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Instigate

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Instigate ,

It’s easy to have sympathy for Palestine; it’s very difficult to have sympathy for Hamas.

Anyone cheering on Hamas is promoting crimes against humanity which is objectively abhorrent. Anyone who cares for the Palestinian people caught up in the conflict just has functioning empathy.

Instigate ,

Is it? Or does the threat of being surrounded give Netanyahu free rein to do whatever the fuck he wants and demand massive support from the West? Seems to me like Netanyahu knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s canny and savvy, that’s the only reason he’s been PM for so long, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s riling up the tensions in an effort to get Western ground troops to enter the war and help with the genocide.

Instigate ,

I’m not surprised about China failing to specifically call out Hamas or specifically back Israel - they’ve been working very hard to get strategic partnerships set up throughout the Middle East and overt support for Israel could weaken those accords and end up costing China money. Sure, China has good relations with Israel, but I doubt that will change because they weren’t strong enough or specific enough in their opposition of Hamas.

It’s all strategy for Xi - the man knows how to ride fence all the way to the bank.

18+ [GIANT NSFW] What do we do with evil men?

Let’s say hypothetically a terrorist organization, let’s call them Hamas, attacks a community they hate, let’s say the jews, kill civilians indiscriminately, rape women and then kill them, parade them naked where they live and then spit on their dead bodies. They take hostages and force some women among the hostages into...

Instigate ,

I sincerely hope that civilians on both sides are able to stay safe during this conflict. We need peace, and we need it fast, because too many innocents are dying. I really hope a peace deal can be brokered as soon as possible.

Instigate ,

A segment of the populace will definitely be feeling that, but remember what happened in the US after 9/11? There weren’t a lot of calls to figure out how intelligence failed so spectacularly because the sabre-rattling government came out in full force, and the country (almost) united against Islamic terrorism. Those who aren’t overtly political or who don’t follow politics too closely will only see that Bibi has reacted with as much force as possible, which plays into his strongman vibe and may even win his party an election in their own right, without having to coalesce with the other parties. After the clusterfuck of elections they’ve been through recently, this could be what seals another decade of Likud rule.

Instigate ,

It does include apartheid, genocide, belief in racial superiority and murdering journalists though. We can’t equate what one side has done with the other as one side has generally held all the power while one side has been persistently oppressed. Also, it’s pretty hard to say whether mass murder, rape and kidnapping civilians is as bad as, worse than, or better than genocide.

The Israeli government regularly commits atrocities and crimes against humanity. Hamas regularly commits atrocities and crimes against humanity. There are no good guys here, just bad guys in charge being funded and goaded by other bad guys and innocent civilians being needlessly murdered.

Are there any green alternatives to asphalt in development?

Asphalt used on road surfaces are byproducts from fossil fuel. With the ultimate goal of eliminating the use of fossil fuel to combat climate change, are there any good alternatives for road surfaces? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a viable replacement of asphalt in the works, or even a plan to replace it in any...

Instigate , (edited )

I think you underestimate how small differences have large results when we’re talking about nationwide or population-wide issues. If there are a million cars on the road and this change makes suspensions wear 5% faster, then every X years (however long it would usually take for them to wear) there are an extra 50,000 cars needing replacements. That’s not an insignificant amount. Scale that up to larger countries that have tens or hundreds of millions of cars and the result gets even larger.

Small differences make large impacts. 1.5°C average global warming is having disastrous effects on the environment and our capacity to thrive. COVID-19 has a Case Fatality Rate of around 1% (depending on country) and it has caused nearly 7 million deaths - more than the amount of Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust and similar to the Holodomor.

Instigate ,

Cheers for the correction - I’ve edited my comment.

Instigate ,

My wife and I took part in the survey as people who aren’t in programming and have never used LLM art generators before, and we scored quite poorly. I got all of the photorealistic images correct, but the painting/drawing pictures were much more difficult.

I think a better test would be to give four real artists and five LLM art generators the same prompt, show all nine of those together in a square and you have to pick the real ones. Then we’re comparing like-for-like as opposed to trying to spot an LLM image out of the blue.

Africa’s first carbon-removal plant (www.nbcnews.com)

The article puts it up as a question about whether this practice is worthwhile since the only logical solution to climate change is to de-carbonize. Personally I think that question isn’t very nuanced, certainly de-carbonizing 100’a of tons from the atmosphere from just this one plant is a small net positive. Can’t let it...

Instigate ,

We need to act on all fronts simultaneously. Reduce fossil fuels, build more tried and tested renewable energy generators, invest in new and emerging renewable technologies, AND direct air capture simultaneously and we have a chance to take ourselves off the current path to destruction. Doing only one or two of these in isolation just won’t be enough.

Instigate ,

The problem with that approach alone is that large-scale social media companies will just absorb the fine as an operating cost. Fines and gaol time need to be levied against the people creating the content as well to try to stop the problem at its source. If a snake oil salesperson wants to push their bullshit but are afraid not only of their posts being taken down but fines and gaol time themselves, I venture we’d see a significant amount less of these people.

Instigate ,

“Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee”

  • John Donne

Every time a gullible idiot falls into a trap that enriches a manipulator, society suffers. Every time someone spends money on snake oil instead of on necessities or goods that bolster the local economy, the economy suffers. Every time someone falls down the rabbit hole away from the mainstream, we lose a potential ally and friend. Every loss is a loss, and even if you take morality and ethics out of it, it still makes sense to protect the vulnerable - even if only for our own selfish interests.

Instigate ,

This is a really tough situation. While I don’t like the idea of pro-Russian sentiment leeching into Western democratic institutions, it’s important not to outright ban your opposition but rather to convince the populace that they’re not worth a vote. Democracy means we all get a voice - the intelligent, the learned, the naive, the stupid, the good, the bad… all of us. Whether or not this is the right or correct move, it does democracy a disservice to prevent people from running for office.

Of course there’s a lot of nuance to that assertion - surely those that are in bed with wartime enemies shouldn’t be vaulted into parliament for obvious reasons - but I always struggle with the idea of disallowing a person or group of people from running for office who’ve committed no crime against the State.

Instigate ,

There have been over 30 posts to this community in the last 24 hours. This is the only one that mentions COVID.

Instigate ,

Yep, in Australia we have a fair few Punts (aka cable ferries) for river crossings in a car, like the Putney Punt (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortlake_Ferry) that crosses the Parramatta River.

Instigate ,

I did the same! I’m now given to understand that that was Google’s goal with Chrome - make the easiest-to-use and most lightweight browser to bring everyone in, then ramp up the trackers and bloat. I think I need to export my bookmarks and look into Firefox again…

Instigate ,

Honestly, when they’re hand-reared, emus are extremely docile. A lot of zoos/animal rescues in Australia have big open paddocks where kangaroos, wallabies and emus roam freely and you can walk right up to them and feed them or pat them. I’ll never forget being 11 years old and walking up to pat a bird that was bigger than me - extremely scary but also so gentle and sweet. It really liked scratches from the base of its neck right up the back towards its head.

Now cassowaries are the ones you don’t wanna fuck with. A huge horn they headbutt you with AND dragon talons for disemboweling you coupled with extreme aggression and territorialism? Fuck that for a joke.

Instigate ,

While I agree with a lot of what you’ve said, I take issue with this point:

A suicidal person is going to wind up dead, gun or not

I work with a lot of suicide survivors and I can tell you for a fact that a lot of people (I’d argue the vast majority) who attempt suicide but survive are not guaranteed to die by suicide later. Oftentimes an attempted suicide is in reaction to an event or circumstances, and once those are resolved the suicidality abates. Removing guns from the equation reduces the chances of completing a suicide, and therefore increases the chances of a suicidal person receiving the mental health care they need after an attempt.

Instigate ,

I’d call it Gross Misconduct in Execution of Government Duties - minimum sentence is a permanent dismissal from all government roles (at all levels) along with a major fine that can be taken from a government pension fund and goes directly to victims. Aggravating circumstances (lying about the death of a civilian, multiple lies compounded upon one another etc.) should come within minimum jail time. Cops should always be afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing. Only then do we get them on their best behaviour.

Instigate ,

Yeah selling your criminal story should be considered proceeds of crime, right? Like, you only made that money because you did crime. 100% of money made from a crime in perpetuity should be given directly to victims.

Instigate ,

Australian here; can confirm that in High School over ten years ago we had a cop come and explain to our class (among many other things) that taking nude photos of yourself, your friends or your partner is still considered production of child abuse material, at least in NSW. I’ve literally never heard of a child being charged though, and I work in Child Protection where we regularly get reports about exactly this issue.

Instigate ,

Accusations ruin plenty of people’s lives, regardless of gender.

Instigate ,

Source for accusations against men leading to quantifiably worse outcomes than accusations against women or NB people? I haven’t seen the research that backs up your assertion.

TIL In the Hot Coffee lawsuit against McDonalds,punitive damages were given due to McDonalds intentionally overheating coffee to save money on refills (www.poolelg.com)

During the trial it was revealed that McDonald’s knew that heating their coffee to this temperature would be dangerous, but they did it anyways because it would save them money. When you serve coffee that is too hot to drink, it will take much longer for a person to drink their coffee, which means that McDonald’s will not...

Instigate ,

Just a quick note but neither Celsius nor Fahrenheit degrees can be used the way you’ve described - 200°F isn’t 133% of the temperature of 150°C and neither is 93.3°C 133% hotter than 65.5°C because the ‘zero’ point on both of those scales are entirely arbitrary.

The two temperatures you’re talking about are ~366.45 K and ~338.65 K, as kelvin is the only true SI measurement for temperature whose zero point describes a natural or true zero, meaning that the higher temperature is roughly ~8% hotter.

Brought to you by the National Department of Pedantry

Instigate ,

Well surely it’s a spectrum that people are advocating an arbitrary line be placed on. Once this breed is gone, what about the next most aggressive breed? They then become the most aggressive breed and there’ll be calls to weed them out too. Dogs kill more humans than any other non-human vertebrate in the world by a very long shot - getting rid of one breed isn’t going to reduce that number to zero.

To clarify, I’m not against the move of banning the breed at all, I’m just acutely aware that it’s making an arbitrary distinction.

Instigate ,

And crocs! I went to a buffet at the old Centrepoint Tower revolving restaurant that had emu, kangaroo and crocodile all to eat. I love me some kanga mince, but the steaks are a bit too tough for me. You’ve gotta slow-cook croc too because it’s pretty tough, but it has a really nice chicken-mixed-with-irony/bloody taste.

Instigate ,

Really? Humans have been eating pig/boar, fish (including shark), crustaceans and cephalopods for a very long time. My understanding was that humans tended to eat more herbivores than carnivores or omnivores more because they’re prey that usually don’t fight back, making them easier to hunt or farm, whereas omnivores and carnivores are hunters themselves and therefore have offensive tools they can use defensively.

Instigate ,

I guess that depends on what you term a “real” consequence. If legal justice is the only “real” consequence then yeah, there’s been no “real” consequence. But we could sit and debate for hours about what constitutes a “real” consequence as it’s an arbitrary term.

Instigate ,

That’s basically true of all roguelites, right? The whole genre is built around the idea of playing through, dying, and coming back stronger so you can go farther. I’m thinking Rogue Legacy, Dead Cells, Slay the Spire, The Binding of Isaac etc. etc.

Instigate ,

I don’t think that’s entirely true. Sure, conspiracies usually involve more than one person, but aren’t there crimes along the lines of “conspiracy to commit x” whereby a person acting alone can be charged for planning to commit a specific crime? I’m thinking if a person is found with tonnes of fertiliser, the blueprints to a building, a makeshift detonator and a manifesto they could be charged with conspiracy to commit mass murder, even though no one else was involved in the planning.

Instigate ,

TIL! Thanks for that!

Instigate ,

Psychologists can only really diagnose mood disorders, not psychiatric conditions. Because ADHD is a psychiatric disorder, psychologists absolutely should NOT be diagnosing it. If they suspect ADHD in a client, their job is to refer the client to a psychiatrist who is able to make such a diagnosis and prescribe medicine to manage it.

Source: bachelor’s degree in psychology

Instigate ,

I’ve found that you definitely can outside of the US. Growing up in Australia I was always taught the ‘both sides’ argument regarding Israel/Palestine, and I’ve literally never met a person who didn’t support a two-state solution. A Jewish family I grew up with were notoriously anti-Israel, specifically because Israel has given them bad names by committing atrocities in response to other atrocities. You might find a few right wing nutjobs that refuse to allow criticism of Israel, but generally they’re the ones that are ostracised by the majority.

Instigate ,

Who is Justice Beaver?

Instigate ,

Ditto for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK; aka North Korea). People often intentionally misuse words to obfuscate their true intentions, particularly those with an authoritarian or fascist slant.

Instigate ,

Mate, I worked at Bunnings for seven years and I can tell you for a fact, there are plenty of people out there who actually talk like that. I’d put it on when I was working the trade yard so that tradies/handymen would (ironically) take me more seriously.

Instigate ,

Nah, we don’t use hard r’s at the end of our words like in American English. For instance, our way of pronouncing ‘car’ is more like ‘cah’ or just ‘ca’. The way you’ve written it is basically Pirate English.

Ruby Franke formally charged with 6 counts of felony child abuse (www.nbcnews.com)

Ruby Franke, the mother of six behind the family YouTube channel “8 Passengers,” has been charged with six counts of felony child abuse by the Washington County Attorney in Utah, a spokesperson for the attorney’s office confirmed to NBC News on Tuesday....

Instigate ,

Child protection caseworker and previous child of abuse here: this is absolutely correct. Punishment should NEVER involve removal of a basic necessity. It should always amount to removal of a want, not a need. Taking away dessert, access to video games etc. are the only acceptable forms of punishment. This follows research that shows that taking a child’s basic necessities from them doesn’t improve behaviour, it merely adapts their attachment style to dysfunctional.

Instigate ,

Why didn’t he just let her drive off, taking her plate details to log a warrant? I feel that would be the correct thing to do. If he didn’t stand in front of her car aiming a gun at her then he has nothing to worry about. Not saying stealing is appropriate behaviour, just feel the whole thing could have been avoided.

Instigate ,

If you want a deeper look into just how child protection systems can fail so egregiously, have a watch of The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. I work in child protection myself and it was eye-opening.

Instigate ,

You’re really telling me that if I move from Maine to Arizona I suddenly have to get a new degree, because mine is only valid in my region? That sounds ridiculously silly. The vast majority of professionals (lawyers excluded) don’t have to learn different information to be able to do the same job in different states, do they?

Surely it makes more sense to have a national accreditation for the vast majority of courses, right?

Instigate ,

It’s funny how many of them unironically praise the Taliban. At least, it’s funny from my perspective looking in. I’m sure for a fellow citizen that’s a scary thought.

College professors are going back to paper exams and handwritten essays to fight students using ChatGPT (www.businessinsider.com)

College professors are going back to paper exams and handwritten essays to fight students using ChatGPT::The growing number of students using the AI program ChatGPT as a shortcut in their coursework has led some college professors to reconsider their lesson plans for the upcoming fall semester.

Instigate ,

And readers/scribes! I’ve read and scribed for a friend who had dyslexia in one of her exams and it worked really well. She finished the exam with time to spare and got a distinction in the subject!

YSK about bismuth subgallate, an "internal deodorant" that makes your stools and flatulence not smelly

Why YSK: there are times when you need to not be stinky. A multi-day outing with friends staying in one house comes to mind. Taking bismuth subgallate will make even your vilest poops and farts smell like absolutely nothing. In the US, it’s FDA approved for that purpose and comes in chewable tablets.

Instigate ,

Paracetamol often gets touted as being dangerous as it’s the commonest drug used in intentional overdoses, however its LD50 is around 2g/kg, meaning that a 70kg human would usually need to take about 140g to end their life. Paracetamol is usually sold in 250mg tablets, so this translates to around 560 individual tablets. Toxicity occurs at much lower levels, but this very rarely results in death.

A bigger issue is chronic paracetamol toxicity, which is caused by taking very large amounts daily for an extended period of time. This has significant detrimental effects to the liver and kidneys.

In general though, and certainly by comparison to many other drugs that are prescription-only, it’s quite a safe drug. Death only occurs in roughly 0.1% of all cases of paracetamol toxicity, there is no known risk of addiction, there are very low rates of allergic reactions, and allergic reactions that occur are only very rarely anaphylactic.

Instigate ,

What about their animated TV catalogue? I reckon The Simpsons would fit well in a Park. Definitely Futurama too - especially now with the reboot. The Seth MacFarlane projects maybe not so much.

Instigate ,

A semiautomatic or fully automatic rifle; machine gun; or weapon that fires a propelled explosive ordnance.

Instigate ,

Oh man, the homemade napalm comment really hits home for me. How did you use to make it? My friend always said that it was by melting polystyrene foam in petrol (no heat needed, it simply melts on contact).

Instigate ,

So then the truth of the matter is that we can create water from hydrogen and oxygen and we can also destroy water by reducing it to its elemental compounds. As such, water can be created and can be destroyed, meaning that the overall level of water available on earth can change over time, however our commonest uses for water have it not be destroyed and eventually return to the water cycle.

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