FriendOfDeSoto

joined 2 years ago
[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

All those wrinkles tell the story of his recalcitrant first officers who refused to go to a four-shift rotation.

Lovely artwork, big fan.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I remember reading a headline somewhere that thieves returned a couple of snatched phones to the owners specifically because they were Androids.

The rest of the world has a much higher share of Android phones than the US. There was and still is stigma around being green bubble in text threads on iMessage. Apple is dominant at home. Teenagers refuse to date folks without iPhones. Etc.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 8 points 1 month ago (5 children)

This also depends on the phone and which version of the operating system it runs. I think both iOS and Android have snatch detection in their latest versions, i.e. the phone can realize it's been ripped from the hands and subsequently traveled fast away from the point of snatching. Phones are then supposed to lock so the thief doesn't gain access.

A good security option is not to have financial apps and credit card numbers in the clear on your phone, or to have this stuff hidden behind a fingerprint scan or other ID, if the phone is unlocked or not.

If you don't want to buy 13 guns to shoot a mugger with, as has been suggested in this thread, consider something as silly as a sturdy lanyard to anchor your phone to your person. Now you're only interesting to the criminals who will rob you at gun/knife point. The snatchers tend to look for easy marks. In the US, a vital defense against having your phone stolen is having an Android phone to begin with.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Constitutionally, it is spelled out in Article I, Section 10, Clause 1:

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

So foreign policy is principally a federal government domain, established by cases heard by the Supreme Court. https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S10-C1-1/ALDE_00001097/

There is a somewhat gray zone where neighbors can talk to each other on the state level, e.g. Maine and Quebec. But they will find themselves restricted by what the governments one step up have decided. I think certain states also are on friendly terms with other nations, probably to deepen economic ties. But that's more on the level of a city friendship than actual foreign policy.

Trump is vindictive and petty. He would take revenge somehow. Whether it is just a very STABLE GENIUS tirade on lies.social or trade sanctions or a threat to invade the country is anybody's guess. But they're all on the table and he's got the eternal memory of an elephant. That's why every leader knows they have to go in with some honey first. They pay him a compliment or bring something he wants or likes. Then they can play hardball if they have to but you gotta appeal to the frail ego first. And that's why few leadership people will call him stupid in public or even to his face. They will hide the stupid medicine in some rhetorical sugar until their country is economically and militarily independent from a Trump government.

I am no leader, praise the heavens, and I wouldn't call him stupid. He's uneducated in many areas outside real estate development. He's got the interpersonal maturity of a 4yo. But he is street savvy and media savvy. There's a reason why he is this popular with his followers.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Can the other developed nations mount a credible pandemic response without the resources of the USA?

Yes. Just to show you an example from the other end of the developmental spectrum: even North Korea made it through COVID virtually without any resources.

You speak English. There is an at least partially English speaking country to your North. There are more English speaking ones scattered around the world. Most cutting edge research in anything will eventually end up in an English version if it was from somewhere-elsistan originally. The US is/was not the only country with something like the CDC. If you google their counterparts I would not be surprised if you found a warning about a measles outbreak in Texas. The research will be done elsewhere; the US may only lose its leadership position in the field.

BTW I would call the US response to COVID-19 just as shambolic as any other country's. The only difference was maybe they could throw more money at the problem. And that they could do again.

No country will be fully prepared. Ever. We don't know what the next pandemic will be, we don't know when it will happen. The lab coats will have an idea but it's too vague to build policy around that in a world, where there continues to be no glory in prevention. Stockpiles will perish, emergency plans will gather dust, and we will all be shocked and surprised again.

Humanity was sort of lucky that two Turkish scientists were quick to realize they could use a DNA something something method, that was not held in the highest regard in scientific circles before COVID hit, to make a vaccine in record time. They did that in Europe.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ultimately, this is not about what capital M Mastodon allows but what the instance the bot is on allows. I just read through the guidelines of what mastodon.bot allows (because it came up in my search) and I think you could get away with that there. A stream is ultimately promoting its creator, i.e. a person, so you might run afoul of that restriction in their rules. I'm not sure. And as I said, it would depend more on the instance the bot is on.

In general, I would support allowing this.

If we take "old allies" not so much as old friends but more as "previously allied with:" Japan was on the side of the allies in WW1 but was axis in round 2. Nazi-Germany invaded the USSR in spite of their peace pact. Napoleon and tsar Alexander of Russia were on somewhat friendly terms before Alex clandestinely rejoined the coalition against the French.

I think "projection" works. I thought of "external attribution" as well when I read this question.

I'm not an expert. I suppose the internet would be a mess of unexpected holes for a while. But since I don't know anything more productive than that I just wanted to ask: are you writing the next Bond movie script?

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