The ruler of the 1950-2020 world by Dollar and nuke count.
Capable of evil like any other country, and somewhat merciless to its poor and overly egocentric, but not nearly as evil as any dictatorship.
Has the huge advantage of being one large country which speaks English.
Countries of the world have only two choices as of 2019: either rally behind the US and support democracy, or rally behind China and support dictatorship. The choice is up to you, voters. The more you deal with China, the more you lose your democracy and freedom. All dictatorships have no doubt that they must stick together.
And Americans, please stop that America Number 1 bullshit. Obviously everyone has to strive to be the best, so when you say it like that, it sounds like "even if at the expense of everyone else". The motto has to be "democracy number 1" or else you will scare off all allies. If all other countries sell out to China, you are fucked.
Video 1. Rifleman's Creed from Full Metal Jacket. Source. This is possibly where Ciro Santilli first came about this. But not sure, it was too long ago during good old University of São Paulo days.
Old name for DARPA before 1972, and again for a short time between 1993 and 1996. That's why ARPANET is called "ARPANET" and not "DARPANET".
On the coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco, closer to Los Angeles. Home of UCSB.
It is quite comical that two separate towns were founded one next to the other right in the middle of nowhere. And that both have so slightly weird names.
Video 1. How To Talk Minnesotan by PBS (1993) Source.
Video 1. This is why we moved here by Syd and Macky (2022) Source.
mormon-land.
Video 1. I Can’t Rescue This Toyota 4Runner! Matt's Off Road Recovery (2022) Source.
Utah is beautiful! For some reason, Ciro Santilli started to really enjoy watching this channel.
In its essence, it is basically a Monster of the Week show, but instead of monsters they fight to remove cars from mud. There's also perhaps a cowboy feel to it.
Other attractions include:
  • the beauty of Utah. What an amazing state!!! Very desertic.
  • a band of recurring superheroes, with unique personalities
  • mini story archs, referring to previous episodes, e.g.
    • the sick dude who keeps getting stuck
    • the day they moved a large rock and the rangers asked them to put it back
Ciro Santilli's birth country.
An awesome country, with amazing people and natural resources, and without an evil government like China.
When visiting Brazilian cities coming from Europe, one of the things that shocks the most is the amount of motorcycles. It seems that the poorer the country, the less people's lives are worth, and the more motorcycles there are.
Another thing that was shocking is the amount of phone spam when you get a new SIM card, some legal and some likely illegal. Everyone is desperate for cash it seems on a poor country, and everyone fights hard for it.
This is a good initiative. Since the government is incapable of doing shit in this area, individuals have to do it themselves.
They even have a scholarship program...: www.bolsas.gobrasa.org/
Ciro Santilli lived there from 1995 to 1997.
Ciro Santilli's birthplace!
Ciro Santilli lived in Santos from about the year 1998 to 2007, with a 10 month hiatus in Coventry, UK, until he went to the University of São Paulo.
Santos is the nearest beach city to São Paulo City, and for this reason:
Ciro idolizes Santos as the perfect location to live nature-wise due to its amazing wide sandy beach, in which Ciro spent endless hours walking on the sand and on the largest beachfront garden in the world (archive), meditating, and playing some soccer after school was over. Santos is also the city where Pelé first played professionally.
Ciro has visited Santos several times after leaving Brazil. Doing this gives him a weird feeling of having a separate life, in which time passes 2 weeks every few years. Of course, as your family grows, it gets harder and harder to go back home, and your family members might want to just go travel to more interesting places than just stay at your wonderful beach which you love in part due to nostalgia.
Ciro is also fond of the concept of the small public buildings near the beach garden (postos de praia), which serve different cultural activities: library, comic book store, art cinema, surf school. It is such a shame that the library and comic book ones are in such bad shape as of 2020, old books and poor people who go there to sleep a bit in the barely working air conditioning. Ciro fantasizes how those could instead be cultural hubs for the gathering of the brightest artists, and scientists, of town. Maybe they are just too small. Maybe it is not within the realm of possibility of public service. Maybe, we should focus instead in the poorer regions, far form the beach. But the dream remains.
Santos only has one natural defect: mosquitoes. By the sea it is fine because the wind is strong, and they don't like salt water. But anywhere else, you will be eaten alive, and maybe get dengue, Ciro got it once. Gene drive, please.
This instagram page has several drone videos of the region: www.instagram.com/malta.drone
Figure 1. Panoramic view of Santos' beach line by Diego Torres Silvestre (2009) Source.
Figure 2. Canal 5 on the beach by VicTrindade (2017) Source. This is one of Santos 7 old canals, which are still in use and serve to reduce floodings in the city, which are caused by the strong tropical rains that fall on the city. This is particularly important to keep the mosquito population under some control. All canals were built in the first third of the 20th century, except canal 7 which is from 1968[ref]. The canals have normally very shallow water when it is not raining, and since it is rain water they are basically clean. There are other canals which are/were used for sewage, but then are not open air. The canals now serve as handy reference points and practical avenues in town, as well as being surrounded with nice trees that provide shade and drop small inedible purple fruit that will stain your car for all eternity. They do scar the beach line a bit it must be said, but it's part of the charm of the city, and they serve as good reference points for runners.
Although Ciro Santilli lived in São Paulo City nominally during his studies, it would be more precise to say that he lived in University of São Paulo-land, because Ciro was cheap, didn't have a car, and did nothing but study, stay at home, go back to Santos to see his parents and the beach.
But the little he saw of the city made a deep impression on him.
The unreasonable size.
The unbearable contrasts.
Caetano's Sampa is the ultimate description of the city!
Once upon a time, this must have been a nice covered market.
But as of 2020, it is completely surrounded by extremely poor people, to the point that it makes you scared if you stand out in any way by showing any kind of middle/upper class wealth, or being a foreigner.
The market is basically a touristic spot that no person in Sao Paulo will ever go to (unless they are young, single, and can just walk in there by themselves) in the middle of this surreal environment.
In 2020 Ciro was there with his wife on a touristic visit. Living in Europe at the time, he felt even more privileged. So they went to a fruit stand, and the man started giving his wife amazing free samples of very exotic fruit, some of which Ciro had never tasted himself, without saying the price. It did feel like he was giving out too much for free. Then Ciro decided of course to buy some more fruits to pay for the show, which was a nice show. Then while buying, it came out a bit more expensive than would have been reasonable, but Ciro was too dazzled by the speed and noises, and he paid for it. Later on, he told his wife about it, and how he felt that they had added some ultra-expensive bulk fruits that were of a clearly lower level than the gold nuggets of the free samples (especially for Brazil's cost standards). The presenter was an extremely crafty con artist, and Ciro felt like they had specifically preyed on Ciro Santilli's self perceived compassionate personality, because it was apparent that those men were underprivileged and fighting for their living day by day with those over-expensive fruits. This was an extremely valuable lesson, Ciro was glad that it was learnt at a relatively low cost on that occasion.
Five votes:
  • Deputado federal: total elected 513[ref]
  • Deputado estadual
  • Senador: total elected: 81[ref], [ref]
  • Governador: total elected: 1 per state
  • Presidente: 13 Lula. Total elected: 1
All but president are per state. Official list seems to be e.g. for Sao Paulo: divulgacandcontas.tse.jus.br/divulga/#/estados/2022/2040602022/SP/candidatos
Japanese Brazilians are either model children, or they're good for nothings. There is no intermediate.
Video 1. Source.
www.tudogostoso.com.br/receita/3468-bolo-de-fuba-cremoso.html
  • December 2023:
    • replacementes:
      • used 3 soy milk + 1 milk cup instead of 4 milk
      • salted butter rather than margarine
      • 1 cup of sugar rather than 3, because OMG 3 cups of sugar for 4 cups of milk is insane, Brazil!
    Turned out very good.
December 2023: www.tudogostoso.com.br/receita/81176-gelatina-de-abacaxi-com-creme-de-leite.html Terribly explained recipe! Used 5 spoons of sugar rather than 10, and a 300ml cup of double cream. Turned out OK, except that the cream condensed all on top, and assumed the same coarse texture as when you do a fatty beaf and let it cool, so not so nice,
Maybe this would be more successful: receitas.globo.com/tipos-de-prato/doces-e-sobremesas/gelatina-de-abacaxi-4e64345bddf17214b4003e71.ghtml They also use condensed milk, and beat the cream with the jelly, so it might mix better?
Ciro's favorites:
Figure 1. Program in C++. No. Program in A++.
Figure 2. A-sians, not B-sians.
All interests are based on fetishes.
The fetish of beauty. The fetish if intelligence. The fetish of kindness.
What's wrong with the fetish of Asianess?
Whenever Ciro's wife starts with "the Asian fetish talk", Ciro reminds her of her own claimed "tall person fetish", and they call it quits.
Asian fetish is much more than sex. It is about the culture, the history, the language. It is the same fetish that makes great mathematicians an Artists do what they do.
When Ciro Santilli was at École Polytechnique, he had to do a presentation for his stupid English courses that all students were forced to take, no matter how good their English was.
The topic was likely something like "pick a country", and Ciro was delighted when he managed to pick "China", after it had gone around a table with many many people before him.
The PowerPoint presentation Ciro made over the weekend was so amazing (and making it was actually fun to make, Ciro actually remembers it a bit!), drawing partly from stuff his wife then girlfriend showed him, that at the end the one of the other students asked him if he had lived in China.
It is a shame Ciro couldn't find the presentation when he wrote this line many many years later. Anything that is not in a BLOB-free monorepo, will disappear, heed my words. But he's certain about two things which it contained:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_fetish#History_of_origins
In the United States, women of East and Southeast Asian descent are sometimes stereotyped as subservient, passive, mysterious, villainous in nature, and hyper-sexual.
subservient, passive, mysterious are understandable. But Hyper-sexual and villainous? OMG have these people never seen real Asians? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_fetish#Pornography:
Several studies have implied that Asian women are over-represented in the American pornography industry. Asian women make up perhaps 20% of all female performers, despite being roughly 2.5% of the U.S. population. Asian men also appear to be considerably over-represented, at 10% of male actors.
The most awesome country in the world, except for it's horrible government as of 2019 which Ciro Santilli is trying to replace with democracy.
Related non-child nodes:
Two things come to mind when Ciro Santilli thinks about his sinohpilia.
There is a strong "Ciro Santilli's knowledge hoarding" side to it. Ciro has decided that he has to know EVERYTHING about China. It's culture. It's people. It's art. And so once that has been decided, it becomes inevitable.
But of course, there is also the "which part of Ciro's inner being led to that hoarding decision" part of things. Mishima's quote often comes to mind:
Every night I return to my desk precisely at midnight. I thoroughly analyze why I am attracted to a particular theme. I drag it into my conscious mind. I boil it into abstraction.
Exoticism is undoubtedly part of it.
Maybe it has something to do with growing up observing 5th+ generation Japanese Brazilians immigrants, well, being Asians and crushing it academically. But also being quiet people, and sometimes misfits. I.e., nerds.
Maybe there is also someting to do with the influence Japanese anime, highly popular during Ciro's hildhood in Brazil. Ciro, unlike many of his friends, left that relatively early, as he got into the deeper pleasures of natural sciences and then more traditional Asian culture. But still.