@chrisp Lots of familiar themes in that one! But yeah, indirection according to my conjecture tilts the economy in favor of Christenson’s “efficiency innovations”, to the exclusion of both others.
[new draft post] Indirection and the character of capitalism (Part I) https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2024/04/04/indirection-and-the-character-of-capitalism-part-i/index.html
“Pay to stay” for prison sentences?
This is absolutely horrific, and would be absolutely horrific even if it didn’t come with the kafkaesque orwellian absurdity of billing for time inmates never stay if the sentence is modified, like a prison sentence is a no-refund low price hotel reservation.
I cannot believe how barbaric the governance of the state in which I now live has become. Although most US states enslave and exploit prisoners and their families.
there’s a lot of friendly fire and collateral damage in information warfare.
@BenRossTransit @Alon The Times article omits the rather obvious point that, regardless of host country, diplomatic facilities are usually considered territory of the country that maintains it, so under a colorable interpretation of international law, Israel has attacked the territory of Iran. Here's a piece where an expert making that point. https://archive.is/VnPTu
@BenRossTransit @Alon Obviously China and Algeria and stuff say it was a violation of international law and norms. We can discount that as biased. https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15650.doc.htm Still, I suspect they'd find experts to make a case, and I bet The Times could have too.
@BenRossTransit @Alon And, the European Union condemned, with a European Commission spokesman noting: "The principle of the inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises and personnel must be respected in all cases and in all circumstances in accordance with international law." https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/eu-condemns-attack-irans-embassy-damascus-urges-restraint-2024-04-03/
@BenRossTransit @Alon If The Times had wanted to practice both sides journalism, it would not have had a hard time finding credentialed people willing to take the other side of the case. It made an editorial choice not to, to treat it in the piece as a settled matter. I'm sorry you didn't love the headline and subhead, but The Times has been very generous to Israel here.
Word problem, inspired by NASA moon clocks:
Quito is 2820m above sea level. I live at sea-level. From my perspective, about how much is the life expectancy of a Quito-an reduced by virtue of gravitational time dilation?
(see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_time_dilation ht @dpp the formulas are right there so it's just plug 'n chug, right? right?)
@jcrabapple I have complete and total faith in you.
@jcrabapple yes, but now you have to maintain it.
@Alon @MisuseCase as Russia is reminding us this week, you can always spin your most ridiculous intelligence failures into a crisis you needn't let go to waste.
@Alon @MisuseCase The non-targeting of people not right-wing and under 60 (even just a few years under 60) I can testify has worked very effectively.
@MisuseCase @Alon Right. Yet another tragedy is Israel simply has no credibility when it claims it was a terrible mistake. Terrible mistakes do happen in war! But it's hard to conclude from Israel's behavior broadly that it would not at least shrug off the lack of discipline that enables such events in the same way it shrugs off and abets settler violence in the West Bank. (If Israel cared abt "hasbara" at all, controlling that is the first thing it would have done. It's shocking they have not.)
@Alon @MisuseCase There are and have long been a lot of idiots on the issue. The whole "settler colonial" edifice, Franz Fanon, a "right to resist" when what resistance means is murder and provocation of armed conflict. A treasure chest of idiocies, and yes Oct 7 brought out lots of idiots.
But it's tragic how effectively Israel choices are making an effective case that it wasn't the idiots who were idiots.
@Alon @MisuseCase I sure hope it's not happening. But if it's not happening, then it's already the day after, so what now? Why is North Gaza starving? What will be done to prevent that?
@Alon @MisuseCase English language Haaretz has comported itself pretty admirably, I think. But I'm skeptical all the perspectives you find there make it into local, non-print media.
@Alon @MisuseCase I have no idea who Leifer is. I quoted that line because it maps to my (again very limited) experience with people who before all this I'd have called liberal Israelis, that they simply have a very different (and I think objectively not defensible) understanding of what is going on.
@BenRossTransit @Alon Do you think that is because there is a near-complete expert consensus that diplomatic status did not protect, or that the Times very generously to Israel chose to quote the subset of experts who would make that case?
My interpretation is the latter. It's a very generous piece. If you think Israel is being unfairly treated by the hedging in the title, I'd ask you to consider honestly whether you'd apply such stringent standards in other contexts.
@MisuseCase @Alon I think you may be making my point. It is easier to be sympathetic to Israelis if we imagine that they just aren't seeing, in the local, Hebrew, press, what we are seeing and seeing and seeing. 1/
@MisuseCase @Alon Individually, we all of the experience of our government doing what we oppose, all the time. But in fact our government has a very difficult time doing what *collectively* we actively oppose. You might have opposed Iraq, but the broad public either favored it or was deferential to experts and politicians who did. Here and in Israel, strong public opinion does matter. /fin
@BenRossTransit @Alon let me ask you, in a war is there ever not a great deal of unfair portrayal? is that so special?
in the Western press, you can make at least as strong a case that there is a tendency to overcaution + overly generous interpretations of Israel’s actions.
one of the first things i wrote about all this was about the stupidity and counterproductiveness of accusations like “genocide”. but, to be fair, my reticence seems less and less defensible.
@Alon i hope you are right about turning against, soon. my impression from my own limited contacts is much more defensiveness and a sense of unfair portrayal than acknowledgement that Israel has turned itself into a pariah in the eyes and hearts of many people once sympathetic by its own, actual, not-al-jazeera-fabricated choices. i just presume, qua the quote, that they are shielded by a bubble of patriotic media. if that’s not the case, i don’t know what to think frankly.
the docs treat us as second class, but i feel like this is a win for team Type=forking