jkf
3hr ago
I've said this many times before, but cultural generations of the 20th century make a lot more sense if you start Boomers at 1940 and GenX at 1960 -- in both cases (also to some degree with Silent and Millenials) the trailing five years seem to end up a bit lost; Boomers as usual try to be special about it with "Generation Jones", but I'm pretty sure it's a general thing.
It's most obvious if you look at musicians -- you will struggle to find Boomer rock icons not born between 1940 and 1945, and similarly central GenX grunge people are strongly (though less exclusively) born 1960-65. The argument could be made that punk rock was a GenJones phenomenon though...
jkf
3hr ago
Lots about that life is now illegal or made impossible. Car needs to be fixed? Modern cars now transmit real-time diagnostic data wirelessly directly to the manufacturer. If you have an issue that needs to be fixed, you need to take it to an official shop because the manufacturer will not tell you what the diagnostic data says. Also, car electronics and machinery have been intentionally made difficult to repair without highly specialized knowledge.
I think you either have a definition of 'modern' that's like ten years in the future, or are just wrong -- the newest car in my stable (wife's) is three years old and I can work on it just fine. In particular, engine-related jobs (eg. head gasket) are basically no different than they were in the sixties. (or the Grapes of Wrath, for that matter)
On-board diagnostic computers, while not without their foibles, actually tend to make life easier than in the past so long as you are prepared to spend fifty bucks on a scan-tool; furthermore Youtube + brand specific forums mean that the chances that someone somewhere has done the exact job you are contemplating and documented it in detail online are very near to 100%. (unless you are driving something really weird or it's been altered from the factory state previously)
On the whole, fixing your own car has never been easier -- and I've been doing that since high school in the 90s, dealing with vehicles produced ~1969-2023 and resources ranging from dusty manuals in the physical library to youtube and pirated factory literature from shady Russian sites. (most recently a full engine-out rebuild on my kid's 2016 -- precipitated by enshittification of engine design due to EPA fuel-efficiency standards, but I digress)
jkf
4d ago
Not that I don't believe your account, but I'm curious if anyone's done a proper longitudinal study on the efficacy of vapes as a means of weaning oneself off tobacco.
Doesn't seem like it would be too different this way from patches/lozenges, which I expect have been studied properly given that they are medical-type items?
jkf
10d ago
I mean that Ukraine is militarily important to Russia in a hypothetical war with tanks rolling (one way or another) through the Fulda Gap and nukes flying, so Russia prioritizes current actions to mitigate the risk of this (low probability) hypothetical. Similarly with China's policies on Tibet and/or Taiwan. (ie. they are mostly due to strategic considerations in the case of war with India or the US, rather than some deep ideological feeling that Tibet or even Taiwan ought to be Chinese)
Europe did this in the 19th century but doesn't anymore; the US kind of does it, but through puppets and diplomacy (plus CIA ops, probably) in far-flung places rather than in their own backyard.
If the US were thinking this way, they would absolutely be serious about military force in Canada (risk of becoming a Chinese puppet) and Greenland (risk of becoming a stepping stone for either China or Russia) -- I don't think Trumps ruminations on this come from the same place, it's more like trolling at this point.
jkf
10d ago
Moving your borders closer to NATO does not suggest a fear of invasion. Neither does draining your manpower and weapon stockpiles.
Creating a geographical buffer between your enemies and your core is absolutely valid strategy, even if it costs some -- what it's worth is another question of course.
My current operating model is that Russia and China are both still playing "Great Game" diplomacy, in which military wargame type considerations have a voice at the table -- most of the West is definitely not, with the US being an exception in that it's torn between Deep State 5-d chess and Fukuyama-flavoured quokka-ism.
jkf
11d ago
At least two -- tobacco has killed many multiples of plausible smallpox totals!
jkf
11d ago
It's not a goal at all though -- it's a tool in service of their (other) goals.
jkf
12d ago
Neither -- it's a demoralization tactic against the stale pale straight majority.
English people literally think that there has been significant black Representation in their population since Roman times -- this is a direct result of decades of work by progressives at the BBC.
The impact is that the native English population will put up with (seemingly) literally anything -- very helpful for the progressive project!
Similar tactics are at work in the USA -- the exact group being 'represented' is not that important; LGBTetc works just as well as racial minorities. So long as the majority is underrepresented/delegitimatized, the intended purpose is served.
jkf
15d ago
Technically speaking you can attach 'program code', but it only gets published if it's less than 300 lines, with each line under 72 characters. Which is not a lot of STL or GCODE, and you'd need either a very lax or very sympathetic patent examiner.
You could maybe describe the gcode in structured natural language, such that a 'translator' could convert it back?
ie: "we claim an arrangements of parts as follows: 'bolt': a rectangular prism 8cm*2cm*2cm with 3mm longitudinal grooves at the midpoint" etc etc etc
pretty boring patent app, but I think such a description would contravene various ghost gun regulations, and seems to fall much more obviously under free speech than a gcode file?
jkf
15d ago
are we supposing the Trump monitors are all too retarded to notice anything?
You just need to fabricate some excuse to keep them away from you -- if they object, have them arrested! (I know this sounds far-fetched, but it's literally what happened in 2020)
While this may be harder going forward (while Trump is in power, at least) there are lots of ways to do fraud that aren't readily observable at the time of counting -- "harvest ballots and don't try to hard to authenticate them on election day" for example.
"Hey guys I just had a thought, I know we don't know each other well but let's rig this election"
You are not getting it -- this conversation never happens, people just do stuff.
jkf
16d ago
how does election monitor 1 get everyone else, including ones sent by the opposing campaigns, to ignore their fiddling with the counts?
They all hate Trump too! (the opposing campaign people, you need to find a way to shut them out -- the other workers will support you in this, because those people support Trump! They are icky and annoying!)
Has this ever happened with any crime where basically everyone involved is super competent to stay hidden, despite people on the lookout for it
Nobody was on the lookout for it though -- people still make arguments like "nah, that could never happen -- we have the most secure elections ever!"
Why would anyone need to coordinate -- votes are votes, right?
jkf
17d ago
If it's just a bunch of random people doing it without greater coordination then yes it could be theoretically possible, but this would also not be what is alleged
Who alleged that? Literally everyone in many spaces hates trump; they don't need to coordinate in order for many people (particularly people in the class involved with counting/monitoring elections) to be working towards the same goal.
jkf
17d ago
Likewise if there was a mass fake voter scheme,
What if there were a number of smaller fake voter schemes? Some of them better organized/more skillfully implemented than others?
jkf
17d ago
How do you feel about the toupee fallacy? It seems like the sort of thing that you might agree with in... other contexts?
jkf
17d ago
It wasn't some youtuber, it was like a real old-fashioned TV news reporter -- I do think a lady got charged on that one, you could look it up? But I have no reason to think it was staged.
jkf
17d ago
Fact check: if you call them "indians" in canada most people will know who you are talking about -- slightly context dependent, but getting less so every day since just about nobody calls the native indians indians anymore.
"East Indians" is completely unambiguous -- "East Asians" works for slanty eyed yellow people, but "Asians" would normally mean the same thing.
I never heard anybody in Canada talk about "South Asians" until ~10-15 years ago -- I do think it came from the UK.
TLDR: somebody who's not racist enough to say "chink" but wants to complain about what's happening in Richmond will just say "Asian" -- in Surrey, the alternatives might be "binder/pakki" and "East Indian". ("Chug/native" if you are bitchin about some reservation or guys killing all the moose)
This is Canadian usage as I know it since the 1970s or so. Western Canadian I should say -- I don't really give a shit how Toronto wants to talk, but I don't believe it to be much different.
jkf
17d ago
A whole bunch of people saying they were signed up at the homeless shelters and that they didn't vote yet somehow votes were submitted in their name would be noticeable.
Dunno about a whole bunch, but I recently saw a reporter interviewing homeless people in LA saying that they were paid to fill out ballots for/against some ballot initiative -- so what if it's both happening and noticeable, but nobody does anything about it because the people doing the fraud keep getting elected?
jkf
24d ago
They will be too busy trying to get the SKS added to the list of banned rifles -- although watching him fumble with the stripper clip to reload makes me think that The System Is Working, maybe?
jkf
24d ago
Pretty much -- that's why countries (should) have air defenses and/or plausible deterence for such attacks.
jkf
25d ago
The fact is that any country can attack any other country at any time -- as you point out, formal declarations of war haven't been a thing for many many years; it really is the law of the jungle.
If Iran had bombed Trump's inauguration, that would be an act of war; there's no moral valance to that, just that they would get their asses kicked for it.
Did Egypt et al send a diplomat to Tel Aviv to formally slap Golda Meir with a glove or something in 1973? If you want to go to war, you just do it.
jkf
25d ago
jkf
25d ago
The US and Iran have been at war since about 1979 -- and Iran started it! Invaded sovereign territory, took hostages (diplomats!), the whole bit... seriously, I'm pretty sure there was never a truce declared or anything like that?
"Perfidy" AFAIK specifically refers to violating a flag of truce or wearing enemy uniforms -- surprise attacks don't qualify.
"it’s the fast-approaching reality of vehicle ownership" (from the article) -- maybe, but I can't see anybody saying that this is happening now? (A quick google on "nissan blocks clearing codes" doesn't turn anything up, for instance)
A standard OBDC tool will still do most reasonable things on most cars -- whatsmore, it's actually way easier to get a factory-equivalent bidirectional tool than it used to be due to bootleg Chinese stuff that plugs into a laptop. For GM, you've needed a Tech2 for bidirectional communication for about 30 years -- these used to cost $10k, now you can get a $100 dongle from China.
Not sure this is true (a light googling seems to suggest that North American manufacturers use a standard port), but if so it's another good reason not to buy an EV (or that EV, if it's limited to (say) Tesla)!
This has been a common bitching point since sub-compact Japanese cars started replacing enormous American boats -- I don't love it, but the existence of drawling hillbillies on Youtube who show you the real way to do these jobs (as opposed to what the service manual tells you) has improved the situation immensely.
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