cynar @ cynar @lemmy.world

Posts

5

Comments

1,091

Joined

2 yr. ago

That's also before accounting for the various ground scientists who would rapidly become aware through the private channels. Someone appearing on the ISS would leak beyond containment before anyone could think to cut phone communications, let alone implement it.

Compared to telefragging someone on live tv? Also, on the balance, the media coverage would likely help knock loose some more funding for NASA, if only to try and figure out what the f*** happened.

Scientists are not good at keeping secrets, particularly not of this level. Also, the ISS is remarkably public. It would be obvious they were hiding something, at the very least.

Would I expect to spend some time "volunteering" in a research lab, more than likely. I doubt it would get to dissection level. The risk/cost would be low enough that I would take it.

The International Space Station. The sheer confusion value would be amazing, particularly if I stayed quiet about how it happened ("I went to bed, then woke up floating here. I've no clue how it happened").

I would get to cause a major incident of complete chaos, with little to no harm. I would get to experience space and weightlessness. I would also get a near guaranteed lift home (eventually). There's also almost no way it could be kept quiet, so I get to be a minor celebrity for a while.

So how do you see deflation going then? Particularly deflation of the defacto reference currency for most of the world?

As far as I can tell, it would make the disruption of covid look like a minor market blip. And that's without looking into how the various chain reactions would play off and amplify each other on the global stage.

There's a difference between pumping the brakes and throwing a grenade into the fuel tank. A large scale economic collapse would be devastating. The world economy is so interdependent now that even minor disruptions cause problems.

I'm all for pumping the brakes, but we either need to stop gracefully, or have an alternative to jump to.

In our current economic model, any deflation creates a perverse incentive to not spend. It is extremely bad for the economy, and all of us reliant on it. The rich are one of the few groups that come out ahead (relatively).

Like it or not, we are all stuck on that merry go round. Until we find a graceful way off, it's in no-one's interest to jam it up.

Gender affirming care, for minors, is about 2 things.

1. Helping them figure out what is actually going on.
2. Stopping difficult or irreversible changes.

The first is exactly what you want. It's helping the children figure out exactly what they feel. It might also involve changing outward appearance (clothing etc) to see how it feels. Basically get their head straight with what they really want and feel.

The second is mostly puberty blockers. Puberty makes irreversible changes to the body. Blocking it doesn't do any harm. It's been used for decades to help with other conditions. When the blockers are removed, puberty proceeds normally. If the patient truly wants to transition, then an artificial puberty can be induced. This is far safer and more effective than surgery to fix things later.

No one is chopping up children.

From memory, we are statistically more likely to be geniuses. Unfortunately we are also equally as more likely to be clinically insane.

I know, first hand, how strong the illusion is, that depression causes. It's like having a mountain poised to avalanche down on you. You just want to escape, even if it's via extreme means.

The key is that it is still an illusion. It's a paper tiger, once you get a handle to fight it, it dissolves like mist. Most people who attempt suicide, due to mental health, are not dealing with a steady chronic condition. They are at a crisis point. If they receive appropriate help, clawing their way back is perfectly possible for most.

There are exceptions, but they are quite rare. I would bundle them with terminal illness, though proving that is a lot harder. It's also a balancing act between being OK with dying, and being of sound mind to make that decision.

Many places make it illegal to allow police to intercede. In most places, the police can intervene if they believe a crime is about to be committed.

There is a huge line between someone who is terminally ill, and wants to die on their own terms, and someone having a mental health crisis. The first should be legal, but still needs support and checking, the 2nd need immediate help.

You joke, but this was legitimate concerns raised in many places, when slavery was abolished. It was often phased out slowly to allow businesses to adapt.

It's at least better than nothing, but far from perfect.

That's also just the electrical portion of our mind. There are whole levels of chemical, and chemical potentials at work. Neurones will fire differently depending on the chemical soup around them. Most of our moods are chemically based. E.g. adrenaline and testosterone making us more aggressive.

Our mind also extends out of our heads. Organ transplant recipricants have noted personality changes. Food preferences being the most prevailant.

The neurons only deal with 'fast' thinking. 'slow' thinking is far more complex and distributed.

They came for the trans ~~and I did nothing, because I am not trans ~~ and I fought back where I could. Because fuck that shit, we know there this dance will end otherwise!

We also set up an excellent photo booth with the same setup.

A DSLR, on a tripod, a cheap remote trigger, and some photography lamps. We used drapes to box it off a bit. Throw in some inflatable props, and let the kids/drunks make it awesome.

The photos on the TV just encouraged others to join in the fun.

Less than 10 years ago, though they were getting obsolete at the time.

I had good luck with these at my wedding. Instead of disposable cameras, I put cheap digital cameras. It didn't take long for guests to realise that the pictures were appearing on a large tv, in a sideshow. People got a lot more creative when they realised they would be seen quickly, not weeks later.

I managed to get them working without proprietary software, too. The onboard script logged into WiFi and uploaded the photos over ftp.

Given their size and the level of tech at the time, it was pretty impressive.

0.5% is so tiny that it disappears into the noise. It's a 1 in 200 difference. In theory, it would make a difference. In practice, you won't be able to measure it. Other confounding factors would bury it.

The difference is about 0.5%. A mass weighing 100kg at the north pole would only weigh 99.5kg at the equator. Most of the difference is the centerfugal force of the earth's rotation.

I've not checked the numbers, but apparently it's detectable in Olympic sports. More height records get broken at equatorial latitudes that higher ones.

Most of the problem with lasers come from focusing them. The eye is incredibly good at it. This means even a small laser pen can reach MW/m^2 ranges by the time it hits the retina.

IR is a different story (at longer wavelengths). Without the ability to see it, our eye will not attempt to focus on it. Also, our eyes lenses are not particularly transparent to it. 3rd, the ultra short pulses mean that there is no time to focus.

As for the mosquito, the laser is tuned to a frequency that is strongly absorbed by their wings. Given their size and how delicate their wings are, a tiny amount of energy can cause significant damage. Conversely, the same energy on our eye will just cause a slight amount of heating. The bulk mass of the eye will absorb this fine, with no damage