SkoomaDentist
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User ID: 84
SkoomaDentist
1mo ago
I'd like to note that it isn't just the medical establishment or the government (in the USA) that has lost credibility: the public has as well. Going into Covid lockdowns in March 2020, I might have thought that everyone would play along, now I know that there is no chance everyone will play along.
It's fascinating and banging-my-head-to-the-wall inducing to read peoples comments here regarding lockdown and particularly those who assume that the Western response was universaly the same, or at least very similar, as the American response.
Finland never had a lockdown. Not a single one. When the pandemic hit in mid March, the only things forcibly closed were bars and restaurants (after massive public pressure). Yet everything shut down because 1) people voluntarily stopped going out, 2) many facilities owners didn't want the risk of spreading the infection (of which a lot was uncertain back then) and 3) many of the rest didn't want the bad PR. I personally skipped town for two months because I preferred having views like this instead of being stuck in the city with absolutely nothing happening. Apparently nature parks have never been as popular as during that time (and no, nobody even suggested restrictions to that - there's shitloads of open space in Finland, might as well let people enjoy it when it's especially useful).
So, in some places people do play along. It just seems that US is not one of those.
SkoomaDentist
1mo ago
True Finns in Finland. The only reason the party ever got anywhere beyond a minor protest party is because all the other parties steadfastly refused to talk about immigration issues for two decades. As a result, they've gotten the second most seats in the last two elections and are currently in the government. This has also broken the old system of three traditional big parties and several smaller ones, with the Center Party being now just a shadow of its past size.
SkoomaDentist
1mo ago
LOTR was already the best case scenario we're likely to see, and I thought the movies had egregious problems as adaptations of Tolkien
I remember thinking with each movie that the problem was never stuff that was left out but the completely and utterly pointless Hollywoodisms that were added. I can only guess how bad job a modern production would do, particularly with source material that doesn't spell as many things out.
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
PETN and any other similar explosives with enough power in such small size. At least PETN can be triggered by a spark which is simple enough to generate electronically (you just need a small transformer to produce high voltage and a very short spark gap).
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
Short the battery
This won't do anything (other than causing a potential fire).
Explosives like that require an initial shock to actually detonate and overheating just sets them on fire (like it can set a regular battery).
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
metals don't really care about EMP,
Metals do care about EMP but only by heating from the induced currents. This is why power delivery networks are going to be toast and can have problems even from major geomagnetic storms. For shortish length and reasonably large surface area (ie. most things you're likely to have at home), it of course won't be a problem.
So really two mechanisms: field strength induced overvoltage breakdown in semiconductors and heating from high currents induced to long wires.
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
It's tricky to come up with a situation where both I actually need the food and I get to keep it
Not really. There are plenty of potential scenarios where the rationing doesn't provide enough food but you also don't have such a humongous stockpile that the goverment would bother (or even know to) to go to great lengths to confiscate amounts that can't feed an entire large military unit or something like that.
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
You'd hope so, but I'm not sure if people realize just how much trouble that is with solar panels which aren't exactly tiny and obviously can't be used while they're in such specialized storage. You can't just wrap them in aluminium foil or similar super lightweight "protection".
Doing a bit of googling, the solar panels would probably be the highest risk since they have the longest dimensions and thus highest field strength difference from end to end.
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
Solar panels, for charging devices(and access to a charger can be a valuable trade good if networks are operating).
Any electronics in them will be toast from a single EMP. Possibly also the panels themselves.
I’m also like that and I shudder when I read about how long essays seem to be required from American college students. My masters thesis had barely more text than some of those essays (and Google Scholar lists a bunch of citations for the thesis, so at least some people found it good).
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
This one seems to be spread by close contact as well, e.g., in families, corpses, etc.
So is it like Ebola now where ”don’t insist on completely braindead burial customs” is enough to prevent an epidemic?
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
Besides, what would you even need steam power for if you aren't trying to mine coal on a large scale anyway? And when you can always use slaves for what mining you do?
(The first use of steam power was in coal mining)
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
The ones I know grew up looking at parents and other older relatives crippled by polio
You don't even have to be a boomer for that. I'm a gen X'er and a childhood friend of mine got infected by polio as a young kid (luckily with no serious long term effects). In a western country.
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
Can his... wife not watch the kids? There's this insane sickness among parents where it's impossible for one of them to go out and do something without bringing everyone else along.
Or get a friend / relative to help?
My brother's wife has an event coming up and I was "roped into" helping for that evening. IOW my brother sent me a message "Are you free on X? I could use some help with the kids." to which I naturally replied "Sure, I'll come". This does mean I have to cut a hobby a whopping half an hour shorter... The horror!
Obviously having kids will limit the kinds of things you can do but it's far from a social death sentence.
I'm reminded of an observation I made a long time ago when I noticed quite a few people were using pairing up (without any kids even) as an unvoiced excuse to start hanging at home and stop going out or seeing friends and where any social event would suddenly require weeks of planning in advance. Having even minor responsibilities at home just became a convenient excuse and alternative to having to actually go out and spend any effort at having a social life.
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
No. I’m objecting to people who say ”the west” when they really mean ”USA” and who assume European countries have no agency and should blindly follow in doing what that person thinks is the best for USA.
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
I think Canada should stay out of foreign wars? Sure -- I do also have opinions on what the US should do since we tend to get dragged along, I think that is legitimate?
Sure, that's a logical position that can be argued. I disagree with it but I have no a problem with people making such argument.
What I do have a problem with is when people talk about "the west" when they're really talking about "US and Canada" when it comes to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
Then you should have no problem saying ”I think [insert your country here] should…”
And of course for many countries in the west, supporting Ukrane is by far the least costly way to stave off Russian agression aimed directly at them.
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
Also, isolationism.
Hell, I wouldn’t even mind if those posters actually argued that they want US isolationism. At least that’s a position that can be argued. Instead it’s almost always ”the west shouldn’t” as if ”the west” meant only the US.
SkoomaDentist
3mo ago
Not so. It's not enough for people to desire negatives. There has to be a mass of people who're willing to pay significant amount of money for that. As it is, there are no signs towards that and all signs towards the exact opposite direction (newspapers aren't exactly doing great financially).
SkoomaDentist
3mo ago
Far from it, given how few companies can deal with negatives at all anymore. Sure, such tech could be developed, but there is no financial incentive for the required scale to make it viable.
SkoomaDentist
3mo ago
Northern Europeans’ reaction to the revelations.
SkoomaDentist
3mo ago
I’ve been using Stable Diffusion on a 5 year old second hand laptop where the gpu was basically a ”well, might as well get it since the extra cost is just 50e” type of thing. Combine that with preconfigured uncensored cloud rental services and unrestricted image generation is ridiculously affordable if you care at all.
SkoomaDentist
3mo ago
So is it safe to say that at the start of the next big war a bunch of important submarine cables/pipelines all get cut simultaneously?
That’s been safe to say for a long time now. Russia has tested their capacity in the North Sea and Baltic Sea by doing exactly that several times.
SkoomaDentist
3mo ago
Switzerland maybe?
Not to mention medical professionals getting sick at a (much) higher rate than the general population, further decreasing the capacity. That already had an effect here in Finland during Covid.
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