Non-mediterranean western food sucks. That's well known. The French are single handedly keeping the reputation up, but French lunch/dinner doesn't make it to Tier 1. Amazing desserts and baked items though.
Spanish is honestly quite underrated. Maybe I've just been lucky, but all my best meals have been in Spain. Contemporary Spanish blends Northern African & Latin American with existing Spanish food, to give you the best cuisine. The spanish can do preserved foods, meats, rice dishes, spicy food, everything.
(Note: Must be food food. Breakfast (bakery foods) & Dessert do not count. Alcohol only counts if part of the meal itself. )
My personal ranking goes (in order):
Tier 1
- Spanish (Plus colonies which are primarily ethnic Spanish. Ie. If you killed ALL the natives, then you Spanish)
- Thai
- Indian (South Asian generally. I might be underrating because I want to avoid personal bias)
- Chinese (All Ethnic chinese food.)
Tier 1.5
- Mexican
- Japanese
- Korean
Tier 2
- French
- Vietnamese
- Brazil
- Peru
- Levant / North African
- Ethiopian
- Italy
Tier dunno much but probably good
- Indonesian / Malay (These are probably tier 1.5)
- Iranian (Too similar to Levant / Parsi-Indian to differentiate. Same for Afghani)
- West African (Maafe and Jollof is good)
- Greek / Turkish (I don't like octopus that much. Turkish breakfast is great, but rest is alright)
Tier bad
- British
- Scandinavian
Everything else is mid.
fartVader
6d ago
Might not be the best place top post this, but is anyone going to do an effort post on the Indian election ? The most electrifying 'nothing happened' that I've seen in a long time.
For those who are from the outside looking in, I strongly recommend checking out Shekhar Gupta's segments on ThePrint - 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=7wdKaM3ePz8' . He sits squarely in the center (American Center, would be considered Libertarian/ lib-right in India), but is old enough to stop giving fucks. I have been reading his work since about 10 years old, and I can vouch for his credibility.
The most interesting tl,drs for me are :
- The Congress commands incredible default votes, and had been losing millions of votes each time Rahul Gandhi spoke. This time he shut up, and the Congress recovered
- The Indian elections are intact. We've called it the world's biggest and fairest elections. And the results have maintained the sanctity of that claim
- Modi wins but is weaker = dependent on coalition partners
- Modi sidelined Yogi and lost huge ground in UP - Modi/Shah narcissism hurt them. We might see some ugly internal Shah vs Yogi dogfighting in the last few years.
- Modi destroyed the party structure in Maharashtra, and lost huge ground there - Modi/Shah narcisissm hurt them
- Chandra babu Naidu will have insane leverage. Similar to the NDP in Canada.
- Indian voters cannot be permanently polarized. Caste, Regionalism, Religion & Economics will continue to be active threads and Modi's attempts to use Religion as the main exclusive polarizer ran out of steam this time.
fartVader
19d ago
While we are at it, can we also have a 'are you sure you want to leave' pop-up if we have an incomplete comment ? I have lost one too many drafts to a suspended tab or accidental closure.
fartVader
19d ago
Anchor babies, birthright citizenship, all of that must go.
This shows a shallow understanding of the US immigration system.
Here are the common ways you can get a visa -> green card -> citizenship:
- Illegal immigration -> anchor baby -> wait 25 years -> Green card (400k? closest thing to stats)
- Refugees (150k/yr) (relatively low by historic standards)
- Lottery (50k/yr) (constant number since 1995.)
- High skilled visas -> green card (Green card sponsorship is rare unless you're making 6 figures) (300k/year)
- Marriage and minor dependents (600k/yr)
So which of these do you disapprove of, how much lower should each of them be ?
No one likes illegal immigration, so that's a moot point. The rest seem to be more so about identifying legitimate cause (actual marraige, real refugees, real need for immigrant labor) than the nature of the visa itself.
fartVader
20d ago
Perfect description of ADHD medication. I havent had the headaches, but the positives effects are very similar.
fartVader
20d ago
Yep. I got prescribed vyvanse (the slow release stuff) and that too a small-ish? dose (20mg)..... and the difference was life changing.
The first day, I cried simply because I could stop speaking, an elementary school level skill that I'd never developed.
My working memory didnt get flooded with surrounding distractions. Instead I could listen, and maintain a response in my head for the right moment.
I can do work now !! Thats instead of sitting at the table hoping 'attention comes', which inevitably didnt happen till 11pm at night.
Every person close to me has noticed a difference.
1 year in, I havent noticed any side effects. I am careful enough not to take it on meeting days or holidays. So vacation serves as a good refresh.
To be fair, i lived most my life without the meds, and have managed to be moderately successful by abusing sleep and and being in a cycle of constant exploit-burnout-vacation. So maybe my lack of dependence is a result of knowing how to be normal when not on it.
fartVader
23d ago
Tesla model 3 supply is piling up, so discounts should start coming through anytime now. If you're in a state/county with credits, then a Tesla model 3/Y ends up being pretty cheap for the car you're getting.
Is maintenance a nightmare
There is no maintenence unless you get into a lot of accidents. (I don't mean this passive aggressively, just a numbers thing. You know your stats). If you get into accdeints, then fixes are admittedly expensive.
How do they hold up to wear and tear?
Well enough. Teslas are known to have wierd manufacturing defects, but they're more often cosmetic than something that degrades over time.
If you are set on buying an EV, then I would recommend a Tesla purely for the charging network and the ease of availing credits. Every other EV is a pain in the ass to charge.
The model Y seems to strike the best balane of space, price, credits and convienence - https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/electric-cars-plug-in-hybrids-that-qualify-for-tax-credits-a7820795671/ . I am personally a small car guy and would buy a Mazda 3 turbo hatchback, but that's just me.
It's an exaggeration, but is generally indicative of the main types of crime.
It's hard to find statistics by country of origin, but UK does have numbers by religion. Hindus are easily the least violent group, commiting 4x less crime than the base population. Sikhs are at par with the average British person and Muslims commit 3x as many crimes.
These numbers are less perfect, but 0.2% of the US prison population was Hindu, while making up 1%+ of the population. Similarly in Australia, Indians make up 2.8% of the population, but 0.4% of the imprisoned cohort. In Canada, Hindus make up 0.2% of the prison population, while Sikhs make up 0.7% and Muslims make up 6%!!. For reference, hindus and sikhs are about 2.5% of the Canadian population each, and muslims are about 5% of the population. Prison chaplains consider Hindus to be the least extremist group.
The statistics are very clear. Hindus are the most peaceful immigrant diaspora and by quite some margin.
P.S: I don't consider most Sikhs to be violent just as I don't consider most Italians or Japanese to be violent. Just because your ethnicity runs a major mafia org, doesn't mean that the majority ever interacts with it. A small minority of people jack up the statistics and give the community a bad name.
I do think Pakistani child grooming gangs are a deeply rooted problem that the rest of us 'subcontinentals' do not wish to be associated with. It's their problem. Let them have it.
fartVader
23d ago
Looks like some subcontinentals tried to sneak into an Egyptian womens dorm and the Egyptian men drove them out
Do you have any source for that claim? I have tried looking, and found nothing that indicated this. What I could find makes it sound Egyptians got into a fued with Krygyz men, and some how Pakistanis got involved. That morphed into a large anti-foreigner sentiment at large, affecting Egyptians, Indians and Pakistanis as a whole.
The last place happy to accept subcontinentals
"Subcontinentals" is a contrived grouping. India-Pakistan have diverged just as South Korea - North Korea or Turkmenistan-Northern Afghanistan have diverged. The term doesn't provide resolution, is a mouthful and obfuscates for no good reason.
Every international story of brown people & crime involves one of 3 scenarios.
- Pakistani-muslim child molestation rings or terrorism threats.
- Sikh crime syndicates born from expelled sikhs (wanted terrorists in India) who were naively given refuge by foreign nations.
- Internal crime because of innocent tourists travelling through the Bihar, UP, Jharkhand (with sub-saharan HDI and only somewhat safer than that part of t world) corridor alone.
soon would just be the UK and USA.
I am not as pessimistic. SEA, Australia & the Gulf have seen no changes in their welcoming-ness towards Indians. East-Asians are as xenophobic as ever. And Europe remains non-commital as ever. If anything, Europe is becoming more welcoming to high skill immigrants, opening new doors for Indians to enter through.
Canada has changed tunes. But honestly, Canada's open door policy was long overdue for a change anyways. Even Indian themselves were confused at how welcoming Canada was of our local rejects. Ukraine and Central Europe have seen conflict, but those are all medicore medical students who want to come back to India anyway. I don't expect there to be any real impact there.
Eventually, India will need to self-sufficient. The country needs to take charge of developing its HDI, re-civilizing the 'subsaharan zone' and derive its sense of identity through internal achievements, and not external validation. The painful path towards it has begun, but it is still a long ways away.
fartVader
27d ago
Fair enough. But towns like Edison NJ, Redmond WA, Sunnyvale CA & Fremont CA sit on a whole another tier. (afaik)
nice place with good schools
The schools are good because the people are rich and the residents are hard working. If the schools are to stay good, it makes sense that newest generation of rich and hard working people are moving in.
good schools is 10x in prices
Nimbyism strikes again. Enough place for everyone, but SFHs screw everyone over. Especially true in places like OC and SD, where the populations could 5x without space being an issue.
fartVader
27d ago
I understand your concern, but look at it in context.
infested with Indian and Chinese tech workers
I said that
Indian or Chinese, bay-area tech workers
and I am one of them (though I wanna leave the bay area asap)
It is a phrasing we use among ourselves all the time. It is easy to be self-deprecating when you're making bank.
this seems to be a place where it's ok to call an immigrant group an infestation
Yes, I can call my own group of people whatever I want. I was being edgy, sure. But, you're making quite the leap, going from 1 mis-used word to accusations of chattel-slavery era racism.
fartVader
27d ago
Strongly believe Lee Quan Yew had general purpose intelligence that matched an average nobel/turing/fields medalist. His son (Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore PM from 2004-2024) was the undisputed top student at Cambridge Math. In another life, he would have been the favorite to win one of those prizes. Assuming an apple doesn't fall that far from the tree, Lee Quan Yew was likely to be in the same ballpark.
Those are some near impossible standards on IQ alone. Take Lee Kuan's GOATed public speaking and it's actually impossible.
The new guy has a standard college education, with a standard beaurocratic career. Reminds me of when cofounders retire and hand their company over to a caretaker MBA. I'm sure he is competent enough to execute. But, I doubt if he is competent+charismatic enough to innovate in the face of inevitable crises.
fartVader
27d ago
Gah, I knew I should not have used that phrase. I even paused for a good 10 seconds before choosing that word. All the others were no better (run over, taken over).
Yes, I am indeed implying that these filthy 1st gen Indian immigrants are coming to the bay area, taking tech job, stealing our american women and making good money. (sweats profusely).
I made a demonstrative wojak. You're welcome.
fartVader
28d ago
I'm guessing this is South Bay or thereabouts. The Dumbarton bridge marks the beginning of Asian (south and east) tech town. Indians and Chinese tech workers are eating up the area from Palo Alto to San Jose back up tp Fremont. But that is silicon valley proper, so it's hardly surprising.
The rest of California and the Bay Area is not infested with Indian and Chinese tech workers taking over.
fartVader
29d ago
Exactly zero.
The current AI work was inspired by nerds who loved imaging, linguistics, math and gpus.
fartVader
1mo ago
All 3 of the killers have steretypical sikh first and last names. I'm guessing news media avoids calling them Sikh since that makes it look like Sikh infighting.
fartVader
1mo ago
check out https://dynomight.net/seed-oil/
fartVader
1mo ago
I'm letting someone close to me crash for the summer between grad-school semesters. :)
Not urgent. We want to find the right person.
With 2 founders moonlighting (I + friend) and 1 free full-stack intern, we are covered on the essentials.
We have 2 distinct dates - July or October.
- October to join the W25 YC application and be paid a human wage from Day 1.
- July if you want to start moonlighting with us.
On stacks:
Prefer stable+popular+easy (React, JS/TS, Python) if no strong opinions.
Very open to other frontend frameworks (Svelte?, this is your domain, you pick your poison)
Early on, simple is better, so pick what gets you off the ground fastest.
No premature backend optimization. So avoid C++/Java/Rust early. Special exceptions if you are uniquely productive in a specific language.
What we've used before: Containerized ( GPU -> Torch -> Python -> FastAPI ) -> TS -> React
fartVader
1mo ago
Does a bear wanna kill me ?
Afaik, only 3 kinds of bears attack humans
- Polar bears for food
- Mother bears to save subs (a solo bear has no subs, so not a factor here)
- Other bears when they scared
- Sloth bears cuz they crazy
A Polar bear will need to be starved for weeks before it starts hunting the one other human in the forest. And they don't climb trees, so I can reliably protect myself in the short term. Most other bears can be avoided strategically.
The reason humans are scary is that a serial killer will want to start planning their kill from minute 1. You have to fight the human on even ground. On the other hand, the bear will take ages before it decides to engage with you. You can plan your engagement with it perfectly.
That's why a sloth bear is the scrariest. They can climb trees, eat more often, actively engage with humans and react with incredible aggression. Nothing I can do. Dead before sunrise.
Haha, 1 and 1.5 were fused until I separated them last minute.
Middle east's best dishes are Tier 1. But, I've docked points for lack of variety. I love their mezze spread, but MENA quickly runs out of ideas once you beyond that.
Italy got docked on a technicality. Gelato and Tiramisu were considered desserts. Foccacia & Pizza went to baked goods. And Italian coffees did not feel exclusively Italian. With all of those included, Italy woud rise back up.
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