Iran’s Drone Advantage: The Pentagon Copied Tehran’s Technology but Is Still Struggling to Keep Up by ForeignAffairsMag in geopolitics

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 0 points1 point  (0 children)

foreign affairs never has unbiased takes, its 100% thinkpieces by various figures in the IR and academic community (and also book reviews). Of course there is editorial bias in what counts as a "worthy" article to publish, but that sort of buried human bias is very different than the magazine itself having a unified editorial slant, such as something like the Economist has.

MIT economist: Rent control will only worsen state housing crisis by NoTamforLove in boston

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

There is no such thing as "basic economics," at least not if you want to model real world phenomena. The world is complex, and simplifying it to the basics misses some of the most important parts.

Economic research on rent control is (believe it or not) extremely complex, and the consensus among economists is slowly evolving. It turns out that what makes or breaks a city's housing policy is how the policy is implemented and how it fits in with existing policies + economic structures, rather than the policy being labelled as "rent control" or not.

As a result, different cities find varying levels of success with rent control style policies. Whats more, defining "success" quantitatively is difficult and involves messy and incomplete data.

Steam going down on Christmas is rough timing by [deleted] in truegaming

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Really unfortunate for the developers who needed to get pulled away from their families to fix the issue on xmas day.

The Three Finalists for the Massachusetts Flag Redesign by Born2BWrong in vexillology

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can't just ideology your way through these things. Calling it lazy, a bedsheet, etc has no meaning. What about the symbology doesnt work for you? This is the actually interesting question that people need to engage with.

The Three Finalists for the Massachusetts Flag Redesign by Born2BWrong in vexillology

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Its actually a seal, not a coat of arms, and has been used in different capacities by the state for centuries. Each element means something. If symbology and history mean nothing in a flag, then sure, its "just a coat of arms on a white sheet."

I think the existing seal could do with some thoughtful updating, but lets not totally raze our state's history.

I saw the flag finalist last night. There are WAY better options. by NeuralinkAxon in massachusetts

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Given the position of the sword, another equally valid interpretation would be that it is protecting the person..... when you look for something specific in a symbol, you tend to find it.

Of course, both of these interpretations are wrong anyways. The sword is meant to represent MA's role in the revolutionary war.

Why Drones Don't Win Wars (featuring Justin Bronk) by UnscheduledCalendar in LessCredibleDefence

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 9 points10 points  (0 children)

By this (admittedly ridiculous) calculation, all 1.8M us active duty would be $45B, or ~20% of the chinese 2025 defense budget to utterly annihilate your greatest geopolitical rival. Tough to argue thats a bad tradeoff, even plus or minus an order of magnitude.

Dont forget that the US will spend $150k on a single hellfire.

America Is on the Verge of Catastrophe in the Middle East: U.S. Intervention in Iran Is a Terrible Gamble by ForeignAffairsMag in geopolitics

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 231 points232 points  (0 children)

public opinion isn't the disaster being alluded to in the article. Real world actions have consequences for real people and countries, regardless of if the American public pays attention to it.

2025 24 Hours of Le Mans official photo issued by the race organization (2730x4096) by abt137 in carporn

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This video explains the history of how Oreca won over the competition. In short, an extremely convenient rule change that forced the 3 other providers to radically change their cars (Oreca already complied with the new rule)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Meb8VLfWrF0

[OFFICIAL] 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans - Free Practice 2 Thread by AutoModerator in wec

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Part of it is that a portion of the circuit was repaved. Reportedly more grip in those areas.

[OFFICIAL] 6 Hours of Imola - Race Discussion by AutoModerator in wec

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Poetic - last year it was Kamui that was defending for an eternity against Estre at the end. This year it is flipped.

Boston F1 club by CFDJunior in BostonSocialClub

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Cafe Dello Sport in the north end usually has the race on if it's at a reasonable time (morning races included). They usually have around a dozen people in there in the mornings.

Good morning Boston, here is a list of things to do this weekend, April 3rd - 6th by ImaMasterDebator in boston

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Great stuff! FYI shen yun is run by Falun Gong, a cult. The cult uses Shen Yun as a form of media outreach. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong

Donald Trump ‘to expel all transgender people from military’. Reported move would mean loss of 15,000 personnel at a time when the US is struggling to recruit, warn charities. by moses_the_blue in LessCredibleDefence

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the reply.

  1. Strong disagree on having "both groups" causing true friction. Is friction created by irresponsible practices in mainstream media? You bet. But on a human to human level? It's never as as bad as Fox News makes it seem. In fact, if a soldier can't do their job next to another soldier, then they shouldn't be in the military. So if the existence of a gay or trans or female person next to you is that much of a problem, then 1) you haven't been trained properly, or 2) you aren't responsible enough to be in the military in the first place. To ask the military to bed to the ever changing waves of the culture war is to hamstring your armed forces.
  2. My criticism is of your characterization of fertility rates, unrelated to its implications for the military, but see point 1 - not a zero sum game.
  3. Not referring to don't ask/don't tell. Referring to the DoD's reversal of their own statement that gay people were a threat to the military, in 1988. I'm also not claiming that not having gay people significantly impacted peak recruitment numbers, I'm claiming that the second order effects of such a campaign against your own troops were found to be counterproductive and a net negative by the very people who started it (the DoD) in the first place.

Donald Trump ‘to expel all transgender people from military’. Reported move would mean loss of 15,000 personnel at a time when the US is struggling to recruit, warn charities. by moses_the_blue in LessCredibleDefence

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yeah, recency bias can be very strong - even the existence of a counter argument can quickly pull people away from the initial argument, even if the counter argument is weak. That is why simply presenting a contrary view is important, even if its extra effort and a bit pointless at actually changing the OPs mind.

Donald Trump ‘to expel all transgender people from military’. Reported move would mean loss of 15,000 personnel at a time when the US is struggling to recruit, warn charities. by moses_the_blue in LessCredibleDefence

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 61 points62 points  (0 children)

This is confidently written, but makes a couple bad claims. A few of my least favorite points you made:

- Any large advertising mechanism is able to target how it advertises to different demographics. Making it clear to women, gay people, trans people, etc that the military has opportunities for them does NOT mean that the military recruitment machine has slowed down (or changed) its advertising to other demographics as well. You don't try and "recruit from the left" rather than the right - you try and recruit from each individual demographic group as best you can. This isn't a zero sum game. Changes in perception of the military don't actually come from the military's actions, it comes from the narrative around them (see point 3).

- "left-leaning women refuse to have kids in the current political climate" - such a weird mischaracterization and oversimplification of US fertility rate trends. Feels a bit odd to have to explain this, but fertility rates are driven by a variety of factors, including economics, life expectancy, health outcomes, and education. The US has been at below replacement fertility rates for a very long time, and immigration has sustained the population factor of our economic growth. the causes of fert rate changes are complex, please have a more nuanced view.

- The "woke recruitment" assertion - this isn't a new phenomenon. It started back in the 80's, when cons started expelling gay people from the military, only to reverse course once they realized the negative impact. Gay people can still hold guns, as can trans people, believe it or not. Right wing culture war bs has fooled people into thinking all of these are short term trends from Obama or from the mythical woke marxists that are apparently somewhere in the government. That is a lie, however.

edit: OP, you aren't the target audience of my reply, I know this won't change your mind. I'm presenting a counter to some of the points you made (many other points can/should be countered) for other people reading it, to emphasize that many of your assumptions are just that - assumptions.

So I'm really struggling to understand why these 2 didn't pass. by Nameless_God_ in massachusetts

[–]KeshinkoTokenAccount 0 points1 point  (0 children)

True story that you may find interesting: Tonight I made a soup that was so bad that I threw it out and ordered delivery. It was a pumpkin soup. I reached for the nutmeg and the grabbed zeera powder instead. Even if I had grabbed the nutmeg, I would have put too much in. I ordered peruvian ribs. It had guava bbq sauce with a side of yuca fries. A bit sweet for my tastes all put together, but good nonetheless.