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Cake day: July 21st, 2023

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  • That (iirc) Harvard professor specialized in fascism wrote that we cannot count on institutions for protection. We’ve seen that institutions, including the judiciary, can be taken over and corrupted. Trump has stated multiple times that one of his first acts as president will be to basically clear the decks of the federal government and fire all of the non-Trumpist personnel. His lawyer even argued that the president can break any law, up to and including murder, and impeachment is the only process to hold them accountable. I’m not even sure how that’s supposed to work, since then they could arrest or kill everyone in Congress who would support their impeachment.

    Basically, we’re fucked.



  • People also like to argue it’s an acronym, but do you pronounce NASA the same as you pronounce the first letter of each word of National Aeronautics and Space Administration?

    Um, yes?

    I’m assuming we’re talking about the two A letters here, since nothing comes to mind about a different pronunciation of N or S in American English.

    In American English - at least in my experience - the first sound in aeronautics is exactly the same as in “air,” which is also the same as in “administration.” We don’t generally say it as in “ear-onautocs.”

    Also, I’m curious - has anyone ever published a study describing whether or not the difference in pronunciation differs between sectors in the computer science community? Particularly, is there a difference between normal developers and those who write in a Lisp?


  • Wings evolve from legs though, generally speaking. This means that a four legged dragon with wings would have conceivably evolved from a six legged creature. You can get hand-wings or arm-wings, and we’re not entirely sure but think insect wings may have also evolved from legs or some other kind of similar structure.

    But pretty much you can either have wings or legs/arms. You have to trade them in. That’s why the whole angel/demon thing doesn’t work either. The traditional harpies work but they’d be furry and not feathered. I haven’t worked out the wingspan for them but you could probably come up with a reasonable guess. They’d be more bat-people than bird-people, and I suspect that their chest areas would be less generously proportioned than is typically seen in the artwork. I’m not going more into the physics of that one though.




  • Texas is basically the Iraq of the US. Specifically, Saddam-era Iraq, not the lovely paradise it’s become since liberation.

    It’s run by a ruthless dictator with a corrupt and criminal government dependent on him for protection. The oil-based economy keeps the money rolling in, with the poor getting the bare minimum to keep them from revolting while the rich get richer and the “elected” leaders get patronage.

    He exploits religious and ethnic differences to make sure Texans remain divided and conquered, and will not hesitate to use violence to keep them in line.

    I think it’s clear that we will eventually have to invade them and liberate them for their oil.


  • The fact that you would consider your counterfactual a mirror image is itself problematic.

    In the case of the Foundation, it supports exactly what it purports to support. They’re like the EFF and other civil rights organizations. If you consider the EFF left wing, I think that says a bit more about where you stand.

    The original article was outrage-bate blog spam, with random Capitalized Words and the prolific use of “scare quotes.” It doesn’t even say anything. No charges of misinformation. No citation of law. Just “They have a Billion Dollars!!” kinds of sentences.

    On the other hand, the CEO of a company - particularly a small company - lends his personality to the company. It often makes sense to co-identify them, given that the CEO has an incredible amount of influence.

    So if you are saying that libertarian software project : libertarian institutions :: conservative ideas : homophobic legislation, I guess you’re just really endorsing the position of judging the company by the politicians and politics it supports. If you see prop 8 as being as fundamental to the conservative position as internet freedom is to an organization specifically dedicated to preserving internet freedom, all I can say is that I hope more people start to see it that way.