The Gnostics really were onto something there. They’re the only Christian sect that makes a lick of sense.

Kill. Murder. Execute. Shoot. Decapitate. Dismember. Disembowel.

These are words you can use on the Fediverse. You don’t need to self-censor with words like ‘unalive’ because there’s no corporate algorithm, no shadowbanning and no de-prioritising content based on language. There’s no need to import TikTok/Instagram newspeak.

Honestly, it’s just as bad as the “nobody:” that’s in so many memes these days. For me, at least, they both actively detract from enjoying whatever the actual content is. I can’t imagine for whom that actively increases their enjoyment, but I’m also pretty sure I don’t want to meet them.

Depends on the store. I worked at a big box hardware store and every public holiday you’d have old geezers just milling about wanting to strike up a 30 minute conversation with you about some esoteric project they’ve been working on for the last six months while you’re frantically mixing four different customer’s custom paint colours and trying to point other customers in the direction of things that have huge signs already directing customers to.

You’re kind of suggesting two different things there. Should loans on financial assets be banned, or should the amount able to be leveraged be limited?

Either would have massive unintended consequences. Mortgages on homes as well as secured car loans would have to be either discharged and re-applied or the terms redrawn. They could also be forgiven, but then every financial institution would go bust or the government would have to step in and shell out insane amounts of money. It would at least cause another GFC, if not a global depression, if done quickly.

I’m not discounting the idea necessarily, but it’s always important to consider the unintended consequences of a simple idea.

How I would love to offer an extremely exclusive and expensive product or service and have a billionaire approaching me trying to get it for free, to be able to say “Oh, I’m sorry, can you not afford it? We only offer this to people who have enough money to pay for it. I’m sure if you work hard, one day you’ll earn enough money to come back and give this a try!”

Nothing would hurt a fragile billionaire’s ego more than insinuating that they’re poor. Their entire lives and identities revolve around being rich and to take that away from them, even for a few seconds, would haunt them for many years to come.

It’s a real privilege to know that your vote can never be cast away, wasted or exhausted. I’ve literally never voted for the two biggest parties as my #1 choice, but my vote usually ends up with whomever I preference higher. In Australia we also give a candidate/party election funding based only on #1 votes, if they reach a certain quota, so even when my vote ends up with Labor (our major centre-left/centrist party) I’m actively contributing to the election coffers of a smaller party or independent and sending a message to the major parties.

And then you look at democracies with more pluralistic forms of voting and Green parties actually have decent representation. Here in Australia they teeter between being the third and fourth largest party (depending on the jurisdiction) and have been in governing coalitions a good number of times. Mandatory voting + ranked choice voting + proportional representative voting really changes things.

I’d go one step further to say that empathy and compassion aren’t actually alien concepts to them - they know full well what they are. Empathy and compassion are signs of weakness to them. Empathy and compassion are evils to them. Empathy and compassion are anathema to their worldview. Empathy and compassion are for those whom they hunt.

They view themselves as amoral apex predators, able to take what they want under ‘might makes right’. They aren’t all psychopaths - they’re sociopaths who selectively choose towards whom they feel empathy and compassion. They’re cognisant of this and view it as their strength. They’re fucking malevolent.

There’s also C) How much the individual components of the jewellery are worth if disassembled/smelted down - i.e. the spot price of any gems or metals used in the piece of jewellery’s construction. This is usually the lowest form of valuation as it doesn’t take into account the labour/expertise of construction and has an associated smelting cost to extract the raw components.

I watched his whole speech and the Q&A afterwards a short time ago and, as an Australian, all I could think was that if I were Canadian I’d have been very proud to call him my PM. He has such a sensible approach to the idea that the world has irrevocably changed and that middle powers need to band together to stand up to bullies like the USA. He correctly highlighted that the current circumstances are frightening and challenging but has a clear vision for the path forward.

I, like many others, was concerned that an ex-banker and leader of two federal reserves would just tow the neoliberal line but he’s shown real courage and vision. I hope he continues to back up the rhetoric with action that’s both in the best interests of Canadians but also in the better interests of other middle power nations.

57s are still pretty prevalent, particularly for guitarists with tube amps/combos that don’t have an XLR output - especially those older amps/combos that are still going strong. It’s also the go to for miking drums in larger venues where that’s needed. As a bassist, I ended up forgoing the amp/stack for a SansAmp DI driver pedal a long time ago though - no regrets on that front.

It’s the 27th draft - there are 27 amendments to the constitution. Seems like it’s due for some more amendments for the modern era. It’s supposed to be a living document - at least that was the original intention.

Aren’t mosquitoes the most dangerous animal on earth? I guess it depends what measure you’re using, and how you define ‘animal’. If it’s how many human deaths they cause, mosquitoes are at the top of the list and humans are second, with many others coming in before hippos. I can’t really think of another relevant measure. Even if you disregard invertebrates as being animals, I’m pretty sure that dogs and crocodiles kill many more humans than hippos each year.

Sure, they’re bloody dangerous, but I can’t think of a single way of measuring ‘most dangerous animals in the world’ that puts hippos at the top of the list. I’m happy to be corrected though.

More fuel to add to the fire - compare a factory worker with a capitalist. The capitalist provides negative value to society, by actively stripping the value of others’ labour from them while contributing nothing themselves, whereas the factory worker creates value for those around them. I’d argue that the factory worker has more value than the capitalist.

The article really isn’t for those of us who already know how terrible ‘AI’ is - it’s for those who treat it like it’s the infallible holy grail of all the answers in the world. Sadly, I’ve met some such people for whom this article might be illuminating.

The fact that people are still talking about him and his killing shows that he had significance. He held significance as a prominent right wing nut job and radicaliser. He held significance as a poster boy for the disingenuous “just asking questions” approach of stochastic terrorism. He holds significance as a so-called martyr of the MAGA cult. Just because he didn’t/doesn’t hold significance to you doesn’t mean he wasn’t/isn’t significant. I don’t like that it’s true, but it is.

Actually, the military way to say that would be “sixteen hundred hours”. 4:30PM would be “sixteen thirty hours”. You always specify the minutes, even when it’s zero minutes, which is notated by saying “hundred” for the double-zero.

I know people who have intellectual disabilities who are some of the loveliest and most caring people I’ve ever met. Intelligence does not dictate a person’s capacity to be a productive and caring member of society. Empathy, however, is a skill that can be taught to all but a few who are clinically psychopathic. Intelligence is not a marker of a valuable member of society - empathy and compassion are.

Sex work is work. As long as a person enters into that work wilfully and can legally consent to it, it’s functionally no different than a labourer selling their body in labour constructing a building, painting a house, or digging a trench. Denigrating sex workers serves no purpose beyond needlessly moralising the choices of consenting adults.