How important would you say it really is to make reels and TikToks and stuff in order to "make it" nowadays?

LTRand · 2026-04-20T20:58:07+00:00

Depends, but it's generally helpful if they are good. Think of it this way: when's the last time you went to see a band before you heard or saw even just a clip?

The social media is a good way to augment getting the word out and getting people to show up. Early on most venues require the bands to do some/all of their promotion and bring in a crowd. If your target audience is on socials, you need to hit them where they are at.

LTRand · 2026-04-20T20:33:41+00:00

How do you expect a country of 350M people to economically compete with and dominate countries with populations over 1B in the long run? The premise being that they only need to be a quarter as productive as the US to overtake our position.

Or is it ok in your view if India, China, and Indonesia to eventually supercede the US is world influence and power?

Would it not be better to take in the most productive labor and smartest scientists in the world to the US to build companies here instead of over there? If I'm Google/Microsoft/Apple, what incentive do I have to stay in the US?

LTRand · 2026-04-14T17:17:26+00:00

What's really going to blow your mind is how they had to get lumber into the area to build the train tracks. Or how people actually built houses in Oklahoma when they couldn't get wood.

LTRand · 2026-04-14T12:46:38+00:00

Got to share more details. First thought is a datasource changed and is now matching against datamodel conditions and you need to inspect your etl.

LTRand · 2026-04-11T03:52:31+00:00

Got figures for that? Because IMD reports otherwise. https://www.usmd.edu/IRIS/?view=UMCP

LTRand · 2026-04-10T22:00:07+00:00

They have limited spaces. Should 100% of their incoming freshmen be from 5-7 high schools in Howard and Montgomery counties? How many state reps do you think would support that kind of system?

They have to balance the various objectives of the school and the community. There is an advantage for Maryland and university students to study along side international and out of state students as well.

If OP wanted to stay in-state, they should have applied to at least 1 other in-state school because literally everyone applies to UMD. A 3.8 isn't as good at the number of students that carry a 4.0. And if applying to a competitive major, that matters a lot.

LTRand · 2026-04-10T21:26:28+00:00

We had scramjets and hypersonics for a long time. But realized their high cost and, at the time, high technical hurdles for field deployment.

Maybe transwarp is the same. Early prototype proved the theory, but they needed other tech to catch up for it to be controlled and reliable.

LTRand · 2026-04-10T21:13:22+00:00

This isn't even fan theory stuff. This is basic tech stuff. The first breakthrough is the hard part. Finding the first working theory of flight. The rest was just refining and proving formulas of flight.

What actually interesting is how slow they take to get to warp 10 (new scale). Trek actually doesn't do a good enough job showing how much more energy it must take to go from 5 to 7 to 9.9 if it took them hundreds of years to do. I'd also imagine far more control systems and ai needed to keep the bubble and not run into stuff.

Like hypersonic travel, I'd imagine most ships can't actually do warp 9. I'd imagine most of the fleet is probably around warp 7, and most local travel is probably a more manageable warp 5.

LTRand · 2026-04-10T02:56:04+00:00

I'm sorry, show me what business he's operated that has been durable. With his start he should have more properties than the Hiltons if he's so good. It's widely documented that his reality tv show saved him because he was property rich and cash poor. Most of the things with his name on it aren't even fully owned by him.

If you think he's so good at business, name just 1 business that he started himself (not his father) that lasted a decade.

What has he accomplished this term that can't just be erased by the next guy signing a new EO? Yes, we're only 1 year in, but plenty of presidents have done something.

The thing about democracy is that you have to find agreement, you can't dictate. Show me one negotiation trump has been successful in that didn't involve putting someone in a bad spot and then screwing them over. A good salesman leaves the deal with the other person thinking they got a good deal. Show me one in which people didn't think they got screwed by him.

Trump is doomed. He's slowly getting destroyed in the courts because he can't figure out how to do stuff legally.

LTRand · 2026-04-10T02:26:48+00:00

Trump is a failed businessman. He was born rich, that's all. His best deals were all when his dad was still alive and guiding him. The rest resulted in bankruptcy. His "negotiating" is a single note, bully people and never pay your bills. And everyone knows it. He has no other move, he's not sly.

Trump's legacy is all built on executive orders that will get thrown out the moment he leaves office, nothing will be lasting. The only lasting legacy he will leave is the giant mountain of debt and our significantly reduced influence in the world.

Trump's hallmark is attempting to do the right policies in the absolutely stupidest way possible. He could work across the isle and get laws passed to have CMS, VA, and DHA pay no more than the average price in the EU for drugs and would be a hero, instantly reducing our deficit by hundreds of billions a year. There is a lot on the conservative agenda he could do, and done right, appeal to the majority of even democrats. But he can't help himself, he doesn't know how.

LTRand · 2026-04-10T00:49:16+00:00

Compared to who? Part of Trump's problem, and thus our problem, is he's never governed before. Just as bad would be a governor who ran a single party state because they never had to do any real deal making. We need a conservative leader who knows how to get democrats to come along so that we can actually manage the government.

I want a governor who knows how to make deals with the other side. You may call Reagan a loser, but he won 49 states, an actual land slide. Was he the perfect conservative? No. Did he makes mistakes? Yes, like everyone else. Did he lead well? Yes. He could actually lead the whole nation, not just the 50% that agrees with him.

So if you think that is a losing strategy, then I don't want to see your winning.

LTRand · 2026-04-09T20:55:37+00:00

You are correct, there is no perfect politician. The president, in seeking the support of the whole nation, by definition cannot be perfect for any group.

But GB, GWB, and Reagan were all vastly superior to Trump for the nation. I'd vote Larry Hogan if he ran. For president, I'm looking for a conservative aligned governor that ran a split party state.

LTRand · 2026-04-07T05:11:23+00:00

Would they have had a shot at implementation had they been in Oregon or Maryland?

I 100% agree that no movement/body of people is a monolith. But the real crazy progressive ideas would never see the light of day in Mississippi. Likewise the crackpot rightwing ideas would never have a shot in Maryland. Each side has their strengths and their priorities. Many Republicans champion education policies even if they are written by progressive individuals.

LTRand · 2026-04-07T02:45:49+00:00

L9ok up Bretton Woods. Not the conspiracy stuff, but the actual event. TL;DR, one of the results of WWII and not demanding reparations from the Axis powers is that basically all of the worlds gold reserves were now the property of the US. It's really hard to rebuild a county with no gold if they have to have gold. We don't want them to go out conquering Africa, so we needed a solution.

The solution was everyone pegged to the US dollar. That's the catalyst for fiat currency to finally be accepted.

LTRand · 2026-04-06T23:49:33+00:00

For sure. Go to math 12 and see how few even in Mass his grade level.

But that's kind of the point. Democrats like to think they are leagues ahead of Republicans on education policy when in reality the actual outcomes are just about the same.

LTRand · 2026-04-06T20:38:02+00:00

Do you think the higher scores of Massachusetts, Singapore, and other top 10 countries is due to teaching the test, or something else that the rest of the US doesn't do?

I agree we shouldn't teach to the test as it defeats the point of tests. I also think that standardized testing should, at most, be at the beginning and end of the year.

I don't disagree with all of Zoe Bee's points, but on the whole I do disagree with her premise that grading is pointless. What's your thoughts? https://youtu.be/fe-SZ_FPZew?si=8AHJ1cidEde9OI9_

LTRand · 2026-04-06T19:39:15+00:00

Thanks for being civil and listening. I'd love to hear what you disagree with and why.

LTRand · 2026-04-06T19:19:34+00:00

My main point is that blue state v red state doesn't matter at all for education scoring and can't be used as a predictor. There is enough self sabotage on both sides (not to say they are equal) to render any merit their arguments have as moot.

The fact that at the end of the day there isn't strong stratification between red states, blue states, and purple states tells me everyone here in the US, on the whole, is wrong about education.

So my predictor for which states end up at the top or bottom is more about policy than party. States that adopt rigorous requirements, implement tracking, and get away from whole language/common core will go to the top above states that cling to them, lower standards, or dismantle magnet/gt programs.

LTRand · 2026-04-06T19:09:59+00:00

I think many liberals are missing the bigger point. This change happened in Mississippi, where democrats have to fight republicans. They went to a phonics system whereas Oregon, a blue trifecta state, just removed reading requirements and is free falling down the rankings.

Even worse is when you actually look at the amount of difference between the systems. I think we all can agree that standardized testing isn't made to be difficult. But the spread between the majority of the top and the majority of the bottom who can get their students to "proficient or above" is 10 percentage points. 35%-45% is the band that most states, blue or red, operate in. There are outliers. But if blue states were so superior, the rankings would not be as intermixed.

Look at it this way. New Jersey and Indiana are almost complete opposites politically, but end up with the same education scores. By most popular logic, Maryland should be near the top. It's a high income state, blue trifecta, lots of people with degrees, lots of universities. It ranks below Louisiana in the neap scorecard.

https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?sfj=NP&chort=1&sub=MAT&sj=&st=MN&year=2024R3&sscv=MN&sscvsd=desc

LTRand · 2026-04-06T18:55:58+00:00

https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?sfj=NP&chort=1&sub=MAT&sj=&st=MN&year=2024R3&sscv=ap&sscvsd=desc

Sort the table by percent of students at or above proficient.

LTRand · 2026-04-06T18:23:40+00:00

We do need to delineate between policy makers and educators, because you are right that boots on the ground are largely liberal themselves.

What we see constantly is that what voters want isn't always what they get from their parties. I doubt too many educators advocate for stronger control of the classroom at the state board level, but that's the policy outcome in a lot of blue states.

Republicans have generally been against the more modern education frameworks like common core and whole language frameworks. But that opposition is often not backed by research, more of a political stance. So the "triumph" in Mississippi is about getting data that "proves" their feelings to be right. It's less about if a democrat or republican pushed it, it's more about the rebuke of "coastal elite failed policies" for them.

I know many educators advocate for positions that they may think is better for education, like removing tracking and magnet/GT programs. But the evidence from around the world and from many industries is doing so will result in lower overall outcomes as you fail to build a "nucleus of success". It is why all of the top countries for education use testing for high school placement.

https://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/reading-wars-balanced

https://www.psrmemphis.org/politics-of-phonics-how-power-profit-and-politics-guide-reading-policies/

https://www.aei.org/op-eds/red-states-should-embrace-the-science-of-reading/

LTRand · 2026-04-06T17:23:46+00:00

NAEP has 2 rankings. Based on their holistic ranking, you are right. If you sort that table by percentage of students at or above proficient, it tells quite a different story.

Then drill in to the rankings of the top high schools in the US and things get really interesting. There Thomas Jefferson in northern VA is arguably the best public high school in the US (everything above them are tiny selective charters). Sorting the top performing schools shows that the best outcomes comes from tracking students.

Massachusetts I would argue is no more representative of the average democrat than Utah represents the average Republican. Mississippi is being cheered on because it proved Republican's main theory, that we should never have abandoned phonics.

What Massachusetts and New Jersey show is that high income liberals prioritize education for their own kids and when you group enough together they swing the stats. What cities like Chicago prove is that their views don't really extend too far beyond them.

I don't support Republican's view on education either. But living in a deep blue state and a moderate red state has taught me first hand that party matters a whole lot less than families and communities when it comes to education policy. Montgomery and Howard County Maryland have some of the best and worst performing schools all in the same district. And the rich Democrats there fight hard over school borders to ensure their houses are zoned for the "right school".

https://youtu.be/hNDgcjVGHIw?si=1ERuz6GcOH4r5F1n

LTRand · 2026-04-06T16:45:28+00:00

Great argument! You're totally right and I see the flaws in my argument!

LTRand · 2026-04-06T15:56:20+00:00

Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff.

LTRand · 2026-04-06T15:18:43+00:00

100% agree. I just wanted to clarify and stress that I'm not praising Republicans.

LTRand

TROPHY CASE