domain:tracingwoodgrains.com
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
1d ago
Which effective measures are we talking about?
SSCReader
1d ago
So overall, great work, but just a couple of comments.
A) I am not sure how well sourced that quote by Staub "Staub described how the BBC's wartime audience — one-third embracing Christianity, one-third neutral, and one-third hostile toward religion" actually is. After all at that time about 90% of the population were some variety of Christian and would seem very odd that they would both be Christian and be either neutral or hostile to religion. Indeed the BBC wouldn't even allow discussion of atheism on air until 1948 or so.
He gets this from Justin Phillips book, which attributes the belief to James Welch. If we seek out where Welch was sourced about this it was in reference to writing a foreword about the Man Born to be King a BBC Radio drama about the life of Christ in 1941. Which indeed did get plenty of pushback... because it was seen as blasphemous and irreverent.
If we read Welch's actual words it turns out he is a) Talking about embracing religious broadcasting not embracing religion in general (and some of the opposition to religious broadcasting was from conservative Christians who though it was blasphemous because it was being translated into common language and idioms, not because they didn't agree with Christianity). b) It's just Welch's feeling. He says "we thought of these three groups (embracing Christian broadcasting, neutral to Christian broadcasting, hostile to Christian broadcasting) as being roughly equal. But there isn't any evidence that they were actually equal in size. All of the other data we have suggests that that he was probably wrong about that. And certainly if we expand it as Staub did to say embracing religion (not just religious broadcasting) it is entirely wrong. The vast majority of listeners would have been Christian believers at the time.
B) Lewis was a Protestant Ulsterman and while born before partition his attitudes towards the non-denominational aspects of Christianity may well have been influenced by the ongoing issues between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland (as well as the role the Catholic Tolkien played in his re-conversion). Indeed we can contrast Lewis and Louis MacNeice (another Belfast born poet and writer for the BBC) both raised Protestant in the Church of Ireland but both falling away from it (also funnily enough my own experience, not sure what that says about the Church of Ireland specifically) but who drew inspiration about that division into his critiques of fascism in 1930's Spain about how different lessons can be learned from similar environments. Though MacNeice supported another poet C. Day-Lewis (father of Daniel Day-Lewis) against C.S. Lewis in an election for Professor of Poetry at Oxford (too many Louis's and Lewis's here clearly!) and was not regarded super well by Lewis for his poetry, they had very similar backgrounds and trajectories. One ending up returning to Christianity, the other as an agnostic.
HereAndGone
1d ago
No, I don't believe what Hamas says, because it's not Hamas saying it. We very much have Israeli government sources saying stuff. We also, since I don't live in America, have voices from other parts of the world saying things.
HereAndGone
1d ago
No, everyone who is in your curated source of news is a lying liar who loves Hamas and wants to obliterate Israel. Or is dumb as dirt and don't realize they're patsies for same.
Reporters. Doctors. Independent charities. People on the ground. All lying shills for Hamas, while the saintly IDF forces are just misunderstood bunnies.
My news isn't curated, unless by that you mean "someone turns on the radio set to the national broadcaster station at work".
I'll say this for present day Israel, they've really successfully ridden the "any breath of criticism is anti-Semitism, are you a Nazi who wants to Holocaust us all over again?" wagon to get people blindly on their side.
roystgnr
1d ago
the US didn't have any more nukes at the time so it would have taken more time and US lives than they may have thought
Groves thought a third bomb would be ready to drop on Japan a week after Nagasaki and could be dropped as soon as weather permitted after that. Even after the surrender, the next bomb was still ready by the end of August. After that things slow up a lot for the next year, from an expected rate of 3 accelerating to 7 bombs per month down to only enough plutonium cores for a bomb every month or two, but I'm not sure if that's because of unexpected difficulties or just because they declined to ramp up production after their expected target finally surrendered.
self_made_human
Grippy socks, grippy box
1d ago
It might be on the cards! I was very leery when my friend ordered cucumbers in chilli oil, but I was blown away. I'll keep an eye open for the ones you mentioned.
tcl33
1d ago
Question for academics.
FIRE and Heterodox Academy call for campus "viewpoint diversity" as sort of the implementation of Mill's marketplace of ideas. The president of FIRE says:
HxA’s founder, Jonathan Haidt, and others were noticing a troubling pattern: The social sciences, which grapple with some of society’s most complex problems, were politically lopsided — overwhelmingly progressive in orientation.
I'm not in academia and haven't spent much time on campus since I graduated 20 years ago. So everything I hear is secondhand. The message is always that there is a problem, but it's mostly isolated to the "usual suspect" departments: anthropology, sociology, literature, and The Studies.
Much of the "viewpoint diversity" discourse has dealt with which guest speakers and student protests are and aren't allowed. Those seem to me like sideshows. It seems the main problem is students in these usual suspect programs graduating without ever having been exposed to perspectives opposed to progressive orthodoxy. These students go out into the world not having any idea that the Overton window is much wider than they've been told. They don't realize there are sophisticated rejoinders to the claims they're hearing, and those rejoinders aren't all from right-wingers—many of them are from tenured experts on their own campus, most of whom stand politically left-of-center.
On many (most?) campuses do we need more Milo on campus to inject "viewpoint diversity" into the system? Or do universities just need to exploit the expertise that already exists on campus from faculty in other buildings? Implement a "dueling lecturer" class. So have your gender studies class, but bring in an evolutionary psychologist (and perhaps a biologist or an MD?) to lecture on the biological retorts to social constructionist claims. Have an economist to your sociology class to explain scarcity, and market forces driving meritocracy. Bring an analytic philosopher to Theory of Literature to show that words actually can mean things. And make the content of these "opposition lecturers" a real part of the coursework. To pass, you have to steel-man both sides of the argument to the satisfaction of both lecturers.
The point is to ensure students know that there are opposing viewpoints, and that they are mainstream and not "alt-right propaganda". And to do that, the university should break through its own departmental balkanization.
Again, I know little about university politics and the feasibility of this approach. But I've never heard it suggested, and I thought maybe someone here in the know could tell me why this would or wouldn't work/help.
Take Ms Maxwell: she sat around Burgerstan for a year while Epstein was arrested and dragged through the legal system, all while having citizenship in France
Maxwell was the fall guy. She’s a soldier and a patriot and could be relied on to tough out fifteen years in the federal pen for the cause. Unlike Epstein who was a flaky hedonist.
Take Clinton—his involvement seems to have been after his presidency.
Somehow Benjamin Netanyahu knew about Monica Lewinsky before everyone else and attempted to blackmail Clinton with it.
And what of Dershowitz. He’s a Jew. Is Israel blackmailing the Jews into being Jewish?
Being Jewish doesn’t automatically make you a die hard supporter of Israel. Norm Finklestein and Ron Unz are Jewish after all. And even if someone is a die hard supporter of Israel, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are going to be willing to dangerous illegal things to help Israel without additional incentive.
100ProofTollBooth
Dumber than a man, but faster than a dog.
1d ago
There's something biblical about the idea that the men who build homes (and other buildings) are the same men society has determined aren't quite worthy of being a full part of society.
Rosencrantz2
1d ago
Surely a 90s Republican didn't think Clinton's targets were unable to consent. Rather they thought his affairs were gross, adulterous and disqualifying.
DirtyWaterHotDog
1d ago
So what ? Why is it so bad if Hamas gets food ? Blockading food supplies is considered a war crime in the post-war world.
Assuming Gaza has no food reserves, Israel should allow the passage of food-aid for 2 million people. Share the distribution logs and nations should step off their neck. Logistically, they should be able to check the food for smuggling. Hawaii checks all agricultural imports and exports before they trade with the mainland. It's not unheard of. The UNRWA may be biased. But, it's not like they can smuggle in weapons. UNRWA may report false atrocities, but that's already happening. Israel's public perception is in the dumps. Can't get much worse than that.
faceh
1d ago
Yep.
But Trump deviates from the elite norm in more ways than one. Being a Teetotaler, for one.
Is there any evidence that Trump gave in and accepted an invite to sample the finest wines or spirits in the world with his elite buds? It wouldn't be very scandalous, but I've heard no such fact.
Dude also happily enjoys diet coke and McDonalds, to boot. I get the feeling he knows what he likes and indulges in it, and isn't easily tempted to do things just because the cool kids are doing it.
I'm not saying this means he wouldn't want to have the 16 year old, just that he's far enough outside the celeb/power broker stereotype, I don't think he's the type to try something just to fit in with the crowd.
The_Nybbler
In the game of roller derby, women aren't just the opposing team; they're the ball.
1d ago
Which ethnic group, and where have they been moved? Calling anything that's going on "ethnic cleansing" is propaganda used when the propagandist thinks that "genocide" won't go over well. Israel has moved the population of Gaza around, but not along ethnic, racial, or religious lines.
ABigGuy4U
1d ago
Aside from what I view to be some major logistical problems with a quick three minute in and out strangulation, though I admit I’m not well read in to the nitty-gritty.
A soldier with the right equipment can do it in seconds.
100ProofTollBooth
Dumber than a man, but faster than a dog.
1d ago
After years of examination and multiple lawsuits (that are worth examination on their own),
Legally protesting a contract is an incredibly common corporate strategy for the mega contracts. Oracle and Microsoft did this several years ago when Amazon won what was then called the "JEDI" contract for cloud computing at the Department of Defense.
I'm not an expert in the legaleese, but I've seen enough of them happen. From what I understand, the bar to pass an initial review for a protest is pretty low. Once that's passed, the process drags on for at least months and often years. Nobody really cares about who wins or loses. What this forces is for the department or agency who initially offered the contract to suspend or cancel it, and then re-issue another competitive RFP for the exact same services, but under a different contract name.
This lets the losers of the original contract re-try their bid. Maybe the drop prices, maybe the try a different technical approach, whatever. The whole point is that some contracts are so existentially important that various firms will go to whatever lengths it takes just to 'stay in the fight' - even after they've, technically lost.
This is one reason, although nearly most important one, why Federal acquisition and procurement is such a shit show. The process has completely overtaken the product / outcome and so firms that live on Federal contracts have become masters of the process, selling horrible products.
faceh
1d ago
As far as I can tell from the clip in question, those were literally women who worked for his company or resort, and they left his employ because Epstein tempted them away with some other offer. And he's not particularly happy that it happened!
Is "stealing" employees not a relatively common phrase?
If Trump had said something more literal in terms of "abduct" or "kidnap" I'd perk my ears up for sure. As it stands, this makes it marginally LESS likely Trump was complicit, because it indicates he was NOT facilitating Epstein in trafficking his employees. If Trump was helping Epstein, why would Epstein need to 'steal' the girls?
Am I wrong?
100ProofTollBooth
Dumber than a man, but faster than a dog.
1d ago
The MBA-generalized response to this would be:
When you are selling low volumes to highly motivated customers, you can capture niche's (or "sub markets") by doing a lot of direct marketing and building brand loyalty.
When you're operating at scale (Glock, SIG, et al) you have to go after larger markets with customers who blend concerns beyond ultra performance (i.e. price) and so you start to make some level of compromise. This is where your strategy comes in; are you the "cheap" brand (Taurus, I guess? idk), are you non-innovative but dependable (Glock), are you the innovator (SIG ... I guess?) etc.
The same logic can be applied to a lot of different industries.
As an aside, but it's interesting, this is why there are dozens or hundreds of ultra-speciality rifle manufacturers. Some only specialize in barrels and then plop them on other companies' hardware. Many of these places like to boat about their contracts with the Navy SEALS / Special Forces / CIA whatever. In reality, this can be 1 - 3 guys in their converted garage more or less hand making every product they ship.
They're selling to a price insensitive (gov't dollars!) ultra-niche customer with super high performance requirements and, to no small extent, the "fuddlore" mentioned above. More charitably, customers operating at that level of performance just tend to develop biases that are mentally hard to shake. Does the trigger being polymer-x instead of polymer-y make you shoot better? Probably not, but being mentally comfortable with your gear probably does make you shoot better.
What happens to shops like this is they either go out of business because they lost one key customer (often, their only customer) or they become reliable enough lifestyle businesses for the owners - they make a very comfortable living and work on something they have a genuine passion for. Very few of these companies get purchased by one of the big names in the gun world unless there's something truly interesting going on. Things like actually interesting engineering development, perhaps something patented, or the development of a new product or market. Custom, tricked-out AR-15s weren't really a thing until after the Global War On Terror was several years into its run but, then, dudes who never go to the range were suddenly ready to drop a few thousand dollars into AR mods. Enter Bravo Company Manufacturing and all the others like it.
faceh
1d ago
So basically, maturity.
Bingo.
An immature child really doesn’t fully understand decision making, and sex is a big thing.
Double bingo. A person that doesn't fully grok that sex makes babies, what STDs are, and the other more subtle risks to intercourse with another person is, definitionally, less capable of consenting to it.
Of course, this puts the onus on the MORE MATURE person to NOT initiate the sexual relationship when they realize the other side isn't really ready.
I think it’s incumbent upon you to provide some test of maturity that would work.
I would be fine with a test in the same vein as that given to teens who want to get their driver's license.
A comprehensive exam that tests, for example, if a person REALLY understands the implications of a sexual relationship. Not on like a deep scientific level, mind, but at least the "ins and outs" (pun intended).
This means that young people can in fact study and prepare for the test, which is a GOOD THING, since it encourages them to learn the necessary information that will prepare them for adulthood. I would also include testing for, say, contractual rights. Maybe someone can't be give student loans unless they can prove they know how compound interest works!
Of course we'd have to have significant anti-cheat measures in place. Which is why I really would prefer there to be some 'objective' "test of willpower" element involved. If you force them to endure some sort of uncomfortable experience without giving in to temptation or dropping out before the finish, its MUCH harder to rig the system.
Yes, this could be the literal equivalent of The Gom Jabbar (but with less severe consequences). If you can't endure a couple minutes of excruciating (but not injurious) pain... I DARESAY you probably aren't 'mature' enough to handle real life. Note that this is LITERALLY how some traditional tribes do it.
I would like to couple that with a requirement that someone, ideally their parents, sponsor them for the test, in the sense that they're affirming "yes, this person is ready for adulthood, and if they screw up I am prepared to help accept the consequences for promoting them too early." So for the next, I dunno, 3 years if they screw up somehow the sponsor is also on the hook for helping fix it.
quiet_NaN
1d ago
I REALLY think you have to downgrade your belief that Trump actively prefers young teens.
I don't think he actively prefers them.
Suppose some elite socialite organized a hunt for migratory birds on their private island. From my knowledge, Trump is not much of a hunter and has never displayed any intent to break federal wildlife statues.
However, if he were to learn that the creme de la creme, including British royalty, is along for the hunting trip, he might still come along and shoot at some birds. He will probably not kill the most, but in my model he would certainly enjoy rubbing shoulders and doing something naughty with the rest of the elite.
Likewise, if it is an open secret that the rich and powerful enjoy banging underage girls on Epstein's Island, I do not think that Trump will go "too bad that is not my cup of tea, they will have to have their secret club without me". Instead, he is likely deviate from his usual preferences a bit to be part of the secret club. After all, few men are so much into MILFs that they would not enjoy a blowjob from a busty 16yo.
roystgnr
1d ago
I was thinking specifically about the camera system being flaky; you don't need a deliberate "change everything" for that, just "let's apply this firmware upgrade we've been postponing".
I wouldn't expect it to explain cellmate issues, but looking at those, it's not entirely off-base. They put him in with Bubba-three-kills (well, Nicholas-four-kills), but after an apparent attempted suicide they figured "better safe than sorry" and scrambled to find him a different cellmate, who then got transferred a couple days before Epstein's death, leaving Epstein alone in violation of prison suicide-watch protocol. Turns out that saying "give extra attention here" in a briefing doesn't actually guarantee extra attention. I could buy that he was murdered, and I could definitely buy that he was deliberately allowed to commit suicide, but either way they did a good job of making the failures look like the usual weird mixture of panic and laziness that happens whenever a gaping systemic flaw starts bleeding and people rush to fix it with a quick band-aid.
I think the entire game here is so obvious that it’s actually getting frustrating to me to even read people talk about this.
Epstein was an Israeli intelligence asset. This should be as obvious as saying that the four legged furry animal that barks at the mailman, chase tennis balls, that lives in my house, and had two parents who were both dogs, is, in fact, a dog.
It should not be lost that this entire Epstein stuff made a 180 pivot about three days before The United States was needed to clean up yet another of Israel’s messes by bombing Iran.
Trump is also just obviously not a pedophile or whatever other cope term that Redditors from 15 years ago were using to justify their creepy interest in teenagers.
Jeffrey Epstein was a NYC and Palm Beach socialite at the same time as Trump. Yeah they shared a plane a few times, were at some of the same parties, and had some social overlap.
The people trying to tie this into the same vein as Clinton or Gates, who appear to have flown to Epsteins private properties a bunch of times and do seem to have creepy sexual interests are being obtuse.
This whole topic is so tired. It has been beaten to absolute death.
If you want an incredibly detailed and well sourced deep dive on this topic which also goes into pedophilic tendencies of the people around the levers of American Democrat power, then here is a podcast which does that:
https://www.martyrmade.com/featured-podcasts/the-jeffrey-epstein-series/ L
faceh
1d ago
Its complicated by the fact that women are attracted to power, so where I'd never characterize the leader of the free world as a victim, and Clinton in particular is obviously a horndog, an intern can still throw off tons of 'hints' that she's down to clown b/c the mere fact of having access to a powerful man can be enough to 'persuade' her to sleep with him.
Thinking about the Pence/Billy Graham Rule for avoiding the appearance of impropriety.
Avoiding the creation of these power imbalance situations is much simpler than trying to remove power imbalances.
Afghanistan is not Gaza though. The entire population was relatively indifferent to us. They're also on the other side of the planet, not next door neighbors constantly threatening our security. The Taliban also offered to surrender OBL almost immediately after we invaded and they didn't take a bunch of US civilians as hostages.
Specifically, the funniest bit of the lawsuits is that HK preemptively filed a lawsuit claiming that the DOD chose Glock without properly considering the other submissions.
After SIG was selected, they quietly withdrew the suit.
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