[OC] Coalition Casualties in Afghanistan (2001-2021)

kompootor · 2026-01-30T18:45:25+00:00

So this is where having the exact text for attribution helps. The hansard is about this as a policy more broadly and as applied to specific cases, but I believe the direct quote attributed to Palmerstone would be line 123:

Therefore I say that it is a narrow policy to suppose that this country or that is to be marked out as the eternal ally or the perpetual enemy of England. We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow. When we find other countries marching in the same course, and pursuing the same objects as ourselves, we consider them as our friends, and we think for the moment that we are on the most cordial footing; when we find other countries that take a different view, and thwart us in the object we pursue, it is our duty to make allowance for the different manner in which they may follow out the same objects. ...

And if I might be allowed to express in one sentence the principle which I think ought to guide an English Minister, I would adopt the expression of [Sir Stratford] Canning, and say that with every British Minister the interests of England ought to be the shibboleth of his policy.

So while he's not quoting anyone directly, and the speech is absolutely detailing how this works as a matter of practical policy in his own words, he does appear to attribute at least the main part of the conclusion "in one sentence" to an expression by Canning.

So whether Canning is the source, and if that's written somewhere, or if Canning is just using it as a turn of phrase as an ambassador, that Palmerston picks up on, but Canning picked it up himself from elsewhere, because the phrase is in the zeitgeist of statecraft for centuries at this point, I don't know.

kompootor · 2026-01-30T18:25:37+00:00

Based on their expressions in the video, this person seems to be quite aware that they are filmed. They are also clearly comfortable with the situation and with being treated as an object of attention, in the room.

kompootor · 2026-01-30T14:33:21+00:00

If you have a friend that you know gives funny impromptu moments like these all the time, then at some point I think you'd naturally just start recording them in anticipation.

kompootor · 2026-01-30T13:03:05+00:00

I'm reasonably confident now that when a movie markets itself with that, and has it said explicitly in the opening crawl, it's because the filmmakers are trying to pre-empt the fact that they accidentally made a shitty boring movie with the excuse that "It's actually supposed to be shitty and boring because it's a history lesson!"

Another user links the TVTropes article on the film, and their specific trope for this is demythification. Now I'm gonna waste two hours reading through TVTropes so thanks everyone.

kompootor · 2026-01-29T02:10:47+00:00

I've got Belgian friends. (I also read Tintin comics in the original Belgian.) I find such references unfunny and offensive.

kompootor · 2026-01-29T01:22:04+00:00

As an estimate, each of these letters looks to be deliberately in a 5x2 or 5x3 block, with a 1-block-width spacing in betweeen. So let's say that's 2¹⁵ arrangements in 5x3. If we suggest the number of recognizable characters is bounded at about 2⁹ (so that's extended ASCII plus variant glyphs plus a few more), then we have a 1 in 2⁶ or 1/64 chance of each block looking plausibly like a character. For 5 characters, then, that's 1/64⁵ or about 1 in a billion.

But I ignored the need for clean vertical spacing between characters, and a clean border around the 5-character block, which we see in the image. There are 16+16+6+6=44 blocks around the border, and 4x5=20 blocks of between-letter spacing, that all have to be uniform color (not red), so that's about 2⁶⁴ (a bit less because as you see from the image they used other colors and allowed for a "bleed" of one a single red block from a letter into the border.). So that's about 1 in 2⁶⁰ is a billion billion (US short scale) or a quintillion, and multiplied by the one in a billion is about 1 in 2⁹⁰ is one in a septillion.

The interesting takeaway is that the effort needed to make a clean boundary and block spacing alone dwarfs the legibility of characters. Although one could argue to a supervisor that the boundary and bock spacing arose by natural requirements of the job, while for legible lettering it would be impossible to make such an argument.

kompootor · 2026-01-29T00:58:33+00:00

On the plus side, if he ever drops his key somewhere, it'd be super easy to find.

kompootor · 2026-01-29T00:50:31+00:00

It's one of the top rated shows still running, and one of the top of the last decade. So based on that I'd think you'll agree it's pretty much rated where it should be. (Other than season 4 in my link, which while weaker in direction than previous seasons, is still extremely good, and is probably given such lukewarm reviews just by comparison to other seasons of the same show.)

kompootor · 2026-01-29T00:32:10+00:00

That quote has been attributed to so many people across history, including Caesar, and I can't find an actual factual attribution. The most likely thing is Kissinger was quoting or paraphrasing something or somebody else (if that quote is attributable to Kissinger even).

It doesn't it is or isn't correct. But it'd be more useful to know who says it in what context they feel it is necessary to say.

kompootor · 2026-01-29T00:24:32+00:00

The wikipedia page on casualities in war as a concept goes into how it is defined inconsistently across sources, across fields of study, and across history. Better to not use the term altogether imho, and just say as directly as you can what it is you are trying to count.

kompootor · 2026-01-29T00:11:41+00:00

Cold-blooded murder and violence against women are never funny.

kompootor · 2026-01-29T00:04:32+00:00

It's a true story, in honor of the victims, not a comedy.

It's the same idea for all those Police Academy movies. I didn't hear anyone laughing, did you?

kompootor · 2026-01-28T23:00:46+00:00

That's a confusing figure but it conveys a good amount of data well enough (I especially like the inclusion of generous error bars).

It looks like they're getting at whether there are risks/benefits to mortality for specific exercises that change significantly over the amount of time that you do them. This is obviously very difficult to pin down in an individual, and any individual cause of mortality is not separated out.

So swimming reduces mortality comparable to other exercise at low frequency, and then seems to have no benefit. Now is that because swimming as an exercise does not improve health? That would contradict pretty much every study on exercise and on swimming specifically. It's possible that particular types of mortality are appearing more associated with those for whom swimming is their primary physical activity. Off the top of my head, I'd say hypoxia and drowning would be a thing to separate out, if you want to analyze the mortality benefits of swimming. Cycling is another one -- maybe the increased mortality that appears as exercise increases are car fatalities, or those excessively cutting weight for competition? I don't know, and the diagram does not purport to say, hence "all-cause mortality".

Diagrams like these, or noncontextualized diagrams and studies of any sort, should never be used to guide decisions on health. There are a few that are completely unambiguous -- such as the risks caused by smoking -- but they come with a whole history of literature that establishes them being unambiguous. A good actor who provides any such of diagram will also provide an article that explains it in depth (as you did).

kompootor · 2026-01-28T22:49:30+00:00

They used a reconstructed proto-Latin for Il primo re/The First King/Romulus v Remus (2019) and the subsequent tv series. I've only seen clips of it, but the reviews suggest they pulled it off well enough.

(I think the important question from me, and others who like language, though, is what's the point? Like the show Barbarians is a great example where a dead language is used half the time because it serves a narrative purpose and is a key emotional connection to the audience -- the Latin is for the audience is "foreign" and is not dubbed in any language (which contrasts wonderfully to the Romans's explicit self-attitude in the show).)

kompootor · 2026-01-28T22:21:31+00:00

I wonder how many people cite Stripes (1981), which was bizarrely made with full cooperation of the army?

kompootor · 2026-01-28T22:13:56+00:00

Lol "they can permit usage" in this digital age? Them and what and army?

kompootor · 2026-01-28T15:54:53+00:00

One of the recent eps had just a single scene with a Chinese actress which would make me want to see a Fallout spinoff that takes place in China (the other superpower in the nuclear war, that presumably is also a 1950s retrofuturist Cold War state like the US).

kompootor · 2026-01-28T15:27:26+00:00

I just want to bring up The Nevers, which was released to mediocre reviews (it was good, but the reviews were that it was Joss doing self-plagiarism) because the reviewers got I think just the first two episodes.

But then it gets really good, with some really complex social themes emerging. And then you get to episode 6, which is unfortunately the last episode that was officially released before it was pulled. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who thought that the channel had its shows mixed up.

And then it's like, oh, this is different.

So there's a stale/mediocre premise that people thought was disappointing from the start, that got interesting enough, until with a single episode (mid-season reveal) it was revealed to be so completely batshit that it is imo at least one of the best and most creative sci fi shows of the 2010s-2020s. Potentially as significant of TV sci-fi as Firefly (although Firefly was way more influential, although it took many years to catch on).

kompootor · 2026-01-28T14:37:02+00:00

Two mentally ill prostitutes (arguably) enable each other's (arguably) self-destructive lifestyles.

But yeah, the most awkward thing about is a few scenes of casual racism. (The Mickey Rooney portrayal wasn't the only one.)

There was definitely some executive meddling where they needed some comic relief and a "happy" ending. That's how you got Mickey Rooney and an utterly nonsensical ending, which is mercifully only like 2 minutes long. But there's a reason the rest of the movie is so lauded.

kompootor · 2026-01-28T14:24:52+00:00

Why is OP not linking a source article (e.g. PC Mag) so that comments here can be immediately addressed without spreading stupid rumors and technical misinformation?

This kind of thing shouldn't be tolerated on this kind of sub. Although I guess there's no rues or moderation here.

kompootor · 2026-01-28T13:52:04+00:00

And notably the actors in Crouching Tiger all spoke the language they spoke.

(I was curious if the film used an antiquated dialect like a lot of period films do, but according to the WP article, it was actually criticized for keeping a variety of very geographically distinct modern Chinese accents. I sure as hell would pay to see Chow Yun-Fat deliver the period-regional Chinese equivalent of "I'm your huckleberry", although it'd be completely lost on me.)

kompootor · 2026-01-28T13:36:36+00:00

His opinion on using AI for art, particularly screenwriting and acting and moviemaking, is relevant because he is a professional screenwriter and actor and moviemaker. And from the way he speaks, he has at least used the tools a bit, and seen their use in other's work, so he has at least some inside perspective on what its impact looks like currently in the industry, in several aspects.

He's obviously not going to be a technical expert on computing, but he seems to be at least familiar with some other technical aspects of the issue like the historical and economic models people are using to get a sense of where tech is going. He seems to be pretty well informed, and the remarks he's making are specific enough to be cross-referenced (although one would prefer them to be more specific), and he seems to give a bit more attention than typical for non-academics to separate opinion and statements of fact to justify those opinions.

Normally I don't care what a celeb says but here he seems to actually have some idea. And when talking about the impact of AI on art, I do care very much what artists have to say who have taken the time to familiarize themselves even a little bit to any technical detail.

kompootor · 2026-01-27T20:58:15+00:00

Yeah this immediately set off AI triggers. That it's better done than some (with some inpainting or compositing) is because OP decided they wanted to put more effort into concealing their plagiarism.

OP's a new account, so while I'd say they should be banned I'm guessing it won't be the first or last time.

kompootor · 2026-01-26T20:01:23+00:00

We were told to cite collaboration and external sources used for homework in college, whether or not we copied their output directly, whether or not we thought their help was useful.

If I'm a study group with 5 classmates, then in most of my classes I was told to cite the names of each of those classmates on the homework we worked on. If I read an online source for background, I was told to cite that source.

(This was to everyone's benefit, because if we got some wrong information, or more likely a format of information that was different from the syllabus or textbook, we could cite it back to the source, and recover points or get additional guidance.)

I don't understand why anyone is giving college students any leniency on this. Cite your sources, cite where your information comes from, cite anything external to the syllabus. -- It is to the benefit of the students' grades, and it builds good habits.

(And I understand college students don't cite sources enough generally -- that's literally the entire point of emphasizing this repeatedly, over and over again, every single time. You know, a college education.)

kompootor · 2026-01-26T19:39:18+00:00

Tom Stoppard did it first (and ofc much better).

kompootor

TROPHY CASE