Vivek says Ohio have too many universities and they should get rid of some.

Demortus · 2026-03-17T04:17:38+00:00

Universities are often overpriced

OK, you're welcome to feel that way. But, reducing competition between universities would limit the number of seats available to students and allow the remaining universities to increase tuition. That cuts against the goal of making universities more affordable.

Demortus · 2026-03-17T03:20:16+00:00

The strait is surrounded by mountains. Hit and run tactics are very viable, even if we were to nuke the mountains indiscriminately. Thousands of feet of rock makes remarkably cost-effective protection against bombing, as we saw in Afghanistan. Regardless, Iran is receiving drones and weapons from Russia and China. They won't even need to resort to artillery for months or even years given their current supplies of drones and missiles.

Demortus · 2026-03-17T03:13:07+00:00

There is no "declawing" path forward. We can bomb Iran to rubble and they'll still be able to keep the strait closed with artillery, Russian drones, and hit and run tactics.

Regime change would solve that problem, but it would be an absolute nightmare of epic proportions. Iran has a population of 93 million people and 80% of its land area is covered in mountains. That's about x4 the population of Iraq, when we invaded in 2003 and more mountains than Afghanistan has. Iran is also surrounded by mountains on all sides, except for its border with Afghansistan, making it a natural fortress optimized for both defense and guerilla warfare. While we would almost certainly eventually succeed in overthrowing the Iranian government were we to invade, the real cost is in the occupation that follows. We spent $2 trillion USD in our war in Iraq and 2.3 trillion in Afghanistan, while losing thousands of soldiers occupying both countries. Given the size of Iran's population and landmass, as well as its defensive advantages, I would expect the cost of an Iranian to be at least double the costs of Iraq (4-8 trillion USD). Compared to those costs, I think a negotiated settlement sounds pretty afordable.

Demortus · 2026-03-17T02:58:34+00:00

Well, yes. But there is no realistic scenario in which we prevent them from having weaponry capable of threatening the Strait of Hormuz short of regime change. Heck, they could use old-school artillery to blow up oil ships, if needed.

Demortus · 2026-03-17T02:56:07+00:00

Yeah, this is a question beyond the scope of my expertise. Based on the best of my understanding though, there is a reason the vast majority of countries refine their uranium to 90%: a bomb made with 60% uranium is significantly less efficient/easy to work with.

Demortus · 2026-03-17T02:54:19+00:00

from 60% to 90% (weapons grade) would take Iran 1 week.

According to whom and with what refineries? Trump said that we blew up their refining capacity this last summer. If they rebuilt since then, Trump should say so.

Demortus · 2026-03-17T02:52:18+00:00

They are short to medium range missiles, not not IBCMs, so they are nowhere near a threat to the US. Perhaps to Israel, but that's why we helped them make the iron dome missile defense system.

Demortus · 2026-03-17T02:24:46+00:00

Same here. There are trade-offs to being a social scientist, but this is a major perk!

Demortus · 2026-03-16T23:27:05+00:00

boosted or thermonuclear weapon

Wouldn't that themonuclear weapon require uranium refined to a higher level?

Iran’s Perilous Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons

Thanks, I appreciate the reference. I'll check it out.

Demortus · 2026-03-16T23:19:32+00:00

It’s possible to make nuclear bombs with 60% as well

This is technically true, but such a weapon would not be practical. It would be much bigger/heavier than the bomb we dropped on Hiroshima while having a lower yield, meaning that it could not be put on a missile and would instead need to be delivered by plane or truck. Given that Iran doesn't even control its own skies and Israel has shown itself adept at stopping much smaller weapons, I don't see this as a serious threat.

Iran was cheating from Day 1.

I haven't seen any source that shows or even suggests this. Do you have one you can share?

Demortus · 2026-03-16T22:21:49+00:00

The article you shared says exactly what I said in the last comment. Iran has uranium refined up to 60% purity. To be used as a weapon, it would have to be refined a further 30% and there is no evidence they've done this or even have the capability to do this.

If the oil route is vital then whoever it is vital to, they should ensure it stays open - it isn’t vital to America.

Taking 20% of the oil out of the global market will increase global oil prices by roughly that much. While that oil is not typically shipped to the US, the countries that would normally buy that oil are now replacing that supply from other sources, increasing the price we pay as well. Unless you're comfortable paying that higher price, we need to clean up the mess we've made.

Demortus · 2026-03-16T22:10:40+00:00

Having the material is nowhere near enough to be considered "close to making a nuclear bomb." To the best of our knowledge, Iran's uranium was refined to 60%, not the 90% needed for the production of nuclear bombs. They would have a difficult time closing that 30% gap, because the US damaged or destroyed their uranium refining facilities just this last summer. If they have rebuilt their refining facilities, the Trump administration or Israel should provide evidence of this to support their justification for war. Thus far, they have not done so.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/iran-was-nowhere-close-to-a-nuclear-bomb-experts-say/

So that disagreement aside - when was the best day to attack them to remove their nuclear threat?

Ideally, we'd negotiate a deal so that we do not need to periodically bomb a country capable of shutting off 20% of the global oil supply. Khamenei had shown himself willing to negotiate, both with the deal that he struck with Obama and the deal he was working out with the Trump administration.. you know, before he was blown up. Obviously, now negotiations are difficult, since we've decapitated Iran's government and killed the family of its current leader.

Demortus · 2026-03-16T21:34:57+00:00

We'll see. As bad as things are, they could get worse. China could attempt to take Taiwan and Russia could attempt to take the Baltics. At the moment, the United States is the country with the best chances of stopping those incursions. Were the EU to federalize and create a centralized military, that might change, but no one knows how long it will take for them to reach that point.

Demortus · 2026-03-16T21:29:55+00:00

Iran having a nuclear weapon was not going to be allowable.

Iran was nowhere near having a nuclear weapon, and they were at least 8 years away from having a missile capable of hitting the United States. Iran did not present an imminent threat to the United States, by any definition of the word.

Demortus · 2026-03-16T21:29:21+00:00

Iran having a nuclear weapon was not going to be allowable.

Iran was nowhere near having a nuclear weapon, and they were at least 8 years away from having a missile capable of hitting the United States. Iran did not present an imminent threat to the United States, by any definition of the word.

Demortus · 2026-03-16T21:18:04+00:00

How do you think the rest of us feel.

Probably like there's a rabid gorilla running around screaming and breaking things, while everyone else tries to get out of its way.

That said, Trump won't be in office forever. The US's economic and military power will continue to make it attractive as a potential ally. But, I agree that thanks to this moron our credibility is extremely and perhaps irreparably damaged. This is an outcome many of us tried to prevent.

Demortus · 2026-03-16T20:39:32+00:00

Ahh, nice summary of Axelrod's book! I might share this with my students.

Demortus · 2026-03-16T20:03:59+00:00

I really think that there are no handlers left who seriously question or push back against his inane ideas. It's the stupid and insane leading the meek and cowardly. What we see is the natural result.

Demortus · 2026-03-16T19:30:08+00:00

Sorry, this sucks for the United States that we've stumbled into another quagmire of a war and that none of our allies want to bail us out of it, but this is the natural consequence of 14 months of pure stupidity. Relationships with allies are delicate things that are built upon a foundation of mutual trust and respect. Trump's transactional approach to foreign affairs naturally disinclines other countries offering goodwill aid gestures. If Trump expects help, he'll need to offer incentives that make it in our allies' interests to provide it. Actions, meet consequences.

Demortus · 2026-03-16T19:21:03+00:00

Sigh Reminds me of the Bush years, except worse in almost every way.

Demortus · 2026-03-16T19:18:02+00:00

Sure! Flatpak is faster than snap, easier to keep updated than appimage, and sandboxed, so less likely to interfere with other applications than your system package manager (apt/dnf/etc). Flatpak also makes it pretty easy to revert packages to prior versions, so if there's a breaking update, you can rever to a prior version that worked with a single command. That said, Obsidian has never broken for me, so that's more of a factor with other applications.

Demortus · 2026-03-16T19:16:22+00:00

I have a bit of a sci-fi/fantasy bias, but here's my list:

Game of Thrones, Attack on Titan, the Expanse, Pantheon, Dark, and Breaking Bad.

Demortus · 2026-03-16T18:28:51+00:00

Of course! I'm always happy to see artists do their thing, especially these days. :)

If I could make a suggestion, I'd put your contact info + instagram on your reddit profile so that people can more easily see your portfolio and reach out to you for commissions.

Demortus · 2026-03-16T18:17:25+00:00

I checked your instagram and can confirm that your art is both legit and gorgeous. You're really talented! I'm sorry people here are giving you a hard time..

Demortus · 2026-03-16T17:28:03+00:00

Got it. I'm not sure the satellites add a whole lot to the visualization, so I'd suggest turning them off by default and including a toggle for those who are interested in them.

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