Instigate @ Instigate @aussie.zone

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3

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334

Joined

2 yr. ago

Little Inferno was a great concept, and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. At that time I had never even heard of a game like it! Of course the genre has definitely expanded since then, but I honestly think Little Inferno was more novel than World of Goo (although I absolutely loved WoG too!)

Humour doesn’t require punching down. He used to punch up, which made him both hilarious and insightful at the same time, particularly while deconstructing issues of race relations in the US. Now he’s just another angry old man who likes to rant about things he doesn’t understand. That’s not humour; that’s a letter to the editor at the New York Post.

I never stated nor implied that spelling and grammar are a marker of intelligence - just a marker of being able to retain and use simple information. This was absolutely directed towards neurotypical people, and I probably should have mentioned dyslexia as an example of where this logic doesn’t follow.

It needs to be used to discriminate in fields that require abundantly clear communication urgently. I’m a child protection caseworker who does nothing but write up reports all day; if I had dyslexia I’d need serious accommodations to be able to perform the role at the level expected by the taxpayer who pays my salary. It absolutely can be done, but they’d likely need to hire a whole other person just to scribe. Have a look through my comment history; I’m well aware of dyslexia and its effects as I used to scribe for a friend in uni.

While that may be true, it’s a reasonable indicator of a person’s capacity to hear new information and then incorporate that into practice. If they’ve been told that they’re spelling a word wrong but then either can’t integrate that new knowledge or actively choose not to follow it, you’ve got someone who is either wilfully ignorant or lacks some capacity to integrate new information. Either that, or dyslexia.

Also, it genuinely depends on the work you do. My role has me writing up anywhere between 5-10,000 words worth of reports per day - proper spelling and grammar is key for competence in this role. I’ve seen reports where seemingly innocuous spelling mistakes completely change the meaning of text. Writing ‘can’ instead of ‘can’t’ and vice versa is an immediate example that comes to mind. I know this is an engineering grad, but clear communication is important in every role that includes managers, teams or other stakeholders.

While not a legal argument, look up Alexei Navalny in Russia. He’s been the leader of the country’s opposition party for some time and beyond his attempted assassination, he’s become a political prisoner and has been trying to maintain political status from gaol. He absolutely should be able to run and would objectively be a better president for the average Russian than Putin is.

While it’s not an American example, it’s a general example of why people who are technically criminals (in his case, a political prisoner) should be able to run for office - even from gaol.

It’s one of those situations where a protection needs to be in place that, sadly, can also be abused by bad actors.

Add a dash of oil and a sprinkle of crushed almonds to that masterpiece and you’ve got yourself one tasty word salad. Yum yum.

Satire? Maybe. Karma mining? Not on a platform like Lemmy. There’s no value to karma on Lemmy - no one wants to buy a Lemmy account with a bunch of Karma to start shilling from - the user base is still just too small to be worth it.

FtM top surgery and MtF bottom surgery both cause you to lose body parts (breasts and testicles respectively). MtF top surgery and FtM bottom surgery usually cause you to gain the same body parts. The only situation where a transition causes people to gain body parts without losing any is hormonal therapy for transfemme people without surgery.

"Anybody. I would be happy to support virtually any one of the Republicans, maybe not Vivek [Ramaswamy], but the others that are running would be acceptable to me. I would be happy to vote for them. I would be happy to vote for any of the Democrats too. I mean it would be an upgrade from, in my opinion, Donald Trump and perhaps also from Joe Biden," Romney said.

The senator added: "I like President Biden. I find him a very charming and engaging person, there's some places I agree with and most places I disagree with him. I think he made all sorts of terrible mistakes, but I would like to see someone else run."

Smart man. If I were a Republican, I’d probably say the same. He seems to see things right down the line. It’s a shame he didn’t manage to make it to become the 45th president; echoing his sentiment it, would have been a far greater alternative.

I’d argue that a group of new-tech employees is a specifically atypical example of the general population. They’re very likely tertiary qualified (minority), they’d all be earning more than six figures (minority), they’re likely on the lower end of the age bracket, and I doubt they’re representative with regards to gender and cultural background as that’s a known issue in tech. I’m not sure that cohort is in any way representative of the general population.

I’m not trying to take a stand here; I have no dog in this fight. I’m just trying to elucidate why making such an assumption might not be wise. As I’ve said before; it may be true, but I (and you) have no idea if that’s actually the case, so assuming it serves no real value.

It’s an interesting question! My understanding is that it may affect opiates like heroin, but not opioids (fentanyl, oxycodone, novacaine etc) as opiates are naturally derived whereas opioids are synthetic.

This opinion piece from Chatham House says before 2023, Afghanistan was responsible for over 80% of global opium supply, so I’d say the impact on the heroin market will be significant to say the least.

https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/the-world-today/2023-08/why-talibans-opium-ban-will-probably-fail

In my armchair opinion, I think we’re likely to see opioids like fentanyl fill that gap. That scares me a lot given the relative strengths at identical concentrations of heroin and fentanyl vary so wildly.

J O N K E R

10,000 dogs per year and yet we still don’t have a real-life John Wick bringing down the Police mafia. Damn.

That info is outdated; the Taliban have heavily cracked down on opium cultivation to the extent that their total crop yield saw a “95% decline from 6,200 tons produced in 2022 to 333 tons in 2023”.

https://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/Afghanistan_opium_survey_2023.pdf

Sure, but the answer to a lack of an informed public is not reverting away from democracy; it’s trying to inform the voters. Very many people vote against their best interests on a regular basis in a political sphere, and we shouldn’t revoke their right to vote as a result. Democracy, as a principle, should still prevail.

I don’t think it’s fair to infantilise people you’ve never met in the way that you are. What evidence do you have that the people who signed on to this letter didn’t read it? What evidence do you have that they’re either naïve or easily manipulated? I think they’re unfair assumptions. They may be true, but I have no idea if that’s the case.

I mean, isn’t this just an attempt to instil democracy in their workplace? If the vast majority of employees want something, whether or not it is objectively in their best interest, shouldn’t leadership listen to them? Isn’t this just what unions do on the regular?

I have no dog in this fight, I don’t know who’s a good person and who’s bad, but I believe in democracy even when it doesn’t produce the best result. I wish all companies acted upon the wishes of their employees rather than their shareholders, customers or consumers; that would make for far more cohesive and productive workplaces.

I think a better solution is one year of global revenue (not profit) as it’s really hard to determine damages in cases like this. That way, it’s legitimately a death sentence regardless of the size or scale of the company. If you set the fines at an amount not linked to profit or revenue, all you’re doing is making it extremely hard for the little guy but less hard for the big corporations - the ones you really want to go after.

I didn’t know that there were monotremes outside of Australia and PNG! Thanks for this, I learned something new today.

BOOK GOOD

I am on stolen land, and I recognise the legitimacy of Aboriginal Australians wanting to pursue a genuine treaty process that can undo some of the serious harm us Anglos have done over the last couple hundred years and instill true self-determination. My ancestors were the ones most involved in the invasion and genocides, and I don’t take that responsibility lightly.