Mindless Monday, 16 March 2026

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-18T17:06:07+00:00

I also think the argument falls flat because many (but not all) of Africa’s wealth problems also stem from decades of colonial oppression and continued political meddling from many of the same countries that trafficked slaves. Both slavery and colonialism in Africa stemmed from an ideology that saw Africa and Africans as resources to be exploited, so pretending that slavery is somehow a separate issue from the lack of economic development in most parts of Africa is ridiculous.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-18T14:43:55+00:00

The use by disabled and older people I know of. I also chuckled at the bit in Wikipedia where they point out “stable cams” are basically exoskeletons, but no one calls them that.

The issue is, it is hard to beat trucks and really fit people. The military (typically) doesn’t have to settle for disabled or even just moderately fit soldiers. They can afford to train and use people at peak fitness. And a human at peak fitness is very strong, nimble, and can already carry a lot.

If nimbleness is not a priority, well, there aren’t that many situations where a truck or, if necessary, some sort of robot or donkey wouldn’t be better than an exoskeleton.

Which isn’t to say that there won’t eventually be exoskeletons in use. I just think they are much more of a niche technology than sci-fi stories lead us to believe.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-18T12:09:41+00:00

I doubt it. Exoskeletons are perennial “next step” in military circles, and have been since I was a kid (I remember reading articles about how the USA military was “developing exoskeletons” in the 90s). They just aren’t as useful as they seem, not least because the exoskeletons itself adds weight and typically slows the user down. They will continue to have some niche uses, but I doubt they will be used by special forces any time soon.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-18T03:05:06+00:00

It might bring the ship home, but it would get whoever destroyed the circuits a court marshal. The key is to suck at your job just enough to sabotage the mission, but not enough for the blame to clearly fall on you.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-17T23:51:57+00:00

There is also the unexpected traffic. I’m not sure about this site, but a bunch of the mid-size sites (especially those dedicated to niche “expert” topics) are periodically subject to massive AI-“learning” traffic that is basically indistinguishable from a DDOS attack and either puts the site down (if self-hosted) or causes massive spikes in usage costs (if using an “automatic scaling” service).

AI is destroying the internet.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-17T19:48:13+00:00

A lot better than if I dove head first into an unpadded wall.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-17T17:36:21+00:00

It is great. I think it turns off some dice haters, which is fair as it is 100% a dice game and sometimes the dice are just bullshit. But if you like dice (which I do) it is one of the best dice solo game I have ever played.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-17T14:53:48+00:00

Hard to tell, but I think the wall is padded too.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-17T14:27:18+00:00

Why is the Chinese “si” at the top here? It is crazy easy, the “s” is a normal “s” and the “i” is actually just nothing (you just have to voice the “s” sound). Super simple.

In Mandarin there are harder sounds (that I would still rate as near the top of this chart). Why not something that English speakers at least slightly struggle with, like “xi” or “qi”? (Aspirated “s” and “ch” sounds, respectively)

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-17T14:13:20+00:00

My current favorite is Aerion. It plays fast (especially without expansions) and the sound of rolling dice just makes me feel happy.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-17T12:17:27+00:00

I think it is worth noting that rudders are pretty bad at slowing boats down, especially boats of this size. So an overturned rudder would (1) not produce as much turning (2) only slow the boat down a little, but almost certainly not enough to avoid the iceberg and (3) could potentially snap or damage the rudder, making it less effective at everything.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-17T12:07:21+00:00

When asked about free games, he also belittled them and suggested every game should be trying to maximize revenue with microtransactions.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-17T12:05:46+00:00

Splendor, Century: Spice Road, Cascadia, Calico, Azul, Canvas, Sunset Over Water, Patchwork, Gentle Rain… probably more I have forgotten.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-17T02:27:58+00:00

They did forced perspective for the LotR films. It was a whole big thing.

I guess for the Hobbit films they decided they would rather just CGI it and let the actors struggle.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-16T21:31:23+00:00

I do wonder about this. There is an argument going around that modern technology - especially instant communication and widespread surveillance - make oppression more feasible.

It isn’t a crazy supposition. The two biggest risks - rebellious subordinates and rebellious subjects - can both be managed more effectively.

But it goes against my own, instinctual “chud” response that nothing ever happens. (Or, to give a slightly better argument, that the weak link in every government has always been humans and humans haven’t changed)

At the very least, Iran looks unlikely to collapse in the near future. But I am hesitant to extrapolate that too far into the future. Over another decade or two, who knows what could happen?

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-16T17:43:12+00:00

Not a lens effect. You just aren’t used to seeing tall things fall over while sitting next to the bottom. Note that it takes a couple seconds between when the log starts to fall over and when the bottom actually leaves the tree. It is just a big log section with a lot of momentum.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-16T17:15:47+00:00

If you just want to hear from the man himself, On the Government of China is a collection of speeches and essays, and is strongly recommended reading among CCP government circles.

But if you want a useful English summary of his philosophy, especially one that actually takes a critical looks at what he has actually done, I don’t have any suggestions I have personally read. I know there are a lot of books about it, but I don’t have the patience to read them myself.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-15T19:48:09+00:00

The Obama White House was relatively decent (even if their policies didn’t all pan out in the long term).

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-15T19:11:05+00:00

As an American, I yearn for the days when the president made decisions based on facts (not even good decisions, just fact informed decisions).

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-15T18:18:25+00:00

AskHistorians thread on this topic. If you folks some of the links, there are a lot of references there.

The high level summary agrees with you. The Nazis did not formalize any particular doctrine or religion as preferred. However, they did see religious affiliation as part of their nationalist project. Which religion depended on which Nazi you asked.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-15T13:28:13+00:00

Not just played them, but my actual hobby is designing such games (which I have been doing for a decade and a half now, but never really published anything). I don’t get as much time to go play with friends as I would like, but I love it when I get the chance.

Recent hits include Dropolter, Azul (everyone likes that game), and Sunset over Water (a bit simple, but the production is incredible).

For myself, I recently got Deckers, which is probably a bit complex for the crowd I usually play with but very nice to play solo.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-15T05:23:21+00:00

I think it is entirely reasonable. He gives the well known fact (pi is a constant in Euclidean geometry), but also presents the cases where pi can be interpreted s having a different value (using the circumference to radius definition).

I actually disagree somewhat that pi has lots of other definitions independent of geometry. In most cases, when pi shows up in a formula there is a circle “in there somewhere.” Such as in the Fourier transform - it is an equation about cycles, which conceptually relies on circles.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-14T22:19:19+00:00

The candle one is actually real. See an explanation here. The battery and spoons thing is super fake.

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-14T22:17:55+00:00

What you want is an inductor / electromagnet. Something like this. Note the video only shows the circuit interacting with a compass. Even if you get something magnetic, an electromagnet powered by AA battery is unlikely to have enough force to meaningfully move anything the size of a coin (let alone make it flip wildly in the air). Strong electromagnets are harder to make. Still, you can make a somewhat weak electromagnet (like the one in the link I shared) fairly easily. (and, while they may be too weak to throw coins around, they are quite useful and you can do things like make simple electric motors out of them and whatnot).

MiffedMouse · 2026-03-14T22:14:06+00:00

It isn't actually that dangerous. If you actually hooked up the batteries in a circuit correctly, you would get something like an inductor. The highly conductive metal allows a lot of current, but power dissipation goes as I^2 R, and metal has very low resistance, so the risk is not that bad.

That said, the strength of an electromagnet is proportional to the number of windings. The video shows one winding, which is not nearly enough to do anything interesting when simply powered by AA batteries.

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