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“Propaganda does not provide information that is meant to be believed by the people it is addressing. Propaganda mostly provides signals of in-group loyalty.

To be effective at this, propaganda often has to be implausible. Information that is true is believable on its own. But propaganda has to be so patently false and far-fetched, so exaggerated and misleading, that repeating it sends the right signal to other people: the signal that one feels committed to a certain group.

Propaganda provides the masses with traits that allow them to recognise each other. But beyond this, fighting propagandistic falsehoods with the truth actually reinforces the signal’s reliability by implicitly telling people who want to prove themselves faithful precisely what not to say. Propaganda acts as a badge to express which group we belong to.


--- Hanno Sauer. “The Invention of Good and Evil”, 2024.

TIL

Aug. 28th, 2024 11:14 pm
timelets: (Default)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/08/headway/how-an-american-dream-of-housing-became-a-reality-in-sweden.html

While nearly every other industry has become more productive since 1968, productivity in home-building — the amount of work done by one worker in one hour, essentially — has declined by half. The country is barely building enough to maintain the status quo, which is some four million units short of need, according to Freddie Mac.

This is mostly due to regulations.

The barriers to building housing fast... weren’t technological, but institutional.


If I were the president...

TIL

Aug. 2nd, 2024 09:20 pm
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Before the full-scale war, Gazprom was the sixth most profitable company in the world, behind Saudi Aramco, Apple, Berkshire, Microsoft and Alphabet. Now, it's losing money.
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“Postumus was a lion-like champion. He seemed not to care a fig for anyone. He even dared to speak out straight to my grandmother Livia herself.”

Robert Graves. “I, Claudius.”

TIL

Feb. 11th, 2024 09:06 pm
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One foot == one light nanosecond.

https://youtu.be/iRVfaR3N5K4?si=a5fweNjSJ1FtKB2f&t=2245

Key concepts: manifold, events, metric, lattice.
timelets: (Default)
 
  1. Cities of China* — 626m cameras to 1.43bn people = 439.07 cameras per 1,000 people
  2. Hyderabad, India — 900,000 cameras for 10,801,163 people = 83.32 cameras per 1,000 people
  3. Indore, India – 200,000 cameras per 3,302,077 people = 60.57 cameras per 1,000 people
  4. Delhi, India — 449,934 cameras for 22,547,000 people = 19.96 cameras per 1,000 people
  5. Singapore, Singapore — 109,072 cameras for 6,080,859 people = 17.94 cameras per 1,000 people
  6. Moscow, Russia — 214,000 cameras for 12,680,389 people = 16.88 cameras per 1,000 people
  7. Baghdad, Iraq — 120,000 cameras for 7,711,305 people = 15.56 cameras per 1,000 people
  8. Seoul, South Korea — 144,513 cameras for 9,988,049 people = 14.47 cameras per 1,000 people
  9. St. Petersburg, Russia — 75,000 cameras for 5,561,294 people = 13.49 cameras per 1,000 people
  10. London, England (UK) — 127,423 cameras for 9,648,110 people = 13.21 cameras per 1,000 people.
https://www.comparitech.com/vpn-privacy/the-worlds-most-surveilled-cities/
timelets: (Default)
что нас в детстве обманывали советские писатели, когда говорили, что муравьи не бродят по ночам. Еще как бродят! ChatGPT не даст соврать.
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As of 9 years ago, on average sharks kill four people a year. At the same time, people kill 70 million sharks a year.

https://youtu.be/fbm6Y42vcqI?t=77

TIL

Feb. 13th, 2023 11:36 pm
timelets: (Default)
Charles Perot was 67 when he published his book of fairy tales.
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DER SPIEGEL: The war itself isn’t being questioned.

Gudkov: No, the attacks on Ukraine and the massacres play no role. The Russians have little compassion for the Ukrainians. Almost no one here talks about the fact that people are being killed in Ukraine.

DER SPIEGEL: Can you quantify that?

Gudkov: The share is just 1.5 to 2 percent of respondents. And only an average of 10 percent of the population feels guilt and shows empathy – Russian society is amoral. Of course, they don’t want war, but people behave submissively, passively and don’t want to engage in open conflict with the state.
....

Despite all the fear, the Homo Putinus hopes that Putin will protect the country from the West and lead it out of the economic crisis, as he did during the first years of his presidency.

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/opinion-researcher-lev-gudkov-russians-have-little-compassion-for-the-ukrainians-a-066c08c6-60f4-48e1-853a-d2b3d67bd6b8

TIL

Dec. 29th, 2022 01:02 pm
timelets: (Default)
I've played with ChatGPT a bit and find it to be a useful writing/editing assistant. It definitely helps generate various versions of paragraphs that would've been difficult for me to produce on my own.

In the meantime, the bot has a limitation that Google or somebody's got to exploit for business.

"I'm sorry, but I am unable to provide information about events that occurred after my knowledge cutoff in 2021. As a language model, I do not have the ability to browse the internet or access current events. My responses are based solely on the information and knowledge that I possess at the time of my creation."

СЯУ: 4%

Dec. 3rd, 2022 09:36 pm
timelets: (Default)
Доля россиян, которые считают, что донбасские сепаратисты или российские военные сбили малайский Боинг рейс MH17, равна доле пакистанцев, которые считают, что теракт 11 сентября 2001 года в Нью Йорке совершили арабские террористы.

На этом вопрос современной российской культуры можно считать закрытым.

TIL

Nov. 6th, 2022 09:08 pm
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No matter how long a log stays in the water, it doesn't become a crocodile.

--- Proverb of the Bambara people of Mali

https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199539536.001.0001/acref-9780199539536-e-1322
timelets: (Default)

My lord was pleased to represent me as a great admirer of projects, and a person of much curiosity and easy belief; which, indeed, was not without truth; for I had myself been a sort of projector in my younger days.
....

I was received very kindly by the warden, and went for many days to the academy. Every room has in it one or more projectors; and I believe I could not be in fewer than five hundred rooms.

--- Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift. 1726.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/829/829-h/829-h.htm
Part 3, Chapters 4-5.

Note the meaning of "projector".

TIL

Jun. 13th, 2022 11:42 am
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If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable. - Seneca

via Remchukov https://youtu.be/fggfPTemnWA?t=3255
timelets: (Default)
https://truett.edu/news/archive/7-ways-to-pray-for-ukraine-amid-the-russian-invasion/

https://thejewishnews.com/2022/04/12/a-prayer-for-ukraine/

https://ritualwell.org/ritual/prayer-ukraine

One of the suggested prayers is Psalms 3:2-5
2 LORD, how many are mine adversaries become! Many are they that rise up against me.
3 Many there are that say of my soul: 'There is no salvation for him in God.' Selah
4 But thou, O LORD, art a shield about me; my glory, and the lifter up of my head.
5 With my voice I call unto the LORD, and He answereth me out of His holy mountain. Selah

https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt2603.htm

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