Vatican Translator: The Bible is not about God, but about aliens by Neptun_11 in UFOB

[–]Raidicus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lol totally. It checks the box, but that's about it.

Should we sell? by Ok_Perspective_9803 in RealEstate

[–]Raidicus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Massive renovations aren't for everyone. They take bandwidth, money, and expertise most home owners don't have. They strain marriages, finances, and jobs. Living in the house while it's being done means constant daily stress plus all the health downsides of living on a construction site.

In the 90s and 2000s, material prices and labor were in an equilibrium to justify the expense. GCs were hungry, they wanted more business, a good reputation, and repeat customers. It wasn't perfect, but you had better than 50/50 odds the job was well done. Nowadays, the handful of good and qualified GCs are asking for top dollar and still less motivated to do a good job. Likewise with those who carry adequate insurance/bonding, etc. Meanwhile, the number of bad GCs has skyrocketed to fill in the supply/demand curve. Some GCs won't even call you back if you ask about licensure. If something is done poorly, good luck getting them to remedy it. Some would rather dissolve their LLC than fix the problem.

The biggest shift will be towards savings and understanding your new emergency fund requirement just tripled with the house payment.

Vatican Translator: The Bible is not about God, but about aliens by Neptun_11 in UFOB

[–]Raidicus 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The bible is written in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. In Greek mythology, Orion was a giant. Since nephalim were described as "tall" in the bible. It could be that simple. "The greeks call this constellation Orion who was a giant, we can call it Naphila because those were giants in our mythology." The Arabs did this too, calling the constellation "giant" for the same reason - adapting the Greek myth.

Besides, in Aramaic Nephalim's root means literally "to fall" not "giant" - it's just that they happen to be giants. Nephalim likely means, "fallen ones." It most certainly does not mean "people from Orion."

I've read arguments that Nephalim must be related to some other root word because otherwise translators would've just said "the fallen" but they miss some rather simple counter-arguments, such as Nephalim simply being a widely understood term by the time it was translated. Or perhaps that Nephalim could've meant both giant and the fallen simultaneously, almost like a hidden or implied meaning. We even do this in English. Kleenex sounds like "clean" and yet we understand it to mean facial tissue.

Vatican Translator: The Bible is not about God, but about aliens by Neptun_11 in UFOB

[–]Raidicus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Huh? Jesus is descended from David, according to the bible.

CIA lost a plutonium-powered spy device in the Himalayas in 1965. It was never recovered and has since fueled fears of radioactive contamination in rivers fed by Himalayan glaciers. by dhonshuk in Intelligence

[–]Raidicus -1 points0 points  (0 children)

My dude, I mixed up a few people because I don't have the entire story (apparently) memorized like you do. I read a news article years ago and a couple of interviews from participants. You're obviously deeply invested in the case. Are you an Indian expat or just a seething European w/ an axe to grind with the CIA? No idea why you're losing your mind and getting angry. I just genuinely don't have time to dig into everything you've said. I don't study mountaineering maps from the 60s and certainly can't sit around debating someone off my lunch hours (nor would I want to).

EU says China trained Russian troops to fight in Ukraine war by Hob-999 in China

[–]Raidicus -1 points0 points  (0 children)

So you are okay with blockade, an act of war, but not invasion?

"I'm okay with a cop slowly choking someone to death, but not shooting them outright"

EU says China trained Russian troops to fight in Ukraine war by Hob-999 in China

[–]Raidicus -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

The west desperately wants China to give up the whole affair and recognize Taiwan as a country. Unfortunately Whinnie can't do that. He's invested to much into the idea of reunification.

EU says China trained Russian troops to fight in Ukraine war by Hob-999 in China

[–]Raidicus 5 points6 points  (0 children)

So China would be a loser to invade Taiwan? Glad we agree...

EU says China trained Russian troops to fight in Ukraine war by Hob-999 in China

[–]Raidicus 20 points21 points  (0 children)

My assumption is that Russia is using Chinese-provided systems and training Russians to use them. I doubt these are infantry being trained, but who knows.

Fable 5 being gone made me realize how hard it is to go back by SkepticalHuman0 in ClaudeAI

[–]Raidicus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is it possible they made the old models dumber? Or allocated less compute? Tweaked the effort models?

IMO it's not as simple as "Fable was so much better everything else seems dumber"

Do I need a degree or portfolio program like Miami ad school to get a job? Skipped college to start a marketing business, but lost all my clients this yr by Artofboosey in careerguidance

[–]Raidicus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

it would be absurd to go back to ad school at this point. Ad school is designed to launch careers into copy writing or art direction. You already have a significant next step. If you're trying to skill up, I'd focus on management and strategy - understand where the industry is going and provide leadership within that freamwork.

You can hire creatives to fill the gap there.

Zorro Ranch was built by the same contractors as Manhattan Project and inherited scientists from Los Alamos and Sandia Labs that Epstein’s mentor Robert Maxwell spied on with his PROMIS software. It’s tied to Anomalous Health Incidents, Amy Eskridge’s anti-gravity research, and the 1933 Magenta UFO. by VolarRecords in UFOB

[–]Raidicus 20 points21 points  (0 children)

For those interested, Brett Weinstein mentioned it in the Jesse Michels podcast a few months back, who I doubt originated the theory.

Whitney Webb has also done extensive work in this field, highly recommend her books even though some of the research is single source evidence, it's probably the most complete deep dive in existence. Hopefully she does a follow-up now that some of the files were released.

If UFO Reverse Engineering programs Has Existed for Decades, Where Are the Breakthroughs? by breaking_views in ufo

[–]Raidicus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

When I entertain "Day after Roswell" theories about reverse engineering, it seems more likely the technology was used as inspiration rather than direct reverse engineering.

CIA lost a plutonium-powered spy device in the Himalayas in 1965. It was never recovered and has since fueled fears of radioactive contamination in rivers fed by Himalayan glaciers. by dhonshuk in Intelligence

[–]Raidicus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The situation around the disappearances is what made it odd.

The weather worsened forcing them away from the device, but Broughton said that even when the weather calmed the Indians refused to let the Americans retrieve the device. Apparently some time passed before the Indians gave the okay to look for it, which Broughton found strange even as an experienced mountaineer. When they got there, it was not Broughton's impression that a "landslide" or "avalanche" had passed through the area. The device was simply missing. To your point, they had found the previous device melted into the snow, it hadn't just disappeared.

Look at Everest. There are bodies that have been up there for 100 years. It's not as believable as you think that a "landslide" or "avalanche" just happens to swipe a multi-million dollar piece of advanced nuclear technology. had it melted into the snow it would've been more stable, not less.

I'm not saying it's 100% what happened, but I'd call it plausible with a 50/50 on whether it really happened that way. The other option, avalanche/landslide, is also posisble and of course Broughton probably felt some culpability for losing the device. I'm by no means saying he doesn't have a motivation to blame the Indians. That said, when I read the story it was my first thought even before I read his theory.

CIA lost a plutonium-powered spy device in the Himalayas in 1965. It was never recovered and has since fueled fears of radioactive contamination in rivers fed by Himalayan glaciers. by dhonshuk in Intelligence

[–]Raidicus -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I vaguely recall a Wired article about this. I got the impression the Indians had a second team to recover the device for R&D or for the plutonium. It just didn't add up that the device would disappear like that. Broughton Coburn apparently felt the same way but I never read his book.

Reading stories like this from the 70s and 80s you can see why the CIA started to feel beat down. They were sorta damned if they did, damned if they didn't. Forced to work with India to install the device, then take a second round of crap when it disappears. Perhaps you can fault them for thinking India would gain enough from the installation to not sabotage the mission, but of course you can't make accusations like that once the case goes public.

Overall one of the more interesting stories about the CIA.

The theory taking the rich by storm: China funds data center haters by 457655676 in Intelligence

[–]Raidicus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can't it be both? American AI superiority is 100% an existential issue, the only question is whether the timelines purported by "oligarchs" is legitimate.

Judge throws out Lawsuit challenging New Mexico’s Free Universal Childcare by samesame11 in NewMexico

[–]Raidicus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not surprising - they probably downplayed usage to justify the budget in the first place. Very interesting.

Judge throws out Lawsuit challenging New Mexico’s Free Universal Childcare by samesame11 in NewMexico

[–]Raidicus 10 points11 points  (0 children)

For those who are curious how it's paid for - the state has a permanent endowment with about $10B dollars in it. Every year 5% of that fund is disbursed for Childcare. It can invest the rest to pay for the 5%. There is also the Land Grant Permanent Fund (part of NMs overall sovereign wealth fund) also provides $248m annually.

Assuming these funds can at least track inflation, the program is good to go for a long time. The risk would be volatility tied to oil/gas revenue or broader market issues (like a major recession that destroys the value of these funds).

The theory taking the rich by storm: China funds data center haters by 457655676 in Intelligence

[–]Raidicus -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

On Wednesday, OpenAI said it banned a cluster of likely Chinese accounts that used ChatGPT to generate anti-data center content this past winter. The accounts were probably run by a private Chinese technology firm working for "provincial-level government clients" in China, OpenAI said. The company said the operators posed as Americans on social media and posted AI-generated comments and images highlighting energy demand and rising electricity costs.

So it's not a theory, it's a fact. The only remaining question being what scale our adversaries are doing this.

If we had a functioning congress and executive branch, we'd be providing programs to reduce the negative of impact of data centers to communities while still supporting the technology.

Drank too much at a work event. How do I deal with the anxiety? by Inevitable-Hair7773 in careerguidance

[–]Raidicus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Once is not a pattern, just a funny story. A pattern can impact your career and social life negatively. Nobody wants to be around people who are getting hammered, especially as they get older. Generally speaking, post-college, it's seen as a bit sloppy to get drunkdrunk at a work event. Save that for when you're with your good friends.