NateNate60
@NateNate60@lemmy.world
- Comment on Do the ultra-rich consume popular media? 1 day ago:
The fact that Musk and friends are always complaining about it seems to indicate that they are.
- Comment on Is the Robert Reich mastodon account actually run by Robert Reich? 2 days ago:
Well, Trump seemingly had the time to send out a hundred tweets a week while still being president of the United States so I wouldn’t discount it.
- Submitted 2 days ago to [deleted] | 4 comments
- Comment on If the EU uses online signature for European Citizen's Initiative, why isn't voting online for elections or policies not allowed? 6 days ago:
An xkcd becomes a classic when people use it a lot.
- Comment on How do Americans win their country back? 1 week ago:
I have to agree with you there. I think the Democratic Party was scared of inviting infighting with a primary contest which Harris would probably win anyway, but you’re right—Harris had no mandate from the party membership and even a lightning-round primary conducted online would have been better.
- Comment on How do Americans win their country back? 1 week ago:
I think I phrased my comment wrong on this. It doesn’t ban the act of gerrymandering, it bans the results of gerrymandering. Gerrymandered maps would need to be redrawn had the bill been enacted.
This bill was no slouch. It directly abridged several states’ voter suppression laws. Had the bill passed, the next phase would have been people being able to use the federal courts to strike back against these incompatible laws.
That being said, if you were the leader of the Democratic Party, what would you have done? Not intended as rhetorical snark, I’m just curious as to what other ideas there are.
- Comment on How do Americans win their country back? 1 week ago:
The first bill filed in the House of Representatives and Senate after the 2020 election which resulted in the Democratic Party gaining nominal control of Congress and the White House was a bill to ban partisan gerrymandering, require independent redistricting committees, forbid states from imposing onerous voter registration or identification regulations, limit the influence of rich donors and wealthy PACs in federal elections, and generally just make the process of voting better for Americans.
This bill was called the Freedom to Vote Bill and was numbered H.R. 1 and S. 1 for the House and Senate versions, respectively. It passed the House of Representatives in 3 March 2021 and received unanimous support among the 50 Democratic senators when the Senate held its vote on 22 June 2021. The bill was blocked from advancing due to a Republican filibuster.
On 3 January 2022, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York announced plans to abolish the filibuster for legislation in order to allow this bill to advance. President Joe Biden had previously indicated he would sign the bill. Schumer made his move on 19 January 2022, moving to change the filibuster rule to require continuous talking, i.e. in order to filibuster a bill, someone must make a speech and keep talking for the duration of the filibuster, with the filibuster ending when they finish talking. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, members of the Democratic Party representing Arizona and West Virginia, respectively, got squeamish and voted against the change. All Republican senators voted against the change. This doomed the bill’s passage through Congress as the filibuster could be maintained indefinitely by the Republicans.
The bill died when Congress was dissolved pending the November 2022 general election, in which Republicans won a narrow majority in the House of Representatives.
Manchin and Sinema’s terms with both expire when the new Congress is convened on 3 January 2025 following the November 2024 general election. Manchin did not seek re-election in yesterday’s election and will retire at the expiration of his term. Sinema was forced out of the Democratic Party and originally planned to stand as an independent before deciding against it. She will retire at the end of her term.
Due to the innate malapportionment of the Senate, it is exceedingly unlikely that the Democratic Party will ever regain majority control of the Senate.
So I point my finger at these two idiots for sinking American democracy as we know it.
- Comment on your mom falls significantly faster than g 2 weeks ago:
So obviously I ended up in the middle of this bell curve. How would that cause the perception of the ball’s acceleration to differ?
- Comment on Why don't we have cool vending machines in the US? 4 weeks ago:
It’s a lot more complex than an ordinary vending machine though. That increases costs. A curry machine is nothing more than a normal vending machine with a heater. A ramen machine is nothing more than a normal vending machine with a tap for hot water. Adjusted for inflation, the pizza machine would cost $8 for a small pizza. You can buy one from Little Caesar’s for the same price and it’s bigger and probably tastes better as well, since, as cheap at it is, the crust is at least fresh.
- Comment on Why don't we have cool vending machines in the US? 4 weeks ago:
Think about it realistically. Considering just food machines, what foods popular with Americans can realistically be sold out of a vending machine?
Popcorn is a clear winner. It can be made in advance, stored for a while, and then easily dispensed. Its profit margin is high. You can charge two dollars for a bag of popcorn that only cost you twenty cents in ingredients.
Packaged food like potato crisps is also a good idea for the same reason. You don’t even need to keep the vending machine heated. Similarly, cold drinks and ice cream can also be easily dispensed out of a cooled vending machine, although I don’t consider those different from “packaged food”.
But what other American classics are there to consider? Hamburgers are out immediately. They’re too complex to prepare fresh and most people wouldn’t buy a reheated frozen burger.
Hot dogs might be viable, but a machine that sells hot dogs can only see hot dogs due to the mechanical complexity. I think many people would also question the freshness of a vending machine hot dog unless you cooked it right in front of them and let them see it via a glass window. Additionally, a hot dog has a much lower profit margin. If you charge four dollars for a hot dog, it might cost nearly a dollar in ingredients along with the mechanical complexity of the machine. Most people would expect the machine to also dispense condiments like ketchup, mustard, and relish.
Pizza is also complex and would take several minutes to bake from fresh or reheat from frozen. I don’t think people would stand around for several minutes waiting for a machine to heat up pizza. Unless you can get the cooking time under sixty seconds, forget it. Pizza also traditionally baked at 700 degrees Fahrenheit, or 370 degrees Celsius. It’s not an easy to safely install a component that gets that hot in a machine. Pizza that is pre-cooked and kept warm tends to not taste very good.
Fried chicken tenders will lose their crispness over time, even when kept warm. There is no temperature you can keep fried chicken at where it will remain crisp for hours but also not overcook. Hot oil in a machine is a recipe for disaster. French fries are a possible inclusion (the machine in the post sells French fries), but Americans don’t really eat French fries on their own; they are usually served as a side dish along with something else.
Ideally, a machine should be loaded with frozen or pre-cooked food, which it merely keeps warm and dispenses to a buyer when purchased.
Think about Japanese food. Curry, in particular, can be served just barely hot and still delicious. Rice balls can be served refrigerated, as can cold Lawson sandwiches. Instant ramen is also popular, but that’s just packaged food that requires a hot water spigot. I argue that Japanese food in general is just more suitable to be served out of a vending machine.
- Comment on I hate how anything without "world" in its name is just about the US 1 month ago:
The only thing I am claiming is that a majority or large plurality of English language Internet users are American, meaning if you are to assume a country of origin (note: if), assuming the user is an American is the one most likely to be accurate. I think I’ve said enough on the matter.
If you disagree, that’s fine but I’m tired of this conversation.
- Comment on I hate how anything without "world" in its name is just about the US 1 month ago:
Surely you have a bit more thinking power than that. If you gave each of your bullet points a mere five seconds each of critical thought, you wouldn’t have made this ridiculous comment.
Those countries you mentioned? Of course there are people living in them. But there aren’t as many English-speakers as in America. I didn’t say all, I say most (this will be a recurring theme).
With the exception of southern Africa (76%), the rest of Africa has Internet penetration rates below 50%. As low as 27% in east Africa. Remember, I didn’t say all, I said most.
China’s great firewall prevents most people from accessing the outside Internet, and many Chinese people don’t care to. I know this, because I’m fucking Chinese. Is it possible to circumvent? Sure, if you’re willing to play VPN whack-a-mole with the CCP. But again, I said most, I didn’t say all.
You also clearly have never been on any forums populated by Indian users if you think that I’m only saying Indians use unintelligible English on the Internet because I’m racist. They code-switch between English and Hindi. If you don’t know Hindi, you won’t understand it.
And also, I don’t use American English. I live in America but I am a Hongkonger and use British English.
- Comment on I hate how anything without "world" in its name is just about the US 1 month ago:
The average American uses only English language forums.
The average European who speaks English will probably spend some portion of their time using whatever their native language is.
The average English speaker in Africa is not as likely to have an Internet connection.
The average English speaker in China is likely to not be able to access English social media sites (great firewall).
Many English-speakers in India post online in a mix of English and Hindi that non-Indians find difficult to comprehend.
You’re correct that the claim that the US is ¾ the population of Europe is erroneous. But it is ¾ the population of the EU. I’ve corrected this.
- Comment on I hate how anything without "world" in its name is just about the US 1 month ago:
I did not claim the people who use English on the Internet are likely native English speakers.
I made the converse claim—that people whose native language is English are likely to use English on the Internet.
- Comment on I hate how anything without "world" in its name is just about the US 1 month ago:
This point was plainly addressed. Read carefully before going in guns-blazing.
Do you think Nigerians use the Internet as much as Americans?
- Comment on I hate how anything without "world" in its name is just about the US 1 month ago:
Not all Internet users generate the same amount of content. In addition to Americans being proud blabbermouths in general, people from wealthy countries generate more content than those from poorer countries. The US is among the wealthiest countries in the world.
Although it is not the most representative, nearly half of all Reddit users are American. American media outlets have immense global reach. You can probably name four or five American media outlets just off the top of your head, even if you’re not American. The USA’s geopolitical power means people are always talking about American politics or what America’s leaders are doing, which draws engagement from Americans like a lamp draws moths. 7 out of the top 10 English-language YouTube channels are American (fully or partially).
It’s pretty much impossible to prove, but I think the claim that Americans generate most of the content on the Internet is likely true or very close to true.
- Comment on I hate how anything without "world" in its name is just about the US 1 month ago:
I think you misunderstand.
What I am saying is that of all Internet users that use English, Americans are by far the largest group due to it being a very large country, (third most populous in the world) with a high Internet penetration (97%), and whose residents almost universally speak English as their main language (78.3%).
- Comment on I hate how anything without "world" in its name is just about the US 1 month ago:
To be fair, the US has the largest number of English-speakers of any country in the world. As a first language, it has five times as many native English speakers as second place (the UK). It also has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world, meaning most of those English-speakers are also Internet users.
The US is a single country that is three-quarters the population of the entire continent of Europe, and nearly all of its inhabitants speak English and use the Internet. So yes, if you pick a random user on an English social media page, odds are very good that person is an American. If you were to guess any random English-speaking Internet user’s nationality, “American” is the best possible guess. But go on a Spanish language forum or a French language forum and nobody will assume you’re American.
- Comment on Steam will let you sue Valve now 1 month ago:
Another common W for Steam, but in all seriousness, arbitration clauses in consumer contracts need to be banned.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
.gov and .mil are controlled by the American government and they are reserved for use by American government websites and American military websites respectively.
- Comment on Anon goes to dinner with coworkers 1 month ago:
Rule #3: always assume the anonymous 4chan poster is making it up
- Comment on Anon browses r/AmITheAsshole 1 month ago:
The AITAH people are nothing if not weirdly observant of what happens on that sub. This would be caught immediately
- Comment on Anon plays Metro 2033 2 months ago:
Can someone explain the context of this to me?
- Comment on What are the differences between unsaturated, saturated, monosaturated, polysaturated, and transaturated fats? 2 months ago:
Other people have described the health effects, so I’ll describe the chemistry. Fats are made of long chains of carbon atoms surrounded by hydrogen atoms attached to a “head”, which is made of other elements or structures. Carbon atoms normally can make a total of 4 bonds. Hydrogen atoms can make 1 bond.
Carbon being able to make 4 bonds means that in the chain of carbon and hydrogen atoms in fat molecules, each carbon atom makes a bond with the carbon atom before it in the chain, a bond with the carbon atom after it in the chain, and then bonds with two hydrogen atoms separately off to the side. This makes a total of 4 bonds. If all of the carbon atoms in the chain are like this, that’s “saturated fat”, because the chain of carbon is completely “saturated” with hydrogen atoms.
Saturated fats have the often desirable property of being able to be tightly packed together, and thus are typically solid at room temperature. Butterfat is mostly saturated fat.
However, carbon atoms can also make a double bond with other carbon atoms. If a particular carbon atom in the chain makes a double bond with the carbon atom before it, it could cause a bend in the chain of carbon atoms. In that case, it also means that those particular carbon atoms in the chain that have formed a double bond with each other only have 1 available bond left (after also forming a separate single bond with the carbon atom before or after it), so it can only bond with one hydrogen atom. These are, therefore, called “unsaturated fats”, and because they don’t back together easily, they are typically liquid at room temperature.
If there is a single double bond in the chain, it’s a monounsaturated fat.
If there are two or more double bonds, it’s a polyunsaturated fat.
Notice how the hydrogen atoms connected to the double-bonded carbon atoms in unsaturated fats can be connected to either the same side or the opposite sides of the two hydrogen atoms. If they’re on the same side, they are called cis-unsaturated fats. If they’re on opposite sides, they are trans-unsaturated fats, or trans fats in short.
This is oleic acid, a cis monounsaturated fat commonly found in many vegetable oils:
While this is vaccenic acid, a trans-monounsaturated fat. It is found naturally in butter and human milk and is not particularly bad for you:
Note that this is NOT the same picture as the one I showed for saturated fat. The 7th and 8th carbon atoms from the left are double-bonded and, therefore, are each missing a hydrogen atom. The one remaining hydrogen atom on each is bonded on opposite sides.
Note that trans-unsaturated fats are also pretty straight. This means that they can also pack together with saturated fats to make a solid product at room temperature.
“Hydrogenation” is the process of adding hydrogen to unsaturated fats to saturate them. This means that liquid oil can be processed into a solid product. That’s how margarine and shortening are made. In previous years, partially hydrogenated oils that weren’t fully hydrogenated could leave substantial quantities of trans-unsaturated fats left in the product, but after health concerns, many countries’ food safety authorities banned these artificial trans fats. Fully hydrogenated fats consist of only saturated fats since they have been “fully” hydrogenated, and that is what food manufacturers have been doing instead.
- Comment on With the amount of microplastics we're carrying around in pretty much every tissue in our bodies, is our weight measurably different as a result? 2 months ago:
The exact data is Figure 1, chart A. It seems the mean is around 4,000-5,000 μg/g, which is indeed 0.4-0.5%
- Comment on With the amount of microplastics we're carrying around in pretty much every tissue in our bodies, is our weight measurably different as a result? 2 months ago:
I really had to run a fact check on this but it really does seem to be true.
Brains are 0.5% plastic by weight and with an average human brain mass of 1.3 kg, that means humans, on average, have 6.5 g of plastic in their brain
- Comment on I can hear it in Patrick Warburton's voice. 3 months ago:
Do people not know that Cuzco is a real city? As in the capital city of the Inca Empire?
It’s still there in Peru.
- Comment on yes ofc 3 months ago:
AK is better than KQ. That being said, KQ suited is still an extremely strong hand.
- Comment on Why does lemmy.ml use the "ML" country code for Mali? 3 months ago:
“socialism with Chinese characteristics” (the “Chinese characteristics” are capitalism)
- Comment on My work is organizing right now, this afternoon, and I don't know what I'm doing. What are the best practices? What are the pitfslls? 3 months ago:
Has anyone mentioned the word “union” in these communications yet? It needs to be gotten across that without a formal union, your bosses can just crush your little organisation with very few realistic legal consequences. They can make up bullshit reasons to fire you or reduce your hours as punishment. What is happening is just collective bargaining but without the legal protection of being a union.
Unions rarely strike. The threat of Industrial action (which is not just limited to striking) is usually an effective enough bargaining chip that in most cases, bosses offer concessions in negotiations without needing to resort to it.
There are limited forms of Industrial action as well. For example, the union can say that everyone should refuse overtime or that they should reduce their work to only the bare minimum required of them (which is called “work-to-order” or “work-to-rule”). Other tactics involve a large number of employees calling in sick on the same day. All of these allow workers to show their power without needing to sacrifice their paycheque.
If you contact the local chapter of a larger union organisation, they can provide resources to help organise your workplace. Google Search “Chicago restaurant workers union” and find the one that matches you and your colleagues’ values most, then reach out for help organising.
Employer intimidation is forbidden during the process of formally organising a union and will be prosecuted by the National Labour Relations Board.
