Posts by Steve98052@universeodon.com
(DIR) Post #AQiRMaGQfS43CvLA2q by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2022-12-17T21:18:08Z
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@supernovae @john @d3cline @futurebird But with the exception of servers that promote themselves on the basis of rejecting civility (Gab, Truth Social, etc.), it can be messy to identify whether a given server is a bad actor, a well-intentioned but overwhelmed administrator, an effective administrator caught off guard by nefarious users while the moderators are sleeping, etc./end
(DIR) Post #AQmZCQSppDGGBQeMF6 by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2022-12-20T01:17:54Z
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@john I have no idea whether Kim Dotcom is insane or just trolling the Twit.#PoesLaw
(DIR) Post #AR6fwZ7QSrrHEUDd3o by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2022-12-28T21:42:44Z
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From the article:"Biden sold 180 million barrels of the strategic petroleum reserve at about $96ish per barrel and is now refilling it at about $73ish per barrel."The US govenment will realize a $4 billion profit . . ."https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/21/2143098/-Here-s-A-Headline-You-Won-t-See-On-Fox-Noise#oil #Biden #GoodNews
(DIR) Post #AR6fwa2V2fVo5UvD1M by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2022-12-28T22:49:39Z
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@meowlygrowly I see your point. But it is a budgetary success by any measure. And the fact remains that the US economy is still dangerously dependent on oil for now.A political and economic success in this case undermines the arguments for more drilling, and supports the case that high fuel prices before the mid-terms were driven by the oil industry and foreign enemies in an attempt to influence the election.
(DIR) Post #AR6fwaujn0tgniIWYq by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2022-12-29T00:19:18Z
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@GreenFire @meowlygrowly The catch in a lot of debates about national security is that different people have different ideas about what best advances national security.One interesting tidbit is that if one regards Russia as a major US adversary, supporting Ukraine has been an unparalleled national security investment, because Ukraine has destroyed roughly half of the Russian military for a tiny fraction of the US military budget.
(DIR) Post #AR6fwbi0poJRGXLsMi by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2022-12-29T07:56:28Z
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@GreenFire @meowlygrowly Good point. _Putin_ is a menace. Russia itself might not be, after Putin.How Putin seized power:https://www.thisamericanlife.org/614/the-other-mr-president/act-one-14
(DIR) Post #ARHK0ZwFIbsR2cTx4a by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2023-01-03T21:23:23Z
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@hn50 For those who don't want to set up a server, Dreamwidth is pretty great. Same software as Livejournal, but no Russian ownership.
(DIR) Post #ARJ7WTowfbUqFJrutc by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2023-01-04T00:41:17Z
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@endrift There are very few types of instructional videos that are more useful than well illustrated instructional text.Music instruction is one category where video is usually better. There are probably some others too.
(DIR) Post #ARJ7WUln8oZHBpOucS by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2023-01-04T01:22:24Z
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@dingodog19 @endrift And then only certain types of car repair, and only if the videos are particularly well done.I read a lot of web pages about carpentry, and watched videos when I couldn't find good illustrated text. The videos were almost always tedious.There's a programming project I'm dreading because the only reference I can find on the subject is a twenty part video series.
(DIR) Post #ARuZSHWgxA7DUpsfr6 by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2023-01-22T19:45:49Z
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@CivicDutyPeg @Jaden2 Interesting historical note that ties in to Jaden's question about historical racism.Back as recently as the 1970s, gun control was widely approved on the political left and right. The left approved because guns kill. The right approved because they associated crime with Black people, and regarded civilian guns as tools for crime (as well as hunting and target sports).There was legislation that banned the least expensive handguns, nicknamed "Saturday night specials". I didn't understand it at the time, but it was meant to deny poor Black people guns.Facing declining sales after the Vietnam War ended, the gun industry pushed a change of philosophy, however: people should respond to fear of crime by buying guns, not by keeping criminals from buying guns.The right bought into their pitch, and their crowning success was the _Heller_ abomination.(And yes, Russia helped the NRA.)
(DIR) Post #ASJCTmwlAtqwFmg5VQ by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2023-02-03T05:03:12Z
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@dcjohnson I would argue that those really high (marginal) tax rates were more about paying off World War II war bonds than keeping corporations and family dynasties in check.By the time of the Vietnam War, wars could be financed through regular debt, as opposed to war bonds, and it was easy to roll over the debt than retire it.The huge growth in the middle class (which was mostly reserved for white people) was due to other factors:- The devastation of the rest of the world, which left the US economically unchallenged for decades- The GI Bill and its expansion of higher education for (white) veterans- The strength of unions- Enforcement of antitrust lawsThe Reagan era smashed unions, defunded antitrust enforcement, and cut taxes to "starve the beast". The "starve the beast" philosophy was that by cutting taxes, important government services could be attacked on grounds that the money wasn't there, hurting everyone but the rich.
(DIR) Post #ASLHIjHlKpsxney2qW by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2023-02-04T17:03:53Z
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@lauren It's pretty ridiculous. They get some medium altitude surveillance at a single point in time, along a path that depends on the weather. And a lot of media hysteria.The only media that should be making a big deal of it is "Weekend Update".
(DIR) Post #ASNYt5S2UIgYVXcHoW by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2023-02-05T19:30:19Z
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@lauren I'm waiting for the press release where he claims to have invented the casting couch.
(DIR) Post #ASPlDOVyuI1FBqpWrY by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2023-02-06T20:57:20Z
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@lauren The Seattle International Film Festival and the Seattle Symphony co-hosted a personal appearance by Bernard Hermann's daughter. She talked about growing up in a household where music composition was dad's job. Then the symphony played the score of _Psycho_ live while a special no-music print of the film played on a screen above the musicians. It was a real treat to attend.
(DIR) Post #AScHhFmVbPDLLkFj7I by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2023-02-12T21:58:28Z
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@lauren The Three Laws of Robotics should add an amendment:A robot must respect the intellectual property rights of humans who create copyrighted materials.
(DIR) Post #ATA1l65sZOdwZQlGvg by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2023-03-01T04:40:30Z
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@CatDragon @QasimRashid Although federal and state aid to students has plummeted since I went to school, there's an even bigger factor driving the cost of education, and it's not even the fault of Republicans. It's a side effect of prosperity known as the Baumol effect.It's also a reason that the nursing care part of medical costs has risen.And in Baumol's original example, it's the reason live music tickets cost more. (Of course Ticketmaster's monopoly is the reason total live music costs are higher.)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_effect
(DIR) Post #ATBnnVnSy3Adp9KGxc by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2023-03-01T11:16:31Z
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@aebicalho @CatDragon @QasimRashid The Baumol effect generally suggests that the cost of goods and services that are difficult to automate will rise relative to the cost of goods and services that are easy to automate. It deals with relative costs, not nominal wages.Education is difficult to automate. Some parts of education can be automated, such as scanned multiple choice tests. But the expensive part -- lots of teachers, underpaid though they may be -- are expensive.By contrast, food is heavily automated. One farmer feeds many times more people than a farmer a century ago, due to automation. The result is that it takes more hours of farmer labor to pay for one hour of teacher labor.
(DIR) Post #ATE63OXCRF4KWNPwMS by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2023-03-02T09:18:51Z
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@aebicalho @CatDragon @QasimRashid In the case of the Baumol effect, the cost of education and nursing increases because fewer hours of factory or farm or other automation-assisted labor are paying for the same number of teacher or nurse hours, independent of nominal wages or salaries. There's no difference being pocketed.For example, the average 2017 farmer produced 2.75 times as much food as a 1948 farmer. But a school teacher could teach the same number of kids, unless quality of education was sacrificed. (Digression: during World War II, class sizes approached 60 due to wartime labor shortages, so quality must have suffered.)If farmers grew 2.75 times more food per year of work but teachers taught the same number of kids, the farmer's relative purchasing power would be 2.75 times higher, so to keep purchasing power parity, teachers' salaries would have to increase 2.75 times faster.
(DIR) Post #ATGAiV4rnwmSoswOki by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2023-03-04T03:49:09Z
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@CatDragon @aebicalho @QasimRashid Regardless of whether the typical farm worker is the stereotypical farmer working for a multigenerational family farm or an exploited migrant laborer working for a corporate farm, the amount of food produced by a year of farm labor is much higher today than in the past.And the number of students educated by a year of teacher labor is very little changed.
(DIR) Post #AWpBBW00uz3yD7qDs8 by Steve98052@universeodon.com
2023-06-17T16:30:28Z
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@rchusid Is RFK Jr a disinformation profiteer? A narcissist who spews disinformation for the sake of ego rather than profit? Or a true believer in nonsense who happens to have a prominent voice because of family name and wealth?