Sasha
@Sasha@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Yes, that Sasha
- Comment on It's fundamental to Australia's democracy. But is your right to protest under attack? 1 day ago:
Authoritarian measures like this are not how you stop people protesting, this won’t lead to anything except further police violence being inflicted upon the best people in Victorian society.
I really hope Allan reconsiders, but I know she won’t…
- Comment on Thefts linked to cost-of-living drive rise in Victoria's crime rates 2 days ago:
Just remember to steal from the capitalists, not each other. I really don’t want to lose a third bike…
- Comment on Daily Discussion Thread: 🔆🥵🍨Monday, 16 December,.2024 1 week ago:
I put an emergency blanket over the window in my study because that’s the only window where sunlight comes in directly, it’s made an enormous difference and it was free lol
- Comment on Do you want the murderer of the UnitHealthcare CEO prosecuted? 2 weeks ago:
Yeah, at this point the discussion starts getting to the edge of my knowledge, I don’t think killing is good in either case. I don’t think it’s a way to repair hurt and I can’t imagine it helping me, I’d much prefer imprisonment (though there are more radical approaches I’d massively prefer over that).The Leftist Cooks video I linked talks about approaches that are far better than I’m capable of describing in a Lemmy comment (I tried and failed lol). In it they discuss what it’s like to be a victim of SA and how one reconciles that experience with being a prison abolitionist. tl;dr being a victim isn’t really a contradiction and there are better ways to heal that aren’t revenge based.
As for a deterrent, for one that doesn’t seem to work. This is one of the only reasons that supporters of the death penalty can give (other than a desire to inflict pain) and it’s generally shown to be very ineffective. This is one of the things I alluded to in a previous comment when I said I didn’t need to explain why the death penalty is bad. The other is that you can just get it wrong and kill people you shouldn’t, I’m more interested in moving beyond violence as a tool for suppressing further violence. We are capable of being better, I see it quite often in the radical groups I work with.
I think valid practical reasons would be things like bringing an end to harm, for example had Trump actually been assassinated, I might not have to be so damn worried about all the trans people in the states. Killing Netanyahu or Putin might save a lot of lives, though in all these cases there are a lot of people who would carry on that work, and they may even decide to inflict greater suffering as a response.
There’s an interesting edge case where the killing of Shinzo Abe was driven by revenge, but ultimately put such a spotlight on an issue that it caused the government to take action. I honestly don’t know how to feel about it, it wouldn’t be possible to predict the result so I can’t see it being justified beforehand, but at least it lead to something good in the end.
To be quite frank, I want to build a better world, and I don’t want killing to ever be a part of it. It might take a lot of death to build that world, but we should move beyond it. I don’t feel like people can be deserving of suffering, however they can and should be made to repair what suffering they’ve caused where at all possible, and prevented from causing more. It’s these points that I’m referring to when I say I’m an idealist.
- Comment on Fair Work Commision decides pickets are bad faith and not allowed. 2 weeks ago:
Got any posts or links I can share around? I’d go myself but I’m very annoyingly unwell at the moment, least I can do is try to mobile people in my network.
- Comment on Fair Work Commision decides pickets are bad faith and not allowed. 2 weeks ago:
WOOLWORTHS IS STRUGGLING??? WOOLWORTHS???
WTF is wrong with this country
- Comment on Do you want the murderer of the UnitHealthcare CEO prosecuted? 2 weeks ago:
Oh don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely an idealist and I acknowledge that.
Let me be clear, I specifically think we shouldn’t immediately jump to killing as the first choice. If killing an evil person is going to lead to actual good outcomes, and is seemingly the best/most viable option, I’m not necessarily against it even if I don’t care for it. Violence is a tool we can use, but I prefer to limit it where possible.
Reform would be great if possible, it likely may not be. I think taking away the ability to do harm is probably the best place to start, imprisonment is certainly an option there but it’s not the only one (and doesn’t need to look like the current prison systems we have). If killing leads to a good outcome, and it’s not possible to do anything less (for example we don’t have the power to just round up all the billionaires and corrupt politicians to do these things), then it’s justifiable.
Once approaching justice after the harm has been stopped, one also needs to consider how victims feel and what they’re going to need to try and reduce the impact of the harm they’ve suffered. I’m no expert on any of this and I don’t pretend to be, but I know there are better ways than the current judicial systems. In all honesty I think it’s a case by case kind of thing.
My main concern with this whole affair, is that it hasn’t changed any power structures, people will still be exploited. I want to see structural change, not just blind revenge.
- Comment on Do you want the murderer of the UnitHealthcare CEO prosecuted? 2 weeks ago:
I am vegan, and that’s exactly the reason why.
I think it’s quite simply the case that we should make the choice to try and make life as uncruel as possible. That’s what I believe and I understand that many people won’t agree with me.
Also hey, I’m just having a discussion here we’re all friends. There’s no need to be mean and say I’m talking gibberish.
- Comment on Do you want the murderer of the UnitHealthcare CEO prosecuted? 2 weeks ago:
It is in some cases justifiable, but I don’t think it’s necessarily the only option in the majority of cases where people might jump to it.
I don’t really agree we’ve been trained to respond that way, when I quite often see the exact opposite. Killing is a fast and easy solution that many people are quick to advocate for. I’m quite steadfast in my belief that being able to look beyond killing is one of the few privileges our intelligence gives us, to be better than the cruelty of nature.
I don’t agree the breaking the social contract means death is appropriate or justifiable, but it does mean we can seek to undo that injustice and reduce the harm by other forceful methods. Acting in vengeance is not justifiable.
- Comment on Do you want the murderer of the UnitHealthcare CEO prosecuted? 2 weeks ago:
I don’t want him prosecuted, but not because I think killing people is good or forgivable (though it couldn’t really happen to a better person lol) but because the criminal justice system is awful, especially in the US.
If the death penalty is on the table, then I don’t think I need to explain why that’s bad, but I fundamentally disagree with imprisonment. I’m no expert, but there are better ways to handle harm and justice, and I feel the current system is unjustifiably evil in it’s treatment of convicts.
- Comment on Woolworths grocery shortages: Protesters delay reopening of Dandenong South distribution centre 2 weeks ago:
I slapped a “pay your workers” sticker up on one of the notices lmao, thanks for the links this is way better!
- Comment on A freight train of voter anger might be about to hit Albanese 2 weeks ago:
It will be, it always is… sigh
- Comment on Wait, my body's own heat is enough? Always has been. 3 weeks ago:
I won’t go into detail because it’s personal and a bit gross, but adding on layers doesn’t always work for me due to a disability. I just become even more uncomfortable, and my extremities are still in pain…
- Comment on Dyk, Bobby? 3 weeks ago:
Oh that’s so cool, thankyou for sharing!
- Comment on Australian news. Defend genocide or human extinction? Or maybe both? 3 weeks ago:
You sure can, there’s a fundraiser to help pay legal costs and fines. I fully intend to pay my own fine, so hopefully this goes towards those who are facing larger fines and need the help.
- Comment on Australian news. Defend genocide or human extinction? Or maybe both? 3 weeks ago:
Radical power is valid, and being angry is extremely understandable. It takes a lot of courage to be able to step back like you’ve done, I respect the absolute hell out of that.
Believe me I’m not all positive about things, I have my personal motivations and I’ve been through enough training to know where and when to focus my energy, that’s all.
I’ve been in fights with people too and I’m easily drawn into them, I’ve honestly only been able to stop myself because I’ve been through a ton of therapy after some particularly traumatic experiences. I’ve spent many a night laying awake furious about what’s happening in the world. Those subsidies are a particular point of pain for me and I hope to be able to do something about it one day, but participating in and organizing a campaign are very different things. For now, I’m on regen as I take some time to process the last week and spend time with my family.
I do really appreciate your post, it’s been a good venting opportunity haha, and amazing to know how many allies there are in this community. ✊
- Comment on Australian news. Defend genocide or human extinction? Or maybe both? 3 weeks ago:
I’m not hero, but that means a lot. I’m just some punk who had enough of lying around depressed and mourning the future I once thought I had. You don’t need to be like me to help a ton, just talking to people and sharing news is a huge thing. So many ways you can help from the comfort of your own home, calling/emailing MPs or even just telling your more conservative friends and families how important this is.
A couple of points about the $22k and 2 years in prison, those sentences are 1: Draconian and part of anti-protestor laws and 2: Extremely hard to actually get as it’s the maximum, even with priors.
Also we don’t reward the cops! The money is collected by revenue NSW and goes towards community programs, so I’m actually pretty happy to pay into that. My fine will be a maximum of $330 because I was charged under a different thing, but some of the 170 arrestees on Sunday are falling under that $22k maximum one.
We are all giving money to those fossil fuel billionaires, tax payers are subsiding ~$14B towards fossil fuels and those fuckers do not pay much if any tax.
- Comment on Australian news. Defend genocide or human extinction? Or maybe both? 3 weeks ago:
“Activists expect leniency”
Fuck that I was prepared for the $22k fine, I wasn’t keen on the prison time but it was a risk I was willing to take. Everyone who was arrested yesterday feels the same way.
Fossil fuel billionaires do not contribute to the economy, they rape the earth stealing natural resources and rake in profits with next to no taxation. We stood in solidarity with workers this last week, we’re the ones fighting for a better economy for Australia. Chants in support of the Maritime Workers Union could be heard across the channel, Rising Tide wants their future careers to be secure. They are not just tools for profit to be discarded when the earth is destroyed.
- Comment on Het Pijnstillersparadijs: Europese Zelfbeheersing vs. Amerikaanse Pillenfeest 5 weeks ago:
- Comment on your mom falls significantly faster than g 1 month ago:
I’ve only ever done QFT in curved spacetime, but I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t do EM, it’ll be a vaguely similar process. I never actually dealt with any scenarios where the curvature was that extreme, and QFT in a curved background is kinda bizarre and doesn’t always require one to consider the specific trajectories, though you definitely can especially if you’re doing some quantum teleportation stuff. In my area it’s simpler to ignore QED and to just consider a massless scalar field, this gives you plenty of information about what photons do without worrying about polarisations and electrons.
It’s been a long time since I did any reading on the geometric optics approximation (in the context of GR this is the formal name for light travelling on null geodesics), but for the most part it’s not something you have to consider, even outside of black holes the curvature tends to be pretty tame (that’s why you can comfortably fall into one in sci-fi), so unfortunately I don’t know of any phenomena (in GR) where it’s important. QFT in curved spacetime generally requires you to stay away from large curvatures, otherwise you start entering into the territory of quantum gravity for which there is no accepted theory.
Outside of GR, it breaks down quite regularly, including I believe, for the classic double slit experiment.
- Comment on your mom falls significantly faster than g 1 month ago:
On that first point, calculating spacetime metrics is such a horrible task most of the time that I avoided it at all costs. When I was working with novel spacetimes I was literally just writing down metrics and calculating certain features of the mass distribution from that.
For example I wrote down this way to have a solid disk of rotating spacetime by modifying the Alcubierre warp drive metric, and you can then calculate the mass distribution along the radius. I did that calculation to show that such a spacetime requires negative mass to exist.
- Comment on your mom falls significantly faster than g 1 month ago:
Yeah, once you add in a second mass to a Schwarzschild spacetime you’ll have a new spacetime that can’t be written as a “sum” of two Schwarzschild spacetimes, depending on the specifics there could be ways to simplify it but I doubt by much.
If GR was linear, then yeah the sum of two solutions would be another solution just like it is in electromagnetism.
I’m actually not 100% certain how you’d treat a shell, but I don’t think it’ll necessarily follow the same geodesic as a point like test particle. You’ll have tidal forces to deal with and my intuition tells me that will give a different result, though it could be a negligible difference depending on the scenario.
Most of my work in just GR was looking at null geodesics so I don’t really have the experience to answer that question conclusively. All that said, from what I recall it’s at least a fair approximation when the gravitational field is approximately uniform, like at some large distance from a star. The corrections to the precession of Mercury’s orbit were calculated with Mercury treated as a point like particle iirc.
- Comment on your mom falls significantly faster than g 1 month ago:
Yeah it would fair point, I’ll be honest I haven’t touched Newtonian gravity in a long time now so is forgotten that was a thing.
There’s a similar phenomenon in general relativity, but it doesn’t apply when you’ve got multiple sources because it’s non-linear.
- Comment on your mom falls significantly faster than g 1 month ago:
Possibly?
A bowling ball is more dense than a feather (I assume) and that’s probably going to matter more than just the size. Things get messy when you start considering the actual mass distributions, and honestly the easiest way to do any calculations like that is to just break each object up into tiny point like masses that are all rigidly connected, and then calculate all the forces between all of those points on a computer.
I full expect it just won’t matter as much as the difference in massed.
- Comment on your mom falls significantly faster than g 1 month ago:
I actually thought the answer might be never, but a quick back of the envelope calculation suggests you can do this by dropping a ~1kg bowling ball from a height of 10^-11m.
This is an extremely rough calculation, I’m basically just looking at how big a bunch of numbers are and pushing all that through some approximate formulae. I could easily be off by a few orders of magnitude and frankly I didn’t take care to check I was even doing any of it correctly.
10^-11m seems wrong, and frankly it probably is. But that’s still 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times further than the earth moves in this situation.
- Comment on your mom falls significantly faster than g 1 month ago:
This is not correct, the force on the objects is the same sure, but the accelerations aren’t so you can’t calculate them both in one go like this.
- Comment on your mom falls significantly faster than g 1 month ago:
If anyone’s wondering, I used to be a physicist and gravity was essentially my area of study, OP is right assuming an ideal system, and some of the counter arguments I’ve seen here are bizarre.
If this wasn’t true, then gravity would be a constant acceleration all the time and everything would take the same amount of time to fall towards everything else (assuming constant starting distance).
You can introduce all the technicalities you want about how negligible the difference is between a bowling ball and a feather, and while you’d be right (well actually still wrong, this is an idealised case after all, you can still do the calculation and prove it to be true) you’d be missing the more interesting fact that OP has decided to share with you.
If you do the maths correctly, you should get a=G(m+M)/r^2 for the acceleration between the two, if m is the mass of the bowling ball or feather, you can see why increasing it would result in a larger acceleration. From there it’s just a little integration to get the flight time. For the argument where the effect of the bowling ball feather is negligible, that’s apparent by making the approximation m+M≈M, but it is in this system an approximation.
I could probably go ahead and work out what the corrections are under GR but I don’t want to and they’d be pretty damn tiny.
- Comment on Scientists dismayed as UK ministers clear way for gene editing of crops - but not animals 1 month ago:
Depending on the way it’s modified, I think there’s some environmental risk particularly for soil erosion and potentially cross breeding with non-modified crops.
I don’t think these should stop us from making better food sources, but it does concern me because there isn’t much corporate incentive to adequately test for these things.
- Comment on Police use capsicum spray on neo-Nazis after clash at Melbourne asylum seeker rally 1 month ago:
Of course, before any of this they first sprayed one of the speakers for the asylum seeker rally…
Pretty damn typical of cops to not arrest the nazis or do anything useful for the community, they need to get to other rallies so they can pepper spray children and trample trans youth with their horses.
- Comment on CODA 2 months ago:
This looks like a score for a Tim Minchin show lol