perestroika

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

True, but there's some more.

Over here, ice roads are opened on typical winters on several smaller bays. The instruction to drivers is:

  • don't wear a seatbelt
  • if ice breaks, open your door swiftly (get out first, then think about calling people)
  • if you can't open the door, lower your window swiftly
  • if you can't lower the window, break it (the side window, not the windshield - a windshield is multilayer laminate, too strong to break quickly)

Typically, if a car sinks on an ice road, people are likely to get out. A crank-operated window is handy in such a case. But regardless of instruction, sometimes folks do die. :(

In general, I would not like to experience any sort of extreme incident in an over-engineered car. I'd prefer something from the 1970-ties, but with airbags.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Say you’re trying to defend against something like a Shahed-136. It can hit pretty much anywhere in Ukraine. You can’t stick an AA gun on everything that Russia might consider trading a Shahed-136 for.

As far as I know, the routine in the current war is - the AA gun is on a truck that moves 80 km/h, the drone comes in slower than 300 km/h, one or multiple truck crews position themselves on likely vantage points for intercepting, and the rest is luck.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Both of you are right.

It's difficult, but how difficult depends on the task you set. If the task is "maintain manually initiated target lock on a clearly defined object on an empty field, despite the communications link breaking for 10 seconds" -> it is "give a team of coders half a year" difficult. It's been solved before, the solution just needs re-inventing and porting to a different platform.

If it's "identify whether an object is military, whether it is frienly or hostile, consider if it's worth attacking, and attack a camouflaged target in a dense forest", then it's currently not worth trying.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No conclusive proof. It didn't have a passthrough for one electrode of the two. It did have remains of acid inside and corrosion on the electrodes. One can speculate whether it was an experimental device, a faulty device or something else entirely (one alchemist trying to replicate another's secrets and doing it wrong?).

To add insult to the injury, it was lost or stolen during the war in 2003, so more analysis can't be done until it gets re-discovered. :o

I haven't heard an alternative hypothesis, though... I try to imagine what else besides electrochemistry would one do with two dissimilar metals in an acid? It ruins the metals, it doesn't make any known medicine or effective poison, it likely fouls the jug too... for a person to put copper and iron into a jug full of acid, there has to be a reason for doing it...

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

No problem, just tell them to ask from Baghdad, they should know where it is. :) A jug of wine or vinegar, one electrode of iron, another made of copper, voila... the Baghdad battery.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

If they overcome / disable ad blocking, they will lose browser market share - and people don't design websites for marginal browsers with exotic features.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

None of these countries would permit an abortion at 28 weeks, let alone let her keep the babies remains.

The article sheds no light on why she needed a late-term abortion. If something is permissible and publicly funded, chances are a person gets it done early, in a clinic, without hesitation. In case of wanting an abortion, delay is harmful, having to travel, smuggle something or fear something (or gather money) is harmful. Also note: those countries have a separate schedule for normal and exceptional conditions. Which is generally not possible in a political environment that has banned abortion (some cities in Nebraska - yes, in the US, cities can regulate abortion, very strange for me). Some examples that I know of:

Estonia:

  • under normal conditions, 12 weeks
  • under exceptional conditions, 22 weeks (risk to health, severe foetal disease, raising the child is prevented by health or sanity, the pregnant is under 15 or over 45)

Finland:

  • under normal conditions, 12 weeks
  • under exceptional conditions, 20..24 weeks (foetal abnormality gives a limit of 24 weeks)

Latvia:

  • under normal conditions, 12 weeks
  • for medical reasons, 22 weeks
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think it's a misunderstanding, not a myth.

CO2 influences the greenhouse effect - keeping more solar energy on Earth.

Solar energy gets converted into heat, heat gets absorbed. Some of it gets absorbed by oceans. Some of CO2 also gets absorbed by oceans - their pH decreases. The greenhouse effect doesn't require great time, but oceanic warming and acidification does require time. Interaction happens on the surface, but the volume is great.

Thus, delays in response are inevitable. Response may also depend on circulation - an ocean current slowing or speeding up.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I’m convinced 99% people posting that same blog post that sells opinions as facts, haven’t actually lived through it.

I'm a person who lost contact with people on Facebook while using Pidgin. This unfortunate development in ancient history actually forced me to briefly register on Facebook to maintain contact - because they couldn't be convinced to adopt Pidgin and Pidgin users were a minority (as were users of other XMPP messenger apps, at least separately counted).

Prognosis: Facebook will play along to gain mass, then go incompatible. They will do this at a moment when they think users will gravitate towards their side of the fence.

Advise: never open that door, there be dragons on the other side.

We should remember what they have already done, and expect more of the same, because they haven't changed. Justified grudges are perfectly fine to hold. A corporation that has harmed society by supporting polarization in many countries (formation of echo chambers, targeted advertising) should be boycotted in retribution.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Remembering what Facebook did with XMPP (initially allowed their users to speak to other messengers' users, then got sloppy with compatibility, causing great workload to unrelated app developers, and finally, having accumulated enough mass for Messenger, stopped supporting XMPP) - Facebook should be avoided like fire.

Facebook is also bad for society, allowing manipulation (targeted advertizing), aggregating great amounts of user data (harming privacy) and prioritizing user engagement regardless of the social cost (a hateful conflict generates more clicks than cat photos).

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