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tal, (edited ) to asklemmy in Do you feel a UBI is more left- or right-wing (or other) and why?
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Depends on the implementation, and I think that that’s something of an issue in discussion about it – because its effects depend a great deal on the specifics.

There is a portion of the small government conservative crowd that sees it as a replacement for welfare programs where the government mandates policy. Like, instead of getting, oh, food stamps or such, where the government precisely spells out policy in each area (“this is what you are permitted to buy with this”), people who are poorer than a certain amount would simply get a flat cash payment and choose how to use it. In that sense, it’d reduce the degree of control that government has, which is a goal that they’d like to see.

There’s also a portion of the redistribute-more-wealth crowd on the left that sees it as existing alongside existing welfare programs, rather than as a replacement. For them, if the government has progressive taxation policy (like, income tax brackets or the like), a flat benefit to everyone will tend to redistribute more, which is a goal that they’d like to see.

Both implementations would qualify as UBI – they both provide an unconditional basic income. But the actual effects depend on the implementation.

So when someone says something like “sign this petition for UBI”, I think that a really good question is “tell me what sort of UBI you are aiming to have implemented”, because the details have a very considerable impact on what it is that you’re signing up to support.

tal, (edited ) to asklemmy in Folks in North America, where do you like to get PC parts online these days?
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Mostly Amazon, myself.

If one wants an occasional old gizmo that’s no longer made, eBay can be helpful.

Specifically for cables – which aren’t that pricy relative to other items people buy, and are often marked up a lot by retailers – I’ve gone to Monoprice for quite some years. Useful if getting a bunch of cables.

tal, to asklemmy in How was Rudy Guiliani as mayor of NYC?
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

My understanding – and I’m not a New Yorker – was that he has been often credited with reducing crime in NYC. Part of that was, as I recall, by cracking down on minor crimes, things like aggressive panhandling, with the idea that that was kind of a gateway drug to more-severe crime.

I don’t know whether that approach or him in particular was responsible for it, or whether it was other phenomena at the time – my gut is that changes like that usually aren’t just driven by one person – but my understanding was that crime did considerably fall off around the time, and crime was something that a lot of New Yorkers had been really upset about.

tal, to lemmy_support in Version 0.19.1 outgoing federation issues for anyone else?
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

This post, a day before yours on the lemmy_support@lemmy.ml community, is describing some similar behavior, with some CPU usage at start (at least on the first boot; not clear whether that is a one-off on migration from the text) and then federation problems with 0.19.1:

lemmy.ml/post/9563852?scrollToComments=true

After upgrading Lemmy from 0.18.5 to 0.19.1, the lemmy_server process is taking up 200-350+% of my CPU…It seems like my instance isn’t federating properly now tho.

tal, (edited ) to asklemmy in What could my upstairs neighbor possibly be doing to make this much noise?
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I kind of wish that multi-unit housing came with sound isolation ratings. That’d create an incentive to have better isolation and help customers weigh the tradeoffs.

tal, to asklemmy in What is Something Scientific that you just don't believe in at all?
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I mean, define “scientific”. A currently-held, consensus theory? Because it’s easy to find theories that were developed in accordance with scientific theory, held for a while, but discarded.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_theories

In physics, aether theories (also known as ether theories) propose the existence of a medium, a space-filling substance or field as a transmission medium for the propagation of electromagnetic or gravitational forces. “Since the development of special relativity, theories using a substantial aether fell out of use in modern physics, and are now replaced by more abstract models.”

tal, (edited ) to asklemmy in When will video support be added to Lemmy?
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

You can link to videos if you want. I don’t think that lemmy or kbin instances will likely provide free hosting for them, though.

There is a Fediverse service that provides video hosting, PeerTube.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeerTube

I’m skeptical that it will scale – it costs to host video – but it’s there. You can host something on any PeerTube host willing to serve your content and link to it from the Threadiverse, same as you could on YouTube.

joinpeertube.org

EDIT: For a list of nearby instances:

peertube.fediverse.observer

tal, (edited ) to asklemmy in Is there an app or way to set a start time and end time and totally simulate an automatic sunset with Hue lighting
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I rigged up a simulated sunrise about 20 years back with a regular light, a computer, and an X10 controller back when I slept in a room without windows and wanted a more-gentle way of waking up than an alarm clock. So I totally get wanting to simulate a sunrise.

But why do you want to simulate a sunset?

Also, you might want to ask on !homeautomation, as they specialize in this sort of thing.

tal, (edited ) to asklemmy in Do you feel a UBI is more left- or right-wing (or other) and why?
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Mmm…it depends. So, one particular example I recall calling for UBI without giving any details and urging people on /r/Europe to sign up for it was at an international level in Europe, and I don’t know what, exactly, the implications of that petition were.

But there are definitely systems of government where petitions do make a difference. The popular initiative exists, and there it’s explicitly part of the process.

I’m not really a huge fan of the popular initiative and referendum – I live in California, which uses both, and I think that some of the policy that I think is most ill-considered in California has gone through via that process. However, it certainly can – and has, on a number of occasions, has – had dramatic impact on the state’s policy, as with California’s unusual property tax situation.

…cdn.sos.ca.gov/…/statewide-initiative-guide.pdf

Initiative Statute: Petitions proposing initiative statutes must be signed by registered voters. The number of signatures must be equal to at least 5% of the total votes cast for the office of Governor at the last gubernatorial election. (Cal. Const., art. II, § 8(b); Elec. Code, § 9035.)

The total number of signatures required for initiative statutes is 546,651.

Initiative Constitutional Amendment: Petitions proposing initiative constitutional amendments must be signed by registered voters. The number of signatures must be equal to at least 8% of the total votes cast for the office of Governor at the last gubernatorial election. (Cal. Const., art. II, § 8(b); Elec. Code, § 9035.)

The total number of signatures required for such petitions is 874,641.

Once proponents have gathered 25% of the number of signatures required (136,663 for an initiative statute and 218,661 for an initiative constitutional amendment), proponents(s) must immediately certify they have done so under penalty of perjury to the Secretary of State. (Elec. Code, § 9034(a).) Upon receipt of the certification, the Secretary of State will provide copies of the proposed initiative measure and the circulating title and summary to the State Senate and Assembly. Each house is required to assign the proposed initiative measure to its appropriate committees and hold joint public hearings at least 131 days before the date of the election at which the measure is to be voted on. (Elec. Code, § 9034(b).) However, the Legislature cannot amend the proposed initiative measure or prevent it from appearing on the ballot. (Elec. Code, § 9034©.)

tal, to asklemmy in What's some amazing technology they have in Japan that's very normal to them but would blow our minds here in the US and western world?
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Ditto. Also rest stops.

tal, (edited ) to asklemmy in What's some amazing technology they have in Japan that's very normal to them but would blow our minds here in the US and western world?
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Ironically, I just noticed this morning that the pizzaria on the corner (here, in the US) can take orders via fax (as well as in person, via phone, and on the Web).

I don’t know about today, but back around 2000, stuff on the Japanese market was quite a bit ahead of the US in small, portable, personal electronic devices, like palmtop computers and such. I remember being pretty impressed with it. But then I also remembered being surprised a few years later when I learned that personal computer ownership was significantly lower than in the US. I think that part of it is that people in Japan spend a fair bit of time on mass transit, so you wanted to have small, portable devices tailored to that, and that same demand doesn’t really exist in the US.

Then everyone jumped on smartphones at some point after that, and I think things homogenized a bit.

tal, (edited ) to asklemmy in What is your unpopular flim opinion
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Mine is that I can’t stand the Deadpool movies. They are self aware and self referential to an obnoxious degree.

I haven’t read the comic books that they’re based on for a long time, but as I recall, they also break the fourth wall. I don’t think that that was introduced specifically for the movie.

googles

Apparently that wasn’t always there:

screenrant.com/deadpool-fourth-wall-break-first-t…

When Did Deadpool First Break The Fourth Wall?

Marvel’s Deadpool is known for his over-the-top violence and crude and crass humor, but perhaps his best-known character trait is his penchant for repeatedly breaking the fourth wall. Deadpool talks to the audience in comics, films and videogames - but he didn’t always have this power. In fact, early Deadpool was known for being quite serious and firmly rooted in the fictional realm…so when did the Merc with a Mouth first break the fourth wall - and how did he insult editors everywhere by doing so?

Deadpool and the assassin with superhuman accuracy Bullseye teamed up in previous issues, and in Deadpool , the two are reunited after a long absence. “How long has it been!?” Bullseye exclaims. Deadpool simply states “Issue sixteen.” It’s the smallest of fourth-wall breaks (he hadn’t even began speaking to the readers yet), but it shows that Deadpool is doing more than acting out - he’s acting as his own editor. Considering convoluted comics continuity, it’s normal for editors to occasionally place footnotes in certain panels, specifically when characters reference past events. Perhaps Kelly and Woods considered the old method, but wanted to try a new technique. Whatever their reasoning, Deadpool’s fourth wall breaks became a staple of the character.

Looks like Deadpool dates to 1997, though, so Deadpool breaking the fourth wall has been around for over a quarter of a century.

tal, (edited ) to asklemmy in What RSS readers should I recommend to others?
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I don’t think that RSS is a reasonable alternative for social media at all. Different use case for me.

I mean, I’d use it if I had a selection of known sources that publish content regularly that I like enough of to see all the content and have a website. Only a few sources actually meet that bar for me. Then, RSS lets me put a common interface on all of them, combines a list of new content.

I use something like Reddit or the Fediverse to take advantage of people finding useful content elsewhere, which is kind of a different use case.

I mean, you’re on social media here, rather than just following an RSS feed, so presumably RSS doesn’t replace social media for you either.

tal, to lemmyshitpost in The four houses dads belong to.
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

You can get portable compressors.

tal, to asklemmy in What food/drinks are the best sources of magnesium?
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Magnesium supplement pills, I imagine.

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