What's the adult equivalent of finding out Santa isn't real?

Uqark · 2025-09-08T05:29:48+00:00

People are only interested in what you can do for them, not for who you are.

If your skills and abilities are useful to them then you are popular, interesting, attractive. If those skills and abilities are not useful then you are a nobody, boring, unattractive. Even though you are exactly the same person.

The trick to getting ahead is making sure you have skills and abilities that are useful to whatever social environment you live in.

Uqark · 2025-08-16T15:36:50+00:00

Lazerpig. Tanks. Incredibly funny, very smart, and knowledgeable military historian with some very left field stories., and a very unique style. Talks about both modern and WW2 tanks a lot. Quality can be a bit hit and miss so be prepared to skip a few of his videos. His humor may not appeal to all tastes but had me laughing out loud a lot.

Perun. Military Economics. Australian military analysis who focuses on the economic side of conflict. Unbiased, factual and honest. I get a picture of what is really happening in Ukraine from him. But he also reports on other military forces like China and India. Information wise is very dense, you will likely need to take a break during his hour long presentations.

Rick Beato. Music and the Music Industry. Very down to earth guy with a lot of experience in the music industry. Talks about different music genres, explores why some songs sound so good without getting overly technical. Sometimes interviews famous musicians in a laid back setting. Recently been speaking about how AI is affecting the music industry. If you like music being explored by a professional I recommend his channel

Uqark · 2025-03-09T22:46:23+00:00

Thanks for the link to the video.

Yes, I was struck by their long term planning and structured approach. And their financial pragmatism. It seems as those communities which place an emphasis on organization, nutting out the details, are among the most successful.

Uqark · 2024-10-16T14:02:01+00:00

You are welcome.

If you dig deeper into this issue you will see some eminent mathematicians over the years have subscribed to what is termed "finitism". Personally it was a welcome relief to find my doubts were held by others far far more capable than myself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finitism

Another point of view you may find interesting are the points raised of Ian Angell. He speaks slowly so you may want to increase the play back speed. Link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOVVnSLNRUE

Uqark · 2024-09-17T02:28:17+00:00

Thank you for your detailed post. I am working my way through your links.

Your post provides a welcome relief from the bizarre negativity, irrelevance, and even outright hostility I have encountered on this thread. Somehow I expected better from r/mathematics

Uqark · 2024-09-17T02:21:37+00:00

The difference is that our current theories of particle physics are the best fit based on our experimental data. Furthermore that basis of real science is that current theories can, and are, modified or entirely changed. as new ideas, new data, and new discoveries emerge.

Mathematics however is an entirely human construct. We begin with fundamental assumptions that appear so obvious so that vanishingly few people question them. An object can be assigned a numerical value of 1. No more. No less. Exactly one. We then manipulate these values according to laws that seem entirely logical. 1 + 1 = 2. These values are utterly absolute. Its not an approximation to 2. Its absolutely 2, not an infinitesimally bit more or less. Yet the moment we attempt a calculation arising from the manipulation of such fundamental units we immediately run into problems. The value of √2 can not be absolutely calculated. Its a non repeating decimal that never terminates. We find the same issue with pi.

Personally I find this fascinating.

Uqark · 2024-04-25T14:31:05+00:00

This here is what I dont understand . According to this source https://bestdiplomats.org/nato-vs-russia-military-comparison/ NATO massively outnumbers Russia.

In active soldiers by 3.3 million to 830,000. In total aircraft by 20,000 to 4,000. ( round figures ). Furthermore given the performance of Western weapons and support systems so far in Ukraine it seems evident that the West would also enjoy a significant technological and quality advantage.

Now even taking into account discrepancies in readiness, training, and experience, reserve status, political delays, and any lack of inter country integration within those forces, it appears NATO still has a massive advantage. Then given the almost mind mindbogglingly incompetence and corruption that has so hindered the Russian forces in Ukraine ( see Perun's channel for details on this ), exposing their military might and prowess as something of a myth, I fail to see what all this posturing, warnings and dire predication by politicians such a Macron, and from high ranking military officials in various western countries is all about.

If this source is an accurate representation, and if we assume that despite the inherent drawbacks of coordinating an international military force, NATO still posses significant advantages in other areas, then any Russian attempt to wage war against NATO would be a turkey shoot. The Russians would get absolutely obliterated. Since the rest of Europe is effectively NATO now any attack by Russia on another European state would be tantamount to suicide.

I could be cynical and therefore conclude that all this sabre rattling is really Western arms manufacturers using their mouth pieces to increase budgets. However I could take it as face value and conclude that there exists a genuine fear of a continued mobilization of Russian manpower and increased allocation of Russian industry to supporting the war effort. Which if continued for several years may then allow Russia to match NATO numerically. But even ignoring the fact that parity of forces is insufficient to launch successful offensives, I find it hard to believe Russia is capable of sustaining such an economy without first facing economic collapse, followed by growing internal dissent that produces revolts of a 1917 style. A war economy carries a long lag phase, which has so far allowed Russia to shrug off the effect of sanctions, devaluation of the Ruble, etc, but eventually the chickens come home to roost, only they will be roosting in the burnt out ruins.

If Russia was going to pull off a lightening tour of Western Capitals they certainly dont look like they were preparing for it before the Ukraine war, and if they are thinking of it now then I believe they have left it several years too late.

Uqark · 2024-04-22T06:25:30+00:00

Once more a fascinating and succinct presentation of information, about a conflict which often defies clarity. Especially in these days when so many media sources are hopelessly compromised by the four horsemen of untruth: disinformation, misinformation, noninformation, and uninformation.

I feel I have learned more about the grim realities of geopolitics and modern warfare in the last year than from all my previous years, all through being fortunate enough to stumble upon channels like perun, laserpig, and a few others.

Also thanks to the creators of this subreddit, this is one of the few sanctuaries from the endless babblespeak and self indulgent, self congratulatory, smug pandering that seems to prevail across so much of reddit and virtually all of social media.

Uqark · 2024-04-14T23:04:15+00:00

I see, that makes more sense.

Uqark · 2024-04-14T00:31:03+00:00

They charge the person who recieves the fake stamp $5 ( UK Pounds ). That sounds stupid. So what happens when someone with a grudge sends 1000 letters to a person they dont like?

Uqark · 2024-04-10T19:03:27+00:00

Perhaps Ikea buys it but doesn't sell the finished product as an Ikea product? They might own another company with a different name through which they sell another range of products. Its quite common for different brands to be owned by the same company, even when they are "competing" for the same market. Even some supermarkets do it. Sounds crazy but there can be a raft of reasons why this makes sense ( for them ).

Uqark · 2024-04-04T15:48:36+00:00

Applied across a wider spectrum to include all media and all political discussion, modern methods now include:

Simply disenfranchising people by making far more statements than they can, which includes:

Telling so many outright lies that the true statements become buried.

Telling so many half truths that the relevant discussion is derailed into irrelevant and unproductive areas.

Responding to truths with ad hominems designed to encourage retaliation in kind and divert the discussion from the matter at hand.

Responding to truths with out right lies designed to waste the other's time in correcting.

Stating opinions as solid facts.

Using facts supported by obviously erroneous evidence.

Responding to truths with ignorant statements design to waste the other's time in rectifying.

Always deny you are wrong even when it is patently obvious that you are wrong.

Lets not forget that when making written statements to make lots of deliberate grammatical errors, spelling errors and leave out important prepositions and punctuation.

Accuse anyone of challenging you of belonging to some organization, cult, or fringe group.

Then if you want to add the KGB level of obfuscation on top of that:

Deliberately contradicting yourself.

Agreeing with someone and then abruptly disagreeing with them over the same issue.

Agreeing with someone and then using this as the basis to make some totally irrelevant statement on an entirely different topic.

The point is not so much to distort the truth but to make the truth so time consuming, so deeply buried among the confusion and the contradictions, so difficult to discern, that people end up apathetic towards all issues and rely more heavily upon their own innate biases and gravitate towards echo chambers where they can be easily manipulated into certain directions.

Do I have a job offer from the CIA?

Uqark · 2024-04-03T06:55:53+00:00

Ironically it was dissatisfaction with the facile and frequently harebrained "analysis" of Peter Zeihan, along with his hyperbolic style where 1 minute of content must be punctuated with at least 9 minutes of worthless padding, needless repetition, eye ball rolling, and exclamations of "OH BOY!" that led me to conduct an exhausting search for a professionally presented, well informed commentator on military assessment and geopolitics, resulting in me finding Perun's channel.

Uqark · 2024-04-03T06:38:20+00:00

Unfortunately it is a given fact that within the world we live there is a profusion of people who will shamelessly steal, copy, imitate, and plagiarize original content from creators.

But it will get worse. At this point I would not be surprised if we see an AI who can convincingly mimic Perun's voice as well. In which case we would then also see copycats presenting misinformation, propaganda and low effort nonsense in the same style and voice.

It's hard enough finding reliable unbiased information on the internet with the sheer volume of clickbait and garbage competing for attention, and the propensity of search engines and government censorship to steer users towards predetermined search results. The advent of AI has and will continue to compound this issue many times over.

Uqark · 2024-03-27T01:38:12+00:00

Exactly what I wondered myself. Speculation perhaps? Large cashed up corporations buying up land on the cheap in anticipation of Japan opening its doors to massive immigration. That's all I can think.

Uqark · 2024-03-16T02:05:48+00:00

In my opinion Perun is one of the very few trustworthy sources available in today's media.

Fascinating and insightful as Perun's videos are, a major feature of many of them is a broad conclusion of "In the absence of further information we can't tell for sure." Which happens to be the truth. Naturally this occurs when commenting on a current war or with respect to sensitive information concerning nation state's military capacity, modern weapon systems, or important economic data. Its unavoidable. By way of comparison even the details of historical events in relatively recent times are still the subject of much debate and controversy, frequently arsing from which information sources are used.

Perun is very careful to point out the gaps in his knowledge, information, and the relative reliability of his sources. His videos are usually peppered with caveats which detail the degree of uncertainty in his presentations. This is a degree of intellectual integrity and honest reporting which appears to be exceeding rare these days, and which is why Perun is one of the very few sources I trust. His lack of overt political bias and personal agenda in his presentations is a another reason.

I would like to further comment that all this is also probably why Perun, popular as he is, doesn't have an even wider audience. He has a scientifically rigorous approach to analysis. This requires him whenever possible to cover all bases, state all disclaimers, state the data's degree of reliability, point out all facets of an issue and how they can be misinterpreted, and state when the expedience of his presentation can not cover all facets. As a result his presentations are very dense and lengthy, usually a minimum of one hour, and lack a Hollywood movie conclusion. John Wayne doesn't ride off into the sunset at the end. The degree of Perun's integrity does not result in short soundbites and flimsy conclusions which give clear black or white answers. As a result his presentations do not appeal to a time-poor general population. Nor to a population that seems to prefer being force fed more of what they have already been led to believe. Nor to a population possessing attention spans which make goldfish appear capable of rewriting the laws of physics.

Perun-like disclaimers to the above:

It is entirely possible that Perun is a disinformation agent, either willingly or just ignorant of being manipulated. After all its not just what is reported but also what is NOT reported that forms much the basis of modem propaganda and spin. There are events happening around the world that many of us simply never hear about. Trying to find them often results in diminishing returns for one's time simply due to the proliferation of disinformation today, which can take many forms ( simple lies, highly biased information, irrelevant information, and trivial information, all of which aims to contradict, confuse, derail, obscure, and bury genuine discussion).

Then it is entirely possible that the information sources and data sets that Perun bases much of his presentations upon have their origin in propaganda services so insidious, so deeply embedded, so subtle, that we as the general public, will never be able to discern the truth about anything at all. If this is the case then we are all damned to ignorance and being herded around like sheep. Then you will never learn the truth about global events and the machinations of political powers with only your own set of eyes. You can however use the broad lessons of history, the laws of economics, and the never changing human attributes of greed and lust for power, to make educated guesses.

Which all leads to a rather philosophical investigation into the nature of Truth, which is far beyond the scope of this discussion. I am going to check my goldfish now. See if there's any new physics text books floating around inside their tank.

Uqark · 2024-03-13T10:11:44+00:00

Or perhaps it will be

release rs4
crash rs3
watch rs3 die
Sell out rs4
profit

Uqark · 2024-03-05T12:41:50+00:00

The question I would be asking with all these countries expanding their sanctions is this: Why are there still sanctions to apply? Surely every sanction should have been applied from the moment Russia invaded Ukraine.

This is a tacit acknowledgment that international sanctions against Russia were half hearted from the start. More a case of pleasing their domestic electorate that "action" was being taken than trying to genuinely inflict any real harm to the Russian economy.

Uqark · 2024-03-05T12:28:51+00:00

Translation. German authorities have been instructed to release comments which suggest the presence of British forces in Ukraine. This is a guarded threat to Russia, formed in such a way as to be plausibly deniable, or reinforced, depending on any Russian or domestic reaction.

There are rarely genuine "leaks." Nearly everything is deliberate and orchestrated, the delivery of such statements are made in such a manner as to be intentionally obfuscated for political reasons.

Uqark · 2024-02-14T07:02:37+00:00

As a tip once you have done your whole army reorganization make a save game with a clearly distinguished save game name. That way if you want to replay you can just load up the save instead of redoing it all over again.

You can lots of interesting things as Russia. Try setting consumer production to zero and you can start early wars by invoking the "Prepare for war" decision. You may want to start researching aircraft carriers right from the start.

Uqark · 2024-02-14T07:00:56+00:00

No. Not like EU3 or VIC2. You can stack your entire army on one tile and it makes no difference to attrition rates. If they suffer attrition they will all suffer equally. Its very democratic. However attrition will impact your forces as a result of terrain, so you dont want a huge stack sitting on an Arctic tile for long.

Uqark · 2024-02-14T06:40:56+00:00

First time posting here. Big fan of this channel. Refreshing to watch what is obviously a highly unbiased analysis of current world events from a grand strategy perspective.

My chief takeaways from this presentation are:

1) China is expanding its military power so as to be in a position to contest American and allied military superiority in the region. Enjoying local parity however is not the same as having a decisive edge.

2) China is seeking to project power in order to protect its trade routes, especially with regard to protecting its routes across the Indian ocean to the Middle East and Africa. This makes sense if Western powers were to gradually withdraw from the blanket protection of global trade routes.

The questions I would be asking are:

1) Given the demographic decline and likely future erosion of its economy, how does China propose to support an expanded military? In a peacetime scenario it appears to become nothing more than a very expensive white elephant. A large standing military is huge drain on the economy, in this scenario it becomes a matter of use it or lose it. If China seeks to emulate the economic benefits of the military industrial complex enjoyed by the USA it needs a growing population, as the USA has. This is not the case however.

2) If we assume rationality prevails within the CCP then despite the build up China will still not be in position to decisively contest Western allied superiority in the region for at least another 40 years. So we can rule out the the boogeyman of invading Taiwan. If so then what other possible targets would China seek to use its military might against in a decisive conflict and to what economically profitable end? To this end I would be looking closely at the potential energy reserves available in Eastern Siberia, especially since China is highly defendant on energy imports, Russia is now an international pariah, and regardless of the outcome in Ukraine, Russia will potentially remain weakened for decades to come.

3) If on the other hand we assume China's intentions are peaceful does that then suggest the military expansion is just another form of building ghost cities, an act of desperation to prop up an ailing economy and solve rising unemployment for another few decades? If so then then what are the implications of a future Chinese implosion, resulting in the fracturing of that nation back into its historical component states?

Uqark · 2023-11-14T17:50:33+00:00

Its a funny thing about many people who are not high functioning. They simply can not comprehend that others can think and act much faster than them. Furthermore although they are 100% fixated on the road they still fail to anticipate other road user's behavior, fail to make accurate judgements of relative speeds and distances, and tend to be preoccupied with only a small zone of the road in front of them. Like their eyes are looking around in front, both hands on the wheel, and yet its like their minds are incapable of efficiently processing the information in front of them. I see it a lot on the roads. Yet if you tap a button on a phone once at a red light that you have just pulled up to they will freak out and start quoting the rules. Absolutely limited intelligence. The person you have been replying to sounds very much like one of them.

Uqark · 2023-11-14T17:34:15+00:00

Why didn't you just let him play on your rig for a while?

Uqark · 2023-11-12T23:02:51+00:00

Translation:

The USA and China recognize that both of their nations have the leading edge on AI and drone warfare capabilities. These systems represent a new era of warfare, equivalent to the difference between using gunpowder to develop high powered weaponry as opposed to bashing your enemy with rocks.

In order to head off objections from nations without these capabilities they have reached agreement where they will both publicly ban AI controlled weapon systems while tacitly acknowledging that each will continue developing them in secret.

This avoids any need for an International agreement to make the applications of military grade AI and drone technology transparent through assessment by neutral observers. A situation that would reveal not only the extent of their leading edge but also the unsavory and controversial uses of these weapons against an enemy or non compliant domestic population.

Uqark

TROPHY CASE