A lot of our systems work because everyone at least half heartedly sort of goes by the rules. Yes, everyone sort of pretends to obey the rule and hence it works. In reality these systems are extremely fragile and a small committed minority can totally break years of precedent and systems. I think we are at that phase right now from the right side and soonish we will see the same from right left as well.
Readit Newsjaggajasoos33 commented on US Supreme Court limits federal judges' power to block Trump orders theguardian.com/us-news/2... · Posted by u/leotravis10
I found it hard to reconcile his charming and witty comic strips with some of the ugly things he wrote elsewhere. I would never usually throw a book away, but I made an exception for one of his books, because I didn't want anyone to see it on my bookshelf and I didn't want to give to anyone else.
I think death of his stepson might have impacted him deeply at personal level turning him into a bit of a racist. In Trump he saw a hero who would take up the cause.
>Changing the climate probably is outside of local control…
This is the mindset I'm coming around to.
Whether you think climate change is mostly human caused, or part of some natural cycle, it's happening and it will probably get worse. We need to figure out how to deal with the consequences of it, rather than pretending/hoping we can change the course.
Climate change is mostly irrelevant to the fires here. These fires were preventable had the city and state administration competent.
jaggajasoos33 commented on How the human brain contends with the strangeness of zero quantamagazine.org/how-th... · Posted by u/apollinaire
In the context of brain zero is much older than 7th century. Buddhist philosophy revolves around "Shunyaataa" (Zeroness - Shunya means zero in Sanskrit). Shunya itself comes from the root Svi - empty/hollow.
In the context of brain, Buddhism and various branches of Hinduism spent a lot of time pondering. Several meditative techniques involve meditating over this hollowness or the ultimate absence.
I do know that Zero the numerical placeholder is different from Buddhist idea of "Zeroness" but in the context of brain it should be similar I feel. Absence of something means cardinality of zero but Buddhists literally asked this question about reality itself.
jaggajasoos33 commented on New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses independent.co.uk/news/ne... · Posted by u/wslh
There is nothing wrong with being NIMBY with your own land. It belongs to the citizens of New Zealand, not the top bidder.
Even if we accept that the white people "own" NZ, the foreigners are buying it from the willing seller citizens. So the government does not get to decide on behalf of all citizens.
jaggajasoos33 commented on The USSR covertly mapped American and European cities news.nationalgeographic.c... · Posted by u/jonbaer
Every military and intelligence outfit has their own mapping unit why is this exactly surprising?
The only reason why these maps gathered any attention is that funny enough they were actually use by some western companies as they were effectively either very cheap or without any royalties at all while most western maps are a copyright hell that would cost you a fortune to even look at.
The article also seems to glance over a lot of the inaccuracies that ended up in the soviet maps including made up places from movies and other popular culture.
When it comes to topographic maps of Kashmir the USSR maps have been cheaper (and outdated). The indian government keeps their maps secret.
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