merc

@merc@sh.itjust.works

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merc,

People seem to forget these days.

It’s not that they forget. You’re giving them too much credit. The reality is that being against many of the actions of a country is normal. People like Americans, like American movies, but are against many of the actions taken by the US military, the NSA, etc. People like Indians, but are against the actions of the Modi government. If you advocate against the policies of other governments you can get results. Your country can scale down its cooperation with them, or pressure them, or whatever. There’s always going to be some hatred of the country, hatred of the people of that country, hatred of the religion of the people of that country mixed in when the policies of any country are criticized. But, a reasonable person can focus on the main message.

By playing the “antisemitism” card, the Israelis who use it hope to insulate Israel from these normal kinds of criticisms. It’s really the only country that gets to play that kind of card, because it’s the only country founded in the immediate aftermath of a genocide, by the survivors of that genocide, and is the only place where Jews are a majority. They also get to pretend that any decision other than supporting Israel in everything it does is supporting the next genocide against Jews. The reality is that many of Israel’s actions are likely to encourage the next attempted genocide against Jews.

merc, (edited )

It’s inside a ventilation shaft in Cloud City. Maybe people have houses that look out into the ventilation shaft, because it’s at least better than no windows at all?

To me, it looks like panel lights on a computer / machine. But, why have those indicator lights in a ventilation shaft where you only rarely have people?

merc,

That’s by far the most disturbing thing about this post. The movie is 2.35:1. This looks even closer to square than 4:3. If you watched the movie with this framing you’d be missing more than half the movie.

merc,

There’s no reason it shouldn’t work.

dy/dx is the same as (y1 - y2) / (x1 - x2) as the distance between the two points approaches zero. “dx” and “dy” aren’t very useful measurements on their own though.

merc,

I just want to see how happy and relaxed Ensign Picard is. No critical decisions to make. Able to make friends among the crew without his rank getting in the way.

We get to see Captain Picard in Ensign Picard’s body, but we never get to see the slacker who has big dreams but doesn’t bother to push himself.

merc,

So, you know some people who were in a mass shooting, but they lived. If they know some people who died in a mass shooting that’s two degrees of separation between you and a mass shooting death.

As for the mass shootings this week, they include a convenience store robbery, something that seems to be a murder-suicide where someone killed their family, a shootout over a stolen car, shots at a house party. And, in only 2 of those cases (the 5 dead in a house, and the rampage in Maine) were more than 1 person killed. These all technically qualify as mass shootings, but the rampage in Maine is the only kind we really think of as being a typical mass shooting.

It’s far too many. There’s no question about that. It’s also absurd how much more frequent it is in the US compared to other places. On the other hand, the US has a population of 330 million people. So, while the odds of dying in a mass shooting are higher in the US than any other developed country in the world, it’s hardly a warzone. The vast majority of people in the US will not be in a mass shooting ever. Most people will never be shot in their lives. And tourists shouldn’t avoid the US out of a fear of being involved in a mass shooting. Yes, it’s much more likely in the US than in say Japan. But, the overall odds are low.

merc,

Aside from all that, it’s just sane to lock down weapons.

The military knows how dangerous they are, so they don’t let people on military bases just wander around with them. They’re carefully controlled. It’s just insanity that outside the walls the rules are less strict.

merc,

As disturbing as these mass shootings are, they’re still very rare. The vast majority of Americans will never be in a mass shooting, let alone tourists who only visit occasionally.

It’s telling that most American police officers go their entire career without shooting their guns except at the firing range.

But, it is a sign of US dysfunction that the problem is so obvious but there’s zero chance of the problem being solved any time soon.

merc,

What’s unsurprising is how strictly gun control is implemented on US military bases and navy ships.

If you live in barracks on-base and own a personal gun, if often has to be stored in the base’s firearm storage. The only people who can walk around armed are MPs or people on their way to/from authorized training. Even if you have a concealed carry permit for the state the base is in, you can’t conceal carry in the base. If you’re on your way to the base’s firing range and stop to get gas at the base’s gas station, you can’t leave your gun in your car while you go into the convenience store at the gas station unless your car is locked in your trunk. Often even a paintball gun has to be stored in the base armory.

Keep in mind these aren’t rules for random civilians. These are the rules for people who have already had to pass extensive firearms training courses.

It’s pretty insane that random untrained civilians have far fewer restrictions on guns than members of the military on a military base.

merc,

A lot compared to other countries, but not so many that a tourist would have to worry about it, especially if they stick to touristey areas.

If someone decided to go into certain neighbourhoods in certain cities, especially while looking like a tourist, they could get in trouble. But, not visiting the US because you’re afraid of getting shot is like not being willing to swim anywhere in the Atlantic ocean because you’re afraid of being bitten by a shark. In both cases, the danger is minimal unless you ignore the warning signs.

merc,

Games is one of the blockers for me. I’m really hoping the Steam Deck changes things so that Windows is no longer needed at all.

Right now we’re just on stage 1, where almost everything that runs on the Steam Deck needs a compatibility layer. I’m hoping that the next step is developers building for Linux as well as Windows to run better on the Steam Deck, which would mean zero performance loss playing on a Linux desktop.

merc,

It’s the “under proton” I don’t like. It means the performance is never going to be 100% of what you get if you run it natively. Maybe in 90% of games the performance is close enough that I’d never notice, but I play enough games that for now it makes sense to have a dedicated game OS, which is all Windows is these days to me.

merc,

And it’s popular, and it’s something non-Linux users might recognize.

merc,

Probably. Maybe Gentoo is the one where you get the furnace and various molds for various tools, but you have to cast the tools yourself.

merc,

Some iron ore, a ton of clay, and instructions on how to make a furnace.

merc,

But, good enough for just about anything most people need to do on a daily basis. For anything else there’s specialized tools.

merc,

I bet typing that makes you feel like your you’re own worse enemy.

merc,

North Korea’s GDP is on the order of 20 billion per year. Tiny for a country that size, but considering they don’t have to spend any of it on their population, that gives them a lot of bribe money.

merc,

We keep finding life on earth in places where we didn’t think life was possible. And yet, when we look at the stars we have the nerve to talk about there being a “goldilocks zone” for planets in other solar systems, like that’s the only way life could exist there.

I’m sure there’s life out there somewhere, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if carbon/water based life turns out to be a minority in the universe.

Yes, water is a simple compound made of some of the most common elements in the universe, so it’s reasonable to think other life might also evolve to use it. Carbon is also a really handy element for making complex molecules, and is also really common. But, it’s a failure of the imagination to think that life elsewhere has to follow the same basic chemistry as here on earth.

merc,

That doesn’t change the chemistry.

merc,

The atmosphere is made of rocket oxidizer, not fuel. Fuel would be something that reacts with oxygen: Hydrogen, Methane, etc.

merc,

Oxygen isn’t flammable, Oxygen is what reacts with the things that are flammable.

merc,

I don’t want to chat with Chlorine Trifluoride, it’s nasty.

But yeah, there are some obscure situations where oxygen isn’t the oxidizing agent, but the name “oxidizer” gives a clue how rare that is. In most normal situations, oxygen is the oxidizer and the thing it reacts with is the fuel. Partially that’s due to Oxygen being a good electron acceptor, but mostly it’s because there’s a lot of oxygen in the planet, and anywhere you can have humans you pretty much need to have oxygen.

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