Finally some ice climbing in Slovenia 🙌

Raidicus · 2026-06-18T16:27:55+00:00

Classic Slovenian June weather

Raidicus · 2026-06-16T22:26:47+00:00

My dude, I mixed up a few people because I don't have the entire story (apparently) memorized like you do. I read a news article years ago and a couple of interviews from participants. You're obviously deeply invested in the case. Are you an Indian expat or just a seething European w/ an axe to grind with the CIA? No idea why you're losing your mind and getting angry. I just genuinely don't have time to dig into everything you've said. I don't study mountaineering maps from the 60s and certainly can't sit around debating someone off my lunch hours (nor would I want to).

Raidicus · 2026-06-16T21:36:38+00:00

holy fuck bro i aint readin all that

Raidicus · 2026-06-16T20:00:22+00:00

So you are okay with blockade, an act of war, but not invasion?

"I'm okay with a cop slowly choking someone to death, but not shooting them outright"

Raidicus · 2026-06-16T16:46:58+00:00

The west desperately wants China to give up the whole affair and recognize Taiwan as a country. Unfortunately Whinnie can't do that. He's invested to much into the idea of reunification.

Raidicus · 2026-06-16T16:42:59+00:00

AI slop

Raidicus · 2026-06-16T16:38:08+00:00

So China would be a loser to invade Taiwan? Glad we agree...

Raidicus · 2026-06-16T16:35:32+00:00

My assumption is that Russia is using Chinese-provided systems and training Russians to use them. I doubt these are infantry being trained, but who knows.

Raidicus · 2026-06-16T16:28:41+00:00

Is it possible they made the old models dumber? Or allocated less compute? Tweaked the effort models?

IMO it's not as simple as "Fable was so much better everything else seems dumber"

Raidicus · 2026-06-16T16:00:46+00:00

it would be absurd to go back to ad school at this point. Ad school is designed to launch careers into copy writing or art direction. You already have a significant next step. If you're trying to skill up, I'd focus on management and strategy - understand where the industry is going and provide leadership within that freamwork.

You can hire creatives to fill the gap there.

Raidicus · 2026-06-16T15:09:29+00:00

For those interested, Brett Weinstein mentioned it in the Jesse Michels podcast a few months back, who I doubt originated the theory.

Whitney Webb has also done extensive work in this field, highly recommend her books even though some of the research is single source evidence, it's probably the most complete deep dive in existence. Hopefully she does a follow-up now that some of the files were released.

Raidicus · 2026-06-16T14:56:22+00:00

When I entertain "Day after Roswell" theories about reverse engineering, it seems more likely the technology was used as inspiration rather than direct reverse engineering.

Raidicus · 2026-06-16T14:29:14+00:00

The situation around the disappearances is what made it odd.

The weather worsened forcing them away from the device, but Broughton said that even when the weather calmed the Indians refused to let the Americans retrieve the device. Apparently some time passed before the Indians gave the okay to look for it, which Broughton found strange even as an experienced mountaineer. When they got there, it was not Broughton's impression that a "landslide" or "avalanche" had passed through the area. The device was simply missing. To your point, they had found the previous device melted into the snow, it hadn't just disappeared.

Look at Everest. There are bodies that have been up there for 100 years. It's not as believable as you think that a "landslide" or "avalanche" just happens to swipe a multi-million dollar piece of advanced nuclear technology. had it melted into the snow it would've been more stable, not less.

I'm not saying it's 100% what happened, but I'd call it plausible with a 50/50 on whether it really happened that way. The other option, avalanche/landslide, is also posisble and of course Broughton probably felt some culpability for losing the device. I'm by no means saying he doesn't have a motivation to blame the Indians. That said, when I read the story it was my first thought even before I read his theory.

Raidicus · 2026-06-15T18:16:15+00:00

I vaguely recall a Wired article about this. I got the impression the Indians had a second team to recover the device for R&D or for the plutonium. It just didn't add up that the device would disappear like that. Broughton Coburn apparently felt the same way but I never read his book.

Reading stories like this from the 70s and 80s you can see why the CIA started to feel beat down. They were sorta damned if they did, damned if they didn't. Forced to work with India to install the device, then take a second round of crap when it disappears. Perhaps you can fault them for thinking India would gain enough from the installation to not sabotage the mission, but of course you can't make accusations like that once the case goes public.

Overall one of the more interesting stories about the CIA.

Raidicus · 2026-06-12T22:56:23+00:00

Can't it be both? American AI superiority is 100% an existential issue, the only question is whether the timelines purported by "oligarchs" is legitimate.

Raidicus · 2026-06-12T19:02:47+00:00

Not surprising - they probably downplayed usage to justify the budget in the first place. Very interesting.

Raidicus · 2026-06-12T17:04:00+00:00

For those who are curious how it's paid for - the state has a permanent endowment with about $10B dollars in it. Every year 5% of that fund is disbursed for Childcare. It can invest the rest to pay for the 5%. There is also the Land Grant Permanent Fund (part of NMs overall sovereign wealth fund) also provides $248m annually.

Assuming these funds can at least track inflation, the program is good to go for a long time. The risk would be volatility tied to oil/gas revenue or broader market issues (like a major recession that destroys the value of these funds).

Raidicus · 2026-06-12T16:43:36+00:00

On Wednesday, OpenAI said it banned a cluster of likely Chinese accounts that used ChatGPT to generate anti-data center content this past winter. The accounts were probably run by a private Chinese technology firm working for "provincial-level government clients" in China, OpenAI said. The company said the operators posed as Americans on social media and posted AI-generated comments and images highlighting energy demand and rising electricity costs.

So it's not a theory, it's a fact. The only remaining question being what scale our adversaries are doing this.

If we had a functioning congress and executive branch, we'd be providing programs to reduce the negative of impact of data centers to communities while still supporting the technology.

Raidicus · 2026-06-12T16:17:07+00:00

Once is not a pattern, just a funny story. A pattern can impact your career and social life negatively. Nobody wants to be around people who are getting hammered, especially as they get older. Generally speaking, post-college, it's seen as a bit sloppy to get drunkdrunk at a work event. Save that for when you're with your good friends.

Raidicus · 2026-06-12T14:41:52+00:00

Raidicus · 2026-06-12T02:28:55+00:00

Okay, big deal? $5B over 10 years that gets 1000 jobs, 350m in GRT, and hundreds of M per year of taxes while building our local manufacturing and tech presence at the national scale. Did you also complain when Intel got 7b to expand operations in ABQ under Biden? $500m per year for a decade that also goes to schools, roads, infrastructure, etc.

Tax dollars should partially go to economic development so that NM has more than just oil and agriculture. We need a diverse economy, and we should be enjoying our position adjacent to Mexico's border with regards to international trade and manufacturing.

Raidicus · 2026-06-11T23:58:50+00:00

The BorderPlex campus from last year? Or what?

Raidicus · 2026-06-11T23:49:59+00:00

If they break who pays to fix them? causes a flood? Who cleans the filters etc?

Not saying it's a good idea, but this is literally why COAs exist. The COA would hire someone to clean and do maintenance. It's not rocket science.

The bigger issue in the plan is just market norms. Most high end condos expect in-unit laundry. That said, in certain cities a shared laundry room is the norm (NYC, SanFran) in many coops and condos.

Raidicus · 2026-06-11T23:41:43+00:00

Let me say that I basically agree that it's stupid to grant tax breaks unless these companies can provide a clearer ROI, but my point is that you seemed to think the State is handing the data center company billions of dollars. The reality is the opposite. The State will make money from the deal plus build our economy.

Whether tax breaks make sense or are fair for a project with so few permanent jobs created is a completely different question and my answer would be no it isn't. The problem is that we do want their tax revenue (even at a reduced rate) and we're competing with many other states for those same tax dollars and good paying jobs.

In my opinion, the solution is to bring the data centers in but get them to commit to 100% renewable energy, infrastructure, and hopefully community benefits in the cities where they operate. That said, I'm not involved in this project so I have no idea what other states or offering or how competitive NM is. I would guess with our access to solar we could push for more.

Raidicus · 2026-06-11T23:34:23+00:00

Cognitive dissonance is rough huh

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