tangible

Counterpoint: intervention exists on an multi-dimensional axis with different causes, methods of intervening, and potential outcomes. I don't want to assign moral equivalence to intervention in the Rwanda genocide (morally justified, but didn't happen) vs. American involvement in the libration of Europe from Nazi Germany (morally justified, did happen) and the Vietnam War (morally very dodgy, took place nonetheless)

Money is basically the ring from Lord of the rings. You can’t have it without it changing you. I’ve had the dubious pleasure of knowing a great many millionaires and they’re all miserable bastards pretending that they’re not. Their families hate them, most of them are alcoholics and drug addicts. They hate themselves even more and their money doesn’t mean anything to them so they use it to impress others or hurt them, just so they can feel something. It’s all a disgustingly wasteful, tragic act.

Money, like all abstractions, inherently alienates us from human essence. It's the price we pay for a prosperous society that functions at scale and efficiency. A Faustian bargain of sorts.

For existence, our existence in general: the earth had to form in just the right place in space, and the temperature and oxygen levels had to level out to a specific point for humanoids to form and grow.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-tuned_universe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Earth_hypothesis

That said, if those circumstances were different, we would not be around to observe them. But we are, so the only outcome is that it will always feel miraculous.

Oh man, that is tough to put in words, but let me try. First of all, the lyricism. The way Nas rhymed and structured his verses was practically unheard of. Rakim could do it, Big Daddy Kane could do it. Not many others. So just in terms of rhyming skill and storytelling, he was up there. It was also one of the first (cohesive) street albums, with Nas just acting as the observer, with vivid storytelling about what he saw around him. You can clearly hear his influence in Mobb Deep's albums, for example.

Musically, it is quintessentially 90s East Coast rap, and it came out at a time where the focus was more on the West Coast (think NWA, Snoop Dogg). It has a cohesive sound despite having many different producers (Pete Rock, Premier, Large Professor, etc) on the album, something that wasn't really done before that time.

Also, there's not a single bad track on the album. 10 tracks, no filler.

Nas - Illmatic

being able to block/downrank/uprank domains from search results, being able to block AI from search results, rewriting URLs (for example, reddit.com to old.reddit.com), kagi translate, bangs (ddg has them but qwant does not)

Kagi. Every once in a while I tried out Qwant, but it's just not there yet.

Probably not the site you're thinking of but https://hiring.cafe/ does pretty much what you describe and it's neat.

I use a Barbelts lever belt, 10 mm. Dutch brand. Should be around 50 euros. Very pleased with it.

Also a horrific amount of mothers dying in childbirth didn't do wonders for the average.

Deadlifted 150 kgs (330 lbs) for reps this morning. Not a huge amount, but still nice. Other than that, a pretty uneventful week so far. Spring is just around the corner.

One of the directors of that documentary got involved with the cult NXIVM.