Killfile's recent activity
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
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Comment on DnD Players: What are some of the favorite characters you've played? in ~games.tabletop
Killfile LinkI put together a Paladin a while back that worshiped Tempus, the war god. His faith was universalizing and exclusive, so he believed that everything was war in one form or another and thus...I put together a Paladin a while back that worshiped Tempus, the war god. His faith was universalizing and exclusive, so he believed that everything was war in one form or another and thus considered all race mixing (half elves, half-dwarves, etc) to be crimes against his faith.
He also had a profound contempt for peaceful folk, and would frequently comment that you could have his sword when you pried it from his cold, dead hands.
My GM informed me that I was not allowed to play my MAGA Paladin, so I never got around to much more than a sketch outline but it would have been hilarious.
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of June 26 in ~news
Killfile Link ParentSounds like the Court has ruled that the state has to prove intent or at least understanding. More's the pity, the MAGA contingent loves to issue death threats and engage in on-line intimidation....Counterman v. Colorado
Sounds like the Court has ruled that the state has to prove intent or at least understanding. More's the pity, the MAGA contingent loves to issue death threats and engage in on-line intimidation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/27/supreme-court-true-threat-stalking/
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Comment on Compassionate Interpretation in ~talk
Killfile LinkI endeavor to practice this myself but it is much harder than it sounds. For starters, despite the fact that spaces like Tildes are text-based communities, text-based communication is surprisingly...I endeavor to practice this myself but it is much harder than it sounds. For starters, despite the fact that spaces like Tildes are text-based communities, text-based communication is surprisingly difficult for a lot of people. A lot of American English speakers (probably others too, but I don't want to over-state my case here) write the way that they speak; this causes problems because so much of the non-lexical structure of the language is tonal.
Consider the sentence: "I didn't steal his money." It means different things depending on where the vocal stress in the sentence lands.
"I didn't steal his money" suggests that I won it or was given it for legal reasons.
"I didn't steal his money" suggests that, while I stole something, it wasn't money.
But when people write as they speak they often omit the tonal context clues and so we are left wondering where the emphasis should fall. Or they use the wrong word. Or they mangle the grammar. Hell, there's an entire category of sentences in the English language which are grammatically correct, make sense when you write them, and make absolutely no sense when you read them. These "garden path sentences" really showcase how easy it is to write something which your reader can't help but interpret one way when you meant something else entirely.
Consider: "The horse raced past the barn fell." It's grammatically correct; it just doesn't mean what you think it does. Re-read until you get it. Here's another (and my favorite): "The old man the boat."
All of this is to say that the responsibility to read with compassionate interpretation is recursive. You have to read what someone else wrote with the assumption that they're a decent person who means well. You should reply as if you will not be extended the same courtesy. And then you should consider replies to you, keeping in mind that what you originally wrote might have been misconstrued, misunderstood, or rendered essentially meaningless by the limitations of the language in which you wrote it.
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Comment on Russia says Wagner Group’s leader will move to Belarus after his rebellious march challenged Putin in ~society
Killfile LinkThe thing that no one seems to be saying is that none of the terms of this "deal" make any sense. Prigozhin rug-pulled the most competent part of the Russian military machine, spun it around, and...The thing that no one seems to be saying is that none of the terms of this "deal" make any sense.
Prigozhin rug-pulled the most competent part of the Russian military machine, spun it around, and ordered it to march on Moscow. People used the word "coup" openly. Save for actually declaring himself Tsar, there's not much more he could have done to throw down a gauntlet in front of Putin.
Then Belarus negotiates a "deal" and the deal appears to be that Prigozhin moves to Belarus, the pre-coup status quo gets restored, and the criminal case against Prigozhin for coup related activities goes away.
So, in exchange for backing down from what looked like a pretty successful coup-in-progress, Prigozhin gets to move to a different country and not be charged with doing coup-stuff?
Who the hell takes that deal? On either side? It's insane. Putin appears to have just green-lit a no-consequences policy for trying to overthrow his government by military force. Prigozhin seems to have just told his followers that he was prepared to have them fight and die so he could move out of the country.
There has got to be something else going on behind the scenes here.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~finance
Killfile Link ParentOk, but that kind of tax would be regressive as hell. People who spend pretty much all of their income (read: the poor) would end up paying a larger percentage of both their income but ESPECIALLY...If we ever did decide to embrace a cashless world, the government should own the entirety of the banking infrastructure, and all taxes could just be transaction based.
Ok, but that kind of tax would be regressive as hell. People who spend pretty much all of their income (read: the poor) would end up paying a larger percentage of both their income but ESPECIALLY their disposable income in taxes.
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Comment on Hunter Biden will plead guilty in a deal that likely avoids time behind bars in a tax and gun case in ~news
Killfile Link ParentOh, sure. The old saying of "democrats fall in love; republicans fall in line." For most of my life the GOP has voted in lock step in every election, even if the party candidate is an honest to...Oh, sure. The old saying of "democrats fall in love; republicans fall in line."
For most of my life the GOP has voted in lock step in every election, even if the party candidate is an honest to god child rapist. Democrats, meanwhile, only seem to turn out if the candidate in question touches their soul.
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Comment on Hunter Biden will plead guilty in a deal that likely avoids time behind bars in a tax and gun case in ~news
Killfile Link ParentThat is 100% how American politics works though. A vote against "Candidate A" is a vote for "Candidate B."I am not entirely convinced that Biden won entirely on his own merits and not the fact that enough people thought Trump was simply the much worse option.
That is 100% how American politics works though. A vote against "Candidate A" is a vote for "Candidate B."
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Comment on Hunter Biden will plead guilty in a deal that likely avoids time behind bars in a tax and gun case in ~news
Killfile Link ParentSure, but then the question is not "how much do the President's kids suck" and instead "how much do the President's appointments suck?"Sure, but then the question is not "how much do the President's kids suck" and instead "how much do the President's appointments suck?"
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Comment on Former US President Donald Trump demands Republican rivals pledge to pardon him … or else in ~society
Killfile Link ParentExactly. And remember, the documents we're going to see discussed in the indictment and trial are the ones that DOJ, in collaboration with the other three letter agencies, consider the least...Exactly. And remember, the documents we're going to see discussed in the indictment and trial are the ones that DOJ, in collaboration with the other three letter agencies, consider the least damaging to discuss.
One of those documents concerns US assessment of a foreign country's nuclear capabilities, which is to say that documents about nuclear readiness are among those in play.
Do any of those documents have to do with AMERICAN nuclear readiness? The W87 warhead, for example, has been modified since the United States ended live nuclear testing. Does it... you know... actually work? Documents casting doubt on that would PROFOUNDLY undermine American nuclear deterrence and put hundreds of millions of people's lives at risk.
Now, obviously, that's an extreme scenario (and the W87 warhead totally works; the modifications since the 1976 live-fire test are all extremely straightforward) but it's an example worth considering. There have been some secrets in intelligence history which have been considered worth many hundreds or even thousands of lives.
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Comment on Hunter Biden will plead guilty in a deal that likely avoids time behind bars in a tax and gun case in ~news
Killfile LinkGood. We have got to get away from two deeply toxic ideas in American politics. That the President and/or their family is above the law or due any special consideration if they break the law. That...Good. We have got to get away from two deeply toxic ideas in American politics.
- That the President and/or their family is above the law or due any special consideration if they break the law.
- That the President's moral fitness for office is determined by the behavior of their kids or other family members.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
Killfile LinkI'm using Evernote. I've been really happy with it for a long time. They're trying to get AI into their application which is, frankly, a bit of a tire-fire but as a note taking app it's solid....I'm using Evernote. I've been really happy with it for a long time. They're trying to get AI into their application which is, frankly, a bit of a tire-fire but as a note taking app it's solid. Search and especially search inside of images has saved my bacon a bunch of times.
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Comment on Former US President Donald Trump demands Republican rivals pledge to pardon him … or else in ~society
Killfile Link ParentI don't disagree with you macroscopically but because those supporters are pretty evenly divided, the diminishing marginal utility of that is real. Also, because those supporters are a known...All that matters is how well you can whip up your supporters now.
I don't disagree with you macroscopically but because those supporters are pretty evenly divided, the diminishing marginal utility of that is real. Also, because those supporters are a known quantity, we should expect the outrage machines to get pretty well tuned. I'd be stunned if we see a meaningful fall-off in voter engagement in 2024, for example; after all this time, the parties have their voters' figured out.
But that still leaves a thin margin of actual independents who can be won over. This is why Democrats continue to look to town halls and debates whereas Republicans tend to prefer rallies: Democrats can still win people to their platform on issues; Republicans win them on identity and no one changes their identity because of a debate.
All of which is to say that you're right -- the folks in the tank for Trump or Biden won't give a damn about how this does or doesn't play out because they've already made up their minds and this issue is ancillary to their existing political conclusions -- but given the exceedingly narrow margins on which we've seen elections turn out, especially in critical swing states, a small number of votes can be a deciding factor.
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Comment on Former US President Donald Trump demands Republican rivals pledge to pardon him … or else in ~society
Killfile (edited )LinkThe other side of this play is that it gives the entire national security issue to Democrats. For decades Democrats fought against the perception that Republicans did a better job when it came to...Trump’s demand advances two goals: The first is to protect himself from legal consequences if he loses both the GOP primary and his federal court case. But given that Trump is telling allies he’ll trounce DeSantis and all other primary challengers, the demand for a pardon pledge appears to be more a political move. The question itself offers a trap for any Republican who tries to engage with it: either side with Trump and use the occasion to keep him in the campaign spotlight or share some uncomfortable real estate on the side of Joe Biden and the Justice Department.
The other side of this play is that it gives the entire national security issue to Democrats. For decades Democrats fought against the perception that Republicans did a better job when it came to confronting foreign adversaries and protecting American military. That's going to be a hard case to make if the charges against Trump are anywhere near as ironclad as they look. If Republicans are willing to say "yea, but he's our guy" when it's the crown-jewels of national intelligence on the line, they're going to face an uphill battle convincing voters that they're trustworthy in the White House.
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Former US President Donald Trump demands Republican rivals pledge to pardon him … or else
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Comment on What do you miss the most about the old internet? in ~tech
Killfile Link ParentIt occurs to me that I haven't seen the phrase "IRL" in years. Online has become real life.That it was very separate from offline life (no Ring doorbells, no people live-streaming their walks/bike rides, etc.). You could actually just walk away from the internet - your big and heavy home PC - and be secure in the knowledge that you were completely offline
It occurs to me that I haven't seen the phrase "IRL" in years. Online has become real life.
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Comment on ERCOT will tap reserve power faster under system launched this week in ~enviro
Killfile LinkWhat ERCOT is worried about here is the problem of a "Dark Start." Most power plants require power to run. If you have a really serious power outage you can end up in a situation where you don't...- Exemplary
What ERCOT is worried about here is the problem of a "Dark Start." Most power plants require power to run. If you have a really serious power outage you can end up in a situation where you don't have enough power to turn on your power plants.
Adding a whole bunch of battery storage makes the Dark Start problem less likely. It doesn't make it a lot less likely, however, because a battery based solution still requires that you have the forethought to fill and protect battery storage in order to use that power to spin up emergency generation. But... it's something.
The real issue here is that the problems that Texas has faced thus far haven't been Dark Start problems. The 2021 power crisis, for example, wasn't caused because Texas lacked the power to spin up their power sources but because Texas failed to winterize their power generation infrastructure and it couldn't function in the cold. Battery power could have helped there because you could have drained the batteries to stave off the blackout for a little while but that buys you HOURS when the blackout lasted DAYS.
See, what Texas needs is a whole bunch of extra power generation capacity just sitting around idle and waiting for the day when it is needed. Of course, they don't have that because it would cost a giant pile of money and be useless nearly all of the time. No one does that because it would be stupid. Instead, they rely on interconnects. Every other power system in the country has interconnects with other, neighboring power systems and we move power between those systems when there's a shortfall or some other crisis.
But Texas doesn't do that because Texas doesn't want to be subject to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulations. By isolating their power from the rest of the country, Texas can tell Congress to buzz off because power in Texas isn't inter-state commerce. But that means that Texas has to be an island unto itself which brings us back to the "what if we had a bunch of expensive power stations just sitting idle" option.
And in true Texas fashion, Texas has chosen option C: no interconnects AND no excess capacity, just let people freeze.
What could possibly go wrong?
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Comment on Thoughts on LGBT memes and cliches in ~lgbt
Killfile Link ParentThat's the most common cancer for men aged 18-35. Your story can be a cautionary tale for others. Regular self exams lead to early detection. Early detection leads to early treatment and early...That's the most common cancer for men aged 18-35. Your story can be a cautionary tale for others. Regular self exams lead to early detection. Early detection leads to early treatment and early treatment saves lives.
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Comment on Thoughts on LGBT memes and cliches in ~lgbt
Killfile Link ParentI'm a cis, het, straight, white man so I come to this thread from a position of enormous privilege but I see echos of what you're saying in a different community I'm part of. Way back in the day,...I'm a cis, het, straight, white man so I come to this thread from a position of enormous privilege but I see echos of what you're saying in a different community I'm part of.
Way back in the day, shortly after the earth cooled, I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. This story has a point; I promise.
I was 9 at the time, which makes sense because ALL is a pediatric cancer (usually). Among kids it has a very high survival rate as cancers go and treatment is well understood. My treatment went 100% according to plan. No relapses, no serious complications, nothing. I'm 43 years old now and I've got a successful job and a wonderful family and that sets me aside from a lot of other pediatric cancer patients. So... I get where you're coming from.
See, among the community of pediatric cancer patients, my experience was an absolute cake-walk. I look at my friends who had super-agressive brain tumors or who lost motor function in their legs or who just straight up lost limbs to ostiosacromas and I feel like I'm taking something from them by saying that we're both cancer survivors. We both had it; but they had it bad.
Except.... that's not how it is. First, everyone's "hard" is hard. Being treated for cancer sucked and the fact that other people had it worse doesn't mean that my experience ages 9-11 was full of rainbows and puppydogs. Likewise, I'm sure that your experience as a gender fluid person has been hard at times; the fact that other people might have had it harder doesn't change that.
What I found, as I aged, is that my experience as a more privileged survivor allowed me to help the community in ways that less lucky people can't. I can talk to the parents of new pediatric patients and give them hope for the future -- for grandkids even. I can use my legitimacy as a patient to get current patients to listen to advice like "no seriously, you need to take your meds on time" and I can likewise use my lack of obvious, long term side effects to carry a message from my community to places they're shut out of due to disability or cognitive impairment.
All of which is to say that your queeerness isn't less valid or less real than anyone else's queerness. That wonderful family I've got? It include a transgender kid. Zie has a lot of challenges before zir and I do everything I can to support zir but... I'm a cis, het dude. So, I'm glad that zie has people like you in zir corner and I would encourage you to use your privilege as an LGBTQ person who can easily "pass" to advocate for and protect those in your community who can't.
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Comment on General product recommendations in ~life
Killfile LinkThe EZ-DUZ-IT Deluxe Can Opener This feels like the scamiest possible thing someone could possibly recommend but it's not. Let me tell you a story. I'm 43. When I was a kid my mother had this...The EZ-DUZ-IT Deluxe Can Opener
This feels like the scamiest possible thing someone could possibly recommend but it's not. Let me tell you a story. I'm 43. When I was a kid my mother had this metal can opener with off-white vinyl grips. I'm sure they started off life white but they're off-white in my memory. She has moved twice since then and still has the same can opener.
When I moved into my own place I bought a can-opener and it broke. I bought an electric can opener and the motor died. I bought can openers from Walmart, Bed Bath and Beyond, Amazon, and Target. I bought store brand can openers and name brand can openers and every single one of them had the same flaw: the entire thing was either one of these ultra-light-weight all-metal jobies or it had plastic handles with the metal parts seated into them and the handles inevitably failed after a few months of use and dishwasher cycles.
So I began to wonder: how did mom manage to hang on to a single can-opener that always works for at least 40 years? That lead me down a rabbit hole which eventually brought me to the John J Steuby company in Hazelwood, Missouri which has been making these things since the 1960s. The upshot is that, scammy sounding brand name notwithstanding, they're an all-metal can-opener made in the United States which, once you know the name of it, unearths a veritable flood of glowing reviews and happy customers.
Mine is almost a decade old now and still going strong.
Historians don't much like anything that's reductive. The idea that something as consequential as the conquest of the Americans comes down to the North-South vs East-West geography of the Americas vs Eurasia seems to short-change the people, events, and complexities that lead to and made up that conquest.
There might well be something to it but in putting it out there as a theory that explains history rather than a discussion of what happened, Diamond makes some implicit claims that what happened was what had to happen. Historians don't like to do that; we don't like to delve into the counterfactual because that's not what history is. Likewise, we don't like to make assertions about the possibility or impossibility of other outcomes because that is, in a way, just another way of exploring counterfactuals.