take no quarter and ask none attitude between them and Confederate troops.
birb_cromble
5d ago
Highly recommend Gallagher's Union War and Confederate War on this question.
Seconding this. Great books.
American literature over-indexes on the fighting in the East. The truth is that the Western campaign was arguably the most decisive.
I've always thought that Vicksburg was probably the most important fight of the war. What's your take?
birb_cromble
5d ago
I'm not sure Fabian tactics would have worked. The Union's advantages in manpower and materiel were staggering. The combined northern military was roughly twice the size of the Confederate forces, and the Union hadn't dipped nearly as deeply into its conscription pool as the Confederates did.
Given the limited industrial base of the Southern states, Union generals could force engagements simply by targeting vital infrastructure and strategic cities, like they did during the historical war. At that point, Confederate generals would be forced to choose between engaging in a battle against a numerically superior and better equipped force, or lose more of their ability to make war with every passing day.
If you put a gun to my head and forced me to step into the time machine, my personal attempt to salvage the situation would probably depend on the date.
Starting the war 10-20 years earlier would negate a lot of the Union's advantages in manpower, industry, and logistics. It might not be enough, but it would be something. It would also offer enough time to stage a proper PR campaign against Northern insurgents like John Brown.
If I had to start on exactly the same date as Davis, I'd likely turn to guerilla actions as soon as possible. Border states like Maryland were already powder kegs. If the Northern war machine couldn't trust the civilian population from Harrisburg to Annapolis (either through organic discontent or agents provocateur), it would seriously limit their ability to move supplies and soldiers through one of the most important corridors of the fighting.
birb_cromble
6d ago
If I wanted to invest in nuclear, what topics would you suggest I start learning? I don't like to invest in single stocks when I don't have sufficient domain knowledge to make realistic assessments of the industry. Right now I'm only exposed second hand through XLU.
birb_cromble
6d ago
How are you getting that Korean news? Is it English translations or do you speak the language?
birb_cromble
6d ago
This post is a goldmine. Thanks!
birb_cromble
6d ago
It's been a lively week in finance news, so I'm going to do a little bit of a round up here.
Anthropic Delays its IPO to November, per the Wall Street Journal.
Does anyone know the cutoff date where Anthropic can no longer use Q2 financial data? I vaguely remember mid November for that date.
On a lighter note, Hunter Biden established a meme coin. Some early investors are calling it a rug pull.
How do meme coins even work? Every time I see them, I think it's just a casino. Am I right, or is there some intrinsic value I'm missing?
Saudi Aramco halts crude oil supply to European Customers
This seems... bad. I don't want to catastrophize or wax political, but various commenters here have noted that oil is a mostly-fungible global commodity. If the European market isn't able to get their crude from the Saudis, they're going to try to get it from somewhere, and that's going to take that oil off the market. How is that going to impact consumer markets? My heating oil bill has already quadrupled.
I'd go the other way, and positively reinforce the idea of putting things where they belong. This would have advantages ranging from reduced toddler deaths to fewer shopping cart-induced auto insurance claims.
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