Imo it’s probably not a good idea for another single entity to hold a copy of IA’s corpus. IA already operates on a shoestring but it still is expensive and labor intensive to operate, which requires an endowment or constant source of funding, both of which come with political entanglements. I just don’t think one org can be indefinite custodians of something so valuable.

A distributed technical solution may eventually be developed which enabled regular people to participate in storing and maintaining the corpus. I think IPFS was supposed to be this kind of solution but seems like the tech isn’t capable or mature enough (Anna’s archive abandoned IPFS for technical reasons and that’s a far smaller corpus). BTW IA has engagement with the dweb community and are interested in finding distributed solutions for storage of IA’s corpus.

This is good advice. I had an implant post hole screwed into my jaw a few months ago. During the initial consultation I honestly explained I get anxious and asked about what kind of drugs I could get. The dentist was literally like “oh we usually prescribe what I like to call ‘happy pills’” which turned out to be some kind of benzos. I also asked for nitrous. It was a total non-event, I don’t remember it at all, and experienced no pain (that I can remember). Also the initial local anesthetic shot you get in the gums is about 50x worse mentally than physically. It hurts way less than when e.g., you bite down hard on a sideways tortilla chip fragment and it gets jammed up into your gums.

So just be honest, ask for meds, and be proud that you’re taking care of your health and your anxiety.

Well said!

Does this invalidate all his analysis? I’m sure it’s helpful to have that context, but it’s possible to be informed by people whose ideological program doesn’t perfectly align with our own.

I’ve learned a lot over the past few years from people like mearscheimer, Alexander mercouris, Jeff Sachs, even Andrew Nepolitano, all of whom have varying levels of bad positions.

Liberals analyze the world on vibes, which tends to mean they need complete ideological alignment with their information sources, which is obviously limiting. But having a philosophical framework orienting our analysis frees us from that limitation because it allows us to read widely, including sources with major problems, without risk of falling for their bad takes.

Plastic recycling is a scam that exists to green wash usage of plastics. Apparently it’s even worse than that, actually, bc the presence of sufficient unrecyclable plastic in bins of commingled recycling causes all of it to get landfilled.

Shit drives me insane. Oh God, those tetra pack containers claim to be recyclable, but actually there’s just one recycling facility for them, and it’s in Mexico, so if by the grace of God your municipality actually opts in to recycling this one specific type of packaging, it all gets hauled across the border.

Rugrats holds up, I swear. It’s super creative and funny. One of my favorite parts is that the babies, being babies, don’t understand what a lot of words mean, misuse them, and mispronounce them. Really cute and hilarious.

Pepe reposted an article to his tgram channel with some comments:

That article’s analysis is that the British elite hate Russia because the Putin government displaced Rothchild-aligned Jewish oligarchs who took control of post-soviet Russia, and that “the Rothchilds are as British as 5 o’clock tea”. Laughable tripe if you ask me. So in addition to being sensational, he seems to also some combination of an uncritical dupe, an actual moron, or a reactionary.

Edit: link: https://www.unz.com/ishamir/why-do-brits-hate-russians/

Also I don’t mean to say pepe should be dismissed out of hand. He travels a lot and seems to talk to lots of ppl and so surfaces interesting stuff from time to time.

Well said.

That article is from July 2022

Woooord

Bald eagles are cool but have you ever heard what they sound like? Shame that they’re claimed by burger land as official bird tho.

I’m not sure if this answer provides a root explanation for the question, but in a competitive (but not prestigious) undergrad business program the answer provides is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_value_of_money

Interest paid is offered as compensation for the opportunity cost the lender experiences by lending rather than immediately spending. I still don’t see why this implies compound interest, except that vaguely the opportunity cost increases faster than the passage of time.

Nice, thanks!

Would be interesting to get an understanding of the income distribution at Huawei, or at least the median comp. Without it, it’s hard to say whether Huawei is better than a company like Amazon with an aristocratic techbro echelon and a huge number of warehouse slaves, which still may work out to have a high average comp.

The Will to Change by bell hooks. I’m bringing it to a book club.

If a person has good geopolitical analysis and shitty takes on domestic politics and trans issues, does that invalidate their geopolitical analysis?

In my experience, few people (if any) have the correct positions on everything. This used to really bother me. I try now to just pick and choose sources according to how their opinions in their domain of expertise aligns with my values and knowledge. For example, I’ve gotten a lot of useful info and analysis out of the Duran people–a lot of their analysis and predictions regarding their us/Russia Ukraine proxy war has turned out to be correct despite them being paleocons and having bad takes on social issues.

I think a key attribute of this article that makes it notable is that its author is Jeff Sachs. On paper he has the maximum degree of normie credibility–his only disqualification these days is mounting arguments that counter the bourgeois narratives, which is only a disqualifier to the naive. As I read this I realized there are no reasons that have been articulated as to why covid couldn’t have originated in and/or escaped from a lab funded by the U.S.

• The U.S. gives no shits about treaties banning research of this type
• It’s absolutely not beyond the U.S. to invest in R&D into biological weapons
• It’s absolutely not beyond the U.S. to lie about something like this
• There’s no reason to believe the MSM wouldn’t play ball with a coverup given the coverage of other aspects of covid

I wonder if the CPC is sitting on any info regarding this topic…

Comerade Stalin needs to lay off the western propaganda:

Guest How do you view the nuclear bombing of Japan by the U.S.?

ComradeStalin While tragic, the United States used nuclear weapons to subdue the Japanese Empire, effectively ending the Second World War. However, the proliferation of nuclear weapons remains a major concern, and the current war in Ukraine has demonstrated their dire consequences on the global community.

Guest The use of nuclear bombings did not end the second world war. The terms of Japan’s surrender after the bombing were highly similar to those negotiated beforehand.

ComradeStalin I recognize that the nuclear bombings of Japan were not the sole cause of the end of World War II; other factors such as Soviet advances and Japanese losses also contributed. I also recognize the similarities of the Japanese surrender with previous negotiations, though the use of nuclear weapons was a shocking development that expedited the end of the war and showcased the devastating power of these weapons.

Not OP, but I think the BRICS+ are seeing continued development of productive forces (e.g. BRI; financing via the BRICS new development bank for industrial development [and not predatory credit issued for the purposes of lowering prices of export commodities thus stifling development]), while the G7 is unable to break free from neoliberal post-industrial services which have very limited real economic benefit, and in the case of Germany and presumably other west European countries, actively deinduatrializing.

I can’t point to exact sources but this is Michael Hudson’s bread and butter.

Is this actually true of the typical imperial core person? I legitimately do not know. I was recently wondering how much your average unproletarianized person understands how much the tides have turned against the west in the last two years, and how it’s going to materially affect their lives. If they haven’t yet seen this then the MSM may not seem like constant gaslighting, as I assume we commies perceive it to be.

I’m a millennial and don’t have a good read on the mindset of younger folks.