aldonius

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Commented on Go away, Muse, you're drunk (again)
News local to our host: "A 52-year-old woman has today, Sunday, 11 June, 2023, been arrested as a suspect in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the Scottish National Party." https://www.scotland.police.uk/what-s-happening/news/2023/june/investigation-into-scottish-national-party-funding-and-finances-woman-arrested/...
Commented on Decision Fatigue
Further on the "pumped hydro sites aren't regular hydro sites" topic: Queensland is now looking to proceed with up to 7 GW worth of pumped hydro (24h storage capacity) across two sites. Makes sense for us in the sense that...
Commented on I can't even
AND SHE'S STEPPING DOWN. Shortest-serving PM in UK history. Replacement leadership contest to be concluded within the week? https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/20/liz-truss-to-quit-as-prime-minister...
Commented on I can't even
Pigeon @1344: You may be pleased to know that "ruddy great steel girders" are increasingly common on rail-over-road bridges in Brisbane. They're typically installed immediately adjacent to the bridge, as protection for it. We have the signs and the jingles...
Commented on I can't even
But realistically, the best defense Australia has got is diplomacy and sheer remoteness -- much like Siberia. Well, apparently nobody wants to invade us for lebensraum, and just about everything else we're more-or-less happy to sell....
Commented on What happens now?
Australia has magamatism all along the eastern seaboard but it's not really a continuous pattern. Places in between have much crappier soil. AIUI there's one particularly strong hotspot that's moved south-south-west. It's currently down at the Victoria/South Australia border and...
Commented on Submarine coming through!
Consequences are ensuing: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/republican-lawmakers-rioters-capitol-photos-b1784170.html...
Commented on Submarine coming through!
Aaand Facebook have extended Trump's suspension until after the inauguration. Wonder how long it'll take Twitter? Hey, maybe there's a silver lining here: if right-wing crazies get off Facebook in a huff that reduces FB's network effect power. The alternate...
Commented on The obligatory general election discussion post
Greg: The transformation is not reversing the order of the letters, it's swapping initial L and Z. Back to the topic at hand, what do people think of the chances of a very hung parliament?...
Commented on The obligatory general election discussion post
On the SNP only being able to get 50 seats or so: Perhaps they should follow the example of the Bavarian nationalists, and run candidates in the rest of the country. "Don't you want to get rid of us?" (Example...
Commented on The Inevitable Brexit Thread (1)
Regarding group names - It's a bit more complicated then just filling out a form. AIUI, you only get a group name if you're a registered party as of at least one year before the election. Registering a party in...
Commented on The Pivot
In the study of electoral systems there's a Cube Root Law - that the size of the parliament has to balance out MP-constituent relationships and MP-MP relationships and the correct size is for the number of parliamentarians to be about...
Commented on Constitutional crisis ahoy!
So, guesses on the overlap between the people who voted Conservative "to prevent the SNP tail from wagging the Labour dog" and for Leave? Meanwhile, as a continuation of the 'memes' subtopic, the latest hotness appears to be "The Union...
Commented on "Tomorrow belongs to me"
"Little England Prevails." As an ignorant Aussie, do people have predictions on what the effects will be on London's hyperdominance vis-a-vis the rest of the UK?...

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Moz commented on Go away, Muse, you're drunk (again)
When is it justified to let violence continue? Dude, you're the one arguing that violence can never be justified, except maybe possibly sometimes you're sympathetic to it but you're not sure when. It's a fascinating ideal, but without an actual argument it's not a very interesting discussion. I've worked with people who are philosophically opposed to "all" violence (Quakers) but nonetheless will use or solicit violence in self-defence. Reading Quaker discussions of whether it's possible to be a Christian and a police officer are interesting, especially in colonies where the police were established specifically to eliminate first nations (or in...
Martin Rodgers commented on Go away, Muse, you're drunk (again)
Well, I've been struggling with this kind of question for most of my life. The root seems to be zero-sum thinking. I even find it in discussions like these. (This discussion isn't a zero-sum game either.) I may have mentioned this here before. I can't remember. So I keep coming back to the same point I reached over 4 decades ago, and the question: How can we resolve conflicts without the use of violence? While I may suggest non-zero-sum thinking, it's already too late by the time the violence begins. As a teenager, nobody advocating violence won my support. Nobody...
Martin Rodgers commented on Go away, Muse, you're drunk (again)
Dude, you're the one arguing that violence can never be justified, I said I can't support it. I also acknowledge that other people make strong arguments to for justifying some violence. I've even suggested how they make those arguments. However, I am not making those arguments. You may be reading a little too much into my comments here. Don't worry, I blame zero-sum thinking. I've seen that happen for decades. I've seen people lose all reason and descend into verbal abuse (the ad hominem fallacy). One of the many things I like about this blog is the zero-tolerance moderation for...
PilotMoonDog commented on Go away, Muse, you're drunk (again)
I think part of the problem is a lot of people advocating violent solutions have little experience of violence or the consequences of it. They see it as a way to win a contest with their political opponents and think no further. Especially when they are advocating for violence somewhere other than where they are....
Robert Prior commented on Go away, Muse, you're drunk (again)
I think part of the problem is a lot of people advocating violent solutions have little experience of violence or the consequences of it. Or possibly have experienced so much violence that they can't conceive of other ways to solve problems....

Responses to Comments from aldonius

Common Misconceptions About Publishing—a series of essays about the industry I work in.
How I Got Here In The End —my non-writing autobiography, or what I did before becoming a full-time writer.
Unwirer—an experiment in weblog mediated collaborative fiction.
Shaping the Future—a talk I gave on the social implications of Moore's Law.
Japan: first impressions — or, what I did on my holidays
Inside the MIT Media Lab—what it’s like to spend a day wandering around the Media Lab.
The High Frontier, Redux — space colonization: feasible or futile?
“Nothing like this will be built again”—inside a nuclear reactor complex.
Old blog—2003-2006 (RIP)

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