maps without words!

 

Teddy's thoughts on Afghanistan/Taliban/US deal

Edit on 20AUG2021: it looks like this article was simply my wishful thinking. There are now more and more reports of Taliban killings. The idea of a "nice Taliban" is just not something that we can have. 

 To get this out of the way first; "Why are you posting this on your personal blog"

1 - This is so heavily my opinion and theory, it does not fit on my professional blog.

2 - This is so long, it does not fit on twitter.

3 - This is something I want public, so it does not fit on my discord.

So lets jump straight into it; what do I make of some of the stuff the Taliban has been saying and doing.

I'm writing this as the Taliban is mid press conference in Afghanistan. They keep saying they want no troubles with the international community, and, call me crazy, but I kind of believe them. Think about what happened last time they had trouble with the international community (hereafter simply called 'the west'); simple, the west invaded and removed them from office.

Remember too, that the Taliban signed some kind of deal with Trump, a deal Biden upheld. You can blame one or the other for what's happened, but I'm not here to lay blame, and, I don't care who you think is to blame either; I don't want to hear it. I'm talking about the deal... what the hell could be in this deal.

IMO the answer is simple. The deal is "stop doing the things that outrage us, and we'll let you run the country".

Now I understand that some may think I'm crazy, and, maybe I am on this; but I keep seeing stuff that points to this being possible, if not plausible. 

So, what would such a deal mean for the Taliban; it would mean they'd have to do the following:

A - Oppose international terrorism. They are a domestic government for Afghanistan, and are not trying to turn any other countries into Taliban allies.

B - Allow women to go to school and hold jobs. Of course, their extremist views mean you'll never see a woman in top jobs, but this is already how things work in countries like Saudi Arabia, and the west has no problem with them (in context)

C - No revenge killings. I'm surprised how few there have been and suspect this is thus part of the deal. 

D - No repression. This one is more vague and nuanced, but none of that extremist brutality that really makes people in the west angry.

I may be wrong about all of this, but, every day I keep seeing stuff that makes me suspect it is true.

Lack of quality options when twitch streaming

 Hello streamer! You are reading this because I (or someone else) has linked you to this post. This is an updated post from my previous very similar post. You are being sent this link because you've started a stream that has no quality options!

What are quality options? 
On any stream you watch, on desktop and mobile, you can click the little gear icon. In that menu is a "Quality" option. If you have no quality options, the only options available will be your native streaming rate, and "auto". These are sometimes encoding or transcoding options. 

Why do I want quality options, and why don't I have them already?
Non-partners only get quality options "sometimes". People use quality options to watch streams when their internet connection is slower than the modern standard. This is common in many rural areas where connections of 5Mpbs can not handle the suggested 6000 bitrate of streams. Many older mobile phones on data will also be unable to reach a 6000 bitrate of download.

How can I get them if I do not have them?
You can re-start your stream. This re-rolls the random chance. Many times, a single restart will generate the options, sometimes it make take many restarts (20 or more) pending on how busy twitch is, and how lucky you are with your random chance. Many well known affiliate streamers will do this. In fact, if you follow an affiliate who always seems to get quality options, you can outright ask them if they restart to get them. They will tell you that they do. 

Why should I restart to make them appear?
Viewers use quality options because their internet connection is simply not fast enough to watch your stream at the bitrate at which you are streaming. Many guides suggest streaming at a bitrate of 6000. Sadly, many of the "old standard" internet connections - which were considered fast a decade ago - can not handle 6000 bits. Many people in rural areas are therefore stuck on slower connections. If you do not get quality options, and, do no change the bitrate you are outputting, they will be unable to watch your stream. To change your broadcast bitrate, you will need to change the settings in your broadcaster program (OBS, xsplit, streamlabs, etc)

What if I do not want to restart?

There really is nothing wrong with restarting, and it is commonplace among affiliates who average more than 40 viewers. The only other way to allow more people to watch without restarting is to lower the bitrate at which you stream.

What rate should I set it at, and how will that impact my quality?
There will always be people with connections too slow to handle whatever you are streaming at. Setting it at 3500 seems to enable most people to watch as "high speed" internet standards from a decade or two ago would target similar numbers. In terms of quality, you are going to have to make a choice. There are those who will not watch streams that are below 1080P at 60fps. and there are those who do not have an internet connection able to receive that much data. If, for whatever reason, you are unwilling to restart your stream until you get quality options, You'll have to decide which group you are going to exclude.

What I look for in a Twitch Streamer

I've decided to remove this post as I no longer agree with it. I will post an updated version at some point soony. 

Province of Buffalo

 I tried this before - and failed - so lets try again.

The idea is that in 1905, rather than two provinces, a single "Province of Buffalo" is created that covers all of Alberta and Saskatchewan. 

The objective is to simply list the results of all general elections in said province. I will thus begin with the following IRL info

Alberta, unknown population (25,163 ballots cast), results:
22 Lib - Alexander Rutherford
2 Con - R. B. Bennett

Saskatchewan, unknown population (34,090 ballots cast), results:
17 Lib - Walter Scott
8 Con - Frederick Haultain

Work done to 11:50AM on 08OCT2020 (any further work will be added below)

From what I can tell, turnout, which may differ between the provinces [by, for example, 10%, or 15%, or such] does not radically differ [by, for example, 30%, or 40%] and thus, can be used as a rough guide for population share. 

Work done to 12:15PM 08OCT2020

Deleting posts

 This is my personal blog, not my professional one. As such, from time to time, I may delete posts.

I often use this as a place to store my thoughts and ideas that are not yet refined enough to go onto my professional blog. As such, I will post something that, the following day, week, or year, I will simply no longer agree with. When this happens, I will make further refinements, and a new post; and delete the old post.

Re-writing Romance of the Three Kingdoms

So here's an idea, I wanna re-write Romance of the Three Kingdoms (RTK) to be more memeworthy. Basically I wanna take the story of RTK, strip it down to something you could read in like 5 or 15 minutes, and make it funny. Anyway. I've written a few scenes already.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Zhao Yun then tucked the infant under his armour. As he rode away, the infant bounced around until he was on his back. As the enemies closed in, Zhao Yun yelled "I am Zhao Yun, a great warrior" as he defended himself. Meanwhile, without Zhao Yun noticing, the infant yelled "I am Liu Shan, the most intelligent person ever born, and the best warrior to ever be sent to this earth!" and pulled out a dagger to defend himself. The two of them then fought off all the soldiers, with Liu Shan himself killing no less than a dozen of the biggest baddest enemies. 

As they arrived, Zhao Yun handed Liu Chan over to Liu Bei. Liu Bei said "Oh Zhao Yun! I could have lost you! You are more important to be than any infant!!" and threw Liu Chan to the ground. Liu Shan hit the ground head first, and said "duuuuhhhhh" then crossed his eyes and began to drool. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"We must surrender" one advisor yelled. "No, we must fight" another responded. Emperor Liu Shan just said "duuuhhhh" and continued to drool. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"It has been three visits brother! we should go back!" Zhang Fei said. Just then, a sudden wind picked up, and a strange noise. Then, out of nowhere, a strange blue box, appeared in front of Liu Bei. A man walked out and looked at Guan Yu and said "Yes, I am Zhuge Liang. Yes I'm here to serve Liu Bei. I know your name because I know everything." he turn turked to Zhang Fei "No, this isn't a trick. Yes I respect your prowess. No I don't want to duel with you. Yes I'll obey your brother. Please calm down." Zhang Fei then let out a stiff breath, before Zhuge Liang turned to Liu Bei sand said "Yes, it is true. Yes I know you waited 3 times, sorry, bad timing on my part. Yes I'm ready to go right now. Yes I have a plan, we have to divide the land into three kingdoms." Zhuge Liang then began walking towards Liu Bei's adjutants and horses. "Oh, and don't worry. He'll calm down in about 2 minutes. Allons-y" he said as he walked off into the distance. "WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE!" bellowed Zhang Fei.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Lu Bu and Ding Yuan approached. Lu Bu was wearing marvelous boots, a flashy cloak, a shiny necklace, a magnificent bracelet, a wondrous hat, and a prestigious halberd. Dong Zhuo said to Lu Bu "I have this horse. It is as fast as the wind" Lu Bu looked at the horse. Dong Zhuo then began to add "I'd like to give it..." when suddenly Lu Bu stabbed Ding Yuan with his halberd. Dong Zhuo was aghast. Lu Bu just grabbed the horse and said "Ok. Lets go." Dong Zhuo said "w-w-what was that!? How did you know what I was about to offer" Lu Bu just looked at him in the eye and said "How do you think I got this Cloak from Ding Yuan"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Wang Yun approached. Dong Zhuo was standing beside Lu Bu. Wang Yun then placed his hands on Diaochan's shoulders and said "I...", when suddenly, Lu Bu lopped off Dong Zhuo's head. Wang Yun was speechless. Lu Bu just held out his hand, which Daiochan took with a smile, before saying "Ok. Lets go." 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-