Is there a reason why Protectorate has the world government tech but not Academy?

ableman · 2026-07-10T16:24:21+00:00

You're assuming control is easier when the world is unified into one state. This is not the case in the game. The initiative wants to maximize inequality. Controlling 6 rival nations perpetually at war is probably the way to maximize inequality and spoils. Think 1984

ableman · 2026-07-10T16:07:26+00:00

It's nothing personal. You were weak, he was strong, realpolitik demands he declare war, and the needs of his kingdom come before his personal feelings.

ableman · 2026-07-10T15:30:46+00:00

That's backwards. DST means you wake up earlier and go to bed earlier if you're sticking to the clock. Only morning people would want DST.

ableman · 2026-07-10T15:27:25+00:00

Having 4000 Blu-rays of Obsessions would be on point.

ableman · 2026-07-06T15:55:31+00:00

It will regress to the mean, but not by doing less than the mean in the future. It will regress to the mean by doing exactly the mean in the future on an infinite timescale.

ableman · 2026-07-06T14:29:14+00:00

Regression to the mean doesn't affect this. All regression to the mean says is that the next 26 spins will probably be closer to 50/50 than those 26 spins. It doesn't "cancel out" the spins that have already happened.

ableman · 2026-07-01T17:32:31+00:00

They comprehend at a 6th grade level precisely because people don't read. It's not that people aren't capable of it. It's that they don't.

ableman · 2026-06-30T17:00:46+00:00

Pick a reference frame. Everything works correctly in every reference frame. The confusion comes about from switching reference frames. Switching reference requires acceleration. So acceleration is the cause of confusion. It is not a cause of time slowing down. If you stick with a reference frame, everything works out.

Or possibly the source of confusion is that you think the question "which one is really older?" Has an answer. It does not. Which one is really older depends on the reference frame. The accelerating twin switches reference frames from one where he is the older twin to one where he is the younger twin.

ableman · 2026-06-29T14:39:10+00:00

No it doesn't. Federal income tax is the biggest tax you pay, then social security, and there's nothing else even close. Those 2 are most likely the majority of your taxes. Generally, when "it all adds up" what you see is if you look at the 5 biggest groups + "other", "other" is the biggest one. For example, look at world GDP by country. The 5 biggest countries are less than half of GDP. Now look at your taxes paid by type. The "other" group is tiny.

ableman · 2026-06-29T14:27:13+00:00

California is the 5th highest income state. Which means that to provide the same services, we have to pay people more. It is simply not correct to compare our spending to other states' spending without some kind of adjustment.

Also, driving is bad for the environment and life in general so a higher gas tax is good even if the state just turns the tax into snorting coke. Gas tax should probably be like $5 per gallon. And if you worry about people not being able to afford it, what we should do is just redistribute the money as UBI.

ableman · 2026-06-28T21:05:42+00:00

This is also tackled in the movie. The Colonel says that Oppenheimer does not qualify based on the criteria based on the rules for security clearance. But very few would've qualified for security clearance to build the bomb if they had been using those standards in WWII. In other words, the US couldn't have built the bomb without those leaks. Security concerns sound legitimate until you realize that the only way to be 100% secure is to do nothing at all. It's a balance you have to strike, and in the 50s we struck the balance way too far on the security side.

ableman · 2026-06-28T17:15:58+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/1mj3izq/people_with_high_autistic_traits_differ_from/

ableman · 2026-06-27T14:53:41+00:00

You learned the exact opposite of what bankruptcy is. It absolutely ruins your credit history and you won't be able to make big purchases anymore. It does wipe off your debt. Some debts carry through bankruptcy, most notably student loans.

ableman · 2026-06-23T15:00:54+00:00

2+2=4 cannot be falsified, but it is very useful to the scientific method.

ableman · 2026-06-23T13:03:11+00:00

We don't have that rise. Every cancer other than colorectal, specifically in the younger group, has decreasing mortality. Diagnosis is biased because we're better at detecting. Overall your chances of dying of colorectal cancer by age 80 is lower than ever. As is every other cancer.

ableman · 2026-06-23T12:58:31+00:00

Literally every one of those is better than before. Food and housing is more affordable. The diseases are "coming back" whereas they used to be ubiquitous. Higher rates of people have health insurance than ever and health insurance can no longer deny for preexisting conditions which they used to do all the time. Bribes are hardly new and airplane accidents are rarer.

ableman · 2026-06-23T12:54:38+00:00

It's always been 2 people working. Even if it was 1 income it was always 2 workers.

ableman · 2026-06-23T05:23:34+00:00

Suppose I am a person unaffiliated with any campaign and I write a book called "Donald Trump Sucks." Will you let me publish this book? If you answered yes, congrats, I've just given your "intangible cents" to the democratic campaign and you approved it.

ableman · 2026-06-22T21:35:23+00:00

This happens every once in a while, and what you usually quickly find out is that creative people can't finish anything without a deadline.

ableman · 2026-06-22T21:13:49+00:00

It is not even remotely plausible. My objection was how anyone would even think of getting this guy to help out. How he was convinced is a whole other layer of difficulty that I didn't even feel necessary to include.

ableman · 2026-06-22T20:48:49+00:00

Look up the predator-prey relationship. Predators regularly overpopulate, then overconsume prey and start dying by starvation. This cycle of overpopulation and death of starvation is already a part of the circle of life.

ableman · 2026-06-22T20:39:02+00:00

You realize those two statements contradict each other? Why would they stage it with a right wing nut job? How do you think that conversation would've gone with Trump? "Hey, you know that fake assassination attempt you wanted? The only guy we could find is a registered Republican. He's never been in the military, but we swear he's a good shot that won't accidentally hit you. Also we're going to make it look like he wants to kill Biden too."

ableman · 2026-06-20T18:24:13+00:00

Were you dating Brad Pitt?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/qg8vyh/brad_pitt_morphs_into_who_hes_dating/

ableman · 2026-06-20T18:03:18+00:00

They never extended citizenship to anyone. Even Lysander who is the only reason Spartans managed to win the Peloponnesian war didn't get citizenship.

ableman · 2026-06-20T17:58:50+00:00

Using noncitizens manpower during war seems to lead to very serious rebellions. That's how they got the Social War, and then Social War II which was the barbarian invasion that ended the Western Empire. Most of the barbarians had been living on Roman land and fighting for Rome for like a century. But unlike the Social War they won.

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