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pusher_robot


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 23:45:12 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 278


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
By that logic do you hold the USA responsible for 9/11 as well?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I much prefer Iran doesn't get nukes, but to be contrarian, why should Europe care? Iran isn't threatening to nuke Berlin or Rome.




This is a luxury belief for people who think that global security is a default condition.  Europe doesn't have to care about the free flow of goods because the U.S. does it for them.  It baffles me that the same people currently panicking about the traversability of the Strait of Hormuz would be indifferent to chaos or autocracy in the middle east.  Is the supposition that, if the U.S. were to likewise walk away with "why should we care", peace and prosperity would flow unbounded?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Well I think this dispositive.  If it's 50/50 whether the USA is morally culpable for the atomic bombing of a country it was at total war with, who vowed to fight to the end, and who started the conflict with a surprise attack, I don't find it at all believable that the USA harming uninvolved countries in response to an attack by China would be blamed on China by more than the lizard-man constant.  I don't take any assignment of moral blame to the U.S. seriously because the U.S. is always held responsible for everything.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Interesting.  Who do you suppose most people blame for the atomic bombing of Japan?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


When it comes right down to it, America is the one who went in and started killing people and blowing things up.




Where was Europe's plan for preventing Iranian nuclearization?  Did they care at all or accept it as a fait accompli?




If America were actually in really serious trouble as a result of outside aggression, we would do what we could to help our ally if asked, and I hope the reverse is also true.




Nobody I know honestly believes this, or at best, believes "what we could do" would amount to fuck all.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
We are not burning your house down, but possibly we aren't going to put out the fire out of deference to you any more.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I suspect a lot of people are also disturbed by the process by which this was conducted. Previous significant renovations (construction of the East and West wings, Truman's renovation) were done in conjunction with Congress, paid for by the government.




I have a hard time seeing the zone of Congressional authority here: it's an executive action on executive property for the direct use of the executive.  Congress has the power of the purse, it doesn't and shouldn't have veto authority over every government activity.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Is there a consensus somewhere that the up/downvote is not a proxy agree/disagree?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It was not a science procedural, it was more of a techno-thriller set on the Moon.  It's my least favorite but I chalk that up more to taste than quality.  Andy Weir conceded in that CD interview that he probably made the main character a bit too much of an asshole.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Well if it's shortly before midnight, presumably absorption is minimal.  He would be wrong during the day though.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
RTA, perhaps this is a type of genre as an analogue to the police procedural, the science procedural, and I enjoy both.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Same. I bought The Martian back in the day, so I bought Artemis and Hail Mary shortly after release. Never imagined either one could be adapted to a movie.  Andy Weir definitely likes his protagonists to be a bit Reddit, but I dig his methodical, well-researched but creative plots and the characters are at least not one-dimensional. I watched that interview with Critical Drinker and it was actually quite interesting. He was pretty candid about his writing process and how the industry works.


ETA: Best-looking space movie since Interstellar at least, and more relatable characters. I really like a sci fi story where the moral is not about the hubris of man or the cruelty of the xenos.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Similar, 302.  Also lowest on the literary (26), and missed only one between both technical and computational.  I also only chose options I was reasonably confident in and did not guess at all.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
At a certain price level, self-insurance is rational


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
None of those things amount to a blockade, though.  If any country really wanted to send oil to Cuba, they can do so.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Once again, Wisconsin is leading the way.  Kidding aside, I really have come to appreciate the "bar as neighborhood rec room" that is very common here, as opposed to "bar as establishment/nightclub".  The music is lower, the drinks are reasonably priced, the popcorn is free, and you can chat with people, play some games, watch TV, or sit by the fire and read.  I appreciate as a singleton that there is no particular expectation that you provide your own company.


But I'm most likely to experience that feeling of complete ease and satisfaction, that I think is called Gemütlichkeit, at the beer garden.  In a rare moment of sanity, civic leaders have permitted operators to serve beer in the public parks (the parks getting a hefty slice of proceeds, natch), and the experience of sitting above a rolling river under a stand of towering old oaks, or the closer shelter of leafy maples, on a warm summer's afternoon, eating picnic food and quaffing a couple liters of fine lager over several hours - it's the closest thing to bliss that I can imagine.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 15, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You may want to check out Transport Fever 2 (soon to be 3).  It's made by Germans I think, who presumably thought that Railroad Tycoon was too simplistic.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 15, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
First thing to do if you haven't already is load the BIOS and reset the configuration.  Many enthusiast systems have performance setting options which will attempt to overclock various components, which usually works, but when it doesn't it can cause issues like what you describe. There should be an option to set everything back to normal or safe settings, which might fix the problem all by itself.


Second thing to do is try booting a recovery environment like https://www.system-rescue.org/.  If this is successful, you can try to mount the hard disk partitions to copy data to another drive or network share.  This won't work if the disk is encrypted, unfortunately.  You would be able to test the RAM though - it's one of the boot options on that image.  You could also run a few hardware tests, like copying the hard drive blocks to /dev/null to test for read errors.


Another tip that might help you is that if it's a standard ATX power supply, you can try scrounging one from just about any other standard PC.  The machine will need no more than around 100 watts just to boot up.  The high power requirements only really come into play when working the GPU and CPU hard.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I loved and still love Dredd for its absolutely relentless pacing, Verhoeven-levels of over-the-top action and gore, and its ability to play a fundamentally somewhat silly concept (from a comic book, after all) completely straight.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Our economic ideology is rooted in jealousy, and the jealous rise to the top to be crowned "billionaire".




No, the desire to create more wealth and power is not necessarily rooted in jealousy.  I don't go to work and save my money because I'm jealous of other people that have houses and cars.  I do it because I want these things for myself, independent of what other people do or don't do.  Because having those things is better than not having those things. That's a totally different motivation.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Is this soft power?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I disagree with this take. The natural human tendency will be to either invest it conservatively or spend it on lifestyle. For a person with that kind of wealth to plow ~100% of it on self-run high-risk, high-reward business ventures is actually quite rare and should be lauded.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
No you're not crazy. Not only is our GDP much larger now, we also spend much more of it on welfare than we used to. Yes, at levels that even approach western Europe. That doesn't prevent people from being jealous, though.  Even under hard core communism, the preternaturally jealous personality will covet the smallest things with equal resentment.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


But over all this time, I've kinda synthesized a superstructure that I don't think is gonna change, that I think is not on the left right axis, but on another mysterious plane: I'm jealous of china.




Any ideology rooted in jealousy is likely to be catastrophic in its application to society.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
And yet people voluntarily sign up to live on submarines for stretches at a time, under military rules and discipline, and with the knowledge that other people may try to deliberately kill them.  I think you are engaging in far too much typical-mind fallacy.


I also think that you would only need a relatively small cadre of pioneers to establish the core infrastructure that would enable building out more comfortable living for larger numbers of people.  Submarines are unusually cramped due to the tremendous forces needed to protect the low-pressure space.  Using cut-and-cover construction, building larger-volume spaces is fairly straightforward (and structurally easier than on Earth due to the lower gravity).