State of the Discussion

ThTh6: this really sounds like they just made some edits to a few genes (14?) in modern wolves, ignoring whatever other genetic differences there are between modern wolves and a species that last had a common ancestor millions of years ago, and called it a dire wolf. Maybe this is the first step in a more complex attempt at resurrecting extinct species, but right now it looks like they just have some slightly genetically modified wolves, not anything like actual dire wolves, to this lay person.

What makes AI good at microcode is less that it's good at microcode and more that processors are now so powerful that they don't need good microcode to run sufficiently well for the purpose.

Why doesn't it exist in the United States? Was that a decision by the people who worked there to stop working there, or was it a decision by the people who owned the factories to close them and go somewhere cheaper?

"Keep manufacturing domestic" used to be a left-wing, pro-labor position!

Relatedly, man, conspiracy theorizers are so keen on finding evidence of a conspiracy that they'll latch onto literally anything. Though Slade already said that better than I.

InMD: It may be that the entire ROI model needs to be reconsidered to keep both studios and theaters afloat.

Hollywood has "special" accounting to keep down how much they're going to "share" with various people/groups. They both include things they probably shouldn't (increasing the cost to make the movie) and exclude income streams.

So some of these "unprofitable" movies will in fact make money for the studio, just not other interested groups.

And I can't reply to posts at this level so if we continue we should move it down to the bottom.

If you don't like the article, don't read the article. It is no skin off of my nose.

Just read the Report. There's a link to that too.

It's worth pointing out how insane this article is, because it postulates this somehow _confirms_ the lab-leak theory.

When in fact it does the opposite, because a huge chunk of the lab leak theory is that a researcher in the Wuhan Institute of Virology because sick with something that might have been Covid (although it was tested and appears not, but let's ignore that) in _November_ 2019.

Work the timeline with me here:

The incubation period for covid is 2-3 days, and we can postulate a few more days before it becomes bad enough that someone is going to the hospital for what would appear to be a cold. So let's say a week. And let's pick the first possible interpretation of 'November' and go with November 1st. That means the first possible date they could have it and be infecting people is October 24th or so.

So, if that researcher who got sick is Patient Zero...those seven service member, all of who had left the country by October 27th, would all have to be infected by that researcher, right? Literally all of them? Because there's no time for someone else to have been infected and passed it on.

What, is the premise that this researcher somehow _participated_ in these war games? That seems very unlikely and something someone would have mentioned.

Even if you try to fit one additional infection in there, it still seems incredibly unlikely. Basically, this is postulating that of the first ten or so people infected by Covid, 70% somehow happened to be visiting US soldiers! That can't make sense. (Barring additional conspiracies, but you have now officially left 'lab leak'.)

And this is on top of the idea that the researcher got sick November 1st, which...probably isn't true. Like, that's a pretty silly assumption to have allowed to start with.

No, if you have the virus around enough to infect _seven American service members_, people who presumably did not have free reign of the city and would be with the US military, then it seems extremely likely that Covid was pretty widespread by that point.

Which is in fact what a lot of people actually think, that China covered up the infection for a month or so. Which honestly doesn't sound implausible, and I think that theory, unlike a lot of conspiracy theories, could easily be true, although it as it's almost impossible to tell the difference between 'did not know' and 'willfully ignored', we'll never know.

But the virus starting that early completely destroys one of the main premises of the lab leak theory, because that sick researcher is way too late to be the cause of anything.

World ending watch: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/341f67658dddec60977630a73fe1f938908a4d8b20262117db4ef2d04f75ca44.jpg

"Nobody knew...the people I correctly pointed out were crazy turned out to have accurately predicted what was going to happen, which just shows how insane they really were!"-Richard Hanania

There is sometimes a rational basis to be unreasonable and there is nothing wrong with going into some kind of negotiation demanding things you know you will not get or asking for more than is reasonable. But there are limits.

Trump doesn't understand those limits

This narcissism and the cult around him menas that Americans are going to get experience what shopping in a late stage Communist country is like. Republicans in Congress are either totally in on the cult or can't bring themselves to work with the Democrats to get rid of Trump.

Israel's currents tariff's on American goods are somewhere in the range of 1% to 2%. Netanyahu promised tariffs of 0% on American imports if Trump would not impose tariffs on Israel. Trump said no and went on to impose the tariffs. Netanyahu's meeting with Trump was to flatter him out of the tariffs and Trump would not budge. This is extremely bad because Netanyahu is probably the foreign leader most likely to get Trump to budge on tariffs.

https://archive.ph/lSVAj#selection-317.0-321.253

Every Presidential Election Team Blue has had for the last 50+ years has been against na.zism. If that's all you've got, then you've got nothing because there's nothing you can say on that subject against Trump that you haven't already said a dozen or so times.

I would love for Team Blue to discover and advocate for good government, rule of law, gov reform, and so on. I would love even more for Blue to run on economic growth.

These would be easy issues to steal from Trump.

Philip: What do you expect will change as a result?

The political calculus at the moment is Trump was just elected and his base is solidly behind him, so any GOP member can expect to lose their next election if they oppose him.

Trump crashing the economy on a whim is also him losing the backing of his base (or just making the other 80% so angry that they're willing to stand up to him) that GOP politicians will have to oppose him to get elected.

It might even get so bad that his cabinet needs to replace him with Vance leading the coup.

Big picture the root problem with Trump is he wins elections, so him being able to do what he wants is a feature of Democracy and not a bug.

I'd like to point out that music and movies have really fallen off in the last decade or so.

AI is surprisingly good at microcode and it hasn't shown indications that it's stopped getting better at it.

Pizza technology advancements have slowed (but not stopped). The small-batch artisanal stuff is surprisingly good while, at the same time, Costco's $9.99 16" Pepperoni pie's only rival in value is the $1.50 hot dog.

It may be "entirely possible," but it seems unlikely. And if they do actually wonder about it, they're not likely to be receptive to anything that approximates an accurate explanation.

I always wonder why people think that doomposting about "supply shocks" and "everything's gonna cost more" is necessarily going to bring readers to their side.

It's entirely possible that someone will look at that and say "wait, why were these vital materials that we can't run society without being made overseas? Don't we remember 2020 where suddenly it was impossible to get masks because the Chinese government refused to ship them to us? Why do tariffs on Mexican imports mean that a car factory in Detroit has to shut down, shouldn't that factory be making all its own parts anyway?"

YOur memory is faulty then. Harris reversed herself on Fracking (switching from wanting to ban it to supporting it); she reversed herself on decriminalizing border crossings (switching from supporting decriminalizing it to saying there should be consequences for illegal border crossings and the laws on the border must be enforced); she reversed on electric vehicle mandates (in 2020 she wanted to require 100% carbon neutral tech on vehicles by 2035, in 2024 she stated she didn't support an electric vehicle mandate); she reversed herself on Medicare for All (in 2020 she supported it, in 2024 she only campaigned on strengthening existing medicare but ditched the M4A plank). Likewise she ran a convention that could have been lifted from the GOP in the 90's full of Americanism and promised a lethal military.

So, you're just misremembering it, sorry. As for the scum and chuds who started stuff when it got dark in 2020; the media who pantingly apologized for it and the government that oversaw the lockdowns (reminder: that was under Trump or, after 2020 a bunch of localities, none of whom reported to the Federal Dems); none of them were running in 2024. Harris did compromise, reverse herself etc... just not enough or not with enough finesse.

So we agree that Harris, Biden and the Dems did compromise- they just didn't capitulate. So why is it only they are responsible for Trump? Could it be possible that the GOP and the right might, maybe, possibly, have any scintilla of responsibility for the candidate they nominated and elected?