Maybe it’s just the deterioration of Tumblr and feminist blogs, but in addition to the decline of the Fat Acceptance movement, I’ve also noticed a decrease in the narrative that if you’re a man who is attracted to women and say so, you must be some kind of weirdo pervert.

Dang that was fuckin’ oddball as all hell. Glad that’s not around much anymore.

Boeing Starliner astronauts may not return until 2025 — and they may fly SpaceX.

Boeing: Oops, you live in space now. Fill out that change of address form and get comfortable.

Jordan Peterson is not a draw to me. What’s not facile and obvious of what he says is moronic. However, I think this explains his appeal quite well:

Men who pay any attention are told they are the cause of all problems while the same people claim that men have no problems of their own. Furthermore, they are treated by nearly everyone — including those they are most attracted to — as disposable and worthless most of the time. The average man’s experience in the world is pretty terrible. Peterson at least acknowledges that and proposes some way to live with the knowledge that most people see you as a tool for their own ends.

I can see why that’s appealing to men who are otherwise completely invisible except to be told how contemptible they are.

There’s not that much wealth in the world.

This fundamentally misunderstands how wealth works and what it is based on. It’s just all kinds of wrong, like most things Noah Smith writes about economics. It’s interesting that when he writes about science, politics or policy outside of economics he’s usually correct. But about economics (his actual profession), it’s always just wildly incorrect assertions and ideas.

That is, though, how the entire mainstream econ field operates so no surprise I guess.

It seems the Fat Acceptance movement might have simmered down a lot, yeah? I wonder if it was the Ozempic. That drug and similar ones made it clear that a lot of people were just eating too much and lying about it. Hard to keep up the fiction of “starvation mode” and other such bullshit with semaglutides out there.

But also, the FA cultural moment most likely just passed. Movements that predicate themselves on failure and apathy tend not to endure all that long, after all. They self-extinguish. And good riddance, too.

Design progression of SpaceX’s Raptor engine:

That is amazing. And for those who say Elon’s companies don’t produce anything real…well, you’re just wayyyyyyyy wrong. You let the fact that Elon is a clown in a lot of ways lead you to think absurd things. Which, I must point out, also makes you a clown. Here is more info about the engines above.

The Raptor engine evolution reminds me of the quote variously attributed to Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin and others that goes, “If I’d had more time, I would’ve written a shorter letter.” The amount of design-hours to produce the Raptor 3 is hard to imagine.

This woman had an early life much like mine.

Once I got into middle school, I had gone from “bizarre kid who doesn’t get invited to birthday parties that often” to “the most unpopular girl in school.” I’m not exaggerating here. I was laughed at in the hallways by kids I barely knew, things were thrown at me, you name it.

I was the most unpopular boy in school during middle school. Everyone hated me. Even my previous friends nearly all abandoned me. I was just too weird, too poor, and too much of a misfit — especially for very conformist rural North Florida. I was beaten up nearly every day, my belongings stolen and even the teachers made fun of me openly. My own family members refused to acknowledge me in school if they weren’t also mocking me.

It was hell. If you want to know why I tend to be hyper-vigilant and remain at the periphery of any group, that is exactly why. Amanda Marcotte and the other middle-school-popular kids who tend to perpetrate this sort of bullying all claim it’s not a big deal (especially for boys). In fact, I believe she claimed it doesn’t even happen, particularly to boys.

But it was a big deal and it does happen. Luckily, it got better and so did I. I am fine now. But at the time, though I was never suicidal, I didn’t care if I lived or died. Which is why I won some fights I shouldn’t have and at least got a reputation for being tough (though still very much despised). It’s certainly a lot easier to prevail in a fight when you don’t care what happens to you.

I lived, made it through, and emerged into full awesomeness as an adult. Meanwhile, many of my peers who tormented me are now dead* or look like they are.

*No, I did not kill them.

I have a close friend who is Turkish, which is compatible with me because I am Jerkish.

So yeah, it works.

Women could solve 90% of their dating problems by being more direct and more revealing of what they actually want instead of relying on hints and obfuscations. Similarly, men could solve 90% of theirs by improving their hygiene, social skills and fashion sense.

But will either camp do any of this? Of course not.

My roommate refuses to clean his cat’s letterbox.

I’d say if the cat is clever enough to get mail, it can deal with its own postal problems.