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Joined 11 months ago
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Cake day: January 6th, 2024

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    1. I’ll eat my hat if that turns out to be a working defence for Disney, so as a reason to pirate, it’s pretty feeble.

    2. Duh?

    3. Hardly. Hollywood is breaking box office records every other month, and the pirating community is very, very small compared to the larger population. Have you looked at video game prices lately? Movie ticket prices? Theyre out of control, seemingly not bothered by piracy in the slightest. Studio lawyers are going after piracy because they have nothing else better to do then pursue every point of revenue increase they possibly can, including going after the small fish.

    But you forgot the biggest reason…It’s free.

    The large majority of people who pirate couldn’t give a shit about “digital media preservation”. Sure, people all have their own reasons, but to the other commentors point, most people are gonna delete shit right after they listen/play/watch it. Storage space is expensive.



  • I have to disagree a little bit, as, at least in the US, there are some really great perks associated with miltary service. GI bill and VA home loans are some of the bigger perks, but theres plenty of smaller perks as well (if you know where to look).

    Dont get me wrong, these benefits shouldn’t have to be “earned”, but one doesnt necessarily have to put themselves in harms way (or sacrifice their morals) to get those benefits. For example, I enlisted in the Coast Guard Reserve at 18 and picked IT as my “rate”. I often joke that i picked the “lowest form” of miltary service, but Bush’s illegal war in Afghanistan was in full swing at the time and I wanted nothing to do with it, so I justified my choice with, “I’d rather help save people, then help kill people.”

    As i joined the reserves, i was able to skip the otherwise mandatory time in service requirements for IT school, and went right after bootcamp. After training, i got stationed with my permanent reserve unit in my home town. Less then a month later i secured an entry level IT job, and have been in the industry ever since. A few years after that, I bought my first house with a VA loan.

    While i was in, my service obligation was ludicrously easy. One weekend a month I’d shave and cut my hair, throw on a uniform, and do the same job I’d been doing in my civilian life for the weekend (when there was work to do anyway, we fucked off A LOT). Further, working in both private sector and government IT gave me some really useful perspective that helped me accelerate both my civilian and government careers.

    Last thing ill mention is that, presumably due to my ADD, I tend to excel in a job in the first couple years, but eventually get bored and start slackin. CG deployments (at least for IT folks), were very rarely mandatory, but there was usually enough going on that if you wanted to deploy, you just had to say so. Because of this, if i started to feel bored at my civilian role, I’d just throw my name in the hat for a set of orders (ranging from 2-12 months in duration), travel the country on the governmwnt dime, work on some cool shit, maybe learn something, then go back to my civilian job feeling rejuvinated and wanting to apply what i learned. In case you dont know, employers are federally required to keep your position available for when you return (for up to 5 years). Also, depending on the orders, you’d often make more money then active duty folks doing the same job because you’d receive BAH to pay your rent/mortgage at home, while also receiving per diem based on the location of your orders.

    Anyway, not trying to sound like a recruiter, but you dont have to sell your soul to get those bennies.


  • If a person doesnt exist, they don’t consume anything. No food, no air travel, no electricity needs, etc…I’m not saying that anyone who has, or wants to have, a child is some kind of asshole, its our biological prerogative after all. Just saying that when comparing individuals and their contribution to climate change, those who sired children are subsequently responsible for a lifetime, or possibly several lifetimes, of carbon emissions.


  • You didnt mention children, so im assuming you dont have any. If so, keep it up. Staying child-free is likely the most effective personal decision you could make to reduce your environmental impact. Obviously, that doesnt mean you should feel free to dump your used motor oil in the street, but you also arent adding a lifetime worth of consumption to the pile. Further, even if you lived in a cave the rest of your life, someone is one broken condom away from invalidating your (lack of) contribution.

    Further, the argument could be made that what we’re doing to our environment is the “natural” way of things. Stick a bacteria culture in a petri dish and what does it do? It expands to the limits of its environment and consumes all available resources until there is nothing left it can use. Earth is our petri dish, and we’re just going through the motions.




  • So strange to come across this as I’ve been pondering this very thing for a few weeks. Still pretty half baked, and I’m goimg to skip some detail for brevity, but here goes. Behold…

    “AdHocracy”

    A fluid, decentralized form of government somewhat inspired by the FEMA Incident Command System. It would be designed to facilitate temporary, task-specific governmental structures that are stood up and torn down as community needs arise. National baseline laws would be established to prevent confusion when traversing the country, and a legal framework established to ensure laws are consistent across the nation and no regional law conflicts with, or supercedes the law of, the larger region. Healthy food, clean water, housing, education and some form of internet connection would be considered rights. This system would rely heavily on digital participation, so open source technological development (particularly in cybersecurity) would be heavily subsidized. Establishing a secure digital identity would be needed for each citizen to participate in the governmental process, so likely using some form of blockchain tech.

    The land mass of the country would be segmented into a heirarchical grid with a certain minimum resolution (I donno, 100m?) but when mapping a “decision region”, preference would be given to inclusion. For example, if a neighborhood wants a new road, you’d “paint over” the people and areas affected by the road, and expand the edges to cleanly fill a square (not sure I’m explaining this right, but oh well).

    I imagine an annual “Call for Change Day” across all regions, allowing people to bring forward proposals for new laws or adjustments to existing laws. Those proposals would be submitted online, and could be easily browsed and voted on, (if pertaining to your region). Transparency is emphasized.

    Thats about all I can think of right now.

    Not sure if ita necessarily true, but it seems that organizations have a tendency to become more susceptible to corruption and bureaucracy the longer they stick around, no matter their purpose (governments, unions, HOAs, etc). This idea aims to prevent this by eliminating the need for career politicians (as all decisions are made jointly by those diectly impacted), and through systematic deconstruction of governmwntal structures before theyve had time to bloat and fester.

    Imterested to hear everyones thoughts! On mobile, so please excuse formatting/grammatical errors.




  • Albert Einstein:

    1. Invented the photon and discovered the photoelectric effect, which earned him a nobel prize.
    2. Discovered Brownian motion and proved the existence of particles and molecules.
    3. Created the theory of relativity, changing the way we think about space, time, energy, and matter.

    Oh, and he released papers on all three of these groundbreaking discoveries in a single year. Dude was next level.