melesian (u/melesian)

melesian commented on Ireland is making basic income for artists program permanent artnews.com/art-news/news... · Posted by u/rbanffy

flanked-evergl · 3 months ago

I think Ireland has been a banana republic for some years now, it can't become one.

melesian · 3 months ago

Oh look, an ignorant begrudger. I don't know many banana republics with a well-educated workforce let lone the best educated workforce in the world.

Perhaps you'd like to compare Ireland's position in the Human Development Index with that of its neighbours?

melesian commented on Ireland is making basic income for artists program permanent artnews.com/art-news/news... · Posted by u/rbanffy

CalRobert · 3 months ago

Sure, but you could say the same thing for teachers, foodservice workers, nurses, etc.... yet they are unable to avail of this program, for reasons I don't understand.

melesian · 3 months ago

Ireland started by not leving tax on income from writing on writers for specific cultural reasons -- to support and encourage writers.

It's a cultural norm. Extending it to other generally penniless artists is too.

When universities in other countries start running courses on Irish food service workers we can reasonably expect them to be included.

melesian commented on AirPods live translation blocked for EU users with EU Apple accounts macrumors.com/2025/09/11/... · Posted by u/thm

wtcactus · 4 months ago

So, the problem is indeed the EU.

melesian · 4 months ago

On the contrary, the EU is the solution.

melesian commented on What services or apps did you see abroad and wonder: why don't we have them? · Posted by u/ekusiadadus

bombcar · 4 months ago

If I can go the other way - one thing the USA has that Europe, at least, doesn’t - the ADA.

US businesses are basically all wheelchair accessible - easily, too. Most sidewalks have curb cuts at street crossings. Ramps are commonplace.

This is NOT the cause in Europe, and not only in the historic old buildings.

Even using a stroller is noticeably different; I can’t imagine being in a wheelchair in some cities.

melesian · 4 months ago

Blinkered nonsense.

Yes, of course Europe doesn't have any US laws but to suggest that it doesn't have legislation about accessibility is simply wrong. Guess what... the legislation generally applies to buildings and construction post-dating the legislation. Applicability to earlier structures will vary depending on feasability and justification (cost, traffic).

melesian commented on Italy drags Meta, X, LinkedIn into €1B+ VAT showdown: free sign‑ups now taxable? reuters.com/world/europe/... · Posted by u/napolux

nradov · 5 months ago

So another extortionate shakedown of American tech companies by a European government. If only they put as much energy into encouraging growth and innovation.

melesian · 5 months ago

If American companies don't want to pay taxes in Europe they can easily avoid doing so by staying home. If they prefer to earn profits in Europe they can comply with the law. As it is they do everything they can to avoid paying taxes, full stop, not just in Europe.

melesian commented on I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone (2022) smallandroidphone.com/... · Posted by u/asimops

melesian · 5 months ago

I want a Linux phone based on open source hardware. I gave up an iPhone for Android then switched to Pixels. My current Pixel 7 will be my last Google phone. I want out of the surveillance economy. I want AI assistance as badly I want a hole in the head.

I carry an 8 inch tablet (fits in a jacket pocket) and do most of my mobile web, email, podcast listening etc. on that, using my phone as a hotspot. Can't buy a new 8 inch tablet with a fingerprint reader. Got a couple of 2nd hand ones on eBay and will soon look at putting LineageOS on them (they have out of date versions of Android).

melesian commented on From: Steve Jobs. "Great idea, thank you." blog.hayman.net/2025/05/0... · Posted by u/mattl

melesian · 8 months ago

> The fact that most research participants and their families are unaware that they are part of a vaccine trial, leaves no room for justice or compensation.

What an absolute load of tripe.

Straight from disease surveillance being a bad thing (it isn't) to this drivel /eyeroll.

Disease surveillance helps stop potential pandemics before the cost of addressing them and the damage the can cause, including loss of life, reaches colossal proportions. Recommended reading: The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett.

I note how the conspiratorial assertion of Africans being used, in effect, as guinea pigs is entirely unsupported by any evidence whatever. Vaccine trials happen everywhere, not just in Africa, and no national healthcare system in Africa blindly accepts vaccines as if people were experimental animals.

Did you give informed consent yourself for the childhood vaccinations you received?

melesian commented on What made the Irish famine so deadly newyorker.com/magazine/20... · Posted by u/pepys

rsynnott · 10 months ago

Yes, GDP figures for Ireland and other small open economies (and, for that matter, _London_, which has the same sort of dynamic) are pretty useless; this is fairly well-known. However, Irish average wages overtook UK ones after the financial crisis, concrete economic activity is generally higher (for instance, Ireland builds about 2.5x the number of housing units per capita per year), the Irish state pension is higher, Irish unemployment is lower, Irish inflation is much lower, and so on.

And it’s much starker when you compare Ireland to Northern Ireland (the bit of Ireland that the UK still runs), or, really, to the North of England or most other UK regions (again, really, the whole UK economy hangs off the south-east). The idea that Ireland would be _better off in 2025_ if it had stayed part of the UK is… pretty out-there, to be honest. The UK is simply very bad at regional development.

Ireland _was_ an economic basketcase for a very long time, but then, realistically, so was most of the UK; more or less since WW2 the UK outside of London and the south-east has been looking pretty unhealthy.

melesian · 10 months ago

National economic statistics -- GDP, GNI etc. only tell you so much. Measures of human wellbeing I'd argue tell you more.

Ireland is ahead of the UK on every metric, from child mortality to longevity and everything in between -- and the gap is widening.

melesian commented on What made the Irish famine so deadly newyorker.com/magazine/20... · Posted by u/pepys

Gothmog69 · 10 months ago

Stupid and lazy analysis.... they were not English. The French and the Germans were also not English. Nothing to do with racism it was nationalism.

melesian · 10 months ago

French and Germans were not depicted in English publications as apes.

The Irish were coerced into the UK and were officially British citizens, that is ostensibly, co-nationals. They weren't treated as such because those in power regarded them as subhuman. If that isn't racism the word is devoid of meaning.

melesian commented on UK considering making USB-C the common charging standard, following the EU neowin.net/news/uk-consid... · Posted by u/speckx

arccy · a year ago

They might try to dump old stock in the uk

melesian · a year ago

Dumping things that aren't up to standard for sale in the EU is routine since the UK left the EU single market. The EU implemented full customs controls and goods inspections on day 1 after the UK left. To date the British still don't have either the infrastructure or the staff to do the same. As result it has become a magnet for substandard goods, both originating in the EU and passing through it (e.g. from Rotterdam).

The estimated cost for the UK to implement full controls amounts to more than the entire sum of the UK's near 50 year contributions to the EU budget. And that's only one of dozens of areas where the EU saves money by agreeing common standards.