Any time I hear politicians or journalists use the word "terrorist" I read it as a clear sign of bias and trying to imply that one side is evil and therefore any action is justified.
There are no terrorists, just people, some of whom are (war) criminals.
Replace terrorist with your favorite "evil" race from fantasy. eg. orc.
We can happily listen to Gimli chatting about enjoying hewing orc skulls, because they're not human. "Terrorist" is designed to make us feel that way about other people.
@dentangle Now in fairness, there are people within any community who consider extreme physical acts to be legitimate.
Terrorist is indeed an overused term which can hint more at the bias of the person making the description.
However, this word should not be rooted out from discourse, lest it removes the ability of others within a community to isolate the most violent within their own community.
Read up on Orwell's discourse on #duckspeak if you want to understand my point a little clearer.
@dentangle I get what you are saying, so no worries.
I also respect that you are speaking in general terms rather than provoking people through use of precision.
Indeed, widening the vocabulary is the most appropriate thing.
As an example, I was remembering the history of Roger Casement - who is multifaceted, particularly his legal defense being of more importance than any outcomes from the reasons for his incarceration.
A common theme I have observed in discussions about Gaza is that when someone points out that bombing civilians is not an acceptable way to combat terrorists, they are asked to provide another solution.
This is a clear case of solutionism. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict generally and Gaza in particular are wicked problems par excellence.
So looking for a "solution" is counterproductive to begin with. There is no "solution", there are only incremental steps to make things less bad.
@mfamelis Heres some history re reconciliation:
> Former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams – who had headed the party once commonly referred to as the political wing of the IRA – retweeted a message of condolence from the republican party’s current leader.
> In 2011, Elizabeth became the first British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland since the country fought and gained independence from London almost a century earlier.
@mfamelis Serious situations can be measured in weeks, days, hours, steps.
Few things are linear in life.
When it comes to anger, hate and violence its important to point to any benchmark or any glimmer that detente; progress; and peace are possible. We can stream murder or we can holler that peace is achievable.
The Coal and Steel Pact was another example, where people decided to look at the world differently and use lateral approaches to foster collaborative reinforcing behaviour.
What COVID19 has taught us about the Zombie Apocalypse is that there will be zombie denialists, zombie virus infection parties, zombie conspiracy theorists, and politicians ruthlessly exploiting lies about zombies to kill off demographics who won't vote for them—and when a vaccine against Z-virus is invented there will be zombie anti-vaxxers (some of them funded by the Kremlin for shits and giggles).
@tdverstynen@cstross While not a zombie film, the Chilean film, The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Quiet has a very creative and effective satire on the pandemic.
> The CS&S Data Science Community and Event Fund is now open to Black Research Software Engineers looking to bring change to the spaces and places where they are. They will have access to a total of $10,000 as well as a network of peers, mentors, and experts in the field.
Finally, someone understands the value of requiring someone to pay "SOMETHING", in order to alleviate #Spam and hold people posting their thoughts accountable as the individuals that have done so.
It's a proven concept by the #Stellar Foundation that has proven that even some pittance of monetary consideration breaks Spam because Spammers follow the path of least resistance (zero cost).
Regulators of implanted medical technology should be demanding that all source code, design docs and other technical material be lodged in escrow.
If the company ceases to make support available, make it all public.
It's one thing for movies or TV shows or video games to disappear "into the vault", but prioritising protection of completely unused IP rights over the the health and wellbeing of patients is criminal.
@tommorris I managed to doggedly get an academic which was sitting on 10 years of academic research.
They even took down the website for the software when I asked forthe LGPL code.
Fortunately I could get them to back down, as it would have impacted the institution but a company going out of business or downsizing is a different concern.
Important assets for maintenance and upgrades need to be provided in a sustainable manner. Especially eHealth.
"Distrust of the intellectual world has always been a symptom of Ur-Fascism, from Goering’s alleged statement (“When I hear talk of culture I reach for my gun”) to the frequent use of such expressions as “degenerate intellectuals,” “eggheads,” “effete snobs,” “universities are a nest of reds.” The official Fascist intellectuals were mainly engaged in attacking modern culture and the liberal intelligentsia for having betrayed traditional values."
I know there is a lot of pain and suffering wrt to the brutal violence occuring/continuing in the Middle East atm.
I try to draw some comfort considering that both Ireland and Britain are coming together to jointly host the Euro 2028.
Who in the aftermath of the 1984 Brighton bombing (when the Provisional Irish Republican Army tried to wipe out the political leadership of the UK government) would have foreseen such a thing?
ALL SIDES and the international community need to work towards peace
Not only did Rage and video-maker Michael Moore win their battle with Wall St and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani that day, they arguably inspired the Occupy Wall St movement a decade later. Two decades later, Giuliani is facing racketeering charges as the crooked lawyer for President Orange, like some Mafia Consigliere.
Modelling agencies are recruiting young people who have fled war-torn African countries and are living in extreme poverty. They are flown to Europe to take part in fashion castings, but some return within days or weeks, often laden with debt
@janrosenow I had always assumed that solar panels were a bit of a wheeze to covertly transition farmland into a brownfield site classification.
I mean once the panels are there long enough it could become easier to suggest adding a carpark; datafarm or shed below it.
Otherwise, its conventional to leave fields fallow as part of a rotation - if solar panels dont effect this nutritional workflow it provides decentralised electricity in remote areas, a big win for farming communities surely?
@LALegault dont forget all the other surveillance capitalist companies which are covered in the article - experiencing crashing advertising revenues and valuations.
Its a little weird the Jukkerberg burning money on his Second Life clone that necessitates some goggles that make one ill wasnt featured.
The history of Nazis holding rallies in left-wing areas of Weimar Germany, instigating street fights, and then telling the press that only they could save Germany from the "violent communists" seems like an important thing for people to be studying right now.
The most common thing I want to say to GitHub projects is "Please use Make".
It's old as dirt and the syntax isn't great, but even in its simplest use being able to reduce a wall of shell copypasta to "make whatever" is such a breath of fresh air.
Get yourself to where "install", "install-devenv", "build" and "run all my tests" are all dead easy, zero chaff, no typos simple. And if you find yourself re-using some long command chain, add it to the makefile and you're done. It is so good.