u/ElectricStings on validating AI videos

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1rak11v/why_fake_ai_videos_of_uk_urban_decline_are_taking/o6l2typ/

If you're the type of person who believes society is on the decline because [insert scapegoat here] then seeing a video that confirms this is going to feel really damn good regardless of if it's real or not.

On a deeper level, it's avoidance.

Avoiding an uncomfortable truth as it may come into conflict with some deeply held beliefs, beliefs which form a foundation of our personality. If our beliefs are wrong then who are we as a person. That experience is very uncomfortable to us - it feels like an attacks, so we circle around avoiding evidence, confirming our own world view.

And so these videos give a sense of comfort and validation that who we are is not wrong.

Apologizing for outliving my executioners

https://williamsrecord.com/471995/opinions/apologizing-for-outliving-my-executioners/

I have spent time in Iran. I have breathed the same air as the men who aimed Khamenei’s rifles. Members of my own family stood before his firing squads — some, like my grandfather, narrowly survived; others, including my uncles and cousins, did not. That is not a metaphor. That is history. My father’s family fled in 1979, as the regime was taking hold. My mother lived under it until 2000 — and her parents, my grandparents, still do. 

My family did not leave over a “political disagreement.” They fled a graveyard that was still being dug. When you ask us to tone down our sense of relief that Khamenei’s reign is over, you are asking us to apologize for outliving our executioners.  

How long do electric vehicle batteries actually last?

https://www.npr.org/2026/03/02/nx-s1-5706658/electric-vehicle-battery-lifespan

Recurrent, a research firm that pulls in data from over 30,000 EV drivers, describes it as an "S curve." There's a rapid decline at the beginning, a long leveling off, and then a more rapid decline at the end.

"It's very much like breaking in a pair of shoes," says Liz Najman, the director of market insights at Recurrent. The shoes start out stiff, but quickly get a little more give. "And then your shoes just last you," she says, until at some point, "It's all over, it's a rapid decline."

The Gulf next door

https://www.semafor.com/article/03/01/2026/view-the-gulf-next-door

Stephen Walt in Foreign Affairs described Trump’s foreign policy as “predatory hegemony”: “The bottom line is that acting as a predatory hegemon will weaken the networks of power and influence on which the United States has long relied and which created the leverage that Trump is now trying to exploit… Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but a backlash could come with surprising swiftness. To quote Ernest Hemingway’s famous line about the onset of bankruptcy, a consistent policy of predatory hegemony could cause US global influence to decline ‘gradually and then suddenly.’”

 

NASA, the Space Shuttle Challenger and Decision-making

There’s a renowned fictional case study (originated by Jack Brittain and Sim Sitkin) which is used in business schools to help students understand the risks around poorly informed decision-making. The scenario that students are given is to imagine that they are John Carter, the founder of a car racing team. The team is coming up to a very important race – important because there is big prize money at stake, and doing well in the race could mean that they get great publicity but also that they stand a much better chance of winning a big new sponsorship deal which is sorely needed.

The problem however, is that in 7 out of the last 24 races the engine in the Carter racing car has failed, meaning an early retirement from those races. 

u/Eisgboek on online relationship scams

https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueOffMyChest/comments/1rcx7lt/i_traveled_7000_km_to_meet_a_webcam_girl_and_it/o734xkb/?share_id=O8TLJx8CgXpbh7ebmqzJA&context=3

I hate to say, but that's actually part of how the scam works. I mentioned in another comment that it happened to a friend of mine and it was the same scenario. Hours on webcam for the first while until he figured it couldn't be a scam because he was talking to the same person every time and there were no signs of it being anything other than a great connection with another person.

But then once he was good and invested, the requests for money started. But not how you would assume they would if it was a scam. They started by being coupled with a refusal... "I don't have enough for both rent and groceries this week so I guess I'll have to go hungry. No no no. Don't send me any money. That's not what I'm asking. I don't need your help". Until they've somehow got you actually pushing to send them money.

And after that you realize that sending them little bits of cash you won't even miss will go so much further for them in Colombia and besides, it's all your idea so it can't possibly be a scam. And they were so grateful for your help that you're officially in a relationship now and don't couples share money anyways?

But then an emergency happens [...]

u/AlexanderHamilton04 explains grammar

https://www.reddit.com/r/grammar/comments/1raroa2/was_vs_were/o6lzs84/

We use the 'subjunctive mood' to talk about hypotheticals or things that are counterfactual to reality (impossible situations).

Ex: If she were real, she would have to be 8 feet tall to match the proportions of that doll.

↥ Here we use "were" (the subjunctive form) to talk about a hypothetical
situation, "If she were real..."

---

"She was real" is stating a fact (nothing hypothetical or counterfactual).
"I have accepted that she was real." (present tense, perfect aspect)

"I had accepted that she was real." (past perfect) often used to indicate
that an action was completed.

This was before "that action had been completed":

This was before "I had accepted that she was real."

"I was skeptical of it."
"I was skeptical of it even before I had accepted that she was real."

There is nothing hypothetical or counterfactual here. You could even say:
"I never accepted that she was real."

---

---

If you can replace "accepted she was real" with "accepted the fact that she was real,"

then "was" is the correct choice. 

‘They’re back to making millions’: workers accuse US mill where five died in blast

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/29/didion-milling-wisconsin-explosion-deaths

In December 2020, 52-year-old Randal Rote was killed on the job at Didion Milling after being engulfed in a grain bin. Osha issued proposed fines of $676,808 for 14 violations that the company is also currently contesting. The agency criticized the company for failing to learn from previous incidents.

Just a few months prior, according to Osha, a large grain shelf collapsed and nearly engulfed another Didion Milling employee who was cleaning the inside of a grain bin at the time.

Terri Gernstein, the director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at the Harvard Law School Center for Labor, said: “Clearly those fines weren’t sufficient to get the company to completely overhaul its operations to make sure to really, really prioritize workplace safety.

“Because if they had, another worker wouldn’t have been killed three years later.”