whophd.bsky.social
nah you should probably find a Mastodon server you like (or, more usefully, hates what you hate)
ask me for tips
65 posts
6 followers
13 following
Getting Started
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Expecting an update video from our friend Mike Brady soonish then
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Damn I was wondering about that fapping sound from the direction of Moscow …
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Appealing to the USA’s supremacy directly — not via holistic long-term efficiencies and prevention of tragedies — is one way to go.
Think about, how did the USA get convinced to join World War II? Its mainland was never under threat; Pearl Harbor almost entirely symbolic, not actually strategic.
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… there needs to be some newly crafted “what’s in it for us” for any of this work to resume. The terms of it will have to be novel and strange — perhaps, a competitive spirit with India and China providing aid with their own preconditions, allowing a battle of counterproposals to arise.
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Sadly, they are in charge right now, and have an iron grip on control for 2 years, maybe 4 or 6 if measuring for some kind of best-case scenario of a reset.
Really this needs to be treated as a decade of disruption, and the war front, such as it is, is all the disinformation and rallying …
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… you will need other arguments, more emotional ones (and they’ll have to connect to their emotions, not yours) to make them notice.
- Even the spread of disease and epidemics isn’t “relevant” to them because, you saw they picked RFK Jr? Their heads are filled with Survival of the Fittest mantra.
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I should have mentioned before:
- rationalism, and economic rationalism, doesn’t enter into it. Self-preservation or self service doesn’t enter into it. Did you think it would? It didn’t apply to the Brexit debate.
Stop trying to convince rabid hotheads that giving money helps them long-term …
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My advice to people like Michael is to consult strategists for new next steps — you will need different experience now. This isn’t the same type of defeat or scale of defeat seen before. (Not unless you are a student of modern history).
But it’s correct not to despair. GI Joe, still right tho 😕
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- Musk has made the pronouncements of “just worms” and was predictably met with popularity in response
- the signage of USAID was taken down as a declaration of dismantlement, not suspension
- this also tracks with similar intent (and action) on removing entire other departments, like Education, EPA
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- the think tanks don’t even have the perverted paternalism of providing a vacuum for missionaries to fill, and empowering churches
- the think tanks have, however, rallied the Bacon Cheeseburger Militia to hate the entire concept of foreign aid, and taxes to charity, and they want full erasure
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Rubio is not MAGA and, insofar as I’m wrong about that, he’s using appeasement to deflect. Very 1930s vibes.
But that’s not even my main argument:
- anti-female-empowerment is a touchstone
- Cato Institute (and Heritage Foundation) just want it ALL gone …
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I’m sorry to say this to Michael Sheldrick — who is literally working harder & smarter than I ever will — and it pains me to break the golden rule of “don’t yuck the yum of enthusiasts” especially when you don’t live inside their circle of passion — but the “glass half empty” is crystal clear.
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43 billion was paid by taxpayers; how much was paid by shareholders?
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@nndroid.bsky.social (I listen to every ep of at least 3 Podmasters shows, and patreon-ize 2 of them — did you choose your login name after a certain spacestation-based gameshow host?)
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@nndroid.bsky.social Andrew, I hear you like DW, in fact I hear you like Classic DW. The question is, do you have a nice bright HDR display anywhere? Play this YouTube clip of Caves of Androzani on the brightest screen possible.
iPhone 12 or higher, iPad Pro M4, MacBook with M1,M2 Pro/Max, M3, M4
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Log on for some hot ADB insertion
If you’re lucky you’ll see an auto-eject shoot right across the room
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That’s going to be very useful for my next question, replied to your other comment
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You’re concerned about 43 billion being paid by taxes. And you can’t predict that I’m going to ask about the annual budget — I wonder if you can guess — for the roads … and maybe if you think I should ask how much you care about that tax? Because it’s bigger. Or should I ask why you don’t care? 🤷♂️
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Found your mousemat
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The first floppy disk to be auto-ejected was done so closer to the end of WW2 than today
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Ohhhhh are we actually going to have to ask about the way Paris’s roads are funded, because I’d like you to predict where this debate goes next
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It is, and is fair enough to bring up — we are now at the stage where money not technology is stopping this. The difference is enough to make most adults behave differently in their social lives as a precaution or reaction.
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Weirdly it’s ThE eCoNoMy that is very quick to suffer after the population does. We can still be economists and argue for Covid Zero.
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The question was asked by www.elfyscott.com
The answer is: When it stops infecting us and changing our lives measurably for the worse
Do you need a metric? Is that what you’re asking? Have you thought about some options? Why not talk about life expectancy or participation rate or productivity?
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2023 article but hey I want to see this station!
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“Is that a big number?” Always compare to the annual cost on roads. It’s never a big number.
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or imagine if they’d spent 10% of that on solar and batteries, but hey!
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How’s that Flint water pipe going that he promised
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Then why buy that fat truck that goes into the woods and desert and stuff
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And the best-yet-easiest way to secure your finances is to grab the official banking app and use an iPad. After updating everything.
P.S. Windows likes to be asked a couple of times if it is done updating. Ask after a restart.
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So much low-effort high-reward internet security advice now like that …
- always let your devices autofill passwords, because they can tell if the site is genuine. You can’t.
- never prove who you are to a stranger
- nothing is ever urgent
- it’s your responsibility to prove who’s talking to you
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And the Snowden movie is always worth a rewatch — it is more relevant than 5 years ago, and 5 years before that.
Run your software updates.
Really run the ones that do “nothing”, the most important — they fix security bugs.
Never reuse a password.
Only memorise 1, 2 or 3.
Autogenerate the rest.
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But anyway I feel it’s worth revisiting, a few times, the success story that is climate denialism and climate delayism, and — as I like to point out — somebody was Patient Zero with telling the lie to someone WITHOUT believing it. So much culpability.
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Also physics nitpick: Light speed is the speed limit for the observer — so you can’t SEE anyone moving faster than it
But while the universe ages around them (a lot!) an alien could travel as fast as they like …
… though G-forces will then become a limiting factor (not just energy & propulsion!)
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While I agree with all the assumptions and conclusions about conspiracies at the end of the episode, it doesn’t stop all large-scale conspiracies proving true — two are:
- Edward Snowden and his movie, “it was all true!” is very much the revelation
- Big Oil knowingly lied about climate change
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It’s the second one that chooses a bike to be the best vehicle — comfort, ease — as opposed to the fastest speed.
And that’s the crux.
One’s a gym alternative. The other’s a car alternative.
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It’s the second one that does “vehicular cycling” — despite the first one using a bike to commute to work, the reason for choosing the bike is training. Other reasons are secondary, like convenience and cost and health (subtly different to training).
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The other type, a “pedaller”, just cruises at jogging speed and, crucially, is dressed for the destination. Typically no helmet yet is obsessed with personal safety. Ages 8 to 80, and that’s the key. If you ask “would a little girl ride here?” then that’s the cycleway that befits a “fietser”.
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No no I’ll bite. You know how the Dutch have two words for “cyclist”, yeah?
I’m still fishing around for the perfect English phrase, but the one that the car culture espouses is the “sports cyclist”, or racer, or lycra-clad. This cyclist will join car traffic, up to and include freeways.
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Hey, it could help traffic levels
… wait that’s not, that doesn’t help …
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After all, what is a “correction” but a correct price?
That said, I’m willing to listen to any fanciful ideas about correcting the other half of the ratio, the income levels.
Or, are we giving away real estate to first home owners? Let’s talk eligibility criteria.
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Is this better than the alternative? That big grass patch is basically NOT there in most of the designs I hate.
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Free car storage is socialism
Ooh, there’s some politically incorrect speech