domain:noahpinion.blog
Turkey jerky. I try to avoid candy / little snacks.
Actually, my kryptonite is a mixture of nuts in salty caramel. That's why I don't let my wife buy it.
pusher_robot
PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS
1d ago
I agree with this. It would be far less troubling to just slide the hotel clerk a few bucks and ask if they have any scarves that haven't been claimed for a long time.
No_one
1d ago
"those who engage positively with AI art are not representative",
I'd say that people who positively speak about AI art in areas where doing so gets you called names and shamed are probably more truthful in their talking about their preferences than others who bow down to social pressure.
love big tits and to them AI art 9/10 on average because it is an infinite wellspring of them.
AI art is an infinity wellspring of anything you might want. It's not specific to big boobs.
I would guess they would prefer the swimsuit models, but only because they have less tolerance for the almost completely flat, which is not actually what the thesis is about - if you compared someone with genuinely average or somewhat-below-average cup size, like, idk, Liv Tyler?
The thesis is that when it comes to attracting guy, in general: Big > Average or huge > small, where 'Big' is G,F, or just DD etc. And, like the guy who authored the pages I linked, there's also a sizeable minority of guys who think huge(sfw) > big > average > small.
MiddleAgedMan
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.
1d ago
Leaving shopping carts strewn about the parking lot is (mild) destruction of the commons. While it may not have any personal consquences, it worsens the world and does so exponentially - each additional parking space blocked or walkway impeded makes it increasingly difficult to navigate.
Tree
1d ago
Without the cinematic parts of washing his hands, calling jesus innocent, saying his blood’s on their heads, it’s normal roman governor behaviour. He’s there to maintain peace and render justice onto the barbarians, there’s zero dereliction of duty in that account. And I don’t appreciate those so-called “christians’“ tarring of a roman senator as a weak-willed incompetent.
phailyoor
1d ago
I must again remond everyone that UAE is a hellhole full of snakes. Their system selects for third worldsrs who are in it for the money, meaning they will scam and cheat as much as possible for a quick buck. They are only held back by draconian rules and a police state that will see them in the least charitable light. But rest assured any loophole in the rules will be exploited.
Unlike even some shitty counties, where travel influencers will say the locals are kind, polite, helpful, and generous, they people in UAE are nothing of the sort. Nobody will go even a millimeter past what they're paid to do to help you. Good luck even getting directions if there isn't someone whos job it is to give them standing around.
mr_bailey
1d ago
This is the popular conception of HOA's, but everyone I've been involved with has predominately existed to maintain shared infrastructure (in the single family home case often infrastructure that probably should be the city's responsibility, but the city is uninterested; they still get tax revenue but don't have to pay for it). It's a failure mode of HOA's but how common is it really?
That the median man would prefer C- or D-cups to the blog's and the swimsuit models' much larger sizes (even if we assumed anime levels of sci-fi connective tissue), (edit) but either way, that the median man's preferences do not put nearly as much weight on cup size as the blog and some of the parent posts make the out to.
mr_bailey
1d ago
I'm president of the board of my local HOA. It seems typical for many in the area that it was put in place by the developer when the area was built out and that it exists at all is completely down to the city (that entirely surrounds the development) being unwilling to pay for anything. The dues of around $200/mo cover maintaining the roads/streetlights/signange, bridge over a 50ft ravine (it's hilly), landscaping along the roads and various maintenance activities with the 1/2 of the overall land that is 'dedicated open space' by demand of the city (the developer wanted to put in significantly more housing, that they were able to put in any was only after much negotiating from what I understand) which we are not allowed to say chop down dead trees in but also must keep from burning down all the houses and neighboring properties (a lot of weed whacking and brush clearing is involved). It would probably be dissolved if the city would take over the relevant maintenance (which it won't), it's all single family homes.
Our general challenge is getting enough volunteer board members (3), I don't think we've ever had a contested election in the entire history, and getting to quorum of votes (50%+1) in any election (last time was maybe 6 years ago?). The only somewhat contentious things we've had to deal with are parking disputes (no street parking allowed, we apparently can be forced pay to maintain the roads but the city gets final say on how they are used) so guest parking is limited. Technically, the by-laws give us the power to require (and enforce with inspections) that garages be cleared out enough to park two cars and the two cars are parked in the garage before parking in the driveways or guest parking, though we haven't yet reached the point of enforcing that. We have some other powers, but I suspect the only thing we'd enforce them around is planting large trees [eg. redwoods etc.], changing the exterior colors of houses, and hogging common areas [parking especially]. In general, the city does still get a quite significant amount of control over things, pre-me they tried to install a gate near the entrance of the community (it's like 15 acres or so, so plenty of room) and the city absolutely forbid it as in 'out-of-character' for the city and stated their policy is to allow only in the grandfathered places. So our power over this 'private' sub-city is limited.
TowardsPanna
1d ago
I wish you didn't ask. I'm fasting.
Tree
1d ago
Yeah, they are constrained by reality and acting ability, it's considered classier to be famous for something else than your bust.
What is your thesis, exactly? That men prefer B-cups?
Jazzhands
1d ago
The entirely of the Testimonium Flavium, as we have it today:
Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct to this day.
That's not "diverged greatly," that's just short.
4bpp
After January 20th, all orange flairs are considered political
1d ago
I looked for pictures of both, and neither seems to be anywhere near the swimsuit models or the original blog's purported ideal in terms of size? Eyeballing from the photos I found and a reference chart, they look like maybe D-cups to me.
In any case, are we trying to argue that Keira Knightley, poor thing, has more attractive boobs than a
What a strange choice of topic to break the rule against consensus-building on! Are you asking about my opinion or what I think the general population's opinion is? I genuinely don't have strong preferences (and thus apparently have something wrong with me in your estimation?), but maybe very weakly, in the sense of how I would set sliders in an MMO character designer where I have to express an opinion, they are about equal degrees of too small and too large respectively. If I had to guess the general public's preferences, I would guess they would prefer the swimsuit models, but only because they have less tolerance for the almost completely flat, which is not actually what the thesis is about - if you compared someone with genuinely average or somewhat-below-average cup size, like, idk, Liv Tyler?, I would expect the results to be much more of a wash, and if I weren't on my phone in public I would find pictures of some C-cup swimsuit model I would expect to win.
People are very performative about this, to the point that any public statement about it should be just ignored.
Sure they are, but your sample having to ignore peer pressure is also a confounder. I'm not saying "AI art goes against the tastes of most", but "those who engage positively with AI art are not representative", which is a subtle but important distinction. It's entirely consistent (and similar in shape to what I think is most likely to be the real state of affairs) if: (1) AI art would get an objective average rating of 5/10 from the general population; (2) there is peer pressure to pretend AI art is 1/10 and you are a crass rube if you disagree; (3) 10% of people don't care about being considered crass rubes; (4) those 10% love big tits and to them AI art 9/10 on average because it is an infinite wellspring of them.
pixiv ranking
Funny enough, right now the top 2 pictures are gacha game characters that are completely flat-chested (Genshin's Furina, Blue Archive's shupogaki duo). The third one is also huge, #4 is medium... looking further down the list, similar ratio to my danbooru check. Yeah, I think some cherries were being picked.
PyotrVerkhovensky
1d ago
Bryan Caplan is a name I've heard off and on in rationalist adjacent spaces and with Scott's recent review of one of Caplan’s books, I decided to actually take a look at his blog.
I was very surprised to see that he is an anarcho-capitalist: something that is very much unexpected in an academic economist. He acknowledges this in his blog, where he bemoans the left-wing focus on market failures rather than on market achievement. I probably agree with him on 90-95% of his positions, though I would have a different relative rank in the importance of those positions.
Of course, this being the internet, I won't spend any time on our many agreements but will instead focus on what I perceive to be his biggest shortcoming. Despite his expertise in a social science, he seems to think of society in abstractions: certainly a requirement for good economic modeling, but one that should always be grounded in reality. While possibly tongue in cheek, his statement that "it is humanity, not my arguments, that is flawed" does seem to reflect his mentality.
Exhibit A: Immigration and UAE
Caplan extols the virtues of the UAE, calling their mass-immigration a model for Western nations. And indeed, millions of Indians and billions of oil dollars have created a gleaming technical paradise. But as Caplan notes, UAE "immigration" is not the same as Western immigration. Only native Arabs have citizenship and enjoy the (extensive) welfare that oil money can afford.
The UAE understands that you can have mass immigration or a welfare state, but you cannot have both. They also are not squeamish about transactional relationships with imported labor, which makes the UAE's approach a complete non-starter in the West. No Western nation could import hundreds of millions of (mostly brown) labor, pay them "market wages", and refuse to provide citizenship and a social safety net. Even hard-core anarcho-libertarians would find the parallels with slavery uncomfortable.
The irony is that while the UAE does not have the human capital in either its native or foreign population as most Western countries, the West wastes its superior human capital on regulations, bureaucracy, and virtue signaling while the UAE just builds. Perhaps it is not "humanity" that is flawed, but just Western elites.
Regardless, the UAE's path is not sustainable. The native elite live off natural resources and imported labor rather than their own ingenuity and effort. There is no improvement in human capital, only a descent (slowed perhaps by the prohibitions of Islam) into hedonism. Copying their approach will neuter the unique ambition of the American spirit and accelerate our destruction.
Exhibit B: Immigration and Culture
Caplan implicitly downplays the negative aspect of migration on culture and social cohesion. Most immigrants will look, smell, act, and often vote differently than the "native" population. At scale, assimilation simply won't happen. Even with current immigration in the US there are sufficient numbers of Indians and Chinese to create clannish sub-cultures within the US. Caplan clearly thinks that we can still retain (and even improve) our high standard of living despite mass immigration, but this begs the question why high living standards don't already exist in India or China. Is it lack of physical capital? Is it human capital? Or could it be culture? (Obviously, all three have some impact). Given that capital is attracted towards the highest returns, it seems likely that a lack of human capital or a culture not conducive towards economic flourishing has to be a major cause for the lower living standard. If this is the case, there would be a decrease in the quality of life for the typical resident if third-worlders are imported en-masse.
At one point Caplan hints that indeed that may be the case when he points out that the fictional dystopia of Blade Runner is actually an improvement on modern-day India. This may not be the rock-solid argument he thinks it is. I want my children to enjoy a better life than I have today, not a better life than what a typical Indian has today.
In a guest post (which does not imply Caplan's endorsement), the "worst" neighborhood in Japan is visited. It is still safe and relatively clean. The writer implies that the US can model urban policy off Japan’s success. But again, this ignores the cultural aspect. Japan has a culture of order and cleanliness (and xenophobia). If Japan imported even 5 million Brazilians the "worst" neighborhood in Japan would look quite different.
Again, Caplan misses the "human" aspect of economics.
Exhibit C: Trade Deficit and Geopolitics
Caplan is either ambivalent or in favor of a trade deficit. Caplan posits the idea that the trade deficit could be the result, not the cause, of financial inflows. Rather than a trade deficit resulting in foreign nations having excess dollars that they then spend on US investment, US securities are in such high demand that foreign nations raise the value of the dollar, causing foreign goods to be relatively cheap and leading to a trade deficit. If this argument is correct, then one would expect any economically vibrant and pro-growth country to have a trade deficit. The trade deficit indicates that the US economy and regulatory regime is more conducive to growth.
Yet much like with the UAE, Caplan doesn't seem to grasp the human side of this equation. He assumes economic output is "value free". A service-oriented economy begets a pampered paper-pusher bureaucracy, while the relocation of former blue-collar work to "higher-value" labor hasn't happened at scale. The service economy erodes the will and ability to actually build in the physical world, while the dearth of blue-collar work has led to zombie communities addicted to handouts and opiates. A country should choose to focus industrial policy on broad outcomes including domestic production. Any economy needs direction lest it degenerate. The invisible hand of the market finds local maxima, but it takes vision to push the hand towards a global maxima.
Since Caplan has a tendency to see everything through the lens of economics, he minimizes the geopolitical implications of US policy. We are in the middle of a great geopolitical reset in which protectionist policy plays a key part. The Trump administration has given up Europe as lost. The US is now competing for influence in areas where China has traditionally dominated (including the Arab states that Caplan extols). The remnants of the Bretton-woods post-war international order is being shattered. This is the main takeaway from tariff and trade policy, not the myopic economic impact.
A recommendation
Despite my criticisms, I'm glad that there is an anarcho-capitalist whose ideas have purchase in the rationalist community. A very positive change I've observed over the last decade is the steady increase in liberals acknowledging the benefit of the market and the harm of overregulation, and Caplan’s work has contributed to this change. I would like to see Caplan have even more impact.
Caplan correctly notes that the market forces good policy even where that policy has bad optics, while politicians pursue bad policy that has good optics. This provides a potential key to seeing his (good) economic ideas actually gain purchase: fight the battles that you can actually win. There is much political will to create energy abundance (natural gas and nuclear in particular) and to address NIMBYist red tape; once we are allowed to build, other "good" policies (such as mass labor importation) may become more politically viable. Indeed, even in the UAE plentiful energy preceded plentiful immigration.
Dean
Flairless
1d ago
hanikrummihundursvin
1d ago
But that's not the narrative Douglas Murray was elevating and defending on JRE. He was not leveraging historical significance, but a moral delineation of good and evil.
To that extent you are not talking about a narrative held by anyone in particular, but a narrative that a person could possibly hold. That might very well be true for some, but my point was that Douglas Murray is obviously not one of those with regards to his rhetoric when the rubber meets the road. Where, as you have alluded to yourself, Murray's ambitions do not relate to a glorious British empire beyond his own personal want need for sodomy and the freedom to listen to the sound of his own voice and those in agreement.
Celestial-body-NOS
🟦 'We have a golden rule: "Mind your own damn business!"'🍞🌹
1d ago
self-checkout machine
efficient, human-free experience
What kind of machines do they have where you live?
Its a fairly common thing with glasses due to the very large per unit margins for the frames. There might be some restrictions but you can often get a much more expensive item discounted.
IGI-111
God was a dream of good government.
1d ago
It's like returning the shopping cart. The consequences are so minute that it actually exposes one's compunction to follow the rules when there is no consequence for defection.
This woman is probably a nice and loving person, but I wouldn't put my life in her hands.
Southkraut
Vibe of vibes, saith the Preacher, vibe of vibes; all is vibe.
1d ago
But, also, I've been confused about how "agency" is being used lately. Assertiveness? Willingness to take action? It seems kind of new to hear that discussed in terms of agency, but seems to have become a thing lately.
Agency is literally "you just do things", as opposed to standing around like a deer in headlights, waiting for others to solve your problems, or sitting on your ass making excuses.
I wouldn't describe myself as highly agentic, but I have acquired the superpower (thanks Grandpa for being a role model here) of just talking to strangers in order to get things done, when my friends would rather shrink into themselves than talk to someone they have no mandate to establish contact with. Or just calling a restaurant to find out whether it's open, instead of a full commitment to whatever google says. Or walking into an office and loudly (though politely!) asking whether anyone has some particular bit of infornation. All of this seems exceptional around here because people in general seem to have developed an extremely atrophied sense of their own agency. You can in fact just go and talk to people.
torrent
I think copyright is state enabled thievery, actually. Art existed before it, and it will exist after it. In fact it is scandalous that I can't freely make, modify and distribute the myths of my people because they have been monopolized by a corporation using the State, or that I can't mod my games without people trying to stop me, all because of this farce.
I think you'll find that even under rule utilitarianism, it isn't justifiable in its current form.
It's also wrong to say that people who don't experience X the way other people do are non-functional.
I can be perfectly functional doing my job where I have to take needs and wants into account, without having the desire to fuck the clients (in this particular job, that would be Extremely Problematic if I did, given the age-ranges involved).
"People who don't experience sexual desire are non-functional" is not the smackdown argument you present it as, given the steaming mess that sexual desire leads a lot of "normal, functional, non-cripple" people into. Maybe dialling down the instinct to "me horny me gotta fuck" might, in fact, be a benefit for society? If it stops teachers sexually assaulting eleven year olds, for one instance?
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