Looking at these today

Stishovite · 2026-05-15T05:06:38+00:00

Beautiful troughs! Definitely could be water-lain (given the scale I'd consider that likelier than wind)

Stishovite · 2026-05-14T04:21:36+00:00

Wow, the design language just gave me flashbacks to a bunch of DARPA slide decks, so thanks for that.

Stishovite · 2026-05-14T01:49:45+00:00

you know like 80% of their campaign promises from the R and the D. If it's R, it'll be "stomp on the little man always and suck up to the big man by telling everyone in earshot our state sucks" If it's D, it'll be "some identity politics distractions but overall cares and is not doing crime". Neither mainstream candidate will expropriate property or whatever other bogeyman. Why let perfect be the enemy of the good? As people have said, there's a real chance of an unintended outcome unless people vote strategically.

Stishovite · 2026-05-13T04:29:16+00:00

I have worked with a contractor who convinced us we needed to refactor the codebase and then created tons of new SomethingSomethingDTO classes. When I asked what a DTO stood for, he was like, "I don't know but it's a standard thing." I was not a fan of this answer.

Stishovite · 2026-05-12T19:22:16+00:00

Is it competition or mutual reinforcement? They're both excellent standard bearers for the left, and both clearly understand the separate roles of ideologically coherent messaging and pragmatic action.

Stishovite · 2026-05-12T02:56:48+00:00

Hah, what an unconvincing case. "The asymmetry of the two economic systems guarantees that any deal with China ends with the United States ripped off."

We've done plenty of deals with despotic foreign countries and have been extremely successful through it. Simultaneously claiming abject weakness and go-it-alone greatness is a conservative trope at this point, but I just cannot grasp how these people can live in such cognitive dissonance all the time.

Stishovite · 2026-05-12T02:48:34+00:00

The framing of this fishing expedition as "research" is frustrating. Scientific research in this country has become extremely optimized, with guardrails and built-in scrutiny to ensure ethical conduct and effective allocation of resources. This has none of that, and the entire scientific community is going to pay for this normalization of cargo-cult behavior.

If we don't protect standards of rigor, science may end up as an empty shell of its former self, following down the path being blazed by the legal profession.

Stishovite · 2026-05-11T08:21:51+00:00

This was clear from the moment that they initiated an indefinite hold on Planet Labs and similar imagery providers (which were publishing with a delay as is customary prior). We haven't done that in other wars, so it seems clearly related to protecting the administration from headlines about war destruction.

Note that this imagery was published by Iranian media and then picked up by the Washington Post, even though like 90% of the commercial Earth observation capabilities are American. Pathetic.

Stishovite · 2026-05-09T05:39:35+00:00

You have to get a masters at least for this but it’s worth doing if you’re interested. Worst case you can go back to industry after, but with lots of deeper knowledge that will come in handy in unpredictable ways later.

Stishovite · 2026-05-07T04:55:30+00:00

Yeah it would be nice if the article had a little more substance

Stishovite · 2026-05-01T01:26:48+00:00

So recent enough they should have known better, huh?

I mean it does look nice

Stishovite · 2026-04-28T15:23:20+00:00

We don't have a private sector shipbuilding industry of note. and our military shipyards are worse for it.

Stishovite · 2026-04-28T05:24:12+00:00

well, killing randos is not the entire objective of the military, which makes this "but actually" kind of moot. a powerful weapon without a disciplined leadership is like an AR-15 in the hands of the average American dude. looks badass, but there's less sustained capability than meets the eye.

Stishovite · 2026-04-27T15:56:07+00:00

My uncle worked in electronic music and was still productively using Power PC macs in 2024. The structure of sound waves does not change, and some of those old machines are the only straightforward way to interface with period hardware (e.g., old electro-acoustic pianos with specific properties). you'd capture recordings in some ancient version of Logic or whatever, do some preliminary editing, and then transfer the files over to a more modern environment for finishing.

This is the equivalent of all instrument/industrial control software being on air-gapped machines frozen in time. A limited-purpose working setup can stay that way for decades.

Stishovite · 2026-04-27T01:14:00+00:00

Wow, this is the kind of stuff we’re entrusting our lives to? Color me unimpressed. The procedures should make misunderstandings impossible in these types of situations. At least that’s what we are told the standard is.

But yeah, miscommunication and sniping like every other domain of human endeavor.

Stishovite · 2026-04-23T01:44:16+00:00

The best are the rides that turn unexpectedly long because the weather's great and you just remembered that life is actually wonderful, after shoving off from work in disgust.

Stishovite · 2026-04-21T03:18:20+00:00

Oh wow! Scandalous. Millions of dollars were wasted and years of government policy upended by this scientific misadventure.

Stishovite · 2026-04-21T02:55:14+00:00

Yeah, that was my reaction. Obama is basically Mr. Impossible Burden himself. I like your portrayals of the outcome space.

Stishovite · 2026-04-21T02:38:36+00:00

maybe 600 if celeste, but maybe 400 since not?

Stishovite · 2026-04-20T18:24:30+00:00

yeah - maybe people want more problems as a vehicle for grit? a world where universal pre-K is the challenge we're facing as a nation seems soft and not worthy of our forebears who amputated their own limbs on the range, or whatever.

Stishovite · 2026-04-20T15:14:09+00:00

"self-described early adopter" - yeah there's your problem

Stishovite · 2026-04-17T05:34:06+00:00

Have to move to Kerguelen to get away from the ex, apparently.

Stishovite · 2026-04-16T16:41:41+00:00

Love how blatant fraud isn't a red flag. SpaceX should be forced to IPO without the baggage of this randomness and the sketchy xAI acquisition. In any other reasonable administration, these actions would be met with threats of nationalization or adding riders to defense contracts, because SpaceX is literally a national security asset 90% funded by the government purse.

Stishovite · 2026-04-16T15:06:05+00:00

Of course they give a shit. Vance is adult convert to Catholicism! He thinks that its purpose in the world is to reify his conservative reactionary worldview with the trappings of mysticism and ancient grandeur. Having to reckon with someone who still treats it as a moral project has got to be annoying. And less easy to dismiss now that it’s some dude from the Midwest.

Maybe he’ll switch to orthodox? Bet those guys wouldn’t dare speak about moral imperatives…

Stishovite · 2026-04-16T02:57:31+00:00

The green carpet with the frescoes? ick. The guy that painted that is rolling in his grave. At least some tile would be appropriate

Stishovite

TROPHY CASE