mlillie

Is the original article not a major journalistic misstep then? Nowhere does it clarify that this only applies to online gaming.

Yes, we have one party here. But so does America. Except, with typical extravagance, they have two of them!

- Julius Nyerere

Yeah, socialist here, and I am absolutely no fan of Obama's...

Comment there says they're only selling the "Basic" which doesn't include GPS or LORA

Ensafi’s team found that censorship is increasing in 103 of the countries studied, including unexpected places like Norway, Japan, Italy, India, Israel and Poland. These countries, the team notes, are rated some of the world’s freest by Freedom House, a nonprofit that advocates for democracy and human rights.

Freedom House is a non-profit that is almost entirely funded by the US government. The only ones who would find it "unexpected" that US allies rank high on the "freedom index" but practically have problems with freedom of speech would probably buy a bridge in Brooklyn.

Livestream for Hearing on “Mainstreaming Extremism: Social Media’s Role in Radicalizing America" is still going on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mstNE5KIM-g

Given that some 35% of global emissions this century have come from such unnecessary atrocities as the War on Terror[1] I am confident we have a good starting point for things to cut.

[1] https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/20...

There was a sea change in views on welfare in the 80s-90s[1], culminating with the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. Between means-testing, spending caps and staffing cuts, virtually all welfare programs have been decimated over the last 25 years.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_programs_in_the_United_...

It's a lot more complicated than that. Many of these people are chronically underpaid, the service industry in particular. Yes, of course they like the extra unemployment money, but I bet 95% would prefer to return to work and be paid a fair, livable wage, comparable to what they're receiving on unemployment.

Thanks for bringing up this book. Everyone who lives in California and thinks about nature needs to check out Tending the Wild.

Is their "slave wage labor" really any worse than being a construction worker in the US, in relative terms?

Thank you. The author really missed the big reveal at the end, I was also wondering this same thing.

Isn't spyware just a subset of malware? This is definitely spyware

Not including the "Mystic" system seems like a huge oversight. It's an analog game system that works using yes/no questions, 2D10, and a probability table. It's not too elegant, but it works wonders. It can be used to assist the DM, or as a full-on DM emulator.

They do subject themselves to it. However, what that analysis lack is an understanding that the worker/employer power relationship is completely asymmetrical. Workers have everything to lose, Employers have nothing to lose. That leads to 'illogical' decisions such as workers who could find work elsewhere opting not to: Shit, their rent, their medicine, their family is on the line here. Maybe the new job will be worse, or have worse benefits, or not let you skip out early on Friday to go to soccer practice?

Americans on any problem: "You've got to vote with your wallet to change the world! That's the spirit of the free market and liberal democracy!"

China votes with wallet

Americans: "This is 'authoritarianism'"

re-education camps

If you're referring to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, there is a lot of outcry, but little evidence to back up statements made by Western press. Google doc amalgamating sources: https://tinyurl.com/xinjiangmyths

Isn't the core assumption of MVT that there exists a one dimensional spectrum from which to calculate a median in the first place? Voting for candidates is hardly one-dimensional; even a particular ballot measure may have multiple choices, or another question on the ballot of a related but somewhat conflicting nature.

100 'dollars' to spend

This is what I was thinking. I know a big complaint especially of the larger US unions is that they just end up mirroring the bureaucracy & power structure of management anyway

I think it would be comparable, but not equal, to a factory walkout. Without active bug-squashing, DevOps and server maintenance, there is an increased risk of a major outage, which would even affect previous customers as well. Also, most tech companies collect revenue incrementally, via subscriptions, ads and the like, rather than up-front like most factories would. And getting a scab developer up to speed would likely take a lot longer than getting scab factory workers up to speed.

There are some differences as you said. If you're an auto factory that goes on strike, the management is likely still making money—they have all the cars made yesterday and the day before to sell. Of course, the pressure would rise much quicker in a factory vs a tech company; where the latter could presumably float itself for a few weeks, the former would start losing money within days.

How would you qualify US style vs non-US style unions? The prevalence of business unionism here?

A few fallacies as I see them in this article.

One is that everyone, like the author, is starting from a 'clean slate'. This is an extremely privileged position. Almost no one in this country is completely out of debt AND mentally/physically healthy AND able to 'choose' to not commute to work.

Another is that everyone has, or can afford, an appropriate 'makerspace' in their place of residence.

Finally, this article simply takes the 8 hour workday for granted, rather than asking the extremely obvious question: Yes, Robert Owen did coin the phrase "Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest", in 1817. With labor productivity skyrocketing since then, why have we not reduced this, even to 6 hours?

US equivalent is SMOG: Signal, Mirrors, Over the shoulder, Go when safe.

Not sure whether it is better to signal before or after looking, but that was what my partner's driving instructor taught.

can be explained entirely by discrimination

I understand this is hyperbole, but this is the perfect case of how legitimate grievances are derailed by bad actors. Emphasis on the word "entirely".

We don't and can't think in absolutes as a society. Everyone and everything is imperfect to some degree. Women sometimes falsely accuse men of sexual assault. Police officers sometimes kill unarmed black men for good reason. The problem is that these sorts of arguments strip context entirely away—"sometimes" in each case is well under 10%. No one was talking about "entirely" in the first place, so this just morphs a discussion about equality into a much less serious one about human fallibility.

So, sure, those are issues, but let's focus on the 90% of the actual problem at hand. No one is saying sexism and racism are absolutely 100% responsible for everything. But they are extremely significant factors and, more importantly, factors entirely within our control and of our own making.

This reeks of both-sides-ism and enablement.

"Where does it stop?" is the same slippery slope garbage peddled by #HimToo and #BlueLivesMatter acolytes. But even engaging with the question at face value, the answer is very simple, and the author of this piece didn't try very hard if he couldn't find someone who is able to answer it. In fact, the best answer was given by Karl Popper in 1945.

In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance.

That's it. Platforms like Gab are themselves intolerant, and we must continue to be intolerant of them.

Apple does not pay their fair share - http://fortune.com/2018/01/18/apple-bonuses-money-us-350-bil...

Unemployment is at a record low. Workers are smart to organize and strike now, as it's a (labor) seller's market.

Also worth considering that the vast majority of parents who don't care simply can't afford to care. Working 2+ jobs, they may not have the time or emotional effort to invest in the same way that more privileged parents with elaborate PTO schemes have access to.

Free dental & medical (Medicare for All or similar) would go a long way to alleviating the pressure on parents and allow them the space and time to care. As would stronger labor laws to ensure all workers have access to a reasonably flexible working environment.

Why not highlight the actual most performant for that specific method?