Fondots

@Fondots@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Launching c/Latvija, the community for Latvia on the Fediverse! Calling all Latvians and those interested in Latvia and the Baltic countries to join and support us.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Is not potato man, is secret police. Such is life.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How come the US does not put a bounty on Putin like they did Bin Laden?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m obviously not planning a Pennsylvania secession movement anytime soon, but just in case it ever comes to that

  General policy, not necessarily Pennsylvania specific, in no specific order:

  Universal healthcare (including all vision, dental, psychiatric, addiction treatment, gender affirming care, etc.) constitutionally enshrined access to abortion and birth control, abolish the death penalty, legalize all drug use with pardons for all non violent drug offences, huge corporate, wealth and inheritance taxes and major tax cuts for anyone making under 100k/year per person, major investment in nuclear and renewable energy, bans on fracking, free college or technical education for all up to a bachelor’s degree or equivalent certifications, UBI, low-income housing, major police reform, a ban on homeschooling except when necessary due to medical issues and a ban on private and charter schools except for very specific magnet schools that cater to particular vocations and enormous amounts of oversight and regulations on those schools, absolute separation of church and state (Churches and religions get no more legal recognition or exemptions than any other private social club would be entitled to,) a plan to phase out all reliance on non-renewable energy, down-payment assistance for first time homebuyers, high speed Internet access as a human right, major public health spending (we will get hit with another pandemic eventually, and there’s a damn good chance it will be far worse than covid,) a ban on corporate ownership of housing, basically all government services and requirements will be free of charge, legal recognition of poly marriage, election reform with ranked-choice voting, and major gun reform (too much to go into detail here but mainstream republicans and democrats would both hate my gun plans)

  And probably a few dozen other major points, but thats what I could spout off from the top of my head

  Pennsylvania-specific (disclaimer, I’m based out of the Philly area, so my opinions are the strongest about this region, and I’d need to read up on most of the rest of the state):

  High speed rail connecting, at a minimum, Philly, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Scranton, state college, and Erie

  Commuter rail along the Schuylkill connecting philly and reading (side note/fun fact: the legal remnants of the old reading railroad company, yes the one from monopoly, that used to connect those two and other cities, is now a chain of movie theaters, with locations mostly in Australia, New Zealand, and California) probably as an extension of the Norristown high speed line which we’re also going to reroute to have a stop inside the King of Prussia Mall

  Really more rail in general, but that seems like a good starting place and we can continue building out a network from there.

  The sixers are staying put, if they want a new stadium they can put one in the existing sports complex. We’re also going to cover vine street and reconnect the two halves of Chinatown.

  This is very low priority, but I’d like to find a constructive use to refurbish the SS United States instead of turning it into an artificial reef.

  We’re doing away with the PLCB bullshit, you should be able to buy beer, wine, and liquor at any grocery store.

  We’re getting rid of any remaining blue laws- not being allowed to hunt on Sundays, dealerships not being able to sell cars, etc.

  An absolute ban on confederate imagery except for museums, historical reenactments, etc. I see more confederate flags being flown in parts of PA than I have in a lot of the actual south, what side of the mason-dixon line do these idiots think our state lies on? Especially in this hypothetical scenario since we’re not even going to be part of America after this is all over and I don’t want any of these shitheads getting the wrong idea that our movement is some sort of “the south shall rise again” thing.

  Really we’re just generally going to finally drag a lot of Pennsyltucky kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

  Major infrastructure spending. I’d say this should be a general not-pennsylvania-specific issue, but holy shit have you seen the state of some of our roads and bridges? You can usually tell by feel the exact moment you cross over the state border.

  We’re really going to lean into being “Penn’s Woods” and preserve our natural resources and wildlife. We have some amazing parks, forests, etc. here and I want to make sure it stays that way. You can barely drive 10 minutes through much of the state without crossing some small river or stream, and I want all of those waterways to be clean and teeming with life. I’ve never seen our state amphibian- the eastern hellbender, in person in the wild and I’d like to fix that.

  Some goofy, not totally serious proposals

  Mehmet Oz is not allowed to set foot on Pennsylvanian territory.

  Any building in Philly taller than City Hall must have a William Penn statue at the top. We finally managed to break the curse with the Comcast building and we’re really going to cover our bases.

  We may look into annexing the south jersey shore.

  An official Pennsylvanian English dictionary covering the Philly, Pittsburgh, NEPA, and other dialects, covering definitions, spelling, and pronunciations of such words and phrases as : Yinz, youse/youse guys, jawn, Schuylkill, Bala Cynwyd, Conshohocken, heyna, jeet, water (“wooder,”) creek (“crick”) and many others.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How come the US does not put a bounty on Putin like they did Bin Laden?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Do they control a territory? Do they claim to be the official government of that territory? Can they back up and defend those claims? Do the civilians living in that territory overall recognize their authority as the government of that territory? Do other nations recognize them as the government of that territory?

  It’s not a totally black and white issue

  If I hypothetically rallied up a group of supporters who share my views and ideals and start carrying out terrorist attacks to force the government to address the issues I’m championing, I don’t think many would consider me to be a government. I’m still acknowledging the authority and legitimacy of the government, and am just acting in opposition to it.

  If my goal is to seize control of a territory, let’s say Pennsylvania, I’m starting to look a bit like a country. But unless I have the support of enough Pennsylvanians, and have the resources and manpower to back up my claim, and can get other nations to recognize it, it’s a pretty empty claim.

  If I manage to win over the popular support of the citizenry, they may start to regard me as the legitimate ruler of Pennsylvania, however just because they’re willing to follow me, doesn’t mean that anyone outside of the state is recognizing my claim. Other countries aren’t going to engage in diplomacy with me the same way they would with other nations, they’re going to continue regarding Pennsylvania as part of the US until I manage to actually have control over the territory. That means in some way removing the existing government from power, and more importantly defending my claim from the US government, who isn’t going to just roll over and accept my claim.

  So let’s say we manage to take control over Pennsylvania, the citizens support me, we’ve ousted the previous government, and are generally filling all the roles you would expect a government to handle, and at least for now we’re somehow managing to hold off the US government and defending our claim to Pennsylvania.

  At this point, we’re the defacto government of Pennsylvania. However we still lack recognition. The US government is still trying to retake control and has not recognized our independence, nor has any other country, we’re seen as rebels, warlords, etc. by the rest of the world. We’re essentially on our own, unable to trade with other countries.

  From here let’s imagine a couple different scenarios

  1. Some countries start to recognize my legitimacy. They offer to support my regime and to open up trade. Popular support from my citizens remains high, and we’re managing to hold off the US government. At this point we’re in a situation not unlike Taiwan or Palestine. Whether we’re a legitimate government is going to depend on who you ask around the world, with answers ranging from that we’re a group of rebels trying to secede from the US to having their full support and recognition as the legitimate government of an independent nation.

  2. Our rebellion is a resounding success. The US backs off, recognizes our independence, other countries also recognize our independence, maybe we even join NAFTA. It would be hard to argue that we’re not a legitimate government at that point.

  3. I start to lose the support of Pennsylvanians, and they stop recognizing my authority, even though I still manage to maintain control over my territory by force. Some countries, especially those that are not friendly to the US, may still recognize my claim, although in the eyes of most of the world, I’m probably just a terrorist or warlord.

  4. The US government is successful in ousting me, I manage to flee to a country that recognizes me as the legitimate ruler of Pennsylvania or at least is willing to tolerate my presence, and I set up a government-in-exile. I continue to conduct myself as though I am the ruler of Pennsylvania, maybe some Pennsylvanians and other people and countries throughout the world continue to recognize me as such, but without the ability to actually exercise that authority over my territory, it’s a pretty empty claim.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Phonebooks⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Same goes for a lot of generic-sounding “A” business names- Acme, Apex, Ajax, A+, American-whatever, etc.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do I know if a medical issue should be addressed by a Clinic Visit, Urgent Care, or the Emergency Room?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I work in 911 dispatch, it drives me nuts how many people lose consciousness for various reasons, and then when they come to they say they’re fine and don’t need to be checked out.

  There’s maybe some very narrow exceptions for people with known conditions that they’re already managing with the help of a doctor and they know exactly what’s causing it.

  But in general, if you’re losing consciousness that’s a bad sign and you need to see a doctor about that ASAP

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Someday, when society goes fully paperless, paper cuts will be a thing of the past⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  We definitely called them cardboard cuts, can’t say how universal it is but every job I’ve where I’ve handled a lot of boxes it seems to be in pretty common use

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Someday, when society goes fully paperless, paper cuts will be a thing of the past⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Cardboard cuts are absolutely a thing, like a paper cut on steroids.

  I used to work in a warehouse and spent most of my day opening, resealing, making, and breaking down boxes. Spend enough time around them and the boxes will get you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How come drug dealers seem to have a messed up house or at least a messed up car with a bunch of trash in it?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The house behind my parents has had a string of terrible tenants. Loud assholes, people who let their dogs run loose, people with unruly kids, etc.

  Otherwise a pretty decent neighborhood.

  There was a younger dude living there for a while, kept kind of weird hours, but my parents never thought much of that, figured he was going to school, working night shift somewhere, etc. Mostly kept to himself, never bothered my parents in any way, always dressed professionally, etc.

  He was probably the best neighbor my parents ever had in that house.

  Then one day cops raided the place, turns out he’d been dealing a lot of drugs out of there and had a punch bowl full of cocaine sitting out on the kitchen counter.

  Some of the other neighbors apparently had noticed some pretty sketchy characters coming and going from the house, they must have entered from the front door though, because my parents never really noticed anyone.

  My parents would still take the drug dealer over pretty much anyone else that’s lived there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do you ask for a haircut?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Shave it all off

  I’m bald

  I do go to get my beard trimmed occasionally though, I just describe what I’m looking for- I like the length, just kind of square it up a bit and make it look neat, and fade in my sideburns.

  It helps that I do a decent enough job of keeping it trimmed on my own, I just go in a handful of times a year before weddings and other fancy events when I need to look particularly nice

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Jesus could have been an antique meme à la Chuck Norris that got waaaay out of hand⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I was hoping a hebrew-speaker would chime in to confirm that I at least wasn’t too far off-base with that part. Talking about languages I don’t know is always a little uneasy for me because every language has its own weird quirks and something is always lost in translation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Jesus could have been an antique meme à la Chuck Norris that got waaaay out of hand⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not sure why, but a lot of people seem to have a really hard time looking up information about stuff from the Bible. I remember probably about a year ago not too long after I first joined Lemmy commenting on a thread from some guy whose sister fell into some fundamentalist Christian flat earther bullshit and he was trying to figure out where she got her info from and said that he couldn’t find anything about “the firmament”

  It’s on like the first page of the Bible. And just googling “firmament” will get you plenty of good sources about the firmament and what it’s supposed to be.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Jesus could have been an antique meme à la Chuck Norris that got waaaay out of hand⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not too sure where I first picked up the idea, for some reason I think it may have been one of the videos on the Useful Charts YouTube channel, but in general it all kind of fits together to me, and I of course kind of put my own little bit of spin into it myself. Unfortunately I don’t have exact sources to cite directly to where I first heard this theory put together.

  For starters you can go to the Bible itself with Mathew 27:16-17

  16 At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus Barabbas. 17 So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?”

  I misspoke in my earlier comment, and I edited it accordingly, the language would have been Aramaic, which is what most scholars agree is the language Jesus mostly spoke, although it is a pretty closely related language to Hebrew. I speak neither Hebrew nor Aramaic so I kind of just have to take it on faith that some of the people I’ve seen discussing this online have some idea what they’re talking about. You can kind of piece it together from some common bits of Hebrew “bar mitzvah” literally translates to something like “son of the commandments” and I believe in modern Hebrew, the word for father in “av” with “aba” being commonly used in some places/cultures.

  There’s also some that would say it comes from “bar rabban” (may be misspelling that) meaning “son of the teacher” instead of father, which you can compare to “Rabbi”

  This comes from an era when people didn’t really have official last names, depending on who you asked, Jesus could have been known by quite a few different names, Jesus the carpenter, Jesus son of Joseph/mary, the son of God, the teacher, the guy from Nazareth, the religious weirdo, the insurrectionist, of the house of David, etc.

  I believe in modern Hebrew “ben” is more often used as the “son of” prefix. And those sort of patronymic names are pretty common in semitic languages, in Arabic you’ve probably heard a few people with “bin” in their name. It’s basically the same idea as Irish/Scottish names that begin with mc/Mac/O’, or names that end in “son”

  As for Barabbas having been involved in an insurrection, going back to the bible we have Mark 15:7

  A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising.

  Israel experienced more than a few different Jewish uprisings/revolts/riots/insurrections/whatever name you wanted to call it. They weren’t exactly happy to be under Roman rule, and there were always a bunch of different political or religious movements trying to do something about it and usually not having much success. It’s not unlikely that Jesus is sort of a composite of several different folks making trouble for the Romans.

  I’m no scholar, my knowledge on this doesn’t really go a whole lot deeper than what I’ve said here, and I can’t say how widespread this particular little conspiracy theory is in academic circles, I won’t say that I’m totally sold on it myself, I’m very open to someone else saying differently, but it’s something to consider, and it looks like a hell of a coincidence to just be a coincidence to me

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Jesus could have been an antique meme à la Chuck Norris that got waaaay out of hand⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  One of the interesting things that sticks out to me personally that len credence to the idea that the Bible is just kind of a bunch of half-remembered stories all mashed together is Barabbas- the guy that Pontius Pilate supposedly pardoned instead of Jesus.

  In some versions, Barabbas is given the first name “Jesus”

  And “Barabbas” could potentially come from “bar abba” in Hebrew meaning “son of the father”

  He was imprisoned and sentenced to execution due to taking part in an insurrection against the Roman empire.

  The two characters- “Jesus, son of the father, and sentenced to death for sedition” and “Jesus, son of God, sentenced to die for claiming to be king of the Jews” sound a hell of a lot like they’re referring to the same dude to me.

  That’s either one of the biggest coincidences in all of history, or someone heard two different versions of the same story and mashed them together.

  Or maybe it’s just sort of a 1st century version of the saying that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom-fighter.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If Necromancy suddenly became possible, can the undead be called as a witness during court proceedings?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Going sci-fi, but I think I remember there being a thing in the altered carbon books that kind of relates to this.

  In that series most people have a device implanted that can store their consciousness, it can be backed up, etc. if you die your consciousness can be uploaded to a new body, maybe a clone of your own, maybe another spare body no one was using. They get around long space flights by just sending the stored consciousness into a new body at the destination, prisoners can be uploaded to storage and their bodies used elsewhere, etc. and the only way to reliably kill someone is to destroy that device, and if they’re rich enough they may have a remote backup so even that isn’t a guarantee.

  So murder victims are routinely uploaded into new bodies to testify at their own murder trials.

  Catholics oppose this though, they believe that your soul is separate from your consciousness and can’t be stored in that device, backed up, etc. and so to respect their religious rights they can’t be popped into a new body to testify.

  I imagine that necromancy would have the same and probably stronger opposition from a lot of religious people and we’d run into the same kind of legal issues.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do radio stations all seem to go on commercial at the same time?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, listening is totally allowed, just don’t transmit without a license. Depending on the radio there’s often a way to lock out the PTT button so you don’t accidentally key up.

  Programming the radio can sometimes be a bit of a pain in the ass, CHIRP is a free program that’s often recommended for baofengs, you’ll also need to figure out what repeaters are in your area so you know what frequencies to listen to

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do radio stations all seem to go on commercial at the same time?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Laws and regulations will vary a bit depending on what country you live in, but assuming you’re in the US the process is pretty simple but involves some studying

  Pass the test, buy a radio, start talking.

  There’s 3 classes of license- technician, general, and extra that give you permission to use different bands and modes, extra of course gives you the most options, technician the fewest. If you pass your technician exam you can usually go ahead and take your general exam right then and there, and if you pass that you can go ahead and get extra all in the same sitting.

  Finding somewhere to take the test is the tricky part, but if you look up amateur radio clubs in your area they probably have it published somewhere and I think the ARRL website has a list of places/clubs that do it and when. I think some of them have started offering an online test since covid but I don’t really know how that works.

  There’s a license/test fee, don’t remember what that is off the top of my head, I want to say around $40 but don’t quote me.

  As far as studying, there’s a lot of resources out there, apps, reference books, the FCC publishes the question pool they use for the test, etc.

  As far as radios, you can get a baofeng handheld for like $20 on Amazon, a lot of hams give them shit but they probably also have one or two kicking around because they’re so cheap. They don’t have a lot of bells and whistles but they’re probably the cheapest way to just start talking to other hams.

  Radios get expensive quick, that’s one of the reasons I haven’t gotten too into it, I have better things to drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on, but you can find some good deals on used equipment, ebay, flea markets, etc.

  Start with a baofeng, talk to other hams, maybe go to club meetings or events, figure out what else you want to do and go from there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do radio stations all seem to go on commercial at the same time?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know the specifics of commercial broadcast radio, but I know with ham radio hams are required to identify every 10 minutes while they’re transmitting including automated repeaters that will usually do it in Morse code

  If you listen to some ham radio communications (sometimes it’s interesting, but usually it’s just old guys talking about antennas) every 10 minutes the repeater will beep out a bunch of Morse code and everyone rattles off their call signs

  For commercial radio I think it’s every hour so at least that often they’ll have to cut to “you’re listening to WXYZ 99.9 FM blah blah blah” which also provides a good segue to a commercial break.

  I’m sure most of them probably just schedule that at the top of the hour to make it easy for themselves

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Should we consider Jesus a zombie?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Holy Grail feels more apt, vessel filled with his semi-literal blood sound phylactery-ish to me

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How can i make myself poisonous to mosquitos?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Purely annecdotally, picaridin has worked as well or better than DEET for me. I barely get bitten when I use it, and I usually get bitten up pretty badly when I use DEET (though less than when I don’t use it)

  I also find picaridin bug spray to not feel greasy and has less odor than deet, which is nice.

  DEET is also fairly toxic to dogs (and cats, but I don’t have one of those) and while it’s not licensed for use on dogs, it doesn’t appear to be toxic to them, which I appreciate as a dog owner (I’m unsure about cats, that info seemed less readily available but I also didn’t put much effort into finding it)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What do to if I survive a nuclear blast in my city?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The CB radio thing is going to be very location specific, I work in 911 dispatch, I think the state police around me theoretically monitor channel 9 on the highways, but in practice I wouldn’t have a lot of confidence in that, they barely look at info we send them over the computer, CB also has a somewhat limited range, so you’re counting on them having an officer somewhat nearby or you being close to their station.

  As for local police, around me I suspect a few of them probably still have a CB antenna on the roof of their station and maybe even an old radio stashed somewhere in a closet but not hooked up and not being monitored, and the officers definitely don’t have them in their vehicles.

  I’m in a pretty dense suburban area outside of a major city, they might still get some use in more rural areas where cell signals aren’t as reliable, though you’re probably going to run into the same issues with range limitations, in normal ideal conditions, you might get a range of about 20 miles or so, depending on atmospheric conditions, geography, etc. you might get only a fraction of that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨German Navy to replace aging 8-inch floppy drives with an emulated solution for its anti-submarine frigates⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I believe when talking about naval ships, commissioning is when they enter active service, so construction probably began early 90s, maybe even late 80s, and probably a few years of designing, bidding, etc before that. And of course there were probably all of the usual idiot politicians, bean counters, stubborn assholes, sales people, etc. involved who pushed for older tech. Maybe because everything else they had worked on the old disks, maybe they were skeptical of the new tech not being robust or tested enough or wouldn’t catch on, maybe it was just cheaper, etc.

  I’m willing to bet that they somehow locked themselves into using 8 inch disks in the early to mid 80s if not earlier, when the 5¼ discs were still new-ish and the 3½ were brand-new or not even available yet.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The interior of your house is hot, the exterior cool. What would the most efficient orientation be for a box fan? Pushing hot air out of a window or pulling cool air in through it?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Image

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is it impossible to reverse-engineer closed source software?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  To build on/give some example about what you said with the comments and function names (programmers, excuse the sloppy pseudocode that’s about to follow, it’s been a long time since high school intro to computer science)

  Let’s say in a video game, you run around collecting coins, and if you get 100 coins you earn an extra life

  One small part of that code may look something like:

  IF
  newGame = TRUE
  THEN
  coinCount = 0
  lifeCount = 3
  coinModel.all.visibility = TRUE
  //Players start a new game with 3 lives and 0 coins, and all coins are visible in the level

  IF
  playerModel.isTouching.coinModel.x = TRUE
  THEN
  coinModel.x.visibility = FALSE
  coinCount++
  //If the player character model touches one of the coin models, that coin model disappears, and the players coin count is increased by 1
  IF
  coinCount % 100 = 0
  THEN
  lifeCount++
  //if that coin count is divisible evenly by 100, then the players life count is also increased by 1

  Quick notes for people who have even less programming background than me

  ++ Is used by a lot of programming languages to increase a value by 1

  % is often used as the “modulo” operator, which basically returns the remainder from division. So 10 % 2 = 0, because 10 is evenly divisible by 2, 10 % 3 = 1, because 10 is divisible by 3 but not evenly and leaves a remainder of 1

  // Are comments, they don’t affect the code, they’re just there for human readability to make it more understandable, so you can explain why you did what you did for anyone who has to maintain the code after you, etc.

  Hopefully, between the simple variable names and comments, those pseudocode blocks all pretty readable for laypeople, but if not

  The first block basically detects if you’re starting a new game (IF newGame = TRUE)
  If it is, then it resets your life counter to a default 3, and you start with 0 coins and sets all of the coins in the level to be visible so you can collect them
  Otherwise it would carry over the values from your previous level, or save game, or whatever

  The second block detects if you touch a coin (playerModel.isTouching.coinModel.x = TRUE) If you do, that coin vanishes (coin.x.visibility = FALSE)
  It also increases your coin count (coinCount++)
  Then if your coin count is divisible evenly by 100 (coinCount % 100 = 0) it increases your life total (lifeCount++)

  When the code gets compiled, that gets turned into machine code, basically all 1s and 0s that the computer can understand. The computer doesn’t care if you call a coin a coin or if you call it object1, it’s going to strip all of those human-readable elements out because it would just be a waste of storage and processing power to keep it in.

  So when you recompile that, you don’t get any of the explanatory comments or the easy to read variable names, so you might end up with something looking kind of like this

  IF
  Variable1 = TRUE
  THEN
  Variable2 = 0
  Variable3 = 3
  object1.all.condition1 = TRUE

  IF
  object2.condition2.object1.x = TRUE
  THEN
  object1.x.condition1 = FALSE
  variable2++
  IF
  variable2 % 100 = 0
  THEN
  variable3++

  Which is a lot harder to understand. The code will still work, you could recompile it and run it, but if you want to make any changes, you’d basically need to comb through it, figure out what all the variables, objects, conditions, etc. are, and try to piece together why the programmers who originally wrote the code did it the way they did

  And that’s of course a bit of an oversimplification, for various reasons it may not decompile and recompile exactly 1:1 with the original code, it’s almost like translating the same sentence back and forth between 2 languages with Google translate.

  And even this little snippet of fairly simple and straightforward code would probably going to be backed up by dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of other lines of code just to make this bit work, defining what a coin is, the hit boxes, animations, how it determines if it’s a new game or or continuing a previous game, etc.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There was already some amount of cultural awareness about the Titanic prior to the movie, after all they pretty much started making movies, plays, documentaries, etc. as soon as it happened and kept right on making them

  It also got a pretty good bump in popularity when the wreck was found in the 80s

  Even if the movie weren’t made, there’d probably be a pretty decent chunk of people who would know about it from the scene in Ghostbusters 2 if nothing else.

  It probably wouldn’t be something that pretty much everyone knows about, and certainly not in the kind of detail we do now, but you’d probably still have a pretty good chance of people who’d at least know that it was a big passenger ship that sank.

  It’s hard for me to be impartial about this though, I was in elementary school when the movie came out, prime age to learn how to play “my heart will go on” on the recorder in music class and to see that big brick of 2 VHS tapes for rent in blockbuster. To this day I actually haven’t seen it, but it’s hard for me to imagine a world that people don’t know about the Titanic because the movie was just so omnipresent in my formative years.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it generally safe to walk through a field of cows?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s probably a lot of different variables, cows vs bulls, the breed, how they’re being raised, if they have calves with them, how you’re behaving, etc.

  In general though, safest bet is always going to be to give them space and not approach them. Not to say they’re necessarily going to be aggressive or anything, but that’s just kind of rule number 1 with any animals you’re not familiar with.

  Annecdotally, when I was a teenager, I did Philmont, which is a big property the Boy Scouts of America (now changing their name to Scouting America) owns in New Mexico, where scouts can go backpacking. They also maintain a working cattle ranch there, and I believe so e of the neighboring ranches allow their cattle to (grave? Free range? Roam? I’m not sure of the correct terminology) the Philmont property, so it’s not uncommon to encounter cows in various places there.

  They give pretty much the same lecture, don’t approach them, don’t do anything to spook them, and give them some space.

  At one point my group was hiking along a trail coming to a junction, and a few dozen cows came down the trail we were about to head up and went into the woods. We weren’t super close to them, but it was probably about the closest I’ve been to a cow outside of a petting zoo in my life, and there was nothing but a few yards of open trail between us. We just stood back and watched them go about their business, the cows didn’t pay any attention to us, we hung out for a couple minutes after they passed in case there were any stragglers, and sure enough there was a lone cow that came running down the trail trying to catch up with its friends.

  I’m no cow-ologist, but my general understanding is that they tend to be fairly laid back, and if anything curious. That said, they’re big, powerful animals and you don’t want to spook them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Helium-3: Mining the fuel of the future on the Moon⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Even if it was for batteries, unless we get fusion factors down to something that can fit in a car, power drill, smartphone, etc. batteries are still going to be a big part of the equation.

  Sure, you can generate enough juice to power whatever you want, but only as long as it’s plugged in, anything that needs to get detached from the grid is still going to need batteries, and you probably don’t want your car hooked up to a 10 mile long power cord for your commute.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How to get wood sealant off of a window⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Like others have said, I’d give scraping it off with a razor blade a try, glass is actually significantly harder than the steel of the razor so it’s difficult or impossible to scratch your glass with the blade. Razors are cheap and readily available (if you don’t already have some kicking around) so you have basically nothing to loose by trying it. Also mentioned we’re magic erasers/melamine sponges, also a pretty solid bet, they basically work like micro sandpaper.

  Failing that, I’m no chemist, but from googling around a bit for siloxane and solvents, I think your best bet for solvents youre likely to find at most hardware stores are mineral spirits, turpentine, and xylene, which should all be readily available in most hardware stores in the paint section with other paint thinners. From what I could find, it kind of looks like you’re going to want a non-polar solvent, not a polar solvent like acetone. They may dissolve it outright, or may at least soften it up enough for you to scrub or scrape it off easier.

  Also what I gleaned from Google, is that siloxanes are basically silicone, so you may also have luck with products to remove silicone caulk, I know goo gone makes a product for that purpose (although it looks like the main ingredients in that stuff are acetone and benzyl alcohol, which are both polar solvents, so I have no idea how that jives with what I was getting from my other Google searches that suggested non-polar solvents, so again, I’m not a chemist and I’m out of my element)

  Any solvents you end up trying, just make sure you’re following proper safety precautions, and be careful about anything else you may spray, drip, splash it on, you might ruin finishes, strip paint, damage plastics, etc.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  On the other hand, they also believe that we were created in his image, so perhaps he created atoms because he himself is made of atoms.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: it's not just Tesla, 1/3 of cars in built in the last ten years have passenger/rear windows that are almost impossible to break in an emergency.⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know how common they actually are, but I see car window breaker & seatbelt cutter gizmos being sold all over the place. I know I keep one in my car where I can easily get to it, though my car emergency kit is probably better stocked than most people’s, and most first responders also have them in their kit.

  Also an automatic center punch will usually do the trick as well, it’s a fairly common tool, though in an emergency it may not be practical to go rooting through your toolbox to find one.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What makes fishing as a hobby so appealing that people will fish all hours of the day and in nasty weather?⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I have a couple reasons

  It’s a good excuse to be outside either alone with friends, get a little fresh air and sunshine, enjoy nature, etc. it often doesn’t involve the same sort of investment or level of physical fitness that, say, hiking does. It can be damn close to doing nothing, but it’s enough of a thing that you don’t feel guilty for doing nothing all day. The initial cost investment can be pretty low, you can probably get out and go fishing with less than $50 worth of gear from Walmart, and ongoing expenses are pretty low too, a couple buck every trip or could trips for bait, and a couple more bucks here or there for some extra bits of tackle.

  You can put as much or as little time, money, or effort into it as you want. A $20 Walmart rod catches fish just fine, or you can spend hundreds or probably even thousands of dollars on a rod that also catches fish just fine. You can go out once or twice a year when the weather is nice, or you can be out damn near every day, rain or shine. You can learn a lot of different techniques, use different baits, lures, rigs, etc. to catch more/bigger/different kinds of fish, or you can have a worm on a hook at the end of your line that you just throw out in the water and let whatever’s gonna bite bite. There’s skills to learn if you want to, or you can coast by on just luck, sometimes the fish just aren’t biting, sometimes they’ll bite anything you put in front of them.

  And because of that, fishing is kind of a great equalizer, you will meet all kinds of people out on the water or in the fishing aisle at Walmart, people of all races and classes fish.The techniques, targeted species, equipment, locations, etc. may all vary, but at the end of the day we’re all out there trying to outsmart fish and coming up empty-handed as often as not. If you meet someone else who is a fisherman, you’ve got common ground and something to talk about even if you have nothing else in common. We all love to talk fishing, trade fish stories, share our tips and tricks, ask people we see fishing as we walk by how they’re biting, etc.

  There’s also a meditative aspect to it for sure, repetitive motions, silence, solitude, nature, a certain amount of mindfulness, etc.

  Fish are cool, and catching them is a good way to get an up-close look at them.

  There’s a lot to be said about being connected to where your food comes from, the environmental impact of commercial fishing, the health benefits of eating fish, the cost of buying or catching fish, etc. that frankly could probably be the topic of several whole books, and I’m not going to go into all of that, and just kind of leave it at fish are food, and catching fish yourself is one way to get food, and it comes with its benefits and drawbacks.

  As for the weather, I’m a strong believer that there’s no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate gear. With enough of the right kind of layers, you can be perfectly comfortable. Sometimes it’s nice to be out experiencing that, it’s a side of the world you may not often see or take the time to appreciate. For some fish, that weather may be ideal for catching them. Some people can’t or won’t brave the elements, so the places you go may be less crowded, which is nice if you’re seeking solitude.