Empires of the Undergrowth

Let’s be blunt about this. KMT is heavily supported by the PRC. They are not so much an “opposition party” as they are an instrument of the Chinese government operating Taiwan. The leader of KMT met with the leader of the PRC to receive marching orders.

KMT is not so much an “opposition party” as it is an arm of the PRC. Cheng Li-wun was getting marching orders.

Uneven enforcement is a hallmark of fascist authoritarian states. Many things are illegal that are commonly done anyway. As a result, nearly everyone is “guilty” of something which the state can use against them whenever it’s convenient.

“We didn’t start the fire…”

too real

A tediously accurate scale model of the solar system

Don’t forget to try the “c” button in the bottom right!

Blender. It’s been almost 20 years now since I started working with it, and the time I spent learning it was worth every minute. It is an incredibly powerful tool.

Eh, more like proof that there are (or were) some reasonable people working in border control.

Not harassing people doesn’t make you good, it just makes you decent. This kind of behavior should be the low bar, not the high bar.

This is idealistic to the point of parody.

faster != better

In fact,

faster != good

What makes you feel valued?

…and is that something that can be delivered remotely, through a screen?

I ask this not because I necessarily want or expect a specific answer, but because everyone who reads my comment should stop and spend a few minutes considering what the answer is for them personally.

And then think about what you think the answer might be for other people in your life, and what makes them feel valued.

What can you do, to make that happen more often for yourself, and for others? Personally, I think nothing is quite as rewarding as making someone else feel valued.

Talk to your family. Talk to your friends. They want to hear from you, even if they’re busy.

I want to curate my feed to mostly just contain serious people.

So I’ll just point out that this desire is kind of the whole point of features that allow you to follow specific users on a social media system. This is better when manually curated, rather than relying on some algorithm to do a bad job of it for you. So far, every application of such models to social media tends to amplify noise rather than reduce it, and this is mostly because it does not and cannot replicate human awareness.

The desire for such a function to be performed automatically (without your direct attention and involvement) is diametrically opposed to the desire for high-quality output. Quality requires a level of attention that cannot be automated. The program doesn’t care, it’s not capable of that.

Reddit-imitating platforms like Lemmy aren’t really built for following specific users, the intent is more of a public square. The benefit is that it’s harder to end up in an echo chamber (as long as you avoid places like hexbear and .ml where the admins enforce echo chamber conditions intentionally). The cost is that you will always be exposed to some noise. You don’t get freedom without some chaos.

Platforms that might provide better what you want would be Mastodon or BlueSky, where you can follow professionals who voice public opinions on topics that you find relevant, and read responses from other users.

Whatever gene makes people want to shout these thought-terminating clichés, upvote others who do it, and find some sense of belonging from it is clearly missing from me. I’d rather just not even hear about it - it’s extremely exhausting and has never achieved anything worthwhile.

Hmm, well I’ll point out a couple of things:

1. Self-expression is not really about “achieving” anything.
   There is a level of attention-seeking behavior that can get… cringy? for lack of a better word… but also, like, welcome to the human race, I guess? People want to feel included in the social group, and in the conversation of the moment, and that’s entirely normal behavior. Attention-seeking behavior happens because people don’t want to feel lonely, and that’s OK.
2. I think you’re displaying a degree of entitlement here, where you expect other people to express themselves in a way that you find agreeable.
3. There is some utility in this overall, as a sort of barometer of public opinion, though you have to be aware of the context of the community you’re in. (e.g. a commonly expressed opinion on Lemmy does not necessarily reflect a common opinion of people in your workplace or neighborhood)

Also, at the risk of repeating a tired cliché, be the change you want to see in the world.

Probably hang out with Father Robert and the Vaticats

No.

Umm, source for the data?

Tha’s th’most evil rabbit y’ever saw!

The folks at NIST know what they’re talking about. The US government directed them to develop security policy for government information systems in 2002 (FISMA) - they’ve been thinking about how to do this properly for 24 years.

If you happen to work for a US government agency of any kind, you can basically tell your boss “NIST guidance says we should do X” and compliance is technically required by law (within the context of security policies that apply to your agency’s work area). If you work for a company that does business with the US government, there are similar compliance policies also published by NIST that you should be following (and your company could lose its contracts if it is not compliant).

Saved you a click:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/1s9v57u/lost_sunken_city_nms_base_build/

Ignore the “article”, its only purpose is to deliver some ads before linking you on to the reddit post.

If you ride the Coast Starlight northbound from California to Oregon, you travel through the Cascades between Dunsmuir, CA and Chemult, OR from 4:30 to 9:30 in the morning. You can wake up and watch the sun rise over the snow-capped mountains.

Southbound on the same route will put you between Eugene (5:00 PM) and Chemult (8:30 PM) in the evening. Depending on the time of year you may or may not get to see sunset in the mountains at that point.