Deme

Who could’ve seen this coming…

I think “get even more money” has always been a thing they strive for, but I get what you mean.

They didn’t cut ties with the UN as an institution, just SecGen Guterres.

Unfortunately.

When an impact happens, the next one becomes much more likely with all that shrapnel flying around. If the biggest starlink layer becomes a minefield of shrapnel, passing it to reach the ISS becomes much more dangerous. Same goes for any other launch, including GEO.

All these megaconstellation plans have big plans of scaling up exponentially, and that means the clock is constantly creepinc closer. At some point a strong enough solar flare could cause a long enough comms blackout.

But the main thing with the clock is that it also displays how often corrective maneuvers are needed. The more maneuvers are being made, the higher the chance of errors. I think that’s the real danger here. Starlink is scaling up massively and they have numerous competitors, including China. All it takes is a miscommunication and the snowball of kessler syndrome might start rolling.

Yes, space is big, but those objects are moving fast on intersecting paths. I’d recommend checking this out and also following @sundogplanets@mastodon.social

English spelling sucks by being detached from pronounciation episode 978

It stopped being useful ever since they stopped using it just to visualize how quickly a nuke war could end things. Climate change is serious as shit, but it’s not going to lock in total devestation within the next two minutes. Same goes for many other slow-burn threats they try to cram in there. Many of them are already here, pretty much none have a discreet threshold to count towards.

I already explained in my previous comment that there is no real paradox, only the appearance of one when tolerance is framed as a virtue rather than a contract.

Why don’t you tolerate fascists? What’s your reasoning for it?

Either you commit to a society that respects people as people regardless of their ethnicity, religion or sexual or gender identity (so long as they don’t limit the freedoms of others), or you don’t. I wouldn’t call that an arbitrary line. If your views cross that line, I will not tolerate them.

The local neonazis held a “book club” at a public library here once (a publicity stunt because they knew it would make a lot of people angry). One liberal writer decided to go there to participate and to talk to them. She announced this beforehand and an article was published in the biggest newspaper in the country. It must’ve come as quite a surprise to her and all the idiots cheering her on for her tolerance, when she changed no minds and only contributed to the publicity stunt while also lending some of her credibility to them. Tolerating their views only gives them more legitimacy as a part of the political discourse.

When I see neonazis marching on the street here, I go shout obscenities at them to make sure they as a group feel unwelcome. The last time that one of them came up to me asking if I had a problem, I tried to talk some sense into him and I think I succeeded at least to an extent. Because a one on one conversation detached from the wider context is the only possible avenue to do so, when the us vs. them tribalism is at least somewhat removed and people can actually see each other instead of just a member of the opposing tribe. No cameras or ulterior motives, no incentive to keep up appearances as the best little loyal member in our team. That’s how I think we should treat intolerance.

The so-called paradox dissolves away once you recognize tolerance as a social contract between parties, instead of some immutable principle.

They break the contract, so they’re no longer covered by it. Treat others as you would like to be treated. It’s not that complicated.

Reminded me of a quote from The Expanse:

My life has become a single, ongoing revelation that I haven’t been cynical enough.

• Chrisjen Avasarala, Babylons ashes by James S.A. Corey.

The far right will continue to be a growing problem no matter what happens with EU-US relations. Fascism is capitalism in decay and capitalism will continue to decay until we get rid of it. That’s most likely not going to happen any time soon, but it definitely wont happen within an EU bending over backwards to appease the tantrums of a senile manchild being puppeted by five billionaires.

The accelerationist part of my mind kinda hopes that this would happen. The EU needs to get its shit together asap, and this could shove us nicely towards that. Or then we just keep groveling like the vassals that we are.

With blackjack and hookers!