Tower

Dang, weird to think (ceteris paribus) I would’ve been tall in 1900. I’m 172.7cm, 5’8″. I’m not insecure about my height in any way, but some women sure are. Well, their loss.

Anyway, strange to think I woulda been considered tall back then. The only time I’ve towered above a crowd is in China back in 2005. (And that felt odd, as I hate standing out in general.)

Inverted

It’s an interesting inversion of cultural understanding that in the original Christian ideology women were seen as inherently corrupted/evil (Eve in the Garden) and now that’s flipped under feminism/liberalism to the idea that men are inherently evil and women are the angelic beings.

No comments other than it has occurred and that is pretty remarkable.

Tractive

My girlfriend has gotten bigger and I donโ€™t know how to bring it up.

Don’t tiptoe around it. There’s absolutely no reason we should kowtow to the Fat Acceptance movement clowns who say it’s wrong to lose attraction to a partner because they start ballooning to the size of Arcturus.

Attraction (contra Gen Z and modern feminism) is natural and so is losing it when someone becomes something through their own will (or lack of it) that you did not sign up for. That women should never be criticized for anything related to their appearance when in a relationship is also insane. Men are afforded no such grace.

So, talk to her about it. If she reacts badly, end it. That’s really all you can do.

Anti-drone drone developed by Ukraine to take out Iranian-designed kamikazes.

Microsoft creates fake Azure tenants to pull phishers into honeypots.

Barnum effect.

Navy Just Reloaded A Vertical Launch System For The First Time While Underway At Sea.

AI Detectors Falsely Accuse Students of Cheatingโ€”With Big Consequences.

Phenomenal consciousness is alien to us: SETI and the fermi paradox seen through the prism of illusionism and attention schema theory.

Welcome to the Era of the $20,000 Family Car Insurance Bill. Insurance is, mostly, a scam.

Bad News: Weโ€™ve Lost Control of Our Social Media Feeds. Good News: Courts Are Noticing. That so many people are content to be controlled by clowns like Mark Zuckerberg will never not mystify me.

How Beijing Recruited New York Chinatowns for Influence Campaign.

Recognizance

I have trouble recognizing male programmers because they all dress the same, are all overweight to obese, all have the same scruffy poorly-trimmed beard, and all wear glasses 1.

This is a real problem at in-person work functions.

  1. Obviously, not every single one. But this is accurate to my experience.

Roam

That’s how I grew up, but I was part of the last gen (Gen X) to do so. Often I would go outside at 8AM and not see another adult till 6-9PM. I’d roam miles from home on my own or, more rarely, with friends. This was completely normal back then. Now it’d get parents arrested.

Knife

The free world teeters on the edge of a knife. If Trump is elected, there will be no liberal great powers left in the world.

I agree with Noah Smith here.

Although itโ€™s not possible to know for certain what the consequences of a second Trump presidency would be, itโ€™s very possible that it would result in the U.S. essentially surrendering its European allies to Russia and its Asian allies to China โ€” thus dramatically weakening Americaโ€™s own ability to resist those enemies in the future.

This is an extremely likely outcome of a Trump victory. And that, therefore, will make WWIII far more likely as well. Either that, or the below — followed by WWIII.

If the U.S. abandons resistance to China and Russia, it will go very badly for Americaโ€™s allies. Europe will probably fracture again, with some states (probably including Germany) falling all over themselves to appease the Russians. Russia will then become a sort of de facto hegemon in Europe. In Asia, China would probably conquer Taiwan, cutting off U.S. semiconductor supplies and establishing Chinese hegemony in East Asia. Japan and South Korea would then be forced to choose between either becoming nuclear powers or becoming de facto satrapies of the new Chinese empire. Essentially, Americaโ€™s major allies would fall to Americaโ€™s enemies.

It is indeed, as Noah observes, a very dangerous time.

Emoted

Emotional intelligence is worth nearly nothing. Women are 100x more interested in me now that I got way fitter and hotter. I could be a complete asshole and this would still be the case. Perhaps even more the case as many, many women use assholery as a proxy for dominance, which is hugely appealing to many women.

Emotional intelligence helps some in a relationship. But it helps 0.0% in getting you one. In fact, it probably hurts on net.