I'm no advocate of illegal immigration - America should choose who comes in. But on the larger timescale the U.S.'s growing population base over the next few decades, while much of the rest of the developed world is declining, will be a big advantage.

@Jolly said in The Bald Eagles of the Book World: So... There's talent out there. Why doesn't a major create a small brand for new authors? Personally, I think it's the data disease and coveting numbers more than storytelling. The biggest movie production companies, music labels and book publishers are relatively old. The American cycle of business is usually something like this: there was probably a real, bona fide entrepreneur who founded these companies at some point, but over time the creative thinking that built the company moves on to new uncharted waters and leaves behind the efficiency experts. These efficiency experts are great at optimizing systems but they're terrible at helping those systems evolve, because they hate risk more than anything else, which is what built the business in the first place. The internet has sold them on the false promise that data is a risk workaround. Businesses now have access to information their founders would have considered science fiction. Surely all this data can tell us how to evolve a business, right? Relying on data destroyed Borders. And put Barnes & Noble in a death spiral. The only thing that pulled them out was replacing their leadership with an actual lover of books who had a track record reviving UK stores. Publishers haven't yet learned their lesson, and they're still being led by data. The idea isn't to foster new talent, it's to minimize the risk involved when deciding to spend money on publishing. And so celebrities and those with a massive social media following are slam dunks—they already have a built-in audience. They've basically lost their taste for the risk of developing unproven talent, which is particularly ridiculous considering how little it costs them. That's okay though, because there are still plenty of writers out there, and they're finding other venues.

@Axtremus said in The Next Outbreak Will Be Worse: @Axtremus said in The Next Outbreak Will Be Worse: Yeap, imagine how much better Fauci et al. could have done their jobs had they had Obama or Hillary Clinton or Mitt Romney or even a Jeb Bush supporting them rather than that counter productive Trump. My, what a lie.

Hurricanes primarily land in the Gulf States? Who'd a thunk it?

@George-K said in Rigged: This is totally normal, right? I assume it's true. [image: 1717673891093-img_0345.jpg] It's not normal. Not at all. Which is why I'd love to see SCOTUS overturn Bragg's case and Trump sue the bejesus out of the NYC DA's office for violating his civil rights. Unless it hurts, lawfare will continue.

@George-K said in The coolest Art Deco I've seen in a long time: From the husband of a friend on FB. [image: 1717634142049-447779847_2212712539164820_2494437755151469914_n.jpg] That's stunning.

Either neurological implants or digitization of the mind. Everything else is just an ephemeral crutch.

I might have just been put on a watchlist for posting that. I’m not sure…

You know, the Federal judge in Florida could find that Smith has no standing and it pretty much punts this problem until waaay after the election.

Both are important. Lt. Colonel Nick Moran has given multiple presentations on the Sherman. The Sherman was "good enough". It fit on standard rail cars, it could be lifted by the average ship's cranes, it was highly reliable with the first stabilized main gun of the war. It was meant as infantry support more than as a tank destroyer, hence the 75mm with its superior HE round. As the war evolved, the 75 was replaced by the 76 mm and a better AP round. But besides having a lot of Sherman's, the Allies had a ton of available parts and resources to fix battle damaged tanks. Most of the time, TAT was three days, and then the tank was back on the line. Lessons from the Sherman? Be good enough Have a big enough weapon Be reliable Be transportable on standard roads and bridges Be easy to repair So yes, if you have the best tank in the world, it doesn't matter if you don't have enough of them. And even if you have an advantage in numbers, if they are sub-par, they can't fulfill their mission.

I went on a pub crawl in summer in Nottingham, maybe 30 years ago, it was a good deal. I believe I got a drink in 3 different places, all claiming to be the oldest pub in the UK.

There has been a lot of new weather radar technology deployed during the last 70 years. The methods used to count them must have changed many times.

You can't lower recidivism rates unless you change the culture. Of course, in this case we aren't talking about recidivism. We're talking cold-blooded murder of an innocent person, with firmly established guilt. If you've got a weasel killing chickens in your chickenhouse, you don't try to understand it, you don't try to rehabilitate it, you kill it. Once you kill it, it is no longer a threat to any present chickens or future chickens. Vinyl is final. Well, so is Death. At least for the unsaved, should he suddenly get Death Row Religion (most do).

Quite a synthetic approach!