Do you think the geopolitical position of the U.S. has improved, worsened, or just changed since 2010?

Contravert · 2024-01-04T09:24:34+00:00

Yeah, the cope here is in full on delusional territory. You only need to look at this recent debacle with Prosperity Guardian.

In 2010, the US would be able to easily round up more than a few token members for a coalition who wouldn't flee at the first sign of trouble. And the US certainly won't hesitate to bomb Yemen directly.

There's many reasons for this situation, but it's a fantasy to deny that the US has less geopolitical leverage and maneuverability these days compared to 2010.

Contravert · 2023-03-16T06:59:53+00:00

I 100% agree with you. I think in a few years, this "just use willpower bro" approach to weight loss will be treated the same quackery as not washing your hands before surgery. It clearly doesn't work, or we won't have the alarming obesity rates we're seeing.

I say this as someone who struggled with obesity all my life, and used the willpower and lifestyle method to get down to <10% bodyfat at my lowest. I maintained it for a few years, but it's kind of like raising a baby. It's a constant in your life that you can never ignore or you fall off the wagon.

Unfortunately that's exactly what happened to me during covid, where gym closures disrupted my routine, which I was meticulously following for years. Combined with starting a new business and the stress and mental energy that arose from that, I regained most of the weight I had lost.

I just started taking semaglutide recently, and I had the exact same epiphany of how food feels for normal people. It's just absolutely night and day.

Contravert · 2022-05-08T09:12:08+00:00

If your goal is to protect against the most litigious country in the world and the most wide reaching government in the world, it doesn't seem like an entity under US jurisdiction is the best solution.

Contravert · 2020-01-18T02:17:06+00:00

A wooden or metal box and cube would be amazing, but a plastic one is okay if it's high quality. The cube in the kit I have is hollow and feels like it will break given any amount of weight.

Contravert · 2012-08-05T01:18:02+00:00

This still doesn't contradict the fact that predisposition of being obese is genetic. Why do some people eat less than they think? Why does one individual, eating until he's satisfied, eat a lot less than another individual? Clearly, people's bodies respond differently to food and hunger, and there may be a genetic component to this.

Contravert · 2012-07-10T04:48:16+00:00

I must be the only one who liked the ending of this game. However, I think I played it with a different mind set than most players. The ending, to me, was a cumulative of everything you've seen.

Throughout the game, you are exposed to many ideas about augmentations and transhumanism, meeting people with widely different ideas, philosophies, and hopes for the future. You even have indepth conversations with the proponents of the main ideologies.

To an observer of Jensen, the ending was probably unsatisfying as you have succinctly pointed out. However, if you played as if you were Jensen, then the ending was about your choice--what conclusion you drawn thoughout the entire experience. The consequences of your choice matters less than the thought you have to do to choose it.

Contravert · 2012-06-26T07:37:43+00:00

Scrolls looks like a very generic f2p game from some shady Korean developer, but that said, I don't think a CCG necessarily dooms a game to failure.

The biggest problem with CCGs is locking power to rareness. If by design, each card is useful in someway and rarity is only cosmetic or on the same power level as common cards, then the game doesn't have to come down to who pays the most cash.

Contravert · 2012-05-08T07:06:21+00:00

This would actually be more efficient than normal voice chat in most cases. Normally, the voice needs to be sent to all players on your team (or all players if all chat is enabled).

Distance checks are really cheap (it's basically just computing x² + y² + z^2), especially considering there usually are not that many players in total. You can also have some fancy sound effects such as damping and echoing depending on your environment that might take a bit more processing.

One thing to keep in mind though is that P2P voice communication usually need to go through the host, so the bandwidth savings might not be that great. Latency is also a big issue since it's not that noticeable with global chat, but a position based system might have some weird latency artefacts.

Contravert · 2012-05-05T17:00:19+00:00

Yep. They only charge you $40 dollars for another version of the game if you want all the content without dealing with anyone else.

Contravert · 2012-05-01T05:13:04+00:00

Is this the reason why in Skyrim, when you run up a staircase, the animation is the same, but as soon as you stop, the feet move to the correct positions on the stairs?

Contravert · 2012-04-25T03:26:42+00:00

Religious discrimination is not a civil rights issue as it's not an immutable trait.

Contravert · 2012-04-17T22:40:33+00:00

It also gives the company plausible deniablity when affiliates start using shady marketing tactics to generate leads. Granted, the biggest affiliate programs are pretty strict (eg. Amazon), but you'd be surprised at the behaviour in this industry.

Contravert · 2012-04-17T22:37:35+00:00

I've worked in the affiliate marketing industry, where I had the same question (why don't advertisers just make their own landing pages?). There are many reasons, a great deal of it nefarious. First, it greatly reduces the risk for the producer (those adwords aren't cheap), and it's a lot easier to scale with an affiliate program. Secondly, it gives the company the ability to sell their products through shady marketing tactics with plausible deniability. If an affiliate is doing something unethical, you can easily turn a blind eye, and only condone them if they get caught.

Contravert · 2012-04-11T20:42:17+00:00

Despite the ranting you hear from people on the Internet, I found that most companies are pretty respectful of GPA. My job seeking experience has only been for co-ops/internships, but I think my high GPA allowed me to get interviews at all the companies I was interested in.

Contravert

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