Pascal programmers are confused.

Kung Fury still has the best spine joke.

Then the next Billionaire with a massive ego and huge budget comes out and makes another one.

Or we get Jack Dorsey making a new company for a 3rd time.

My post above is 376 characters, which would have required three tweets under the original 140 character limit.

Mastodon, for better or worse, has captured a bunch of people who are hooked on the original super-short posting style, which I feel is a form of Newspeak / 1984-style dumbing down of language and discussion that removed nuance. Yes, Mastodon has removed the limit and we have better abilities to discuss today, but that doesn’t change the years of training (erm… untraining?) we need to do to de-program people off of this toxic style.

Especially when Mastodon is trying to cater to people who are used to tweets.

Your post could fit on Mastodon

EDIT: and second, Mastodon doesn’t have the toxic-FOMO effect that hooks people into Twitter (or Threads, or Bluesky).

People post not because short sentences are good. They post and doom-scroll because they don’t want to feel left out of something. Mastodon is healthier for you, but also less intoxicating / less pushy. Its somewhat doomed to failure, as the very point of these short posts / short-engagement stuff is basically crowd manipulation, FOMO and algorithmic manipulation.

Without that kind of manipulation, we won’t get the kinds of engagement on Mastodon (or Lemmy for that matter).

Because Threads and BlueSky form effective competition with Twitter.

Also, short form content with just a few sentences per post sucks. It’s become obvious. That Twitter was mostly algorithm hype and FOMO.

Mastodon tries to be healthier but I’m not convinced that microblogs in general are that useful, especially to a techie audience who knows RSS and other publishing formats.

I thought Patrick Boyle was a rap specialist music major?

And I happily charge my EV from my installed solar most times when I need to charge.

You don’t ever charge at night?

I appreciate the stats.

Gas is the largest single component, but gas plus coal together comprise only 42% of the energy mix. The rest is nuclear and renewables (though I quibble about biomass being counted as a renewable).

And if you look at the change of the energy mix over time, fossil fuel usage has been declining, though taking massive powerplants offline is not a quick process.

Its going to be difficult to dislodge combined cycle natural gas. Its very efficient, very cheap to spinup. Yes its still a fossil fuel, but its the best of fossil fuels. 60% efficiency means getting 50% more energy per CO2 (compared to 40% traditional plants). As far as I’m aware, natural gas is cheaper than most battery technologies.

Nuclear is good, and continues to be a major supplier at night (when people are likely charging cars). Natural gas drops by 5GW at night, so that’s a good sign and the grid at night might be less carbon (even if there’s less overall energy due to missing solar). So more nuclear energy into the mix might mean that night energy was better overall. Hmmmmmmm. Okay, I’ll accept your point overall.

ACEEE actually thinks that Prius Prime emits the least pollution for cars today, including EVs.

https://www.aceee.org/greener-cars

EVs universally weigh more, leading to more PM2.5 / micro plastics pollution from the brakes and tires. (Remember that Prius / Hybrids also have regenerative braking, so EVs cannot take Regen as an advantage).

Weight is key. Not only for pollution but also for efficiency. Prius / Prius Primes lighter weight allows for higher efficiencies.

Prius is on the list if you look it up and would be in the top 10. But I think ACEEE preferred encouraging people to buy the Prius Prime instead of something.

The grid is still natural gas or coal mostly. And even solar enthusiasts don’t charge their cars primarily in the day (we all charge our cars at night, when solar no longer is helping).

We shouldn’t be tracking electricity -> motion per se. We need to be tracking natural gas -> electricity -> motion, which has a rather inefficient step.

Hybrids at 40% thermal efficiency, like Prius / Toyotas Atkinson engine, should lead to less overall burning of fossil fuels than a 40% coal plant making electricity -> 5% losses in wires -> 20% losses in the battery -> 10% losses in the electric motor.

Now combined cycle natural gas is 60% thermally efficient. And that’s where EVs gets their biggest boost IMO. But not all Nat Gas is combined cycle, it differs strongly from location to location.

That’s just called 1600s era half plate.

As halberds and other armor penetrating weapons became normal (and Guns), the focus of armorers was on deflection rather than outright stopping blows.

Also, iron became cheaper and thus mass produced. So in some sense armor got worse, but far more people were wearing armor. The small bits (gloves, legs, etc etc) couldn’t be custom made per person anymore because of mass production templates. But armor was well on its way out by then anyway as guns were obviously the future.

True. But it keeps happening.

Be it two thousand years ago or 500 years ago. Sexy armor proves that humans haven’t really changed.

Kings and generals don’t really find themselves alone on the front lines. The armor is nearly ceremonial, no one is supposed to take a shot at the king. Even if the king were expected to visit the front lines.

As such, kings, princes and other nobles never had practical armor. It’s all armor-fashion and status symbols (including sexualization, when said sexualization was in fashion).

I raise you Emperor Ferdinand I Armor, specifically it’s Codpiece.

I’m just saying. Sexualized armor is very historical.

Oh I get it.

They’re all cousins. /Trolololol

Remember Sailor Moon Dub anyone?

1. Anti-federalism – Deep rooted distrust of the Federal Government has been around since the dawn of the USA, though its often been part of the minority.

2. Know Nothing / Native American Party – 1850s era movement. Protectionist, isolationist, nativist. Originally they popped up as anti-Irish and anti-Catholic, but overall the concept is that immigrants suck. The modern concept is: “I know nothing”, about the movement. The overall idea is that even in the 1800s, it was bad to look like a racist bigot, so you’d keep your support for these causes secret. Everyone in the party knows that “the Know Nothings are larger than everyone expects”, but no one really knows how big the movement is. And that’s the point.

3. America First – 1930s saw the rise of Fascism vs Communism in Europe with the dawn of the Spanish civil war. The “America First” movement focused on isolationism and even pro-German / Nazi slant mixed with religious fervor. This was pushed by tech-gurus of the time: Charles Lindberg (airplane entrepreneur, first Trans-atlantic flight, etc. etc.), and the Christian Front. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Nazi_rally_at_Madison_Square_Garden).

4. NAFTA – 1990s free-trade by Bill Clinton opened up Mexico and Canada as incredible trading partners. However, local industry / local steel lost out as companies started to shop in Mexico for material. As Bill Clinton was a huge pusher of NAFTA, the anti-NAFTA political group consolidated under Republicans. This is likely where the bulk of blue-collar workers is coming from, especially because Trump started adding Tariffs / anti-globalism concepts back to the forefront of American Politics.

Some more recent context:

1. Trump has been building his brand for decades as a very rich, very macho straight-talker. Even in the 80s and earlier, there’s a large number of Hotels, Casinos, Resorts, Golf Courses (etc. etc.) that have relatively high reputation among Americans in general with Trump’s name.

2. Trump reads from the teleprompter in “another voice”, openly showing his disdain for public speaking and the political system. Anyone who has lost faith in the political system loves this. Trump pretends that the teleprompter is forcing him to talk and its all just a “through the motions” thing. Then Trump obviously goes off teleprompter and talks about different concepts, the “real stuff”. (Or so goes his branding). This simple trick is enough to get the gist to his followers: don’t listen to what I say (because I’m being forced to say this politically correct crap). This means that Trump’s true actions are only limited to the imagination of the listener.

3. Trump is playing and leaning into the borne again Christian role. From a religious perspective, the “former enemy / former outsider” coming into religion is a common story and religious love it. Trump was openly a Democrat in the 90s / 00s before switching into Republicanism.

The “bulk” of Trump’s political style is Know Nothing + Macho + anti-political correctness.

I mean, when people point out that Joe Biden is a Neocon who supports Israel and USAs rightful dominant place in the world… Erm I agree with that and want to vote for him.

I’m a Neocon. And proud of it and can defend a lot of my positions.

What pisses me off about the new wave of conservatives is that it’s all reactionary. There is no guiding philosophy.

With regards to neoconservatives: I know we get a bad rap since Bush. But events like Ukraine show the importance of us being the stalwart defenders and stepping up to challenges around the world.

But thats the thing. I’ll tell you that while proudly wearing my colors as a Neocon. This ‘Libs of TikTok’ bullshit is just fucking awful politics. We can’t actually work or talk around our issues when people are pretending to be on the wrong sides of debates

Politics shouldn’t be about ‘owning’ the other side. Politics should be about effectively communicating our beliefs to each other, especially our disagreements. And finding compromises where possible.

Anyway, it’s Joever to some extent so I guess all in on Kamala. She’s still acceptable to my philosophy if only because Trump + JD Vance is such a bad choice. So y’all got my vote this year, at least temporarily.

Unlike you and your ilk, I’m willing to go outside the safe zone (fkn lol) and interact with people who have different opinions. Only cowards stay in their little bubbles chit talking day in and day out. And that’s a knock at both leftists and rightists.

I’m a Republican. This area is outside my safe zone. But outrage politics affects us all and I judge people who engage in it harshly.

But sure. Judge me harder daddy. I haven’t stated my opinion yet, I’m simply pointing out that you’re engaging in outrage politics and you probably shouldn’t be flexing on that.

No.

You, like other conservatives, are hooked on the ravenous red meat of outrage. And instead of trying to move away from outrage politics, you defend it. And more importantly, you do so while claiming to be of a different ideology because you’ve noticed that the word “conservative” is no longer looked well upon in some social circles.

Defending the Libs of TikTok isn’t the flex you think it is.

I’m only responding in the hopes you recognize this eventually and grow a bit of self-reflection over this situation. Good luck man.

Ah.

So you’re a “Libs of TikTok” guy. Conservatives call themselves Liberal and you believe them.

Jack Dorsey is Libertarian, which is Republican-leaning.