asciilifeform: <BingoBoingo> ... the Phillipines interest me as an expatriation point << afaik - worst of all worlds: thoroughly usg-owned, but with all the 'pleasures' of the Turd World
asciilifeform: after hour of phone tag, i get them to send me some proof that reservation existed... it turns out to be some random person's reservation for entirely other route
asciilifeform: phone monkey says 'system issue, our apologies, get your confirmation at the airport'
asciilifeform: (tried on six different browsers, to be sure)
asciilifeform: adlai: everyone who reads the log, 'knows too much'
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: the long-term question is 'can i do something with it and continue to eat.' if fiat world turns sufficiently hostile, the answer, simply based on my pre-existing work here, may be a 'no.'
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: it was a philosophical question
asciilifeform: i'd like to see the logical end for it
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: because nubbins` has this incomplete thread with me, re: 'you too can learn to be me'
asciilifeform: or should i requalify as printing press mechanic, or what
asciilifeform: nubbins`: i'd like to hear honest take from you, on this matter. would you say that the 20 years i spent learning to do what i do, since was a boy, a waste, like career of a bureaucrat? or does serenissima world have some use for the type of thing that i do.
asciilifeform: nor am i entirely certain that i'm not one of the folks glued together
asciilifeform: much less really contemplated factories
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: i haven't even envisioned solution to the problem of escaping the event horizon of the black hole resulting from the idiot's implosion
asciilifeform: nubbins`: the partizan armies of iraq, afghan, etc. are like zoo cats
asciilifeform: and cannot be compared to closed system
asciilifeform: it is not a closed system, to use thermodynamic parlance
asciilifeform: they are supplied externally by mega-empire(s)
asciilifeform: yes, mujahedeen don't hold territory, etc. BUT THEY DON'T NEED TO BUILD FACTORIES
asciilifeform: iraq, afghan have very seriously perverted military thinking
asciilifeform: nubbins`: in mircea_popescu's world, as i understand, every soldier is naked but for his parachute, and ought to take what he needs from the locals
asciilifeform: but even from the standpoint of 'i only wish to destroy the lizards' it does not make sense to disperse into atomized diversantes
asciilifeform: adlai: mircea_popescu does not appear to be interested in defending anything (other than own house)
asciilifeform: i can see the perspective that 'two or more #b-a folks in a room is a target' but by that logic we ought not have conferences, no ?
asciilifeform: i must disagree with the notion that defending a spot of geography, small and purposeful, is inescapably retarded.
asciilifeform: pointing out that nothing we could do, foolish or clever, could ever resolve to it.
asciilifeform: adlai, mircea_popescu: 'patriotism' etc is a human plankton concept
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: the fact is, not everyone has the biography, talents, and education of a self-funding deep-cover operative; and physical sovereignty has its uses. it would not take very many 'don dunphy'ings to make #b-a very empty other than for mircea_popescu..
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: i'm not entirely sold on this being so
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: whichever. let's say defeat germany3.
asciilifeform: (yes, aware that we had the 'semiconductor cuckoldry' discussion. it is nonsense if you are contemplating making something genuinely unique)
