General Discussions

[capcom]

For something as critical as that knowing the world is watching you?  He will not last much longer.

[LP]

Interesting Biden has made a statement about the Right to Repair.

It'll make him some corporate enemies but if the US go down that route officially it could deliver some of the biggest de-carbonisation and waste reduction impacts of any single law decision.

So much modern waste, a phone or TV gets replaced for want of a $0.10 part, a $200 circuit board gets swapped out for the want of a $0.01 diode.

The other week a relative of mine was sent a whole new air fryer because the one just supplied failed after a couple of weeks, the supplier didn't even want to old one back they told my relative to dump it. Think of the waste, think of the freight. So my relative ended up with two because once they got the new one a mate opened the old one up and found it was just a loose wire, a loose wire! They tried to sell it but nobody wants a used air fryer, so they gave it away!

All because the companies that make and supply this stuff refuse to provide information needed for local servicing and repairs, they keep the knowledge commercial in confidence.

btw., Even if the corporates published the information it bears no impact on patents or copyrights, nobody can use it for a competitive product without a valid license until the patent expires which is typically long long after the technology is redundant.

[LP]

So CheatsFC allegedly have more crooks and killers connected to them than any other AFL club.

Surprise, surprise! : 

[LP]

Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai is now in a tough spot, you'll never get the truth from her at home or abroad, it doesn't work like that.

People count for nothing, lives count for nothing.

Twice while I was in China I've seen people "disappear" off the street, the associate I was with basically repeated the same allegation twice, "They will never be seen again!" The first time it happened I asked him, is that mafia? He said, no it was officials / government! They did something wrong, didn't pay their tax, didn't pay their bribes to officials, perhaps some official thinks they were ripped off by them in some way, perhaps they offended somebody high up, maybe they just said the wrong thing at the wrong time in a public forum.

But they are now gone, no explanation, no investigation, no court case, no record, no trace, the typical official explanation is there are a lot of people in China, if someone doesn't want to be found they won't be found. You can just disappear!

Every Chinese citizen, who has family or relatives remaining in China mainland, Hong Kong, Singapore or even Taiwan, lives with this sort of threat everyday, there is no escaping it without disowning and abandoning your family and friends!

[capcom]

People count for nothing, lives count for nothing.

We should NEVER have sent our team to that craphole

[LP]

Sometimes I have to question the motivations of certain areas of research, not so much in regard to why but the how.

For me a good example of this is the recent discussion about cloning Woolly Mammoths. The organisations promoting this effort aren't shy of using a bit of Hollywood to help raise a profile and funds, and I can see the possibility that even if this is successful it will lead to the public becoming disappointed and disenchanted with the outcome / science.

The reason being those promoting the effort are happy to allow an ambiguity to persist about Woolly Mammoths versus other Mammoths. Some of this is a Hollywood created problem, the Hollywood version is often a Woolly Mammoth depicted at the scale of some other Mammoth. btw., Apparently it's not even clear if all "Woolly Mammoth" variants actually had hair, and many versions that did have hair were not as big as a modern African Elephant, although the ancient Mammoths probably had bigger tusks than modern elephants.

I would have though researchers might make an effort to clarify this from the outset, but it seems not to be the case, whoever promotes this cloning effort seems happy to leave the discussion ambiguous enough that people associate Woolly Mammoths with other giant Mammoths. It's not a case of the scientists being foolishly definitive, they haven't made that mistake and they won't because they would be ripped apart by peers, it's just that they leave things understated, they leave it to human imagination.

Journalists / Bloggers are partly to blame, the modern variant of journalist isn't professional enough to ask the obvious unasked question, they just assume and write, a bit like me I suppose! :o

[LP]

Social media is sick, and maybe society along with it. If not all the COVID conspiracy theories unravelling the best efforts of health care workers, crazy 5G protests, people setting cell phone or wind turbines alight. But last night I saw the bottom of the barrel, courtesy of Channel Dots.

This week we heard about an utter tragedy, a young man on a mid-afternoon swim taken by a huge shark in front of adult and children witnesses. A event it seems live streamed on social media for all to see, long before the person was identified and / or family notified of his demise. How low can people go, not only failing to assist but broadcasting a total lack of empathy live to the world, probably for profit and fame.

Then the news media keen not to be beaten to the story reports it as a breaking story, again long before the family of the man is identified. How low can they go, surely that is the bottom of the barrel?

But Channel Dots managed to go even lower. In what can only be described as a grubby ratings grab, some sick bastard executive did their best to maximise a bonus by allegedly changing the program schedule to broadcast a re-run of Jaws. What the feck is wrong with these people?

When we lock up drug addicts and the mentally ill, we are locking up the wrong people, we should be lining up these empathy devoid psychopathic executives, or perhaps even setting them against the wall and shooting these sick messengers, after all they only tell you something for profit and fame never as a service, even if it's going to save a life they still put it behind a pay-wall and set the potential victims a honey trap!

Don't worry about going out and shooting sharks, you've got the wrong target!

Meta, Alphabet, News Ltd and the like must be brought to heal, they are biting their owner, they bite the general public! Do any of our politicians have the metal, or are they all spineless?

[capcom]

Do any of our politicians have the metal, or are they all spineless?

You actually need an answer to that?

[Mav]

Interesting final sentence in an opinion piece by Darren Kane published in The Age (online):

And, she’s 15 years old, FFS.

I love my swear words, so it doesn't outrage me. But it's interesting that this would go thru to the keeper. It says a lot about the extent of proofreading (or the lack of it) that goes into published articles these days. Or am I missing some more milquetoast meaning of FFS?

[kruddler]

Meta, Alphabet, News Ltd and the like must be brought to heal, they are biting their owner, they bite the general public!

I know this is a bug bear of yours, but if you want to live longer, try this simple trick....




Don't watch it.
Don't read it.
Don't waste your time with it at all.

I don't bother with any of it and my life is better for it.

If 'news' is actually important enough that you must know it, it will find you.