aaaaaaadjsf

aaaaaaadjsf , 10 days ago

Can’t join NATO with an existing territorial dispute. “Agreeing and joining NATO anyways” would be an official admission by the Ukrainian government that the territories currently held by Russia are not part of Ukraine anymore.

aaaaaaadjsf , 10 days ago

What does “winning the war” look like to you?

aaaaaaadjsf , 23 days ago (edited 23 days ago)

They will lose their majority. Votes are 99% counted and the ANC is barely above 40% of the vote. The ANC have screwed themselves with rampant corruption and a failure to deliver government services reliably, the most obvious example being the rolling electricity blackouts (loadshedding) that South Africans regularly experience. Having no electricity for 8+ hours a day at worst due to government incompetence, corruption, and austerity is not workable.

aaaaaaadjsf , 23 days ago (edited 23 days ago)

While I agree that the ANC has deserved to lose an election for a while, one must be very careful here. Without any viable opposition party ( the DA is not considered a viable opposition party by the majority of South Africans, as seen by them failing to grow their voter base this election), the “big tent” ANC is splitting along racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious lines, in a reactionary manner. Jacob Zuma’s MK party is the most obvious example of this, their manifesto calls for scrapping the constitution.

aaaaaaadjsf , 2 months ago

Going to be honest back when I was in high school we drew penises on the fields in the dew/frost. It was an all boys school so yeah.

aaaaaaadjsf , 3 months ago

The .opus audio format. People need to stop ripping everything to MP3, it’s inefficient and a flawed compression format. Opus is better than it and AAC.

aaaaaaadjsf , 3 months ago

A lot more tourism to Cuba from the US.

aaaaaaadjsf , 3 months ago

While the piracy community being among the biggest arguably doesn’t make for great optics

I’d argue otherwise. It is great optics to have a thriving piracy community. It keeps the corporate boot lickers out, and attracts the kind of crowd that we should want on Lemmy.

aaaaaaadjsf , 3 months ago

the most similar instance to reddit, culture-wise.

Why would anyone want that? The whole point of being on Lemmy is to get away from Reddit

aaaaaaadjsf , 3 months ago

At home I have a set DML panel speakers set up in a 2.1 channel system with a subwoofer. The panels themselves are made of EPS polystyrene that has been sanded down and coated in wood glue, are about 1 meter tall, 30 centimetres wide and 2 centimetres thick (3 foot 3 inches tall, 1 foot wide and 4/5 inches thick) and have rounded edges and corners. Each panel has a Dayton Audio 10 watt exciter mounted to it on the location recommend on their website. The subwoofer is a ported down firing unit, which I have placed in the corner of the room for corner loading.

aaaaaaadjsf , 3 months ago

Wow, when are you going to realize that you work for your users?

Do you pay their salary and have an employment contract with the developers of Lemmy? If not, they do not work for you.

And 2000€ per month is a ton of money. Most open source devs get nothing. Stop being so ungrateful and disrespectful to the community that you work for.

This is not a typical open source side project. The developers work full time on it, it’s basically their job. That 2000 Euros is their monthly gross salary. Average monthly salary in France is 2340 euros net as of 2022. The developers of Lemmy are earning well below average.

aaaaaaadjsf , 3 months ago

Also big wonder-who-thats-for vibes lol. Telling others to stop being ungrateful and disrespectful, while being ungrateful and disrespectful themselves.

aaaaaaadjsf , 3 months ago

How lazy must the song writing be for the Eurovision people to think it’s too political? You can absolutely hide political messages in the lyrics, in a song about love, sex partying, etc, and the vast majority of people will not notice. Quite a few bands have made careers out of doing exactly that. I mean just from the song title, you know that they are going to be very heavy handed with it.

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago

In other unrelated news, the Titanic still floats according to BBC Verify. They have obtained this image as proof:

https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/fa2700c7-59f2-4c03-84b3-5119b255a792.jpeg

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago

Researchers used samples from populations deemed by experts and campaigners to be vulnerable to exploitation, including Uyghurs and Tibetans

By this logic, said genetics journal should retract all papers which used samples from black people in the United States and Europe.

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago

Holy crap that first slam is absolutely brutal. Broken neck probably.

Also how much steroids are these fighters on? Men and women don’t look like that naturally. Drug testing in the UFC seems to somehow be even more of a joke than most other sports.

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago

The audio of the second slam in the video is properly loud, but I agree with you about the rest though.

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

I mean under Biden the US bombed Nordstream and is attempting to vassalise the EU through the Ukraine war. I don’t think the president matters that much, the US will continue to act in its own interests regardless of who the president is

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago

Eagerly awaiting the EU to sanction all US aligned propagandists as well…

Oh wait that will never happen

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago

Yeah I am pretty concerned. I think if work from home or hybrid jobs start requiring devices similar to the apple vision pro, it will only further the divide between people that work from home and those that don’t, as well as increasing the barrier to entry to these jobs. Dividing the working class further.

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

I think you’re thinking about your own country there mate. You still have a bloody monarchy, impossible to be more autocratic than that…

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago

Isn’t it illegal, by their own laws, for many of these countries mentioned to sell Israel military equipment, supplies, and ammunition due to the recent ICJ ruling? Not even international law, but their own civil laws. Which should open weapons manufacturers and their governments up to civil lawsuits. I know South African lawyers plan to file such lawsuits against the USA and UK.

The pressure must be kept up against Israel. Not a moment of relief. Genocide cannot be tolerated.

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

Even if it’s only plausible, many countries have laws on the books preventing the sale of weapons to countries under suspicion of committing genocide. I know that the UK has such a law. UK arms export licensing Rule 2c states: licences must “not grant (licenses) if there is risk …of a violation of international humanitarian law”.

So already with the ICJ’s plausible ruling, many parties and countries open themselves up to lawsuits if they continue business with the Israeli military. Japan has stopped working with Israeli Elbit systems because of this, and it also led to the US pushing through their major arms deal with Israel, including 25 F-35 and 25 F-15 fighter jets, to be singed the day before the ICJ delivered their preliminary verdict.

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

Wouldn’t Germany selling weapons be in direct violation of this

www.gesetze-im-internet.de/krwaffkontrg/__6.html

Admittedly I’m using Google translate and my very limited knowledge of German here, but wouldn’t Germany continuing to sell weapons to Israel be in violation of points 2.1, 3.1 and 3.2?

2.1

Approval may be refused in particular if… There is reason to believe that granting it would run counter to the Federal Republic’s interest in maintaining good relations with other countries.

3.1

Approval is to be refused if…There is a risk that the weapons of war will be used in an act that disturbs the peace, especially in a war of aggression.

3.1 This is really interesting because it uses the word risk and not confirmed. Thus even the preliminary ruling of the ICJ should be enough to constitute risk here.

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

Are you really trying to both sides this? Firstly the law in question uses the word “risk”, not “certainty” so I’m sure the ICJ ruling that there’s a plausible case of genocide against Israel fits that description.

Secondly, the Western nations that cut funding from the UNRWA did so as a form of protest after Israel lost in court and as a way to de-legitimise the case against Israel, as a lot of findings in the preliminary ruling of the ICJ use UN figures as a source. They are not cutting funding from the UNRWA because they believe in Israel’s “dossier of evidence” with regards to UNRWA participation in October 7, no one believes that, they are cutting funding from the UNRWA to tarnish the reputation of the ICJ, the UN and to attempt to tarnish the evidence used in the case of genocide against Israel. Because if Israel is found guilty of genocide, these nations will be complicit in that genocide. So they are simultaneously trying to cover their arses and reduce the chances of that happening through cutting funding from the UNRWA, for the reasons mentioned above.

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago

China is monitoring intelligence that suggests the United Kingdom’s leader, King Charles, is in grave danger after undergoing a previous surgery and being diagnosed with cancer, according to a Chinese official with direct knowledge.

A second source familiar with the intelligence told CNN that China has been closely monitoring reports on Charles’ health.

Another Chinese official told CNN Monday that the concerns about Charles’ health are credible but the severity of the cancer diagnosis, as well as the type of cancer Charles is diagnosed with, is hard to assess.

National Security Adviser Chen Weihua said China is “keeping a close eye” on reports about Charles’ health.

“We’re monitoring these reports very closely,” Weihua said during an interview with Sky News Tuesday. “As you know, the United Kingdom is a very superstitious society,” he said.

Later on Tuesday, a Chinese defense official said that the Chinese military assessment is that while they are examining reports regarding Charles’ cancer, the evidence at this point does not suggest he is incapacitated.

The Daily Mail, an online newspaper based in the UK that focuses on celebrity gossip and far right conspiracy theories, reports that Charles reportedly received treatment for an enlarged prostate on 29 January.

Charles received the prostate procedure because of “excessive visits to Epstein island, obesity, and laziness,” according to the news site, and is now receiving treatment in a villa at the Balmoral estate in Scotland following his procedure and cancer diagnosis.

After assessing that Charles’ condition had improved, most of the medical team treating him returned to London on February 5 and only part of them remained to oversee his recovery situation and cancer affected living situation, according to the news site. CNN is unable to independently confirm the report.

Source

spoilerHopefully this is a lesson on how propaganda works.

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago

Is hating monarchies not natural? What gives someone the right to rule over others just because of their bloodline?

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago

The redditors got it right for once?

Why would you have empathy for monarchs? It’s the ultimate form of nepotism, believing that they can rule an entire country because of their bloodline. If they don’t abdicate the throne and dissolve the institution, they don’t deserve respect.

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago

What gave it away?

I tried to make it really obvious at the end with the “visits to Epstein island” stuff.

aaaaaaadjsf , 4 months ago

weihua

aaaaaaadjsf , 5 months ago

So the millenial workers have had their spirits crushed, backs broken and expectations subverted to the point they’re considered “hard workers” now. I still remember when millenials were considered lazy bums. Will only be another decade before gen Z become the “hard workers” and the next generation (I think it’s generation alpha) will be the “unreliable” ones. The cycle repeats infinitely under the current mode of production.

aaaaaaadjsf , 5 months ago

1 in 5 employers have had a recent college graduate bring a parent to a job interview

Who the hell does that? Even by highschool kids should be sorting out their life affairs independent of their parents.

Though the reason behind recent graduates getting looked over is simple. There are a lot of people on the job market with experience, especially in industries like tech with the tech bubble bursting (probably the worst time to graduate in tech is now), so recent graduates have to compete with experienced workers. And the experienced worker will win almost every time. Similar happened after 2008 to recent millenial graduates, it’s when the whole “millenials are lazy/immature” thing kicked off. It’s seems to be a cycle. In a decades time/when the next major global economic event takes place, experienced Gen Z workers will be getting all the job offers, and the next generation to graduate will get the short end of the stick.

aaaaaaadjsf , 5 months ago

It’s much nicer than the place I’m living in now lol.

aaaaaaadjsf , 5 months ago

Commerical and enterprise software client side.

aaaaaaadjsf , 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

No, you never arm nazis. Azov is worse than just a “right wing militia”, they are actual blood and soil neo nazis. How many times that this have to backfire backfire before people realise arming Nazis is a terrible idea?

Also this ignores the fact that far right elements were essential in the 2014 coup taking place in Ukraine. The support of Nazi groups was needed to seperate Russia and Ukraine diplomatically. That’s the whole reason “the West” has been arming and supporting them for close to a decade now.

aaaaaaadjsf , 5 months ago

I feel this, used to drive a 70 horsepower car, overtaking on South African roads with that was a struggle.

aaaaaaadjsf , 5 months ago

What the actual fuck lmao. How does Skyrim in space win the most innovative gameplay award?

Gamers have lost their minds I swear

aaaaaaadjsf , 5 months ago

Thanks Joe Biden

Or maybe it was Blinken’s idea

aaaaaaadjsf , 5 months ago

Wonder how that happened huh? If only the US president had made his intentions clear beforehand. Ahh well, nevertheless, we’ll never know why there is such a big market for US LNG now…

aaaaaaadjsf , 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

I don’t think the Scandinavian/Nordic countries were ever actually neutral or non aligned/committed. Even during the 2006 NATO Red Flag military drills, Sweeden was committed to taking the side of “the West” should a NATO country be attacked. This position was made public by having four Gripen military fighter jets participate in the NATO manoeuvre Red Flag back then, where an attack on a NATO country is used as a scenario to test combat readiness. The Gripen jets were even made fully compatible with NATO standards during the manoeuvre. Denmark sent troops to Iraq.

So there is only a surrendering of official/public non committance/neutrality, as in reality Nordic countries have made their commitment to being NATO aligned quite clear over the past few decades.

aaaaaaadjsf , 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

Even ignoring the Ukraine war, was there any possible path for Russia to become militarily aligned with Nordic countries? Countries such as Sweeden, even if they were publicly neutral, have made their position quite clear that they were NATO aligned by participating in NATO military drills since 2006 and integrating with NATO military standards. Thus the Ukraine war has just made these unofficial/more private alignments towards NATO by the Nordic countries public. The writing has been on the wall for decades now with the military alignment of the Nordic countries. The Ukraine war just sped up the timeline.

aaaaaaadjsf , 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

Why would any democratic state want to align with a totalitarian state unless it was the only option

So why are they aligning with the USA? The candidate with the most votes has lost 1/3 of US elections in the 21st century, there was an effective judicial coup in 2000, and an attempted coup in 2020. Where has the US and their collective partners ever supported democracy? There was support fascist forces in the Balkans, integration of Eastern Europe into the EU not as equals, but as an effective semi-colony of major Western and Central European countries, similar to the relations between the USA and Latin America. In the global south, through the support of reactionary forces such as political Islam and through direct military intervention, the US has been complicit in the wholesale destruction of societies, as illustrated by Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya. I have not even mentioned the situation in Israel, where the USA is actively supporting an apartheid state in Israel and giving them the bombs and ammunition to commit genocide. I have not even mentioned the neo colonialism of the the powerful western and central European countries in Africa.

In what way is any of this democratic by “the West” or the USA? To me, this is the pinnacle of reaction, not progressive or democratic. The true answer to your question has nothing to do with democracy, and rather lies the the first part of your own statement, the Nordic countries think that it is more advantageous to align with “the West” than Russia militarily, and perceive this to be better for their own self interests.

aaaaaaadjsf , 5 months ago

FLAC files use lossless compression, which means all the original data is preserved (which is why people like FLAC), which makes FLAC files smaller than an uncompressed .WAV audio file, but still larger than an MP3 file, which uses lossy compression. Lossy compression does involve the loss of some data. This is what allows MP3 files to be smaller than FLAC. With the existence of other more modern lossy audio file formats/codecs like .AAC, and .opus, MP3s should no longer be used unless it is required for compatibility reasons. The modern lossy formats offer higher quality audio files at lower file sizes than MP3.

aaaaaaadjsf , 6 months ago

TV On The Radio - Young Liars. The entire EP, or just the single with the same name from it, depending on my mood.

The single

The whole EP

aaaaaaadjsf , 6 months ago

Missed opportunity for a handshake joke

aaaaaaadjsf , 6 months ago

This should be a popular opinion honestly, because it’s correct.

aaaaaaadjsf , 6 months ago

Most scissors have a smaller top handle for your thumb, so when you flip it around, that small handle becomes the one the rest of your fingers are supposed to fit in, which makes it very difficult to use.

aaaaaaadjsf , 6 months ago

My mom bought me some for school because she figured out I couldn’t use normal scissors. I was also doing occupational therapy for some other child health issues so my parents were very attentivenat the time. This was during the mid 2000s.