adespoton

@[email protected]

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

Canada expresses concern about human rights violations in China's Xinjiang region, groups urge U.N. human rights chief to take more action over "documented abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslims" ( www.reuters.com )

Canada's ambassador to Beijing visited the region of Xinjiang last week and expressed concerns about human rights violations directly to local leaders, the Canadian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday....

adespoton ,

But wait… didn’t China say the re-education camps were a hoax, that Muslims have the same rights as everyone else in China, and that any issues they’d been having had already been resolved?

adespoton ,

You realize that a significant portion of the bible is the collected letters and works that were at the time (that it was assembled) considered credible, right?

There’s a period of around 80 years that’s pretty hard to account for, but unlike the four gospels where there’s little corroborating evidence that tracks back into that 80 year period, the epistolary works are pretty likely to be authentic. They also reference a bunch of other letters that didn’t survive, something that tends to make them more likely authentic than not. And they involve people who were eyewitnesses of a man named Jesus (or Joshua or Yeshua if you prefer) and his younger (step) brothers.

The rest of the statements about him were solidified by 80 years or so after his death, but all the accounts don’t quite line up — which is actually a good argument for them being based on actual events.

So while there may be plenty of room for debate as to how much of the biblical teachings actually originated with a man named Jesus, his actual existence seems more evident than, say, Shakespeare.

adespoton ,

That’s how epistemological analysis works… if the general structure is the same but everyone pulls different meaning out of an event, something probably happened. If everything lines up exactly, someone probably faked the letters. If there’s totally conflicting stories, the record has been tampered with too much to say anything. If there’s no record, there’s nothing to say one way or another.

adespoton ,

Basically, people are more aware of how they, personally, are affected by the economy.

The economy in general is doing better, but the majority of citizens are able to apply less and less of that to the things they value, and they see more and more of it being funnelled to the already wealthy.

adespoton ,

Put it behind a PiHole that drops all traffic to Microsoft servers?

adespoton ,

I find that odd actually; eucalyptus contains an oil that quite a few people are allergic to. I’d never heard it was a rare allergy, in fact, elements of its oils are often associated with allergies:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273331261_Eucalyptus_oil_Contact_allergy_and_safety

adespoton , (edited )

I was with you up until the “so fast under Modi” bit.

Modi was chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and has been PM since then — a decade.

It’s been a slow and predictable train wreck with a lot of momentum.

Meanwhile, he dismantled the caste system but it’s still going strong with only the exceptions being celebrated.

adespoton ,

Young Canadians don’t hate Canada; they hate the boneheaded ideas thought up in Parliament and they hate that they’ve been priced out of owning a part of Canada.

If you don’t have a voice or land, and see no hope that you ever will, why would you be happy with how things are?

adespoton ,

If you think modern Zionism is about religion in anything but name, or that Palestinian nationalism is about Islam in anything but name, what you believe is even more questionable than what they believe.

If all religion vanished overnight, the same people would be fighting over the same land with many of the same arguments, but something else substituted for the religion.

Tribalism knows no borders.

adespoton ,

I know it’s not what it meant, but I had these visions of tactical nuclear powered drills….

adespoton ,

But once you start a tactical nuke drill… how do you stop it?

adespoton ,

This isn’t helped by most websites reinventing themselves every couple of years so the old links 404 even though the content still exists.

adespoton ,

I’m currently using my 2008 MacBook Pro. For basic web browsing, text editing and music playing, it works great. And for other stuff it handles remote desktop sessions just fine.

On the original topic, I can’t say that I’ve seen any Chinese vehicles on the road or for sale… is the government trying to get out in front of that one?

The big issue is bicycles — every bicycle (especially the electric ones) has a bunch of components only available from China, with other manufacturers priced out of the market years ago.

4ish years ago when I bought a house I was convinced not to get a house inspection, would it be crazy to get one now just to make sure it's all good?

Was 25 and super nervous, so when the realtor was like "oh yeah they just check for basic stuff, but I looked around and it looks great" I was like "Oh okay, this is so astronomically expensive every penny saved is good..."...

adespoton ,

I was looking during that rush, and did my own inspections. Every single place, I asked questions that resulted in a “NEXT!” from the seller. Never even got to the point where I’d have called in an outside party. Looked at around 30 houses.

Ended up buying a new build instead; still had things the inspectors missed, but nothing huge.

adespoton ,

It’s not miserable, just different. But not too different — I’ve lived in districts with 3k people and cities with 1.6m and found that the big cities are mostly just clusters of little 3k communities squished together, with a few differences like 24/7 activities/clubs and arenas. And cheaper food.

I saved up for 19 years to buy a home, and even then almost missed the opportunity. At this point, I’d buy a 200k home in ruralia in a heartbeat as long as it had reliable affordable Internet and somewhere within an hour’s drive that had stores I could shop at.

But it all depends on what you already know how to live with.

adespoton ,

A train is a collection of rolling railcars propelled by one or more locomotives. These are individual self-powered railcars.

So no, there’s no train here. Just monorail pods that will get congested as density increases.

The whole concept of a train is that all the cars move together and the only congestion is at the switching yards, where it can be optimized.

adespoton ,

How else are they going to win the rail pod challenge?

adespoton ,

Anything faster would be a safety issue.

adespoton ,

They may need to rename The Progress Report at this rate….

adespoton ,

I’ll be interested to find out when the intrusion happened and what the target was. So far all we know is when the intrusion was discovered and when it was announced to whom.

adespoton ,

(Im)plausible deniability.

If a crack squad flies in, kills him, and flies home, that’s a pretty good indication India was involved.

By convincing a local group to do it, India can pretend they had nothing to do with it.

adespoton ,

Man thinking about the Roman empire clock now reset to 0 (again).

adespoton ,

Indeed. What about returning to Tims being a Canadian company and serving actual freshly made donuts? And as others have said, why not bring back mugs? And maybe sell travel mugs from the counter and allow discounted refills, and do away with travel lids altogether? It’s not like those plastic single use lids were a part of the original Tim’s experience.

While we’re at it, we can close down the drive through; that’s not original Tim’s either.

adespoton ,

It’s to enforce Chinese law abroad. Google “canada chinese police stations”.

adespoton ,

Unfortunately, with the Belt and Road initiative, large parts of Africa already have well established Chinese police presence too.

adespoton ,

The news here is that the US “may have” admitted it finally.

adespoton ,

Yes… and someone to their liking has the possibility to be a more stable, longer lasting relationship. Plus, they’ll come with a stronger support network.

So if you think of a marriage as being to promote stability and perpetuate humanity, arranged marriages make sense. If you think of a marriage as something based solely on romance, the experts are obviously the people getting married.

Personally, what I’ve seen in western society is that people tend to live common law, and when a couple feels like they’re fairly stable together and they want to have children, then they get married.

This obviously doesn’t work in a society where you don’t get to try out living with someone first, or where birth control is frowned upon.

American wanting to move abroad, what's the best bet for an registered nurse?

Hi there, I'm a registered nurse in Phoenix, Arizona and I'm seriously considering moving abroad because this country is driving me insane for a lot of reasons. I was considering moving to Israel since I'm Jewish and I've heard they have a better healthcare system there and pay nurses well but this war has made me not really...

adespoton ,

If you don’t want to move far and want a similar but more centrist culture, you could move to Canada — this would make it easy to move back in the future if you want. And unlike many Americans, as a RN, you could actually move without much difficulty. I know a number of RNs who have made the move and are happy about it.

adespoton ,

Worth noting that the Prime Minister does not have the same executive powers as the President. If Polivere actually wins a majority of seats (unlikely), he’ll still have to work with everyone else to get things done.

It’s more likely the conservatives will win just enough seats to have to run a minority government and work with the Liberals, NDP, BQ and possibly Greens. And I don’t see the current conservative party surviving more than one election cycle.

adespoton ,

Spoken like a true neglected 13 year old boy.

As you get older, you’ll find that actual relationships are more rewarding than trolling.

adespoton ,

Yes they do… including not holding a charge when the differential drops too far.

The real wins are in battery-backed capacitors. Charge the caps fast, then let them keep the batteries topped up.

adespoton ,

Are we sure they were bombs and not random airplane components?

adespoton ,

“We don’t have a contract with our customers. They can choose to shop elsewhere tomorrow if they don’t like the offer that we’re giving,” he said.

Interesting choice of words. I spend over $500 a shopping trip, and am a PC Express member (which means I have a contract with them).

I haven’t been shopping with them already for a few weeks because of some issues I experienced at my local store. I don’t blame the store either; I directly blame management at head office who have been methodically stripping power away from local managers over the past four years.

A Columbia professor wanted to document history. NYPD arrested him outside his home ( www.usatoday.com )

Gregory Pflugfelder had just finished the final class of his career at Columbia. In 28 years at the university, he achieved many accolades as a professor of history who taught a popular course on Japanese monsters – mostly focused on Godzilla and "the role of the monstrous in the cultural imagination."...

adespoton ,

“Generally speaking, there is still a First Amendment right to record in public as long as they’re not interfering with police,” Wong told USA TODAY. “To me, this sounds like a devious arrest.”

Ah, but who defines “interfering?” Is it “what a reasonable person would consider to be interference” or “whatever the police consider to be interference?”

Because under the second definition, police could arrest a judge that refused to issue them a warrant and get away with it.

adespoton ,

If you use it for everything, when you use it ceases to be useful information for data gatherers.

It’s why companies have data retention policies. That way they can’t be accused of intentionally destroying data to hide things, because they destroy ALL data like that.

adespoton ,

Along with the other answers:

Because cooked cowflesh smells delicious, and there are companies out there that are willing to capitalize on that.

The bigger question is: why do people still drink cows milk? And the answer to that one is all about politics and power.

My friend's boyfriend's therapist said that he is an abuser who is trying to look like the victim. What does this mean?

My friend has been talking with this 24 year old man online since early 2022. She is into stereotypical nerds that are on the chubbier sides. He is a stereotypical nerd both inside and out, and is 350 lbs at 5"11. She thinks he's the cutest man she's ever seen. She met him on Reddit, he lives in California while she lives in...

adespoton ,

I can’t tell if he’s actually bad or not.

You know what? Neither can we.

People don’t tend to be “good” or “bad” but usually just have various strengths and weaknesses. It sounds like this guy has an intense need for external validation, and your friend has an intense need for emotional attachment. As long as they stay as just friends and don’t become codependent, that should work out just fine; he’s probably right that as a romantic relationship there’s pretty much no way this one will work.

And that’s ignoring the “do either of them have abusive or manipulative tendencies” angle. The big thing is that neither of them should depend solely on the other for emotional fulfillment.

adespoton ,

Sounds like a potentially healthy relationship; I’ve had lots of similar ones on the Internet over the years, usually focusing on special interests. Although if someone tries to make it romantic I mention I’ve got a SO and have no interest in changing that relationship. Never had anyone try to push things further anyway or manipulate me. One of the benefits of the Internet is you can usually just drop the relationship if you need to.

adespoton ,

Along with the other comments on UDID, IMEI and MAC, I’d just like to point out that phones don’t have phone numbers.

On land lines, the number is assigned to the line that goes to your house from the local operations center; on mobile phones, the number is linked by your carrier to THEIR SIM card that you stick in your phone.

eSIM almost gets there; instead of a physical card linked to the phone number, all the logic and secrets are stored in a secure enclave on your phone and THAT is linked to the number, which is in a directory managed by your carrier. It’s linked to the phone itself because of the phone’s IMEI.

adespoton ,

All you have to do is buy your own IP, and you can use it whenever you want. You don’t have to use one given to you by the upstream gateway via DHCP or BootP.

Of course, you need to make sure the upstream router is configured to not drop addresses it didn’t assign itself.

adespoton ,

That’s like saying “why isn’t my phone number that I set up on my own POTS network usable on the international telephone system?”

If you’re behind NAT, you aren’t technically on the Internet; that’s why you need Network Address Translation in the first place.

IPv6 fixes this by letting every conceivable device have its own address on the Internet, but that comes with its own security and privacy issues, so it’s rarely used.

The Canadian State Is Euthanizing Its Poor and Disabled ( jacobin.com )

In 2022, Global News said the quiet part out loud: poverty is driving disabled Canadians to consider MAiD. Those “some” who are driven to assisted death because of poverty or an inability to access adequate care deserve to live with dignity and with the resources they need to live as they wish. They should never, ever feel...

[Serious] Do you know of any processed snack foods with some vitamins?

Trying to keep my very picky eater 3yo healthy as we're (hopefully) expanding his diet. Right now the only foods I can get him to actually eat are McDonald's, a specific brand of yogurt, banana bread, some crackers and some bars. Refuses any beverage besides water. (He's likely on the spectrum.)

adespoton ,

Applesauces with no sugar added?

Refusing anything but water isn’t necessarily bad.

He probably wants things with a predictable mouth feel and neutral temperature that aren’t overpowering.

Hotdogs tend to be popular (the cheap ones).

If you haven’t tried cheese toast, it may be an option, although you need to be careful about the type of cheese.

Also worth trying baby carrots and seedless grapes that don’t have browned ends and are off the stem.

Something else that may be useful is having him help make some snacks; kids will often eat things they’ve made themselves when they won’t accept the same thing from someone else.

If you can afford it, you could also try a sampling party where you buy a small portions of 5 or so similar items at a time, and get him to taste them all and tell you which is the worst and best. Don’t bring “will you eat this” into it at all: it’s a game and he has to rank them. In order to rank them he has to taste them.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • kbinchat
  • All magazines