idk how this squares with its corollary, gratuitous mentions of alexander the great and babur and timur in uzbekistan, and it's distant cousin, complaining about uzbek cultural appropriation of persianate things in tajikistan

i fondly remember talking to a 4th or 3rd gen chinese-american coworker about traveling through uzbekistan and tajikistan and getting a "oh yeah i always forget that there's a bunch of asians out that way" response

like in one sense yes, HOWEVER

I'm waiting for somebody to jump in with "but people are already an extremely powerful but extremely weird user interface" and not to get ahead of myself but congratulations, notional jumper-in, you are neurodivergent in the direction of tremendous ongoing economic utility in the LLM era.

oh _or_ it's just street view coverage

there are more roads than that in uzbekistan for sure

this is why geoguessr is mean if you're mostly able to recognize scenes from the former soviet union

for others discovering that "wait, that link isnt supposed to have ellipses in it..." the correct version is kyivindependent.com/sednaya-bash...

however this is great time to add the obligatory "who wore it better" response to bsky because goddamn yes they did thanks mosfilm and soyuzmultfilm lol that the mosfilm youtube has a (RF law, to boot) copyright notice at the start of their copy WHO IS THAT FOR

also bill wurtz is a treasure

this be the verse is slightly too long for one skeet alas

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.

they will still beat us in curling!

@noahpryor.com қааааааааааааандаааааай мәәәәәәәәәәәәәәәсееееееелеееееееееее