netstack
Texas is freedom land
No bio...
User ID: 647
netstack
Texas is freedom land
25d ago
Jessica’s internal monologue definitely says she did it for Leto in the book. Weird change to make.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
25d ago
And that’s what the Fun Thread is all about.
Re: Fremen hideouts, yeah, the people of the future hate recon. Or rather they rely on satellites, which the planetologist subverted by bribing the Spacing Guild. Everything on the north half had to be camouflaged, but the south definitely had open-air operations.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
25d ago
I don’t believe we’ve modded anyone for the reverse sentiment, though it’s possible I missed something.
If more people thought like me, it's entirely possible that this war would not have happened.
How do you mean? I expect Russia would have more incentive to invade, not less, if they foresaw no Western opposition.
blank check
If we were talking about Patriot Acts and boots on the ground, maybe. But spending money on munitions is like…our comparative advantage. It’s making a slightly larger fraction of GDP go towards geopolitical goals. I think we’re still getting a decent return on investment.
Yes, more people are dying than would if we washed our hands of it, and I wish they weren’t. But how much of the culpability falls on us rather than on the conscriptors, let alone the invaders?
I would take your “Mistakes were Made” bet, because I don’t expect this to escalate in the ways you’re thinking. Russia is probably going to win out as Ukraine collapses. I will admit that I was wrong—and lobby my Congressman against it, etc.—if America considers more direct intervention.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
24d ago
Russia chose this, thinking that Ukrainians would pay most of the human and financial cost. By supporting Ukraine, we are moving more of that cost onto Russia, the aggressor. I believe this is more moral than caving to threats.
This is mainly true insofar as Ukraine is willing to resist. If, as increased conscription suggests, they are losing their willingness to fight and die, we should defer. But for now, we have no moral duty to make the Ukrainian people surrender.
What explicit U.S. policy choices are you thinking about? Do any of them outweigh Russia’s explicit choice to invade? From where I’m standing, their right to respond to provocation is strictly weaker than Ukraine’s right to self-determination.
Ukraine loses at some point in the next couple years, leaving Russia with a pyrrhic victory, a poorer and less-stable country, and cemented as an explicit enemy of the US for the next few decades at least.
I think this is the most likely outcome, and it is a tragic one. I also don’t think it will be remembered as an Iraq-style Mistake. We’re not committing ourselves to nation-building or occupation; the check isn’t blank.
More importantly, I find this tragedy preferable to the one where Russia rolls in and shoots a few thousand Ukrainian troops before declaring “mission accomplished!” All the better options were taken off the table, and not by us.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
24d ago
That’s stupid. No, worse—it’s a bailey, an attempt to distance white nationalism from the poor optics of boots meeting necks.
Civic nationalism pretends race-blindness right until it comes time to judge whether someone is capable of meeting this nebulous standard. And what do you know, suddenly it’s time to fall back on population statistics and half-assed sociology. How convenient it is to use skin color as a proxy!
netstack
Texas is freedom land
24d ago
in a long time
Really? I get that it’s the U.K., but I’m skeptical that the state is getting too cozy with any particular religion.
This looks like the right decision.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
24d ago
My naive guess would be mostly wages. None of the post-70s technology has really mitigated the need for a bunch of men to stand around in the sun and lift heavy objects. The same forces which push of cost of living up mean those guys won’t do it for $7.50/hr.
Is there a worker supply shock after fifteen years of collapsed demand? That is enough time for a good number to think about getting out of the business.
If an economist told me permitting or materials costs had ballooned since 2008, I’d believe that too, I suppose.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
23d ago
I’m placing my bets on incompetence. Is this really different than Oblivion’s potato faces? I understanding is that was an outsourcing problem. Something about FaceGen.
Really, this comes down to whether you think Niantic could culture-war their way out of a paper bag.
If what you say about locked accessories is true, this was probably seen as the cheapest way to double the number of custom options available to each player.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
23d ago
It’s possible. The elements are present, and I can’t say I’ll be surprised if there turns out to be a press release condemning the transphobic userbase, or whatever.
I find it more likely that this is a lazy solution to technical debt or to giving players “more” by reusing assets. That’s the kind of mundane blunder that happens all the time, San Fran or not.
I work for a defense contractor halfway across the country. We’ve got a DEI statement or three on our website! But if we ended up in the news for making ugly software, let alone an ugly plane, there would be a dozen reasons I’d suspect before asking if it was done to promote idpol. There’s just…so many other considerations.
That Twitter account says Niantic hired a DEI training company, and also that they’re in San Francisco. Neither of those things is enough to explain screwing up your flagship product! Perhaps there’s a simpler explanation?
But he’s also making it his job to piss people off. If there’s a reasonable explanation, you’re not going to hear it from him.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
23d ago
Hey! Morrowind’s faces were…uh…they were definitely the best part of the character models.
Point taken. I agree that it’s plausible, I’m more like 70-30 against. Maybe 60-40, at this point.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
22d ago
Is it a version of Bartle's 4 types of MUD players?
netstack
Texas is freedom land
22d ago
Anyone else going to be at the Dallas SSC meetup this weekend?
netstack
Texas is freedom land
20d ago
More effort (and, perhaps, tact) than this, please.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
20d ago
KBJ
Whenever the Motte discusses a court case, a few people always make sure to drop a note about how she's not very impressive and/or a partisan hack. So I assume she's doing more or less the same thing as every other justice.
For what it's worth, I felt the same way about Barrett, mostly on the weirdness of her concurrence in the Colorado judgment. Looking back on other opinions, though, she seems perfectly fine. Kavanaugh's been a pleasant surprise too. Turns out even getting consideration for the top job in the profession is a pretty good filter.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
19d ago
Burning Wheel, a roleplaying game manual. It’s incredibly pretentious. At the same time, though, there’s legitimately a lot of good material there? Notes about common pitfalls from RPGs. Systems which look like commentary on familiar games. I get the impression that this was created after a lot of long forum arguments and table experience.
Whether that actually makes a functional game…I’m not sure. There are lots of play-examples, but I’ve never heard of any random person playing it. The provided setting is an archetypal fantasy world which works fine to contextualize the rules, but leaves me cold. Burning Empires is better on that front.
Then again, I don’t usually play games like these. The theory is more fun than the practice. Which makes experimental, abstract books like this one more appropriate.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
19d ago
Ken state
The Barbie movie has left a lasting impression on our cultural consciousness.
In all seriousness, I don’t think protests have to have direct efficacy. The important thing is when people in power think about aiding Palestine/Israel, they think “people care enough about this to push the envelope of speech.” It’s literally about sending the message.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
19d ago
Something like that…maybe. Evidence: the number of alternate topics in this thread.
Calling it class interest or even a cohesive demand is a bit much, though. It’s not the same people protesting every time. I’d say there’s a background temperature of discontent which, this week, happened to be hottest around Columbia. Even if we had known that Iran’s launch would blow over, we could never have predicted that this was going to top the leaderboard for today.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
18d ago
By whom?
I'm sure you can find any number of groups who are proud to participate. I don't think any of them deserve much credit.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
18d ago
Hold on.
Are you suggesting Arab suffering is a means to some end? Or is it the goal?
netstack
Texas is freedom land
18d ago
How old are you, roughly speaking?
Because this was famously, visibly effective in a few historical situations. The Civil Rights movement is in living memory.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
18d ago
Then how do you know it exists?
The bailey, I mean, where these discord servers somehow distinguish their members from "a mob of dissatisfied individuals." Anyone can give out an email address. That puts them roughly on par with a local HOA. Scary.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
18d ago
Interesting.
I could see US protests operating the same way, but I don’t really have any statistics. @gattsuru gave examples of larger groups which would credibly show up at, or at least contact the organizers of, protests across the country. Even though we’re much larger than the UK, a core of protest enthusiasts could be doing that.
Twitter delenda est.
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