Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: The awesomesauce with Chimerica (Read 31138 times)

Re: The awesomesauce with Chimerica

Reply #101 –
I guessed so, but was too lazy to check. Or to be honest, I found it more amusing not to check.

After all the letter was spelled βῆτα, not βειτα, and it was the latter diphthong that covered in this YouTube video.

Quote from: jax on

Quote
(5th BCE Attic) IPA(key): /bɛ̂ː.ta/
(1st CE Egyptian) IPA(key): /ˈbe.ta/
(4th CE Koine) IPA(key): /ˈβi.ta/
(10th CE Byzantine) IPA(key): /ˈvi.ta/
(15th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA(key): /ˈvi.ta/

The "bayta" would be ahistorical-ish, but the pan-European "beh-tah" pronunciation would just be a bit old (on the negative end of the year line). This is a pretty nice coverage of the ειvolution of ει:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOqdrWlR4Gw

Quote
But how should Hurricane Beta or the covid beta variant be pronounced?

Re: The awesomesauce with Chimerica

Reply #102 –
A Hollywood/China divorce would be a good thing. The Hollywood blockbusters have largely been miserable last decade, and the Chinese adaptations even worse. And the commercially successful Chinese movies mentioned are all trash.

https://youtu.be/W2J0pRJSToU

Pretty much like US big screen movie glitter has faded, the same goes for Chinese. Watchable content is going online. 

Re: The awesomesauce with Chimerica

Reply #104 –
War Game scenarios: This Is What Happens When China Invades Taiwan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE61S9BpDek

Average playout:
1. It is more preferable for China to attack in south of Taiwan. In north they would fail to get a foothold.
2. An assumption is that Japan will let USA use their bases.
3. USA will overpower the Chinese navy.
4. Chinese infantry in Taiwan cannot sustain themselves and would eventually be defeated.
5. All events from beginning to end take some four or five weeks.

Comments:
- Taiwan is a difficult island to conquer. The difficulty is comparable to World War II's D-Day or Philippines battles.
- One would think that when both sides use war games to predict the outcome and the outcome is clear, they would not engage in real war. In reality the risk may be taken anyway.
- Sometimes politicians, citing some political factors, encourage military action despite the pessimism of the generals. For example, Iraqi generals in the Iraq war did not see any point in fighting, but Saddam Hussein said he was talking with the French and Russians and that victory was possible.
- Ukraine holds on strategically because USA/EU supports Ukraine and Russia is unable to disrupt the support. Such support is not possible for Taiwan. A longer war would be lost for USA and Taiwan would have to put up an internal resistance, build on asymmetric capabilities, landmines and such.

My own takeaways:
Western policy makers think they have already done everything they could for Ukraine. Victory for Taiwan is plausible, so it is okay to call the current status in Ukraine a day. Their Plan B: Even if the West loses Taiwan, so what.

Re: The awesomesauce with Chimerica

Reply #105 –
I have a slightly different take! (But I found the report of these war games hugely entertaining — and maybe even cogent.) What I'd ask is:
What does the CCP gain if it subjugates Taiwan?

The best they can hope for is the destruction of a vibrant and successful economy.

Typical leftist reasoning: If everybody else is doing as poorly as we are, we're doing okay...
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: The awesomesauce with Chimerica

Reply #106 –
I too (three?) can't see an invasion of Taiwan as anything but a loss for the CCP. Nor the military establishment raring to go fish either.

However threatening to invade could be cost-effective and threats must be taken seriously. China has the size advantage (Taiwan is to Mainland China what Canada is to USA), while Taiwan would be key to a blockade of China. So economic-military blackmail on the island group could work in their favour if handled deftly. Which it isn't.

Re: The awesomesauce with Chimerica

Reply #107 –
Quote from: jax on
I too (three?) can't see an invasion of Taiwan as anything but a loss for the CCP. Nor the military establishment raring to go fish either.

However threatening to invade could be cost-effective and threats must be taken seriously.
Cost-effectiveness does not matter at all whatsoever. Russia is trying to teach you this very hard, but you are not learning. In Ukraine war, Russians happily wallow in senseless pain and suffering. They think it makes them glorious and glory is what matters. You should already have seen how much they are willing to sacrifice for nearly nothing. The reality is that they are willing to sacrifice far more than we have seen, far more than the West can imagine.

How much are you willing to sacrifice for your home country? Obviously your mind went instantly into cost-effectiveness calculation mode, so the correct answer is: Nothing. As soon as you start calculating, it is not a sacrifice any longer. And you think everybody else is the same as you. Well, Russians are not, and I suspect the Chinese also are not like that. There is some diversity in the world, can you imagine?

The Chinese can afford to expend with about half a billion lives. But I think they won't. For the current regime, starting a war would be a totally new activity. They have not had a war since their civil war around WWII. They have not committed any external aggression for some 300 years or so. A war would be a completely new thing for them and this is probably the main reason why they think very carefully and are very cautious about it.

However, they have the manpower. And they keep getting indirect encouragement from the West, as Russia has been consistently rewarded for every incursion.

Re: The awesomesauce with Chimerica

Reply #109 –
Who is threatening? Is One China policy threatening? Both mainland China and Taiwan have the exact same rhetoric of One China policy, the only difference being whose regime should preside over the single China. (There are more small differences, such as Taiwan claiming more landmass to itself than the current mainland China holds, but that aside.)

Of course mainland China looks more menacing to Taiwan due to its manpower, but let's remember that it was Kissinger of USA who made the world recognise mainland China as the proper China so that Taiwan became a barely recognised country. Don't you think Taiwan felt threatened back then? Quite ironically, nobody thought of the cost-effectiveness of such a move. It's quite costly to have a recognised scary mainland China now.