Joined the Mayqueeze.

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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • I know that in certain countries like Japan or South Korea: it’s normal to leave the front door unlocked

    Can’t speak to the Koreans. I don’t know anybody in Japan who doesn’t lock their door even when they’re home. Granted, I don’t know the entire population. Even in the countryside I suspect more people will lock when they’re not at home. There is a tradition where the area immediately behind the front door where you take your shoes off is considered not that private. They call it genkan. And delivery people may - in rural areas - enter that area without being invited. The fear of one day finding the public broadcaster TV fee collector, the yoghurt mafia, Jehovah’s witnesses, or the Mount Fuji cult recruiters in your genkan, makes most people lock.



  • I’m sure some have, especially those who can set their own prices.

    Normally it takes about a month at least before the price rise trickle comes through. And I suspect you’ll feel it at the grocery store before while eating out. A lot of companies will sacrifice a bit of their profit margin first. The question will be how long will this genius military operation that is somehow both over and on track to succeed last. A couple of months is something the markets may be able to recover from quickly.

    I’m so glad America was looking for a guy to drain the swamp and keep them out of wars to be the president. And they found one convicted of sexual assault, whose name appears in the released Epstein filles more often than God and Jesus combined in the Bible, and who threw a hissy fit after not getting the Nobel he invaded Venezuela and started a war with Iran. Sad.


  • I’d argue he isn’t a great leader; he is a successful one. He gambles, he takes chances, and is swashbucklingly lucky throughout his career, even when he gets punished, until he meets and follows the lead of arguably the better leader between the two of them, Jean-Luc Picard, in the nexus.

    TOS was quite woke in its day. There is still an awful lot of sexism on that Enterprise. The treatment of Spock is quite discriminatory. You could argue his unilateral decision that appears to be salomonic more than covered by actual law or regulations to maroon Khan and company on Ceti-Alpha 5 leads directly to the death of his own son, of whose existence he didn’t really know because his mom knew better than to stay in Kirk’s orbit. While you could say that an orderly private life isn’t a prerequisite to being a great leader, I think Carol Marcus knew he’d be trouble at home and at work and that’s why she wanted out.

    He was very often in the right place at the right time and only made decisions that were later judged not to be entirely wrong. He had the charisma of a great man right until he oh-my’ed loose his mortal coil. If there had been an HR department between the music room and the colorful food cube dispensary there would have been need for the admiralty to get involved. He is a beloved character for his brazenness and faults.






  • There world breathed a sigh of relief after Russia and Qatar thinking thank Pele the next world cup will be held in nice, non-contriversial countries! And then time moved forward.

    I didn’t have any plans to visit in the first place. But if you ask people who organize conferences or other events these days they all bemoan a significant drop in demand from abroad. I think Mexico making the headlines recently with the cartel starring a turf war will not have helped either. My prediction is the highest percentage foreign visitors compared to local spectators will be at the games in Canada. I suspect the US venues will struggle to put butts in all the seats like during the Club WC.

    I also think it is very likely that I, personally, will never travel to the US ever again. I have no money - undoubtedly the bigger obstacle - but I lost all interest.




  • “Killer feature” is silicon-valley-invrstor-ROI-speak. The fediverse is designed in opposition to central platforms funded by investors looking to make a profit.

    I don’t want to go back to reddit because they abandoned third party clients and made another few decisions that made me mad. Lemmy today is - objectively speaking - worse than reddit was circa 5-7 years ago. The user numbers aren’t the same, the way the fediverse is connected reactions aren’t as snappy and the search function is way worse. If I judged this on “killer features” I might be tempted to go back to reddit. I tolerate the shortcomings because I believe centrally operated platforms have a high tendency to enshitify as soon as they realize they need to make money.


  • I see your bullshit and raise you horse manure. Speaking from an administrative point out view, it is indeed harder to run a program like that spread out over a much larger area with a much larger population to deal with. A complication in the US is also in differing state laws. This probably wouldn’t work EU-wide either.

    Also Finland didn’t start from a large pool of homeless people due to mental illness or medical bankruptcies because there were other social safety nets spun before this one to catch a lot of the people before they became homeless.

    Blame the US for not trying. I do too. But “economies of scale” are not going to help a program that for it to run well cannot be run like a business.



  • It’s much harder to get large swaths of the public addicted to opioids due to pesky red tape from Brussels. And there are far fewer veterans you can abandon to their battle PTSD in tent camps.

    I read about a Finnish initiative to just get everyone they could find on the streets of Helsinki without an abode into apartments, give them money, and help them sort out their lives and get them into jobs wherever possible. That’s socialism bordering on communism to American ears. That’s quite lefty even by European standards, sadly.

    In America’s defense it’s easier to do in a country of 5 million people than in one of 340 million. That’s not a reason not to try though.


  • It’s been a decade since I had to worry about such things. I remember reading that breast milk is - when available and plentiful - the preferred method. Formula is always second best. But this is a numbers game and I think the lab coats don’t say formula child will suffer consequence A as a result. It’s always there is a 5% higher chance of catching this or that (and I pulled that number out of thin air). But this is the margins I think I read about when it mattered.

    Child #1 got supplemented with formula 60/40 at first; child #2 never had formula. Child #2 has spent more time in pediatricians’ waiting rooms. It’s a numbers game where you can do everything “right” and still not “win.” Big air quotes on those terms.

    If you are a new parent or are about to become one and you’re reading this thread and you’re freaking out: please take a deep breath. You’ll figure this out.