perestroika

@perestroika@lemm.ee

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How likely is it that Trump will be the first President assassinated since Kennedy?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  A counterpoint: unmanned technology has developed really fast recently. In old times, one had to be motivated as hell, because taking a shot at a president meant likely death.

  In our days, for a technically capable adversary, an attempt costs only moderate amounts, escape is far more likely, and tools can automated with self-destruction mechanisms to considerably hinder evidence collection.

  I’d say that barriers are lower due to drones and robots. Then again, to get drones and robots pointed at oneself, one has to piss off people who have better things to do. That is, people who are unlikely to be desperate.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Horror⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It wouldn’t help. The thing that gives you lift is the mass of displaced air. Difference from the (lack of) mass of the lifting gas is minimal.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alarm as Florida Republicans move to fill deported workers’ jobs with children: ‘It’s insane, right?’⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Ah, nice to remember. :) I’m used to speaking and writing UK English - I learnt it that way and it became a habit. (Colour intead of color, labour instead of labor, tyre instead of tire, etc.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alarm as Florida Republicans move to fill deported workers’ jobs with children: ‘It’s insane, right?’⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Prediction: what EU and China will be doing shortly - not out of good will, but because they won’t turn the other cheek - will be carefully targeted tariffs designed to hurt Trump’s main support bases.

  It’s been practised before.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alarm as Florida Republicans move to fill deported workers’ jobs with children: ‘It’s insane, right?’⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Summary of what I understood:

  • Florida work force: 27% born in foreign countries
  • Florida farm workers: 60% born in foreign countries
  • Florida state: eager to persecute immigrants

  Proposal:

  • allow child labour for unlimited hours (if home schooled or distance learning)
  • allow 30 hours per week during study sessions
  • allow 6 days of consecutive work
  • allow work during school hours
  • allow early and late work, even if school next day
  • allow more than 8 hours per day, even if school next day

  That seems 19th century stuff. Back then, in the bad old times, anarchists shot politcians and workers had street battles with cops over this kind of minor issues.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tired of dating apps?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  A side note about dating apps: most of them aren’t much better than this.

  Their interest is keeping the user clicking, paying for services and coming back.

  If you find the right person for yourself, you will naturally do none of that.

  So:

  • they build awful card stack systems with no search function
  • they build superficial profile systems with no metadata about personality, habits or world views

  …and of course, with such systems, people fail to find suitable partners. They come back and pay, but society suffers, because someone needs to make money.

  I would vote for a politician who would promise that the ministry of social security will order a public dating site that’s built by scientists.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Entropy? Never heard of it.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is wrong, or perhaps I misundertand.

  Entropy is a different concept from economic viability.

  The rule of non-decreasing entropy applies to closed systems.

  A carbon capture system running on solar energy on Earth (note: wind energy is converted solar energy) is not a closed system in the Earth frame of reference - its energy arrives from outside. It can decrease entropy on Earth. Whether it’s economically viable is another matter.

  …and I don’t think the Sun gets any worse from us capturing some rays.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨brain blowing orgasms⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes. A bit similar process in sea-dwelling salmons: migrating from salt water into fresh water (quite a big metabolic challenge in itself), traveling up rapids to suitable spawning places (often a long and arduous journey)… after they’ve accomplished that, their chances of returning alive are quite low. So they mostly die. But river-dwelling trouts spawn many times in life, because their migration isn’t as costly.

  I would suspect that something in how octopuses mate has an element of “return being costly” - it could be a metabolic return to the feeding and growing state instead of a physical return.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mmm kale⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Half of Europe survived the Little Ice Age because of that unholy weed. :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mmm kale⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I came here to say that, but you got here first, so have my upvote.

  Recipe:

  • bucket of kale leaves, shredded by hand, rinsed
  • half a lemon’s juice
  • some teaspoons of salt
  • several tablespoons of deactivated / roasted / nutritional yeast
  • some teaspoons of your favourite spices (garlic / onion / paprica / tumeric / anything goes)

  To be mixed in a huge bowl and laid out into 2 food dryers. Sorry, I don’t have exact quantities, I always use both of my food driers. I run them at +70 C.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lemm.ee is recruiting new admins!⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I appreciate the effort of running this place - it’s working well from my perspective - and hope you find the colleagues you need. :)

  Myself, I can’t volunteer - I already moderate a few communities elsewhere, my time is limited, and I’m politically too partial. I also cannot say that I fully agree with local federation policy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Admin team update⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you for all the work you’re doing (and continuing to do, even if behind the scenes).

  Burn out is a bad thing, don’t get burned out. :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m a bit late to this discussion, but I needed to get my first taste of political censorship on Lemmy first.

  My experience was with the “hexbear.net” instance (former Chapo’s Trap House subreddit) which is currently federated with “lemm.ee”.

  It shows up nicely in the feed, but if you go there to discuss, you get banned in a moment for stating commonly accepted facts because you’re “reactionary” - Wikipedia is also reactionary, as well as mainstream news - while users praising dictatorial regimes get upvoted and aren’t getting moderated.

  Complete echo chamber. At such servers, there’s also no obvious recourse to get a ban or deletion reversed.

  I would avoid federation with such places.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why people consistently vote against their own interests to benefit the rich?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  True.

  Hunger for power would exist, but a critical feature that currently exists - the means of returning to power - would be absent.

  Bribes would be a concern, so good pay and anti-corruption mechanicms would still be required.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why people consistently vote against their own interests to benefit the rich?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  • Because propaganda works. Rich sponsors fund politicians who promise them to look after their interests. Well-funded politicians run a better-financed campaign.

  • Because politicians are, nearly without exception, above middle class, if not outright rich. They won’t act too radically against their own class interests.

  The only solution I know comes from ancient Athens. Sortition. You hold a lottery to draw representatives. A few extremely stupid people will be drawn, but idiots are far better than sociopaths, and the current system gives undue representation to sociopaths (willing to climb over bodies if that gets them to power).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨incredible⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  No conclusive proof. It didn’t have a passthrough for one electrode of the two. It did have remains of acid inside and corrosion on the electrodes. One can speculate whether it was an experimental device, a faulty device or what exactly happened (one alchemist trying to replicate another’s secrets?).

  To add insult to the injury, it was lost or stolen during the war in 2003, so more analysis can’t be done until it gets re-discovered. :o

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨incredible⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  No problem, guys in ancient Baghdad already knew how to make electricity. :) A jug of wine or vinegar, one electrode of iron, another made of copper, voila… the Baghdad battery.