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956 Worldwide

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Everything posted by 956 Worldwide

  1. We have built systems of such size and complexity that they approach forces of nature. Even intelligent and rational people are incapable of giving a full account of how and why a ship the size of the Dali can be loaded with precision and safely sailed out of Baltimore Harbor, under a bridge, and across oceans. Ask a smart, educated non-expert how “GPS” works and you’ll get something like “a set of satellites send messages to receivers on earth.” The ship’s captain is aware of many computers and what their functions are on his vessel. But he is likely quite incapable of explaining how information is placed on a small piece of ultra-pure silicon. Moreover, we have built these complex systems so well that serious malfunctions are rare and usually unnoticed by all of us. It’s a miracle that we EVER sail skyscrapers on their side underneath the Key Bridge. And as a species, we got where we are by closely observing cause and effect and by never accepting that things “just happen.” It is a feature, not a bug, for us to come up with theories. The theories going around about this are no different than “Thag got struck by lightning because he must have angered the Storm God.” We have to actively fight our brains to get to where we can accept “some shit I don’t understand just happened.”
  2. Having any kind of opinion on this if you’re not a harbor pilot or marine engineer or civil engineer or something is just super stupid. It’s just this thing that happened, like things do.
  3. I’ve always been more afraid of tunnels than bridges. Bridges don’t faze me.
  4. New mandatory reading for Maryland DOT officials just dropped.
  5. Are we sure that it’s the breaking bones or getting seriously injured part that’s good for kids and not the playing sports and running around outside part?
  6. “The Burmese junta can’t be doing a genocide of Muslims as bad because they’re not aligned with the U.S. and their military isn’t as good,” thanks for this crystalline distillation of tankie thought and reminder that this isn’t really about Palestinians or lives at at all.
  7. It’s funny, I was actually thinking of Napoleon as my comparison. It does well with costumes and fidelity but the whole movie is dark, drab, muddy. Take a look at these two scenes:
  8. Staying with the crew in a place near the quiet entry to the Great Smoky Mountains national park and decided to show them Last of the Mohicans tonight after a day hiking, since it was filmed not far from here. Besides the general awesomeness of DDL plus Michael Mann and a great source material— just so refreshing to see how this movie LOOKS. - Filmed outside with good lighting and no mood filters. The mountains, rocks, trees, water, sun, light all looks like what we saw today. - Kickass costuming and sets, the Huron village is a Huron village they built for the movie. The costumes have color and bulk. The makeup looks like normal people who have been outside sweating and running around. - The battles and fight scenes are well-choreographed, easy to follow, and yet still manage to look real and chaotic with genuine smoke and fire. - Consistent sound all the way through, you can leave it on one volume and hear every word and never have your ears blown out. Granted this was a major-budget picture with a tier 1 director and the world’s best actor but DAMN. I cannot remember the last time I saw a new movie that looks and feels this good and real. Truly, we reached peak movie magic between about 1990-2000 and it’s been downhill since then.
  9. Dawg, you’re not going to be denying what happened to the Rohingya on an Israel thread are you? They were all forced out of their homes and live in the worlds largest refugee camp, tens of thousands murdered, more raped.
  10. You’re right, the Burmese were much worse to the Rohingya.
  11. I’m sorry, I thought you said “behave.” So many right-wing figures to choose from and you land on “Nazis…..” (if you’re looking for a better comparison, try maybe the Burmese junta or the Croatians in the 1990s).
  12. LOL, you went from “do they behave any differently?” to “they are not the same” in back to back posts. Completely incoherent.
  13. Yes, very much so. And not even when talking strictly about the attempted extermination of Jews. I’m tempted to say something snarky but instead I’ll just suggest you do as much reading on this as you did on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Making comparisons like this is a short circuit to trivializing yourself.
  14. Most of the Beslan attackers were Ingush or Chechen. Not sure where we are going with this. Russia’s security services had a massive failure with these guys and it’s evidence that they are not capable of providing actual security.
  15. Not at all, I’m saying they recruit from all those places but are not as successful at being a going franchise inside of places like Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan. You don’t last long being a jihadi there, you bug out and go to places like Afghanistan or Syria.
  16. ISIS and the Russians. Better at terror and cruelty. ISIS-K has raised all kinds of hell across Afghanistan. Most of the leaders are Pakistani-origin.
  17. They claim this province but their real home is in Afghanistan, this is one of the few successful attacks outside of Afghanistan. Uzbekistan is a mellower place than when I lived there under Karimov but it’s still a shitty place to try and jihad. They used to drag your ass down to the police station if your beard was too long, call your parents in and berate them in front of you for raising a “wahabi” and then make you shave. If that didn’t work, then boiling you alive in the basement of the interior ministry was always a contingency. It’s notable that they succeeded in Moscow. Both groups are good at cruelty and not so good at really fighting. One thing that’s notable is that these attacks are all over Twitter where in the past it would have been pulled down. Great recruiting material for them.
  18. POV: You’re a Tajik day laborer who got fed up with Russia and joined ISIS-K. You’re sitting in a Moscow courtroom getting ready to plead guilty, the shreds of a plastic bag still hanging from your neck after an “interrogation.” Your only cold comfort is that Russia doesn’t have the death penalty. Then it hits you. Russia doesn’t have the death penalty.
  19. Anastasis is quoting people (including me) from another thread. It’s super clever. Also, he very much wants to see Russia win and Ukraine lose and anything that advances Russian interests he celebrates.
  20. “I’ve been refusing to speak for two years then they gave me an absurd deadline of 48 hours!” LULZ
  21. Lol, I’m pretty sure she didn’t go on an angry five minute tirade about suing the Washington Post because of some language.
  22. It’s the behavior and storylines that pro wrestlers follow when they are in-universe.
  23. Russian dupes and stooges almost universally are fairly smart people who first adopted some unrelated terrible opinion— like being a racist, communist, goldbug, etc. David Sacks was a libertarian first. It’s almost never straight to Russian stoolie. They aren’t used to being told they are wrong and stupid and the Russians are happy to cultivate and nurture their grievance and tell them they are Very Special Smart Boys (they are almost always men). It’s nearly always psychology and nothing to do with brains. Even the real cloak and dagger stuff, it’s always some grievance or just feeling like no one recognizes your special smartness. The Russians are great at this, they “get” Westerners and are in some ways simply aggrieved Westerners themselves. The PRC exploits ethnic ties and greed, the Cubans exploit ideology. They aren’t as good at the psychological thing.
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