smitten

futurebird , 1 day ago to random

A "Halo Drive" is a concept for sub light speed travel that uses either a spinning black hole, or twin black holes (stationary) to accelerate a ship by slingshotting a laser around the singularity and harvesting the spin from the black hole to go real real fast.

You can accelerate an arbitrarily large mass.

Does that mean that one could just IDK speed up a whole moon and use it like ...ballast for a longer journey? Is there a way to convert extra mass to more speed? (not like fuel)

smitten , 1 day ago

@futurebird Are you catching the mass on the return trip? Seems like it would be better if you could throw in mass and it comes out as light just because it's easier to absorb. no idea what mass would have that property. I love the idea that you throw out the mass temporarily and catch it again mostly unchanged, to use on the next black hole.

18+ futurebird , 2 days ago (edited 2 days ago) to random

Is it really even possible for Biden, if he really wanted to, to step aside and for that process to be smooth and effective?

I have heard Democratic centrists say it's not. Thus the whole debate is just hurting Biden. Fair enough. Conservative pundit Jesse Waters (who is not very bright) agreed with this. (he said this because he thinks Biden is easy to beat, I guess?)

I am confident that, should Biden step aside, the focus would instantly shift.

18+ smitten , 2 days ago

@Cefr @LightFIAR @futurebird

DNC will be challenged in court for illegitimately changing candidates before the General Election. In a Trump backed court. And it will be a swift trial unlike the ones aimed at him.

How can we expect them to defend democracy if they can't even win that fight? It's a non-issue, the precedent is clear that political parties can choose their candidate at the convention. 'Presumptive nominee' is not an official position, it's just a description of a situation. Why should we fear frivolous legal challenges?

smitten , 26 days ago to random

this is my biggest pet peeve about mastodon. the UI leads you towards registering for no good reason. "Joining" a server should feel like an intentional decision without UI hints to get you there. UI for logged out users should help you navigate back to your home server, and take actions on the post there (reply, star, boost, etc)

RE: https://sauropods.win/users/futurebird/statuses/112643604060846797

smitten OP , 26 days ago

I guess I'll take this opportunity to push my pet feature again. Fedi needs a URL protocol so that we can direct users back to their home server from any remote origin. The experience should be seamless so that non technical users can click a "see on my home server" link.

https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/fep-07d7-a-custom-url-scheme-and-web-based-protocol-handlers-for-linking-to-activitypub-resources

smitten , 2 months ago to random

people who say their city name without saying what state it is... or which country it is. why?

smitten OP , 2 months ago

@dillyd Montreal can be an exception

chjara , 2 months ago to random

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

smitten , 2 months ago

@chjara was this an Elon special? did he override a competent person with his own designs

gwynnion , 4 months ago to random

"These men are completely known quantities engaged in the first presidential rematch since 1956. Even someone who has been in a coma since late 2019 would have pretty firm opinions about them. But the Democratic optimists would have you believe that an electorally significant chunk of voters will soon change their minds."

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/02/democrats-trump-biden-polls-november-presidential-election.html

18+ smitten , 4 months ago

@breadandcircuses @gwynnion In June 2019 Biden told his wealthy donors "no one’s standard of living will change, nothing will fundamentally change." and a lot of us felt strongly that it was a disqualifying statement that should have ended any chances he had in the primary nomination. Unfortunately not enough people agreed.

GottaLaff , 5 months ago to random

Via Angry Staffer:

#Biden just won New Hampshire via write in.

Biden beat Dean Phillips by a much larger margin than Trump beat Haley, and he wasn’t even on the ballot.

But sure, there’s no enthusiasm there. 🙄

CNN's Abby Phillip: "As Nikki Haley put it -- I think it's actually such a smart way to put it -- maybe the first party to let go of their 80 years old might be the victor, but who's gonna be the one to move first? ... nobody wants Trump, nobody wants Biden."

18+ smitten , 5 months ago

@mloxton @GottaLaff
Biden is +15 unfavorable while Trump is +8.7 unfavorable. That's from an average of polls, the truth is probably not too different from that. Biden has a lower approval rating today than Trump did at this point in his presidency.

The write-in campaign does not suggest anything about Biden's popularity because only 60k people wrote him in (compared to 168k who voted for Trump). All that indicates is that the die-hard Dems were willing to show up despite the DNC telling people the election did not matter and their vote was meaningless.

Comparing Dean Philips to Nikki Haley is just not particularly useful. There were no debates on the Dem side, Dean Philips joined the primary late. Biden has no real challenger and the DNC has de-legitimized the process so much that voters disengaged, not much can be learned from the results at this point.

18+ smitten , 5 months ago

@mloxton What should we use then? Why is a poorly-attended write-in campaign that had less engagement than the Republican election (in a state that normally leans blue) more reliable than an average of polls?