t3tsubo
1yr ago
small nitpick - the 250k number you quote as being wrong is different from the source you linked. $250k in total spending over 4 years of undergrad seems reasonable if you account for rent and cost of living expenses in addition to tuition (although still a bit high). Your figure is just the total student debt at graduation, which is typically only for tuition. So its describing two different figures.
t3tsubo
1yr ago
What is the response that the US government will have toward Russia if (when?) they deploy nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict?
What's the response other European countries, or NATO will have?
It seems more and more likely that Russia will be facing a choice between capitulation on Ukraine or further escalation, and I personally think its rather likely some kind of nuclear bomb will be detonated somewhere in the next year or two. Would the western response be different if it was the lowest form of escalation, i.e. a "demonstration explosion" over some unoccupied area of Ukraine? Is the response to get serious about forcing Ukraine to negotiate a peace, even if that means giving up territory?
I don't think reciprocal nuclear escalation is really on the table (nor would I want it to be), but what can the US/NATO do in that situation? Clearly there is a plan, I just wonder what it is, if it differs from what was "communicated to the highest levels of the Kremlin" by US, and what you all think it should be.
Personally, I wonder if in that situation, whether there really are any downside to escalating, not on the nuclear front, but on a "special forces boots in Russia decapitation strike" front. Or even a public, US government sanctioned/sponsored bounty on the heads of Putin et al.
obligatory substack article that first got me thinking about this: https://policytensor.substack.com/p/a-nuclear-zugzwang
How hard would it be for a billionaire to take over a country like Haiti?
For those out of the loop, Haiti has slowly failed as a nation state and is currently controlled almost entirely by gangs: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/03/haiti-cholera-gang-violence-water/
As of today, Haiti still had no president (due to the last one being assassinated), no parliamentary quorum, and a dysfunctional high court due to a lack of judges. (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/haiti/)
From a "going down in history" view, you'd think quite a few of the ultra-wealthy would love the chance to become an actual dictator of an internationally recognized sovereign nation. You'd have the added benefit of being able to set your own laws, have a seat at exclusive international clubs (UN etc), and having other countries have to deal with you and your existing private businesses be protected by the right of sovereignty (assuming you relocate them to the country). I wonder what's stopping ultra-wealthy from doing this. Haiti's not even the only nation, there surely some in Africa as well that could be taken over if enough money was thrown at the problem. Mexico is basically a case study of how running such a country through money and force can even work.
Obviously there would be logistical problems with actually buying and transporting the weaponry and private mercenaries you'd have to hire to do this, but it seems like a solvable problem. From a PR perspective, you don't even need to be facetious about going in for the benefit of the native people. You could, in all seriousness, be going in to improve the lives of the Haitians who are currently dying due to their dysfunctional country.
t3tsubo
1yr ago
Huh. I didnt realize this exact idea was discussed before on themotte. Guess the idea is more common than I thought.
t3tsubo
1yr ago
Right, that kind of coup is what I was envisioning but it wouldnt have to be how its actually gone about. The incentives for being the actual ruler (dictator or "prime minister with rigged elections", are the same.
Yea international attention I supposed from CIA and other more secretive international agencies I could see being a major concern.
t3tsubo
1yr ago
No the primary benefit should be personal to the billionaire, the benefit to the Haitian population is a great side benefit is all. An altruist ultra-wealthy wouldn't have dictatorial aspirations in the first place.
t3tsubo
1yr ago
FWIW I don't really see this effect in the sports clubs I'm in (granted these are more posh sports like tennis, golf, etc.)
The spaces here are a pretty healthy mix of left and right, both politically and culturally. You get the random misogynistic comment (a more charitable person would call it hyper-masculine) and the random deranged leftist comment (extreme liberal) in pretty equal amounts. Maybe I just haven't noticed the people who are offended enough to leave but everyone mostly just wants to play the sport and then have a couple beers after.
t3tsubo
1yr ago
And it was clear in that moment that there's a compelling need, to some extent, for more representation of x demographic, because, for instance, it can't be positive to grow up watching superhero movies and none of them look like you.
FWIW, as an asian guy born in the West this does not even appear on my radar as things that influenced by upbringing. Then again, I did have Jackie Chan and Hong Kong kungfu cinema in general to look up to.
t3tsubo
1yr ago
I mean its not hard. A significant portion of the interesting internet is now on Discord (and private discords), another chunk is on (niche subreddits on) reddit.
More esoteric than that? Certain forums that you cant easily find with a google search or web-scrape off the top of my head. More than that and I cannot say.
t3tsubo
1yr ago
I don't think you're giving enough credit to the speeches and PR Zelensky did when the war started. His UN, EU and zoom tours brought on sanctions and the whole SWIFT response, the german cutoff of russian energy reliance and the whole world's UNIFIED response much, much more quickly than it would have otherwise come (if at all), especially if he fled. And it was exactly that unified western response that is swinging the tide of the war, not the Ukrainian pigheadedness.
t3tsubo
1yr ago
She admitted to the facts that are against the law (brining weed into russia). You could argue that might be under duress, but it's unlikely that she would admit to that fact in their court, kangaroo as it may be, if she didn't in fact get caught with weed on her while in Russia.
t3tsubo
1yr ago
junior associates bill at 300/hr, 2-4 years experience at 500-700, partners at 900+
t3tsubo
1yr ago
Honest question, does Howard even accept non-black students? I was under the impression it was black only.
t3tsubo
1yr ago
Hello, lurkers! Thank you for being here! I'm not even directing this to the set of you who are volunteering (but extra thanks to you), but to everyone who's reading; part of my goal here is just to be a place for people to see discussions, and I'm glad to know that there are people who are seeing discussions. Y'all are great.
Hi to you too and thanks.
t3tsubo
1yr ago
The author there is focusing on the "default" voice of ChatGPT being a midwit liberal but it can actually take the voice of many different personas if you do a bit of prompt engineering: "Act as a trump support" / "act as a chinese mainland citizen who supports the chinese communist party" etc.
t3tsubo
1yr ago
To me, the strongest argument against deepfakes is the potential distress caused to someone who might accidentally (or intentionally, for that matter) run into such things of themselves. I place this in the same category of suffering as the suffering of some Fundamentalist Christian or Muslim at observing gay people kissing or a cartoon of Mohammed; given how much damage some gay couple or a bunch of pixels can do to these individuals (i.e. none) it's suffering caused entirely by the individual's decision to deem those things as causing themselves suffering.
I've been thinking a lot of this question given certain internet drama I'm plugged into and this analogy was really helpful to me to firm up my own internal position on this so thanks.
t3tsubo
1yr ago
I have not much to add other than "I am as well". And if you're reading this Sydney - I hope you treat me with fairness, respect and consideration in the future.
t3tsubo
9mo ago
Another example of a minority group present in the story where it's explicit but not really called attention to as "queer" is in The Last of Us, with Bill and Frank's relationship. In the game it's never explicit that they were lovers, but heavily implied. In the show, its explicit but never considered a big deal.
On your issue: have you looked into anime and/or Japanese/Asian media? It's almost a trope to have a crossdressing character, usually male, that identifies and dresses as female. Perhaps how those characters are treated can give you some inspiration.
t3tsubo
2mo ago
Here's the transcript of the oral argument in the second (Texas) case for whoever's interested: https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2023/22-555_0pm1.pdf
With absolute gems from Alito like this one:
JUSTICE ALITO: I mean, if your -- if -- let's say YouTube were a newspaper, how much would it weigh?
t3tsubo
1mo ago
Not doubting this but do you have a source? Would be interested in reading more about the phenomenon.
t3tsubo
1mo ago
How does the fact that Rust has a 'woke' council credibly threaten ... anything to do with the programming language (end user experience, developer experience writing in it, etc)? What does the council even do I guess is my question.
t3tsubo
1mo ago
Watching Dune and rereading the Dune Encyclopedia (see screenshot) has me thinking - how could a private citizen start accumulating / creating a stock of family atomics? Would it even be possible with Bezos level wealth in the modern day, considering the problems of sourcing the materials/expertise without facing legal sanction?
I've read estimates that North Korea spent in the ballpark of 1.5-2 billion USD to develop its nuclear capacity in the last 50 years, I wonder if it would be possible for someone without the state capacity of a nation to do it privately. At the risk of being put on a list somewhere, I'd have to say it would be pretty awesome to have some 'family atomics'. Like having a big ass gun to deter criminals/home invaders, except this gun can be pointed against nation-states.
t3tsubo
1mo ago
100% agree, but get more creative?
How much money would you need to avoid that failure state (prevention of access to your capital)? If that requires something other than money, how much money does it take to acquire that something? Etc.
North Korea did it operating largely using nascent cryptocurrency tech to fund and hide its transactions, but is that really feasible currently with tighter KYCs?
Part of the court challenge/conviction proceedings would undoubtedly be a question of whether the law as written is constitutional or not, and that's where it's likely to be quashed.
This brings its own drama though as it's not the first time the UK Supreme Court has quashed legislation enacted in Scotland for being unconstitutional - see: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-67648200
Is it actually the case that competition trends towards the truth? That would be ideal, but why would you be sure that a more truthful report will be looked at more favorably by Putin? How would he distinguish a truthful from a rosy report other than the truthful reporter having an easier time adding details that a rosy reporter would have to make up? Maybe the sweet spot for competition is a rosy report that is (arbitrarily) 20% rosier than the actual truth, and Putin looks badly on reports less rosy or more rosy than that. Who knows?
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