fratermus

fratermus, 9 months ago

I tried using extensions for a few years and all of them sucked. Then I started using a web-based service to hold them. Then I gave up and basically only use FF with its native sync now.

fratermus, 9 months ago

I have owned many vehicles over the decades. The only one I truly loved was a 1972 standard beetle.

fratermus, 9 months ago

How in the hell do you go from “we’re using this to see what’s happening way up there in the sky” to “this causes tornadoes”?

a good starting point is The Paranoid Style in American Politics, by Richard Hofstadter

fratermus, 9 months ago

Has anyone installed solar panels? What has been your experience?

Sounds like you are talking about grid-tied systems, but folks who live in vehicles often DIY and make most of their power from solar.

In my case, I have 750w mounted on the campervan. Depending on how I am camping solar makes 90-95% of the power with the alternator contributing the rest during reprovision/relocation runs. Over the past ~5 years I’ve averaged 1.76kWh/day. In the last six months I’ve been doing more electric cooking and so production numbers have been 2.16kWh/day

fratermus, 9 months ago

Zenni, until I learned the V.A. makes glasses.

fratermus, 9 months ago

I get a quick flash of a message about a device preventing sleep

In my case it was the NIC. Not using it so I disabled it in BIOS and sleep started working again.

fratermus, 9 months ago

If there were a wire tied to the back of it. It’s been done with rockets.

fratermus, 9 months ago

How do people sleep on planes?

Neck pillow, earplugs, eyemask

fratermus, 9 months ago

I just imported an .opml with folders into Tbird 102.13.1 and the items in the folders were there. I don’t know about the parse full content part.

fratermus, 9 months ago

I remember wishing AOL’s free disks were on CD-RW :-)

fratermus, 9 months ago

Depends on the line and model.

Page 16 of this manual (pdf) suggests the SPF-3000T’s default is 80A and 10A-120A is configurable. I expect you’ll have to read the manual/specs for each unit under consideration, a wise practice in any case.

fratermus, 9 months ago

Golden Calf, part 2

fratermus, 9 months ago

I try to be respectful of others’ beliefs until they

• try to make them law
• try to convert me
• try to use their book to control my behavior through guilt, etc
• make truth claims about reality

at that point they are begging for pushback.

fratermus, 10 months ago

those wacky theists

fratermus, 10 months ago

Good article, thanks for posting it.

fratermus, 10 months ago

Full disclosure: I am neither ACAB nor a bootlicker. I hold LEOs to the same ethical/behavioral standards as everyone else, neither higher nor lower.

Why are police forces a magnet for men who want to rape women?

Sexual violence is a subset of the larger problem: policing attracts aggressive, suspicious, sociopathic candidates. Same problem as political office attracting liars and grifters. Same as CEO positions attracting aggressive sociopaths. Plato warned us long ago that those that seek power are the last ones that should wield it.

IMO he police adverse selection is made worse when PDs go out of their way to hire recent combat vets, actively weed out those of above-average intelligence, and adopt increasingly-militarized tactics and culture.

Things will change when PDs start recruiting a different kinds of cop. PDs will do that when citizens demand a different kind of cop. Unfortunately, the citizens will tolerate (and even celebrate) bad cops as long as they are only abusing Those People.<tm>.

fratermus, 10 months ago

There is no separate law of deadly force for LEOs and citizenry, which is why the “f33red for muh life!!!” defense is so common among LEOs.

not holding them to a high standard contributes to their rates of malicious behavior.

I respectfully disagree. IMO a higher standard just incentivizes them to hide misconduct rather than owning up to it. Again back to the Classics: “Plato taught that, however laudable justice may be, one cannot expect prodigies of virtue from ordinary people.” <-- two Plato quotes in one day is not my usual method of discourse!

fratermus, 10 months ago

QI is a seperate and serious problem, yes.

fratermus, 10 months ago

Oh, so you are a bootlicker.

Oh, so you are blocked

fratermus, 10 months ago

correct on all points

fratermus, 9 months ago

What alternative would you suggest?

The alternatives implied by my post:

• screen out aggressive, suspicious, sociopathic candidates
• discontinue the preference for recent combat vets
• stop screening out higher-intelligence candidates
• stop militarizing the police forces
• the citizenry, if they care, should agitate for a different policing style

I didn’t mention it, but I also think that regular screening for steroids and similar might help rein in the most aggressive LEOs.

If they cannot hold them to a higher standard in fear of them lying about it

A normal standard would be an improvement; once they get there maybe we reevaluate holding them to a higher standard – I’m open to that discussion.

If we just say it’ll be a slow process, and we have to change how we hire, how will that actually be put into practice?

We start to hire differently, and the force changes over time.

the attempts by the public to hold them to a higher standard IS the citizenry demanding a better PD.

I disagree. If the basketball team can’t jump 3ft vertically then moving the standard to 6ft isn’t going to make them jump any higher or improve their playing. It’s reform theater. wishful thinking.

While I have described a gradualist approach in response to your question, IMO the radical/sudden approach would be to do away with QI. Cops might be less willing to murder the citizenry if it actually blew back on them a little. The overwhelming bulk of all judgements against cops in the US are paid by the municipality. Not a great incentive for the officer to behave better.

Same for prosecutors, who have and even more egregious form of immunity. Don’t get me started…

fratermus, 10 months ago

What website/app do you use to read ebooks?

Calibre for processing then

• paperwhite: built-in reader
• phone, laptop, table: FBreader

fratermus, 10 months ago

people don’t usually key cars for no reason

Dashcam video channels (example) have tons of vids showing randos vandalizing cars for no discernible reason. Some people are just antisocial, destructive a-holes.

fratermus, 10 months ago

The regulation/dial needs to be calibrated, usually at a local ag extension.

fratermus, 10 months ago

Our obsession with gender and gender roles infects/affects everything, and makes as little sense as obsessing about whether someone is left-handed, right-handed, or ambidextrous. Seriously, why should anyone care about how others dress, how they identify, or who they choose to sleep with?

IME there is substantial correlation between religiosity and an obsession with gender. On my more cynical days I might suggest there is a causal relationship.