erwgv3g34
My Quality Contributions:
User ID: 240
erwgv3g34
13d ago
Most guys want tits and ass, big as can be
It's more complicated than that. Men want curves, yes, but we also want thinness. What we are actually trying to maximize is something like the breast to waist ratio. Which is why images like this are a male superstimulus.
That's a good point. She aged very quickly during the first couple of movies, and by Prisoner of Azkaban basically looks the same way she will look as an adult, whereas before she looked more cute and innocent.
You know what? So long as we're dropping HP hot takes here, I might as well say it; Philosopher's Stone Pansy Parkinson is insanely hot. Totally mogs Philosopher's Stone Emma Watson, and pretty much any other actress in the series except maybe Order of the Phoenix Evanna Lynch.
erwgv3g34
14d ago
Yes, thank you! I'd personally put the peak a little later than you (16 rather than 13, to give more time for breasts and hips to develop, which is not to say that 13-year-old girls are unattractive) but it is ridiculous the we are all forced to pretend that a woman's attractiveness peaks in her twenties. No, that's bullshit. Doubly so because, by then, there is a negligible chance that she is still a virgin, and virginity is in one of the things men are most attracted to.
I'd much rather marry the 13-year-old Emma Watson, who is going to grow up into the 16-year-old Emma Watson anyway, than a 25-year-old Emma Watson. More fertility-years and attraction-years that way, and more chance (which is to say any chance) of a hymen.
From "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words" by Paul Roberts:
CALL A FOOL A FOOL
Some of the padding in freshman themes is to be blamed not on anxiety about the word minimum but on excessive timidity. The student writes, “In my opinion, the principal of my high school acted in ways that I believe every unbiased person would have to call foolish.” This isn't exactly what he means. What he means is, “My high school principal was a fool.” If he was a fool, call him a fool. Hedging the thing about with “in-my-opinion's” and “it-seems-to-me's” and “as-I-see-it's” and “at-least-from-my-point-of-view's” gains you nothing. Delete these phrases whenever they creep into your paper.
And from "Rationality and the English Language" by Eliezer Yudkowsky:
If you really want an artist’s perspective on rationality, then read Orwell; he is mandatory reading for rationalists as well as authors. Orwell was not a scientist, but a writer; his tools were not numbers, but words; his adversary was not Nature, but human evil. If you wish to imprison people for years without trial, you must think of some other way to say it than “I’m going to imprison Mr. Jennings for years without trial.” You must muddy the listener’s thinking, prevent clear images from outraging conscience. You say, “Unreliable elements were subjected to an alternative justice process.”
One of the worst things about The Motte is how the moderation pushes people into writing verbose, obfuscated, bloodless posts in order to avoid getting punished for being uncivil or writing a low-effort post. Words words words should not be a requirement of a good comment.
erwgv3g34
14d ago
A poetry reciting orc isn't so strange, they may be crude, but they are still intelligent beings with cultures of their own, they even come up with and sing songs.
Missed opportunity to link to the biggest banger in Middle-earth.
Nobody is going to be clamoring for this once you say the word "nuclear". People are terrified of nuclear power; they think every plant is a Chernobyl waiting to happen.
erwgv3g34
15d ago
Strong disagree. The Harry Potter movies are AWFUL. They are like a highlights reel of all the books' best action and dramatic moments (or entirely invented action and dramatic moments, like the burning of the Burrow) without any of the plot threads or character development that actually make those moments MEAN something. They are impossible to follow if you have never read the novels.
Only the first two are good, precisely because they stick close to the source material.
erwgv3g34
15d ago
There was already a perfectly good Hobbit movie; there was no need for another one.
But, of course, the Lord of the Rings trilogy made a billion dollars each, and asking Hollywood not to make a sequel to a commercially successful film is like asking the scorpion not to sting.
HBD is not just about intelligence. And, no, I don't mean distance running or altitude breathing; I mean other mental traits.
Intelligence is easy mode, both because we have a test to measure it (IQ testing is the single most successful result in psychology) and because it is easy to say that someone should not be penalized just for being born dumb if they are morally praiseworthy in other areas; that the kind, hardworking janitor still deserves respect and a good life even if he still counts on his fingers. That is, indeed, a core socialist argument for why CEOs should not get paid much more than unskilled labor.
Bur, of course, HBD is also about conscientiousness (or executive function, or grit, or whatever the hell they are calling it now), and propensity to violence, and time preference, and so on. It's another thing entirely to say that a lazy, violent janitor deserves the same good life and social admiration as a CEO. But the shape of the argument is exactly the same. Therefore, proves too much.
erwgv3g34
18d ago
When has a young biological woman ever carried out a cold blooded mass-murder style school shooting with a "military-style" weapon?
Does Cleveland Elementary count? The Ruger 10/22 has seen limited use with the IDF for policing the State of Palestine.
erwgv3g34
18d ago
Agreed. Claude Opus 4.6 is the GOAT; everything since then has been a downgrade.
Well, OK, Fable 5 is better for non-censored stuff, but that's not a fair fight; Fable is in a higher weight class than Opus (literally).
erwgv3g34
19d ago
You really can't conclude anything from trying the free tiers. The difference between Sonnet and Fable is like the difference between a random Baen milSF novel and Ender's Game or Starship Troopers.
Never has the saying "you get what you pay for" been more true than with AI.
If you go around feeling bad each time you manage to kill an enemy soldier, you will never win the war. Bryan Caplan's missing mood is just not realistic human psychology.
erwgv3g34
22d ago
You're right. That bit of evopsych wouldn't have fit an /r/rational review, but I should have mentioned it here.
A lot of people think the girls are stupid for climbing the tower in the first place, but I'd file that under "the utility function is not up for grabs". Like I said, they are adrenaline junkies; they think life has no meaning unless you are willing to risk it all.
Everything that happens after they get trapped is the opposite of a coffee moment.
Cross-posted from /r/rational:
Fall (2022 Film): When two best friends who climb a 2,000-foot-tall television broadcasting tower become stranded at the top, it is up to them to think of a way out.
Holy shit.
When I put on Fall this afternoon, I was expecting another random Netflix movie; low-budget, second screen dialogue, ham-fisted politics, etc. But it was about to leave the platform, and I've always been a sucker for stories about characters trapped in a survival situation, so I decided to give it a chance. I was not expecting... this.
The movie begins with a trio of adrenaline junkies climbing a cliff. They consist of married couple Dan and Becky and their friend Hunter. Unfortunately, Dan has an accident and falls to his death. A year later, Becky is an alcoholic mess, still unable to deal with Dan's passing. Hunter, who has since become a YouTuber, persuades Becky to climb an abandoned television tower with her and spread Dan's ashes as a way of moving on. Inevitably, things go wrong, and the girls get stuck on top of the antenna. It is now up to them to find a way out before they succumb to thirst, hunger, exposure, wildlife, or simply fall off the edge.
Okay, so right off the bat I was impressed by the way the girls reacted to their predicament like level 1 intelligent characters. They remain calm, or at least as calm as they can realistically be under the circumstances, and they keep looking for ways out. They don't break down crying or get into emotional fights or throw down precious resources in a fit of rage to create a dramatic moment. This already makes them better than most Hollywood movies.
But what made me post this on /r/rational proper instead of the Monday Recommendation Thread is when the characters started solving problems with previously foreshadowed materials and mechanics. Not just things that were mentioned once briefly, but things that were mentioned over and over again or were given prominent focus. For example, Hunter's push-up bra is brought up early, and her huge tits take up a lot of screen time, but it is not just fanservice;
On top of that, they are fucking awesome. Hunter is great from the beginning, encouraging Becky to get out of her funk and doing crazy stunts like hanging off from the tower's platform one-handed. Once things get serious, she is the one doing risky maneuvers to increase their chances of survival, like
And then there is all the other things. The dialogue is very strong, naturalistic and witty; no second screen here. The girls had great chemistry, to the point where I kept wondering if they were going to lez out. The background shots are gorgeous, with luscious visuals from 2000 feet in the air. The film has a great sense of tension; it's basically r/SweatyPalms: The Movie. And the music was just right, from the diegetic cellphone videos to the credit sequence.
Flaws? The twist that
TL;DR: This movie is fucking awesome and you should watch it immediately before it leaves Netflix.
Other movies I have watched recently:
The Last House (2026): Again, I have a weakness for isolated survival movies. But this one was a disappointment. I couldn't take the disaster seriously (everyone is locked up inside by magic rain), a lot of the survival stuff is opaque (like the building of traps and weapons), and the ending displays the worst tendencies @KulakRevolt called out in "Hollywood Anti-Justice: The Morality of Modern Depravity". At least the CGI was decent. Only reason to watch this film is if you are into WMAF couples (with children, even!).
Labyrinth (1986): Watched this one more because it was an old fantasy movie than for any other reason. Huge letdown. The special effects mostly hold up (except the battle against the robot gate guard, which seems to happen in slow motion) but the writing is atrocious. The supernatural elements get introduced with no buildup, the protagonist is an annoying brat who does nothing to make me root for her, there are no rules which means anything can happen which means I have no reason to care what happens (at one point, the Goblin King alters his own arbitrary deadline!), etc. The most interesting thing to appear onscreen is a basic-bitch knights and knaves puzzle. Maybe if I was a tween girl who could shlick to David Bowie's enormous package I would have enjoyed it more, but I'm not.
erwgv3g34
23d ago
The Mormons are not Red Tribe. From "I Can Tolerate Anything except the Outgroup":
The Red Tribe is most classically typified by conservative political beliefs, strong evangelical religious beliefs, creationism, opposing gay marriage, owning guns, eating steak, drinking Coca-Cola, driving SUVs, watching lots of TV, enjoying American football, getting conspicuously upset about terrorists and commies, marrying early, divorcing early, shouting “USA IS NUMBER ONE!!!”, and listening to country music.
Does that sound like a Mormon to you?
Funny you should mention Evelyn Carnahan. I was browsing the top posts in the sub when I came across "What is 'Romance for Men?' Go Watch 'The Mummy Returns'". And my immediate reaction to that title was "this is obviously bullshit, but I'm going to take a look just to see the argument". So I started reading and... turns out, it wasn't bullshit. By the time I was finished, the guy had convinced me; The Mummy Returns is an /r/Romance_For_Men GOAT.
Well, man, don't hold out; what field was this? I'm sure there are plenty of us here that would love to hear about a career where an IQ test is the major barrier to entry!
erwgv3g34
23d ago
Dude, get a blog. Or a diary. Or a journal. Or literally anything other than dumping random vignettes about your life in the latest weekly thread. How is this not a violation of the rules?
Reddit was very much grey tribe libertarian in its early days. As late as 2012, people were voting for Ron Paul, /r/atheism was huge, etc. Back then, Reddit was a bastion of free speech, with subreddits like /r/FatPeopleHate that would not last five minutes today being allowed to operate in peace. One hundred AR-15s were engraved with the Reddit logo as part of a licensing deal, but then the New York Times did a hit piece and /r/Gunsforsale got banned.
As for WordPress, the original Heartiste blog was hosted there until 2019. Heartiste was one of the big three of the manosphere. The banning spooked Spandrell into moving elsewhere.
"Biblical Monsters" is pretty good. Same author also wrote "The Writing on the Wall", which is an incredible bit of rational horror.
I think my favorite first contact ponyfic is Message in a Bottle, which is basically Greg Egan meets John Ringo (meets Lauren Faust).
erwgv3g34
24d ago
Oh, so a total extermination class war is perfectly fine, but a total extermination race war is suddenly "Whoa, not so fast, bucko!".
Let them die. We don't need right-wing colleges, we need to destroy college as an institution. The idea that everyone should spend one fourth of their life in school is fucking mental.
From "Against Tulip Subsidies" by Scott Alexaner:
If I were Sanders, I’d propose a different strategy. Make “college degree” a protected characteristic, like race and religion and sexuality. If you’re not allowed to ask a job candidate whether they’re gay, you’re not allowed to ask them whether they’re a college graduate or not. You can give them all sorts of examinations, you can ask them their high school grades and SAT scores, you can ask their work history, but if you ask them if they have a degree then that’s illegal class-based discrimination and you’re going to jail. I realize this is a blatant violation of my usual semi-libertarian principles, but at this point I don’t care.
From "You wake up on the morning on the 20th of January to find that you are now Donald Trump, on the day of your inauguration as president." by the same:
Declare War On College. Forgive all existing student loans, then refuse to give out any new ones. Prohibit the government from asking about college degree when hiring new employees, and put pressure on private industry to follow suit for any position less absolutely-requiring-of-specialized-knowledge than doctor or engineer. Increase government loans to boot camps, online courses, et cetera.
And from "A Modest Proposal For Republicans: Use The Word "Class"", idem:
War On College: As it currently exists, college is a scheme for laundering and perpetuating class advantage. You need to make the case that bogus degree requirements (eg someone without a college degree can't be a sales manager at X big company, but somebody with any degree, even Art History or Literature, can) are blatantly classist. Your stretch goal should be to ban discrimination based on college degree status. Professions may continue to accept professional school degrees (eg hospitals can continue to require doctors have a medical school degree), and any company may test their employees' knowledge (eg mining companies can make their geologists pass a geology test) but the thing where you have to get into a good college, give them $100,000, flatter your professors a bit, and end up with a History degree before you can be a firefighter or whatever is illegal. If you can't actually make degree discrimination illegal, just make all government offices and companies that do business with the government ban degree discrimination.
Stop the thing where high schools refuse to let people graduate until they promise to go to college. End draft deferment for people who go to college - hopefully there won't be a draft, but do it anyway, as a sign that studying at college isn't any more important than the many other jobs people do that don't confer draft exemptions. Make universities no longer tax-exempt - why should institutions serving primarily rich people, providing them with regattas and musical theater, and raking in billions of dollars a year, not have to pay taxes? Make the bill that does this very clearly earmark the extra tax money for things that help working-class people, like infrastructure or vocational schools or whatever."
Been loving this show. Banger opening, with lots of references for cinephiles. Pretty unique; you don't often see an anime like this (closest would be Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt or Tokyo Godfathers). Yani Neko reminds me of my sister (I hate my sister). Most people think best girl is either Yaku Neko or Kansai, but I disagree; best girl is clearly Hame Neko (DFC, certified virgin, gamer girl, only problems are bladder control and anger issues which is pretty mild compared to most of the cast). And, yes, watching it with the rest of the internet as it gets released has been a trip; I guess that's why people prefer consuming new media?
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