I fully agree that nuclear SHOULD have been part of the solution. I disagree that it should now be part of it. We have lost too much knowledge regarding nuclear power to lack of investment. We no longer have time to rebuild that to get it online. Hopefully it can become part of the solution eventually, but 10-20 years is now far too long to wait.
I agree with the mental bandwidth. I’m fine with he/him, she/her, they/them. I’ll also tend to default to appearance, though I will try and correct if asked to do so.
I’ve yet to find anyone who wasn’t also an arsehole who has an issue with this. That includes places where seeing an obvious male in a dress could equally be someone taking their first steps away from norm, or just a guy that likes wearing dresses. Also, neither was seen as unusual at the event.
I help with a social group. We jokingly refer to it as anarchism under a lazy iron fist.
Day to day decisions are made in a fairly ad-hoc manner, by those involved. If there is a disagreement that can’t be resolved, or if it will have large repercussions (e.g. changing the fabric of the building) it gets raised to the committee and chairman.
The chairman is the sort who is only there because no one better wanted the role. He has no interest in micromanaging, but will resolve issues to get them to go away.
It’s a remarkably effective system. Unfortunately it’s a bit unstable in large groups. Those who want the role are also those you REALLY don’t want with that power. No one has yet solved the issue however. How the f@#£ do you keep the troublemakers out, when they are also the ones most willing to work towards getting the role?
The other problem with anarchism is that the natural self policing systems break down by the Dunbar limit. Parasitical or cancerous behaviours tend to become crippling, forcing people to adopt other unofficial power structures.
Orbits are all about speed, not height. To deorbit, you need to reduce your speed at the highest part of your orbit. This will lower the lowest part. You jump off the back. You would need to jump FAR harder than your legs are capable of though.
Unfortunately, the sheer speed will kill you, without shielding. As you hit the air, you are going so fast, the air can’t get out of your way. You compress it ahead of you, that heats it up. It gets hot enough to melt most metals. The air will cook you, long before you get slow enough to use your parachute.
For comparison, terminal velocity (max speed you reach falling) is around 200km/h. Orbital velocity is 7km/s or around 25200km/h.
Prison serves 3 purposes, or at least should.
The first is a deterrence. This is quite a yes/no thing however. Longer sentences, or worse conditions don’t increase its effect.
Second is re-education. This is where most effort should be focused. You need to simultaneously break the bad habits causing issues, and implant good ones (in the form of skills, and improved social situations). The aim is to make them a productive member of society again.
Last is containment. Some people either cannot or will not function safely in society. These people either need to be contained indefinitely, or killed. Given the unreliability of the justice system, the latter is a dangerous route to walk, and often more expensive.
I’m personally of the view that we should all have free (tax funded), access to retraining courses and resources, along with physical, mental, and social health systems. Prison should mostly be focused on the enforced use of these. They are contained while they retrain and get the help they need. They are then released in a better state than they went in. It’s the most cost efficient option. The Scandinavian countries already use something similar (for convicts), and it seems highly effective.
In battle terms, messengers and flags were key. The messenger core often included the children of officers etc. This meant it wasn’t a random person delivering the orders, but a trusted person.
Flags etc could also be used for simple transmission. It was often limited to predefined messages, butnthst was generally enough to send units around.
These 2 methods were why knowing where the commander was in a battle was so important. A big, showy banner could make them an arrow magnet. It also let everyone know where orders were coming from, and where to send reports.
The fog of war was ever present however. Messages could get lost, or misunderstood. The best commanders had highly competent underlings. A sub-commander sending in the reserves, without orders, could win or lose a battle.
As for longer ranges. There were several ways. Chains of trust were the most common. Knights etc would travel regularly. They got to know each other and so could vouch for each other’s identity. This is part of where knightly honor comes from. You faked messages and both you and your family would suffer for it. The unique armour designs also helped with identification. It’s hard to fake a suit of armour quickly, and taking one by force was difficult.
This also formalised into messenger cores. Various chains of trust were formed to identify imposters. Pomp and ceremony, along with expensive indicators made faking difficult, dangerous and expensive.
Another option was message relay towers. The Romans used timed lights to send messages along walls. Simple messages could be sent long distances without much risk of corruption. Semaphore towers served a similar purpose, with the ability to send complex messages. They were expensive to build and operate however, so tended to be for critical lines of communication only.
Combined with all this was a continuous arms race of message validation Vs forgeries, encryption Vs code breaking. Many cyphers were developed and broken. Things like signet rings were a classic. It’s easy to seal a message with one (pressed into hot wax), and relatively hard to fake. Your seal also lived on your finger, so very difficult to steal.
This wasn’t in America, it was a private group. Also both peoples had had their views respected, at different times. It was the collision of rights that caused fun.
Privacy advocates are quite common in hackspaces. They generally have their requests respected. The rule of thumb is to check before taking pictures of someone else, or their projects. Most don’t have an issue, but a few might want to limit some things.
For seasoned self hosters, it’s a little effort. For novices it’s more work. For the initiated, it’s a huge effort, for no apparent gain.
We are fighting the Nash equilibrium, and I can’t see how we can adjust it in favour of self host etc. It’s better to fight the battles we can win, than pour effort after the impossible. In this case, it’s to provide an independent option that is as low effort as possible. This can become a reference to keep the excesses of the big companies limited, to some degree.
A hackspace I am in contact with had an… interesting debate on this topic.
Member A used a wearable video recording system. His view was that it was fixing a disability (his poor memory) in the same manner as someone wearing glasses, or a hearing aid.
Member B was a privacy advocate. He had STRONG views on his right to not be photographed or recorded, without his permission.
These 2 members did not see eye to eye. Both had a valid view , but diametrically opposed. Normally, it wouldn’t be too bad. Unfortunately, both were on the governing committee! Apparently even trying to arrange how to run the meetings to discuss it was getting problematic!
I would go with android auto, or Google maps. Nothing like having to log back into your sat back system, every 15 minutes, while driving.
The number of car crashes it would cause would bring a lot of countries to their knees for a while.