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jesse يسّى ישי

@tov.bsky.social

californian in london. mcmillanist–georgist. likes: type systems, banjo music, soup. dislikes: just-so stories, autocracy, cake

created April 16, 2023

870 followers 568 following 1,101 posts

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Posts

Profile picture Dan Nexon (@dhnexon.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

There's no point in punishing the nominees of the opposition for stances that we consider beyond the pale — let alone ones that are problematic. The logic of "teaching them a lesson" presupposes that we still have a system in which the opposition can win elections.

30/8/2025, 8:10:01 PM | 403 60 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

I had to read Kieran’s message three times

24/8/2025, 11:11:43 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

But it makes me nervous because I can’t tell whether the people who say they’ll never vote for less evil guy are lying or actually mean it, and I know a lot of people are dumb enough to mean it.

24/8/2025, 5:20:41 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Strategic lying wherein you proclaim loudly that you’ll never vote for less evil guy—right up until the primary after which you go all in for less evil guy—might be an optimal strategy.

24/8/2025, 5:20:41 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Could we maybe get a million counterprotesters? Seems more likely.

24/8/2025, 9:27:26 AM | 5 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Sugary salsa… why?

24/8/2025, 7:33:23 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Is the argument just that “X nationalism shouldn’t get a special name”? I think after 1948 the meaning cleanly transitioned from “a Jewish state should be established” to “the Jewish state should continue.” It’s not like 1948 made the question of whether there should be a Jewish state go away.

20/8/2025, 11:17:43 PM | 2 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Yeah, that’s where the analogy breaks down. It’s fine to choose a sports team for stupid reasons. You should choose a political coalition more carefully. But at this moment, the choice is very easy.

20/8/2025, 4:26:25 PM | 5 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

You would choose a team that (1) wants to use the power in a way most similar to what you want, and (2) is reasonably likely to have a chance to do that. You can optimize 1 by being your own team of one, but then you’re giving up on 2.

20/8/2025, 4:18:13 PM | 6 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

You notice this on road trips out of San Diego when you spend the first night in El Paso, and for the second night you’re still in Texas.

19/8/2025, 10:33:35 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Depends on where you are. In the U.S. it does.

18/8/2025, 6:55:12 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Warm take: Monospaced fonts get two spaces; proportionally spaced fonts get one. Hotter: Use LaTeX to get proper 1.5ish spacing. But don’t forget the “\ ” after abbreviations like “Dr.”, or it will look weird.

17/8/2025, 7:25:27 PM | 8 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

They’re going to hit him on the toilet thing. Probably doesn’t have legs though.

16/8/2025, 11:20:07 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

emerging market? feels more like demerging

16/8/2025, 8:58:40 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

I’ll hold my nose and vote for a moderately evil candidate and platform when the alternative is pure evil—IFF the moderately evil candidate is willing to do what it takes.

15/8/2025, 11:24:24 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

If you had to pick one, which?

15/8/2025, 8:33:53 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Helps keep you sharp!

14/8/2025, 5:28:55 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Down is on here in the UK, and after 2 years it almost doesn’t weird me out. Like, it’s obviously incorrect, but I’m getting used to the wrongness I guess.

14/8/2025, 5:22:23 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Thinking about this a bit more, smell can be a problem if it forces you to spend too much time convincing yourself something is correct, or if you start ignoring smells. It’s good when it’s easy to see why code does the right thing! But you should usually be able to articulate why something stinks.

14/8/2025, 4:40:46 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

The smell isn’t the problem. The smell is a clue that you should investigate because it’s likely there’s a problem.

14/8/2025, 3:46:20 PM | 8 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

It’s legal because those countries joined up voluntarily and asked for that. I wonder why so many countries thought it was a good idea.

14/8/2025, 1:54:39 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

They were not actually killing Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine. That’s imperialist propaganda.

14/8/2025, 10:25:10 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Why rent dawgs when you can borrow them from the dawg library for free?

14/8/2025, 10:15:09 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Have you read Daan Leijen, “Extensible records with scoped labels”? It’s not commutative, but nearly so, and a very nice solution IMO: www.microsoft.com/en-us/resear...

12/8/2025, 8:51:01 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

“There aren’t any permanent long-term solutions in politics!” is just what you’d expect a shitlib (laudatory) to say.

12/8/2025, 5:57:26 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

You must solve every problem at once, or why bother?

12/8/2025, 5:49:44 PM | 5 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social)

“Actual liberation” is permanent when you envision a totalitarian victory that crushes all dissent, forever, but leftistly.

12/8/2025, 5:48:38 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

It takes some time and practice to learn to read this stuff, but once you do it’s really nice. Compact (so you can see it all at once) and precise!

12/8/2025, 10:38:55 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Harvard was chartered in 1650.

12/8/2025, 8:40:12 AM | 8 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Looking forward to Trump unilaterally surrendering our Security Council seat.

11/8/2025, 8:28:30 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

(Obviously Israel’s behavior is the primary cause. But I gotta wonder whether Harris could have held this back, had she wanted to.)

11/8/2025, 8:28:30 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social)

With nearly every wealthy country but the U.S. lining up to recognize Palestine, I’ve gotta wonder if this is partly a paradoxical effect of electing Trump. Have we so trashed our diplomatic credibility that can no longer protect our client from consequences?

11/8/2025, 8:28:30 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Doing a PhD doesn’t cost $250k, or even $1. Usually the school pays you (enough to live on while doing it), not the other way around.

10/8/2025, 10:37:47 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

I continued masking on public transit until earlier this year, and yes, it’s difficult. Trains and buses are hot enough that it causes me nausea (and rarely, vomiting), and having one’s face covered makes the heat so much worse.

10/8/2025, 7:48:17 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

The idea that a constitutional amendment could be unconstitutional isn’t totally insane. There’s actually legal scholarship that engages this question: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconst... That said, Sotomayor’s suggestion that retroactive term limits could be unconstitutional is silly.

10/8/2025, 7:02:15 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Yeah, we just need an amendment abolishing the Supreme Court and creating a Supremer Court.

10/8/2025, 6:57:55 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Yeah I miss it too. It was good to be able to tell from the skyline who needs following or unfollowing.

9/8/2025, 7:47:02 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Grilled watermelon with a salty cheese, like cotija or maybe feta!

9/8/2025, 6:21:31 PM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Naw dude. The last time Wes Anderson made something good was Bottle Rocket.

9/8/2025, 10:40:45 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Mishima Yukio, no question

9/8/2025, 8:14:30 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

WW2 Cap ≠ red scare Cap ≠ late Vietnam War era Cap

5/8/2025, 11:31:23 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

4–5 from this year versus most from 2017, but I prefer to assume this is because I’m old now.

3/8/2025, 7:26:28 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Feeling this too. People who try to overthrow democracy cannot be given a second chance to try again.

3/8/2025, 11:52:24 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

I think polling shows it’s a large majority, which is, yes, a significant fraction. I have family there, and I will say fuck Israel. Fuck Russia, too.

2/8/2025, 8:40:38 PM | 4 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

That’s very weird, and I’m sorry they’re doing that to you.

2/8/2025, 6:00:34 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

I recall something about it being tricky because Java’s security model relies on stack inspection. But John Clements did figure out how to do it: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

2/8/2025, 8:18:49 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

I’m confused by this “flagged” thing. Doesn’t your citizenship absolutely entitle you to enter the country?

2/8/2025, 7:51:15 AM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s where we get stuff like employment numbers. Trump didn’t like the numbers in the most recent report, so he fired the person in charge.

1/8/2025, 10:54:37 PM | 8 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Looking forward to those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked to be sacked.

1/8/2025, 10:11:45 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Yep! I’ve been using the shell for ~25 years, and only learned of sponge from a colleague in the last year or two.

1/8/2025, 10:03:08 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Looks like Alex already looked it up, but for the rest of you: sponge reads its entire input into a buffer, and then writes it out to the file passed as its argument only once the input ends. So you can do this and not get into trouble: grep … file | sponge file

1/8/2025, 9:58:14 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Won’t cat’s writes block when the pipe buffer is full though?

1/8/2025, 9:55:06 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Maybe curl | sponge /dev/stdout | sh I learned about sponge way too late in life.

1/8/2025, 6:59:51 PM | 2 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

You aren’t just trusting one site—You’re possibly also trusting some CDN, and you’re trusting that these things aren’t compromised. If you can get a digest from a different source, that might be a bit better. Personally I’m not going to worry about it, but I imagine situations where I would.

1/8/2025, 5:15:11 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Ultimately, yeah. But you could at least compare the digest of the binary against a digest from a source you trust. Of course, if the web server is malicious and it’s also serving the digest…

1/8/2025, 8:42:25 AM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

It’s not that hard for a malicious web server to detect whether you’re doing `curl | sh` versus `curl > file` based on timing, and serve something different in those two cases.

1/8/2025, 8:17:00 AM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

NIMBYs like to say that there’s plenty of vacant housing, and that true in dying places where there are no jobs. Presumably it’s that.

29/7/2025, 8:40:50 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Thanks for the rec!

27/7/2025, 10:05:00 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Yeah it’s not really fun. Graphic, harrowing, but also hopeful.

27/7/2025, 4:30:46 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

I thought it was great.

27/7/2025, 4:23:24 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social)

The Retrievals podcast, season 2, is truly excellent.

27/7/2025, 4:21:42 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

I am one of these people. My eyes skip around too much and I just can’t read it in the intended order. Feels bad! It’s okay though. Don’t have to appreciate a thing to respect that others do.

27/7/2025, 11:57:02 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

I stuck with undergrad physics for two whole years before I bailed and switched to computer science, which is SO MUCH EASIER.

27/7/2025, 11:51:53 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Shammai (@shammaiintl.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

243. Giving dumb nicknames to politicians or groups you don't like (e.g. tRump, Obummer, magats, demonrats, israHELL) is exceptionally cringe and makes you look unserious. Always has been. Just don't do it.

24/7/2025, 11:15:39 PM | 35 4 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

It’s possible to use economies of scale to make prepared food very cheap while paying workers decently, but it doesn’t look like individual orders and individual delivery. It looks like a cafeteria or meals on wheels.

26/7/2025, 11:19:10 AM | 35 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture The Midnight Society (@midnightpals.bsky.social) reposted

Craig DiLouie: submitted for the approval of the midnight society, i call this the tale of the children of red peak Guillermo del Toro: ah! you mean DiLouie: no DiLouie: no i don't mean DiLouie: people keep making that mistake but i don't mean

23/7/2025, 4:09:26 PM | 129 19 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Marshall still doesn’t want to admit that genocide is genocide. He’s generally good on everything else, but his “liberal” Zionism a huge blind spot.

20/7/2025, 10:01:29 PM | 8 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

My hypothesis as a kid was that people who move for “nice” weather are also people who make bad culture.

20/7/2025, 2:34:49 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture dillo (mr ideas) (@dillo.media) reposted reply parent

bro u are not that tough

tasmanian devil sitting on a log like a little bitch
19/7/2025, 5:07:40 PM | 74 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

How can you be disappointed by something this adorable?

Two Tasmanian devils sleeping on their backs. They’re in a wooden enclosure filled with straw. The devils themselves are perhaps 60 cm (2 ft) long, and covered in short, black fur, except for some pink bits (groins, lips, chin). They are very sleepy and cute.
19/7/2025, 6:52:52 PM | 3 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

How can you be disappointed by something this adorable?

Two Tasmanian devils sleeping on their backs. They’re in a wooden enclosure filled with straw. The devils themselves are perhaps 60 cm (2 ft) long, and covered in short, black fur, except for some pink bits (groins, lips, chin). They are very sleepy and cute.
19/7/2025, 6:52:52 PM | 3 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Proud of my Artium Baccalaureus in computer science

19/7/2025, 4:37:01 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

I’ve installed four bidets in previous apartments (and two more for my mom), and I’m so disappointed that my current place has inaccessible toilet plumbing, so I can’t have one here :(

19/7/2025, 3:59:21 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

My partner could not handle Midsommar, and she loved Sinners. Says her liking it means it isn’t actually horror.

19/7/2025, 3:50:03 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Might be evil and/or a crank, but he also wrote a really interesting book, “Legal Systems Very Different from Ours.”

19/7/2025, 3:18:21 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Brett, I’m proud of you, and everything is going to be okay (in the long run, when we’re all dead).

19/7/2025, 3:11:09 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Obviously the aggregate numbers tell a different story. But my experience has radicalized me against what I expected to be a better system here. Big problem with public health care is that when you put the right in charge, they can and will destroy it. 4/4

19/7/2025, 12:38:35 PM | 2 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

For the life-threatening condition, I had a test in October and have been waiting since then for someone to review the results. Without proper treatment, I’m incredibly tired all the time and might just drop dead. 3/

19/7/2025, 12:38:35 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

I’ve been in the UK for two years and have been unable to get treatment for two chronic conditions that were under control in the US. One is life-threatening and the other deeply unpleasant and potentially mobility-threatening. It feels impossible to get them to take this stuff seriously. 2/

19/7/2025, 12:38:35 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social)

“And, as we shall see, it's not obvious people in the USA are actually getting better healthcare out of this.” I got much better healthcare in the US—on the high-deductible private insurance I had as a university lecturer—than I currently get from the NHS. 1/

19/7/2025, 12:38:35 PM | 3 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Yeah, belly is crazy scary. Thigh, no problem.

18/7/2025, 8:14:31 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Yeah, the right thing to do is to swear you’ll never vote for him right up until the moment where (God forbid) he’s the nominee, and then we gotta suck it up and vote for him anyway.

17/7/2025, 9:37:11 PM | 5 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

It would be the plan until the plan hits a snag, and then

16/7/2025, 11:11:44 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

emacs has 7000 wheels

15/7/2025, 7:10:39 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Milton Friedman tho

14/7/2025, 7:55:57 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Yeah, think textbooks are often inappropriate for upper level courses. Maybe anthologies sometimes, and hopefully one’s university provides a way to get cheap sourcebooks. Former colleague who I respect open-sourced the intro textbook that he wrote for his classes. That’s also a good plan.

14/7/2025, 2:31:30 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

While that’s true, it is also true that if you write a textbook oriented toward (or based on!) a class you teach, there’s a good chance you’ll think it’s the best textbook for teaching that class.

14/7/2025, 2:19:07 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

i feel like a mad lib

14/7/2025, 7:07:57 AM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

I think Rod’s observation is that some of these no-Windows-license machines come at a price premium, which indicates that (1) people are willing to pay that premium, and (2) either (A) you’re getting more (better hardware? support?) or (B) the vendor is getting larger margins.

13/7/2025, 10:13:56 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

damn, it hurts to be a borges completist who is no longer compleat

13/7/2025, 12:10:31 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Emily Yoshida (@emilyyoshida.bsky.social) reposted

Borges’ capsule review of KING KONG in which he mostly complains that Kong should be bigger

Film review by Jorge Luis Borges of KING KONG (1933): King Kong: A monkey fourteen meters high (some of his fans say fifteen) is obviously charming, but perhaps that is not enough. This monkey is not full of juice; he is a dried out and dusty contraption with angular, clumsy movements. His only virtue-his height-seems not to have greatly impressed the photographer, who persists in not shooting him from below but from above, a plainly mistaken angle that invalidates and annuls his tallness. It should be added that he is hunchbacked and bowlegged, features that also shorten him. To ensure that there is nothing extraordinary about him, they make him fight monsters far stranger than he and find him lodgings in fake caverns the size of a cathedral, where his hard-won stature is lost. A carnal or romantic love for Miss Fay Wray brings to perfection the ruin of this gorilla and of the film as well.
12/7/2025, 3:56:37 AM | 1143 255 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Not well indeed. And I’m an American living in the UK, which seems to be on a similar trajectory to the US.

13/7/2025, 9:32:35 AM | 6 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

It implies a really dumb analogy, because while the point may well apply to the social structures Lorde was talking about, it does not at all apply to buildings. And if you get rid of the master then you should keep the house. It’s rightfully yours!

13/7/2025, 9:29:33 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Saw a couple of these in a London park yesterday. My favorite giant hogweed fact is that people brought it to western Europe and then to North America because they thought it looked nice in their gardens.

13/7/2025, 8:55:10 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

And then when it fails, you get to do it again, on site. And then if you move to a different country, as I did, they might want to re-diagnose you from scratch. I had my at-home test here in October, and I’m still waiting for the result from the NHS.

8/7/2025, 7:42:08 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Sure entry barriers are bad, but it’s the exit barriers that are truly telling.

6/7/2025, 7:01:08 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Not terrible, but also doesn’t taste like any pale ale I’ve had before. More like a light golden ale with a hint of wheat and slightly detectable hops.

Photo of beer in glass next to bottle. The beer is a light gold and fizzy. The bottle reads: “PALE ALE / WHITE RHINO / BREWING CO.”
6/7/2025, 6:09:20 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

About to try a White Rhino Pale Ale.…

6/7/2025, 3:57:17 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jesse يسّى ישי (@tov.bsky.social) reply parent

Worst beer I ever had was ABC Extra Stout in Cambodia. Not flavorless, just tastes incredibly burnt. (I realize stout haters might say that about every stout, but I usually like stouts.)

Photo of a can of beer held in my hand. The label: “International Quality / ARCHIPELAGO BREWING COMPANY / ABC / EXTRA STOUT / [three medals] / INTERNATIONAL AWARD WINNING STOUT”
4/7/2025, 7:26:34 PM | 5 0 | View on Bluesky | view