FriendOfDeSoto

To be fair to the lad, he didn’t peddle his wares. He just says if there isn’t a European strategy to develop their own models it is very likely that Europe would run on Chinese made ones that are more open source, whereas American ones become increasingly closed source and expensive to license. Now, that’s his prediction and I don’t really believe him. But this article at least doesn’t make it seem he wrapped his doom and gloom prediction in a Gemini sales pitch.

First of all, they did not pick any language at founding. They refused to settle on one. And I don’t think they ever changed that (although I wouldn’t put it past the current administration to do something like that because 47 has the best words as we all know). English is de facto the language of the US like Bern is de facto the capital of Switzerland but it isn’t set in stone.

German was briefly seriously discussed. That would have been funny.

I think the influence of the British Empire has done more to make English the lingua franca. But I think it is conceivable that we would be conducting a lot more diplomacy in French or Spanish if they had won out. But there are still huge chunks of Africa and Oceania that speak English. And Hockeyland. And big business hubs like Singapore or Hong Kong - the language of trade would still be English.

Why would Americans elect a serial bankruptcy business man, narcissst, and convicted sexual assault felon to appoint this loon?

Because there are no simple answers.

47 wants to disrupt and cause chaos in everything. The department of health is just another area for chaos, hence the appointment of this guy. I think it’s fairly safe that most Americans - and that includes many nominal supporters of the current GOP cultish clowncar - do not take their health advise from worm brain. It’s just unfortunate that he’s in a position of power where he will cause harm that will prevail long after he’s retired, or dead.

This is the Telegraph talking about Labour government plans. Of course they would present it like that.

I personally think the better way is to make people realize themselves that not driving is the better option. Linking omnipresent cameras with driver databases to implement a vague system of fines administered by the councils does not instill me with enough confidence either. I see contested fines clogging up courtrooms (or whatever legal recourse there must be) for years.

Raise parking fees, reduce parking spaces - at a relatively slow rate to keep predictable outrage local and small enough. Implement a system where every car purchase needs to be accompanied by a proof of parking like in Japan (owned driveway or rented spot). Invest in public transport and infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclists. Tax breaks for infrastructure that’s missing (a supermarket, a clinic, a theater, etc.). That would make more sense to me than the threat of punishment through this somewhat Orwellian system.

East Germany was an authoritarian state without rule of law. This can be true at the time as the fact that in most cities they created neighborhoods that come close to this 15-min ideal. Childcare, multi disiplinary medical “poly clinics,” and decent public transport. Sure, long lines at the grocery store and an 18 year waiting list to buy a shit car. But it strikes me as extremely dumb to ignore useful lessons from that out of cold war principle.

A person on YouTube made a video? Oh no …

I think this is worthwhile posting again as a “TIL that leaf blowers are a good way to defend against tear gas” when this post gets removed for falling fowl of rule 1.

Define “Christian.” If it’s anybody who claims to be, probably quite high. If it’s more value-driven (love thy neighbour and all that), this correlation falls off a cliff. Pedophile is probably within the statistical rounding error margin of the entire population.

The correlation of being ICE and loss of human decency is nearing two perfectly overlapping Venn diagram circles.

The benefit it affords us is being able to easily write our name into snow. That can be pleasurable under certain conditions, mostly alcohol-infused ones. Beyond that the only pleasure I could possibly see is the relief to have made it to a toilet and not having pissed your pants when you were dying for a one. The length of the urethra is not relevant in that case. I’ve personally never pissed and thought the experience was physically pleasing - beyond what I’ve already mentioned.

The trick with a space elevator is that the cable needs to be very thin. The material needs to be strong. That’s just two reasons why we’re still far from putting that to any real use.

I don’t think having a small line through our atmosphere will slowly poison us. The extra radiation that would make it through is probably a rounding error. The material would have to be such that it doesn’t attract radiation. And even if we discovered that this could be a problem, if we have become smart enough to build this space elevator, we’ll probably be smart enough to figure out a way to filter it out.

There are apps for that but I just stuck with the stock Android app. You deactivate all the Google servers and just stick with the DAV ones.

But then again I rarely do anything with contacts.

You start your life by forgetting your past. All the times you fell over, were hungry or overtired, or shat your pants as a baby or toddler. You don’t remember that time unless something happened that’s traumatizing in the extreme. Somewhere between that age and when you start school you start retaining memories. Not all of them but enough to reminisce. You’re growing still so every day is a new experience and not everything makes the cut. And then you age. Once you cross 40 you’ll notice a lot more that you cannot remember why you went to the garage but you can remember all the teachers from your elementary school days. Most of your classmates too but that guy’s name in Accounting who you talk to every other day is nowhere to be found. And when you reach an age where death is becoming likely every day, you reminisce and you remember lots of stuff from ages ago but not what you had for breakfast. Dementia fucks with you but they remember their moody teenage music tastes and react more to that than their own offspring.

Memory retention is not a linear thing.

I’m going to guess yes, the mass increases. I’m not sure about physical size because it may just be density. But I also feel like I should stop talking out of my ass now.

Trick question: it’s until the heat death of the entire universe. You get turned into this long spaghetti that gets absorbed at an increasingly slowing rate. So your scalp or your feet never quite make it to the inside.

This may be less than accurate because I’m not an expert.

It’s funny you picked Apple computers because they were in a legal fight with Apple records of Beatles fame who’ve been around longer and were only allowed to keep the name if they stayed out of the music business. Which went well until iTunes and then they found themselves back in the lawsuit.

I’m not an Apple user so I cannot answer your question there. I just wanted to add another way to get ad-free podcasts. If the podcast offers a patreon feed, any RSS-based podcatcher anywhere will be able to do this.

They would have to try fighting it on non-trademark grounds. However, being able to point at having been awarded one afterwards may carry some weight there as well. My impression is that their strategy doesn’t rest on this alone.

The strategy behind this is also to be able to sue after the fact to get a cut of whatever was created from stuff that ought to have been protected but wasn’t. It’s not just a clip of him doing triple alrights that he applied for TM for. There is also one of him sitting down, one of him standing up. They tried to cover a whole spread of sora et. al. generated bullshit. It’s an interesting strategy that is only necessary because the law on the books lags behind the developments in image or video generation. It may not work at all but it’ll be a success if they win one case with this.

I hope you are right. I personally don’t see it. I think we cannot underestimate the cult factor. All it takes is a Vance or an orange (or even the deviant MTG) to point at it and screech like a Body Snatcher: “It’s socialism! It’s handouts! Kill it with fire!” It won’t matter what you branded it as. Their branding will be stronger.

I am afraid that this isolated (and probably edited and not very scientific) example of people seeing the power is reason will not scale to the masses. The fear of socialism is irrational and I don’t think you can fix that with rational explanations alone. It’s not like people like Sanders or Ocasio-Cortez aren’t trying and there is enough of a base to get them elected - but not into executive power. On top of that you have the MAGA cult followers who would happily vote against their own self interest if they can say they owned the libs in the process.

I chose him because he is generally well liked. I haven’t heard anybody shit talk him. I don’t see him as a person of inaction or unaccountability. I do see him as somebody who acts from a set of values and who can heal wounds thoughtfully (without letting perpetrators go unpunished). Go ahead and replace him in your mind with somebody who fits that profile.