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Reese Bennett

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Everything posted by Reese Bennett

  1. Venables has that Alex Jones too many steroids voice.
  2. This letter from Jim Ryan, who was forced to resign as UVA's President, is something. This paragraph stood out to me and it captures the problem with this "compact." https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6xW62HI5oZaP15xhmtbaemtBtqrNZR/view
  3. You can point out the folly and still realize that he was/is a kid. College football forces you to grow up faster than your age cohort and not everyone is ready or able to do that. Plus, Texans above most others, should realize that food is a vice that can be tough to master.
  4. Wasn't she one of those Fappening chicks?
  5. UNC says no. https://www.wunc.org/education/2025-11-10/unc-chapel-hill-chancellor-will-not-sign-trump-higher-ed-compact
  6. Been playing Civ 6 for a few weeks after the kids left it on the PS4. A few thoughts: It's fun as fuck to play as Portugal in Gathering Storm mode. You can only do ocean trade routes to other countries, so you have to wait until other players get their harbors set up, but once that happens, do an economic alliance with a wealthy civ and you are swimming in money as you also get more traders than other civs. This allows you to win every aid challenge (I often wait until one turn is left and then gift 200 more gold than the leader), quickly purchase expansion tiles for your cities, and you can just buy a bunch of great works from desperate leaders who are fighting each other. Diplomatic and culture victories are easier with lots of money. With Portugal, I focus on building out my early cities and building wonders. It helps if you have large areas for fewer cities at the beginning as this gives you more room to build wonders, farms, and districts while keeping your amenities at a good level. If it is safe to do so, I'll start a city five tiles from a current city's edge under the assumption that natural expansion will get me the fourth level of tiles from each city. This also gives you room to spam national parks before the last era change so you get that Golden Age Robot. I'm a big wonder guy and I always try to get these four: Mausoleum at Halicarnassus: Gives you good bonuses for coastal tiles but the real key here is an extra turn for Great Engineers, which can turbocharge Industrial Districts in your lagging cities and give you a chance to run through the Space projects. Venetian Arsenal: Absolutely key for an oceangoing civ. Allows you to build two ships for the cost of one. If you can do this, get a lot of ranged ships early and upgrade them to Missile Cruiser if you want to conquer the entire world. (Missile Cruisers, Bombers, and ranged Robots are by far the three best late stage military units and you can march across the globe with no problem once you have enough of each.) Note: Requires an Industrial Zone on the coast, so plan accordingly. Statue of Liberty: The four Diplomatic Victory points you get makes a diplomatic victory so much easier and of course, you keep others from getting those four points. Taj Mahal: For every era score of three or more, you get an extra point. Those can add up and really help reach Golden Era numbers. Other Wonders I really like: Apadana: This gives you two envoys every time you build a wonder in that city, which allows you to grab more city state bonuses. Plus, you get two great works slots. Colossus/Great Lighthouse: As Portugal, you're usually building harbors before anyone else, so it makes sense to grab these two which give you extra movement on the ocean, an extra trader, and Great Admiral points for each. Petra: If you have a city with a bunch of desert tiles, this is a necessity because of the bonuses. Potala Palace: Gets you lots of good stuff including an extra diplomacy card slot. Estadio do Marcana: +6 culture in each city and perhaps more importantly if you are in conquering mode, you get +2 amenities for each city. Casa de Contratacion: Three Great Merchant Points per turn, 3 Governor promotions, and great bonuses for cities not on your home continent. Pyramids: All builders get an extra charge. I'll grab other wonders as the opportunity arises, but since I almost never go the Faith route, I usually end up missing on several in that direction. As for Great People, I focus on Admirals, Merchants, Engineers, and Scientists. I try to get everyone who can help with building wonders, accelerate space race projects, and give you Eurekas. Great Admirals that can build fleets or give experience are always good. Perhaps the best Great Person is Merchant John Rockefeller, who has two amazing bonuses. First, you get two barrels of oil each turn and this usually happens before other civs have access to oil and they will throw Great Works and gold at you for just a few barrels. You also get +2 gold for every strategic resource improved by cities you trade with. Valletta is my favorite City State because you can buy City Center and Encampment buildings with Faith--but the big bonus here is that it also includes seawalls. If you can put up seawalls without tapping into rounds of production, that is a huge advantage, especially if you have relatively new coastal settlements. I like all the trade city states because they give you even more money. Cahokia gives you what I think is the best special build ability as the Mounds provide a full +1 housing, some gold, and occasionally some extra food. Kandy gives you a relic every time you discover a natural wonder and relics are the hardest item to fill out in your Great Works slots. If you haven't been able to explore other parts of the world, make sure you have Kandy in your pocket before you launch the Earth Satellite. Kabul is the best military city state as it gives your units double the experience. If you want to conquer the world, I find you can take a coastal city with 3-4 missile cruiser fleets and a destroyer. You can wipe out an interior civ with five robots. Use bombers to support each group as you can. Keep a few troops and some fighter jets around your cities in case someone recruits partisans. If another civ has robots, go after them before they get the cannon and air defense upgrades. Fighter jets are great at knocking down robots without air defense. Two things I don't like: Even if it is a shitty layout and hardly populated, if you raze a conquered city everyone hates you. It doesn't matter that the neighboring cities are helped. And those grudges last. Also, there is an incentive to not do stuff and put stuff off until the next era because you feel like you are wasting points if you go much beyond the Golden Era number. I think you should get Heroic Age bonuses for reaching a level of extra points. Related, to get Heroic Age bonuses, you need to go from a Dark Age to a Golden Age. This is easier done early in the game if you are so inclined. In addition to Portugal, I like playing as English Eleanor, Dido, Genghis Khan (my first domination victory), Russia (extra tiles when you found a city), and Norway. I'm still learning the game and need to force myself to take other paths, including Faith/Prophets, as well as try different leaders, but right now, I'm having too much fun.
  7. Auburn should bring back Gene Chizik.
  8. Tomorrow, Ken Paxton is speaking on campus at the invite of the UT TP chapter. A decent article with examples from a long history of political meddling: https://www.statesman.com/news/education/article/ut-history-political-influence-texas-abbott-21113899.php?utm_content=cta&sid=682b5b529a69bd78a41ab774&ss=A&st_rid=97948a71-0ee0-4ab9-9072-351a792f2c61&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=roundup&utm_campaign=stsm | daily briefing Then there is this related PBS piece that aired recently:
  9. At this point he has to be the consensus All-American return guy, right?
  10. Nice little UT mention in the NYTimes today: “Most of the other schools have not yet signaled how they will respond. The University of Texas is the sole system that reacted enthusiastically.” Also says that Texas attended a virtual meeting with the White House and Dartmouth (now out), Arizona, Vandy, Arizona State, Washington St Louis (which spams high school kids like crazy to try and get their application numbers up so they look prestigious), and Kansas. "The virtual meeting was described as both preliminary and productive by the White House." https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/us/politics/trump-administration-education-agenda.html
  11. So with UVA, the tally is five against (Brown, Penn, UVA, USC, and MIT) and four with no response yet (Texas, Arizona, Dartmouth, and Vanderbilt).
  12. USC is out. That makes four official responses so far--and four nopes. In order: MIT, Brown, Penn, USC.
  13. Penn just said no.
  14. Virginia Senate tells UVA it will face state funding issues if they comply. https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/10/virginia-senate-leaders-express-unequivocal-opposition-to-compact
  15. He's the guy NYC has been yearning for since Lenny Dykstra rode off into the sunset.
  16. Curious that there is not one US History professor. You'd think that would be a good perspective to have on a committee like this, right?
  17. Looks like the Dartmouth president said no. Southern Cal faculty overwhelmingly voted no, as did the faculty at MIT and the faculty at Arizona. 97% of UVA faculty are against it. Any word on UT faculty taking a vote/issuing a statement?
  18. I thought that was what AI is for. Side question: If colleges just push out automatons and AI handles all the beginning/mid-level tasks, where does senior leadership come from in 20-30 years? Answer: Probably current leadership's failsons.
  19. Good piece that really shows the absurdities and contradictions, and anti-intellectualism of the "compact." Author is a prof at UVA and a UT grad. https://newrepublic.com/article/201376/trump-compact-academic-excellence-university-virginia j
  20. Still a lot of Dupont money in that state.
  21. I guess we have the answer. From today's WaPo article: But hey, at least we'll get invitations to hang with the President: Of course, when you read the following, it's clear it's all a big grift and any leadership that signs up for this is encouraging extortion and placing their school at the whims of highly partisan bureaucrats. I don't think you can remain a university in the basic sense of the word if you're always looking over your shoulder and trying to appease these guys: Maybe we'll just be eaten by that other school in town--The University of Austin Longhorns? Gift link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/10/03/trump-administration-college-funding-compact/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzU5NDY0MDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzYwODQ2Mzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3NTk0NjQwMDAsImp0aSI6IjU0NmEwYzRhLWMwMGUtNDI1OC04ZmI2LWI1OTc3YjQ2ZmZkMCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9lZHVjYXRpb24vMjAyNS8xMC8wMy90cnVtcC1hZG1pbmlzdHJhdGlvbi1jb2xsZWdlLWZ1bmRpbmctY29tcGFjdC8ifQ.JYZAKfhqlHeOg82i8C1ZPhd9uiqrvN17uKRDeBiQ3-o
  22. The White House has named nine schools, including Texas, in a letter and says that if they comply with the administration's priorities, they will receive preferential treatment for grants and funding. The schools are being asked to ban the use of race or sex in hiring and admissions; freeze tuition for five years; cap international undergrad enrollment at 15%; require that applicants take the SAT or a similar test; and stop "grade inflation." They will be required to share all known information about foreign students. It also obligates them to abolish departments that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.” Also in the letter: "If universities sign and then violate the terms of the compact, they could be forced to return. private contributions." Finally, they would have to commit to strict definitions of gender--"Whatever that is?" asked the biology professor. WSJ: NYT: If UT does go along with this, I think our Public Ivy rep will be short-lived. And really, limiting foreign students who pay full tuition and then capping tuition will put many of these schools underwater.
  23. Richmond and parts of NC absolutely must be considered part of the Deep South. I think this is a pretty good map of the historic Deep South: A bunch of vocabulary, pronunciation, and accent maps follow similar lines:
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