post_from_work

^This.

The hysteria displayed both by the FAA and in this thread is kinda shocking. I work with the military in Japan. Every time a North Korean missile flies into/over Japanese territory we get a warning about it...and then go about our business as usual. We can usually see their flight trajectories on our Common Operational Picture. This one was not significantly different from the dozen or so previous incidents. No idea why people in the States shat a brick and grounded civilian aircraft, especially if NORAD didn't concur with such an action.

A little bit of Drill Sergeant humor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xen1KeYDnCI

Shit, I won't even go there to study kung fu! A few years back I was considering studying Bajiquan ( https://www.studymartialarts.org/school/an-wushu-internation... ), and even then, back before they started detaining random Western businessmen as spies, I figured being an ex-military officer would probably be an unnecessary risk.

On some other forums/blogs that I follow, there are Turkish information operations guys who post about the triumphs of the Turkish defence industry. Their lead guy says that Turkish companies are throwing million-dollar salaries at experienced American engineers with things like aerospace experience. Take that statement with a pound of salt. But I did look at a few Turkish companies that seemed to be hiring foreign expertise, and their domestic arms industry has grown by leaps and bounds in the past decade, despite their broad economic problems.

>>>Something I have to wonder is are women and minorities... ok with this?

As a minority, coming from the largely blind-meritocracy of the military: NO. Same for the vast majority of minority service members and veterans that I know.

That's ALWAYS the first question in my mind when I read these types of articles about container shipping and drugs: "Who snitched?"

It is, but not because of Seagal's skill as a martial artist. Great castings for the villains, unique setting providing memorable action setpieces, grounded/realistic directing, and Erika Eleniak popping out of a cake half-naked all make it memorable. Seagal's bullshido? Meh.

>>>America's federalism would make this idea a mess here: Each state has their own system for everything and 50%+ of the lower-level governments/agencies (county or municipal level) don't have any digital footprint at all, even a website.

Additional example: I need to pay property taxes on my mother's house in New Jersey. I'm physically on the other side of the planet. While the town has a website, it's pretty much just a phone directory. I have to call them every 3 months, usually when it's 2-3am in my timezone, ask them what the property taxes are assuming I pay them by {$date}, and then mail them checks. I can't even do something as simple as enter the property lot number in a search field on their site, have it look up the outstanding taxes, and then just pay with a VISA card.

The Federal government SHOULD be able to force certain things in the name of "regulating interstate commerce". I would think that data standards and APIs would have efficiencies at scale that would reduce friction in inter-state transactions.

>>> I am still struggling to understand what immediate and painful need users have with trusting Apple, Facebook, Google etc with their identity.

Using your Google account to log into everything is great....until your account gets locked.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/not-even-google-employees-can-unl...

Not a series, but Extraction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraction_(2020_film)

>>>For instance if you don’t have a car, the money save from not having a large piece of machinery sitting around most of the time would probably more than make up for a few train tickets. Another option is car share fleets which allow you to split costs and avoid a cost of owning a car.

But cars are not only transportation. They are also secure, climate-controlled semi-private spaces. If I leave a nightclub with a woman at 1am, too far from my home to walk there, trains shut down for the night, no taxis available.....

Having extra pocket money to buy train tickets is useless in such scenarios. If I have my own privately-owned vehicle (POV), I can bang the woman in the back seat, in the club parking lot. And I sure as shit don't want to "car share" with anybody ELSE inclined to do so as well!

POV ownership is like having insurance: it's often underutilized but when you REALLY need it for those rare edge cases, it's worth its weight in gold.

>>>People love to respond that that's too expensive or unworkable or unrealistic or whatever, ignoring that it's actually the status quo that is too expensive, unworkable and unrealisitc

I'd want to see some numbers to support that. What does it cost to provide round-the-clock availability of secure, climate-controlled public transport to every possible location, urban or rural? Bullet trains on standby at 0100hrs to take 1 guy from Osaka to Kanagawa would cost a fortune. In comparison, while PARKING and roads definitely have costs associated with them, the hardware/infrastructure is largely concrete, and inexpensive to maintain when operating below capacity. So 1-2 people can hop in a car and take a road trip at a far lower net/civilization-wide resource expenditure.

Japan has great public transport. Japan also has great cars and a very healthy car community. What part of Japan's transportation approach classifies it as "unworkable and unrealistic" to such an extent that completely banning cars is the optimal solution?

This is why it's so important to own and maintain the good older vehicles. Resto-modding reliable chassis like 1990s Lexus LS should become more popular. Developments in rapid prototyping, additive manufacturing, etc... all make this easier. I'd love to see more open-sourcing of aftermarket parts as well.

But then again, I'm a weirdo who pulled out a car's entire wire harness to install a CAN-BUS system and solid-state power distribution modules....

>>>being non-white is a larger factor than location or ratio

Back when OKCupid's blog had a bunch of interesting data and insights about dating, the conclusion was: if you are male, and you are NOT a top-tier chiseled-jaw white/black/Latin guy....your prospects in the US are slim-to-none. And that was before women had legions of OnlyFans simps at their fingertips.

>>>Did you witness lgbtq or people of certain skin colors being run out of town or receiving some sort of prejudice?

A close friend of mine is a black Muslim, Marine Corps officer, and Afghanistan veteran. Likes to date white women (who doesn't?). He used to live/work predominantly in Ohio, also a bit in Texas I think. He got SOOOO tired of butthurt white guys harassing him at bars and such that he resigned his commission. Why was he fighting for this country to be treated this way at home? He then joined the New Zealand military for a few years, and now lives there permanently (presumably as a NZ citizen).

>>> I wanted to see what a real East Asian hero in the movies could look like

K-Pop Star Rain in Ninja Assassin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Assassin

Lee Byung-Hun as Storm Shadow in the GI Joe movies (a villian, but a damn cool one): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Joe:_The_Rise_of_Cobra#Co...

John Cho in the new Star Trek films: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_(film)

^Just in case you want to work through a back catalog of kickass Asian dudes in blockbuster films.

I've seen both of the Wolf Warrior films as well. I was curious how they would handle the size/physical strength disparity with the presumably-former-spec-ops American mercenaries. I like the approach taken, where the Chinese protagonists overcome them with agility and dexterity.

As an American, and one who has to deal with the Chinese military as an adversary on a regular basis, I still enjoyed these movies.

>>>As a high school kid in 2001 or 2002 (well before the Second Life example the author cites in 2005), he made money selling Diablo II accounts he had beefed up in his spare time.

One of my fraternity brothers paid for a vacation in Europe and a digital camcorder from selling Diablo characters, leveled up via macros, on Ebay. This was also in ~2001-2003.

Someone building a Dyson Sphere just to power a crypto mining rig is an awesome concept for a short story or sci-fi RPG adventure (such as Traveller).

>>> This goes all the way down the supply chain down to the real-world miners who dig up the ores for the solar panels and even they will need to pay their taxes, which you cannot do in bitcoin.

Unless more countries follow El Salvador's example, and accept cryptocurrencies as legal tender. If El Salvador hadn't banned metals mining in 2017, you could the guys digging up ores with BTC today.

Such as Michael Page? That's one of the few recruiters that ever has interesting-looking jobs at decent salaries in Japan.

Try using this: https://bisq.network/

>>> CCP invading Taiwan for holding the former rulers of the country

>??????? Huh?

Technically kinda-true? The CCP tried, and failed, to invade Kinmen, which belongs to the Republic of China aka "Taiwan": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Guningtou

Watch this interview with Yuri Bezmenov: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOmXiapfCs8

Then think about all the "Culture War" problems we are dealing with in American for the past ~10 years.

"This is why killing the industry as a whole is so important. It'll mean going after the owners, suppliers and employees/contractors with naming/shaming, coordinated sanctions, criminal charges, designated persons lists etc. until their reputations are trash. No bank would fund it, no parters would supply it and no one with any talent would ever contemplate such a catastrophic career move in future."

And no government of any geopolitical significance would ever support such actions. These kinds of people, and their skills/tools, are FAR too useful.

The more articles I read about FB's terrible reputation and commensurate price premium they need to dish out, the more interested I become in snagging some sort of remote management position there. I work for a DoD contractor so the "reputational impact" of FB on my resume doesn't mean much to me, but potentially doubling my income for a few years would absolutely be life-changing. And no longer having to work in an open office, with half of the internet blocked to boot, would just be icing on the cake....

>>>Better in what sense? Its extremely difficult to actually use cryptocurrency for selling things beyond cryptocurrency related instruments.

https://cryptoemporium.eu/

https://www.chainbytes.com/

Sell physical assets for crypto, then cash out at a Crypto ATM in your currency of choice, if you absolutely need to. A big part of the problem is Crypto ATMs aren't prolific enough. Restrictions on money-handling businesses come into play there, which is argued as anti-terrorism/organized crime measures but is really just gatekeeping/rent-seeking by the established players.

Start a company, set yourself as COO, Board Chairman, majority shareholder, etc...but with a minimum wage salary. Set your wife as the CEO. Pop out 4 kids. Pay her an 8 figure salary.

Your wife can be a full-time mom and print money at the same time, with no practical change in gender roles.

>>>Giving away children with no paper trail to christian adoption agencies is abhorrent in the extreme.

Children with "no paper trail" often a) aren't with their own parents b) aren't there by choice. Why would you classify an adoption agency, which might try to place them with a loving family, as "abhorrent"?

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/03/world/crossing-with-stran... (paywalled)

https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-border-patrol-dna-20180...

>>>Purposefully worsening conditions punitively in regard to food, sanitation, and medical care rather than housing people temporarily and humanely should not be policy. Locking people up with no means of redress for extended periods of time is also criminal,

All of that is pretty much "situation normal" for pending deportees here in Japan. https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190709/p2a/00m/0fe/01...

In my experience, the perception among successful foreign immigrants here is "Do things the right way and this almost certainly will never be a risk for you. Insist on breaking the laws and you will get ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED. This isn't nice, but it is just."

>>>That does not mean I'm willing to support traitors who attempted to co-opt the democratic process while aligning themselves with a nation state that is our enemy.

You're right, you should give no quarter to those in our halls of power who have aligned themselves with China.

Russia: 150 million people, $4 trillion GDP, primary threat vectors are against globally-irrelevant Eastern European states

China: 1.3 billion people, $20 trillion GDP, primary threat vector is against the lynchpin of the world's semiconductor industry

If half of our elites are in bed with Russia, and half are in bed with China....shouldn't we be focusing more energy on extirpating the ones aligned with the more dangerous threat?

Yeah, certain turbo powerplants are AMAZINGLY durable. The 4G63T, 1JZ-GTE, and 2JZ-GTE are all standouts: stout, overbuilt, iron-block Japanese engines.

For lighter aluminum-block turbo engines, I'm a fan of the 4B11T (in my daily driver, an Evo X) and the BMW B58 (with continued development, I think it will become the greatest inline-6 of our time, this generation's 2JZ).

I'm kinda-ok with powerplant consolidation. Do we really need 4-5 different big-displacement V8s? The GM OHV Small Block family is already the go-to answer for the aftermarket; it should be the same for OEMs. Maybe that requires a change in how car companies view IP, licensing, and the value they add as product integrators.