Things you may know, but it takes Reddit to inform me:

The Portuguese Bend landslide, in coastal southern California, is an active, slow-moving mass of blocks and debris that extends from the shoreline to moderate altitudes along part of the southerly margin of the Palos Verdes Hills. These hills form a peninsula that is underlain by Cenozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks draped anticlinally over a core of Mesozoic schist. In the southerly parts of the peninsula, inherently weak units in the Altamira Shale Member of the Miocene Monterey Formation dip seaward in general concordance with the ground surface. Ground failure has been widespread in this area. It evidently began in mid- to late-Pleistocene time, and it has continued intermittently to the present.

The Portuguese Bend landslide represents a reactivation of movement of the eastern part of a complex of prehistoric landslides occupying an area of approximately two square miles. This latest episode of movement began in 1956, presumably in response to placement of fill during a road construction project. The active slide subsequently was enlarged by sequential failure of adjoining blocks of ground, and by September 1969 about 54,500,000 metric tons of debris was slowly moving downslope in an area of approximately 104 ha. Movement has been continuous since recent failure began in 1956, although the velocity of the active slide decreased markedly after that year. Between 1962 and 1972 the velocity fluctuated only slightly about an average value of about 1 cm per day.

That article was written in 1988. So presumably we've stabilized the land and restored the natural ecology since then?

In a coastal Southern California city where multimillion-dollar estates teeter above the Pacific Ocean, power remained intentionally severed Tuesday to about 245 homes as worsening landslides have triggered evacuation warnings and a gas service shutoff.

Utility provider Southern California Edison on Monday evening cut electricity to another 105 homes in a section of Rancho Palos Verdes known as Seaview for "varying lengths of time" -- some to go without service for as few as 24 hours or as long as indefinitely, the city said.

That's in addition to the 140 homes that have been without power since Sunday in Rancho Palos Verdes, about 25 miles south of Los Angeles, leaving some residents in the city of 42,000 to scramble to find alternative housing.

and people commenting on Reddit:

I used to work for this city. The gov is completely aware and just so everyone knows this area has been mapped as a landslide zone since the 70s and everyone buying their home here are aware of danger. Home values are surpressed here compared to the other beach cities for that reason.

Even funner fact, a couple of years ago that city applied for a grant and received FEMA funding for remediation of the worst affected areas. Prior to the grant application the City gov went to this neighborhood and held a meeting with the intent to asking them if theyd like to participate in being a part of the administered grant area, they practically gave staff a fat middle finger and they werent included. When things got worse and they were banging on our doors demanding to be part of the remediation but we reminded them that they chose not to participate.

Yikes.

It's not quite schadenfreude, because I can understand how you could have a poor understanding of risk, or think you'll be able to resell your home before the neighborhood goes belly up. There are a lot of parts of the country where people are making those sorts of computations. But it's also not as sympathetic as it is when it happens to financially vulnerable populations.

I am conflicted but amused. I hate to pick up any O'Keefe-generated content, and I also hope this guy finds a good landing spot, but I'm really tickled: what if you worked for the NFL, but also told the truth about the NFL?

Enteen told the undercover reporter that "over 50% of our roster is white religious, and God says, 'F--- the gays.' Their interpretation. I don't buy any of that. Another big chunk is low-income African Americans that comes from a community that is inherently very homophobic."

He also said, "I don't think the commissioner of the NFL hates gay people, hates black people. Jerry Jones, who really runs the NFL, I think he hates gay people, black people."

Enteen, who was with the Jets for two years before coming to Washington, called the league's social justice initiatives "performative."

"It's not done out of the goodness of their heart," he said. "It's done because George Floyd changed the game. ... It's to make as much money as possible. The NFL cares about the bottom line, like any corporation, above all else."

Enteen said that because the league makes so much money, it "can faux-prioritize DEI for the sake of good publicity."

He also said on the video that "most of the fans are high-school-educated alcoholics" and called them "mouth breathers."

On the video, Enteen also said some players are "dumb as hell" and said some who were smart don't stay that way after getting hit in the head too many times. He also said those who "get their heads knocked around a few times" are more susceptible to conspiracy theories.

I feel like every where I turn, someone is reading and talking about this book by Miranda July. I read it too, but back at the beginning of the summer, so some of the haze of forgetfulness is starting to creep in.

Here are my loose impressions: goddamn this is a weird book. I thought it was very funny, and basically liked the narrator even though her choices made me deeply uncomfortable.

Is this something everyone has inadvertently read recently? Shall we get down on All Fours? Spoilers allowed in the thread.

Mossy Character sends in this link - Automatic ice stupa could transform farming in rural Ladakh - with utter confidence that I'll be able to say something smart enough about it.

First off:

Ice stupas are conical artificial glaciers built to store winter water in the form of ice. They melt in the summer months, providing timely irrigation water to farmers.

But the pipes can easily freeze and they're very labor intensive.

"The automated ice stupa is a blessing for us. Otherwise, building and maintaining an ice stupa is a laborious process. We have done it in the past. But in a traditional ice stupa, there is a huge waste of water. In an automated ice stupa, minimal intervention is required from our side," says Angchuck. He is a member of the Water Management Committee set up in Igoo to manage the functioning of the automated ice reservoir.

Farmers in Igoo are happy. "The new ice stupa allows me to water my field twice every day. Timely irrigation is crucial for us as there is only one crop in a year that we grow; for the rest of the year, it is too cold, and we remain cut off," says 38-year-old Padma Yangdol, a resident of Igoo.

Ice stupas were invented in the 1980s, and there's a neat little diagram of how they're made.

I think I've earned Mossy's confidence here! Especially by deleting the original post title, "Stupa Cool".

NickS writes: I saw this described as an, "epic BlueSky thread" and it lives up to that designation:

David Karpt knows enough about both gambling and Silicon Valley to be a careful reader of the book.

Page 10, Nate notes that the gambling business is booming. Americans lost $130 BILLION in casinos, lotteries, and other gambling operations in 2022.

He sees this as evidence of (demand-side) increases in risk-taking behavior.

But, uh, it's probably a supply-side phenomenon.

We legalized vice. Casinos, DraftKings, etc.

And then we encouraged them to market the hell out of vice, offering sweet-seeming deals to get vulnerable people hooked.

That's, y'know, BAD.

But it's good for the top gamblers, for the same reason retail investors are good for Wall Street.

Follow-up. This interview with Nate Silver ends up touching on some of the questions that Karpf raises (not entirely convincingly):

That's a fair criticism, that we should be hearing more from the losers. And there are a couple. There was a young man that cold emailed me and said, "I lost a million dollars doing day-trading with these different apps, so you should talk to me." And I did. There's stuff about gambling addiction in the book. But because Sam Bankman-Fried figuratively blew up, there are enough bad boys in the book. I don't need the down-on-his-luck sports bettor. And to be clear, a lot of these industries are quite predatory.

Heebie's take: This is a truly epic smackdown.

You'll come for tweets like:

First page of chapter 4: "I'd met with [gambler] at a pizza restaurant in Brooklyn somewhere between my place in Manhattan and his in Nee Jersey."

🤔🧐🫠

...Nate, my man, in what sense is *Brooklyn* between *Manhattan* and *New Jersey?*

But you'll stay for tweets like:

He was gambling $10K per day while still running 538!

Germany discussion time.