interolivary

joined 2 years ago
[–] interolivary 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Why does it seem statistically unlikely? If the assumption is that minorities are somehow being targeted, wouldn't statistics like this be exactly what one would see?

[–] interolivary 9 points 11 months ago

If Trump wins, I figure it's fairly likely that Russia will turn its sights towards attacking one of them smaller NATO members at its borders. Probably not a full-on invasion at least at first, but more of a test of whether Article 5 actually holds water or not – and with Trump in charge of the US, it's unlikely he'd decide to stand up against Russia

[–] interolivary 2 points 11 months ago

Average conservative moment. What's scary is that calling for an ethnic cleansing of leftists isn't a fringe opinion anymore, and people like him are gaining more and more power by the year.

And it's not like this is just the US. Here in Europe, Italy is ruled by a party that is a direct descendant of Mussolini's Fascist Party; Hungary is… well, Hungary; extremist right wing parties are very popular in Germany; Finland's government has multiple literal neo-Nazis in it, with one extremist right-wing party eg. blocking legislation that would help guarantee the impartiality of courts; and the list goes on and on. It's pretty telling that at least here in Finland, the under-25's are much more conservative than Millennials or even Gen X – the majority of them voted for either a "fiscally conservative" party (ie. they've started down the "everything I don't like is woke" path and would be fine with concentration camps for leftists as long as they're privately funded) or an extremist right wing party, which has members who have eg. publicly fantasized about murdering gay people and who stan Breivik

[–] interolivary 2 points 11 months ago

Well, whatever the solution to this problem is, I'm fairly sure "put a blockchain on it" isn't going to be it. Distributed ledgers do potentially have some uses, but using them to carry "proof of humanity" information doesn't make much sense

[–] interolivary 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (9 children)

Well, for many publishers the choice is either ads or paywalls. The fact that people feel entitled to get everything for free is a part of why things are going to shit, because ads bring with them a whole slew of perverse incentives (eg. optimizing for ad views instead of content quality)

[–] interolivary 2 points 11 months ago

Oh yeah it absolutely is bullshit, I'm not saying that. Or, well, it is true they're likely collecting tons of data but it's not like US companies don't do it too and for reasons that are probably just as bad. This is why I tend to think that if you're going to ban TikTok for collecting data, you can't ignore Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple et al

[–] interolivary 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

Well, they're totally different platforms . The rationale behind the TikTok ban (and I'm not saying I'm in favor of it or opposed to it) is that they can do spooky spooky things with your personal data and your attention – your opinions can be nudged once there's enough data on you and your eyeballs are on the app half the day. And just to repeat, I'm not saying I agree with the ban (well, not with banning just TikTok anyhow…)

Temu and AliExpress have their own problems (like the absolutely mind boggling waste of finite resources) but nobody's worried Temu is radicalizing boys or collecting tons of your personal data. And yes even Temu does collect data just like everyone else nowadays, but it's a shopping site; compared to a social network there's not all that much you can get out of your users or too many ways to really influence them outside of making them spend more money

[–] interolivary 17 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Are we assuming that everyone is always going to be biking with no other options? I don’t think anyone is even advocating for that.

BUT WHAT IF YOUR LEGS ARE BROKEN? WHAT IF THERE'S A NUCLEAR WAR???

The people who seem to think that biking is an untenable option because you might have to very occasionally use other modes of transport make me wonder if that mindset comes from the fact that people feel that it's normal to only use one mode of transport pretty much ever, because that's how many people are with cars.

[–] interolivary 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're just throwing a tantrum at this point

[–] interolivary 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

… does USENET count as a forum experience? I think mine is from the Core War news group from like '90 or '91

[–] interolivary 3 points 1 year ago

Who says it's not‽

[–] interolivary 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure, but it's not a landline anymore

309
Slightly skanky (beehaw.org)
 
188
ah, yes (beehaw.org)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by interolivary to c/memes@lemmy.ml
 

The image has a stock photo of a chemist with Samuel L. Jackson's head photoshopped on, and he appears to be looking a graduated cylinder with some colored liquid in it.

Near the bottom there's the text "ah, yes".

Below it are two rows that look like they were copied from the periodic table, with atomic numbers at the top, then the abbreviation in the middle and the full name of the element at the bottom.

The first row of elements is Mo, Th, Er (molybdenum, thorium, erbium)

The second row of elements is F, U, C, K, Er (fluorine, uranium, carbon, potassium, erbium)

edit: corrected term to "atomic number"

203
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by interolivary to c/risa@startrek.website
 

Description:

Meme format image. The top half has a picture of Star Trek: The Next Generation's bridge crew with the text "the prime directive forbids us from interfering. We cannot share our technology". The bottom half has a picture of Stargate's SG-1 team and the text "all your gods are false. Here, take these guns."

 

The post's link is to the summary of the research report, and the full 100-page report is linked to at the top of the page.

Here's the summary:

Escalation in the War in Ukraine

Lessons Learned and Risks for the Future

Despite the devastating losses experienced by the Russian military and both the Ukrainian military and civilian population following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, both sides have refrained from pursuing several escalatory options to date. Although Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukraine in several ways, including strikes against critical infrastructure and the civilian population, it has refrained from other options—notable given the high stakes for the Kremlin and the potential capabilities Russia could bring to bear in the conflict. However, if Russian territorial, personnel, and materiel losses continue to mount without improvements on the battlefield, President Vladimir Putin will face an unpalatable set of choices. In the extreme, the conflict offers plausible scenarios for Russia to become the first state to use nuclear weapons in warfare since 1945. This report evaluates the potential for further escalation in the conflict in Ukraine, including the prospects for escalation to Russian nuclear use. It does so by evaluating Russian and Ukrainian behavior in the conflict to date and identifying and assessing the escalation options still open to both sides. The report is intended to inform U.S. and NATO policymakers as they consider how to avoid further escalation of the conflict while assisting Ukraine in its efforts to defeat the Russian invasion and to better inform the public debate around these issues.

Key Findings

Further Russian escalation has likely been restrained by three main factors

  • The factors are (1) acute concerns for NATO military capabilities and reactions, (2) concern for broader international reactions, particularly the potential to lose China's support, and (3) the Russian perception that its goals in Ukraine are achievable without further escalation, making risker actions not yet necessary.

Russian escalation to date has seen limited effectiveness

  • None of Moscow's escalatory measures appear to have altered Ukrainian or NATO behavior in the ways that Putin and his inner circle likely sought. Instead, they have largely hardened Ukrainian and NATO opposition to Russia's invasion.

Further deliberate escalation, including Russian nuclear escalation, is highly plausible

  • Both Russia and Ukraine may still choose to deliberately escalate the conflict further. Six plausible options for Russian escalation were identified that would have the potential to fundamentally alter the nature of the conflict, ranging from a limited attack on NATO to the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine. The most likely potential trigger for Russia to escalate the conflict is a perception that battlefield losses are threatening the security of its regime.

Russian nuclear use could be surprisingly extensive

  • Should Russia decide to use nuclear weapons, it may be relatively unrestrained in their employment inside Ukraine.

Inadvertent escalation risks persist

  • Inadvertent escalation could still occur as a result of military activities that are commonplace on both sides but happen to lead to different outcomes. The longer the conflict drags on, the more such risks will accumulate.

Recommendations

  • U.S. and allied policymakers should prioritize maintaining Alliance cohesion regarding the escalation risks of providing support to Ukraine. Doing so is vital both for ensuring long-term support for Ukraine and for maintaining deterrence of Russian aggression against NATO members.
  • U.S. and allied policymakers should carefully evaluate the trade-offs between enhanced support for Ukraine, including the provision of weapons systems with longer ranges, and managing escalation risks, which may become more acute over time.
  • U.S. and allied policymakers should be prepared to interrupt escalatory spirals from more-intensive Ukrainian attacks inside Russia.
  • U.S. and allied policymakers should robustly plan for how to respond to further Russian escalation, including by prioritizing the maintenance of diplomatic and military communication channels with Russia that could become vital to arrest an escalatory spiral.
165
Plant is you (beehaw.org)
 
 
 

One of Ukraine's staunchest allies, Poland, has said it is no longer supplying weapons to its neighbour, as a diplomatic dispute over grain escalates.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Poland's focus was instead on defending itself with more modern weapons.

Other conservatives will likely want to follow suit

 
 

Democracy remains popular across the world, but faced with a global array of challenges from inequality to the climate crisis, young people are far less likely than their elders to believe it can deliver on what concerns them.

According to a major international survey of 30 countries published on Tuesday, 86% of respondents would prefer to live in a democratic state and only 20% believe authoritarian regimes are more capable of delivering “what citizens want”.

However, only 57% of respondents aged 18 to 35 felt democracy was preferable to any other form of government, against 71% of those over 56, and 42% of younger people said they were supportive of military rule, against just 20% of older respondents.

I wish I could say I was surprised. Here in Finland we had a parliamentary election earlier in the year and ended up with the most right-wing government we've ever had, with zero leftist or centrist parties in the government. One fresh minister had to quit his post due to being a neo-Nazi, and the extremist party whose ministerial post it currently is replaced him with a pedophile neo-Nazi (who won a vote of confidence, so apparently that's not a problem to anybody but leftists.)

Almost half of the under-25's voted for right-wing parties. The most popular one was an extremist right-wing party (multiple neo-Nazis, politicians who openly fantasize about eg. murdering gay people, the works), and 2nd most popular was the "fiscally conservative" party (who really aren't much better than the extremists, and in many ways actually worse).

176
One minor hiccup (beehaw.org)
 

Drawing, vaguely 50's retro style.

In the center is an anthropomorphic egg character, dressed in a "sailor hat", a shirt and a tie, and shorts. The character is walking in a sort of jaunty-looking fashion, but on closer inspection the poor egg is looking a bit ragged, with a large network of cracks on its shell right next to its hat, a missing tooth, and bags under its eyes.

The character is surrounded by the text "one minor hiccup away from losing my shit"

250
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by interolivary to c/europe@feddit.de
 

Image description:

Picture with a slightly run-down looking church's front door on the right side of the picture, and on the left a section of the church's wall and a graffiti-covered dumpster in front of it.

On the wall is graffitied a 4x4 table with the columns labeled from left to right "M", "F", "N" and "PL" – for the masculine, feminine, neuter and plural forms. The rows are labeled from top to bottom "nom", "akk", "dat", "gen" for the nominative, accusative, dative and genetive cases. The corresponding definite articles are written out in the table each in its own spot (I hope screen readers don't barf with tables):

M F N PL
NOM DER DIE DAS DIE
AKK DEN DIE DAS DIE
DAT DEM DER DEM DEN
GEN DES DER DES DER
424
I wish (beehaw.org)
 

4 panel comic.

In the top left panel there's a slightly antropomorphic tortellini that has eyes, and it has a thought bubble reading "I wish I was skinnier". Next to it is a similarly antropomorphic spaghetti thinking "I wish I wasn't so skinny".

In the top right panel there's a small macaroni thinking "I wish I was bigger" and a ravioli thinking "I wish I was smaller".

In the bottom left panel there's a… uh… tube-shaped pasta that I think is a rigatoni thinking "I wish I wasn't hollow inside", and a clam-shaped pasta (lol I give up with the names) thinking "I'm just an empty shell".

In the bottom right panel we can see part of a plate that has the antropomorphic pasta on it, and then the top half of the face of a female-presenting person with dilated pupils, peering over a table edge looking at the plate thinking "I wish I wasn't tripping so hard".

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