Posts by wesdym@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #ASsTKf41kBSd54nc6S by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-02-20T17:24:38Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Tilopa Okay, well, if you're saying unkind things to people, especially with only "you" and not specifying who, then please don't copy me in.
(DIR) Post #ASsX7rfnx234EwcgTY by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-02-20T18:07:10Z
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@Tilopa Have you talked to any qualified medical experts about this? It sounds to me like you're doing a personal thought experiment, but with inadequate real knowledge of a quite complex subject with a great deal of knowledge necessary to understand it well.
(DIR) Post #AT2bhaHqPhPw8hIq4O by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-02-25T14:45:29Z
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@brewster Part of me feels bad for him, because I suspect he might be suffering from a very real mental illness, which due to his wealth and general ability to take care of his basic needs, together with his arrogance, prevents him from getting treated.I suspect there are many people like that, going through life with untreated psychological conditions that aren't getting treated because it's not serious enough to justify forced treatment.
(DIR) Post #AT2xdeY4pAFNBrQTTc by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-02-25T15:24:44Z
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@HeavenlyPossum I would say this is mostly right, but it's a bit finer than that. Under current legal theory, all 'private' land is technically part of (subsidiary to) a unified land-holding owned jointly by the citizen constituents of sovereign states. (This applies only to 'free' countries, of course.) It's not ideal, but it's probably essential to keep the peace, since plenty of humans would gladly bash in their neighbours' heads for a bit more land to attach to their 'own'.1/1
(DIR) Post #AT2xdf8wc5jn2CfuwS by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-02-25T15:26:41Z
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@HeavenlyPossum A lot has changed in 10K years, especially the elimination of frontiers to explore and settle. Modern land law is mainly to keep people from killing each other over an essential but finite resource. I agree that there's wide corruption in that, including doctrinal, but we're not going to back to pastoral, free-range, hunter-gatherer days unless a very enormous number of people die in a very short time.
(DIR) Post #AT54SZzaVnxzrwsfgW by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-02-26T19:17:10Z
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@lowqualityfacts Both are equally incomprehensible to non-locals?
(DIR) Post #ATB591LGNnYrns14Yy by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-03-01T16:53:04Z
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@MostlyHarmless The original Star Wars trilogy was an epic of triumph. Lucas then turned it into a messy and confusing family drama. Disney turned it into a soap opera.
(DIR) Post #ATPgmXrcUo1mhnYZge by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-03-08T18:00:18Z
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@lowqualityfacts This is why I fear them.
(DIR) Post #ATUTHcFrnCvbjWcRRQ by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-03-11T01:23:07Z
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@lowqualityfacts Why don't they just trap that raccoon? Giving all the other raccoons a bad name.
(DIR) Post #ATcDY8VzZeHmPwhFbc by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-03-14T17:13:03Z
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@pairko There are highly intelligent and even well-educated people who are not entirely balanced mentally, and Wolf is among them. Often, that mixture of brilliance and madness creates wonderful things, such as the career of David Bowie, but in academics it can be a destructive brew. While a leading light of third-wave feminism in the past, Wolf has become an anti-vax nutter. She's always been a little loose with facts, and now she's just much worse.
(DIR) Post #ATetoS28GBLC629TSi by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-03-16T02:07:30Z
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@lowqualityfacts People joke about this all the time, but it's actually true. Bottled water will eventually go bad -- even bad enough to be bad for you to drink.ALL living things need water. And all living things WANT it. And given long enough, some living things will make it inside that bottle and start consuming it, and excreting waste, some of which may be bad for you.The date on the bottle is how long they're sure that won't happen.
(DIR) Post #ATlV5Xmczu7i6YfmyW by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-03-19T06:33:21Z
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@stux This is how I've tried to explain purported (U.S.) Yankee (Northern, especially Northeastern) 'rudeness' to (U.S.) Southerners, who often complain about it. We're just being direct and to the point. If the truthful answer is "No", then "No" is the answer you'll get; we're not doing it to hurt anyone's feelings. It wouldn't surprise me if our habit was inspired by the sensibility of early Dutch settlers in our area.
(DIR) Post #AUoztBWc3cJBpmT5KS by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-04-19T20:54:45Z
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@stux These comparisons are real and valid, and that I've noted myself a lot, but this is an exaggerated example that cheats more than a little.
(DIR) Post #AUrWqeFSUgC0qvlKCm by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-04-21T02:13:27Z
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@lowqualityfacts I want so badly for this to be true.
(DIR) Post #AVfZqFt7Z0NHdJ6VNI by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-05-14T22:46:51Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."~ Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune
(DIR) Post #AVwGW6vmREdwrpnBNw by wesdym@mastodon.social
2023-05-22T22:39:34Z
3 likes, 5 repeats
English has two different terms for words that come into English from other languages. A 'calque' is translated from the source language. (E.g., flea market, beer garden, paper tiger) A 'loanword' is ported in its original form. (E.g., cafe, bazaar, kindergarten) Perhaps ironically, the word 'calque' is a loanword, while 'loanword' is a calque (from Ger. 'lehnwort').
(DIR) Post #AdWimXJHTKVCXWgzGS by wesdym@mastodon.social
2024-01-04T23:20:33Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Calendars from the past you can use for 2024: 1996, 1968, 1940. The reason so few is that this is a leap year. You can use unused 2023 calendars again in: 2034, 2045, 2051, 2062, 2073, 2079, and 2090. Unless we adopt a saner calendar before then.
(DIR) Post #AhwraCJLylqPU57WzY by wesdym@mastodon.social
2024-05-16T12:16:41Z
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@ajroach42 I've often felt this was the central message of Michael Cimino's 'Heaven's Gate'. Two of the main characters are Harvard graduates from the same class, who end up on opposite sides of a violent conflict. Their Ivy League education didn't shape their character or morality, just made them influential in their society. Their real destinies were within them all along, Harvard or not. Harvard didn't make them better or worse than they would be.
(DIR) Post #AibZUvqIddSstDUIgC by wesdym@mastodon.social
2024-06-05T03:35:58Z
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@clive Joro toxin is not dangerous to humans, and they are not aggressive. And they go for brown marmorated stink bugs, which most spiders won't.
(DIR) Post #AuJ74vBXniy4N80QSm by wesdym@mastodon.social
2025-05-18T22:49:41Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Many years ago, I spent months studying public transit, and learned that the vast majority of fare revenue is spent on the cost of collecting them in the first place. A few systems eliminated fares altogether, and predictably saw little change in their bottom line, but did see improvement in service efficiency, reliability, and satisfaction.As near as I can tell, fares serve little or no purpose in transit, and should be eliminated.https://nypost.com/2025/05/18/us-news/mta-subway-guards-are-holding-doors-open-for-fare-beaters-sleeping-on-the-job/