domain:mattlakeman.org
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
1d ago
I'm really locking into Infinite Jest, a work of unrealistic genius and prescience, so good that I don't even know what to say about it.
On audiobook I finished Two Weeks, Eight Seconds which was exactly what I wanted at the time that I wanted it. A perfect sports book.
In between I've been reading the Fort Bragg Cartel about drug running in the specops world in the South. It's good, but the author is just such a weenie. I'm antiwar as they come, but the book is so preachy about it when it is irrelevant to the action in the book.
RandomRanger
Just build nuclear plants!
1d ago
The joke is that the US is already a mess from the perspective of outsiders. Economically and technologically advanced, socially backwards. Any actual improvement is so unimaginable to Americans they come up with these warped eschatological narratives about civil war or apocalypse, or they twist themselves around to see this weird lifestyle as normal and any change as a threat. Like a nation of people who tunnel and dig in refuge from a self-inflicted disaster, only to be dazzled and frightened when they see the sun or feel fresh air, rebelling against surface.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
1d ago
How does a civilization deal with software that's thousands of years old?
Lewis2
1d ago
I saw a tweet that read,
Beyoncé released a song called "Bodyguard" to hide the Google search results about her yearlong affair with her bodyguard. Same thing is happening here with "Peter Thiel antichrist"
It doesn’t seem too far-fetched.
FirmWeird
Randomly Generated Reddit Username
1d ago
They exist elsewhere on the planet. It’s not like it’s impossible.
All of the resources required for me to build a new set of Great Pyramids exist elsewhere on the planet - it's not like it's impossible for me to build them. But it still won't happen.
Furthermore, the long term benefits of getting REE and bringing home the manufacturing of chips especially for defense are getting those critical components out from under the thumb of a geopolitical rival, creating jobs that would be decent paying manufacturing jobs, creating an industry with the potential for export. Those are not trivial wins, especially if China decides to wield its power in ways we oppose.
These are all incredibly good things, and you're right that this would be a huge win. In fact, there's actually a great case study for a country in a similar position - China's helium industry. Previously, China was utterly dependent upon the US for helium supply, because helium is used in a bunch of essential industrial/medical processes. Because they didn't want to be dependent upon a geopolitical rival for a vital resource, they invested heavily in alternative supply chains and alternative processes, discovering new ways to source and efficiently use helium. They now only get 5% of their helium from the US, which is why they're now in a position to start cutting the US off from vital industrial inputs without as much fear of retaliation. It took them several years, but it was a really worthwhile project - bit of a shame that the US doesn't have the several years required to reshore all this stuff.
If China makes a play for Taiwan, do you really think they’ll continue to sell us the material, let alone the chips themselves that we’d use to defeat them? Would any sane person in the Cold War feel comfortable sourcing critical components from Eastern Europe? That’s pretty much where we are, hoping that China will continue to sell us weapons that they know in a hot war we’re going to use on them.
Pretty much - except that they have just decided to not sell the US the weapons they know will be used against them. The US hasn't recovered their stocks of interceptors since they spent vast quantities of them against Russia and Iran, and now it looks like they won't be able to replenish those stocks until after they defeat China (good luck!).
somethingsomething
1d ago
Yeah what you and prima said aligns with my thoughts, but it seems like you'd expect this wisdom to be in a philosophy text or blogpost somewhere and expanded upon
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1d ago
I've heard some anecdotes at times describing Manhattan positively this way. Sometimes Boston or SF, too. If you can afford rent downtown, some blue places can be like this. But for some reason in the nicer places the rent is really high...
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
1d ago
I said code-compliant permanent house. Some cursory searching indicates that at least one municipality has added "temporary housing shelters" to its zoning code as a permitted accessory use, without calling such shelters houses. Your municipality may have done something similar.
See also how some "tiny houses" actually are recreational vehicles that cannot be installed permanently in many places.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
1d ago
Thank you for clarifying! The Greeks at my church would be aghast at my ignorance of the language. Alas, I am part of hoi polloi after all.
rmtodd
1d ago
And as someone (I think it may have been later SSC poster John Schilling) pointed out in a long-ago argument on Usenet, it's possible that Petrov may have made war more likely -- now every time things are all quiet, there's always the lurking possibility in the leadership's minds: "Are things really peaceful, or is there really a missile launch and another Petrov-wannabe in the radar center is playing games with our inbound data feed?" Soviet leadership knew, or should have known, that military hardware can be flaky, but raising the possibility that the underlings can be lying is not a method likely to lower upper-level paranoia...
Mumbai no, but that's because it's India. A dense city in a rich and freer country however, yeah why not? 14 million choose to live in Tokyo over the vast rural areas the country has (and 37 million in the surrounding area). 8.5 million choose to live in NYC. 2 million choose to live in Paris. 9.6 million choose Seoul.
It's not going to be a life fit for everyone, I personally prefer my smaller ~100k city. But clearly there's a shit ton of people who like to live in dense areas with lots of opportunities and things to do around over having a little extra space. Rents are so high in dense areas in part because people really want to be there. If people are willing to pay 2.5k for a 1 bedroom in NYC, and only 1k for a two bedroom in super ruralsville, that means something. Assuming equal capability for supply, people want the former more. It's not perfectly equal of course, but it still says something how much more people are willing to pay for the dense areas.
GoofyGoose
1d ago
FATF delenda est
pigeonburger
1d ago
People can point to a consensus that already exists, and no one is going to object, but building a consensus is smuggling your controversial opinions in the shared, uncontroversial context of a post hoping they will evade scrutiny. Well executed it's a great propaganda tool, but in a forum where people are expected to lay out their opinions clearly for debate, it's dishonest and counterproductive, as if someone spots the smuggled opinion and cares to debate it honestly, they will need to have you unwind that argument back to that assumption, which wastes everyone's time. It also, as Primaprimaprima mentions, feels very hostile and unwelcoming when you have it done to you.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Pre-car urban design is indeed quite different from post-car urban design. The US had walkable "streetcar suburbs" in the early 20th century. Most middle class and above people left them with great haste once car based suburbs were invented and they degenerated into slums.
My area has several streetcar suburbs; some still aren't slums and they others didn't become slums until the civil riots riots. The ones which are slums the ones which are still "walkable", though buses have replaced the streetcars. You have your main street with all the businesses you might need -- your check-cashing place, your bodega, even a bakery and a nail salon. But of course most people who would call themselves YIMBYs don't want to live there.
Celestial-body-NOS
We are all human beans. Together, we will rice.
1d ago
I think Scott raised a very valid point on Antichrist ID 101: They're supposed to have "Antichrist" literally spelled out on their forehead.
Where was this?
I've never disliked a Tarkovsky movie, although Solaris was a little cheesy. He actually knew how to make an art house film, and is one of the few who saves the genre for me.
I'd recommend watching 8 1/2 as another good art house starter film if you haven't
hanikrummihundursvin
1d ago
Accounting for cost, rail is out of the question. Which is why the city has been organizing the future around buses.
The problem is less getting to a store, and more getting to and from work. Because there is not enough parking space you have increased foot-traffic during rush hour around the area, as people who park in the vicinity need to get to their cars. That's compounding an already worsening state of traffic year over year.
laptop-class, bullshit email jobs these giant companies seem to employ in droves.
I hear this complaint a lot but I work in a microcosm of a corporate environment with around 200 employees that directs billions of dollars in spending that is almost entirely composed of "laptop class" people and while I understand the incredulousness of onlookers it's very hard to tell which of the email senders and data enterers could in actuality be replaced without catastrophic consequences. If this wasn't the case then some group or another would have already raided the department and gotten rid of all of them so that they could show 10% reduced costs on some corporate slide deck and ascend the payscale. These things are much more darwinian than outsiders believe.
This is very obvious with AI entering the picture and the various departments looking around at eachother with hunger in their eyes. Do we really need this many pricing analysts? Can our underwriting be done more efficiently? Surely we can get a closing document for a $150 million deal done in under a week of labor. I promise you that you are not the first person to wonder if some job really needs to exist. Someone with skin in the game is fighting ever budget season for that job to exist and there are real stakes.
The starbucks email job sounds so frivilous until a whole region of shops doesn't get their bean delivery and can't sell their most profitable drink for a week costing the company millions because some process wasn't followed properly.
dr_analog
top 1% of underdog fetishists
1d ago
Just cracked open Verner Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky. The hook was he has fun insights on how a civilization deals with software that's thousands of years old.
dr_analog
top 1% of underdog fetishists
1d ago
Neat. And I'll be sure to remind my city council that the Connestoga villages they built for the homeless aren't code compliant.
problem_redditor
1d ago
I don't think the chemical plant was disused, rather it was emitting waste into the water and it's not implausible that it emitted fumes as well. Apparently the crew were getting allergic reactions on their faces as well during production.
Admittedly this is based on a statement by the sound designer Vladimir Sharun, and it's not quite clear how supported his claim is. But it's a thing that's been weaved into the mythology of the movie.
Indeed, finally all those Classics lessons paying off. I knew one day they'd come in useful. Perhaps in a different life I'd have read Greats at Balliol, but in this one at least I still get to use the bits and bobs I've picked up from here and there.
Jiro
1d ago
A conversation leaked by someone who doesn't like Thiel won't be a representative sample of what he says. It'll be disproportionately likely to sound bad and accordingly, the fact that it reminds you of a speech by a demon should lead you to update much less than if his speeches typically sound like they are made by demons.
Also, beware fuctional evidence.
FirmWeird
Randomly Generated Reddit Username
1d ago
If the defense industries can't function without Chinese support then they're useless and should be destroyed.
You're actually completely correct here, and the failure to actually do this is one of the reasons that the USA is experiencing so many problems due to obscenely bloated military budgets, corrupt government and deeply corrupt procurement practices.
What were they planning to do if war with China ever came?
They either underestimated the Chinese and believed the world would stay the same as it was forever, or they simply assumed that they would have left the country and already made their fortune by the time their shitty decisions came home to roost. It sounds like an incredibly stupid and shortsighted decision, but military corruption doesn't go away even when you're several years into an active conflict - see https://news.liga.net/en/all/news/sbi-officer-sent-to-spin-shawarma-in-pokrovskyi-district-instead-of-service for a recent case.
"Poetic Woods" by Anne Blockley (2023), hardcover version. I like it! Well bound, lots of paintings of slightly abstract forests.
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