Month: May 2025

Kashmir

Chill Music, Music Video, Video

This is not to take anything away from Sina. She’s great. An amazing drummer. But there’s never been a pure rock drummer like John Bonham. Perhaps Karen Carpenter. And…that’s about it.

That’s a great cover. And there’s nothing wrong with this, but she’s not Bonham. She’s a little too on top of the rhythm. Bonham dances with the rhythm, he plays with it and brings it where he needs it to be before you know it needs to go there. He’s behind the next note when that’s what makes sense and emphasizes or drags out a few phrases to make the music better. And, mostly, Sina doesn’t do any of that. Because what Bonham does can’t be imitated and probably cannot be taught.

Sina’s cover is technically perfect. But it’s also a bit shallow. It just doesn’t have the same soul.

Sina is better than almost any drummer who has ever lived. But when you’re playing against Bonham that simply does not matter.

Now compare Sina’s version with the original.

That hurried little fills in Kashmir are so great. How you learn to do something like that I cannot even begin to imagine.

Chill Links

Putin is stringing Trump along, and Trump doesn’t seem to realize it.

Global Warming Has Accelerated.

Overall, just two of America’s 50 largest metros offer median salaries that are high enough for those earning them to affordably buy a median-priced home: Detroit and Pittsburgh.

Why Does the U.S. Always Run a Trade Deficit?

BYD launches the new low-cost e7 EV in China, starting at under $15,000.

Fight or Don’t Fight and Take the Consequences.

The New York Times vs AGI.

Powerlessness

Chill Annoying

What in the hell are people even talking about a power imbalance when there is an age gap? Like, yeah, I can understand if someone is dating a minor. Definitely power imbalance and should not be done. Fully agreed there. It’s unethical and immoral; there has to be a line somewhere.

But what is this mysterious enormous power that they imagine being older gives you? I’ve seen little to no evidence of it, especially if the younger person is older than 21-22 or so. I’m not in the market, but I’d absolutely date anyone 22 or above if I were. It’s not too likely I’d want to date anyone younger than that but if we got along and we were crazy about each other, why not? Not every relationship should last infinitely (and 95% of them end with break-up, age gap or not).

I think a lot of this “power imbalance” pseudo-concern is from people who know they themselves would attempt to do terrible things to the other person if they thought they could get away with it. And of course a lot of it is about women’s intrasexual competition, which has nothing to do with me. Only about 0.2% of the people complaining about age gaps actually care about protecting anyone from harm. The rest is pure bullshit.

MAGA Clowns

Chill Clowns, Evil

I think it’s something like that. So many people have had it reasonably well for so long (effective vaccines, enough food, no invasions, etc.) that they have no idea what it takes to maintain and extend that.

So we are where we are: a bunch of utter clown dumbasses destroying everything because they do not understand why it exists.

Chill Links

Farmers in Iowa Are Learning the Hard Way What It’s Like to Be the Victims of Trump’s Trade War.

Economists warn Trump’s research cuts could have dire consequences for GDP. Could and will.

A flight spent 10 minutes with no pilot when the first officer collapsed while the captain was in the bathroom.

Corporate America is a dystopian nightmare.

Trump isn’t anti-establishment so much as anti-reason, anti-logic, anti-development, and anti-common-sense. And probably directly working for Russia and China.

The truth behind the accuracy of weather forecasts.

Joe Biden and his aides owe America an apology. So does Jill Biden.

Everpresent

Chill Evil

About the post below, this comment said it best I think; I’ll excerpt a bit here.

For most men (all men, but “most” to differing degrees; very hot guys experience this less, but still experience it), live in a world that sees them as a threat and treats them as such. I have a good amount of pretty privilege, and I endure this constant social rejection all the time; and I see how much worse it is for most other men. A man has to be in that rare 1% of the 1% Hollywood/model hot to avoid this sense of non-stop and constant social rejection.

Basic human interactions, when women run into this, they consider it “rude.” It still shocks and disappoints me how often women get offended when someone is “rude” to them, when that’s just baseline human interaction for us.

Everyone treating you like trash — especially women — is the default male experience. To be treated as well as the average woman in normal situations, you have to be in the top 0.00001% or so of men.

And that’s pretty fucked up.

Chill Links

If nothing is curated, how do we find things?

Large Language Models Are More Persuasive Than Incentivized Human Persuaders.

Science funding was already way too low. Right on; should’ve already been 3-5x larger.

Medicaid Work Requirements Are Cruel and Pointless.

Foreign Investors Loaded Up on Treasury Securities in March Despite all the Turmoil in the Media.

New research reveals the strongest solar event ever detected, in 12350 BC.

America’s College Towns Go From Boom to Bust.