friendica.vrije-mens.org
Coincidentally (or not), the study also points to November as one of the peak months for feral hog attacks. Attacks on humans are also seemingly growing. A list of 412 attacks from 1825 to 2012 compiled for the study shows that 70 percent occurred from 2000 to 2012. Morgan-Olvera said this is "easily because we are encroached on previously undisturbed habitat where the hogs have established-as many suburban and urban attacks have been increasing since 1990."
https://www.chron.com/life/wildlife/article/feral-hogs-attack-texas-19934301.php
Waarschuwing inhoud: If people were really smart, particularly in the USA, What...
Yeah, and also even if there's smart people doing it, it doesn't matter. Supposed 10% of people don't use Amazon, as long as 90% are fine, it won't affect them. Most people won't look beyond "it costs me less", the whole reason thing like temu is widespread is exactly that. People don't care about other people, ethics of things, or even the long term effects of their actions. They just see low price vs high price on everyday setting.
If a chain restaurant gave half price food for a year in a loss to take out all local businesses people would gladly buy it. And then when everything is gone and that chain raises price because there's no competition they'll just blame other people, economy, whatever they can find.
In many cases it also comes from the side that people can't afford to spend more money for the right reasons. Many people are living paycheck to paycheck, and those that aren't, are still not well off and want to save as much money as they can for retirement/emergencies. You can't count on anyone except yourself for your future, so they'll take whatever costs them less now.
An HOA (home owners associations) can say what color you can paint your house, What you can plant in your yard, What you can have in your driveway, and some even say what color your blinds can be.
Microsoft controls your computer, they say what info is sent back to Microsoft, and they say when you must upgrade. They can shut down your computer when they want whether you like it or not.
Via @victoriastrauss at #WriterBeware:
"New Writer Beware blog post: We may have reached Peak Scam: the point at which writing scams are so prevalent they can be leveraged to create a protection racket to exploit victims of the scams. Meet Book Guard: "Author Protection" that's anything but "
#Authors #IndieAuthors #Writing #Scams
https://writerbeware.blog/2024/11/22/book-guard-anti-scam-protection-thats-anything-but/
The writing world may have reached Peak Scam: the point at which the extreme prevalence of writing scams can be leveraged to create a protection racket to exploit the victims of those scams.Victoria Strauss (Writer Beware)
@steaphan
in tech, we have a phenomenon we call bike-shedding. here's the long story version:
basically, humans tend to think that something they can't do at all is hard but something that they imagine they could do if they wanted is easy.
much of the world mistakenly thinks that they can write well. most can't even write badly. however, they devalue writing as something "anyone can do".
add in the expected greed of those that live off the artistic talent of others and there we are; it's really tough to be a writer.
past cultures have valued those that create, writers, musicians, artists, poets. perhaps we'll get there again.
⚠️ Important: Starting with dev 5, all resource types will generate .uid files, making references path-agnostic. These files are editor-only but should be added to version control for proper data sync.
We’d love your feedback on this change!
https://godotengine.org/article/dev-snapshot-godot-4-4-dev-5/
With GodotCon behind us and our developers recuperated, we're thrilled to return to a more frequent release-cycle.Godot Engine
Godot provides a huge set of common tools, so you can just focus on making your game without reinventing the wheel.Godot Engine
I recently spent 25h playing Borderlands (2009) again because I thought I never finished it, until I reached the final boss and it finally remembered I already beat it before. 😭
Don't get me wrong, it's a good game, but I have such a big video game backlog that replaying a game for the wrong reason feels quite painful.
Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who has targeted Congresswoman Sarah McBride with a bathroom ban in the capitol, is now pushing a sweeping federal bathroom ban for trans people.Erin Reed (Erin In The Morning)
Plex has overhauled its apps from the ground up to make them easier to navigate. The teams says it will be able to roll out new features faster as well.Kris Holt (Engadget)
Anyone that has tried the new version, does plex still make it really difficult to view your library by folder/file rather than by meta data?
I use jellyfin because I can get a folder view.
Firefighters (Bill Burr, Andrew Dismukes, Marcello Hernández, Emil Wakim) take a psychological test.Saturday Night Live. Stream now on Peacock: https://pck.t...YouTube
A new study of 35 million news links circulated on Facebook reports that more than 75% of the time they were shared without the link being clicked upon and read
In an analysis of more than 35 million public posts containing links that were shared billions of times on the social media platform between 2017 and 2020, the researchers at Penn State found that around 75% of the shares were made without the poster…www.psu.edu
Firefighters (Bill Burr, Andrew Dismukes, Marcello Hernández, Emil Wakim) take a psychological test.Saturday Night Live. Stream now on Peacock: https://pck.t...YouTube
Schoonpa belde: "Van Kooten en de Bie is al begonnen!" Oh ja, 50 jaar #SimplistischVerbond
"Daar moet de mattenklopper overheen"
Among other happenings on November 5, Missouri passed a ballot measure that will legalize sports gambling in the state. Like similar measures in other states, Amendment 2 came with a lot of promises, and perhaps not deep enough questions.
https://fair.org/home/amos-barshad-on-legalized-sports-betting/
Legal sports gambling is the apple of the eye of many corporate and private state actors—but how does it affect states, communities, people?FAIR
This post was from Mike Lindell:
Hello from Mike Lindell!
I have some EXCITING NEWS! Colonel Conrad Reynolds and Will Huff, of AVII.org, just DESTROYED election machine credibility!
Can you believe an election machine failed and broke down in a LIVE demonstration in a Pulaski County Arkansas Election Commission meeting?! Wait till you hear their closing comments!
Was zu tun ist?
WAS ZU TUN IST?
Jeden beschissenen Tag greifen die neuen #nazis uns an!
Wir müssen uns wehren! Also nicht labern sondern WEHREN!
Capice? 🤬
![47-49 [RO] Bless the Dark Ones by EarlyOnion.jpg](https://friendica.vrije-mens.org/photo/link/103189 "47-49 [RO] Bless the Dark Ones by EarlyOnion.jpg")
I'm doing better now, but 15 years ago Walmart was the only option I had for food. Local/regional grocery stores were more expensive and I was living paycheck to paycheck with growing debt.
"If people were smart they would stop buying the most cost-efficient option" is really not feasible.
"If people were smart" they would read and stop putting oligarchs in power.
In fact, more and more people don't have the luxury of buying more expensive options.
Of course, stealing is an option, and I think 'If people were smart' they would accept that stealing from Walmart is not an ethical or pragmatic problem, but it's a risky behavior so I wouldn't criticize people for not stealing. [edit: see Fubarberry's reply]
You can look up videos of some of the stores that were closed, they were basically being straight up looted.
I remember seeing the videos, and thinking to myself how I didn't understand how they could afford to stay in business like that. So when they announced they were closing those stores for theft, I didn't really think the given reason was ever in doubt.
"“The decision to close a store is never easy,” company officials said in a statement. “The simplest explanation is that collectively our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago.”
The stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, according to the company, a figure that nearly doubled in the last five years despite numerous strategies to boost performance, including building smaller stores, offering local products and building a Walmart Academy training center."
https://news.wttw.com/2023/04/12/walmart-closing-4-chicago-stores-company-says-losses-have-doubled-last-5-years
Doesn't sound like theft was ever the problem here according to them?
Stealing isn't right.
The Walmart near me closed due to high theft. There were actually people stealing from the construction site when the store was being built, so it really was a ticking clock as to how long the store itself would even last.
Some people are just awful.
I conditionally disagree. In fact, there are many real situations where stealing is the right option. There are valid reasons why folk lore glorifies figures like Robin Hood. And when it comes to international conglomerates like Walmart, which hoard astronomical wealth while others who can't afford bread starve nearby, theft of the hoard is justice in its most appropriate form (if one values human survival more than legal property rights).
Look. There was a subreddit that got banned because it was a bunch of shoplifters, dumb ones, showcasing what they stole. They all claim that they're doing it to hurt corporations.
If anyone had a clue at all about working retail - that's not how it works. The corporation is going to be sailing just fine. It's you, the worker and the store that's getting hurt.
And that's why these shoplifters are absolute assholes. They steal enough, the store is closed, many jobs lost.
How the fuck is that hurting the corporation?
I'm curious that you said if people were really smart, they would stop giving money to Amazon, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Google, etc., and then suggest that taking their stock without giving them money is bad. This seems contradictory to me. If stealing wouldn't hurt the company, then why would not giving money be a smart thing? If not giving them money is good, stealing would just increase those loses further and also be smart.
... toon meerPersonally, I think hurting dominant anti-social corporations like Walmart is a smart thing for society to do, but that's besides the point. There are plenty of far more accepted reasons to steal, such as preventing starvation (like stealing basic food from supermarkets). I assert that stealing essentials is more socially beneficial than allowing oneself and dependents to starve or die, and it's far more ethical to steal from
I'm curious that you said if people were really smart, they would stop giving money to Amazon, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Google, etc., and then suggest that taking their stock without giving them money is bad. This seems contradictory to me. If stealing wouldn't hurt the company, then why would not giving money be a smart thing? If not giving them money is good, stealing would just increase those loses further and also be smart.
Personally, I think hurting dominant anti-social corporations like Walmart is a smart thing for society to do, but that's besides the point. There are plenty of far more accepted reasons to steal, such as preventing starvation (like stealing basic food from supermarkets). I assert that stealing essentials is more socially beneficial than allowing oneself and dependents to starve or die, and it's far more ethical to steal from multi-billion dollar income megacorporations than other households or smaller businesses (the alternatives). I would go as far as to say they are socially obliged to steal, because they are more useful to society alive than dead and the cost to achieve that is trivial to the theft victim.
Honestly, if we're talking about companies like Walmart, then I say good that the store is closed, those workers are now forced to enter (or even recreate!) jobs which benefit society rather than destroy other local businesses. This is clearly unfortunate to those who are temporarily unemployed as a result, that's real pain and it's valid, and it's unfortunate, but the store closure is still an overall positive.
Losing sales isn't profitable. Closing a store certainly isn't profitable. If theft didn't hurt the corporation, they wouldn't spend significant money stopping it.
Furthermore, for a publicly traded company, reputation damage is real financial damage. Reporting high theft and closing stores has a real reputational impact to investors.
Spanish communist major
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)The obvious answer is fossil fuels, right? Few people want to cook the climate, they just can't quite fathom something that abstract and slow-moving, so they do it anyway.
Less obviously, feeding all our most sensitive data to random websites and apps. Again, the threat just doesn't look enough like a sabre-tooth tiger.
I don't think the problem is that people are unaware. Even people who believe they are against cooking the environment have other rationalisations, like "the economy isn't able to shut down all the coal plants yet, it'll collapse". Propaganda is a hell of a drug.
No, it's not that people are unaware, or even don't believe it, it's that they can't reason about it strategically
It's spending now to save later. If that's about military spending or emergency services everyone gets paying taxes for it, but words are as far as most will go to stop nonspecific far future weather. Even when people talk about the situation with climate change, you hear them frame it in moral terms instead of practical terms.
Case in point: Canada has a carbon tax, and a majority want to get rid of it. Denialism is not a prominent part of the campaign, just the fact that it costs something. And not even much, and it's all given back in refunds - doesn't matter, the extra gas cost people will bear is zero.
Fossil fuels is kinda a prisoner's dilemma issue. Everyone cooperating to save the planet is obviously ideal, but realistically there are always going to be companies/countries that won't. And as long as it's cheaper to not be environmentally friendly, there's always going to be someone taking that option.
For example, lets say country A passes new regulations on manufacturing to be more environmentally friendly. The new regulations take the country's manufacturing from low pollution to very low pollution. However the increase in cost causes many companies to stop manufacturing locally, and instead outsource their manufacturing to country B with low regulation and moderate pollution during manufacturing. The end result is more money leaving the local economy of country A, and increased global pollution.
It's a similar prisoner's dilemma for the individual companies involved. If your competitor is able to make their product for cheaper because their process is less environmentally friendly, then they can undercut you and put you out of business.
What exactly are you suggesting?
It's important to consider, most of the communist states which fell were couped by or at war (cold or otherwise) with the USA. So it doesn't make sense to transplant the trend of communist states falling into a scenario where their single biggest threat is gone.
China’s Energy Use Per Person Surpasses Europe’s for First Time
Eamon Farhat (Bloomberg)That depends, people can be smart but malicious, non-coorperative, or selfish.
The prisoner's dilemma shows that there are systems where individually, the "smart" individual thing to do is globally non-optimal.
Even smartness and altruism alone isn't enough. Medical professionals are smart and out to help others, but any ER doc/nurse will tell you they have limited trust in their patients (rightly so in the real world).
Does "everyone is smart" also include both "altruism and cooperative trust in others"?
Probably leave religion in the past, recognize the oligarchy as the source of most of our woes, legislate for a maximum income, laws to make home ownership by companies illegal, begin providing universal basic income, stop caring about the boarder and just let people in, decriminalize drugs and prostitution, criminalize bribes to politicians, break up the obvious monopolies, nationalize internet access, expand voter access and encourage everyone to vote, release prisoners from prison for non-violent offenses, close private prisons and reform tge whole court system, structure fines for laws broken as a percentage of income making them a deterent even for tge wealthy, ties minimum wage to inflation or tge gdp in some way so it can keep up without further legislation, open a new department that is not police to handle most calls more ethically, cap income within a company so no one can make more than X times more than any other employee of the company, simplify tge tax codes to close most loopholes, empower tge IRS to send citizens a bill instead of paying turbo tax, prevent civil fo
... toon meerProbably leave religion in the past, recognize the oligarchy as the source of most of our woes, legislate for a maximum income, laws to make home ownership by companies illegal, begin providing universal basic income, stop caring about the boarder and just let people in, decriminalize drugs and prostitution, criminalize bribes to politicians, break up the obvious monopolies, nationalize internet access, expand voter access and encourage everyone to vote, release prisoners from prison for non-violent offenses, close private prisons and reform tge whole court system, structure fines for laws broken as a percentage of income making them a deterent even for tge wealthy, ties minimum wage to inflation or tge gdp in some way so it can keep up without further legislation, open a new department that is not police to handle most calls more ethically, cap income within a company so no one can make more than X times more than any other employee of the company, simplify tge tax codes to close most loopholes, empower tge IRS to send citizens a bill instead of paying turbo tax, prevent civil forfeture, remove state ability to fine individuals without an income for not paying fees, expand disability benefits so you can have more than $3k in liquid assets and still get benefits, and so on.
These were all just off the top of my head.
Stop. Electing. Fraudsters.
Especially when the fraudster is a convicted felon.
Thinking that "being smart" means shit. We need to realize that the people who run things aren't necessarily smart. Presidents aren't necessarily smart. Professors aren't necessarily smart.
And being smart doesn't mean you're good. Evil smart is a nightmare, because destroying is so much easier than building.
What would we do if we were good? Now that's a question.
There's smart and then there's cunning.
A lot of people in power aren't smart - they're cunning.
Payday loans.
The smart part is realizing the havoc payday loans inflict on one's finances.
If we dismiss dismissals, this will go on looping forever. The person they replied to did not elaborate on some very dubious claims, and as is, are just worth dismissing.
So people can just say whatever shit they want offhanded and not be criticized, but if you want to say they're wrong you have to give exhaustive reasoning and proof for each and every thing, huh?
That's a really dumb thing to believe so I'm wondering if you just speak frivolously without thinking and would like to walk your position back a bit.
yep
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandolini%27s_law
difficulty of refuting false or misleading information
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Socialism has so many definitions that this can be subjectively true or false. This isn't even some trivial gotcha, the terms were used interchangeably even by significant writers of the 1800s. For another example, a socialist mode of production and a capitalist mode of production are contradictory.
If one wants to make these kind of broad claims without starting pointless arguments, they'll need to use a more specific term than 'socialism'.
How do people living with no PT or AT options stop driving?
Also, the working masses must remain armed to prevent even further class slavery.
Stop generalising groups of people.
I cannot think of a proper example rn, but I see this everywhere.
This happens across the board, not only in political topics.
Building electric car charging stations without security cameras.
About 75% of the chargers are disabled in my city. The primary method of disabling them is roll up with a sawzall and just chop the cable off. Gets you $5 worth of crack, which is always a nice incentive structure when there’s unguarded copper lying around.
The only chargers that survive are in front of 24 hour businesses.