NORAD also tracks Santa using U.S. Air Force F-15, F-16, F-22 and Canadian Air Force CF-18 fighter jets. On Christmas Eve, fighter pilots rendezvous with Santa off the coast of Newfoundland to welcome him to North America. They escort him safely through North American airspace until he returns to the North Pole.
Why is no one hollering about this obvious waste of taxpayer dollars? It's not like they can keep up with him, anyway; Santa is superluminal!
I didn't mean "standardized" as in interchangeable parts or uniform sizing. I meant standardized as in limited selection, like how armies have historically standardized their equipment. You want a pair of boots, for example? Then choose from a handful of types with limited options, and everyone picks from the same list. There is no reason for Zappos to carry 2,600 types of mens boots other than fashion.
Similarly, there is no reason for Home Depot to carry 500 types of toilet seat other than fashion. The seats are "standardized" in that they are interchangeable, but there is no standard toilet seat style that everyone uses. You could do the same with lots of other consumer goods: everyone uses the same shower faucet, the same knife set, or the same style of flashlight. The world would save a tremendous amount of money and material by manufacturing everyday thing at scale and refining the designs to near-perfection.
I'm not advocating for such a world, though. It would be incredibly bland and boring.
Also, the first printing presses that came to England were accompanied by Dutch type setters. They sometimes made spellings more Dutch (changing gost to ghost for example). They were also paid by the line, so would occasionally add unnecessary letters to words.
The oddities of the English language will lead you down a strange and fascinating historical rabbit hole. It's great reading, but be ready to spend some time.
I like this. I will put a reminder on my calendar to check on ClubsAll in a few months. If more users complain about it then we can reconsider the approach.
I will leave my personal opinions down here in the comments.
On one hand, no harm is being done. It's possible this is a temporary situation due to ClubsAll being young and in development. Also, all our data on Lemmy is public anyway; we cannot stop others from scraping it.
On the other hand, on principle I don't like one-way interaction and the way ClubsAll presents Lemmy content as their own. It feels deceptive. Defederation would be a symbolic way to protest that behavior.
I am torn. At the moment I am slightly in favor of defederation.
I donate my time more than my money. Scouts and school fundraisers soak up way too many hours.
My biggest ongoing financial donation is the pile of money I put into Kiva years ago, which is slowly being depleted each time they take a cut as an administrative fee. I plan to let the balance wind down and not add more money in the future. Kiva doesn't operate quite the way it is advertised, and from what I have read their C-suite is also overpaid.
I also donate a few dollars each month to a Lemmy mobile app.
I've been meaning to donate to KEXP radio in Seattle. I'll go do that right now while I'm thinking about it.
As an American who is undoubtedly contributing to the US-centric tone, I encourage you to post more non-US content. Especially from your particular corner of the globe. It's nice to see things from other parts of the world!
The Reddit API exodus in 2023 brought hundreds of new instances and tens of thousands of new users to Lemmy. Unfortunately, many of those instances had open registrations, Lemmy's moderation tools were very basic (they still are), and there were not enough mods/admins to provide 24-hour coverage on the larger instances. A handful of trolls took advantage of the situation by posting grotesque stuff for lulz: CSAM, scat porn, racist memes, etc. Sometimes it would stay up for hours until someone with the right permissions noticed and took it down.
The situation is better now. Though there is still plenty of room for improvement.
