Oh, they are working on fixing that. Our public transport was “privatised” a few decades back. It’s a shadow of what it used to be. A few places have improved, but it’s often local efforts.

Walkability is a godsend however. Interestingly, Milton Keynes proves you can have the best of both worlds. It has a robust road network. However, the red routes mean you can get most places with minimal road crossings. Either on food, bike, or e-scooter.

Just did the conversation. UK is roughly $7.50 per gallon (£1.42/liter). I’ve seen it up near $10 in some places.

The 2 go hand in hand. The peaceful element provides cover and public cause support for the more militant elements. They also make it harder to concentrate forces to deal with them.

In turn, the militant add teeth to the peaceful element.

An intelligent government acts early, before the militant elements can come to bear. But for best results both (technically all 3, including political) are required.

Another good example are the Irish troubles. The IRA, while prominent, couldn’t “win”. The marches, and Sinn Fein did.

I saw a talk on the subject about a year back. It was discussing tokamak reactors, from an engineer working on them. The small ones can’t sustain a break even state, but they are affected by the inverse square law to a larger degree. I believe China is about to start/has started construction on a power station sized test reactor.

The pellet sort are a different type. They have different pros and cons.

Some companies are still trying.

I’ve got a ulefone 27T. It’s the phone equivalent of a tank. It also includes thermal and night vision, and underwater video modes. I would also give it good odds of surviving being used as a self defence weapon.

Downside is it’s a relatively unknown Chinese brand.

For what it’s worth, superfoil insulation is relatively cheap, and easy to mount via suction cups. It does an excellent job at stopping heat coming in through glass windows. It won’t stop it coming through the walls, but might slow down the heat reaching sauna levels.

They are down to 2 main problems now. The main one is (the cost of) scaling up. Fusion reactors will be more effective then bigger they are. The tiny test ones are already past break even.

The other is wall material. Apparently the radiation has an annoying ability to transmute the elements making up the wall of the reactor. They are working out a material that can maintain its bulk mechanical properties, even with random elements appearing in its internal structure.

Unpicking your personal maladaptations helps a lot. This is how therapy and medication are so useful, particularly in tandem.

Two of my big maladaptations were using stress to drive me through, and berating myself when I didn’t do as well as I knew I could. It turns out that this is quite corrosive to your wellbeing, and that wellbeing is the foundation supporting your self driven. I was consuming myself for fuel.

I’ve gotten a lot better at redirecting my irritation. I don’t get mad at myself for not doing the washing up. I get mad at the washing up for existing. It’s a subtle, but powerful difference. I still do both, far too much, but I’m getting better at it.

Lastly, remember to bask in your glories. We tend to forget to enjoy the results of our effort. We just move on, and so don’t get the dopamine hit. Set aside at least 10% of the time taken to bask and feel proud of yourself. To show off and enjoy. Suddenly your brain has a positive reason to power through, rather than just avoiding a negative.

A second vote for brother lasers.

I upgraded my old printer about 6 months ago. Laser is far superior, and no longer particularly expensive. I also discovered they have solved the photo printing quality issue at some point (laser’s only real weakness). I ran off a photo and it came out near/at inkjet quality.

Welcome to the future! 🤢

I initially thought this was a satire comment, on a satire product.

The fact it is real makes something feel fundamentally wrong with the world.

Think of it as a medieval army forming up. An army didn’t generally march straight into battle. They took the time to organise and prepare. It also acted as an opportunity to intimidate your opponents into backing down.

The protests are the army forming up. Connections are made, wills reinforced and tied to a more focused cause. In many cases, the powers that be recognise the danger this represents and back down. When they don’t, that’s when things escalate.

Protests like this are a necessary part of reaching the goal. They are a link in the chain. People don’t want violence. It will be accepted, if required, but not joyously.

Just remember, in a blunt head to head fight, the enemy would be the US military. You would need to either defeat them directly, or break their will. What would it take to cause large scale defections within the US army? Are people willing to pay that price?

Failing that, the slower, less drastic methods must be employed. It’s a war of psychological attrition, not a fist fight.

That is one of the biggest powers of a protest. It lets people know they are not alone. When we know we have backup, we are a lot more willing to act. If enough people act together, even giants fall.

Unfortunately, that’s not the type that counts. It’s the government backed/condoned that matters. The sort that even fox news would struggle to spin. The sort that should cause heads to roll within government organisations.

A few " " “lone wolves” " " can be disavowed, no matter how heinous the act they do. Unless you can tie it unambiguously to the powers that rule.

It’s a fucking shitty situation, but that’s the rules we are stuck working within. To change them, we have to win. To win, we need to play (mostly) within the rules.

Fyi, the same could also apply to left wing “lone wolves”. Without the media, it’s harder to spin, but doable. If they happen to meet up and organise at a march, that’s nothing to do with the march. 😇

Well behaved as in a wild west high noon standoff. The first to flinch, and resort to serious violence will lose a LOT of public support.

Violence now doesn’t gain much. It needs the over and support of a larger movement. It also needs to be focused, to not simply dissipate the anger.

Right now, America is getting back into the habit/flow of protesting. That alone should make an intelligent government nervous. Don’t dip the stew over their heads, until it’s good and boiling.

(And to clarify. I’m not saying to follow all rules, like good little drones. Bad behaviour just needs to be conscious and controlled)

Granted.

No wars will never end, unless you personally step in to end them. Minor skirmishes now turn into epic wars of genocidal annihilation. It’s down to you to stop them.

For random bias yes. Unfortunately, that age group are notoriously difficult to poll accurately. Without knowing how the polling was done, detecting systematic bias is difficult.

E.g. street polling on a Sunday morning, near a church, or mosque will get vastly different results to the same poll near the high street, on a Friday night.

Also relevant. https://xkcd.com/882/

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a worrying poll. Buta lot of studies like this disappear back into the noise, when studied by multiple groups.

Often it’s the shadow of violence that is most effective. A peaceful protest, that is safe enough for families etc is perfect for snowballing. Focused action and the threat of counter violence keeps the government in check.

Too violent, and the support collapsed, letting the police simply overwhelm it. Too passive, and the whole thing can be ignored.

The Irish troubles are a good example. Protests and marches showed popular support. While the Sinn Fein party provided a political face. The IRA then made sure that proper attention was paid. All 3 were required to achieve their goals.

Fyi, if you’re bad with names, I would HIGHLY recommend adding photos to your contacts, as you add them.

It helps hugely with putting names to faces. It also helps differentiate between people. E.g. When you have 5 marks in your phone, but can’t remember the surname. Lastly, it helps when you are describing someone to someone else. Being able to easily pull up a photo of them simplifies things.

You can stick emergency contact information on your phone. It’s accessable without having to unlock it.