qyron
@qyron@sopuli.xyz
- Comment on What could the US get rid of to balance the budget and make prices drop very quickly? How is some trash or misspent money on thing we no longer need? 2 days ago:
You don’t believe part of those workshops can be converted to other use?
- Comment on What could the US get rid of to balance the budget and make prices drop very quickly? How is some trash or misspent money on thing we no longer need? 2 days ago:
Another log on the fire.
- Comment on What could the US get rid of to balance the budget and make prices drop very quickly? How is some trash or misspent money on thing we no longer need? 2 days ago:
Well, it should be done.
- Comment on What could the US get rid of to balance the budget and make prices drop very quickly? How is some trash or misspent money on thing we no longer need? 3 days ago:
Hello from Portugal!
We’ve had our little forays into bringing back conscription a few years back and the sentiment was not great. Bad, to be sincere. Conscripts are viewed as essentially cannon fodder; very bad pay, poor conditions and because they have to be there, they can be abused at will. The numbers of conscious objections sky rocketed until it was replaced with voluntary service. And we want volunteer, professional, military personel. Better to have one volunteer than ten unwilling, roughly translated, is a common saying.
Back to the US.
Their weapons programs run for years and several dozens at the same time, across the four branches. It is a lot of money being spent, on a yearly basis.
You are, of course, correct that they should stop getting themselves into wars and instead keep themselves busy with internal affairs. But regardless all of the expenditure with health care and pensions, I remember reading somewhere that a great majority of the homeless population are military veterans, many of which struggle with mental conditions. Doesn’t seem they are spending what they should, how they should. We can also risk a fair degree of corruption, with some confidence.
Meanwhile, in Europe, conscription is not the way forward. Volunteer forces, well trained, well equiped, ready and capable for the kind of modern warfare the Ukrained x Russia is producing is the future. We won’t be seeing trench or open field combat as it was in the past. We’ll have operators controlling remote weapons systems for far away.
- Comment on What could the US get rid of to balance the budget and make prices drop very quickly? How is some trash or misspent money on thing we no longer need? 3 days ago:
I have no doubt on that and that is agood thing. Those people put their lives up and risk death and injury; they deserve being taken care of.
But how much in comparison goes to funding projects that never return any results or gets diverted towards other less legitimate ends? Just the list of failed weapon systems R&D with monumental unjustifiable expenditure is huge. Plus the investment in overcomplicated weaponry with tens or hundreds of millions of cost per unit, that are found lacking when put to test by the people that will be using it routinely.
And having a volunteer army is a plus. Conscription is not something good to have. The european countries considering it are gettiing serious backlash. People want peace, not have their family die in futile wars brought about by hubris of incompetent politians.
- Comment on What could the US get rid of to balance the budget and make prices drop very quickly? How is some trash or misspent money on thing we no longer need? 3 days ago:
I was expecting someone to put the numbers down. Thank you. I can never retain that part.
My personal take, as a non military expert, is that the US has too many branches, with conflicting interests, and not enough coordination and joint command, geared towards force projection and occupation, instead of a highly coordinated, intertwined, cohesive military set for threat deterrence and strategic defense operations.
In my understanding, that was the goal of NATO: having a very large number of countries combined to pool resources, know-how, means of production and, in a dire event, human resources. No country was supposed to drain it’s coffers to be capable to hold off threats.
- Comment on What could the US get rid of to balance the budget and make prices drop very quickly? How is some trash or misspent money on thing we no longer need? 3 days ago:
Cut back on the military budget and tax everyone with more than 120 millions (random number) in assets hard.
You can’t get money circulating in the economy if it gets pooled in the hands of a selected few.
- Comment on Why does most of the world use WhatsApp as their messaging app rather than RCS/SMS? 6 days ago:
I work at a company that I strongly suspect had a very serious security breach because of Whatsapp.
During the outage, we were back to SMS and direct phone calling only. After the system was restored, back to how everything was before, caution be damned, lessons not learned.
It’s not bad enough to have that invasive application as the default means of passing information around (messages, photos, video and even audio, of all things!) on work phones, office personel has it paired to their computers, where highly sensitive programs and data is stored.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
Preface: Switzerland is a safe haven for the time being; many of its banks are under scrutiny for money laundering.
The US established itself as the de facto world currency (see the Breton Woods agreement) after WW2. The nation had an immense international good viewing, was solvent and industrialized. All of which is gone now.
The US would need to upturn its entire system in order for the dollar to regain it’s status as a reserve currency. Global foreign debt would need to be reduced, drastically and rapidly, political stability would need to be a given, not the current 3 ring circus the world is constantly being pestered with, political overreach on international affairs would need to cease and morph into international agreements and collective association, reindustrialization and movement into deep and long lasting sustainable industry and economy would need to be enacted.
Not happening.
The open move into authoritarian politics is an ongoing open example and record of how a nation can crumble into nothing.
- Comment on Why does watching or partaking in mainstream media make me uncomfortable? 2 weeks ago:
There is no need for a reason for; you are as you are and feel as you feel. Enough said.
Were you ever forced to follow a particular show or other form of entertainment? Or have you been criticized by your preferences?
You pass forward a wish for conection with others but when you have a bridge for it, it seems you either escape in fear of being force fed it or in a sense of losing your exclusive take on whatever it may be.
That’s tough.
- Comment on This homeless character, who doesn't go to the gym and survives on junk food, somehow weights 300lbs of pure muscle 3 weeks ago:
Working outside, at least, doing physical labour.
- Comment on This homeless character, who doesn't go to the gym and survives on junk food, somehow weights 300lbs of pure muscle 3 weeks ago:
Take my words for what they are but I knew a man that lived pretty much like Reacher when I was a kid and the man was pretty fit and muscular, only lean.
The man would travel from place to place, doing odd jobs, working in the fields, picking fruit, doing welding and metal working jobs, etc.
He was phisically fit. Not muscular like this actor but his body showed strenght. You could see the muscles contracting under his skin when he applied force to something.
He stopped by my grandparents village one summer and stayed for about a month, working in the fields. One day some neighbour asked him to chop down an old tree and cut it into chunks to dry for firewood. He use a single axe to do the job. Every time the blade hit that old trunk it felt as if the ground shook.
- Comment on Classic rock 3 weeks ago:
Have another!
- Comment on Games with singleplayer campaigns that let me fight/kill nazis? 5 weeks ago:
Silent Storm
Keep to the Allies Campaign and have fun.
Available on GOG.
- Comment on Top economist warns that the AI math doesn’t make sense: 'Profits are currently being funded by investors rather than earned from customers' 5 weeks ago:
They buy products from each other and shut themselves from society.
Which is not a bad outcome.
- Comment on Buzz off 3 months ago:
Nothing personal against wasps. But I prefer them far away from me. Which often comes into conflict with their interests, as they have this nasty tendency to invade the space I occupy, as in my house, my patio, the places I have to go in order to work, etc. If they ignore me, I’ll show the same respect. If stingers come out blazing, insecticide starts being sprayed.
- Comment on Fake News 5 months ago:
Bubonic plague is still a thing.
- Comment on The way this egg peels in infuriating 5 months ago:
This may also signal stress or calcium deficiency or excess in the animal’s diet.
Hens over one year old tend to lay very thick and hard shelled eggs, that break unevenly and peel poorly, even with every single technic to boil it used, when a surplus of calcium is available.
Younger hens, below 6 months of age, tend to lay fin shelled eggs that stick more to the inner membrane.
- Comment on Vaginal PH by region 5 months ago:
Why is there a tartan over Portugal?
- Comment on You have the right to remain...rolling on the floor in utter pain 5 months ago:
- Comment on Great Tits 5 months ago:
Exactly.
I once read an article where a biologist stated that herbivores should be instead considered oportunistic carnivores.
- Comment on Great Tits 5 months ago:
A family member had a mule that had to be kept away from the chickens, as the animal would gobble up any chick within reach.
It wasn’t casual, it wasn’t out of hunger.
The vet was horrified when he saw it happen, even after being warned.
- Comment on Share this with 5 people or it gets ya 5 months ago:
My mind has a single track, runs at low speed and revolves on a predictable cycle.
A long, convoluted way to say I’m disgusting.
- Comment on What is the optimal handle to chain length for a flail? 7 months ago:
I’m going to risk there is none.
Many hand to hand combat weapons were bespoke to the user.
Using an example I’m fairly familiar with:
In Portugal, we have a martial art called jogo do pau. It uses a simple wooden staff. Today’s schools insist the staff has a standard lenght, width and shape.
An old school practitioner I had the pleasure to meet taught me the staff was always made to fit the wielder, not the opposite.
As a general guide line, it should have the lenght of the distance from the wielder’s armpit to the ground but there would be people that prefered longer or shorter staffs. Some people would prefer thinner staffs, nearly cylindrical in shape, others would prefers heavier, thicker, almost eliptical in profile. The amount of customisation and variation capable of being put into the weapon itself was so diverse, it made each staff unique.
I’d risk this same logic would apply to more classic weapons, like the flails you ask about.
- Comment on [deleted] 7 months ago:
If overall visibility was improved, the argument for onboard cameras would be half dead. If the concern is clearance for objects, apply proximity sensors, by owner request and option and preferably by aftermarket kits.
Telemetry can burn in a trash can.
- Comment on [deleted] 7 months ago:
I’ve heard people debating the feaseability of either removing the camera cluster aboard these cars and remove or disable the wifi module.
- Comment on 8 months ago:
Share that newly gained knowledge and enjoy your ad free experience.
- Comment on Good night sweet prince 8 months ago:
Because lazyness.
I’ve worn down a stove and two electric ovens, about to go on my third, over the course of twenty years, and I always aim for the simplest of the simplest possible.
No pyrolisis function, no steam function.
Just plain convection ovens, ventilated. And if non digital models are to be found, even better.
- Comment on 8 months ago:
Instal the FDroid software shop.
Search “Newpipe” or “Tubular”.
Install one of the above.
Remove the regular YT client from your phone.
Done.
- Comment on Anon files a lawsuit 8 months ago:
About that smell comment.
There are several registered cases of genetically related people that, unknowing they are related, develop attraction and engage in sexual activity. Some cases even mention the couple being more attracted to each other due to scent.
There’s a small article in Wikipedia here.
Now, for an anecdote: I knew a couple that was genetically related and they only discovered they were siblings because they tried to reconstruct their family tree through official records and things came out off.
They already had two perfectly healthy children when I met them. They kept their blood connection as private as possible but they intended to tell their offspring the whole story when they could understand all of it and its implications.
Now about the incest taboo: I find no issue in consenting adults engaging in sexual activity. Normalizing it, I find deeply troublesome. It would completely inbalance relatioships between family members and wreak havoc in the gene pool.
