zlatiah

@zlatiah@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do companies always need to grow?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Disclaimer that I’m not an economist

  I believe I have heard a discussion about this before… that the “always grow bigger” model is not only not a necessity under capitalism, it wasn’t even the predominant economic model in the US for a while. Post war, FDR’s New Deal followed the Keynesian model, which from my understanding led to the type of regulated capitalism with a much heavier emphasis on shareholder/employee satisfaction… and also when the extremely high progressive income tax brackets happened. The always need to grow bigger idea may or may not have come from Milton Friedman of the UChicago school: one of the core assumptions of the Neoclassical model is that companies maximize profits.

  Also this is definitely not just a US megacorp thing. Other countries have megacorps too. Case in point South Korea…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When a person gains weight and keeps the weight on for a long time, is that old fat in your body, or does the fat get replaced over time?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  From what I remember from nutrition science research… our body fat are literally living, breathing cells. As in, fat cells which specialize into fat storage, which can grow/shrink, and are in fact very metabolically active. So not only do they get replaced over time, they are biologically quite relevant and probably more “active” than, say, the nearby muscle cells

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is anyone NOT steaming their Music?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Well of course not. I don’t have physical discs or a steamer so steaming them is a bit difficult

  Jokes aside, I have literally never used music streaming… First of all I don’t listen to that much music. Even when I did, I tried Soundcloud for a bit but then quickly switched over to Bandcamp. I’m not that big on having to listen to the latest music and I don’t like mainstream stuff, so YouTube is sufficient for discovery for now

  I’m not very big on audio quality so I mostly just do yt-dlp these days on songs that I listen a lot… I could go back to Bandcamp (or pirate and leave personal donations) if I ever become an audiophile, but realistically a lot of musicians I listen to are financially stable if not wealthier than me (most of them probably have stable contracts from large gaming companies) so I don’t see a lot of point…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's the most offensive word I can use that isn't a slur?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  In a professional setting: disappointment is the strongest word I’ve ever said to someone

  Outside that? I don’t know if there is a good cutoff between slur/not slur… The one I vividly remember was old Chinese social media users (before the blockage) calling some people “Wumao” (translates to 50 cents). This is implying that the person is being a troll, and they did it because they were so pathetic that they accepted a 50-cent commission from the government to say good/bad things on the internet. Probably still the worst insult I could imagine till this day

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨whatever happened to in-store coffee grinders?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Sooo I guess since others mentioned this, I would like to clarify a few things…

  TJ is indeed marketed as a “boutique” grocery store, and I think I heard somewhere that their founder made the store in a way where their ideal customer would be a rich kid who graduated from Harvard (not kidding). But they have been bought by Aldi a few decades back and follow a similar business model. Because of this, their prices are quite reasonably especially for how “high-class” they feel. Drawback is that TJs tend to have incomplete offerings, but are really well-stocked and reasonably priced on essentials and some trendy stuff (for example, vegan food: I’m not kidding they had more tofu than the nearby mainstream grocery chains)

  I thought folks here would hate TJ not because the price, but because of their union busting practices (I won’t judge anyone for shopping there, but it’s just a good thing to know)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨whatever happened to in-store coffee grinders?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  This is interesting… I was not into coffee before COVID so I didn’t notice it before, wonder if it was indeed because of the pandemic as others mentioned

  I don’t think Trader Joe’s is exactly a popular brand on Lemmy due to unrelated reasons, but if there is a Trader Joe’s near you, would you mind checking if they still have coffee grinders? I do vividly remember that my local Trader Joe’s store had one. Also I’m pretty sure most coffee roasters would still grind the beans for you (not that most serious coffee enjoyers ever use that service, but still)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Public toilets in China demand ad views for loo roll⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Don’t remind me that… I was taking a stool sample at a Chinese hospital just 2-3 months ago (allegedly the best hospital in China, btw); my Americanized brain was not able to handle… what I had to do to

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Public toilets in China demand ad views for loo roll⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Coming to you from the country where HOAs are funded by ad monitors installed in almost every elevator in commercial/residential high-rises, and public restrooms (even in the hospital!) never stock toilet paper because “people will steal it” (not joking)? Color me surprised…

• Can someone give me some primers/resources on understanding politics in the Netherlands?
  Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩ | ⁨11⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is in for the antivax in a government?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Two possibilities…

  • RFK does have a supplement/snake oil business(?) if I recall correctly, so he does have a personal stake in "MAHA"
  • This sounds nuts but there is a possibility that he really believes what he is doing is correct, and became a useful idiot in the process

  And don’t forget the people within CDC who are more involved… I will never forgive Jayantha “Jay” Bhattacharya and Matthew Memoli for dismantling the NIH. Btw the motive for Bhattacharya was very clear: he was an economist who proposed a fringe theory on COVID that was widely criticized, but then doubled down and essentially became entrenched in antivax himself. Which is also why I wonder if RFK also got high on his own supply

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How does the Chinese government even work⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh boy. I don’t think I’m remotely an authority on this and I guess I will be downvoted to hell… but here goes nothing

  • PRC (China) is an one-party state led by the communist party (CCP, CPC, Gongchandang… whatever); there is no opposition party because they got driven to Taiwan and became today’s ROC. That means, present day the CCP is the Chinese government, and the Chinese government is the CCP. There’s no real democracy since there’s only one party
  • China has always been authoritarian for its entire history. CCP started as a far-left authoritarian Marxist/Leninist party, and later became a… Maoist party. I don’t think there is any party currently in the world that is Maoist (probably better to keep it that way), although there could be some fringe Marxist/Leninist parties somewhere
  • After Mao died and the subsequent mayhem subsided, the successors still hang on to the communist/socialist naming schemes (where the socialism with Chinese characteristics or something came from), but have mostly adapted a blend of state capitalism and free market capitalism models, especially on the economic front. In practice, that means that China is very free-market, but most of the largest companies are either fully or partially owned by the CCP. The past few chairmen before Xi massively tuned down on the authoritarian scale because no one wanted another Mao. Culturally, Marxism is anti-religion so CCP purged a lot of folk religion and Confucianism, so ironically China might be culturally more progressive than their East Asian neighbors…
  • Funnily enough, even though there is no democracy, a lot of Chinese emperors/dictators tried to be benevolent dictators. Because China’s social contract is kind of like “we give away our freedom but demand prosperity in return”. If China ever becomes not prosperous, the people are known to revolt and overthrow the government; happened a dozen or so times in recorded history. So CCP does still have somewhat of an incentive to try and not screw over its people too much
  • China did retain some socialism stuff, notably: planned economy in 5-year increments, citizens technically can’t own property (but can “lease” for 70 years…), heavily state-sponsored public infrastructure, universal high-quality education… But at the same time China’s actual economy is also insanely unequal and highly resembles a free-market, anything goes model. Again, more like the US than anything else
  • On the other side of the equation, the lives of the average citizen in China is… surprisingly similar to those in the US, despite everything. It’s just that China basically has their own version of everything the “Western world” has, because China’s economy and internet are quite walled off. If anything, maybe Chinese citizens have a bit more of a pent-up anger? Since you are thrown into a metaphorical meat-grinder but can’t even protest… I think the pent-up anger shows up on Chinese social media a lot if anyone is interested. But that’s pretty much it

  I’m not a political scientist so I probably missed a lot… but that’s the gist I think. If you are asking about how the actual government is organized, I think Wikipedia explained it way better than anyone on Lemmy could, and honestly it is not as exotic as most would think (there are a lot of parallels to governments of most democracies)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Evolutionarily speaking, wouldn't premature ejaculation be considered the desired trait?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  OP thanks for making me search up this on Wikipedia. I guess this does answer the first question: premature ejaculation might indeed be the desired trait in most mammals…

  I couldn’t find anything about length of intercourse vs reproduction rates… The only thing I could find that are remotely related are one suspicious blog post and this post by Mayo Clinic. It seems that the sources I could find (including one scientific article by WHO, wtf) suggust it is a serious issue for self-confidence/sexual well-being, but there doesen’t seem to be any documented fertility issues as long as it is PIV sex

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨For people who relocated: when did you realize you want to live in the new place long-term & why?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Personally I work in academia so relocating is significantly easier (doesn’t require local language at work, academia has a foreign worker culture), and I did it before US scientists collectively realized what happened and wanted to get the fuck out… Even then it was difficult for me to find a job. Sadly I don’t think it is as easy for tech…

  Also I suspect moving between different states in the US or between different EU member states would be significantly easier

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Awooga⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Holy shit that is terrifying. I’m glad the woman got the breast reduction (and somehow ended up with bigger honkers at a healthy size lol, from B to GGG back to D)

  I’ve never seen any one studying sudden breast growth now that I read this… Hope this doesn’t get me into some weird rabbit holes

• For people who relocated: when did you realize you want to live in the new place long-term & why?
  Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩ | ⁨22⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨would you visit an authoritarian country if you had the chance to live there up to 4 weeks for free even if you believe multiparty democracy to be something non negotiable?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  … Are you sure it will only be four weeks? Sounds to me like your grandparents really want you to just stay there forever. Since traveling & living long-term (say a year or more) will be very different especially if I’m politically active

  I did just go back to China for two months and was fine; lived in Beijing too so there’s that (I think ppl in the South are less… monitored). China is huge… so if someone just minds their own business the authoritarian government (and probably 99% of the population) basically just leaves them alone. But then I also am not very social & most of my family circle are neutral-/anti-China so… If for any reason I offend the government or anyone affiliated who reports me, then I’d probably be done for, and I’m afraid it is bound to happen if I stay there for too long

  So yeah, I dunno but I would never stay in China long-term if I were you. Traveling is fine but I really don’t know how to make of your aituation

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨There is no good reason why there is still homelessness and poverty⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Everyone else already mentioned this… Methinks the fundamental issue is wealth distribution, so yes it is capitalism. I would say it is a “good” reason as it is a major target for sociology research and politicians, and there are active efforts in some countries to reduce inequality so…

  I think I was radicated by this back in second year of college… Professor mentioned something like “The US Midwest has enough production capacity to feed the entire world” when a lot of the crops went to beef production, sweeteners, or just waste

  This has been an issue for a while and I think Cory Doctorow mentioned it in one of his blog posts? About the Luddites; they were not anti-technology, but saw how the productivity increases would only benefit the rich and wealthy. I suspect the current AI issue is the same, “robots replacing your job” will be a lot more positive if the replaced worker still makes the same amount via basic income/stipend by the government instead of the money being concentrated into OpenAI or Meta or somewhere

  … I’ve wanted to talk about these for a while

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If you argue for a cause like affordable housing for everyone, is it necessarily hypocritical if you also own investment properties?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  On this… I did read a prior research work suggesting that US government should use subsidy/housing vouchers in private markets instead of public housing construction; this way it helps with creating affordable housing while avoiding risks of defunding public housing projects due to political changes. I’m not sure if the findings of that work apply to other countries or if the author was mainly thinking about US

  I guess I was thinking more about my personal morals. In terms of actual implementation, I do think you’re correct that the goal of “affordable housing for everyone” can be done even in a completely private housing market, as long as the market is well-managed with abundant supply (so no shortages, no excessive investor bidding, etc)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If you argue for a cause like affordable housing for everyone, is it necessarily hypocritical if you also own investment properties?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Methinks it is only not hypocritical under a few circumstances:

  • I am renting a place myself and simultaneously leasing out my otherwise primary residence
  • The property is my primary residence and is not overly big, but I rent out parts of it for roommates/traditional BnBs
  • Unique property ownership situations that shouldn’t last longer than 6 months (maybe I’m downsizing, maybe house swapping… Not sure)

  Any other condition is in principle hypocritical… Although there is probably still a massive moral difference between someone with a severe disability who owns a few rentals to pay for bills vs a professional investor who systematically prices out locals to improve profit margins

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why does everyone hate Income tax ?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t hate income tax. But from my personal experience, when I was young lad with no political leaning, seeing a quarter of my first paycheck just… disappear into the void (what I thought back then) definitely made me feel something not great

  I mean right now I can see that an income tax system is at the very least a “necessary evil”, but I could also see how ppl without a fuller perspective of things might interpret this as almost theft (the evil guvunment stole muh money!!!)

• If we ask 100 random ppl to describe their ideal society, which real/fictional countries would the answers resemble the most?
  Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩ | ⁨10⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Absolutely not. There is a reason I’m personally noping out of the US and told every international person at my former workplace to do the same so…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Disclaimer, was an international student for many years, not a law expert

  I think realistically, an administration has many ways to make it incredibly difficult to recruit international students even without a blanket ban…

  Such as making overseas visa applications even more difficult (it already happened between US-China during Trump’s first term), making legislation that require more from unis if they have international students, general societal xenophobia, …

  I’m not sure if an actual blanket ban would be permitted under US law though

• Has anyone used a virtual PO box and/or can recommend one?
  Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩ | ⁨4⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨There are people who are still using toilet paper purchased during the pandemic.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  No joke but this somewhat describes me… I never hoarded TP, but I tend to buy toilet paper in large quantities (too lazy to go to grocery store) anyway, so I think my COVID stash lasted longer than my apartment at that time… I think I only used up all of it 2-3 years later. My then-roommate even took half of my stash when he moved out since I had so much lol

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If I snapped you back in time 650 years right this very second, how would you use your current knowledge to succeed?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Try to use some type of boiling water technique to invent drinkable sanitary drinking water that doesn’t get me drunk (might not be necessary in some parts of Asia)

  Most parts of the world that is not North America: try to convince some wealthy persons and bar owners to sponsor me to getting a bunch of bread molds and rats/mice, possibly even pigs, to conduct antibiotics and vaccine research, otherwise I might die from random sources…

  Not sure if I could reasonably do those given my limited biology knowledge, but I guess they are worth trying. Besides that I’d just try to be less blunt/offensive so I don’t get sent to jail and try to live my best life I guess

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Linux help and actual pros and cons⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  1. See other recommendations for gaming-specific distros as I’m not familiar with them… Overall, most “beginner-friendly” distros (Fedora, Mint, …) that are not named Ubuntu are good. Ubuntu is not bad per-se: they just have their own ways of doing certain things that are counter-intuitive. Also don’t follow the memes and use Arch Linux or something (Arch is good, but not-beginner-friendly)

  2. Some multi-player games have anti-cheats that straight-up won’t work on linux, so if you play any large online-based games it might help to check their linux support first. Otherwise, there are unique examples like Skyrim that are very hard to mod on linux, but most mainstream games should work either out-of-the-box or with very minor tinkering. Unless if you’re into some weird esoteric retro games like me… if so then good luck learning WINE lol

  3. As long as you follow 1 you should be fine. In my opinion most beginner linux distros are more intuitive than Windows so…

  4. I’m not sure if it is a good idea to dual boot unless you are reasonably familiar with computers… as dual booting can be finicky and sometimes Windows can just eat the linux partition. But I think it is doable? Again I don’t recommend dual-booting so…

  5. IMO the biggest decision most beginners have to make is between Gnome/KDE (two of the most popular desktop environments), not between distros. Try to see which one clicks with you more! Also make sure to back up data before switching. Good luck!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think the best fit would be an immigration lawyer? Those ppl are incredibly expensive (probably in the $1000s to begin with) and are country-specific, so mostly only ppl who have difficult cases do that…

  Can try to search the subreddits r/iwantout and r/immigration first, they have lots of good resources and past posts. Also can try expat.com

  Also don’t make my mistake… finding a job in a foreign country is incredibly hard, even with a doctorate. So it helps to cast a wide net and/or get a job offer first before making further plans

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unlike in movies, most smart people aren't good in chess.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  So… disclaimer first! I have played chess but only a year or so; I got into chess during the pandemic and had a peak ELO of ~1600+ on chess.com and 1900+ on Lichess; probably translates to a classical ELO of ~1200 (competition is tough in classical…). Obviously I’m not remotely a good player, but I can hold my ground. I also had to do a neuropsych evaluation recently for mental health reasons, so I spent the last month of my free time looking into research of intelligence (g factor, IQ tests, the disturbing history, etc…) for my own curiosity. So I might have a bit of knowledge on this… but:

  For the most part chess is its own unique skills and is unrelated to “smartness”. Nevertheless, I think chess might be related to probably just one or two specific narrow fields of intelligence. Being good at chess requires one to be knowledgeable of various chess openings (memorization, working memory), extremely strong pattern recognition (Magnus Carlsen is really good at this; AlphaZero was literally all pattern recognition due to the way it works), and being able to see 5, 10, or even 15 steps ahead and consider all the rational options (again, working memory)

  I just took the WAIS-V test two weeks ago for my psych eval, and they do indeed test for working memory and pattern recognition in specific sub-tasks. However the difference is… IQ tests are meant to be practiced as they measure a type of “potential” if you may, but chess is all about what you actually play on the board. Sure maybe if ppl were literally just given the rules and had no prior exposure then a smarter person might spot a forced checkmate faster, but ppl do pratice for the game… In fact, the advice people used to give to get better at chess is… to do more puzzles

  Sooo… methinks an intelligent person might have a slight edge training themselves to do the above, but there is probably otherwise very little association. After a certain point intelligence itself probably has no influence on chess performance whatsoever, and realistically it’s more about “grit”, or how much time/effort someone puts into the game

  Aaand… case in point. Apparently Kasparov went through a 3-day intensive test, but had a really “spiky” profile that is more commonly seen in neurodivergent individuals; scored really high on some categories and abysmally low on others. I saw this random Reddit post which says that Carlsen scored 115(+1SD) on AGCT (a fairly quick and accurate online test). Nakamura allegedly got 102 on Mensa Norway’s trial test, which is not as accurate as AGCT but should be fairly good too

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who would win in a fight, a Gorilla or a Bear of equal weight?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Bear, but I think it’s because gorillas are known to be peaceful and will probably run away from conflict

  If it is a fight to the death… Idk I think with how physics works it might be quite even?