Cataphract

@Cataphract@lemmy.ml

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Cataphract,

could also be the water line for the ice maker or water dispenser, definitely don’t want to wait to find out.

You kinda have to believe in real magic to study science in-depth

I think this is the biggest problem I see in people trying to understand deeper fields of study, a concept is just too large or out of our perceived reality to even make sense without years of knowledge. I think people fall into the “woo woo” just because it’s easier to not really know versus becoming a doctorate in a...

Cataphract,

But either way, when you start, you just have to accept that something has a cause and effect.

It is what it is, that’s the point I was trying to get across. People get held up on the why or how which is impossible to know without further studying because it’s not always intuitive to our perceived everyday experience.

You know I didn’t really mean a “belief” right? Just the ability to let your mind sink in an experience or knowledge without first grasping the full concept “like ‘magic’”.

Cataphract,

kinda have to believe in real magic” a better terminology for the premise is “suspension of disbelief”. I can’t believe people are in here arguing about actual magic and not seeing the metaphorical aspect of the shower thought. If it’s a conceptual barrier like which can happen with Autism then I apologize.

Cataphract,

Can’t believe the dental fluoride lobbyists are already flooding lemmy with disinformation :P.

Can I refuse MS Authenticator?

So my company decided to migrate office suite and email etc to Microsoft365. Whatever. But for 2FA login they decided to disable the option to choose “any authenticator” and force Microsoft Authenticator on the (private) phones of both employees and volunteers. Is there any valid reason why they would do this, like it’s...

Cataphract,

Is there any valid reason why they would do this, like it’s demonstrably safer? Or is this a battle I can pick to shield myself a little from MS?

Thanks for the input?

Cataphract,

For me, it’s any community of Tradespeople. I can find relevant manufacturer and adjacent code regulations for modern equipment or building techniques anywhere online. The problem comes from obscure-ancient technology that was discontinued 60+ years ago, the only references to those are on Reddit and very specific forums.

I recently ran into an electrical panel that was built in the 60’s and was promptly made illegal (split bus residential panel, no singular main disconnect switch). Even being trained and educated as an Electrical Engineer, it only gave me the ability to understand what the panel was doing, not the history and use cases of the past (since their use in residential applications is obsolete). I was able to find discussions between inspectors and electricians, how things played out with local authorities, and the on going debate of their practicality by actual professors discussing regulations and safety. I will miss these resources if they become unavailable at a future date (the whole enshitification process).

That being said, places with higher than average traffic (like reddit now) tend to give a lot of crappy answers. Lot’s of diy’ers thinking their way is best (whether it’s code compliant or not), and others who don’t care about discussion and only want to say you’re doing it wrong because it’s not how they would do it (and nets them the highest profit margin on a job). There’s lots of owners out there that are probably afraid to ask a question now adays because of the responses (same linux community effect), even though the information around it could be important.

Cataphract,

Two that we know of. I doubt this was a recent decision, probably years of employees “suicide or accidents” that should be looked into.

Cataphract,

Eh, anything linked on Reddit has it’s own link on here in regards to News. I get news from multiple sources offline and on so putting up with Reddit’s negative aspects isn’t worth it for me. I also enjoy the discourse on here a lot more, Reddit responses seem more of a “bubble” than the entire Lemmy community you’re labeling.

I’ll share 2 semi-recent posts I read as an example of why I’m on here instead of Reddit. Btw, both of these posts are about the same BBC article but obviously paint a completely different picture.


https://old.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1csmbfm/crew_trapped_on_baltimore_ship_seven_weeks_after/

Top 4 Comments (1387 total)

  • holy shit its been 7 weeks since that collapse? (13.4k upvotes)
  • Part of the ship, part of the crew! (4712 upvotes)
  • I think “stuck on the ship” is a better phrase. “Trapped” brings to mind being wedged under a fallen brace or something. (8388 upvotes)
  • So not trapped just maintaining the ship like they’re paid to do. (5756 upvotes)

https://lemmy.ml/post/15712537

Top 4 Comments (30 total)

  • This shit is extremely weird and happens all over. For some reason sailors are just absolutely not allowed off their shitty falling apart ships and have to stay on board even after the owners vanish and leave them hanging in the wind. There are sailors trapped in this situation in ports all over the world - the ships are too damaged to sail, or the owners vanished without paying port fees and the ship is impounded, or whatever. Weird shit. And all these sailors, mostly from global south countries, are trapped. The country they’re stuck in won’t let them off the ship, they have no way to pay for port fees or fuel and sometimes even food or water. It’s utterly fucking bizarre. I don’t think it’s a large number of ships in absolute terms, but it is common in the sense that at least a few ships are trapped in this limbo all the time. There’s this whole world of ultra-shady shipping with ships that are registered in sketchy tax haven countries, or have no registration, and they get abandoned all the time. And sailors in general just get treated like shit. A lot of sailors come from poor global south countries and get treated as disposable. Terrible conditions, bad or no support from the ship owners, if something goes wrong they can be stranded and totally fucked. It’s a mess, like a serious problem for workers. @Frank
  • the FBI still has their seized phones and shit, so not only are they stuck on a damaged ship they might be unable to reach out to family and friends (not sure what the communication/internet situation is on a ship like that). @nat_turner_overdrive
  • If you think this is wild you should read some stories about stowaways. I know a guy who sailed with a dude who had been a stowaway on danish ships for a couple decades, and that was a nice story. A lot of the stowaways get tortured and/or killed and then dumped in international waters. A stowaway is any person who is not on the ships’ manifest. Lot of refugees that just… disappear. Stowaways can be made to work while they’re on your ship, though you have to provide them lodgings and food. There’s a lot of people who get found on ships, are made to work and then are unable to leave the ship because no country will take them. Then they’re just stuck there forever. @Egon
  • How the fuck is “you have to let people on cargo ships into your country at least temporarily” not in any of the treaties we have regarding international shipping? @ClimateChangeAnxiety

I just don’t have the time to read through 1300 joke comments to get to the 30 or so of actual discussions I’m interested in. The fact that the top comments are just arguing over terminology semantics used in a title (and not the conditions or situation these people were forced into) isn’t something I wish to waste my time on.

If lemmy.ml gets to be like Reddit, I just have to move to a smaller instance and I’m done.

Cataphract,

For any community (or even post) you are in, there is a “Modlog” green button on the side bar. If I see a removed comment I click on it to see what was removed and typically 99% of it is legitimate. The only downside (which I’ve been meaning to make a post mentioning it), is if someone is banned it auto-deletes all of their comments but doesn’t show each individual one. If you’re looking for a perfect system of which people can’t abuse mod powers … well good luck and definitely let me know if you ever find it lol.

Cataphract,

Sweet! So I just need affordable healthcare, born into a well off family that has horses and can provide shelter in bad times, have enough disposable cash to enjoy going out, and afford an extremely expensive long-term goal! lol of course I’m kidding, as sarcastic as I might be I am happy that you’ve found what’s important to you.

If anyone is struggling reading this and can’t do the above, my only simple suggestion is to force yourself to sit in the sun for 10 minutes a day (I close my eyes and relax, lizard brain will thank you) and/or just stare at something natural (in person) for 20 minutes. The sun can help develop and regulate chemicals in your body and helps break your previous routine. With nature, most studies find you need only 2 hours out of a week to find benefits.

I know not everyone has a backyard or nearby local park, but there is nature close to you where it tries to bust through (empty lot, crappy sidewalk or overgrown lawns), I found a crappy public fishing spot recently (mercury signs posted warning the fish are bad but people keep fishing there) and just kinda park out there and wander around (there’s no trails, but the electrical lines running nearby had growth under them so I just walked down it a ways and back). I try to leave my phone in my pocket (or at home if you feel comfortable doing that) and play a game of memorizing a singular plant so I can try to identify it when I get home (resist the temptation to pull out your phone for the millionth thought). Has also helped me find some wild herbs and edibles in my area which I’ve propagated so I can grow at home (don’t eat wild food, at the bare minimum there might be piss on it or worse, extremely toxic chemicals). Kids and pets definitely enjoy the trip, even if they complain they’ll eventually come to enjoy the time being spent. Kids especially are trained for more hyper focused entertainment so there’s some push back, but it’s not their fault and just explain it’s for yourself (they understand selfishness lol). It can be as simple as leaving for something 10 minutes early so you can stop and check out a spot you like.

Cataphract,

I’m curious and confused on the “influencer” part. My understanding was influencers are just people with “popularity” (manufactured users usually) pushing products in a “native ad” sort of way, never attributed it to general youtubers unless there’s something about the creator I’m unaware of.

Cataphract,

I wouldn’t be too excited about the passenger rail expansion without diving further into it. Basically, the bulk of the HSR funding is being given to a private company with a bad track record. It will be another Amtrak situation in a decade or less once again (also suggest diving into the history of Amtrak and why it came to be).

Cataphract,

You voted for Sanders twice and didn’t follow any of the legal proceedings or statements actually on record from the DNC? I don’t know what kind of slack jawed political corespondent you think you are but obviously you’re misinformed. The very fact you’re disingenuous and negatively insulting with your reply says it all. They won the Democratic primaries, sure. Fair and square? No fucking way.

Cataphract, (edited )

or just do any of the many examples that the rest of the world is successful with. HSR in America isn’t actually High speed rail anyways

Amtrak’s Acela is the United States’ only true high-speed rail service, reaching 150 mph (240 km/h) over 49.9 mi (80.3 km) of track along the Northeast Corridor.[2] Acela trains will reach top speeds of 160 mph (255 km/h) when new trainsets enter service in 2024.[3] Other services, like Amtrak’s Northeast Regional and Brightline, have a top speed of 125 mph (200 km/h) and are usually not considered high-speed rail.

Brightline, while marketing itself as high-speed rail, more closely meets the definition of higher-speed rail. Despite having a top speed of 125 mph (201 km/h) along 20 mi (32 km) of newly built track, most of the route is limited to a top speed of 110 mph (180 km/h) due to the presence of grade crossings.[4] link

Brightline is the company which received the funding for the California-Nevada HSR, it’s a public company that’s already coming under scrutiny for their practices and costs vs their projections. I guess I need to do a write-up to link to whenever the HSR comes up with the infrastructure bill.

edit: forgot to add link for the wiki I was referencing.

Cataphract,

lol you’re like the perfect Lemmy parody at this point. Even got some name calling in because I have an account on .ml? You’re a child.

For anyone else, lets go to the DNC’s responses when questioned on whether their elections are fair and balanced

we could have voluntarily decided that, Look, we’re gonna go into back rooms like they used to and smoke cigars and pick the candidate that way. That’s not the way it was done. But they could have. And that would have also been their right… - DNC attorney Bruce Spiva. DNC lawyers have argued and continue to argue that the Democratic Party doesn’t owe anyone a fair process. It has every right to disregard its own rules or interpret its rules how it wants because it is a private organization

Bruce Spiva, representing the DNC, made the argument that would eventually carry the day: … as he explained how the DNC worked, Spiva made a hypothetical argument that the party wasn’t really bound by the votes cast in primaries or caucuses. “The party has the freedom of association to decide how it’s gonna select its representatives to the convention and to the state party,” said Spiva. “Even to define what constitutes evenhandedness and impartiality really would already drag the court well into a political question and a question of how the party runs its own affairs. The party could have favored a candidate. I’ll put it that way.”

source, source

Cataphract,

Amtrak is actually a government program that helped save passenger rail after it became unsustainable with the private companies. It’s a fascinating history that they simply don’t teach the general populace.

In October 1970, Congress passed, and President Richard Nixon signed into law, the Rail Passenger Service Act.[26] Proponents of the bill, led by the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP), sought government funding to ensure the continuation of passenger trains. They conceived the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (NRPC), a quasi-public corporation that would be managed as a for-profit organization, but which would receive taxpayer funding and assume operation of intercity passenger trains.[7][27][28]

There were several key provisions:[29]

  • Any railroad operating intercity passenger service could contract with the NRPC, thereby joining the national system.
  • The United States federal government, through the Secretary of Transportation, would own all of the NRPC’s issued and outstanding preferred stock.[30]
  • Participating railroads bought into the NRPC using a formula based on their recent intercity passenger losses. The purchase price could be satisfied either by cash or rolling stock; in exchange, the railroads received NRPC common stock.
  • Any participating railroad was freed of the obligation to operate intercity passenger service after May 1, 1971, except for those services chosen by the Department of Transportation (DOT) as part of a “basic system” of service and paid for by NRPC using its federal funds.
  • Railroads that chose not to join the NRPC system were required to continue operating their existing passenger service until 1975, at which time they could pursue the customary ICC approval process for any discontinuance or alteration to the service.

Of the 26 railroads still offering intercity passenger service in 1970, only six declined to join the NRPC.[31]

The original working brand name for NRPC was Railpax, but less than two weeks before operations began, the official marketing name was changed to Amtrak, a portmanteau of the words America and trak, the latter itself a sensational spelling of track.

source

Cataphract,

This one was easy, campaigned and followed daily for Sanders in 2016. The constant charade and collusion inside the DNC against Sanders at the time was apparent and became factual with court cases and leaked documents. It’s why Debbie Wasserman Schultz lost her position as chairwoman (should’ve been banned from the party, but that would be holding people accountable).

Wasserman Schultz was elected chair of the Democratic National Committee in May 2011, replacing Tim Kaine.[2][3] On July 28, 2016, she resigned from that position after WikiLeaks released leaked emails showing that she and other members of the DNC staff had favored Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primaries in exchange for funding to eliminate the DNC’s remaining debt from the 2012 presidential campaign.[3][4] source

I would categorize @Eldritch as a disinformation troll at this point. It’s one thing to be wrong, but to lie with insults and not step back any statements is a sign of someone who doesn’t care because they already did what they sought out to do.

Definitely always do the research if you have time to respond, there’s plenty of times I’ve been misinformed till I start digging into it and always try to apologize with a correction to my statements.

Cataphract, (edited )

For me it’s the 5th button above the typing field for a reply/comment (bold/italic/link/emoji/“upload image”). There is also the syntax format you can manually do which you can find in the formatting help link. an ! with [] then (url) no spaces (hard to show without the format wanting to change it).

edit: I believe the proper use of “upload image” is if you want to share an image from your device which it uploads onto the lemmy server space, using the url to link to another website also works but there is always the problem of size/format of the image and if that link becomes broken your image won’t show.

Cataphract,

Tell me more about your “Papa’s Ranch” you like to keep in your fridge.

Americans are choking on surging fast-food prices. "I can't justify the expense," one customer says (www.cbsnews.com)

Kevin Roberts remembers when he could get a bacon cheeseburger, fries and a drink from Five Guys for $10. But that was years ago. When the Virginia high school teacher recently visited the fast-food chain, the food alone without a beverage cost double that amount....

Cataphract,

There’s some… questionable viewpoints on the statements being made. I think it’s academically not a sexist comment but I have slight vague recollections of that poster making other weird remarks. It definitely could be defined as insensitive or some specific word groupings can be used as a dog whistle (hidden racism/sexism). “Tell half the population to get back in the kitchen?” Generally, a progressive person wouldn’t have this thought even as a negative example and explicitly is targeting women with the “devil’s bargain” reference (another bad wording which seems to be a theme). For example, you never read the woes about capitalism and someone commenting, “I guess the alternative is enslaving all the minorities again?”

Regardless of the statements they were trying to make, the points could be made better. Definitely not “winner of the ‘most sexist comment on Lemmy’ award!”, must not be around that much lol.

Cataphract,

Link title is misleading, still not sure if I’m a robot.

Cataphract,

Needs more breast milk.

Cataphract,

random word associations with a theme lol. There’s a lot of cross ties between breastmilk and gaming/freedom/raging fascists etc. If I had a nickel…well it would be just a few of them but still weird that it happens.

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