Is that the one with the “dinos”? I recall a short story about teleportation in that manner, and something happened, but it was the confirmation that got delayed. So the original person was up walking around, waiting to be sent again, drinking tea, etc… when the equation had to be balanced. Stories like that really make you think, not just bam-pow-punch-kick… in space.
Okay that’s definitely not the one I was thinking of. However, he reportedly wrote a story a year for Issac Asimov’s periodicals for almost two decades, plus his many actual books, so it is no surprise that some of his themes were re-used, yet hard to find the name of:-).
I thought the one I am thinking of was neat b/c the dinos were gate-keeping offering their transportation technology to humanity, thinking that surely no warm-blooded mammal could possibly keep their emotions in check to do what must needs be done, unlike the cold heart & keen mind of a reptile.
In other works like his collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke “Altered Carbon”, Pohl used the concept of that “stack” to limit the spread of one human mind that would otherwise just be spread out amongst the stars with as many copies as bodies could be found to hold them. But in other anthologies there were other limitations preventing that (and presumably some others still that I haven’t read where those limitations were removed?:-P).
We here at Boeing Airlines have realized our continued recent issues and failures, and for that we sincerely apologize to any and all affected passengers and crew members....
At the same time, his leaving was also a success story in itself. He had all the money he ever needed in life, he was at the top of his game except just was exhausted working that continual grind, and was feeling his age so unlike e.g. any member of Congress, decided to voluntarily relinquish his power in order to create room for new people to step up, while he went on to blaze entirely new pioneer territory outside of mainstream TV, which was quite a risk even for someone like him. Wow… what a class act! 😍
Trevor’s standup specials are all really good, both before and after he came to America. He has a strong act, talking about his personal life and responses to that.
But he wasn’t as good a fit in a team environment talking about mainstream American matters, except ironically when the show was “over” for the day and he talked more in his personal voice again. I strongly hope to see him land somewhere else where I can enjoy him again - I’d definitely keep following his comedy specials.
Though nothing compares to Jon Stewart being back in the saddle again!!! 🎉 🤩
Yeah, and CGP Grey, Ian Danskin’s Innuendo Studios, I enjoy the Crash Course series though more classes than topical, and Kurzgesagt is amazing though has their own type of bias.
But if I want to know something about e.g. Boeing or train derailments or a deep dive into student loans, or something I did not even know that I wanted to know about e.g. the current status of ethical farming wrt chocolate, or food delivery apps, he has it all covered. So it is not only the depth that is fascinating, but the width and breadth of coverage as well (both wrt a single video and moreover the number of those total).
Unfortunately it mixes in opinion and interpretation directly integrated alongside the delivery of the facts. So it is funny (juvenile), informative (truly!), and overbearing all at once, and seems designed to leave you feeling more informed than you actually are upon watching.:-(
Still, they offer so very many videos on so very many topics, and I have never seen anything these days that comes close - e.g. their Boeing video describes more in 10 of its 30 minutes than a typical TV “documentary” these days (at least, of the type my mother watches), and then it goes on to cover essentially what a full length feature film documentary would cover, all in something digestible while eating a lunch (or two). And I respect that so much - that takes effort and skill that is hard to match.
I normally despise animated gifs - bc THEY NEVER F-ING STOP!! (seriously, how difficult would it be for the browser to allow it to play 3-5 times and then auto-pause it!?) - but in this one case I will make an exception:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders have applauded the US for passing a vital €89 billion aid bill which has been struggling to make it through the House of Representatives for months....
While true that the timing is shit, the amount is nowhere close to “table scraps” - this seems like it will legit be helpful, maybe even enough to turn the tide in Ukraine?
Also, it’s not like Congress fed its own and then waited months to feed the dog - rather, dinner for the entire family was delayed from the start of the fiscal year 2024 in October 1 until just a few weeks ago, involving the ousting of one Speaker of the House and almost doing so to the second as well. And now, this aid package for Ukraine may likewise finish the job of getting the Speaker kicked out, bc any time the government is “functional” is considered bad by some elements.
But the timing from passing the federal budget itself to passing this aid package is actually quite short. Yes it’s half a year late, but it did eventually happen, and the amount of aid is large, so is a “success” by multiple metrics, and all the more so given the opposition. If we do end up having a civil war as people like MTG are calling for, this may well be the last aid package that the USA ever manages to pass in the final stages of its democracy.
So imho we should take the win and be happy - we may not get to celebrate Congress doing routine activities like “passing budgets” very often in the future, even six months late.
There’s a lot we could unpack there - e.g. it makes me all the more glad that they passed this, since we’ve already spent it either way!?
One quick item: Biden has stated that the aid can be there this week. He was prepared to spring on this. As you already said, this package was mostly to replenish already-spent funds, not as much directly to push forward with new ones. Although with that replenished stamina, I would expect to see new pushes happen as well.
Another big item is that Ukraine is not a member of the EU or NATO. As such it is “entitled” to nothing - everything that is being offered is purely voluntary. So, compared to nothing, $60B USD is quite a lot? Hence why he is grateful, and rightly so.
Another is that the USA does not need to be the sole provider of this aid - not that I am glad for the pause, but given that it happened anyway, I was heartened to see other nations rise up and cover the slack. And now for the USA to join the right side of history - well, better late than never, and all the more so with an amount this big!:-)
As you pointed out, the biggest one is that there is a faction within the US government that looks to be wanting Ukraine to fail, or more precisely for Russia to win. If Trump “wins” the next election, one way or another (i.e. legally or… otherwise), the USA may even go so far as to join Russia against Ukraine?! But for now, even delaying that aid may hamper it enough for Russia to finish the job. Maybe. Even so, this particular aid package got passed. Come what may, this one is a success. It is as important to celebrate success as it is to call out failures - failing to do either is biased, and therefore wrong.
Speaking of, the USA may also fail one day, less due to direct Russian military intervention and more from an internal civil war. But not today, b/c again, come what may, this particular aid package got passed, whoo-hoo!:-)
Russia can be smart… in some ways, sometimes (while also simultaneously dumb in others, as aren’t we all?:-P). e.g. wasn’t it 2025 that Germany was scheduled to eliminate its dependence upon Russian oil (or was it rather all?) for energy. Knowing this does seem likely to have influenced the timeline of events somewhat, seeing how in that regard at least (and some others) it was the perfect time to strike - i.e. if they had waited longer it would have become far more difficult?
And let’s be blunt: if they had managed to take over what they wanted in that “three-day” timetable as initially planned, wouldn’t Europe have simply let them have it? As we consider that, let us not kid ourselves here b/c this invasion has gone on for a decade at this point - Georgia, Crimea, the area west of Crimea, etc. - each time citing “no, I swear, this was all that I wanted, I won’t do this ever again, I promise”. So if EU nations are somehow shocked, Shocked I tell you, SHOCKED, that those leopards would not one day turn and eat THEIR faces off, then I don’t know what to tell them…
However, I was pleased to note how e.g. Germany quickly turned its economy upside down and started mass-producing weapons. They tend to be a very smart and technically-minded people, so I for one have no problems believing that it at least could have been a strategic move on their part to “not have weapons”, when they were not immediately needed, yet also be ready to start producing them at a moment’s notice when the need for such became apparent - as you pointed out.
Likewise but with very different factors involved, those nations physically closest to Russia may have wanted weapons yet been afraid of enraging the bear by having them? So what I am trying, probably ineptly, to say is that it may not “purely” be due to willful ignorance on behalf of every EU nation, to lay down those older-style weapons that cost a lot yet haven’t been necessary for literally decades. A better cost-to-benefit ratio may have been to invest in something like energy independence, so long as the military factor was covered at some very minimal level.
Plus technology changes so fast… as we are seeing live in Ukraine, “tanks” were not the big thing, especially as Russia heavily misused them at first, compared to drones, right? So EU nations were “not prepared”, in the specific sense, but by investing into robotics and batteries and such, the converse does not seem quite true either i.e. we cannot say that those same nations were not entirely “unprepared” either?
That is why it is so amazing that Ukraine is holding off Russia, essentially acting as the shield for the entire fucking world, making Russia expend all of its military might & resources upon it, which could otherwise be put to use elsewhere, into saving up and preparing for the next target, which they ofc according to Russa “we have no plans for, b/c Ukraine is all that we want, we promise”!
Ukraine really does deserve aid then - they’ve earned that. But… there are >100 Republicans who seem to believe rather that Russia has “earned” the right to take whatever they want. And that should worry us all, around the world.
I mean… that depends on what metric you are going by, I suppose.
Not by personal happiness, or by health outcomes, or “freedom”, or safety, or education, or (non-military) technology, or … well the list gets rather extensive.
To be fair, the USA did used to lead the world, e.g. being first if not to space then to the moon, and we sequenced the human genome, and computers were invented here, and there’s Hollywood serving up movies and culture all over the world, etc., so I am not knocking any of the past achievements. Notably, after WWII we did get a bit of an “uneven” start compared to countries like the UK that were bombed by Germany whereas the USA emerged fairly unscathed, and yet we took that headstart and really went for it! We indeed were the most successful country in the world - unquestioned by almost anyone.
However, lately… well, “the economy” is still booming, but most average people are going to die significantly sooner than their parents generation did, possibly by a terrorist event such as a school shooting that we have nothing whatsoever to try to stop, health outcomes are abysmal, and many millennials and especially Gen-Zers strongly doubt that they will ever be able to afford a home, seeing how homes have become “investments” rather than places to live in, colleges costs have quintupled, most jobs today for younger people are “temporary” positions in the gig economy, etc. etc. etc.
You do bring up a good point: compared to the rest of the world we still do have it pretty good, in some ways. It is just that compared to how we ourselves used to have it e.g. 50 years ago, we are doing significantly worse, relatively speaking.
Look at almost any list, e.g. the top 10 scientific discoveries, or engineering accomplishments, and America barely makes those lists anymore. Other nations with drive & heart like India or China are sacrificing so that they can outpace us. That’s fine I guess, they needed their turn:-). But at some point we should ourselves: what exactly makes us “successful”… these days?
You might think that I am one of those that hates America, but I do not think of myself that way, it is just that I am questioning our place and how it has changed over the years. Though perhaps I am simply paying attention to the wrong sources, so if you want to send me something to read or watch that answers that, I would like to learn. So far though, everything that I have learned lately ends up just depressing me b/c it at least appears to be a decay, and not just morally.
That sucks - I keep hearing that kind of thing from more and more people, the last person telling me that in Canada. Fwiw, it is a Saturday Night Live sketch, poking fun at ourselves as to how we inconsistently use measurement schemes, like some less popular sports use meters, but the most popular ones use the English ones like feet. I wonder why it is blocked, wherever you are.
If anyone knows, I would be interested in hearing: like should I not share YouTube videos anymore these days? Or only share/avoid certain corporate types? (Whereas certain others such as CPG Grey’s videos would truly be a tragic loss if they could not be shared) I presume Piped videos would likewise be blocked too? Are they blocked only in certain countries, or like most ones outside of the USA? Is the URL still useful, like to put into Vanced or some such, or would something else help better like the title, or again should I just not share them? I don’t know any of these answers but in any case, thank you for sharing with me your experience here.
If someone told you to just use Windows on your computer, b/c it will take care of you, would you listen?
There is some truth to both statements, but in any capitalist society it behooves one to be aware, since many people and especially corporations will try to take advantage of ignorance.
I use Blokada - but not the latest version since the company switched from the free open-source standalone app paradigm to a cloud-based continual paid subscription model. It seems like Blokada version 4 (obtained either from the company’s webpage or F-droid I forget which) blocks a heck of a lot more stuff than version 5 for some reason.
On the other hand, it also noticeably heats up my phone if a not-well-behaved app (examples include Freemium games) continually resubmits queries over & over again every (or even multiple times a) second. You can block every request that it makes… but it can also keep making them so… at some point you may question whether the cost is worth it.
This arguably relates more to “tracking” than actual advertisements, since there can only be a finite number of the latter but the former can happen all day every day even when the app is not running, if it decides to be aggressive about checking in with its home base. These days, even if you do pay for something, your data is STILL the actual “product” that is the reason the company is in business at all to obtain.:-(
Thank you for helping fill out this list. May I ask why you moved away from Blokada? Version 5 is bad ofc, and 6 is far, FAR worse, but 4 worked well for me.
It looks like AdAway has some nice features since I saw it last, like the ability to whitelist a particular app. If it does not require root permissions, it might be a clear winner even.
Yeah I still use Blokada 5 on my daily driver - it generally works “well enough” for most things, so I never bothered to switch to 4 on it. But I did notice that if you try to play a game on it, it’s like the ad blocker isn’t even there, whereas version 4 worked a lot better straight away. I may just not have played around enough with the settings of 5 though:-).
It is one of the larger servers for one. Some people after blocking lemmygrad.ml and hexbear.net also block lemmy.ml too. Not me bc I like the memes:-). Anyway it is how they want to be, I guess.
What I wonder is… how?! A quick search shows that half of people in the USA use Chrome, another 30% Safari, 8% use Edge, and only 5% Firefox. This study was done by Ghostery so perhaps they chose a biased subset of the population? It just seems weird to me to think that more than half of average users use ad-blocking, these days.
I am no historian personally, but from what I am hearing, even if a former President had only had to deal with a tenth of the issues that Biden has - heck, just pick COVID alone out of that ginormous list - that he already has dealt average to above average with it. But when you put them all together - like you had a whole list and still didn’t get to huge concerns that people have like the border issue - then it becomes supremely admirable, in relation to what he has had to deal with.
I wonder if some of that may be due to the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle early on in his Presidency, but even there he owned up to that, despite how it was Trump who caused >95% of it, and anyway that was years ago now. Another part is that the process he chooses to use to get things done is slow and boring, and then he doesn’t grandstand to the extent that past Presidents have done.
The media has consistently been instantaneous to blame Biden whenever there is the tiniest thread of a future thought that he might be to blame, but then when he does things like help out the train workers, or lower gas prices, those achievements barely register. This is “biased reporting”, arguably so much so that we are not “informed” by what they say and thus it seems not “reporting” so much as showing “advertisements” for things that bleed & lead.
Fox News is correct - hurk 🤮 - when it says that our “lamestream media has failed us”. Ofc it is also corrupt and it does even worse, but if that much at least were not a true statement then it would not have half the viewership that it does.
Like Brexit, we have allowed our government to fall into such disarray that we will never be seen the same way again on the global stage. Nor should we.
Keep in mind that people will PROMISE that, but then not deliver. Worse, they will promise it and then WILL deliver their distorted view of it - an example is Trump “draining the swamp”, which he did, sort of, so long as you define “draining” as “installing” and “swamp/corruption” as “efficient and capable leadership, using fact-based policymaking decisions rather than whoever donates the most gets to wear the shiny hat”.
If you can just remember that “good=bad” and vice versa, “up=down”, “forward=reverse” and so on, then the fact that conservatives want to “innovate” the nation to “remove corruption” is a “good” thing!:-)
Sadly, whether we vote on it or not, powerful people are going to implement the 4th Turning regardless. Possibly they will use corporations to become powerful lobbying groups and then after taking over the government from the inside turn around and use the facade of it to take over, or maybe they’ll just do an end-run around it altogether and let us have whatever silly little government we want, while they ignore it and do whatever they please free of interference from it. Most likely they will do both at the same time. Source: they have already been doing both of these for decades, and while corruption goes back beyond the dawn of humankind lately the swing does seem to have turned more towards rather than away from it.
I meant that people like Matt Gaetz and MJT are promising to make the 4th turning happen, by escalation of the existing obstructionism and even outright bringing about a second civil war. I do not think it will happen so quickly, but they will try again, and again, and maybe one day it will. So this is a time of “replacement”. But I did not read the book, just a wikipedia article about it, so probably I am not matching up the terms well.
Like at some point, after your standard 5 (vision, sound, touch, taste, & smell), those dimensions gotta start wrapping back around to where they started. And at that point they must have to go THROUGH your tissues to do it.
I am saying that one of them surely is an electrified butt-plug. So that’s six, and after that… that’s where shit REALLY starts to get freaky!
I think it is more complex than that - as in yes but also no at the same time.
The media used him to gain moar profitz, fo sho. Forget “equal time”, they git it to whoever says the most inflammatory stuff imaginable 😡.
Dems probably wanted him to win out over Ted Cruz, who may arguably have been worse, as in less amenable to being controlled. If you get a chance, watch that video of him where his family makes material for an upcoming election campaign, and the camerman only pretends to turn off the camera - you can get the real, unfiltered look at how they treat him and vice versa. He is legit scary.
And don’t forget the hand that Repubs had in all of this as well: it was supposed to be Bush (JEB) vs. Clinton, but he fumbled, but then they could not punt it down the road to try to win Congress rather than the Presidency b/c they had previously spent 8 years denying all judicial nominations during Obama’s Presidency. They HAD to get the Presidency, so ultimately they still backed Trump despite knowing what that would mean.
And it cost the Repubs dearly: most of their entire old-guard is gone now, having been replaced not with the newer Tea Party faction but now even the Alt Right. Very few have remained after Trump’s multiple purges. Those that are there are extremely volatile - see e.g. Matt Gaetz ousting the former Speaker of the House a few months ago, and Marjorie Taylor Green the Jewish space-laser woman who had literally advocated openly for actual civil war, plus also threatened to oust the next/current Speaker. Trump opened the door to these… and others just like them.
Dems in turn had extremely little chance to have won that 2016 election: when else in modern history has a 2-consecutive-term, 8-year Democrat Presidency ever been followed by another Democrat one, rather than switching over to a Republican in the White House? (Obama x2 > Bush x2 > Clinton x2 > Bush Sr. x2 and also Reagan x2 > Carter x2 > Nixon & Ford - but not since Kennedy & Johnson has that happened for Democrats). On the other hand, if they had not tried to take the White House, then Roe v. Wade was at risk - which as we saw, happened, and now women are dying, some areas are turning into “medical care deserts” where people would have to drive HUNDREDS of miles to get even normal birthing care - and women are being tracked in order to prevent their access to “specialized” care, including abortion but so many other things as well too that are not just abortions.
So whether they wanted him to be crazy and edge out JEB and Ted Cruz back then or not, yeah I get it, but that was back then - that does not mean that they want him now!? Maybe, but that’s a matter of opinion rather than fact, and I kinda doubt it, b/c there’s a highly realistic chance that despite him having been impeached twice that he may yet not only run but winagain!?
*The Measure of a Man and a Man* (lemmy.world)
Apple, SpaceX, Microsoft return-to-office mandates drove senior talent away (arstechnica.com)
I hate to go as cliche as “surprising absolutely no one,” but really, this is not a surprise.
My phone is just one big shitpost (lemmy.world)
Net neutrality is back as FCC votes to regulate internet providers (www.cnn.com)
I bet he has an evil King *Monday* in the back yard too. (lemmy.world)
Boeing is changing their brand name
We here at Boeing Airlines have realized our continued recent issues and failures, and for that we sincerely apologize to any and all affected passengers and crew members....
"Are you trying to make this OJ?": Jon Stewart warns media's Trump trial coverage could backfire (www.salon.com)
Daily Show host blasts media for treating the “most mundane bulls**t” as “Earth-shattering”...
Do not trust it. Do not follow it. (lemmy.world)
I call this ImageMagick! (lemmy.world)
Zelenskyy thanks US after House passes aid bill (www.euronews.com)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders have applauded the US for passing a vital €89 billion aid bill which has been struggling to make it through the House of Representatives for months....
Russia killing and torturing Ukrainian Christians, not 'protecting' them. Ignore MTG. (www.usatoday.com)
House Speaker Michael Johnson is right to advance Ukraine aid package. Stand against Russian propaganda....
The Eurobean Mind Cannot Comprehend (lemmy.world)
European mind cannot comprehend this (lemmy.world)
Taylor Swift needs a glass of water at night too (files.catbox.moe)
Admit, who of you is this? (lemmy.today)
Total ecstasy (lemmy.world)
What's The Best Adblocker For Android Phones?
I’m talking full phone and blocking. Not just browser....
Star Trek Coffees Launching In May With Several Blends (trekmovie.com)
English, old (sh.itjust.works)
Trump’s Call for Israel to ‘Finish Up’ War Alarms Some on the Right (www.nytimes.com)
NY Tizzimes Archive
Beware of sneak attacks (i.imgflip.com)
Majority of Americans now use ad blockers (www.theregister.com)
It’s Not the Economy. It’s the Pandemic. (www.theatlantic.com)
What are the other 6 Ds? (lemmy.world)
We should address the cause of why Trump is here (theweek.com)