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English literature heavily overrepresented

what third party do you need? The program can be opensource. The verification can be done onchain

zero knowledge cryptography solves this

Should be mandatory training to obtain the ESTA permit to enter USA (even if just for transfers)

Just writing here a line in defense of Rothko. His paintings are far harder to paint than it looks like. There were hundreds of layers, thinly applied, and carefully thought and with a developed technique. Try to paint that by yourself and you'll see.

Actually Rothko is way harder to paint than it looks.

Very cool! I'm gonna give it a chance for sometime as a default instead of DuckDuckGo

I trust the billionaires more than I trust governments. Which doesn't mean that I trust billionaires.

For a split second I thought a composer from the English Renaissance era wrote a book about logic.

I hope this fixes my issues with bluetooth on Linux. When I'm on battery the audio breaks all the time. I've tried all sorts of obscure config tweaks with Pulseaudio.

This just made me install Element right away and finally get away from Signal (and of course Whatssap) and bring as many people with me as possible

So true. As a spaniard I do it all the time. Love/hate my country.

I think it's easier to port everything elisp to Scheme (with some help by automation perhaps), than having an Emacs implementation in a Scheme that runs in all implementation of Scheme. I've worked many years in Scheme and the differences between compilers and interpreters are too large, especially when it comes to low-level functionality necessary for good performance.

I mostly agree with your comment. My main counterpoint to this angle, which is strictly correct, is that many people lack the same kind of context that you described, and do interpret “Spanish flu” and “Wuhan/Chinese flu” as “caused by them”, and in some cases even missing the historical perspective. There might be something to be said about blame in one case and the other, but I don’t think is that relevant (although perhaps at some point there should be some debate on the responsibility of China -if any- in this pandemic)

Correct, my comment was devoid of opinion or arguments, it was just that, a comment. I also don’t see how your last paragraph contributes any better to a healthy debate though.

Regarding the false equivalence though, I didn’t imply that, since I don’t think you need to go so deep into the interpretation of words. If any point was to be made in my comment is just the plain wording “Spanish/Chinese flu” associates the location and its people to the stigma. This, repeated over time, contributes to the social imaginary. Not every one knows the historical facts so well, and many people hearing the words “Spanish flu”, missing the context, will still make the negative associations. And let’s not forget that for a considerable part of the population in USA (not in Europe though), Spanish means “speaks Spanish”.

I agree with the stigma associated to locations. I believe this stigma also affects past events, even if less so. So I think the argument for renaming the 1918 pandemic holds as strongly as not naming any new one based on the geographical location.

I find it interesting that it’s ok to call it Spanish Flu (while it wasn’t even originated there), but is politically incorrect to call this one the Wuhan virus or the Chinese flu. Political correctness has always a political intention I guess.

You are right. Sometimes I wish I were better at English.

I almost die in Java too.

Very cool! I use Clojure on a daily basis for coding, this is a great addition to the arsenal :) Actually, my main argument against _not using it_ is that Bash has this awkward syntax that is hard to remember if you don't use it often... But anyway, I keep forgetting it after years so I might as well embrace it and take the leap to use this. Thanks for the initiative!

Here you have a hint of the indoctrination: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/29/world/europe/spain-catalo...

“We are not even allowed to wear a bracelet to school with the Spanish flag’s colors, but you can wear one with the independence colors,” Ms. Camina said.

Ollala de Mora, 16, said: “People in school are really against Spain. Our teachers try to influence us. They say the Spain steals from us and the government is bad. If you think differently from that, they try to change your mind.”

That is indoctrination, and there are constant examples of this in daily life for decades. Only the thought of hating Spain is encourage, and less often the thought of coexistence. No wonder that things are like they are now.

And NY Times is one the biased media I see, clearing the supporting more the Catalonian side.

You are probably reading biased media. Spain has not consistently escalated tensions, it's been done by both sides. I disagree that something like this is commonly understood as fundamental. Referendums need to meet some conditions and be agreed. Disagreement happened in both sides, it wasn't an authoritarian decision in spite of what some international media seem to enjoy saying. What is illegal in the referendum is: - it asks something that is not allowed to happen by the constitution (thus the need to change it first) - there is no clear definition of who is allowed to vote (who is Catalan by which definition) - the right to vote on the ownership of that land belongs to all Spanish just like any other region belongs to those voting there. - What's the level at which we do the referendum? Not all areas might want to leave in the case of a hypothetical "yes" (which is not a majority at the moment by any poll). What if certain areas want independence from Catalonia?

Most importantly: the referendum is illegal even by the autonomic law of Catalonia. They should have had 2/3 of the chamber to push it, and they did it with less than half (48% IRCC).

Should I infer from the downvote that the general consensus is that there are a good and a bad sides in this story then? I'm interested in knowing if that's the case.

I have a hard time otherwise understanding the downvote, unless is someone downvoting anything that doesn't defend the Catalonian independentist movement downright.

Sorry, there are social circumstances which are very difficult to see and document, believe it or not.

Please don't bend the facts for your own bias. The king doesn't appoint those judges, will just ratify and is pretty much symbolical. They do have political influence but is kept balance traditionally. Just because everyone has political inclinations you cannot blame it of being controled by the government.

You can actually check my previous claims. They are not vague. Is just too extent, so if you want to dig deeper feel free to read both sides of the story, and not just what your particular media tells you.

They do have plenty of freedom, own embassies, own top-level domain, lots of local laws, complete control over education (that is basically the foundations of the strategy of independentist movements during at least 20 years). It is basically the money what drives all this, you are spot on. I wonder what is your reference for regional freedom exactly? I think the next step really is total independence, which is what part of the society wants there. I'm gonna clarify that I actually want the independence of Catalonia, because I think that's the only possible resolution, but I just disagree with that. It's a fact that Spanish autonomies have a lot of freedem in how to apply even the centrally decided laws.

I do have a bias against independentism/nationalism because I've lived through it. I cannot give concrete documents about this because there aren't such. Contrary to police violence of which there are. You don't have to be convinced, I'm just trying to express my opinion, not trying to convince anyone of who is better or worse here. But I can confidently assert that there are no "good and bad" in this story, just a war between two different stories with lots of falsehoods in both sides.

I want to make a very clear claim here, as a Spaniard who lived in Menorca (one of the so called "Paixos Catalans", what the expansionist independentists call "their territories"). I used to speak Catalan (or rather, their local dialect). I was raised there, and I had a lot experiences that well, I think it's not the point of this.

What I want to say is: many, if not most, Spaniards (non-catalans) do actually support the idea of holding a referendum, me included. The problem is that it's constintuationally illegal, and we should have changed the Constitution for that. And we should have. However, is not that clear who should be allowed to vote there. The land of the Catalans belongs in theory to all the Spaniards, in the same way that the rest of the lands of Spain belong to the Catalans. Who is Catalan is also hard to define, since we all have Spanish passport. If I live there for 5 years, am I Catalan? Well, considering that a big majority of catalans do actually have family from other parts of Spain, is hard to argue there is any kind of pure genetic lineage. In theory, we should have allowed all Spaniards vote first on holding a referendum or not. And then also ask "the Catalans" under a clear definition of _who_ is Catalan and has the exclusive right to vote on the right to rule that land. Perhaps also we should have voted on different regions, since there are parts that don't want to be independent, or perhaps just want to be independent of Catalonia altogether (such is the case of Vall d'Aran).

Many people seems to have a very easy time blaming Spain of being an authoritarian country, without understanding the depth and complexity of the problem, or that what a government does doesn't represent what all the people want. They were not voted in to do this, they were voted because the other alternatives failed to deliver in many ways in previous mandates. It was a reactionary voting. There are many people in Spain claiming for referendums. And also many people in Spain that see the independence of Catalonia the only way to keep advancing as a country where other less favoured regions could also prosper.

Honestly, I wish people from other countries would double-check facts and go deeper in understanding the situation. While I'm very ashamed of what the police did in the votings, there is a longer story behind all this that has been sadly summarized by videos and pictures of that violent day. That was a terrible mistake from a government I don't feel identified with. I'm both ashamed of Spain and of Catalonia. I whish we knew how to live together. We are both going to do worse now. We are a fractured society. Both sides. Both sides lied, both sides manipulated.

Spain is a country of many cultures and languages. We could be an example of the world. But we are not. No Catalonia is not the only region with historical differences. Andalusia was the cultural center of Europe in the 10th century. Euskadi is an industrial powerhorse. Galicia has celtic roots. Canary Islands is a beautiful mix of Latin American culture, Africa and south Spain. And so it goes for many other regions.

As a Spaniard, I believe the best course of action is to split the country (sorry, I still don't buy that Spain conquered Catalonia, that just never happened, so yes, split a 500-years old country is the accurate definition).

‘I am firmly convinced that Spain is the strongest country of the world. Century after century trying to destroy herself and still no success’ - Otto von Bismark

Well, actually maybe is time to try to start all over again. But please, check all historical facts and try to read both sides of the story. Don't buy that the Spaniards "are retrograde, old-fashined, stubborn, imperialistic, etc...", and the Catalans represent all good that happen in Spain, because that's unfair and untrue.

Videos are taken mostly by those out in the streets, so there are obviously biased towards one side. Is it so hard to believe that both sides exert some kind of violence? Do you really believe that one side is entirely pacifist and the other is aggressive? That kind of narrative should be hard to believe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_g4-4fMoMs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ak9224HG_E

I apologize for my interpretation and response. It wouldn't be the first time that I read or hear comments of Catalans being superior to the rest of the Spanish.