GreyEyedGhost

@GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca

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The race to decarbonise the world’s economy risks repeating the mistakes of the colonial era by building industries on forced and child labour, rights advocate warns (www.smh.com.au)

Almost 90 per cent of the global supply for polysilicon, a common raw material in electronic devices and solar panels, comes from China, and about half of that comes from Xinjiang, the north-western province that is home to the Uyghurs, says Grace Forrest, founder of Walk Free, a charity dedicating to fight forced labour....

GreyEyedGhost,

I think it would make more sense to replace cost-effective with cheap. It may be cheaper to use a process that makes it likely 80% of the population dies in 35 years, but that’s a huge (non-monetary) cost. The overarching issue is our current economic system ignores those costs that take a generation or more to come due.

GreyEyedGhost,

This has not always been the case, nor does it have to be now. I’m not what has to be done to get government officials on board, but if that doesn’t change soon the future looks pretty bleak.

GreyEyedGhost,

Learn how to do math in your head for the sheer pleasure of it, instead!

GreyEyedGhost,

You missed the part where they literally coordinated with the IDF on their trip, didn’t you? The only reasons this could happen are intentional or criminal negligence. Given how well this fits with the trends, it’s hard to imagine it was negligence.

GreyEyedGhost,

So, criminally negligent.

GreyEyedGhost,

I also think prisoners should be treated humanely, and wonder why people think if we treat criminals like animals they will stop behaving like animals.

GreyEyedGhost,

If you don’t live alone in the woods in a house you built yourself off the food you caught or grew in the clothes you made, you’re surviving on the support of others to one degree or another. We call it civilization. Moreover, these are kids, who had no choice in their birth. And finally, study after study has found a net economic benefit in making sure kids are fed enough to learn, so it is less of a burden than just letting kids starve.

So what’s your reason for preferring to see kids go hungry?

GreyEyedGhost,

I started work at a place, and heard a story of a lady who caught two guys in the women’s showers the day before. I don’t think a sign on the door is going to change much, certainly not after that day.

GreyEyedGhost,

Heaven is anarchy: everyone does what they want, which is to be good and helpful to each other.

Heaven is a (benevolent?) dictatorship: everyone does what God wants, which happens to coincide with their desires.

Heaven is communism: everyone helps each other and has access to the same resources, although since a lack of scarcity is implied, this may not require helping each other out in material means.

Heaven probably isn’t capitalism: given a lack of scarcity, communal access to resources, and everyone having their own housing, organized trade of any kind seems kind of pointless.

Heaven probably isn’t a democracy: if everyone agrees on the major issues, why would you vote on them? That said, everyone in heaven chose to be there, so that’s the one vote you get.

Note the 3 underlying issues in each of those. Similarity of goals, which isn’t going to happen anytime soon; people putting the common good before themselves, which likely won’t happen until…; and a lack of scarcity, which won’t happen until certain currently-unlikely events occur.

GreyEyedGhost,

Someone found a karma generator!

GreyEyedGhost,

There are a number of different types. The two most common ones are the metalized ones, where the sun will appear white, and another kind, where the sun appears yellow. They are both effective protection. The other filters are usually used for solar astronomy equipment, which can also be pretty awesome.

Source: some random person on the internet who was lucky enough to be able to take a trip to see the annular eclipse last year and did a lot of research before buying some equipment.

GreyEyedGhost,

So the seat price will go down, right?

GreyEyedGhost,

You mean besides the former president of the United States, who did it live on international television, right?

GreyEyedGhost,

Comments like this make it clear you have no idea how bad it is in the poorest states, and delusional if you think a system designed to extract the maximum value from each consumer means health care is going to cost you less. I can only assume from you’re statement that you aren’t making 6 figures or more, so you likely will see worse healthcare under a private rather than better. Poverty is twice as high in America, and three times as high in Mississippi, the poorest state.

Housing is also a serious issue, and is affecting far too many people, but the indications are it is just as bad in America.

I don’t think adopting their policies are going to improve our state.

GreyEyedGhost,

Even broke people tend to feel a fair amount of pity and disgust when someone goes broke because of their own stupid decisions. When those stupid decisions include breaking the law, the ratio tends to have more disgust and less pity. Now top that with the person in question being notorious for disparaging broke people, and I think the only people who will get their hackles up about this are his rabid supporters.

GreyEyedGhost,

He might have been talking about the depressed part…

GreyEyedGhost,

I was going to say near misses are usually classified as passing withing the orbital distance of the moon, about 225k miles, or 250k miles for convenience.

Tools for collecting traffic data on my street?

I’m working with my neighbors to petition the city to add traffic calming measures (e.g. speed bumps, one way roads) to my street. I’m also hoping to turn it into a bit of a research project. Does anyone know of any tools to monitor or even automate data collection of the speeds of cars, number of cars going by, how many...

GreyEyedGhost,

A street I used to regularly use had its max speed rwduced to 30 km/h and speed bumps installed. This resulted in me, and apparently many others, not using that street anymore. I’d say they worked pretty well. Some might respond, “Well, now there’s one less road in the area being used by cars, increasing congestion elsewhere.” At which point I’d agree with them, and say that’s probably better than having cars routinely driving past a school.

This sounds pretty similar to the situation the OP is describing.

GreyEyedGhost,

Cosmic radiation is pretty easy to stop. 100 miles of atmosphere, about 10 feet of water, or a few feet of rock will do just fine. There is a lot of rock on the moon.

Nothing in space will really help with the climate crisis, imo. It will help humanity a lot if we get past it, tho.

GreyEyedGhost,

You can do a better job with high-intensity infrared leds, and it won’t bother everyone around you. It’s possible it would be easy to detect by police and may be illegal in some areas.

GreyEyedGhost,

I traveled to see the annular eclipse in October, and I’m traveling to the path of the total eclipse next month. I’m sure they both will be amazing experiences. My last total eclipse is decades ago.

In short, I disagree with this meme.

GreyEyedGhost,

According to Wikipedia, and data for the last century, there were 73 annular and 71 total eclipses, which is pretty close to the same. List of 20th century eclipses. Now, I haven’t checked to see if there are more of one than the other in the eclipse cycle, but given the difference of 2 over a century and the cycle taking 18 years, it can’t be more than one.

But see them while you can. In the distant future, there won’t be any total eclipses.

GreyEyedGhost,

Their statements were treasonous, I’ll grant you, but their actions didn’t go beyond rallies on government properties and congesting streets in the capitol. I think the right legal action is happening, although there could be more people charged. While I think these people are scum, I don’t feel like they crossed the line into illegal statements. There is a difference between saying the elected officials should step down, saying we will remove those officials by force, and actually trying to overthrow the government.

GreyEyedGhost,

I saw that, and if there is evidence of that group being in contact with the two people in this article, that would be relevant. As an aside, looks like a couple of the Alberta people pled out. Hopefully the others get consequences they won’t forget.

GreyEyedGhost,

This is where I am. I don’t miss the cold, but I recognize its losss isn’t a good thing.

GreyEyedGhost,

It’s worth noting that government housing programs started scaling back in the 80s. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

GreyEyedGhost, (edited )

It’s pretty hard to make it up in volume with housing. So it behooves builders to build houses that are as profitable per man-hour as possible. The solution that worked before was government housing. It increases the supply, which lowers prices. It also can put in government-managed caps for price, which puts downward pressure on the prices charged by private homebuilders. This in turn puts pressure to not build as many luxury homes, because the market for them becomes people who want luxury homes and not people who want homes and are willing to buy a luxury home to do so. And that causes an increase in capacity to build less luxurious homes because the house you can sell now is generally more valuable than the house you can sell 3 or 6 months from now.

This isn’t an easy solution. It took us 40 years to get into this mess, and it’s going to take a good while to get out of it.

Edit: also, capitalism tends to put pressure towards profits now more than more profits later, and generally gives no incentive for making the world a better place. Capitalism directs you to charge as much as the market will bear, and the smaller the supply of new homes, the higher a price the market will bear. So this is absolutely a failure of capitalism, and it’s unlikely capitalism will fix it. Only a fool (or an altruistic, and capitalism paints both with the same brush) would go out of his way to devalue his own product. This doesn’t apply to Costco because, as I initially pointed out, making it up in volume is well within their capability.

GreyEyedGhost,

Intelligence follows a normal distribution, hence, for any reasonably large population, mean and median are the same.

GreyEyedGhost,

If you aren’t willing to accept the commonly agreed-upon definitions, which have acknowledged limitations and uncertainties, then why are you bothering to distinguish differences of distribution based on those definitions in the first place?

GreyEyedGhost,

Well, this certainly explains why there are so many building below 4 storeys compared to taller ones, but since most people live in those smaller buildings, I’m not sure what that has to do with the discussion. Moreover, luxury and height don’t have any real correlation - there are any number of brutally utilitarian hi-rises as well as lavish single-storey homes. And yet, marble tiles aren’t much harder to install than Terra cotta, but will make the house fetch a disproportionately higher price on the market. Hence why granite countertops, for instance, are very popular in new homes and renos right now.

GreyEyedGhost,

Simple and easy are two different words. “Start doing something you used to do almost half a century ago and wait 5 to 10 years, and multiple potential changes of government, for tangible results,” is pretty simple, but I wouldn’t say it’s easy. I’m also certain none of the pundits will say, “Look at all the money they spent, and we still have a housing crisis,” followed by, “Sure we fixed one housing crisis, but look at all the people who lost money on the purchase of their homes!”

GreyEyedGhost,

So, basically, the willingness to admit that maybe you were wrong, and willing to be convinced of that with adequate proof. Sounds like somewhere along the way you were exposed to critical thinking and/or open-mindedness.

Biden uses feisty State of the Union to contrast with Trump, sell voters on a second term (apnews.com)

That was one of the more interesting SOTU addresses I’ve seen. Personally, I think he said most of the things that needed to be said, and he said them reasonably well. I’m sure he’s going to get some flack for attacking Trump directly (though not by name), but I was frankly glad to see it. Doing otherwise makes it seem...

GreyEyedGhost,

Jews didn’t exactly do well in Russia, but antisemitism has been popular and the xenophobes there don’t seem to differentiate much between Palestinians and Jews (or a number of other groups). I suspect that Putin would be happier if they all died, and is supporting the team his competitor for global power is against. And the only better outcomes than the group his competitor is propping up winning would be if the one they weren’t propping up won or, better yet, if they both wiped each other out.

So, based on that assessment, he would have no problem with Trump having different opinions in this topic, because his primary goal would be achieved, and his secondary goals wouldn’t be hindered. This isn’t cognitive dissonance, simply realpolitik.

GreyEyedGhost,

I think a different perspective is: First, make the choice that will be least harmful for the country, then do what we can to make things better. Allowing the poorer choice to be made isn’t going to solve the problem any more than fighting against it, but it will probably allow more time to change course.

I wouldn’t call Biden a great president, but I wouldn’t call him terrible. Trump doesn’t have the intelligence to recognize the we have skin to keep things like bleach and UV rays out, or the self-awareness to realize that musings like that are far better done in private where the consequences are smaller.

GreyEyedGhost,

Not defending the probable Russian shill, but Wikipedia is a pretty reliable source. What it is not is a primary source. But every claim has a source whose reliability can be assessed (and what counts as reliable is going to vary from person to person). So, no, if I’m writing an essay or a formal document, I’m not going to cite Wikipedia. But if I’m arguing with strangers on the internet, Wikipedia is a fairly credible place to start backing up your claims.

GreyEyedGhost,

Yeah, that’s some fun logic. A equals B, and B equals C, so A equals C. But this isn’t math and subsets aren’t totality. So hating Russia for warmongering isn’t hating Asians for being Asian.

GreyEyedGhost,

How is that not a win for both business AND labour?

True…as long as your business isn’t producing medicine.

GreyEyedGhost,

Cool, I never knew lesbian couples consisted of two males. What a wild world.

GreyEyedGhost,

I agree with your final statement with respect to cadavers, as well.

Someone has a rare condition that leads to some scientific insight that makes a researcher or company rich, and they get nothing. People make tens of thousands of dollars processing bodies for organ transplants, and the donor’s family get a thank you note.

Let’s not pretend that the medical tissue harvesting and usage system isn’t for-profit. The only people not getting ahead in the process are the people literally giving of themselves for the sake of others.

GreyEyedGhost,

In my fifties, saw porn as a minor. Paper was a thing for the last century, at least!

GreyEyedGhost,

Yeah, this sounds like most small businesses. You could do well, or not. That’s the risk you take. It isn’t for everyone, which is why a lot of people work for other people for a regular wage. They trade the chance of doing really well for (more) stability, and forgo the risk of losing their investment and having to look for a new job.

GreyEyedGhost,

Pretty sure that list applies to paint as well, and can be found in most car manuals.

I just searched the most recent manual for my model car, and it said this:

Washing

To help protect your vehicle’s finish from rust and deterioration, wash it thoroughly and frequently at least once amonth with lukewarm or cold water. If you use your vehicle for off-road driving, you should wash it after each off-road trip. Pay special attention to the removal of any accumulation of salt, dirt, mud, and other foreign materials. Make sure the drain holes in the lower edges of the doors and rocker panels are kept clear and clean. Insects, tar, tree sap, bird droppings, industrial pollution and similar deposits can damage your vehicle’s finish if not removed immediately.

Please try to keep your criticisms of Musk fair and unbiased. Otherwise, you risk weakening your point.

GreyEyedGhost,

Oh, I thought this was a social media platform, where people don’t need to be solicited to post their comments. If you don’t want responses, start a blog. If you dont want responses from me, use the block function. If you want to engage in mostly baseless complaining, expect that people might call you out in a semi-anonymous forum.

GreyEyedGhost,

The judge also ruled that he must pay child support, which is an excellent outcome. Just because he’s not worthy to exercise his parental rights doesn’t mean he should be able to escape his responsibilities.

GreyEyedGhost,

I learned about an Italian movie when I first googled Moana.

GreyEyedGhost,

…Moana. I believe the pronunciation is different.

GreyEyedGhost,

Which one?

I did a web search and OJ wasn’t even on the first page. Amazing.

GreyEyedGhost,

And that would be unfortunate for them, but clearer heads may come to the conclusion that they would have more power internationally than they do now.

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