Regal

American builder. Muscle brain. Avid swordsman 🤺 Raising the capacity of gormless human oatmeal.

[Regal @gallantregal]

@skooookum

[Regal @gallantregal]

@cremieuxrecueil Obesity will only be chosen for the aura.

[Regal @gallantregal]

@Howlingmutant0 That tattoo in 15 years:

[Regal @gallantregal]

@braxton_mccoy

[Regal @gallantregal]

Friends did this and the first 5 embryos they picked (the smart boys) failed. They now have a girl, their 6th choice, and I can’t imagine they won’t think every conflict she has in life is because of a subpar dice roll.

[Gene Smith @GeneSmi96946389]

A friend of mine had her embryos screened by Herasight and they found one with an IQ score in the 99.99th percentile

[John Michael Greer @JMGreerWriter]

Despite Hollywood stereotypes, the fall of a civilization is never a fast process; it unfolds over centuries in a ragged downward arc interrupted by many periods of stabilization and partial recovery. In every case, the tactics that yield stability and renewed strength in the short term accelerate the decline in the longer run. In every case, what used to be normal slips quietly from sight behind a flurry of temporary measures, evasive maneuvers, and cheering or raging crowds.

[Peter Hague @peterrhague]

You are not going to be able to upload your mind in 15 years

[Regal @gallantregal]

A few years ago, many panicked over reports of Russia placing nukes in space, assuming orbital bombs. My theory was rather than a bomb, it could be a controllable radiation emitting device designed to shadow and harass a target satellite, turned on or off at will.

Some satellites can turtle and shield themselves against radiation, but doing so effectively neutralizes them. This approach would keep the effects localized and reversible, while avoiding the debris clouds created by anti-satellite weapons. Side note, another way to ruin space forever is to create a cascading collision of satellite debris (as China nearly did in 2007) known as Kessler Syndrome. Thats to be avoided as well.

Such a device wouldn’t violate the Outer Space Treaty or nuclear test ban, since nuclear reactors and propulsion systems are permitted. Overall, there are clever ways to degrade enemy capabilities in space without the aforementioned risks.

[Regal @gallantregal]

The deterrent to nuclear war in space is global backlash. It’s a supervillain move to indiscriminately destroy satellites worldwide and it wouldn’t take much to “ruin” space and trap humanity on Earth forever. People would get off the couch to punish you.

[ToughSF @ToughSf]

The US has no defence against a nuclear detonation in space, has the most to lose from it, and a 1 MT warhead in LEO can instantly destroy 2200+ satellites then disable 10,000+ within weeks - no radiation/debris cleanup exists.
@GarretsonPeter reports:
https://t.co/3p2XJeexWt

[Regal @gallantregal]

Cyber and infiltrators would try to accomplish what widespread upper atmosphere EMPs could without the risks to space. Upper atmosphere nukes would therefore be toward the top of the escalation ladder, not a low rung.

[Eric S. Raymond @esrtweet]

Tom didn't explain his second assertion, but it's important so I'm going to do it.

China is in the worst strategic position of any great power in history because it is critically dependent on resources it has to import, and it doesn't have control of the sea lanes over which it imports them.

China is neither food nor energy self-sufficient. It needs to import pork from the United States, grain from Africa, coal from Australia, and oil from the Middle East to keep its population fed and its factories running.

Naval blockades at about three critical chokepoints (Hormuz, Malacca, Sunda) would cripple the Chinese economy within months, possibly within weeks. China does not have the blue-water navy required to contrast control of those chokepoints. The moment any first-rate naval power or even a second-rate like India decides China needs to be stopped, it's pretty much game over.

As a completely separate issue thanks to the one-child policy, Chinese population probably peaked in 2006 and has been declining ever since. Every year in the foreseeable future they will have fewer military-age males than they do now. Most of those males are only sons; their deaths would wipe out entire family lines, giving the Chinese people an extremely low tolerance for war casualties.

Then there's the glass jaw. The Three Gorges Dam. Which is already in some peril even without a war - you can compare photographs over time and see that it's sagging. If anyone gets annoyed enough to pop that dam thing with a bunker-buster or a pony nuke, the resulting floods will kill millions and wipe out the strip of central China that is by far the country's most industrially and agriculturally productive region.

The Chinese haven't fought a war since 1971. They lost. Against Vietnam. The institutional knowledge that could potentially fit their army for doing anything more ambitious than suppressing regional warlordism does not exist.

I could go on. But I think I've made Tom's statements sufficiently understandable already.

[Rock Solid @ShitpostRock2]

My timeline for the past day

[Roman Helmet Guy @romanhelmetguy]

In a high trust society, your trustworthy neighbor looks after the kids. Your trustworthy plumber gives you a fair deal. Your trustworthy politician tells you his true opinions. I know standards have fallen so low, but high trust isn’t just about not killing and robbing people.

[Regal @gallantregal]

You used to just do (nuclear) things. After the test ban the Navy had to stack 500 tons of TNT blocks into giant piles to simulate atomic blasts on ship hulls.

[Regal @gallantregal]

Test of a nuclear depth charge, 10kt warhead @ 650ft depth, delivered via rocket 2.5 miles away.

[Kurt Steiner @Kurt_Steiner]

American Flower

[Martin Skold @MartinSkold2]

Here’s an idea: All the data centers get built at Fort Meade and are exclusively accessible by it, the US super-duper god machine gets built there by either uniformed military personnel or by contractors staffed exclusively by native-born citizens with US citizen families with TS/SCI clearances, and the whole system is air-gapped except when the president authorizes its deployment, according to carefully limited protocols, and then only subject to rigorous security precautions devised by trusted developers.

No? - no takers?

Then stop pretending this is about China.

[Gary @plzbepatient]

It’s been a terrific experiment showing that Americans aren’t universally racist and xenophobic, we just strongly dislike a lot of foreign cultures and countries because of the behavior of their citizens

[Regal @gallantregal]

@L0m3z Cormac’s theme of incomprehensible, unstoppable evil that blends into the ordinary is supposed to be funny.

[Regal @gallantregal]

@L0m3z Cormac’s theme of incomprehensible, unstoppable evil that blends into the ordinary is supposed to be funny.