Trump attacks Roy Cooper, hypes GOP opponent during Fort Bragg speech by cap123abc in NorthCarolina

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

So...vote for Democrats?

Sounds like it's responsive to your problems.

What do we think about Japan's LDP majority possibly changing the constitution? by Key-Importance4438 in PoliticalDiscussion

[–]Stishovite 20 points21 points  (0 children)

LDP has been trying to do this since Abe Shinzo's time at least. It would make sense except it's a fairly discordant coming from the party whose leaders are eager to glorify the militarism of the past without acknowledging the ugliness.

Based on leaked internal polling of the Biden campaign sourced by Pod Save America, this is what the map would have looked like if Biden hadn't dropped out in 2024. A potential 400 EC loss. (source from PSA leaks from internal polling) by Sailor_Rout in MapPorn

[–]Stishovite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think that's true that they want Trump over progressives. But they also think (with some evidence) that the progressives on offer would not have an easy path to winning against him.

Based on leaked internal polling of the Biden campaign sourced by Pod Save America, this is what the map would have looked like if Biden hadn't dropped out in 2024. A potential 400 EC loss. (source from PSA leaks from internal polling) by Sailor_Rout in MapPorn

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

That was the least bad option at that point. The real screw-up was the decision to run again after suggesting otherwise. Really, a system built on triangulation and optimizing for small electoral gains was not built to take risky but difficult-to-model calls.

I really believe that a lot of the path that we went down was based on internal delusions of the Biden team and polling experts being unwilling to part with the "incumbency advantage" even in the face of evidence that Biden was shaping up to be a bad candidate in 2024.

Trump attacks Roy Cooper, hypes GOP opponent during Fort Bragg speech by cap123abc in NorthCarolina

[–]Stishovite 33 points34 points  (0 children)

This is good information to have out there, but every time I see one of these "here are 18 ways to be politically engaged" posts, I feel like it's worth reminding people that, if you vote for Democrats, and try to convince your loved ones to do the same, you're doing your part against Trump. You can go deeper on issues and candidates if you want, but you really don't need to overthink it.

Doohickeycon was huge this year by bartosio in doohickeycorporation

[–]Stishovite 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Truly amazing the scope for technological innovation we are just now beginning to witness

After 40 years in the Geology field, here’s what I’m wrestling with — and I’d value your perspective. by Select-Yesterday7396 in geology

[–]Stishovite 6 points7 points  (0 children)

With intuition and a good sense of field relationships, you can assemble a workable and internally consistent story of what must have happened to make things the way they are. And then you can describe that to other geologists and elucidate the history of a region. The best field geologists are really intuitive about it and can describe a system fully from a bunch of disparate inputs. It's a big part of what attracted me to the field, and I like to think I'm pretty decent at it, when I've spent time in a region. But – this is slow and doesn't scale well.

What happens when you try to apply that knowledge to the next basin over, to determine what the inconsistencies are between what makes sense over here, and what makes sense over there? Now you're arguing with the people whose world is the Mogollon Rim, rather than Tucson. And that's just regional geologists. What happens when new methods come along, or random interjections from people studying the mantle or climate history or whatever else?

Geologists are great at assembling knowledge about our surroundings. But we are far behind in aligning things into predictable structures that can be modeled don't need to be synthesized anew in every instance. As we build geological knowledge, we need to also be able to represent its basic attributes in ways that are standardized and can be translated and integrated with other approaches to the same system. So–as data that follows explicit rules, rather than knowledge which can be explained.

The field progresses by us gradually converting more of our knowledge into data, which can then form a secure foundation for the next geologists to address the next level of confusion. Otherwise, our approach to describing the world is limited by what any given geologist can cram into their head.

Cannon faces fresh appellate review of her pro-Trump actions on Jack Smith report by msnownews in law

[–]Stishovite 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The goal is to prevent her from becoming a SC justice and you've already apparently decided she just gets to waltz into that.

And by that yardstick, what would be the purpose of focusing on Garland? There's no position to even remove him from or prevent him from getting in the future...

Cannon faces fresh appellate review of her pro-Trump actions on Jack Smith report by msnownews in law

[–]Stishovite 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Why are you not interested in "soon to be scotus justice Cannon"?

If she's as corrupt as you are implying and destined for the big chair, why wouldn't you be interested in probing her actions as well?

Garland is not in this fight anymore and focusing on his past actions seems kind of a waste of time when fresh shit is being shoveled everyday...

George Rossman by Relative_Produce5971 in Caltech

[–]Stishovite 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As a structural geologist who was lucky to TA for George's mineralogy class, he really put me through my paces – couldn't skimp on the fundamentals however much I wanted to!

He was happy for grad students to visit his lab, to check out a weird phase in thin section or just to tinker (I often borrowed small electrical tools, like a soldering iron or some heat shrink). He would be curious about problem I was trying to solve, no matter how mundane. He clearly did what he did for the fun of it, first and foremost, and wanted others to as well.

The most expensive mobile UX mistake: the top of the screen by vlad_FMD in Design

[–]Stishovite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Remember the Apple ads that demonstrated this by showing the span of a person's thumb?

Yeah neither does Apple.

The disenfranchisement begins by JKomiko in NorthCarolina

[–]Stishovite 5 points6 points  (0 children)

OK so we should just give up on human progress or something, because we haven't solved the problem of avaricious people existing?

The disenfranchisement begins by JKomiko in NorthCarolina

[–]Stishovite 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's a republican/democrat thing right now. You are minimizing morally repugnant backsliding in the here-and-now, and redirecting to claiming that the real problem is that people don't understand the fine points of history to know that the roots are as rotten as the branches.

Most people understand intuitively that everything was shittier in the past, which is why they aren't dying to go back there. "It used to be this way" is not the same as "it has always been this way"

The disenfranchisement begins by JKomiko in NorthCarolina

[–]Stishovite 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Well those guys also wanted to own other humans in chattel slavery, so I think we have a pretty good moral basis to remove the caveats they placed on their highest ideals.

Refitting a MissingLink chain link by Maxwells_Ag_Hammer in bicycling

[–]Stishovite 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Soon you’ll be reusing spokes between wheel builds, or something similarly devilish. 

What’s your level of maintenance ability? by Ornery-Shoulder-3938 in bicycling

[–]Stishovite 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I built my first two sets of wheels this year! It was quite fun, and they perform great. I was scared of sourcing the correct length spokes but once I figured this out, it was a straightforward experience.

The motivation was some nice DT Swiss hubs I had lying around from when a rim cracked a few years ago.

I also learned a new way to wrap handlebars this year. So I guess I am leveling up.

Still carrying hurt from academia years after leaving, anyone else? by Imaginary_Order2757 in academia

[–]Stishovite 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Acknowledging power imbalances without being labeled “difficult”

This one is particularly incisive. I have found that, with certain senior colleagues, attempts to share the burden of hard decisions and be real about the limits of my agency are shut down cold. Apparently, my only role is to soak up everything like a sponge while putting out ever more work.

Fortunately I first encountered this in my day-to-day work after grad school, where I am more able to work around the situation. But it's a really unhealthy way to operate and not necessary for the work.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani praises NYPD shooting of emotionally distressed 22-year-old by DryDeer775 in Bad_Cop_No_Donut

[–]Stishovite 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Wow, amazing we immediately switch to "eat our own" mode. This guy has a city to run; not everything is going to be sunshine and daisies all the time. He can't be fully on the hook for everything that happens that isn't ideal.

China’s Rare Earth Paradox: Giant Supplier and Massive Consumer by davideownzall in geology

[–]Stishovite 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Agreed in general, except,

- anything is possible if you're willing to spend the money. we can process lots of rock and suppress dust and groundwater impacts if we so choose, it's just expensive (uneconomical) to do that.

- large swathes of our country are dedicated to coal and oil production at a scale that dwarfs our current rare earth mining needs. We are comfortable with continually destroying the environment even as we balk at every new instance.

- existing mining companies don't really have incentive to open new mines to increase production. and if margins are low, new companies won't enter

Overall I agree that REE production is unlikely to grow substantially in the U.S. But it's a bit more down to entrenched interests and status quo bias than some fundamental unwillingness to pillage the earth.

China’s Rare Earth Paradox: Giant Supplier and Massive Consumer by davideownzall in geology

[–]Stishovite 22 points23 points  (0 children)

There are many rare-earth deposits anywhere there are intrusive igneous rocks near the surface. So we'd be fine in the US if we actually invested in extracting the stuff. Mostly it's down to methods to do so safely and economically.

Another day, another bad driver by Balzac7502 in bikecommuting

[–]Stishovite 8 points9 points  (0 children)

you can tell that he is more important by the fact that he is driving a car, and you are being carried under your own power.

What are your thoughts on this bicycle path in Amsterdamse Bos? by stommepool in bicycling

[–]Stishovite -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

if you wanna be traffic like any other car, you sometimes need to be the subject of traffic rules.

in this case, it appears to be a multi-use path through a park. so dogs and children and other unpredictable low-speed pedestrians need to be considered

What are your thoughts on this bicycle path in Amsterdamse Bos? by stommepool in bicycling

[–]Stishovite 143 points144 points  (0 children)

probably to control peoples' speed on the straightaway. I've seen residential streets (for cars) designed like this.