Smoke

@Smoke@beehaw.org

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Smoke ,

honestly, not sure I -ever- found a useful answer on Quora.

Reading them taught me one thing, Quora had/has a weirdly strong hardon for Steve Jobs and is/was all too happy to talk about anecdotes of him buying the authors' lunch or reconciling with his estranged daughter. The only time I read criticism of Apple or him was when the question specifically asked for it.

Smoke ,

In fact, if we look at BBC as an example, they’re publicly funded and maintain high credibility and a high degree of press freedom.

Indeed, the BBC cannot be seen to give in to government pressure.

Smoke ,

There's ways to rate limit, like increasing response time per IP address per hour to make rapid, massed requests slower and easier to handle. Taking them all down at once is an extreme move.

The Cult of AI: How one writer's trip to an annual tech conference left him with a sinking feeling about the future ( www.rollingstone.com )

From the (middle of the) story: The reason CES was so packed with random “AI”-branded products was that sticking those two letters to a new company is seen as something of a talisman, a ritual to bring back the (VC) rainy season.

Smoke ,

The author is the host of Behind the Bastards, and produced a pair of episodes to accompany the article on the same subject: https://pca.st/episode/96a1d3d1-7966-412b-bc8b-492c817b9f93

Unclassified letter reveals NSA's warrantless purchase of Americans' internet browsing data ( www.techspot.com )

My data is already bought and sold by companies. But when government agencies do it, suddenly we only need to stop them. Stop this madness. It shouldn’t matter if it’s corporations or a government, why not stop the sale of people’s data?

Smoke ,

No, no more than its illegal for a detective to use evidence seized in a raid against a thief ring, to arrest drug dealers because there was a photo of them holding big bags of cocaine with "We Love Dealing Drugs" written and autographed on the back. They'd never have a search warrant for the dealers' house normally, but because it was robbed by someone else and the photo turned up somewhere else for them to find, it's fair game.

Smoke ,

his father told him everyone needed a basic understanding of it.

Three hundred years later and some things never change.

Smoke ,

The Federation makes it quite easy to quit a term of service before completion (even during war time)

I'm fairly sure it's mentioned that once war broke out Rico was no longer allowed to leave, but he didn't pay much attention because his two years weren't up anyway.

once someone has quit they are never allowed to enroll again. This is to ensure that all volunteers are dedicated, whilst also discouraging people from leaving.

On the contrary, the Federation deliberately makes leaving as easy as possible to get rid of anyone who would otherwise leave later, or worse stay and let his squaddies down in a way that would get them killed. You can't just up and leave (though no effort is made to find you if you desert), but at any time you can ask to see a superior, get your papers voided, and walk out off base.

This is because Federal Service is tough and dangerous (by design). It can involve joining the Military, being a Human Guinea Pig, testing survival equipment or Manual Labour.

This is a funny one. On the one hand, in execution it's mentioned those physically unfit to serve in the military do get any pointlessly dangerous job available. But in principle, many speeches are made specifically saying military service is what makes someone worthy of political rights, because of the responsibility of military service. Someone counting the hairs of venomous caterpillars (an example job given in the book) has no responsibilities that could harm or help the country he's serving.

Smoke ,

but yeah, why wouldn’t they just use standard anesthesia gas? or nitrous oxide?

Because the suppliers don't want to be associated with executions, so they won't sell any to the state for that purpose.

Smoke ,

Funny, I remember nitrogen gas being promoted as far more humane than lethal injection or existing gas execution. For years it was touted as the solution no one was using because of I guess sadism. Now someone is using it, and of course it's instantly denounced. You just can't win...

Smoke ,

Okay yeah, but that's not the discussion. You'd might as well say all methods are equally bad because it's the act itself that's the problem, and at that point the state can break out the human mincing machines knowing it'll get just as much or little pushback no matter what it picks.

Smoke ,

I highly recommend you watch Netflix’s Downfall: The Case Against Boeing.

As a free alternative/companion, I would also suggest the PBS documentary Boeing's Fatal Flaw, which features the CEO subtly throwing the pilots under the bus for one of the MCAS crashes.

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