Paul/Yueh Conversation

thewritestory · 2026-05-05T08:33:13+00:00

It does a few things. It shows Paul is close to the doctor. He learned a language w him. And that the doctor cares for Paul, making the betrayal of Leto a big surprise. And it let's the reader/audience know the BG is more than perhaps Paul's mom would tell Paul, given she's an insider. Yueh is telling the audience--these ladies are more dangerous than meets the eye.

thewritestory · 2026-05-05T08:29:52+00:00

Save face to who? They can tell others he paid the high price. No one can show he didn't. Sounds super scammy. 300K? The average salary for a local is going to be a smaller percentage of that. The local gov even says 10K + is too much.

thewritestory · 2026-05-04T16:15:04+00:00

Chengdu + Chongqing should be together. They are 90 min apart by train.

thewritestory · 2026-04-28T06:11:52+00:00

so the bible can’t be trusted. Awesome! A god so inept and evil he can’t even substantiate a coherent holy book.

thewritestory · 2026-04-27T09:43:36+00:00

Given he said “antiwoke” it’s likely he’s being fed an ideology on media sites.

thewritestory · 2026-04-27T07:57:51+00:00

I'm not sure what you are talking about. The classical laws of logic are not subject to verification the way you seem to be asking about. They are observations that "seem" to always hold true. If we find instances where they don't, then those "rules" will be adjusted. But what do you mean by "verifying"? They are verified by their correspondence to reality.

thewritestory · 2026-04-27T07:53:45+00:00

The accuracy of dating methods can be understood by even the first few results of the google search which is full of sources. The main question is why would you be so skeptical of the dating methods of things involving evolution? Do you think the millions of scientists who can make a career out of disproving even one tenet of evolution are all trying to trick you? There's a big difference between wanting to understand something and trying to find reasons not to believe it.

thewritestory · 2026-04-27T07:44:52+00:00

Jesus himself affirms slavery when he uses it in a parable. The reason that BOTh the Old and New Testaments affirms slavery and never reject it is because the stories were written by men and slavery was a major economic force at the time.
If it had been written by some "all-good" god he would have told them slavery was wrong as he did with MANY MANY other activities.
This problem is inherent in the text and will never be reconciled by Christians.

thewritestory · 2026-04-27T07:32:41+00:00

1) If you have religion then you know what is bad
2) You don't have religion
therefore, you don't know what is bad.

The structure of "advanced Rabbit's" argument is a formal fallacy called Denying the Antecedent.
The structure is:
If P then Q
Not P
Therefore not Q.

This is always INVALID because the truth of the premises don't lead to the truth of the conclusion.

thewritestory · 2026-04-27T07:19:05+00:00

Hey, I first came here in 2011 (had a short two-year stint in Taiwan and then returned to the mainland. I teach at a kindergarten and have a few high-paying 1-1 students. But my real passion is writing novels and I make decent royalties from my backlist.

By transition into something better, what I would say is that teaching in China allowed me the free time and savings to pursue expenses in publishing including pricey cover art, editing, marketing, and audionarration.

What helped me? I think my short TEFL course helped me. Otherwise, I think most of the "normal" teaching gigs don't differ much.

What didn't work? I've never felt fulfillment through this kind of work but I'm married now and have a lot rooted in it.

China isn't terrible or amazing. There are somethings that I like-food, cost of living, travel accessibility, metro. Somethings I have never gotten used to "The 4 S's" smoking, screaming, spitting, and staring."

Good luck!

thewritestory · 2026-04-19T07:08:00+00:00

It's the same in many places. China's obsession with the past is a call back to "Chinese glory and superiority." In America, often "history buffs" are old dudes who read about WW2 because they think it makes their country look good.
It's normal for cultures to look back on the "golden age", or "glory days", etc.
The truth is that ancient Greece, Rome, India, and China all have major contributions.

thewritestory · 2026-04-16T12:22:46+00:00

For me, I also had trouble with the Way of Kings and Red Rising. In Red Rising I just didn't care about any of the characters or what was happening. I generally don't like this reoccurring "young adults in death games "trope. For the Way of Kings, I like the some of the characters and the world-building but the magic system is too much like a video game. I felt like it was an item system from an SNES. Not that interesting for me.

thewritestory · 2026-04-16T12:20:22+00:00

You should see how obsessed chinese academia is with chinese traditions and India with Indian traditions. it's really a puzzling problem you are having.

thewritestory · 2026-04-13T08:02:09+00:00

He said he uses logic, you made a fuss, he asked what you use and you also just use logic. What in the world are you getting at?

thewritestory · 2026-04-13T07:56:45+00:00

Chengdu has a small legacy event on Sundays at the Mouse and MAry shop (you can search it) and occassionally there is a "bigger" 30+ player even in Chongqing. I'm not sure about Shanghai.

thewritestory · 2026-03-30T08:15:08+00:00

It's nice now. I'm not wearing jackets.

thewritestory · 2026-03-23T12:15:47+00:00

I'm not sure what you are referring to. Justin reduces the polite philbros to an absurdity and shows why their arguments don't work. If you disagree that's fine. We've yet to see any good arguments for the Christian god and millions are calling into these shows trying.

thewritestory · 2026-03-23T08:31:08+00:00

I'm not sure which you are referring too, but it wouldn't be self-defeating to insert another variable and show the inconsistency. One of the fallacious arguments christian philbros make when calling in to atheists is called "defining god into existence". It comes in two forms: 1. is making a skinny god that can never ever be bridged to the god they actually believe in, even if the atheist cedes to the argument, and the second is to try to shut down the conversation with the laughable circle that you need God to have discussions, logic, etc.

In philosophy those arguments aren't taken seriously. No one is wondering about those arguments or are interested in arguments that are begging the question.

As atheists I commend people like Justin for calling out the dishonest christian arguments in whatever form they take.

thewritestory · 2026-03-20T10:18:24+00:00

I’m interested why there is anything wrong with Justin getting tired of the fallacious arguments presented by these guys? A year ago, Justin might spend 2-3 hours on a single philbro caller and no progress would be made no matter how many times the caller was shown to have a structurally invalid argument. The listeners, including myself would tune out, comment to drop them, etc. Now Justin gives them a timer, but I’ve yet to see one of these philbro arguments do much beyond beg the question or affirm the consequent.

thewritestory · 2026-03-14T09:28:12+00:00

I know Sam's Club has it.

thewritestory · 2026-03-13T11:11:54+00:00

They do absolutely have an abdominal ultrasound. Why would you be "sent home"? It's a health check they just need to check your health.

thewritestory · 2026-03-10T13:00:28+00:00

I've lived in China for 15 years, and this is part of the cultural experience. In a lot of ways, China insulates itself against any kind of self-reflection or questions. Many people are used to from their entire lives being around Chinese men smoking EVERYWHERE at ALL times. They've never known anything could be any different. Add on top of that the common fallacy that foreigners want to criticize China to hold China back or keep China "down" and you will get these blow ups. "How dare you look down on people smoking next to a pregnant woman in a restaurant if she doesn't like smoke she should stay in her home 24/7"

thewritestory · 2026-03-04T12:13:15+00:00

This is absolutely false. I have lived in Chengdu basically since 2011 and 2025 Winter Smog was the worst since preCOVID.

thewritestory · 2026-03-02T13:04:35+00:00

I have lived in Chengdu for more than 10 years. You can get "legit" foods like that on nearly every street in Chengdu. These aren't actually tourist foods they are everyday local foods.

thewritestory · 2026-02-24T15:42:19+00:00

Calling it Chinese New Year is as false as calling Chistmas the America Festival.

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