Also one of the dumbest names ever.

Huh? Wikipedia isn’t banned in Russia yet. Though I do expect them to take steps towards it.

Loved this scene from the final season.

What is this low grade garbage? GPT-4 Turbo is old, this is just an update of it. Happens from time to time. This one is supposed to be a bit better than previous interactions of GPT-4 Turbo.

3.5 or GPT-4? I can run the latter if need be.

Yup, there is. And it’s not a democratic system. But the point is that, even to the autocratic cannibals that are currently in power, it matters to keep a sizeable chunk of the population just content enough to be a majority supporter of the status quo. Thus, elections matter. They are a way to gauge the stability of the system. I have no doubt that, prior to the elections, the party will expend a lot of its resources to placate, inspire, threaten, confuse the population in its favor. Stuff like further mobilisations and austerity measures will come after the elections.

Russian politics isn’t primarily about rigging the elections. That alone will create a dissatisfied populace, you don’t want this. You want complacency, fear, ignorance, apathy, patriotism, pragmatism. Ideally you want to maintain a strong authentic base that will preserve the status quo and keep you in power. Alternatives, in such a system, need to be destroyed, discredited, or assimilated, they can’t become a loudspeaker for growing dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Makes sense! The value of an equalizer, and maybe a sense of mutual vulnerability. I guess it’s a bit like being the only one actually wearing a costume at a costume party.

Hmmm, in my experience the discomfort goes away quickly and you stop caring about your own or other people’s genitalia, or lack thereof, in plain view. But I appreciate the game theory approach 😺 Given the nonrationality of many social things, I’d wager that it’s just a convention whose true meaning matters less than the fact that “it is the way it is”.

True! But dried fish is very common as a beer snack in Russia, so it’s a bit of a default.

Can confirm re: Germany. It’s often explicitly framed as a hygiene issue. That said, there are saunas where you may wear stuff, it’s usually designated. Plus you have “women only days” in a good number of public saunas.

In Russia it’s also common to eat dried fish and drink beer/sometimes vodka in the room next to the sauna.

Yup. The idea is that it protects your head from overheating. You wear it so that there is a pocket of air between your head and the hat, so it’s basically insulation.

Sad, and such a waste.

And here’s GPT-4:

https://chat.openai.com/share/7a8eb92f-57f1-47fc-9a53-55187e25d892