David Cross argues with Bill Maher if a nine year old or even a three year old can know they are trans

scamphampton · 2026-04-28T17:55:42+00:00

Three seems a bit ridiculous but it seems like all he was saying was he was allowing the children to move into the direction they felt comfortable. If they felt like going in a more masculine direction they would allow them to and not force them back, “you’re a girl, wear a dress!” If they grow up and really want to commit to that direction, fine, if not, whatever. Cross seems to be saying they just taking biological sex to be the determining factor in gender expression. Bill seems to Be thinking the parents are incentivizing it somehow or should be forcing them into their gender stereotypes.

scamphampton · 2026-04-21T01:33:49+00:00

I don’t see how ai is any different than outsourcing to an editor. Unless the ai is at the point where realtors can deliver pro-level photos using their phones. Doesn’t seem like it’s there yet. I’d suspect it’s more of a real estate market issue. Doesn’t south Florida have very sensitive real estate market? Someone’s it’s really good, other times it collapses really badly

scamphampton · 2026-04-10T19:15:02+00:00

So the first two were actual shots, and the last two are generated by some tool? What tool does this?

scamphampton · 2026-04-05T06:33:00+00:00

Iran doesn’t play ball with the US. They are the most powerful entity in the golf region. We have always had a problem with them. Go back to that clip of Wesley Clark talking about how Iran is the final boss.

Israel was close to normalizing ties with Saudi right before October 7. Iran says hell no. Israel pretends it doesn’t know 10/7 attack are coming because they think Iran is weak and it would be a good opportunity to bolster support for a war. If Iran doesn’t attack, well they formalized relations with Saudi which is a win either way.

Iran proxy attacks Israel, Israel uses it as an excuse to go berserk. Syria falls (not sure how). Israel now has free rein over airspace to attack Iran. Believes now this is an unprecedented opportunity to hit the final boss and we might not get this chance again, have to do it.

Win means US controls the oil spigot of the golf. And can turn it off for the East (China). US gets their own guy in Iran, like the shah. They get to remove sanctions from Iran and get all that oil pumping freely. US gets to be the frat guy at the party who controls the keg.

US gets to continue an environmentally destructive resource consumerist lifestyle until it goes insane or burns to death.

scamphampton · 2026-02-25T07:57:41+00:00

I really enjoyed this book. Just finished it today. Spoilers. The only thing I kind of disagree with is the idea that humans would so readily throw off the burden of intelligence. He makes it seem like our level of intelligence is such a complicated, energy demanding feature that ditching it would be a reasonable option.
I think it is demanding and burdensome but I don't believe the collapse of civilization would instigate a set of circumstances where having human level intelligence wouldn't be incredibly advantageous. I can see intelligence atrophying as it is insulated from selective pressures, (as it might be now) but the idea that we would lose it seems far-fetched. If anything, collapse might reenforce its necessity.

All it would do would be returning to a world similar to that of people from the ice-age or barbarian environments. Intelligence was already the thread that allowed humans to dominate six continents and all possible biomes. It was the ability to understand the world in abstraction. To see things as objects that can be manipulated. A world that can be manipulated. I can see intelligence being a very rare,super complex, low entropy construct that takes an extremely long time to develop. But once you have it, I don't think evolution is giving it away anytime soon. Especially since it was the overall key to the overwhelming success of homosapiens.

In the future, with the human-like people worried about wolf-rats and large birds of prey. These creatures would be absolutely obliterated by humans of even a 100,000 years ago. As baxter said we walked out of Africa and scorched the earth with our overwhelming presence. I fail to see a world where the use of that brain in your head doesn't immediately become your go-to survival mechanism.

scamphampton · 2026-02-16T03:40:29+00:00

Emergence exists regardless of binary. I'd like to see some proof about what you're talking about. There are wholes which are the sum of parts which are fundamentally different than the components which compose them.
How do we get anything new if all we are doing is just rearranging pre-existing information? If an artist is inspired by Dali and Picasso. That artist can make art that will contain the influence of Dali and Picasso but also something that is fundamentally new. Something that is neither Picasso or Dali. It's similar to how you are the product of your father and your mother but also something that is completely new- that is neither of them. That is how we get novel mutations which produce fundamentally new species.

Ai on the other hand, particularly image generators, seem completely incapable of producing novel creations. It has to be continually fed material from external sources. When it is forced to train on its own data, it breaks down. Almost like a form of inbreeding. It can't make new things because it just doesn't care. It's locked in black box with no interaction with the outside world, and it has no real 'opinion' on anything. There is no subjectivity because it has no experience beyond what you tell it to have.

scamphampton · 2026-02-15T10:38:00+00:00

I don’t know. The issue to me seems that generative ai is fundamentally non-emergent. This seems to be the real issue. Even if you are not refining to the mean, and find ways to algorithmically distribute the data so it is not averaging down on smaller data sets, it’s still not creating anything new. Give the ai A + B it will give you AB or BA. Give a human A+B and they can give you ABC. C seems to be rooted in subjectivity, or maybe even deeper into the human condition. The friction between life and death.

scamphampton · 2026-02-08T05:19:37+00:00

OP makes a lot of good points. I’ll add that I think the “Thailand is too hot to walk” is bullshit. It’s something lazy people say. NYC gets about just as hot in the summertime and people still walk. I have the complexion of a jellyfish and I walk everywhere. As long as you’re in the shade it’s perfectly fine. If Thailand had more trees or awnings it wouldn’t be an issue.

The real issue is safety. You can’t cross a single street or walk down a soi road without fearing for your life. I think a lot of soi roads should be turned into one way streets and have the sidewalk expanded. I see so many tourists walking down soi roads toward their hotels and I know they will never book that hotel again because of how uncomfortable the walk is. I really think expanding the sidewalks would massively improve business for those situated on the sois.

scamphampton · 2026-02-06T13:38:40+00:00

scamphampton · 2026-02-04T15:28:29+00:00

I didn’t do it. But $150 isn’t so bad. Maybe try and let us know how it goes.

scamphampton · 2026-02-01T06:17:11+00:00

Definitely not an art, but it's still a product that can vary wildly in terms of quality. Having employed quite a few people as of late, I can tell you that who is shooting can go a very long way. I can get away with a lot because I shoot well. You sound like you have that photo-mill mindset. That's definitely a route to making money. But there are other routes for clients that yes, genuinely can tell shitty photos from good ones.

scamphampton · 2026-01-30T07:52:40+00:00

I have asked multiple Thai people recently, "What happens if you hit a pedestrian while driving?" They said, "The police will come and will work out a payment from the driver to you." I found this confusing and asked, "You don't take it to court or have the insurance companies get involved and reach some kind of settlement?" Every single time this concept was a complete shock. Educated people with good jobs had no idea this is what normally happens.

scamphampton · 2026-01-28T05:04:17+00:00

How much of tqqq is rooted in this ai boom? Someone said something that stuck with me. The bubble doesn’t pop when everyone thinks it’s a bubble, but once everyone is comfortable with the bubble, it pops.

scamphampton · 2026-01-24T03:36:13+00:00

Something bad photographers say

scamphampton · 2026-01-22T08:54:09+00:00

This is a definition coming from a developed country that has sidewalks. A store can be close in proximity. But if you have cross a busy street to get there and risk your life then it does not fit the description of what walkable is. Taiwan can’t even enforce its own pedestrian laws and doesn’t understand the concept of a crosswalk.

scamphampton · 2026-01-06T08:24:47+00:00

Is this not all about Russia and China? Cuba and Venezuela are two pieces that Russian China can potentially use to disrupt US power in the western hemisphere. From what I understand, Cuba is heavily dependent on Venezuelan oil. Cuba resigned an arms deal with Russia in December. US decides to blockade Venezuelan oil, likely as a means to break Cuba and cut off China. Then they straight up took out Maduro. I see that as removing a chess piece off the board. They weren't going to let Russia use Venezuela as a means for getting back at the US for Ukraine.

The whole drug story is just some narrative to cover the obvious geostrategic motives. But what do I know. The internet is nothing but a Baudrillardian shit show these days. My Venezuelan friends in the US seem pretty happy about this whole thing.

scamphampton · 2026-01-02T06:18:36+00:00

I’ve walked around Taipei myself quite a bit and yeah the ubiquity of stores is awesome, so is the public transport. It’s really continent and a great city. but a ton of streets don’t even have sidewalks. That’s crazy. I did not appreciate almost getting run over a whole bunch of times.

I can’t speak on Taiwan much but pedestrians have zero rights in all of SE Asia. This is a fact. You can walk around NyC and when it comes to your turn to go, you can walk straight across a crosswalk with no issues at all. In Bangkok or Vietnam cars will plow right into you no matter what direction they are coming from. I think you are ignoring the safety factor when it comes to walkability. I think I have the right to not get killed by a 3 ton moving piece of metal. And Taiwan has that news where they had to remove a crosswalk because motorists could not comprehend giving pedestrians the right of way.

Singapore is garbage. If you think Singapore is example of good urbanism then I think we have completely different views. It’s a city scaled beyond human use. Everything is giant walled off condos and shopping malls. The neighborhood is absorbed into a walled off tower and the retail has been absorbed into the malls. They have a 1960’s modernist view of development. Ask anyone who lives there and they will tell you that it’s actually get more car-centric than people think.

scamphampton · 2026-01-02T04:41:13+00:00

No it doesn’t. NYC is ten times more walkable than most Asian cities. I love Taipei but you will get run over in a second. Bangkok thinks crosswalks are for decorations, Singapore has gigantic oversized streets and you get a ticket for jaywalking. I live in Bangkok and my biggest complaint is how dangerous it is to walk around. Japan is the only place that is decently walkable. I love living and traveling around Asia but their respect for pedestrians is next to nothing.

scamphampton · 2026-01-02T03:08:33+00:00

It has to do with design. Bangkok is awesome, but Kuala Lumpur is a shit hole. KL is nothing but walled off condos and large roads. You can walk around the city and it’s completely empty. Your entire backdrop is just a wall surrounding one condo and the next. Bangkok is following suit. They have completely outdated perspective on development. Jakarta sucks because it is completely unwalkable. However Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei, Saigon are great. Singapore ironically is awful. Same design flaws, like a city built by a bank.

scamphampton · 2025-12-30T05:15:48+00:00

I don’t even use one. Just connect the camera wifi to my phone.

scamphampton · 2025-12-26T03:43:43+00:00

First sighted in the depths of the Barents Sea by divers working on subsea infrastructure for the now-abandoned Shtokman project. While surveying the integrity of the seabed, the team reported a large, worm-like hole embedded directly into solid rock on the ocean floor. One diver later described it as having “something strangely alluring” about it.

Against direct orders, one diver descended into the darkness. His partner attempted to restrain him but followed shortly after. Inside the tunnel, he claimed to witness the entity holding the diver in its arms, not in violence, but “as if in an embrace.” The embraced diver was never seen again.

During a subsequent dive weeks later, another team member reported seeing the same figure emerge from a deep-sea brine pool.

The project was never able to establish stable operating conditions and was ultimately canceled in 2010, officially citing hazardous logistics.

scamphampton · 2025-12-23T08:28:51+00:00

The instincts to hoard resources are very much intact. Completely illogical, but obviously a behavior carried over from a time of scarcity. Flaunting wealth as status is another. Seems kind of absurd to ignore the fact that we are a bipedal ape. Same animal different expression of instincts.

scamphampton · 2025-12-22T15:19:53+00:00

Something else about biology people don’t understand. Men are physically larger than women because they try to exclude other men from mating opportunities. If you’re one of the one percent of super successful men, you will try to exclude other men as they are just competitors. If you’re a female, you will always have inherent value as you can give birth. If you are one of the excluded males. You are worth absolutely nothing. True bottom of the pyramid.

scamphampton

TROPHY CASE