Posts by sleeplessnights

Quote from auspop

No, I think that democracy it's something exclusive of the white race, and it's not for being racist, but if we look at democracies around the world, they are always European countries or with a white majority (usa, canada, australia, nz, uruguay , Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica).

There are peoples (and races) in which democracy does not work, and if it works it is because it have been applied by force as in Japan or South Korea.

The countries of the Middle East, Africa, and some Latin American countries such as El Salvador or Guatemala need a leader who directs the country in a more less authoritarian way, that is the only way that those countries do not have constant internal conflicts

I'd not say it is exclusive for the white race as there are lot of undemocratic "white" nations too unless you wanna throw Balkan nations under the bus. Western Europe and some of the UK colonies developed modern democracies. They can boast having over a century of democracy.

Even by some of the examples like Chile, they went to democratization to authoritarian to democratization. Not sure if pointing out race is important. Could have just said nations under Western influence without using the "not being racist" card and pointing out race. Some nations in Africa are considered flawed democracies which is good enough all things considered as not even USA is considered a working democracy (well it is one rank down for being one, so I guess it is both).

Not sure if I can get behind your statement of saying SK had democracy applied by force by others. Maybe yes initially (but I'd say freedom fighters who fought Japanese colonialism wanted that and the first elected president was one), but it developed into a dictatorship post Korean War. The process of democratization (which is fairly recent like 90s and early 00s) wasn't imposed by others but popular movements. Similarly Taiwan didn't start as a proper democracy and went to a similar process left by their own devices rather imposed by others.

In Japan case maybe your statement is kinda accurate, but some argument can be made that seeds of democracy were already there during the 10s and 20s, but the Imperial military just took over during the 30s and halted all progress to feed their imperial ambitions further. So when the Allies took over after the Japanese defeat, implementing democratic institutions were quite easy compared to other heavy handed ways to impose some form of "democratic" puppet governments around the world post WWII and Cold War.

If you wanna use Japan as an example, Germany went to the same process. I guess if we go to ethnocentric view, white race also created fascism and centralized dictatorships too. White people create shit ton of stuff, but not sure if applying an ethnocentric argument is even necessary to this discussion.

With the exception of UK and Western Europe, working democracy is rather very new with some being barely over 50 years. Even if you count USA as the oldest (depending on how one defines working democracy), it is just over 200 years. For most of history, some form of absolute/authoritarian government was the norm. Lot of nations are just barely held together as well. Democratization is an on-going slow process and it is living history. It's a complex subjective that can be viewed in many different ways.

Going back to the question of Islam and democracy, I guess some cultural or ethnocentric explanation could be applied which seems what the direction of TC was going for. I'd go with it depends by case by case or at least region by region. This particular religion may be a huge factor, but for some cases, it seems not the main reason.

Before we start we may need to not paint Muslim nations with the same stroke.

Africa, Middle East, Central Asian, South Asia, and Southeast Asia nations with Muslim majority have different experiences with post-colonialism, post Cold war, and so on. Muslim is also as varied as Christianity.

There is some incompatibility to countries that adhere to Sharia as they may not separate religion and government. However, lot of them don't have Islam as state religion and are considered secular in paper (but some of them are de facto Islamic states).

Using the Democracy Index, there are two flawed democracies. Indonesia and Malaysia. In Indonesia case, they are the most populated Muslim nation with remarkable diversity. When the modern state was created, most other powers didn't believe it would last long because of so many internal differences, yet apart for Timor Leste, they are hanging out and is potentially a rising star in the region. Malaysia seems to be doing fine overall as well. Tunisia ranks " high" in the index for a Muslim majority nation, but I don't see that many good news from them recently.

Some countries are kinda in hybrid systems, monarchy, or authoritarian regime. Not sure if religion has a role in all these nations not being democratic. In some cases sure. but not all as sole reason. Some of them never implemented democracy in first place. Lot of them are either in very tenuous border situation or with ton of internal instability since inception.

In some recent time liberalism was coming to Muslim majority nations like Egypt (which had a thriving movie industry at the time), but the Arab-Israeli conflict and the rise of radical elements of Islam in power just fucked this, for instance.

Still some may not even want democracy per se like Oman. It's is a stable country. It looks like odd to have an absolute monarchy in the 21st century, but it seems to be working for them.

What a weird situation with USA and Taliban working together to fight ISIS. Hope this isn't used as an excuse to stay there. No matter how shitty the situation gets, USA should get the fuck off there ASAP.

Judging from how angry Blinks are for the lack of releases, nope.

Maybe longer waits make them thirsty for a new release at best and worried at worse.

Pretty good list overall.

I like Evangelion and Clamp stuff.

I like the designs from Yoshitoshi Abe (Lain and Haibane Renmei) and Range Murata (Last Exile and Sangri-La) as well.

SK is already heavily censored in comparison to other developed countries.

It seems not different from Twitter or Facebook are doing already.

This seems not really unique to SK. Other countries have placed controls over free press in order to "fight misinformation". Even some countries in Europe that rank high in this aspect seems to be suffering a bit lately. It is a worrisome trend for sure.

I don't quite recall it, but wasn't Tzuyu like one of the more popular ones during the show? I think he initially thought she was super young and inexperienced just like Somi and Natty, but behind the scene he was probably surprised by her popularity and hard work. He probably thought of the final line up with her in mind just like he had Momo in mind already even thou she got eliminated.

Quote from Drew_B

True. But was there a category on the show where you had to win a visual category? Or was it just singing and dancing?

There were challenges that are basically visual and/or popularity challenges. Early on there was a photoshoot challenge. Obviously JYP was measuring these aspects.

I don't doubt rich could buy influence, but she wasn't the only rich kid on the show. I don't think it was weird or out of ordinary that she was chosen this way. It made sense. I'd interpret more that he used her and Momo to ramp up drama at the end to make the show unpredictable. In the end of the day, the line up was probably decided at least mid show.

Well whatever happens, hope she is happy with this arrangement and she can upload/stream on YT

Some users did mention some, but I guess it's not hyperbolic enough and users here care more about what gonna happen to the idols than the whole picture per se.

However, unless you are South Korean, I don't know how productive is to talk about or condemn their system as it's their internal affairs and quite frankly not many know the details or care to know the details and our complaints won't make any difference.

I guess we can point fingers and discuss because it's the internets and we can talk about it, but in the end of the day, it's not that relevant to the idol cases that much for what I've seen. There is so much a teacher can do as they are a stressed bunch full of responsibilities already. A counselor would be better suited for that and I think I read about certain places having that as solutions to deal with bullying cases, but of course it's not widespread yet.

There is reasons why SK school system is pretty stressing. It's not like they created this to be stressing per se. However, when people propose changes, they think it is automatic when in reality results if they happen or not may take time and people already moved on to other discussions.

For instance, in the USA, school problems are well known, but solutions may take time to be implemented (and even if they are, they could be wrong ones) even if they managed to get consensus past partisan lines. It is the same in SK. I think people want more relaxed school system there, but the school system only reflects the competitiveness of Korean society. Unless you can change views on how Koreans should educate their kids while keeping this competitiveness edge, there is very few bandaging that can be done.

This problem is more deeply rooted on a bigger picture than just school system per se. It'd be great if school was less intense, but this is just a mirror of the bigger picture too.

I have a pet peeve when people use terms like Asia, Africa, and so on. With specific about the usage of "Asia", when people say that, it is usually referring to East Asians which is dumb. People should specify. Asia encompass people from Armenia to Japan. There are very few instances people can use the term Asia in the right context.

In TC's specific example, Southeast Asians get thrown under the bus as well. On the flip side, some non-Asians may get referred to or even attacked for looking what some idiots think is "Asian looks" like Mexicans and Native Americans. During the highs of attacks on Asian communities, a Mexican senior was assaulted because the attacker thought she was Chinese.

Quote from RedvelvetxTwice

im not sure. It says that the games are free after buying it for a month.

Checking their website, the list isn't too bad for 10 bucks, but I probably wouldn't use this service based on that list. At least it doesn't seem that better than Epic offering free games and I don't use Epic that much.

Their official site seems bare-bone. I wanted more clear info and I can't access it. Not sure if I need to sign up to get access to more detailed information.

I have a friend who tested Stadia, but his laptop was top of the line and this product wasn't for him in the end.

They are offering a trial, so if it's not a hassle to cancel before subscription fee kicks in, I guess you could give a try this way. That being said, Stadia just seems like a failed Google experiment/service they will drop soon (they closed their game studio I think, not a good sign).

Dunno. I'd be worried about how Google will support Stadia in the future. As a service, reviews seem to be a mixed bag. Do you still need to buy the games separately or have a decent rotation of free to access games for that 9 bucks?

My teen years was without internet. It was fine. Just the scale and speed would be different. Instead of having the whole world at your fingerprints, I'd be more confined to local stuff. Otherwise, I don't think much would change as I don't use lot of social media tools, just a handful. I think most of my shopping is still done locally. Most of my relationship with people wouldn't be changed that much as I'm still a face to face kinda person.

For anime without internet, I'd go back to mailing fansub groups and trading materials and be more dependent on conventions as well. In this case I'd need to interact with people on more face to face basis than just login in and download a torrent. Importing very specific things (like soundtrack of games/anime) from Japan would be a hassle.

In the future kids will say "Can you imagine life without neuronet?I can't imagine typing or using voice interface to interact! Imagine not being able to share the hivemind or enter other people's heads!"

I'm not that big Star Wars fan, but outside of main trilogies, I actually enjoy SW franchise, so I'm kinda hyped for this. It reminds me of Animatrix. Studio Trigger and IG are animating 2 and 1 episodes respectively. I'm not familiar with the other studios, but liking it so far.

Umbrella lightsaber is so stupid, but awesome!

May the force be with onii-chan!

Not sure how to take it. Taliban seems a bit softer in terms of position as they are offering very lenient terms compared to their past behaviors. They started as basically a Pashtun nationalism + extreme Islamism similar to Al Qaeda and Wahhabism, but over the years they have been accepting other ethnic groups into their fold. I'd like to hope they evolved a bit and wanna participate in the international order or it seems like their plan is to have this image of legitimacy not just internally but abroad as well.

I don't buy them giving "equality" according to their interpretation of Sharia law to women. They are also anti-culture and science like restricting efforts to fight covid, destroying historical artifacts, and banning music and TV.

Let's see how it plays out. However, I fear that their influence may bring instability to neighboring regions. Hope they don't have ambitions of exporting their ideology outside Afghanistan and just try to focus on rebuild their nation even if its under a theocratic regime. After all we tolerate places like Saudi Arabia, for instance.

Refugee crisis in Europe could also become worse. Iran has like 3 millions (like 2 millions aren't documented) or so and they aren't in great shape. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan could take Turkic Afghans, but they are also on tight ropes. At least Tajikistan is kinda open to get some thousands while Uzbekistan seems less willing. Turkey surely will not take more Afghans as they are hold like 4 million Syrians and hundred of thousands of Afghans already. It is just a horrible situation to everyone.

It seems like a natural growth. Maybe BP helped a bit which isn't a bad thing per se, but she seems pretty active at promoting herself in social media. Hard to tell unless you make a commercial questionnaire and ask the fans.

This would be systemic racism if they are restricting vaccines to black communities at the same time as these types of movement restrictions. Are black communities in NY full blown eating antivaxx propaganda or can't properly get the vaccine? I'd be more concerned of why 60% of black community aren't vaccinated at this point (assuming this number is for the legible for vaccine population only).

Having vaccine for free should be more than enough incentives, but because people are so fucking stupid that they go against their own self-interest, we need both incentives and restrictions. People in power know restrictions are unpopular, but it has to be done because the damage of not doing it is higher than political backlash.

Unless one has some condition that makes vaccine very risky which should be a very small percentage of overall population, it is just irrational stubbornness to not get one. I have no sympathy for the loss of supposed "freedoms" for this lot.

I'd not want to go to a place that a highly probable unvaccinated spreader would be allowed to go. These people are the ones restricting freedom from businesses and people who took the rational choice while undermining a very costly vaccination campaign to end this terrible crisis. There are some limits for allowing people to be complete asshats anti-science and antivaxxers at expense of others who took rational choice.

People using this to some political bullshit ignoring the real issue at hand seem more problematic. So much useless noise that undermine even real racism issues as well.

Quote from daniel-cruz

1. This is known as Kessler's Syndrome. As for SpaceX, Their starlink satellites (there will be 42000 in total) are having a lower orbit which means even if something happens, They will fall on earth and due to atmosphere, It will burned and destroyed in atmosphere.

2. There are so many different accounts, it depends on who you're talking to.

3. Let's compare Space Shuttle and Falcon 9.

Falcon 9's average cost is around 62 million dollars for satellites and stuff, which means it goes to orbit.

Average Space Shuttle flight coated 450 million dollars.

And the best part is that, Refurbishment cost for Falcon 9 is significantly lower than Space Shuttle.

It's clear, he did what he promised.

Take latest and most greatest development in SpaceFlight history.... The mighty Starship.

You know what he said? 1000 dollars per ton to Mars.... Which is revolutionary.

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For case 1, I didn't mention Starlink satellite and it's clear Space X and other private space corporations will be just limited on that area obviously. Like I said, they are prone to ignore regulations both down here and up there. That's the thing I'm talking about. Some fanboys will overlook/dismiss these criticisms.

For 2, you seem to be a little apathetic about it. What is happening in Tesla pretty much can be extended for Space X. Where do you think these fantastic and revolutionary cost reductions are coming from? In the end of the day, it is a business and a big corporation and they will do the best they can do achieve that. The good, the bad, and the ugly. These shouldn't be ignored like fanboys do. Lot of this progress is on the shoulders of workers.

For 3, Dunno why mention that. I think I already complimented that aspect of Space X, so I'm confused about listing these. If we need to mention these, I like the rocket being reusable aspect. There are lot of to like here.

I think people are confusing valid criticisms and concerns with people hating on space progress in general. I was initially very excited about this space race, but the more we know how things operate behind the scenes, the more this excitement disappears and just becomes cynicism over private space race. The Space X fanbase is basically as annoying as Apple defenders back in the day of iPods and iPhones when they were the darlings of innovation. I don't wanna rain on people's parade about being excited about space, but I think blind excited can be as problematic as overly hate as well.

Still it is funny that this started because my comment was for Bezos's lack of touch, but I guess it was generic enough to fall to other cases. My intention was more about people like Bezos making this commercial space race becoming less magical and exciting to follow. We can just focus back to Bezos as this is originally him.