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Why would rail services, waste disposal, electricity, water, ISPs, telephone providers, etc. have 'natural monopolies'? Maybe water reservoirs and waste dumps are bottlenecks, but they don't practically bottleneck the provision of the service itself, which is the actual thing customers are buying; you could just tax usage of the reservoir or the dump by the company, and let them compete on provision, where there is in fact a lot of marginal tech/logistics innovation value available.

As for ISPs and electric providers - if I understand correctly, in both cases it's pretty trivial to switch out your hookups if someone else with more reliable or cheaper service comes to the area, and in fact ISPs are laying new infrastructure and shifting the coverage they provide in response to competitive pressures all the time. You don't see electric providers bother with this, but why would they, when their suppliers are basically barred from [or just incapable of, due to technical illiteracy] building new plants, for any amount of capital short of "oh crap suddenly Silicon Valley needs vast power sources for AI"?

Cities often enforce monopolies on utilities [I'm really not sure why?] and states often make competition on transportation, etc. artificially difficult. As I understand it, the subsidized Interstate System undercutting private rail in the 40s-50s [only to later bloat and decay into this mess we all hate] is why we don't have nice private passenger rail anymore.

ive said this before, but i still just dont get it—what do people expect from privatizing services with natural monopolies? Like, my theory of the efficiency of the private sector is that it's based on competition. So why do these people expect efficiency after privatizing, let's say, a rail service? Or if not that, why do they do it?

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The company had surveyed users about whether certain posts they had seen were “good for the world” or “bad for the world.” They found that high-reach posts — posts seen by many users — were more likely to be considered “bad for the world,” a finding that some employees said alarmed them.

So the team trained a machine-learning algorithm to predict posts that users would consider “bad for the world” and demote them in news feeds. In early tests, the new algorithm successfully reduced the visibility of objectionable content. But it also lowered the number of times users opened Facebook, an internal metric known as “sessions” that executives monitor closely.

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'curlys lack of proper intervention enabled jimmy to continue his abuse towards anya and the rest of the crew and his character is a showcase of how men refuse to acknowledge the issue and take it seriously when their friends turn out to be predators. his inaction becoming the initial cause of everyones demise in the end is part of the games commentary on rape culture and how it affects the victims and everyone around them'

and

'curly isnt an inherently evil person but in fact a very human and relatable character who was genuinely upset with wht jimmy did but didnt want to take drastic measures in tht very moment to avoid causing more harm to anyone bcuz he knew jimmy was unpredictable and prone to becoming aggressive and he tried to handle the situation carefully (altho failed to do so in the end)'

r 2 statements tht can coexist btw

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it's complicated to suggest that sexism is worse now than it was 40 or 80 years ago, that's obviously nonsense, but gendered anxieties can still be high, or arguably even higher in the absence of old constraints.

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For those people who need to hear it, there is nothing wrong with going back into the closet for your own safety. You aren't less queer because you can't be queer publicly. You aren't less trans because you have to act like you're not trans.

If you need to start going by your old pronouns or quietly go back into the closet to be safe - you are allowed to do that. Please do that if it means you're alive.

Your safety is important.

You are important.

And if you know someone who has to do this, don't push them. Don't out them. Follow their lead. People's safety is more important that grandstanding.

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Guess I understand Spanish now

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whoa dude I literally would have voted harris for $14. it should be legal to just bribe voters if it's not already

I've been thinking of nothing but the harris campaign for days and I still can't fully comprehend that it was real

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you know what I'm just gonna say it. you're not the main culprit sabakos but everyone R and D is calling the Lysistratists cringe, for mutually exclusive reasons, and I think they're executing a perfectly valid and wise move and all people notice is that they look like losers so they're getting jeered over it

the inherently feminist position of framing your main contribution to society and primary bargaining power as "having sex with men"

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it is always funny when "the strong should take what they will, the weak should suffer what they must" types complain about people bullying them, I mean come on

"if only we lived in a society where the strong were respected!" cries moron getting whaled on by the strong

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I feel like I've had the same experience several times now: someone does a new translation of a non-English literary classic, and all the critics praise it to the moon, so I go and try to read it, and it's turns out it's just . . . bad? Like, really bad? And weirdly bad?

A while back, I wrote about the case of Pevear and Volokhonsky. Here's another example, which I encountered while doing background research for my novel Almost Nowhere.

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One of my novel's major characters is a literary translator, famous for his rendition of the Persian epic poem Shahnameh ("Book of Kings").

To help me write this character, I tried to read the Shahnameh myself. I started out – where else? – with the translation that seemed to be the gold standard, and which was certainly the most critically lauded.

Namely, the 2006 translation by Dick Davis, in prose with occasional shifts into verse.

Here's how the Shahnameh begins, in Davis' translation:

What does the Persian poet say about the first man to seek the crown of world sovereignty? No one has any knowledge of those first days, unless he has heard tales passed down from father to son. This is what those tales tell: The first man to be king, and to establish the ceremonies associated with the crown and throne, was Kayumars. When he became lord of the world, he lived first in the mountains, where he established his throne, and he and his people dressed in leopard skins. It was he who first taught men about the preparation of food and clothing, which were new in the world at that time. Seated on his throne, as splendid as the sun, he reigned for thirty years. He was like a tall cypress tree topped by the full moon, and the royal farr shone from him. All the animals of the world, wild and tame alike, reverently paid homage to him, bowing down before his throne, and their obedience increased his glory and good fortune.

And here is the same opening, in the 1905 translation by Arthur and Edmond Warner (which I only discovered much later in the process of writing Almost Nowhere):

What saith the rustic bard? Who first designed To gain the crown of power among mankind? Who placed the diadem upon his brow? The record of those days hath perished now Unless one, having borne in memory Tales told by sire to son, declare to thee Who was the first to use the royal style And stood the head of all the mighty file. He who compiled the ancient legendary, And tales of paladins, saith Gaiúmart Invented crown and throne, and was a Sháh. This order, Grace, and lustre came to earth When Sol was dominant in Aries And shone so brightly that the world grew young. Its lord was Gaiúmart, who dwelt at first Upon a mountain; thence his throne and fortune Rose. He and all his troop wore leopard-skins, And under him the arts of life began, For food and dress were in their infancy. He reigned o'er all the earth for thirty years, In goodness like a sun upon the throne, And as a full moon o'er a lofty cypress So shone he from the seat of king of kings. The cattle and the divers beasts of prey Grew tame before him; men stood not erect Before his throne but bent, as though in prayer, Awed by the splendour of his high estate, And thence received their Faith.

Now, I can't speak at all about the source text. I have no idea how faithful or unfaithful these two translations are, and in what ways, in which places.

Still, though. I mean like, come on.

This is an epic poem about ancient kings and larger-than-life heroes.

This is a national epic, half myth and half history, narrating the proud folkloric lineage claimed by a real-world empire.

There is a way that such things are supposed to sound, in English. And it sure as hell isn't this:

What does the Persian poet say about the first man to seek the crown of world sovereignty?

Excuse me? That's your opening line? I thought I was reading a poem, here, not taking a fucking AP World Literature exam!

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Postscript

Some of the critical praise for the Davis translation, quoted on the back cover of my copy (emphasis mine):

"A poet himself, Davis brings to his translation a nuanced awareness of Ferdowsi's subtle rhythms and cadences. His "Shahnameh" is rendered in an exquisite blend of poetry and prose, with none of the antiquated flourishes that so often mar translations of epic poetry." (Reza Aslan, The New York Times Book Review) "Thanks to Davis's magnificent translation, Ferdowsi and the Shahnameh live again in English.” (Michael Dirda, Washington Post) "A magnificent accomplishment . . . [Davis’s translation] is not only the fullest representation of Ferdowsi’s masterpiece in English but the best." (The New York Sun)

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it is always funny when "the strong should take what they will, the weak should suffer what they must" types complain about people bullying them, I mean come on

"if only we lived in a society where the strong were respected!" cries moron getting whaled on by the strong

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Mostly, I want to have more stuff, lose weight, win more awards, and avoid work.

And change the world with my friends I guess.

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so ur at the party right and there’s this girl in the corner with another girl on a leash with the puppy ears on standard stuff and u start talking to her and she introduces the girl on the leash and says “this is my little puppy, Emily. say hi Emily” and the leash girl does a little bark at u and u say “oh that’s nice” and ur looking for a way to avoid the awkward silence during a 4 second period that feels like a half hour so u ask “does she know any tricks?” so the girl says “come on girl, show ‘em” and the puppy girl gets up pulls out a skateboard and starts doing the sickest kick flips u ever saw

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the things that are reported matters. the language used matters. what is left out of the story matters.

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Everyone who likes characters drawn more realistically than me is an ideal-less NPC. Everyone who likes characters drawn more stylized than me is a tasteless child.

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the curious message