@Gsus4@feddit.nl
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

Gsus4

@Gsus4@feddit.nl

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

Germany went from envy of the world to the worst-performing major developed economy. What happened? (apnews.com)

For most of this century, Germany racked up one economic success after another, dominating global markets for high-end products like luxury cars and industrial machinery, selling so much to the rest of the world that half the economy ran on exports....

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

No more cheap russian gas and oil, internal combustion engine expertise and all the associated pieces and submarkets being phased out in favour of simpler electric cars…it’s going to be a few hard years until they find a new export industry to perfect. I’d expect hydrogen-based aviation or pharma, maybe even semiconductors, they’ll figure it out.

Gsus4, (edited )
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

Ugly? Why do people fetishize their cars? I want it to work efficiently, be safe and cheap to maintain…if it looks like a gherkin, so be it 😄 The problem with German electric cars is not that, it’s that atm they can’t compete with China in price and they have no tech edge in supply chains anymore. Also, newer generations in Europe aren’t as obsessed with owning a car anymore (I think).

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

Haha, yea, the only heresy greater than owning an ugly efficient car these days is riding a bus 😧, it seems.

Gsus4, (edited )
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

Yes, I’m one of those people who wouldn’t mind living in Zion, eating nutritious slop and wearing unremarkable homemade textiles ;)

PS: but I understand many people need to brag to their friends or impress their clients or make themselves feel better by displaying their status in some material way.

I just don’t see any huge aesthetic differences between any of the cars for sale that would singlehandedly stop e.g. German electric cars from being sold: they all look like sleek solutions to a conditioned aerodynamics problem :D

Gsus4, (edited )
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

Sometimes it is, but even when it isn’t, “taste” by itself is not by itself what is making people stopping themselves from an adequate vehicle.

This is what I was originally replying to and I think it’s nonsense (regardless of how “refined” your taste is):

Well if Mercedes and BMW could stop making electric cars as ugly as humanly possible we would quickly see them take that market back.

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

Why are you replying here? I’m talking to you upstairs. Chill out.

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

I don’t get it…what did he call soil?

Gsus4, (edited )
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

Hah, ok, I guess because we just call it dirt that sometimes and it’s actually rich and full of life…

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

Ni!

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

the teacher was sent home on Wednesday after reading a passage from Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation in which Frank wrote about male and female genitalia.

I don’t remember reading anything about male and female genitalia in Ann Frank’s diary…😕

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

I found e.g.

jezebel.com/this-is-the-pornographic-anne-frank-e…

and

www.dw.com/en/…/a-43803106

🙄 throw away a good teacher for this…if Ann was the same age as the class, it’s probably the stuff people their age gossip about anyway.

A Cuban teenager was offered a job doing 'construction work' in Russia. Instead he was sent to fight on the front lines in Ukraine. (www.businessinsider.com)

A Cuban teenager unwittingly found himself on the front lines of the war in Ukraine after accepting a job offer he received on WhatsApp to do “construction work” for the Russian military, according to Time magazine....

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

How about deaths per month? This war has “only” gone on for 16 months and probably there are already 500.000 dead and 1.5 million wounded…and that’s not counting at least 20.000 dead civilians (>10% of inhabitants) just in Mariupol, at least 500.000 kidnapped children and at least 8 million refugees. If this war drags on for 20 years like Iraq at this intensity, are you sure it won’t be 10 times worse?

Gsus4, (edited )
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

It’s even worse: putin himself awarded the war criminals with medals, it’s just utter shameless independent.co.uk/…/ukraine-war-putin-medals-buch…

Citing “mass heroism and valour” but making no mention of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the decree Putin signed Monday awarded the 64th Motorised Infantry Brigade the honorary title of Guards.

💀

Another country has called Xi a 'dictator' and China is not happy with that description (edition.cnn.com)

China has lashed out at Germany after its foreign minister called Xi Jinping a “dictator” and summoned Berlin’s ambassador for a dressing down, in the latest flaring of tensions with a western democratic power over how the Chinese leader is described overseas.

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

I actually agree with this, it’s counterproductive, but Germany is a little sensitive right now because their car industry can’t compete with subsidized Chinese electric cars (dumping actually), so :3

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

What is that, is it like an american version of the Confucius institutes?

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

outlookindia.com/…/geopolitics-of-language-how-ch…

In 2008, Israel’s Tel Aviv University closed an art exhibition on Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that originated in China. The following year, America’s North Carolina State University cancelled a visit of Tibetan spiritual leader the 14th Dalai Lama.

An Israeli court found that the Tel Aviv University had illegitimately cancelled the Falun Gong exhibition because of Chinese government pressure. In North Carolina, the Confucius Institute’s director warned state officials that the Dalai Lama’s visit could hurt “strong relationships we were developing in China”.

Since their inception in South Korea’s Seoul in 2004, Confucius Institutes have enrolled up to 9 million students at 525 institutes in 146 countries and regions, as per the Heritage Foundation. In 2018, Politico magazine reported that the Chinese government was pouring in up to $10 billion annually into the initiative.

It’s an interesting sum for the promotion of one’s language. But it’s not. In the Chinese government’s own words, the initiative is a propaganda arm of the state. Politburo standing member Li Changchun said in 2009 that Confucius Institutes are an “important part of China’s overseas propaganda set-up”.

He further said, “The Confucius Institute is an appealing brand for expanding our culture abroad. It has made an important contribution toward improving our soft power. The ‘Confucius’ brand has a natural attractiveness. Using the excuse of teaching Chinese language, everything looks reasonable and logical.”

Politico cited a 2010 Chinese state-run People’s Daily article by propaganda minister Liu Yunshan as saying, “With regard to key issues that influence our sovereignty and safety, we should actively carry out international propaganda battles against issuers such as Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan, human rights, and Falun Gong. We should do well in establishing and operating overseas cultural centres and Confucius

Yes (I’m not saying it’s terribly wrong, other countries have their equivalent, but at least own up to what you’re doing)

In Spain, dozens of girls are reporting AI-generated nude photos of them being circulated at school: ‘My heart skipped a beat’ (english.elpais.com)

Police investigation remains open. The photo of one of the minors included a fly; that is the logo of Clothoff, the application that is presumably being used to create the images, which promotes its services with the slogan: “Undress anybody with our free service!”

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

Yea, that’s the solution…or niqabs for everyone, lol.

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

And it will work, because we’ve grown used to Hollywood being so repetitive.

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

How is that better than an immutable database where you guarantee trust simply by gettin your own public hash receipt for the database every time you introduce a new item? Why obfuscate things by riding the “Blockchain” hype bandwagon?

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

Yaaaay, new comic :3

Gsus4, (edited )
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

Have you ever heard o Ariane rockets and ESA?

E.g. upcoming Ariane 6: Up to 21.6 tons per launch, up to 11 launches per year.

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

And one of the best parts of online discussions is that they are not biased by how you look, just what you write :)

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

But xenophobia is not class-based, it can be aimed at powerful people (and be partially justified) or aimed at powerless people. Anyone can fall for it, look at the recent example in South Africa: www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66808346

I’m just trying to figure out where to draw a line for an acceptable amount of useful self-defense xenophobia (a sort of protectionism) as a general principle e.g. legislation preventing foreign countries from owning any of your critical infrastructure sounds reasonable vs self-destructive xenophobia e.g. “those damn foreigners”

Gsus4,
@Gsus4@feddit.nl avatar

That would explain why there is a video of the protesters singing “L’internacional”…but it’s still authoritarian repression.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • megavids
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • khanakhh
  • GTA5RPClips
  • osvaldo12
  • magazineikmin
  • mdbf
  • InstantRegret
  • rosin
  • Youngstown
  • slotface
  • everett
  • Durango
  • JUstTest
  • ngwrru68w68
  • modclub
  • tester
  • tacticalgear
  • cubers
  • thenastyranch
  • cisconetworking
  • ethstaker
  • Leos
  • provamag3
  • normalnudes
  • anitta
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •