cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47165348

I noticed many people believe, that Western countries ranking low on corruption indexes, shows they aren't corrupt as hell.

To me this just means it's at a higher, much harder to prove level.

Instead of starting at the cop level (which is still possible with connections), it starts at the points where multi-millions can be made without anyone really noticing.

E.g. farm land > residential use, construction projects, sale of government properties, favors for corps etc.

So back when I worked in Huntsville I had a friend named Ron and a coworker whose name escapes me. Let's call him Bob. Even though it annoys me not to be able to remember bob's real name.

So bob was a hunter, and had a deer stand across the river somewhere near Laceys Spring. When you cross the river and head south, you hear banjo's really quickly. I've seen entire valleys covered in nothing but kudzu over there. It was like an alien horror movie. Really weird vibe.

But that was where the deer were, so that is where Bob hunted.

One day Bob confessed to Ron that he'd seen some really weird stuff out there. He refused to really elaborate, but we got the impression it was really hair and made weird vocalizations. Maybe a black bear walking on it's hind legs?

Now you have to realize, this isn't that far from Arab Alabama. One of the most racist, hairy and vocal populations in a state full of rednecks. They like to ride around waving the confederate battle flag and doing the rebel yell. So hearing weird noises echoing off the hills not that surprising.

But Ron did some internet digging, and found some web pages that handle weird shit and printed them out and handed them to Bob.

Bob really freaked, and started babbling about things that walked like a man but were all hairy and definitely not human.

He got really really upset and never went back.

I don't blame him, even driving my ford explorer through all those back roads gave me the creeps. Deserted homesteads, shacks with confederate flags. You couldn't pay me enough to get out of the SUV and walk into those woods.

Ron's dead now, cancer, and I think so is Bob. But I thought I'd share their story. If I remember more I'll post them.

I was reading by a greentext involving Blåhaj in c/4chan and my brother asked me what was one.

"Why is the shark named that?"

Instances can go down, disappear or be unresponsive due to many reasons.

Go to your account settings now and export your account settings!

This file contains your subscriptions, follows, profile settings etc. It's very easy to start over on a new instance when you have your export file.

Back it up, export it, save it, repeat occasionally.

I don't remember seeing any character call "World" this name or himself saying "I'm World!". Why does the wiki list him with this name?

Is there such a scene that escaped my memory?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/46788659

Looking at how much conflict natural resource-rich countries (oil, gold, diamonds..) seem to attract, I wonder whether such wealth is more a curse than a blessing.

Many regions with scarce natural resources, adapted & perform very well. Some of the richest are examples (Switzerland, Luxembourg, Singapore..)

Looks to me like the greed for them attracts conflicts: civil wars, invasions etc. Cultural, ethnic, religious reasons often just seem to be used to cover it.

Plus all the environmental destruction / pollution that come with the extraction & processing.

Collective resistance is incredibly difficult, often failing because of the collective action problem: individuals have conflicting interests, fear of repression, and a tendency to "free ride," assuming others will act. Large groups are fragmented by power imbalances, distrust, and competing identities, making unified action rare.

People are too busy fighting each other is a core reason why these movements struggle. Overcoming this requires building social trust and civic institutions that can create a shared vision and provide a structure for cooperation, which is a massive, long-term challenge when people are divided and suffering. So what do we do?

The dog loved them!

I want to watch the series, but my country's dub is lost media, and my English listening skills are terrible.

The subtitles can be Spanish, English or Portuguese.

I could swear I had favorited it, but... well, I didn't.

The title had (I think) something related to "starter pack". The items listed were:

• WataMote Girl

• Lucky Star Girl

• "i want a failure boy/girlfriend"

• Sanrio

• (Something pink I don't remember)

• "but I don't wanna hurt you!"

• roblox

• discord

"Prob 500 in 1. I was like 8 when I had it, I always remembered it as a 50 game thing. It had TLOZ: Phantom Hourglass, Harvest Moon DS, Mario Party and some other stuff but I don't remember what was on it and what I had cards for."

She said there was a girl, a monkey and a family that lived at a trailer.

With Mitchell Hashimoto leaving Github it got me wondering, does anyone use it anymore?

I had a strange experience at the swimming pool today.

When I walked into the women’s locker room, I saw two female staff trying to unclog a drain using some tools and guidance from AI. My first thought was that maybe management was trying to save costs by having staff handle everything themselves.

But then I paused and realized that might have been a bit narrow-minded.

I suddenly remembered something from last year — at the exact same place, a male plumber had to come into the women’s locker room to fix a similar problem. I remember feeling uncomfortable at the time, especially since there was no prior notice.

That’s when my perspective shifted.

Sometimes “AI + do-it-all staff” isn’t really about efficiency — it’s about working within real-world constraints. In some situations, there simply aren’t better options.

That said… after I finished swimming, the drain was still clogged.

AI is powerful, but in the end, some problems still need experienced hands to solve.

A few of my comments disappeared and/or never posted, so I’m using this as a trial.

I've been tasked with finding gear motors to replace a model that we use. If I'm looking for something exact, I can usually find what I need, but if I have a margin of error for what I need, it gets harder to find what I want.

As an example, I need a right angle gear motor running at 90vdc. Fine so far. But I can use anything around 1/7 to 1/10 HP, and approximately 90 RPM with a decent margin of error both ways.

We don't care where it comes from, but I don't even know where to look.

Do we value this comment, and their selective enforcement of what gets removed by a moderator?

https://lemmy.world/post/34482304

Is it just me or we all seeing nothing but political panic during the day, and just absolute nonsense banger memes at night around 3am?

Preface

I'll be going to college that is a bit further away (i.e.: daily commute not possible) and will have to live in a dorm (can't afford anything better).
Unfortunately, no single-bed rooms seem available and I have a bit of an issue with being with people (any).
Currently I live with parents, which for me is also not easy to deal with. I usually spend most of the days on toilet (separate room from bathroom in our case) sitting on ground, with laptop on the closed toilet itself, as a room replacement.

Personal preferences (in order of importance)

1. Room privacy/separation
2. Bathroom privacy
3. Distance from faculty
4. Food access

Buildings

Let's give them some names...

1. CRAP (Can't Receive Any Privacy)
   • 2-bed rooms
   • Shared bathroom
   • 4.5km away from faculty
2. PRISON (Packed Room Is Single Only Negative)
   • 2 and 3-bed rooms, 2 rooms per cell
   • One bathroom per cell
   • Cafeteria
   • Buffet
   • 1km away from faculty

Available information

• Total number of beds
• Remaining number of beds (since some are occupied by prior students)
• Number of current pending reservations (i.e. how many want the room)
• Price (irrelevant)
• Nationality of interested/housed students

Current situation

Naturally, most students prefer to live in PRISON rather than CRAP, hence all those rooms already have either current students or interested ones.
As of now, after 2 days (5 days remaining for current round), the CRAP still has 11 rooms with nobody in them and no reservations.

Possible strategies and their flaws

Risky, potentially high gain

Set one of the empty CRAP rooms as high priority. If it survives the next, final round without additional reservations, I could have a separate room.
Flaws: If it does not, I'll end up with a random roommate nevertheless, but in a shitty far away building with shared bathrooms and no cafeteria and buffet. In the end, only piling up drawbacks. Additionally, there seems to be currently empty rooms with multiple reservations in CRAP. Either these are friends, and it's nothing to be worried about, or, there's people who prefer a roommate for whatever fucking reason.

Expected misery

Choose any 2-bed room in a PRISON cell, for sure getting a room in better, nearby situated building, with one-person-at-a-time bathrooms, and the cafeteria and buffet.
Flaws: There will be a roommate, and my only choice can be between their nationalities, but I will not be alone.

So should I take one of the PRISON cells, or end up stuck in CRAP?

(Yes I had fun with the acronyms)