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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • wildncrazyguy@kbin.socialtoTechnology@beehaw.org3 days 🤯
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    7 months ago

    Did you read it to the bottom? They’re using 3D printing to build the organic shapes and have already done so to build space vehicles, airplane parts and dune buggies. It also mentions where parts are too complex to manufacture, they ask the AI to account for it and break it into components.

    If you think people aren’t already using this for civil engineering, then I’ve got a bridge I want to sell to ya.





  • To put it simply, this is just not how the legislative branch works. Most of their power derives from the power of the purse. People who are only in power for 2 years are not going to cede the main power that they invested so much time and money in order to obtain.

    Moreover, 10 years is a lifetime in politics. Our government already moves slow enough as is.

    Instead, I propose a few changes:

    1. Get rid of the debt ceiling fight. We already agreed to the commitment of funds.
    2. 3 people per house seat, based upon top 3 ranked choices. This will encourage minor parties and cooperation.
    3. I get that laws need to be long so that they cover loopholes, nuance, interpretation, sausage making, etc. but laws should have simple summaries that the general public can understand. At least one of these summary pages should read like a change log: new features, bug fixes, changes to existing stack, deletions, etc.
    4. Robust Sunshine laws for office holders and staff, except where classified for national security
    5. Continuing ed: Politicians or at least their support staff should be educated and qualified to understand what they are legislating on.
    6. Computer generated, panel approved district maps
    7. The fed has a dual mandate, something similar should be developed for politicians. Spend I’m lean times, save in boom times, but never stop aspiring to do great big things.




  • I see nothing with this other than the title is semi misleading. Latvia is training these draftees to be reservists, not professional military members. They are intended to augment the professional military.

    As much as I would have hated this when I was young, looking back it could have helped me and a lot of other folks. I wish we had a two year requirement for public service, though I wouldn’t limit it to military. I’d expand it to forestry, trail building, boys and girls clubs, trade guilds, etc.

    Service encourages civic engagement, it’s fosters a sense of duty to one’s country, it teaches a skill or trade, and maybe, just maybe, it will foster some sense of pride and discipline as well. Two things lacking right now in the states are a sense of comradery and civic engagement (I’m not talking about the whiny social media kind).

    Afterwards, perhaps an additional incentive would be that it would count as one year of core curriculum at a Uni, and/or maybe a discount to tuition. For the trades routes, it would count as years towards journeyman, etc.

    Moreover, I don’t think this is really a unique idea, Israel employs it. I think the Soviet Union did to some extent as well.

    I’m 20 years past the time when people are typically conscripted, so I’m likely at no risk of mandatory service now, nonetheless I’d gladly serve as a mentor and pass down the knowledge I’ve gained over the years to a group of youngsters.

    So that all is to say, just as the Latvian foreign minister is saying, there can some real advantages to employing some flavor of conscripted service, and, if employed well, I think we’d all be better for it.





  • The problem with giving away the assets, and I’m just parroting Simon Whistler here, is that they have never been used this way while in war time. This would be essentially funding one side’s war machine and could come back to bite western countries if they opt to overthrow a bad actor in the future.

    For example, what if Bashar Al-Assad decides on the heavy use of chlorine gas on the majority Sunni in his country. The West opts to overthrow. The West are then the aggressors. Does Euroclear then freeze US assets and give them to Assad according to the precedent set by Russia v Ukraine?

    The judiciary likes to follow precedent and consistency, it fairs less well when there is nuance and subject to interpretation. From a geopolitical standpoint, do we really want the judiciary determining who the good guys and the bad guys are?




  • You act like the Japanese didn’t want to lift their people out of poverty. That the people within SONY didn’t aspire to be one of the largest corporations in the world.

    The Japanese owned a significant amount of real estate within the US at their zenith (kind of like China today). They faltered because it started to cost more to import certain materials then it did to improve those raw materials and export them. Econ 101, cheaper markets existed for that type of manufacturing. It took some time to transition to a service economy. They still excelled at heavy industry and still do. They’re still one of the predominant ship builders and car builders in the world.

    Japan was also one of the first countries to be hit hard by an aging population, partly because of xenophobia, but I think mainly other cultural factors. It’s challenging to try to keep your economy going when the workforce is shrinking and more of a country’s wealth is going towards caring for the elderly. I think anyone with aging parents can attest to that.

    It’s not always America ruined their lives, plenty more nuance than American geopolitics. Lest we not forget that America helped to build them up after the war in the first place. And not having to fund a military can do wonders for a country’s growth (you know, so long as they aren’t invaded).

    Your hate for America and capitalism has distorted your world view. I’d prefer to live in a world of opportunity rather than a world of schadenfreude.