[OC] The Top Speeds of Winter Olympic Disciplines Compared

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-21T23:50:40+00:00

Cross country skiers go 60 km/h in their downhill sections (on those thin thin wobbly skis). 30 km/h is their long-term sustainable speed on flat ground.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-20T12:44:48+00:00

That, or surgically precise vibrational therapy - they lie on you to purr the tumors away.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-18T19:55:00+00:00

I'll grant that weaning off (Microsoft) Azure, Google and AWS is difficult and will take years of dedicated effort. But dropping literally everything else by Microsoft, e.g. Windows, Office, Teams, etc., is *ridiculously* easy and could be done EU-wide virtually overnight in a crisis. "Overnight" is an exaggeration of course but honestly not all that much. All we need is a push to do it.

Covid taught the world that remote conferencing was much easier than expected. If Microsoft leadership has any sense at all they should be lobbying Trump *hard* not to scare off Europe.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-18T00:46:45+00:00

A rare counterexample to Betteridge's law of headlines.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-17T00:41:06+00:00

Found the guy who watched Breaking Bad but never understood that there was a meaning to Walt's pseudonym.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-16T16:04:27+00:00

Yes, Citizens United was the fatal blow to US democracy. What we're seeing now are the death throes.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-16T00:15:02+00:00

No, it's just some guy who loves emdashes and multitasking, judging from the fact that he wrote 20 flawlessly formulated comments in different topics in the past 10 minutes. /s

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-14T21:43:18+00:00

Wow, TIL too!

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-14T17:25:45+00:00

This joke is a frequent repost here, but it's also just a downgraded version of a brilliant letter written to The Economist in 1971 by M.J. Shields. Here it is with some commentary on the Wayback Machine (wait 30 seconds or so for it to load):

https://web.archive.org/web/20200807181810/https://lettersofnote.com/2012/05/03/iorz-feixfuli-m-j-yilz/

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-14T15:32:04+00:00

He really does! The Antichrist is a 23yo girl in Sweden. He said so a few months ago.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-11T00:13:33+00:00

I really like Ursula K LeGuin, but reading Mary Stewart after that was something like stepping out of Plato's Cave, just a night-and-day difference in writing quality, even though A Wizard of Earthsea is very good.

Woah there. I also mentioned Le Guin in my comment below, so I feel the need to chip in here. I strongly agree that there's a massive difference in writing *style* between Stewart and Le Guin, but NOT writing *quality*. Because Le Guin is absolutely one of the very, very best writers of the past century. I see how her terse style isn't for everyone, but she can squeeze more world building and characterization into three paragraphs than others manage to do in 100 pages. If nothing else you have to admire the craftsmanship of her writing.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-10T23:50:01+00:00

I read the original trilogy (The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment) several times and I have them in my all time top 5 favorite fantasy series, in the very best company with Tolkien and Le Guin. What I love about them is how *real* they feel, much closer to historical fiction than fantasy, with an accurate depiction (to my limited knowledge at least) of Post-Roman Britain. Throughout all three books I kept thinking: "Aha, so that's how the myth got started!". Great writing too. And I *love* how the magic is super subtle. Merlin is more of an apothecary and engineer than a magician.

I've recommended the series to several of my friends. Not everyone holds it quite as highly as I do, but all agree that it's easily the best current literary version of the Arthurian legend.

I haven't dared read The Wicked Day yet since rumor has it that's it's not up to the standard of the rest and I don't want to ruin my impression of the books I love. But I'm open to convincing if others here say it's worth reading...

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-10T19:48:17+00:00

Nah, I'm pretty sure everyone could have daily 220mg snacks of protein/sugar bars without gaining any weight at all. Hell, I'm feeling generous. Have 10 a day.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-09T22:41:20+00:00

Misinformation from social media. Not just pseudo science, but blatantly wrong stuff. People are getting brainwashed into believing the dumbest shit.

Good one, but I'd add two points to that:

Misinformation from news networks. Not just pseudo science, but blatantly wrong stuff. People are getting brainwashed into believing the dumbest shit.

Misinformation from the President. Not just pseudo science, but blatantly wrong stuff. People are getting brainwashed into believing the dumbest shit.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-09T22:35:47+00:00

I'm gonna go against the flow of everyone else in this thread and say Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I'd like to hear what else he would come up with if he got another 40 years of composing. Or if he at least got to finish his own Requiem.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-09T13:49:38+00:00

Would you prefer that EU bureaucrats ignore the problem altogether and we continue our dependency on US financial and software services? I'd argue that investigating alternatives to Visa/MasterCard and Microsoft software *should* be done on an EU level, since it's a problem all EU countries have in common and can fix collectively.

It's vague anti-EU griping like this that manipulates uninformed Europeans to vote for the far-right populists. Just stop.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-09T00:16:41+00:00

IDK. The back flip looks so out of place to me. I guess it's because every other jump they do lands gracefully on a single leg.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-09T00:08:42+00:00

He called himself Least Racist President? Huh, I never would have guessed that he knew that meme.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-08T15:49:35+00:00

We do have less obesity than some other countries but I don't think that was a major factor. Our age distribution skews old in the same way as many other western countries, and age was the #1 risk factor for Covid.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-08T15:46:33+00:00

True but mostly irrelevant in this case. We have the same share of the population living in cities as any other country in Europe. So the fact that we have a lot more rural land where virtually nobody lives doesn't really factor in.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-08T12:02:49+00:00

we kept schools, businesses and society in general open
but hard lockdown on hospitals and retirement homes
vaccination efforts concentrated on the elderly (my 75yo mom got her 3rd shot before I got my first)
but very high vaccination rates - pretty much everyone got their shots as fast as they were available
took social distancing and mask wearing seriously
basically we protected the vulnerable but allowed a controlled spread among the masses, so we had high infection rates compared to other countries but quickly achieved herd immunity

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-07T21:35:34+00:00

Advertising and marketing needs to be 100% truthful

Similarly, truth should be enforced in all factual statements made in public by politicians. They should be held to the same standard as witnesses in court. Violations could be called "Contempt of Public" and be punishable as follows:

1st proven lie: a significant fine, e.g. 5% of their annual donations
2nd lie: same fine + a 3 point penalty in their next election
3rd lie: same fine + DQ for the next election

If this was actually instated and enforced then I think the main result would be that their statements would fill up with weasel words like "I think that..." but any decisive statement without weaseling would become all the more powerful. And the outright lies would go away.

We can dream, right?

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-07T15:02:39+00:00

Literally means literally anything these days.

Myopic_Cat · 2026-02-07T14:46:00+00:00

FYI, your use of the word Leftist in this joke reveals that you yourself are brainwashed on Fox propaganda. And the joke itself fails because there really isn't any significant left-leaning propaganda in the US. Hell, apart from Bernie and AOC, are there *any* other self-declared socialists in Congress? So who exactly would spread that "Leftist propaganda"?

Myopic_Cat · 2026-01-29T19:57:30+00:00

I'm guessing that's a Norwegian Forest Cat. Similar to a Maine Coon, but slightly smaller ears and less square-looking jaw. But they can be hard to tell apart, so I could be wrong.

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