netstack
Texas is freedom land
No bio...
User ID: 647
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
We already had those, they were called TOW Missiles!
More seriously, I get the impression we are working on plenty of counter-UAS weapons. Military procurement is just slow.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
Agreed. To the point where you should probably spoiler-tag that last sentence. The catch is that those epilogues have completely different valence depending on the book.
So far, I’ve read Phlebas and Windward, Player, and Use. I’ve got copies of a couple later ones, and I’m consciously avoiding Excession.
My working theory is that the novels can be divided by whether Banks was using the Culture as a stand-in for American imperialism or American hegemony. The epilogues in “imperialism” books are awkward because it’s not like they were hiding their message. The ones in “hegemony” books work a little better, since they
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
I enjoyed it, but this was long enough ago that I can’t remember most of the plot beats. I don’t believe there was an obvious inflection point aside from the finale.
Contrast something like Worm, where I can comfortably say “push through the first arc!” Or “If you got to Leviathan and weren’t sold, it’s not for you.”
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
For what it’s worth, SQS does explicitly allow Culture War topics. It’s just a relaxation of the effort rules.
So there’s nothing wrong with this post, but also, it would totally qualify as a good CW top-level.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
I had this experience too! Sinus infections like clockwork every spring, awful green mucus, and a sense of head pressure that I never recognized until it was gone. And it wouldn't go away on its own.
Eventually I saw an ENT specialist who said something like "wow your turbinates are obstructing drainage, so whenever you get a cold, it triggers a sinus infection." No, I'm not sure how the pathology works. But the solution was a minor surgery to deflate two of those turbinates.
Point is, it's probably worth talking to a specialist.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
No…why would they be? I think a security relationship is basically a non-starter, and outside of that, Russia doesn’t really have anything to offer us.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
Not that I’m biased or anything, but it’ll probably be good for her. The opportunity to plow through multiple volumes of Potter probably has a lot to do with my later taste for chunky slabs of fantasy.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
Join the fucking club, I guess.
Explanation in the edit.
Man.
You keep doing this thing, this complete disregard for the spirit and letter of the rules, and we keep letting it slide. You’ve been an articulate and passionate and interesting commenter. But now when I see your name in a thread I know exactly what I’m going to get.
One month ban.
Edit: fuck me, this is what I get for modding on my way out of work. I read this as a straightforward attack on the general category of feminists as “hollowed out p-zombies” who “aren’t capable of consent.” And I thought, Jesus Christ, this is the clearest possible violation of the Specific Groups rule and the general proscription on Booing the Outgroup. I could write up a detailed explanation, or I could assume that he and any observers would recognize the same old fight as always.
We have been politely asking you to stop tarring all leftists/Democrats/Californians/NGOs/women with the same brush for literal years. And every time, you insist that no, you’re just speaking truth to power! Surely there can be no transgressing against people who want to MUTILATE and STERILIZE your kids!
I have so much respect for you as a writer, a craftsman, a father. You’re smart and you’re damn funny. You also have this pathological urge to tell everyone about how evil the other team has been lately. And that comes into direct conflict with the Specific Groups, Outgroup Booing, Antagonism, and occasionally Evidence rules. A lesser poster would have earned a permaban several times over.
I banned you for a month because the last one was two weeks and I saw this as more of the same. Now all sorts of pillars of the community are popping in to tell me it was a bad shoot. There’s also the fact that Amadan thinks I was too harsh; you were only “pretty close” to generalizing about all lefties/feminists.
So…did I get you wrong?
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
I’m sorry for being so snide. Maybe I was wrong to imply that you’re only applying this standard to your political enemies.
I remain frustrated by the number of people who have watched Trump cheerfully trample the commons and loot the (figurative) treasury only to insist that it’s fine, since he hasn’t yet gotten what he wants. He can set up his own sinecures as long as he dismantles a few of the existing ones. He can pardon his own buddies, because that’s just how the game is played. He can siphon money and reveal state secrets and purge his opponents and offend whomever he chooses, and it’s fine, because at least he’s hurting the right people.
But when anyone on the other team is revealed to have engaged in such shocking behavior, oh, the knives come out.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
Which is exactly why I’m so frustrated by this sort of performative shock. It’s an isolated demand for rigor.
I am definitely not accusing you of anything like this; you’re one of the most consistent, evidence-driven users I know.
I’m seeing 53M here and 60M here. Not much info on methodology. Wikipedia’s higher numbers are supposedly based on more accurate research from after the fall of the Iron Curtain, but I wasn’t able to find an actual paper dealing with more than one country at a time. So your numbers there are plausible.
Is it possible that @johnfabian was using a statistic that included wounded? Those would still count as casualties.
I do think the Mao numbers are on the high side. Here and here are articles with significantly lower numbers for the Great Famine despite no friendliness towards Mao. 40M is given as the upper bound.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
Let me know when you have such a shocking realization about anyone you actually liked.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
The usual rules about specific groups, outgroup-booing, and heat vs. light still apply. Even when you really don’t like the people involved.
Given the number of times you’ve been warned or banned for more or less the same thing, this shouldn’t be news to you. On the other hand, you keep doing interesting stuff when you can keep the vitriol in check.
One month ban, then.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
Sorry. I think there’s two parts: “an enormous propaganda machine” and “manufacturing public opinion.”
I concede that the NYT has agency, sells a narrative, and thus counts as a propaganda machine. At the same time, I don’t believe it qualifies as the propaganda machine, because I don’t think it actually manufactures much at all.
I think both the NYT and Reddit comments are explained by convergent evolution. They share enough assumptions that, when asked for an opinion on anything, they come up with something pretty similar. Same for the other left-leaning outlets. Same for the largely separate cluster of assumptions on the other side of the Culture War.
Steve used Reddit comments as evidence for the propaganda machine. Under this model, that doesn’t really hold, because I’d expect similar comments even in a vacuum. That’s why I assumed Jesweez was acting in good faith.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
This isn’t fun at all! But it is unsettling, and I do think it’s relevant to the AI discussion going on here.
I hate that most such conversations immediately devolve into thought-terminating cliches. Why have a serious argument when one can just accuse people of liking “slop”? But I hate the idea of an endless bot circlejerk more. This article is a pretty tasteful way of describing the discomfort without sounding like a Luddite.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
Please do. I’ve got it on my shelf for once I finish the current crop.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
I always assumed that was the kind of stuff he had in his desk at Mar-a-Lago.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
What’s the “everything else”? I use Schwab ever since they absorbed TD Ameritrade (or at least its app?) and I haven’t noticed much difference. But then, I’m doing pretty boring buy-and-hold.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
Reddit’s gonna Reddit whether or not the NYT posts that kind of article. I think this is because they have the same incentives pushing them into a particular line on any given CW topic. Maybe this is the prospiracy vs conspiracy model?
The point is that my model makes similar predictions, so I assume they were being genuine. If Steve doesn’t, why?
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
Use your words, please.
Even saying "I think this is a ridiculous hyperbole" would save us from playing a game of charades. Bonus points if you also explain why.
I tried to get naraburns to ban me once for a gag, but it didn’t seem to take.
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