briantakita

Where did the water go? The air? The biosphere? Lost to space? Underground oceans?

> A lot of companies in Eastern Europe were obliterated when joining the EU and our local market was flooded with goods made in the west since the local ones weren't "up to standard" anymore. Even today we still have a huge trade deficit with the west as we import far more than we export.

This is the definition of colonialism. Expect the deficit to continue as your state is a colony.

I grew up on Maui. The pineapple & sugar cane were farmed there with inexpensive labor. The raw materials were lightly processed & shipped to the mainland to be manufactured. The sugar & to a lesser extent canned pineapple (it was easy to get fresh pineapple) were then sold at retail to the residents of Maui. HC&S (the sugar company) controlled the agricultural fresh water, so no agricultural competition could arise.

The local residents were not happy & conducted social, religious, & political action which included adhering to indigenous cultural practices to gain some concessions.

If you study the history of Hawaii & how its monarchy was overthrown in a coup by US business interests with the help of the US military (to protect the interests of US citizens of course) & the events since, you will have a set of tools to keep what is rightfully yours. Of course Hawaii is now a US State with a large military base & munitions. Aquifers are polluted by jet fuel from the US Navy which it still has not taken appropriate action for. The struggle continues...

> of course, but just because those ideas are unheard, doesn't mean they are going to be any better.

It probably does mean it's better at least for the person with the perspective. Too bad only a very few get a seat at the table to advocate for their own interests. It would be better if everyone has agency to advocate for their interests.

> Also the problem isn't that bad ideas might get implemented, but that the legislature isn't willing or able to make updates to laws that encoded a bad idea

First, this is a hyped up crisis where some people are claiming it will end humanity. There have been many doomsday predictions & people scared by these predictions are effectively scammed by those fomenting existential fear. It's interesting that the representatives of large pools of capital are suddenly existentially afraid when there is open source competition.

Second, once something is in the domain of government it will only get more bloated & controlled by monied lobbyists. The legislatures controlled by lobbyists will never make it better, only worse. There have been so many temporary programs that continue to exist & expand. Many bloated omnibus bills too long to read passed under some sort of "emergency". The government's tendency is to grow & to serve the interests of the corporations that pay the politicians. Fear is an effective tool to convince people to accept things against their interests.

It would be great if the cost of living in the US was 1/4 what it is, just like another country. Best gig for a US programmer is remote work from Bali or another beautiful place with reasonable prices.

That being said, these companies don't really provide much as far as stable US jobs go so it would be better to encourage entrepreneurial activity for US programmers.

Another word of advice for programmers. Do what you can to own the IP of your work. Whether it's open source or your own proprietary IP. Work for hire where the company owns the IP if your work is a dead end job.

> Shouldn't we be evaluating ideas on the merits and not categorically rejecting (or endorsing) them based on who said them?

The problem is when only the entrenched industry players & legislators have a voice, there are many ideas & perspectives that are simply not heard or considered. Industrial groups have a long history of using regulations to entrench their positions & to stifle competition...creating a "barrier to entry" as they say. Going beyond that, industrial groups have shaped public perception & the regulatory apparatus to effectively create a company store, where the only solutions to some problem effectively (or sometimes legally) must go through a small set of large companies.

This concern is especially prescient now, as these technologies are unprecedentedly disruptive to many industries & private life. Using worst case scenario fear mongering as a justification to regulate the extreme majority of usage that will not come close to these fears, is disingenuous & almost always an overreach of governance.

> I will give you two examples of stuff I have experienced:

> 1. It will tell you jokes about white people, but not jokes about latinos or black people.

> 2. It will tell you jokes about catholics, but not muslims.

I'm not partial of imposing group affiliations as a proxy to personal identity. It goes deeper than a "woke mind virus" but a problem with imposed collectivism where a person is defined as a member of an arbitrary socially defined group. Instead one is free to define oneself however they wish, member of a socially constructed group or not. I also don't agree to be coerced to define another person as how they wish me to define them. I support the freedom to listen & to have a perspective that shall not be infringed. If someone else has a mental or emotional issue with how I define that person, it is that person's problem, not mine...not that I will even attempt to define another person with words.

I can only describe with words, not define. Perhaps using words to define a person has it's own set of issues when codified into language & statute.

>> Calling for an invasion of Canada? That seems unlikely

> https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

> https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/01/tucker-carlson-invad...

> https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2023/02/03/t...

> https://www.mediaite.com/tv/tucker-carlson-calls-for-us-to-i...

If you watch the video, it's clearly said in rhetorical jest. Some media outlets don't seem to understand this concept, which is why their hysterics are not taken seriously by many people.

"We are spending all this money to liberate Ukraine from the Russians, why are we not we spending all this money to liberate Canada from Trudeau?"

laughter

"I'm just talking myself into a frenzy here"

"I would hope that other people out there would rather trust their own judgement about who to listen to..." "Freedom to curate" "Don't want to see universal curation"

- Casey Muratori

The climate has rapidly changed throughout Earth's history. Our current period of warming over the past couple of centuries began at the end of a mini ice age, so its not surprising temperatures rise when exiting the ice age. Just like its not surprising that temperatures rise after winter into spring & summer. CO2 is more likely a side effect of warming, coming from the warming ocean, than it is the driver of the warming.

> Can Congress pass a law outlawing giving bills cute names that are completely irrelevant to the intent of the law? Once they get that accomplished they can work on something else

It's sometimes helpful to look at the name of the bill & assume that the bill will achieve the exact opposite.

> Can we make congressmen actually read the bills they vote on?

Most Congress members vote based on spheres of influence, not spheres of interest. The lobbyists that fund the politician's campaign tells the politician how to vote & the consequences of voting against the lobbyist's wishes.

You can take hot showers with a tankless Propane water heater as well assuming there's water pressure, costing < $300 on the low end. Sure, proper ventilation is important...

Gas spoils & does not store for very long. Diesel & propane are both better at storage.

You can even run generators off propane, though at less power than gas. There's even dual fuel (Gas & Propane) generators you can purchase for < $300 USD. It won't power your house, but it will at least be something which can charge batteries & run small appliances. They are loud though. If you own a house, getting a proper generator is the better choice. If you need something off grid or in an apartment (running on the balcony for ventilation), a single smaller generator or 2 in parallel will work. Smaller generators also save on fuel.

At the end of the day, multiple fuel sources will probably work. Wood/coal/propane/kerosene for heat, solar/diesel/propane/gas for electricity, etc. Most grid down scenarios last less than a few days.

Being able to boil water is important as well. There are often boil alerts when there are brown outs.

My gas stove can be connected to a gas tank which can be bought at a gas station for less than $30USD...

I can also purchase a propane heater from Home Depot or Lowes which can run off the same gas tanks for less than $200USD.

Why not ban, or at least seriously curtail the emissions of the organization responsible for the most toxic pollution & whose mission is literally to kill people, the military, instead? How about the multitude of other government agencies responsible for pollution?

> Heatproof shelters aren't solving the problem

> How about the materials required? The scale of manufacturing? The impact of the manufacturing on the environment? The impact of shipping and installing them on the environment?

So we don't have the competence or resources to directly help people with heat waves but we have the competence & resources for a bigger than Manhattan Project scale effort for climactic scale projects such as carbon capture & moving humanity underground?

Perhaps there's some already invented devices which can cool a dwelling?

> Maybe we shouldn't have allowed 1 billion of them to accumulate in the first place in such an inhospitable area.

Was the British Empire was too lenient to their subjects?

How about some tech to provide cooler living spaces for these people?

What would directly help people in a heat wave on a timescale that matters to them?

So don't help these people directly but fund large projects instead?

The Indian government is funding implementation of Dense Plasma Focus devices which harness energy from a Plasmoid. Apparently, these power generators can fit on a large truck. I wonder what the current status of this is.

https://asiatimes.com/2020/07/focus-fusion-is-the-hottest-id...

So we should spend the money to directly help these people?

The link you posted has an error

> You do not currently have access to this content.

Transparency & perception that the government, NGOs, & corporations help rather than hurt people would help to create public trust. The problem is that there is not much reason to trust these authorities so measures to Manufacture Consent decrease in effectiveness.

Hence conspiracy theories naturally arise due to the lack of trust. Attempts to crack down on "misinformation" & "conspiracy theories" only create more distrust, & the cycle continues...until a critical mass of the population has distrust authorities. History has many examples of what happens afterwards

Another consequence of growing mistrust is that the authorities lose potency on the Geopolitical stage.

Some tech is easier to manage & has been around longer to understand the implications than other technologies though.

In a perfect world, everything goes according to plan & within specs. In an imperfect world, things break when they are not supposed to in the field, adequate maintenance is not performed & other corners are cut, budgets fluctuate, toxic events are covered up, poorly constructed products are deployed, etc.

The problem is there are studies that show heavy metals polluting the water table. That is what has been observed. I'm of the mindset that not all toxic events are observed, less are documented, & even less are expressed to the public.

Also the toxins released & human rights issues in the supply side have not been addressed in this thread.

It would be great to have better options for energy production, but we have observed some implications of solar cells as the 1st generations reach end of life & the impacts of in field breakages. There is enough of a history to take a sober look at what needs to be improved. Saying it's a "non issue" is frankly an irresponsible approach & makes me question if these issues are taken seriously. Claiming that everyone who brings up issues is anti renewable or an oil shill is also the wrong approach. Is there even proper risk assessment or is this the wild west?

Just make sure the solar panel components contain no heavy metals or other toxic substances. Same with the batteries. These materials do leach & contaminate the ecosystem & water table.

Bonus points if no children were compelled to mine or manufacture the material.

Solar panels & batteries are also made of toxic material. Mining & the material breakdown of these materials spead these toxins to the land they are deployed on.

Much of this material is also unethically mined. Children are coerced to mine some of this material.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news. You may be able to downvote this comment but you cannot downvote reality.

First, I take Wikipedia with a grain of salt, especially when it comes to politics or anything remotely related to politics.

All I'm saying is that the results speak for themselves. The drugs come from somewhere. The drugs are allowed in somehow. Repeat violent criminals are somehow let out of prison.

Also, there is a history of collusion of governments, government agencies, NGOs, & drug trafficking. This spans over hundreds of years & there are recent cases. Watch a documentary of how Compton, CA was once a working class neighborhood with industrious people, then the CIA trafficked drugs in that neighborhood (note Freeway Rick Ross), & it quickly devolved into violent gang warfare. Now the land is being bought on the cheap. Note Sofi Statium, which is built on the ground of what were once homes.

I'm into rural living myself. Spent enough time in cities & suburbs to appreciate wide open spaces without nosy neighbors & HOA rules. I also appreciate cars & the freedom they enable.

Re: anti-car people, one thing that is not acknowledged about America is that America is very large & people like having their own land. Public transportation is not a feasible option for mountain communities, low population density areas, & quiet areas with nature.

I was also attacked, though I got away, while riding my bike from BART in Hayward coming home from work. Havn't rode much public transportation since that experience. Public transportation is often in high crime areas.

Car accidents do happen, so there's danger there as well. I only had accidents in urban areas. Stressful conditions coupled with bad driving practices I suppose.

> Developers dislike contributing to a legacy codebase with high technical debt.

It's more than an aesthetic & workflow preferences. It's also a client management risk. Clients who have no development experience are often used to the same level of productivity to create the initial feature set. As development slows due to maintenance & performance issues, the client does not understand why. Clients also will use analogies, such as a mechanic overcharging for work & using words the client does not understand to justify high fees & billable hours...without understanding that changing a complex system with many undocumented & haphazardly implemented parts can create bugs.

Enter a maintenance project at your own risk. Due diligence of the business, codebase, and client's temperment, understanding of software development, decision making, & payment schedule can save you from headaches over the next few months.

I dont know of any people who are happier addicted to hard drugs than not addicted to hard drugs. If the supply of hard & tainted drugs increases, then people with addictions are more likely to increase their consumption of these drugs.

The problem & solution space involves more than just enforcement. A root cause is the ineffectiveness & corruption in social safety net programs including housing, drug treatment, & other domains. Not saying we should not have any programs but the ineffectiveness with increasing budgets speaks for itself. Effective & efficient programs should be rewarded while ineffective & inefficient programs should be discontinued.

Government agencies which engage in harmful activities such as drug trafficking should be reformed or disbanded. I don't expect the status quo to change, as we didn't get into this mess with rational institutions, but its worthwhile to have a sober view of root causes to at least put pressure on the institutions to be more rational.