IGX

The thing that put me off AH isn't that he thinks he's an expert on everything but that he speaks like no one besides him has ever read anything or knows anything. He explains the simplest concepts like he's talking to extremely dumb and ignorant people, and what he's saying is something that he alo...

He does have a certain take on things. I don't know to what extent that colors his analysis of the details. I haven't read enough on this or listened to enough different voices to be able to assess people's credibility that well, or to filter analysis from bias or personal agendas. My take on Dr. Br...

Justin Bronk just did another interview where he talks about the difficulties of incorporating F-16s into Ukraine's AF.

TL,dw; It will be a longish, hard process but they're needed in order for Ukraine to continue to have air power at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R31hMWs25UI

Gene wrote: ↑Sun Feb 25, 2024 8:18 pm Can we credit Zelenski with knowing what the UAF needs to win?

I credit him with knowing how to get buy-in from the U.S., partly due to the supply/maintenance infrastructure you cite.

All that needs saying about Ukraina.... Zelenski asked for F16s in March of 2022. So far nothing but training and promises. I work with ethnic and native born Ukrainians. They don't strike me as being so stupid as to require many years to train how to use something. It doesn't take that long to get...

They are fighting for their lives but they didn't all become Audie Murphy on Feb 24. A lot of them are still as corrupt as ever and I do think that some of them (not the front line guys) might be selling weapons on the side. They are doing a lot of damage to Russia so good on them. If I believed tha...

Eight trillion dollars have been spent on the GWOT. Two trillion on Afghanistan and for what? My view is that the purpose of America's wars is to make money for the insiders and consolidate their power. I don't think Biden & Co. actually care about Ukraine. We've been doling out just enough aid,...

That's what I used dzogchen for. I had a lot of powerful realizations as a byproduct and stopped for a while to let my psychology catch up.

I think 99% of self reflection is not only narcissistic self indulgence, but illusory. Sudden painful realizations are real enough, like when someone (me) sees how wrong he's been and/or just how shitty someone is, but the kind of ponderings most people write about are self aggrandizing self decepti...

Recently I've been thinking more about my brain and how it's affected by everything I do. So one of the big rocks is, get the things I need for my brain to function right. For example, when I'm tired I make poor decisions, including not getting the rest I need. So in addition to checking whether I'm...

Scott's Last Voyage ,Through the Antarctic Camera of Herbert Ponting. This is part narrative but mostly it's writings by the expedition members. I love the writing of a lot of these explorers. The chapter on the dogs was worthwhile in itself. I like the way Scott's log becomes more brutally element...

Gift from the Sea , by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Another library table book, this one spoke to me and I'm glad I picked it up. It's a very short set of essays about solitude and the rhythms of life. It works well with my winter mood. I would say it's a one sitting read but I've been reading a few page...

Change Your Brain Every Day , by Daniel Amen. In keeping with Bram's idea that the right book finds him, I've been going to the free table at the library to see what grabs me. I saw this and started on it. It's about brain health and some ways to achieve it.. The tone is soothing, which itself is g...

I have the sense that it’s like a muscle. If you dwell a lot, on anything, you get better at dwelling. I've been dwelling on this. I've been reading about state orientation, which is "Action orientation is, in essence, the capacity to regulate emotions, thoughts, and behaviors to fulfill the i...

We used to be able to disagree, even vehemently, even dismiss the the other person as a morally deficient fucktard, without people declaring others to be beyond hope. At least it wasn't the usual. Is it more that everyone is fed up in general or are people just less tolerant of different views?

Well, some of the circumstances were in the video I linked to.

To say that anyone who sees the facts and/or the way the case was handled differently than you do is

<boom boom boom boom>
Racist
<Whooooaaah!>

is not a real argument.

Let' me make a prediction: After winning his appeal, Chauvin will be released on June 18, 2024. Biden will call the ensuing riots protests. There will be prosecutions of people who say the riots are riots. Interesting but not surprising: Wikipedia says Chauvin murdered Floyd. Not, Floyd died and Cha...

Write down any situation that comes to mind, where things were very stressful, but you rose to the occasion. After thinking about this some more I realized that when I've been successful in dealing with stressful situations, I usually didn't see the situation as stressful as in 'I'm so stressed', b...

One thing that puzzles me about this is, why do I persist in thinking about some things and not others? I'm not sure why this is, but I think we can all control this to a significant degree. I suppose one step is to realize that I can choose at least some of what I think and all of my responses.

If I noticed the things you did, I might tell myself, "task at hand, bigger picture." That's a good idea. I'll try to put that in my cues: "What's the bigger picture here?" or "Does this really make sense"? I've often lacked the ability to see that in the moment but if...

I don't know if this is true of anyone else , but a common pattern with me is that thoughts stay with me for a long time. I imagine it's related to the fact that I tend to not let go of activities or people that aren't good for me any more and in some cases never were. So the persistence is a thing ...

“What actions and attitudes keep me in the best head space?” Another way for me to approach this is, what actions, speech and attitudes lead to me not being in a well functioning head space? If I look at what I think every day, I see a pattern. I fill my mind with bad thoughts. Not all day, but too...