domain:eigenrobot.substack.com
netstack
Texas is freedom land
6hr ago
I wish I could bet money against anything happening on this front. I guess that’s just normal investing.
ThisIsSin
Cainanites and Abelists
6hr ago
They used AR-15s, which are not, despite years of anti-gun campaigning, particularly good rifles for waging war (or insurgency).
They're cheap, good, and half the world's nations actively use them to wage war in some capacity. If that is not a good rifle I'm not sure what is.
This theory of 'more bullets = better' is not actually better in general
Yes it is[1].
that the slower rate forces better shooting fundamentals for reliability per shot
But when we're actually fighting- we're shooting at targets that are actively trying to avoid being shot at, and trying not to be shot ourselves- and not just trying to score bullseyes on a static range, we want it to be as easy as possible for us to make hits. So we're going to use the lightest feasible caliber that will defeat the target over the distances at which we expect to engage (usually less than 100 yards), and carry the most bullets both in the gun and on the person in extra magazines (traditional rifle ammunition is quite heavy and is quickly self-limiting in how much you can carry).
5.56 is special in that the cartridge weighs about the same as 9mm does (as in, the standard pistol cartridge), recoils the same as 9mm loaded to its maximum potential, but is significantly more effective than 9mm is at longer ranges because ballistics magic[2]. And its magazines are shorter so you can have more bullets in the gun without making it unwieldly.
This is in contrast to, say, 7.62x39 (the AK round), where it weighs twice as much as 9mm, recoils twice as much, magazines with comparable ammunition quantity to a 9mm rifle make the gun relatively unwieldly, and isn't appreciably more effective than 5.56 given those things because of a lack of said ballistics magic.
Note that hunting doesn't have these constraints. Neither do specialized military applications like sniping. You want overkill in those circumstances because you're not going to get another shot- the fewer holes you put in the animal the more of its tasty body is preserved (in the hunting case), and for both of them, the ranges over which you need to shoot a target that's going to spook and disappear after the first shot mean you want something that's going to give you the easiest time of that at ranges further than those typical for combat (200-400 yards).
[1] The US Army's take on "we need a rifle to shoot 800 yards" reminds me of the time the British did that. Both nations invaded Afghanistan (and lost) before adopting a rifle like this- a nation whose geography lends itself to long-range ambush-style engagements will proceed to teach militaries that fight there they need weapons with that kind of range to be standard-issue.
And to be fair to the Brits, just like the Americans, perhaps they envision future conflicts against Near/Middle Eastern or African nations will benefit from a rifle like this- places that are scarcely urbanized, with an enemy whose dominant form of mechanization is the Toyota Hilux. Against peer nations in urban warfare, though, this is not a great plan. Of course, the Americans tend to be very good at expedient engineering; the AR-15 got issued in record time while the US was at war so if they need a new rifle they'll have one quick.
[2] The faster a bullet is going the more likely it's going to fragment or change course sharply when it hits the target. Getting a similar ballistic effect from a large cartridge means a heavier projectile [not getting into why] means a heavier cartridge means heavier recoil, so you get less of the things that make the rifle good in typical combat distances.
self_made_human
C'est la vie
6hr ago
Every Indian woman I've met seems to have a story about getting groped in public and the offender never gets beaten by the upstanding citizens that you claim inhabit the subcontinent.
Notice that I was very careful not to make this claim about sexual harassment.
Because that wouldn't be true. But why the difference?
Because a pinched ass is not a smoking gun! If someone gropes you up, there's usually no evidence a crime was committed at all, unlike most forms of theft, where you can, at least some of the time, show that the culprit is carrying your wallet or phone. The worst they can do is try and drop the evidence, which is usually not the same as destroying the evidence. My wallet lying ten feet away from you is, shall we say, suggestive.
Also, and I hope this is obvious, being groped is far more embarrassing than being robbed. This is just as true in India than is in the West. How many women cat-called by construction workers in NYC go on to file a complaint for sexual harassment?
Another important factor is that, because of the lack of evidence, it often boils down to a he-said-she-said situation, which bystanders are usually quite loathe to become involved in.
You're the only Indian I've met who claims that people would get beaten in the street for various transgressions and I really find it hard to believe.
My man, did you bother to do something as simple as Google the phrase thief beaten up India?
Or did you look up "man beaten for groping woman India"? Because yes, that has happened.
Here is a vicesplainer on the career trajectory of one Delhi pickpocket. He joins a gang that has so much opportunity for larceny that they're pickpocketing around the clock in shifts. He certainly doesn't fear retaliation from honorable bystanders, the only thing he seems to fear is the gang after he tells them he's out.
I don't have the time to watch the video right now, but my expectation is that they're preying on tourists primarily, which would be easily true in Delhi. They could also, more tentatively, simply be lying about the risks of being caught, or too dumb to care.
BreakerofHorsesandMen
Sweet Sejenus
6hr ago
I want to believe, but also there are no aliens in the classical “beings from outer space” sense.
I rate this news 5 Nothings out of 5 Ever Happens.
You are correct that Comic Sans is the appropriate font for this.
BreakerofHorsesandMen
Sweet Sejenus
6hr ago
Adoption is an even worse offender if you take this line of thinking.
No significant argument here. The kind of adoption process that involves traveling the world to find the perfect orphan is straight-up child buying, and has some moral similarities to eugenic embryo modification.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
6hr ago
[comic sans]UAP DISCLOSURE UPDATES[/comic sans]
The mood in the UFO community has been rather dour lately due to a string of disappointments and setbacks, but Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri dropped some promising indications this week that Congress has not forgotten about the topic and full disclosure may very well still be in the works:
"We're pursuing a hearing date. We've got a list of people that we're looking at. We're actually looking at potentially doing two. One with some people that are direct whistleblowers, who have had direct, and when I say direct, they had eyes directly on or have personally encountered UAP. In their formal operations."
"Not somebody out and about like Joe Blow out there that saw something. There's thousands and thousands of people like that. We're talking about people that worked for the Pentagon, worked in a government program, where they worked in and around this technology. Whether it was through crash retrieval, or through reverse engineering, that's what we're pursuing right now."
"The next hearing after that, once we're able to get information, we're looking at doing some interrogatories, which is where you take some of the things that have been said in these briefings, in these open hearings under oath. And then we send a formal letter as a committee, asking for answers from, whether it's Tulsi Gabbard, or whomever it is that we need to be asking these questions of. And then which would send up the potential second hearing, which would hopefully be able to clear people like Tulsi Gabbard to come forward."
"And I've been told she's very... friendly when it comes to this topic. That she wants disclosure. She wants to help bring about disclosure on this topic."
self_made_human
C'est la vie
6hr ago
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You will lose muscle along with the weight, if you solely use it for weight loss without dieting. But the degree of muscle loss is about the same as going on a diet, fasting, or, if memory serves, bariatric surgery. If you exercise alongside, you can stave most of this off.
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Indeed. You will regain roughly half the weight you lost in a year of use after a year of disuse. But no other negative effects, to the best of my knowledge.
(I take oral semaglutide, so I'm putting money pills where my mouth is.)
Scott, as always, has an excellent write up:
thrownaway24e89172
naïve paranoid outcast
6hr ago
Adoption is an even worse offender if you take this line of thinking. At least with surrogacy the client is usually genetically related to the children.
Mantergeistmann
6hr ago
I'm (still) playing Anno 1800, in between finishing FFVII rebirth, my NG+ of Metaphor: ReFantazio, and returning to low-level LotRO. My biggest takeaway is that the newer LoTRO writers are far, far worse than the original dev team.
NunoSempere
6hr ago
My impression is that the numbers you are mention... aren't that high; Israel is probably willing to spend many more of its own lives in this conflict.
For reference, if we adjust the 150K to 500K deaths[^1] from Russia's war in Ukraine from Russia's population of 143M to Israel's population of 9.757M, we get 10K to 34K, and remember that we are talking about deaths here. So there is room for a 10x here easily.
This doesn't really speak to your point of whether Hamas' fighting capabilities have been degraded. But Israel has been fighting a war with many fronts, in which Iran has been taken out of the picture, Hezbollah has been disabled in Lebanon. Recently the Israeli army claimed that they had operational control of 65% of Gaza, which is congruent with your perspective.
[^1]: Recent reports say 1M dead or injured, but use the confusing term "casualties" for this, to make it look bigger.
birb_cromble
6hr ago
5.56 out of a 20" barrel can defeat level IV plates at 100 yards, and possibly up to 200, depending on the bullet construction. Velocity is a hell of a thing.
What I am struggling with, however, is understanding the game plan of the aliens - specifically why on Earth the alien Theseus went up against would intentionally seed the Icarus Array with a lifeform capable of turning the entirety of humanity into a super-intelligent hive-mind. That is an utterly suicidal move.
My takeaway from the two books was this:
Beginning of Blindsight
Theseus arrives at Big Ben.
The Captain/Jukka Sarasti realizes almost immediately upon encountering Big Ben that all current life in the Solar System is fucked.
Big Ben is the alien. The Scramblers are just antibodies or pieces of the larger hivemind that is Big Ben/Rorschach.
The rest of the plot of Blindsight plays out, with The Captain knowing in advance that Theseus and its crew will be inevitably reprogrammed and consumed by the Scramblers.
The Captain executes a dead man’s hand strategy where whatever information Big Ben inevitably sends back down the telematter stream to Icarus is going to be edited/hacked.
End of Blindsight/Beginning of Echopraxia
Big Ben sends information back down the telematter stream to Icarus. Under normal circumstances, this would start the process of creating Big Ben 2, except now with access to all the matter and energy of the Sun, rather than the brown dwarf Big Ben 1 was found orbiting.
The Captain’s dead man’s hand strategy results in this information not beginning the process of making Big Ben 2, but rather Portia, which has similar capabilities to Big Ben 1 but is a competing organism. This hack was what the Captain was working on the whole time Theseus was engaging with Big Ben.
The Captain expects Portia to consume all life in the Solar System, but in a hivemind kind of way similar to the Bicams, thus allowing humanity and vampires to continue existing, sort of, while also being able to compete against entities like Big Ben.
End of Echopraxia
Portia is humanity. The human shaped bodies are just antibodies or pieces of the larger hivemind that is Portia.
Book 3 would be a war of super-intelligences between the alien Big Ben and the nearly as alien Portia, with all remaining human-esque entities caught in the middle.
I find it interesting to think that under this interpretation, the Captain is an exquisitely well-aligned super-intelligence. Its strategy is the only way to save anything of what humanity was, given the circumstances and universe as presented.
Anyways, to answer your question with my personal interpretation, the alien’s plan took a left turn when the Captain was able to execute some kind of Hail Mary man-in-the-middle attack on their information transfer to Icarus.
Incidentally, this all implies that almost all of the character actions in Blindsight are irrelevant to the plot, and even actively counterproductive, because the single most important thing occurring is the Captain making sure that Big Ben never susses out that there is another super-intelligence in the mix.
NunoSempere
7hr ago
Some items I'm looking at this week:
OpenAI to release web browser
Nearly 700 civilians killed in Israeli attacks on Iran
The new Bangladeshi government has an audio recording of the previous leader, Sheikh Hasina, ordering her forces to use lethal force. They will use this in her trial.
Hamas gives 'positive' response to 60-day ceasefire proposal but says talks needed on implementation
Russia allegedly field-testing deadly AI drone powered by Nvidia Jetson Orin
Israel launches new ground incursion in Lebanon, raising fears for truce
Trump Ups Criticism Of Putin As He Releases Weapons, Considers Sanctions
No fewer than 500 Israelis killed in conflict with Iran — Iranian parliament speaker
Church leaders: It's time for Nigeria's Christians to defend themselves – Catholic World Report
Supreme court clears way for Trump to mass fire federal workers
Former Bangladesh police chief admits to crimes against humanity amid crackdown trial
Yemeni armed forces hit Ben Gurion airport, other Israeli targets with drones, missiles
Yemen's Ansarullah pledges sleepless nights for zionists after terrorist 'israeli' incursion
Gaza ceasefire talks begin in Qatar amid ongoing tensions
Iran president Masoud Pezeshkian says Israel attempted to assassinate him
Trump claimed victory against the Houthis in fight over Red Sea shipping. Now they are sinking tankers again
What to know as Yemen's Houthi rebels launch new attacks on ships in the Red Sea
Climate change made Europe's heatwave up to 4C hotter
Climate change tripled recent heat deaths in Europe, scientists say
North Korea quietly building chemical weapons for combat
China provided real-time intelligence to Pakistan during a recent conflict with India, according to India's Deputy Army Chief.
As bird flu evolves, keeping it out of farm flocks is getting harder
First round of indirect Israel-Hamas talks ends inconclusively, 'situation in Gaza likely remains grim for foreseeable future'
South Sudan's worst and longest cholera outbreak enters critical stage
India admits heavy losses in 'operation sindoor', to posthumously honour 100 soldiers
Iran Fatwa Fundraiser to Kill Donald Trump Raises Over $40 Million
[Iran International] |reported| that Mansour Emami, another cleric in Iran's West Azerbaijan Province, announced a reward of 100 billion tomans ($1.14 million) for anyone who killed Trump.
Israel defence minister plans to move Gaza's population to camp
Israel's Defence Minister has directed the military to devise a plan for relocating all Palestinians in Gaza to the southern territory, with plans for a 'humanitarian city' to accommodate around 600,000 initially, potentially growing to house the entire population. The relocation aims to secure the area against potential Hamas operatives, operating under a proposed ceasefire for construction. This proposal has been met with strong condemnation from human rights advocates and warnings from the UN regarding the legal implications of forcibly transferring civilians, which is classified as ethnic cleansing.
Iran's government says at least 1,060 people were killed in the war with Israel – The Frontier Post
Tribunal indicts Sheikh Hasina (in absentia)
Death Toll in Kenya's Anti-Government Protests Rises to 31
Haiti death toll hits nearly 5,000 in nine months as gang violence spreads
"Hong Kong citizens felt immensely proud visiting the Shandong aircraft carrier group."
The US military will test a "Joint War Zone Distribution Center" in Australia.
General Ronald Clark, Commander of the U.S. Army Pacific, announced during the 'Protector's Blade' exercise that the Army is testing a new logistics capability in Australia aimed at efficiently prepositioning equipment and supplies in the Pacific theater. This initiative supports the military's strategic readiness for potential long-term operations, focusing on establishing 'Joint Theater Distribution Centers' that can be crucial during military conflicts, humanitarian missions, or natural disasters.
These distribution centers are set to be established across the Pacific region, with the Army currently managing centers in the Philippines and Australia. The exercise, which involves around 35,000 troops from 19 countries, serves as a platform for developing logistics capabilities and testing the Army's new 'Mid-Range Capability' missile system, the 'Typhoon.' Clark highlighted the necessity of these centers to mitigate logistical challenges and emphasized their essential attributes, which include operational port capabilities and storage for various supplies.
Unusual USAF and Space Force Drills Near Taiwan
UN reports 798 deaths near Gaza aid hubs amid ongoing conflict
Hamas agrees to release 10 hostages during Gaza peace talks
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that it currently exercises operational control over 65 percent of the Gaza Strip.
European heatwave caused 2,300 deaths, scientists estimate
Europe's freak back-to-back heat-domes killed 2,300 in eight days with temperatures 'reaching 48C', study finds
MathWizard
Good things are good
7hr ago
If each and every one of the twelve "normal" dudes is actually normal, middle of the bell curve in terms of criminality, then yeah it's going to be much safer, although it's still a non-negligible risk factor. Ordinary people can get violent if they're acting to protect their children from what they perceive as a threat (and rightly so in many cases). If instead they're chosen randomly from the distribution, then out of a dozen men you're going to get several on the low end of the bell curve. Given that 9% of men end up going to prison, you're likely to get one being an actual criminal who just hasn't been caught yet. Who might then act violent towards the others and get them pulled into trying to fight back in an attempt to protect themselves, the woman, and/or the child. Modify this again by noting that the subset of men who are likely to fall for a stunt like this are going to be below average in intelligence and general quality, so you're very likely to be pulling from the lower end of the bell curve repeatedly, even if not quite at the depths that prison would be.
It's still qualitatively the same risk scenario, the prison part does make it worse but it's merely an amplifier to the pre-existing risk.
Totalitarianit
7hr ago
This post's conversation also reminds me of first amendment auditors who go to public places and record everything and everyone around them because they're not legally in the wrong. They operate under the guise of protecting the first amendment, but this (as Primaprimaprima put it when describing Karens) is of secondary importance. Their real motivation is to create a reaction that they can capture and record, then post on their YouTube page.
The extent to which these people who aren't "technically" wrong corrode the cohesiveness of our society can't really be quantified in real time. I think a lot of us just understand that it is bad and that it will have future implications. Normal people recognize the problem as well, but there is no way to say "no" with any real force unless a law is broken. An atomized society has nothing but the law to truly dictate behavior, but more laws ultimately lead to less freedom. Informal resolutions while they can be deeply satisfying also carry the potential for overreaction or being too heavy-handed.
When it comes to feminists bitching about family structure, they're just trying to ensure they maintain as much social power and freedom as possible, and, since the receipts of "family structure" abuses are readily available, they constantly point to them to beat back the opposition. What makes them even more powerful is the online presence of women, especially neurotic ones, who will collectively treat any issue they're arguing for as if it's the most morally important problem of our time. These women are numerous, and passionate, and hysterical. The only real recourse seems to be one where society collects the receipts of unchecked feminism and pluralism. Unfortunately, it will have to run its course and we will have to continue to watch people be as annoying and as immoral and as disgusting as possible while still not being "technically" wrong.
pusher_robot
PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS
7hr ago
but if the tariffs are painless and everyone is still buying cheap shit from China, aren't we losing???
It does count as tax revenue, so to the extent you care at all about deficits and debt, that's at least helpful.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
7hr ago
but if the tariffs are painless and everyone is still buying cheap shit from China, aren't we losing???
Pretty much, yeah.
Of course it was never reasonable to think that "tariffs" meant "stop all trade with China". It couldn't have meant that, because that's just not how things get done in the neoliberal world order. I'm not an economist and I haven't followed the technical details of this story closely, but I do know that there's no big red switch labeled "TARIFFS" that they just flip on and off. You look at the actual details of the agreements and it's always something like, "an O(n*log(n)) prorated surcharge will be applied to soybeans from these three farms just outside of Shenzhen every fifth Tuesday when Venus is in retrograde", rather than "fuck China we got our own soybeans now". The devil's in the details.
So either Trump's powerless to implement his vision of reshaping global trade, or he doesn't actually want to, or this IS the agenda as he envisioned it and this is the extent of the impact. But either way it doesn't look like much of anything is going to change.
My favorite flourish of his was in Echopraxia, where he casually dropped the non-bomb that reality in that book was proven to be a simulation, but it never comes up again and has no impact on anything.
Echopraxia was quite the mess. There were things I enjoyed about it, but it lacked a lot of narrative direction and also contained a lot of plot points that didn't make any sense at all just because the story had to happen.
I think in general Watts' short stories work better than his novels, since short stories lend themselves to the exploration of a single conceptual thread which is his clear strong point. With the exception of Blindsight and perhaps the Freeze-Frame Revolution I think things tend to fall apart when Watts is left to craft an extended narrative - there are often a whole lot of unrelated ideas not relevant to the story and there's a general lack of narrative cohesion. The lack of character depth also tends to become far more clear when he has more words to waste on them. Though, you don't really read Watts for his spellbinding characters.
I don't know, I only ever played Ark on the official servers. The game .. may feel fun for ~800 hours if you play by yourself in the PvE mode but it's about 1/20th of the entire game experience. PvE itself can be challenging and fun, especially on Aberration, but the real experience is vastly more 'rewarding'. The issues is, permanently running servers reward no-lifers, so even those who could dedicate 4 hrs of it each night, as much as people used to watch TV, would be unable to compete with students, unemployed, part-time employed people who love the game..
The whole reason why it seems more fun is because people are smart, and you really find out what you're made of when there's no reload or do-overs.
Ofc, with Ark, the big issue is, that devs can't program and can't create good rules.
I'm not as opposed as some to stat sticks, but if you're going to let a solo direwolf easily take down a pack of five carnos that each individually outweigh her
That's because they wanted to reward players and the level scaling is absurd. A tame direwolf with a few lvls into HP is going to have about the same HP as an alpha carno. If in the game high level tamed animals weren't absurdly stronger than wild ones, navigating the map could be an actual challenge. People wouldn't like that at all!
Ironically, you picked a pretty bad example because direwolves are notoriously 'squishy' due to having no saddle damage reduction. They're a niche animal with limited uses, mostly bred as pets. You want a high level direbear with a decent saddle, but ideally a high level t-rex. That's going to eat everything except a giga or titanosaur. (as to fighting those, the only safe way is trapping them and using weapons or dinos that do % damage, like another giga or allosaurus)
Anyway the meta to understand is relatively easy and in any case, there's always the wiki.
WhiningCoil
7hr ago
If you're incompetent and unteachable enough that you need to be governed with direct intervention, and restricted from handling your own affairs, you're also not really equipped to tell if your overseer is making good decisions on your behalf, and even if they aren't actively exploiting you, they can of course be making decisions that are suboptimal for your personal wellbeing, simply because they are not as motivated to do the best possible job.
IMHO, this is a perfect is the enemy of good situation. Is someone managing your decisions better than you, such that you are having even marginally better life outcomes than you were before them telling you what to do? Well, then how much of that added value they skim off the top comes down to competition between overseers.
Shit, I think we just reinvented the labor market.
Southkraut
The rain fell gentlier.
7hr ago
Peter Watts is, in my opinion, a very original writer, but not a very good one. He introduces interesting concepts or combines concepts in interesting ways, but his misanthropy is downright monotonous, his characters are pretty much just "what if someone were extremely fucked up in this particular way", and the plots are always "everything's fucked and then it gets worse". Garnish with more or less novel scientific ideas, interesting to read, but not really good books as such.
My favorite flourish of his was in Echopraxia, where he casually dropped the non-bomb that reality in that book was proven to be a simulation, but it never comes up again and has no impact on anything.
I'll probably read anything he writes, if only to hear about his latest inventions.
faceh
7hr ago
On the flip side there's the principal-agent problem.
If you're incompetent and unteachable enough that you need to be governed with direct intervention, and restricted from handling your own affairs, you're also not really equipped to tell if your overseer is making good decisions on your behalf, and even if they aren't actively exploiting you, they can of course be making decisions that are suboptimal for your personal wellbeing, simply because they are not as motivated to do the best possible job.
Maybe there needs to be an overseer-advocate role whose sole job is to audit the other overseers and ensure they're at least complying with best practices.
But this adds extra complexity and expense to this system.
So one really hopes that in the aggregate the added costs of supervising the supervisors and auditing the expenses and otherwise ensuring that the wards are being treated adequately well are actually producing more value than just leaving those folks to their own devices to be exploited.
I can see why institutionalization was a popular solution for this in decades past. If you can put the wards all in one place and lock them in, it takes relatively few supervisors to manage them all, and in theory if you can check in on the conditions regularly and make sure there's no wanton abuses.
In practice, the people most drawn to these jobs would, in many cases, be the most likely to want to commit some kind of abuse.
BreakerofHorsesandMen
Sweet Sejenus
7hr ago
Are children possessions? Can they be bought and sold?
Er, well, no
Surrogacy businesses everywhere in sudden disarray.
No it can't, by the definition of what level IV plates are.
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