Grimpen @ Grimpen @lemmy.ca

Posts

5

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398

Joined

2 yr. ago

I'm pretty sure that 80% if what we learned from the Nazi/Imperial Japan super unethical experiments was "what can a psychotic doctor justify in order to have an excuse to torture people to death."

Maybe 20% was arguably useful, and most of that could have been researched ethically with other methods.

Made the Eros comparison just a few comments above!

They were dead anyways (thanks to Protogen releasing the protomolecule), the real tragedy would be to let their deaths be in vain…

Eros in the Expanse.

#My Mastodon Copypasta (formatted for Reddit)

Consider making an account on a Canadian Mastodon instance. Mastodon is a decentralized open-source social media platform similar to X/Twitter. There are many Canadian based general interest "instances" where you can make an account: Mstdn.ca, TheCanadian.Social, CoSocial.ca or any of many others you can find at MastodonServer.ca.

There is no one company fine-tuning an algorithm to entertain you, sell you crypto, and radicalize you, so you'll need to do some work on setting up your feed. Check out Fedi.Directory, Interesting Accounts to Follow on Mastodon and the Fediverse and Fedi.Tips- An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse.

For some Canadian themed news sources, I recommend the following Mastodon follows. You can follow pretty much any Mastodon account from any Mastodon instance.

• CBC News
• Global News
• The Tyee
• PressProgress
• Meanwhile In Canada
• Winnipeg Free Press
• The Narwhal
• Cory Doctorow
• Michael Geist
• Senator Paula Simmons
• Canadian History Ehx
• Saskatoon Star Phoenix
• Andrew Kurjata, CBC Journalist

Following #Hashtags is also a good way to stay in the loop on a topic. For now, I'd suggest #Canada , #CdnPoli , #ElbowsUp and #Never51st .

There are also Canadian instances for other Federated services, but Mastodon is probably a good gateway. Even if it isn't your primary social media, at least you'll have a backstop of news and a way to connect without the algorithms manipulating what to show you. Hope to see you out there.

There are two things that I find soothing in the recent debacle wrt basic Canadian sovereignty.

First, executive authority resides in the PM, and the PM is selected by and must face question period in the House of Commons. The vaunted US system of checks and balances is useless when the other branches are compromised.

Second, the fundamental problem in the US isn't structural, it's that around a third of the electorate is okay with the rank corruption and self-dealing from the top. They cheer on the acts of a Presidential monarch. It doesn't matter how your democracy is structured, when around a third of your electorate no longer values democratic traditions you are in a dangerous place.

In Canada though, we've seen a fairly strong repudiation of Maple MAGA and the Qonvoy movement. It's a little weird, I've seen Qonvoyers missing the point, thinking everyone is on side with them somehow, because Canadian flags? But the ratio of pro-Qonvoy pro-Canada sentiment (where there isn't an obvious and rampant bot problem) seems to skew pretty far away from the Qonvoyers. I think we face the same dangers the US is facing, but it looks like we have a little more runway.

As to point 2, do not rely on Xitter for your news. It has turned into an algorithmically twisted bot-manipulated hellscape of discord and echo chambers. Speaking to the choir here on Lemmy.ca Canada community, but encourage Canadians to make an account on a Canadian Mastodon or Lemmy instance. I recommend dipping their toe into the Fediverse with Mastodon, and just following some Canadian news sources.

This is one of the reasons I really liked the Saab offer. Supporting a domestic aerospace defence industry is probably a good strategic aim.

GCAP would also offer a chance to foster our domestic aerospace industry.

There are other combinations that achieve much the same though. FCAS (Future Combat Air System) is similar to GCAP, a joint France, Germany and Spain project, but it isn't scheduled to deliver until 2040.

I am in no position to know what's "best", but it's undeniable that there are some good options. It's unfortunate though that there will be a cost to pay that we went with F-35 all those years ago. Still don't have a Canadian F-35 in the air.

Another piece of trivia, that I really don't know if significant is that Sweden nearly joined GCAP. If we went with Gripen and GCAP, and Sweden rejoined GCAP there might be opportunities for long term partnerships. Then again I think there are similar opportunities with Eurofighter and FCAS.

F-35 is the most advanced aircraft currently available. We've also already sunk enough money into the program to pay for the first 16 IIRC. This puts us in an awkward position, considering the possibility of degraded functionality of the F-35 without US assistance¹.

One of the worst ways to balloon military spending without getting anything in return is to keep changing your mind and hanging procurement up in endless indecision. Combined with the money already spent, I think we have to stick with F-35 for at least a bit.

I like the Gripen, and I'd suggest a switching some of our 88 fighters to Gripen's, but apparently Gripen's aren't that much cheaper.

Long term though, I think Canada should get in on GCAP, the Global Combat Air Program. It's not expected to deliver until 2035 if everything sticks to plan, so we'd still need the F-35 or Gripens I was mentioning in the interim.

¹ My understanding is that the "kill-switch" myth is pretty much that, a myth. There are software systems that depend on the US, apparently ALIS/ODIN, plus the MDF file updates. The possibility of a kill-switch can't be totally excluded IMO though, there is a lot of software in the F-35, and the US writes and patches it all. Even if there isn't a kill-switch, the US knows what vulnerabilities they are patching, and if any of them where exploitable, I'd imagine they'd know.

Back in the day, Cott was the #1 pop brand in Canada because they were the private label manufacturer for President's Choice cola. I remember because they also sold their own branded pop in Fields. Cott's Beverage got sold off somewhere, and more private label pop bottlers have taken the crown, but there is no reason why some of these pl bottlers couldn't start a house brand.

We are entering an era when the new Cott's Cola might outsell Coca Cola because it's the Canadian alternative.

I think I'd just supporting the inevitable insurgency. Lots of Americans would probably join in as well. I'm sure China and Russia would gladly supply support. Putin's such a good buddy with Trump, he might even not smile as he funds the absolute destruction of the US for generations at pennies on the dollar.

It's the stupidest speculative future I can imagine. Who gains in this scenario? Why do something so obviously self destructive? Thing is, who would start a trade war and "joke" about annexation so much? Only someone so ill-informed that they can't remember how Afghanistan played out (twice) as well as Vietnam, Iraq, etc. Look how much Russia has bled in Ukraine, and to gain so little.

This isn't Europa Universalis IV. The strength of empires is not built on force of arms. It's built on the ability to wage war at an industrial scale, to maintain the supply lines and build the tools of destruction. More than that, it the ability to develop the connections to never need to war, and make war too costly.

The steel and aluminum tariffs are a great example of that. Alcan (now Rio-Tinto Alcan), originally Aluminum Company of Canada, is the largest producer of aluminum in the world. It was originally a subsidiary of Alcoa, Aluminum Company of America. It was an example of "friendshoring" or "nearshoring". Canadian aluminum helped build the Spitfires and Mustangs, the Lancasters and Flying Fortresses of WW2. Similar with steal. Since then, it's only become more interconnected. The cold war wasn't won in the fields of Vietnam, but in the studios of Hollywood and the factories of the Free World. Now Trump is throwing that away. For what? That's the scary thing, I remember learning about Mercantilism in Grade 10. The President of the US is operating at a Grade 10 level of understanding of the fate of nations. He's just ignorant enough he could do something really stupid.

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity" —Sun Tzu, probably the one quote Trump ever saw.

“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” ― Sun Tzu, the chapter Trump never got to.

That's kind of what I was thinking.

I used to run Folding@Home, as well as others, as a screensaver. It's been a while, but I think you had some control of how hard to work the computer. As someone who regularly works with 30 year old computers that run 24/7, it seems weird to kill a GPU by running it,but if it runs cooler maybe it will last longer? Although that defeats the purpose kind of.

Now you need to use the money you saved and the $15 in crypto to buy two identical computers, then run one flat out and the other at around 50% and see how long they last. Report back every couple of years.

Excuse me while I look at extreme uptime posts.

Good ol' Dougie!

Even if you think he's a crook, there's no denying he's our crook. Unlike the Quisling Danielle Smith.

Rush -> Rash?

Shalom!

I buckled and edited to show a screenshot, because apparently that's more important than the Premier of a Canadian province providing support to MAGAts.

Thanks for recognizing why I linked target than screenshot, even if you are in the minority.

Le sigh. I didn't realize just viewing the image and just viewing the image was such a challenge.

I specifically wanted to link to the source. I had considered taking a screenshot, in case the page changed, but apparently I overestimated people's ability to simply view a page without submitting a donation.

Because that's where the image is with Danielle Smith. I didn't have any problem not donating.

Exactly.

Yes! GCAP. Still need a stopgap. Maybe stick with F-35, but reduce our commitment. Personally I like Gripen, but I'd differ to experts.

There is also FCAS, but it seems less urgent, not scheduled to begin delivering until 2040, although maybe France and Germany will get the lead out due to recent changes.

I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if the final platform had room for national partner tweaks. Probably could call ours the Arrow 2: Strange Brew or something.

Heinz used to make ketchup in Leamington ON, with locally grown tomatoes. They closed it down in 2014, choosing to bring ketchup in from other facilities in the US.

Heinz had also started making mustard, the main product of French's. French's decided to take advantage of the opportunity to strike back and took over the old Heinz facility in Leamington and began making ketchup out of the same tomatoes that Heinz had been using in Canada.

Since then, French's has been bought out by McCormick, and moved production to London, ON. The Leamington Facility is now Highbury Canco, and it does private label manufacturing. Heinz has restarted ketchup production in Montreal, using tomato paste from the Highbury Canco plant, their own old facility.

Meanwhile Primo Foods makes a ketchup, made in Canada. Primo is owned by Sun-Brite, a Canadian company, so that's the trifecta. There's also that old plant in Leamington, Highbury-Canco that does private label/co-pack. Canada has lots of food manufacturing, at places like Delmar Foods, Luda, Hall's Kitchen, Giraffe Foods. This means when you buy a house brand from a Canadian retailer like Western Family or Compliments, there is a decent chance it's made in Canada by one of these private label manufacturers.