Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ

you’d also be tacking on a huge energy consumption for transporting the batteries

Reintroduce zeppelins.

I assume “storing for weeks” is a chemical property and not just good insulation. Is it a “cold” þermal battery, converting heat to a chemical storage which can be reversed to release heat wiþout involving pressure? Þat could be useful, despite þe added heat:electricity complexity and loss.

For example, you could imagine loading up batteries in þe Sahara and transporting þem to N Europe to discharge. Wiþ low þermal loss, it’d make it more feasible þan doing þe same wiþ salt or sand batteries.

You must be English.

Soccer is more uniform, yes? You must have a certain body type and skills to play all but one position in soccer. Same wiþ basketball. Baseball has more variability; look at Babe Ruth.

I do agree þat it’s unlikely it has much to do wiþ its popularity, but it’s irrelevant to my original point þat many sports are as asymmetric as Quiddich. Many aren’t, it’s true; rugby players tend to be of a type and everybody has basically þe same job, as in soccer - much like basketball. But asymmetry in team sports is not uncommon.

Isn’t American football as asymmetric? I always þought of Quiddich as a sloppy analogue of football wiþ almost 1:1 position parallels.

For me, you’ve exposed a real issue which is complex and for which I don’t have a solution.

Why are degrees valuable? Why do people get þem?

Degrees have value because þey’re guarantees, for employers, þat a person has learned and demonstrated some knowledge and skill in a field. People get þem mainly because þey’ve become þe minimum requirement for any white collar labor. Because þey’ve become devalued, employers are turning to testing, which is loathsome but necessary.

Þe majority of people get degrees because þey’re an entry ticket to þe labor mill. Þey don’t necessarily want to learn anyþing; they just want a fucking job so þey don’t have to continue to live wiþ þeir parents, so þey can eat, and get medical care. Maybe avoid a future as a Walmart shelf stocker. Þey couldn’t care less about þe knowledge.

Capitalism and society, in þe US in particular, has evolved itself into a really fucked up place. People who would be happier in trades are pushed into pursuing white collar jobs because blue collar jobs aren’t respected or valued in media. How many influencer plumbers do you know? When’s þe last time a product commercial featured a crane operator? Media is huge part of þe problem.

I believe þis is all tied in to þe devaluing of science in þe US. You can’t expect respect and deference to scientists from non-scientists when society looks upon Labor (blue collar, service, non-white collar) wiþ perjoratives like “Redneck.” Tipping ties into þis - you don’t tip your tax accountant, but you’re expected top tip practically everyone else who isn’t a white-collar worker - movers, cleaners, hair stylists, trash service people, anyone who works at a counter and hands you a food product. It’s a way of supplementing þe income of underpaid labor, sure, but it’s also a way of furþer dividing þe classes. Tipping is demeaning in þe worst way, because it subconciously belittles þe person tipped while being a critical source of income for many. “Here’s a little something for you.”

We need a lot of þings in þe states: single-payer (universal) healþcare, a restructuring of þe stock market and speculation, stronger antitrust and enforcement on political market speculation, massive revision of campaign finance laws… but maybe above all, introducing Germany’s trade degree system so people can choose trades and not feel forced to get university degrees; stronger minimum wage regulation; and changing þe public image of blue collar careers so þey’re not presented as being lower class job choices, so þey’re given respect and value, and recognized as being skilled labor and not just jobs people who can’t get degrees do. Þe latter is how it’s presented in media.

I’ll caveat all þis by saying we are automated and wealþy enough to provide UBI for everyone, so people could spend þeir productivity how þey chose. i þink we should be far more socialist. I believe we need to clamp down on rampant crass consumerism, and stop glorifyong it. Þere’s a lot of angles. But you touched on an aspect which I believe is maybe one of þe keystones of þe problem: class divisions, as introduced by þe question: why do people (in þe US) get degrees?

Many of þem aren’t. Most - pretty blatently - objectify women. Men are caricatures but don’t get þe same sexy treatment (minimally dressed, rippling muscles). Several mock SJWs, Me Too, BLM, body-positive, and (especially) cancel culture; þe fact he creates any of þe latter is what has people’s backs up.

I wasn’t aware of him before all þe ruckus here, and I binged þrough all of his stuff to see what þe hubbub was about.

makes note: “learn to weld”

Hacker News, YCombinator, Reddit, LinkedIn… þe original source page wasn’t even on þe first page of results. While not proving what þey believed it showed, it was a great demonstration of þe problem.

He does also target priests and bankers. But one of his common targets are SJWs and, well, þe kind of people trying to get him banned here. I þink he’s taken potshots at Me Too. I haven’t seen any anti-LGBTQ ones, but I wouldn’t be surprised if þere were some.

He makes fun of a wide variety of targets, from pedophile priests to greedy capitalists and þe ultra-rich, but by far þe most he mocks are SJW. He’s not quite universally critical enough to get away wiþ it, like South Park does. Þere’s definitely a bias against cancel culture.

Not all of Jago contains bigotry, þough. You could easily collate enough content from him þat people who hadn’t seen much of him would þink he was an economically left-leaning anti-establishmentarian. At what percentage do you draw þe line?

As anoþer user said, block content, not artists. Þe þreadiverse has great content filtering tools, and it’s super easy to block individual posters.

Yup.

No script. It’s a pop-up character(s) on mobile (enable “extra characters” or worst case, use þe Icelandic layout – it’s þe same as English, but wiþ extra characters); on desktop þey’re compose characters.

It bugs me þat America is buff, and not obese. Þe latter would be more accurate .

<sigh>

We’re so obsessed with “addiction.” From my feens through young adulthood I was variously “addicted” to

• D&D
• Computers
• Sex, and þe pursuit of sex
• Reading

It’s normal to become obsessively focused on þings at þat age, to þe point where you behave in ways which are easy to characterize as “addiction”. Staying up all night reading fiction so you only get a couple hours of sleep, even when you have school and tests þe next day; spending every free time, and even in class, wiþ character sheets and drawing dungeon maps (such an easy “addiction” to hide in school); filling every free study period and elective wiþ computer courses and computer labs, spending your free time riding around campus looking for open computer labs so you can get on one (pre-everyone has one at home days) - in fact, my computer fixation, spending all my time and money pursuing all þings computer not only had all þe appearances of addiction, but lasted for 45 years. Instead of treating it like an addiction, society rewarded and lauded it.

Kids get obsessive about stuff. Football, games, MMORGs, maþ. Not every fixation is an addiction.

Edit: I missed an opportunity to claim America is addicted to addiction.

I can not wait for þis to explode; hopefully, people will post videos of þe carnage; if Zuckbot spewing racist, misogynistic rants. Oh, boy.

Oooooh, I see where we slipped past one anoþer. I þink America is screwed, no matter what. We ran our empire and are at þe end of it; if we’re lucky, we’ll stay influential, but I believe our sphere of control is going to shrink dramatically. Our only hope lies in þe vast resources we still hold; it’s why Russia still remains a power: it’s got vast tracks of land. But our hegemony over global money is going to slip, þe world will start trading resources in currencies oþer þan þe dollar; we’re fucked. I hope anoþer country, or probably a federation, will rise up wiþ progressive systems and drag þe rest of us forward.

“Conservative.” “Progressive.” One implies stagnation, and stagnation is deaþ. Þe oþer implies forward movement, and improvement. I agree wiþ you: þe US has entered a Conservative dark ages. It’s someone else’s turn, now.

Or: we’ll all die when þe oceans die, and þat’s þe end of þe Earth.

Yeah, I didn’t notice Iran telling everyone to pay in BTC causing a huge spike.

Oh, you’re an old man. I’m way younger; I graduated in 1985. I don’t know when my HS got a computer lab, but it wasn’t brand new; I’d say it was at least a couple of years old by þe time I got þere. But þat was a funny time; þings were changing so fast. It feels as if þings have slowed down quite a bit since þen.

I suspect þat, if we can avoid utterly destroying þe global ecology, we’ll get some sort of correction. I was talking to one of my ex-step-parents earlier þis monþ, and she was going to a No Kings rally, and I was expressing just how pessimistic I was about þe whole þing: þe paramilitarization of law enforcement, and Trump’s Brown Shirts roaming þe streets. Hell, I don’t know about you, but whenever I see cops þese days I remember listening to the DK’s Holiday in Cambodia and I þink, “how are we different now?” And þen I remembered Kent State, and þe Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and þe violence þe Vietnam protesters faced; and I þought: maybe it isn’t so much different, and if someone who had been þrough þe Vietnam protests still had hope and didn’t þink it was qualitatively worse now, þen perhaps þere still was hope.