In the Netherlands I use adjuma pepper instead of habanero and mix sweet orange juice + lime as the sour orange replacement.
Sal
joined 3 years ago
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I appreciate the added context, thanks.
I am not claiming that Google is or isn't doing this. I made my comment because from the title and the text in the image I built an initial impression which was refuted when I looked further into it.
Critical examination of this post is not about answering "Is Google making search results worse on purpose?", but actually a much less ambitious question: does the sourced article provide strong enough evidence to support the assertion "Turns out that making Google search unusable was an intentional strategy by the company"? I don't think so, so I made a comment.
I have no love for google, but this can easily be misinterpreted. Within the screenshot, there are two mentions about studies. The first one refers to Google's internal studies that were disclosed to the courts, and the second one refers to an independent study from WalletHub. By cropping the text in this way it is easy for someone to conclude that the referenced study in the final paragraph is Google's internal study (at least that is how I read it), but it is not.
The antitrust case claims about the internal studies are found in page 48 of 1:20-cv-03010-APM.
Here is the screenshot:
The source documents can be found in the trial exhibits. Unfortunately, the specific internal tests are referenced as UPX1082, and this document does not appear to publicly released.
One can look at this combined information and reach the conclusion that Google is actively decreasing the quality of results to keep users longer. But it is still that, forming an opinion based on some available evidence, not a proven assertion.
but I will selfishly re-assert the importance of Dialectical Materialism
Ok, I will make sure I cover it then, I started this morning. Materialism is familiar to me and dialectics in the context of debate are also familiar, but 'dialectical materialism' is new. It has been about a decade since I put some dedicated effort in studying philosophy, and back then I mostly did morality, theology/metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of science. Economics and politics were not super interesting to me back then, but now they are, so it is a good time to revisit.
From a surface reading it makes sense that the resolution of conflicts that arise due to material conditions is one pathway to change. I am curious to understand how a framework is built from this concept and whether Marxist theory rigidly asserts this as the driver for change or if it is one important tool for building a perspective on class struggles but the framework accepts flexibility and complexity.
As for National Liberation, Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth is the best Marxist explanation of it. National liberation against colonialism and Imperialism is seen as progressive, and the product of oppression, not the oppressors. Palestine, for example, is supported wholeheartedly against the Settler-Colonialism of Israel, including resisting genocide using force to do so. Oppression creates its own violent reaction, even if in a perfect world neither would exist.
I will leave 'National liberation' study for later as there is already enough on the plate. In the context of Palestine, the Palestinians need to do what they can do to survive. They have grown under an active genocidal campaign, they are direct recipients of unimaginable violence. I think it’s straightforward to frame this as a case of self-preservation. What is the alternative argument? That they should erase themselves?
What is arguably dangerous (I am not saying this happens in Marxist philosophy) is when an ideology recognizes, as an example, the 'Imperial Core' as the ultimately responsible entity of oppression and places everyone who benefits in some way, perhaps simply by being born in Europe or US, as part of the enemy. Someone can justify bombing civilians in a Western country using a robust and coherent ideological framework that is further justified by the violent injustices that they have experienced. When I think of an ideological framework that discusses violence, I’m interested in what mechanisms are in place to keep violence in check.
Make sense?
Yes, it does, very much so. Thanks a lot!
It is good to hear. For what it's worth, I just went through a bit of an exercise for Cuba trying to look for examples of the types of violence that they committed and also looked into some of the other groups that I associate with the concept of a "violent revolution" (ETA in Spain, IRA in Ireland, different groups in Yugoslavia). What I found is:
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The groups that I associate with terrorism tactics are nationalistic, not fighting for socialism (at least not as a main goal).
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The Cuban revolutionaries used guerrilla tactics that, from what I can find, did not use terrorism as a tool. Their enemies, including CIA-backed groups, did.
So, that's points in favor to Cuba.
When people say “kill the landlords” online, they are usually expressing frustration at the parasitic nature of landlordism, they are not announcing that they intend to kill grandma.
Good to know! Before the 2016 US election I would rarely choose the literal interpretation when reading statements like this online. When Trump was elected and I realized that people online were not actually being sarcastic and making jokes, I began to take online statements more seriously and literally. I still think there is a high probability that some people who write about violence online mean it literally. That doesn't necessarily reflect on Marxist-Leninists though, many ideologies/religions can be pushed to extremism, and it is not entirely fair to ask everyone not to use figurative language online.
I am half way through Wage Labor and Capital now. It is very interesting, I think that I will like Marx's Das Kaptial because I do like dense/analytical. I already have several questions but I will first read more and then see if I can get some help in the communities you mentioned.
Thanks! I had the chance to read a bit.
So far... Engels Principles of Communism says some sensible things to do if the government is trusted (for example, the concept of abolishing private property, inheritance taxes, etc...), but it is also makes some point that I find concerning. Specifically, the combination of the answers provided to "Q16: Will it be possible to bring about the abolition of private property by peaceful means?" and "Q24: How do communists differ from socialists?" concern me because Q16 suggests violence as a method and Q24 significantly broadens the scope of who is an enemy of the revolution, while still keeping it ambiguous. A call for violent revolution + ambiguity of who is the enemy is a dangerous recipe because it leaves a lot of room for "interpretation" and "nuance" that will probably lead to disagreement between violent factions.
I think of this mixture of call for violence + an ambiguous enemy in the context of what I see sometimes being posted to social media, including Lemmy. I have seen calls for violence against "owners" that often extends to small business owners and landlords, usually without distinguishing between a commercial entity as a 'landlord' and a grandma renting out a room. Sometimes I think this is just a figure of speech but sometimes I doubt and consider that these might be actual calls to action. So, then, when I see such a broad brush being used to paint the 'enemy' I get the impression that pretty much anyone benefiting in some way from these systems is an enemy if they do not immediately understand and fully embrace the revolution. A revolution, then, seems to ask the revolutionary to be violent against friends and families if living in a developed country. I find it difficult to imagine that a majority within a population would want to go through this process if they fully understand the implication. When a Engles writes about "the majority of the people", does this count every individual in the population, or only those who are friendly to the revolution?
As I continue I am curios of whether I will find find some robust method to distinguish between the 'proletariat' and the 'petty-bourgeois', and to find out whether I will keep my head during the revolution. It would be nice to find some ideas on how to achieve the goals without violence. I have also seen that many more modern philosophies are built on top of Marxism-Leninism (like Degrowth), so in any case I am certain I will get a lot of value out of this topic.
I also found that you are running a book club on Das Kapital, I will try to catch up.
Do you know of a community where I can ask questions about this topic?
The book arrived :D Exciting!
I do want to try the single-spore isolation technique at some point.
Again, thank you very much for taking the time to respond in such depth. As I read what you write I think of more questions, but I think it is unfair that I continue asking when you have given me already a lot of explanation and study material. My questions will most likely be addressed in the material.
On my way home now I was thinking about what would be a good way to approach this study. At first I thought of picking Venezuela because it is a bit close but not too close to me. But from what you mention it seems like it might be a difficult one to start with. I have decided I will focus on Cuba first (well, once I am done with the pre-req theoretical background). I even made a small plan to follow, I'll try to visit Havana within the next few years.
Again, thank you!
Cuba in particular is under intense embargo, as I’m sure you know.
Yes, for Cuba's situation I put most of the blame for the US. I see a lot of anti-Cuba propaganda that is ridiculous. Virtually most UN members have agreed for a long time that the US should drop the cruel embargo, I don't see it as a controversial take that the US is the aggressor here and is to blame in many many other cases. Don't get me wrong on that, I won't deny the imperialist reality.
As far as the concept of a 'socialist revolution' goes, this stage makes sense to me! It is in understanding the actions that leaders take after the revolution is where I become skeptical. It is difficult for me to distinguish between a genuine attempt at socialism and someone using the compelling ideas of socialism as a tool to justify actions that concentrate power to their benefit. An enemy is a useful tool to consolidate power. Imperial systems built on capitalist system can provide this enemy, the question is whether the concept of this enemy is being used as a useful tool or if a serious attempt is being made to defeat it. Is there a winning stage were the leader would say "Fantastic, we did it guys! I will step away now", or is there no end-point planned?
My father's side of the family is originally from Yugoslavia/Slovenia, and they do speak well about Slovenia under Tito. And, when I look into Tito, it does look like his government is regarded in an overwhelmingly positive light. Their system at least on the surface looks to me like an example of a socialist(?) system that can co-exist with a largely capitalist world. My knowledge on the actual details/history of this comes from a few very focused YouTube videos and wiki pages so maybe he is not considered a good example of a socialist leader by socialists. I do see a contrast here in that this is a leader that is painted generally in a positive light, but I am not sure if this is because he was friendly to the west, or my experience is biased because I mostly hear about him from Slovenians and YouTube. The specific example of Slovenia gives me some hope that a kind of intermediate system that co-exists with capitalism can be used to peacefully transition, and from what I understand they did achieve a system that distributed ownership and the power to make decisions among workers more than to the state. Although things did not end so well for Yugoslavia, so maybe a system like this one would be quenched.
Great, lots to study! I will make an effort, really. Thank you!
To add some context... I am originally from the south of Mexico. The view of 'Imperialism of the Global North' is a common understanding there. The evidence of this is quite explicit. There is also a lot of classism that is routinely used to harmonize religious ideology with the unjust reality of inequality. Perhaps a reason why the theory of socialism resonates with me is because it successfully explains the dynamics that give rise to the systems that support the inequality that I grew up around.
After going through some of the background theory this is where I will want to focus my attention:
Socialist Revolution occurs first in the Global South. That’s why a lot of rapid industrialization and millitarization to protect from outside threats has solidified in every surviving Socialist state.
My distrust of the government in Mexico and South America is very high - regardless of political ideology. It may be simplistic but in this moment I think that a lot of the powerful people ruling these countries are primarily driven by self-interest, are corrupt, often use populist rhetoric including vague anti-imperialist and anti-corruption messages, and do not have a concrete specific plan. I know that human liberties in Venezuela and Cuba are severely restricted in face of awful material conditions because I have met several people who escaped and who have been there. I have not visited either myself, but family and friends have. So this would be a good topic for me to study. I promise you that despite coming in with my preconceived notions I approach this with an open but still always skeptical mind.
To pick a specific example that I am curious about... Is Venezuela's government today seen in a positive light by socialists in general? If so, do you know of any good reading I could do to understand why this is the case? Why would I trust that Nicolás Maduro wants what is best for the Venezuelan people? Was he democratically elected? If not, does it matter?
About two years ago I wanted to learn more about lichen. Since I cultivate mushrooms as hobby, I figured that attempting to isolate the wild lichen symbionts and then re-synthesizing the lichen would be a good way to learn about them. The experiment was not successful, in part because it is a long process and at one stage I did not give it the attention it needed. But at least I can share a bit of the process and observation.
Near where I live I can easily find Oakmoss (Evernia prunastri) and the Yellow Wall Lichen (Xanthoria parietina).
I collected small samples of each and placed very small pieces of them into many agar dishes. The idea here is that, coming from a wild source, contaminants will be present for sure. The process of isolation is an iterative process in which you observe the growth on the plate, pick out a small region where your target organism is growing strongly, and then move it into another plate.
This is an agar plate into which pieces of Evernia were added:
In this image you can see that there is a wedge with fluffy white mycelium, which was consistent with the morphology for the mycelium of this species as described in the literature. So, I would pick a tiny piece from this region and transfer into a new plate, to obtain a clean mycelium after 1 or 2 transfers:
This process was also performed for Xanthoria parietina.
After this step, I had plates with "clean" mycelium but not yet confirmation that the mycelium was truly the lichen's mycobiont. That is when microscopic identification comes into play. I was especially happy with the microscopic images I was able to get of the Xanthoria because they clearly show structures that are very characteristic structure of "septate, pluricellular, branched hyphae" described in the literature.
At this point I now had the fungal component isolated in agar plates. This was for me the easy part because I am familiar with growing mushrooms. But to build a lichen we need two parts: a fungus and an algae.
From a search I could find that both lichen species may use algae of the genus Trebouxia as a symbiont. I placed small pieces of each lichen into water and made the following observations:
- When placed in water, some of the algal cells become dislodged and float away
Photo: Algal cells floating away from a piece of Evernia prunastri
- The algal cells can be seen held loosely in between the hyphae, rather than incorporated into the hyphal structure
Photo: Algal cells loosely bound to the hyphae of Evernia prunastri
Photo: Cluster of algal cells bound to the surface of a hypha of Xanthoria parietina
- Both species contained algar with similar if not identical round morphologies
Photo: Individual algal cell released from Xanthoria parietina
- The round morphology is consistent with Trebouxia
.... So, at this point I had successfully isolated the fungal partner and had some evidence to suggest that the binding between the fungus and the algae is loose. Since I saw that the algae could be released from a lichen, an easy thing try was to attempt to transfer the algae from a living lichen to the mycelium culture.
This is a photo of that attempt. Small pieces of wild Evernia were placed on top of a mycelium culture that was already several weeks old.
This... Did not work at all. The culture eventually became contaminated and was thrown away.
The next attempt was to try to grow the algae separately. One method was to place the wild lichen into agar dishes with no added nutrients end expose the dishes to the sun. The logic here is that the algae will survive from photosynthesis while the rest of the species do not have the nutrients to thrive on. I tried this on about 15 plates, different light conditions, but nothing grew other than a few weakly growing contaminants in some of the dishes...
Another method was to place the lichen into a glass jars filled with water and place those by the window at different levels of shade.
In the meantime, I decided to grow "grain spawn" jars out of the mycobiont thinking that this would give me a lot of material to work with once the algae grew. Both fungi did colonize the grain well. However, those jars were abandoned and eventually, after several months of storage, became contaminated and I had to toss them away.
It has been almost two years and I just had a look now at how the algae in jars are doing.
In the Xanthoria jar I can see significant algal growth. As for the Evernia, the algae did not make it but it looks like the mycelium did, as it has created a floating white blob.
A few months after having the algae jar sitting by the window I analyzed the mixture under the microscope and did observe a large amount of Trebouxia.
Right now I have checked another sample, and, while I do see what looks like a bit of Trebouxia (marked with a red arrow), unfortunately most of the mixture now consists of other unidentified algal species. Since Trebouxia is not the dominant species, it would probably be easier to re-isolate the algae from the wild instead of trying to isolate it from this mixture.
I will give it a second try, and this time I will place more emphasis on culturing the algae first and keeping the cultures healthy and pure.
The SCD4x sensor from Sensirion measures CO₂, temperature, and humidity, and communicates these values via I²C.
The measurement principle for the CO2 is that of photoacoustic sensing. The fundamental principle is shown in the diagram below: shine light that the CO2 molecules absorb and use a microphone to listen to the pressure variations.
I ordered a batch of SCD41 sensors from China for various projects, including fermentation, mushroom and plant cultivation, and field monitoring.
Since I had extras, I sacrificed one for macro photography. I removed the cover with a dremel and pliers, then cleaned the internals using isopropanol.
Here is my take:
The temperature and humidity are measured by Sensirion’s SHT40, seen as the black square at the bottom right. It’s likely accessed by the internal microcontroller over an internal I²C bus.
The pink square at the top left is a MEMS IR emitter. The SCD4x datasheet doesn’t specify the emission wavelength, but 4.3 µm is standard for NDIR-based CO₂ detection. A similar emitter example is this one from Microhybrid. These emitters usually produce broadband IR, with a 4.3 µm band-pass interference filter on top. The pink hue likely comes from this filter. Filters like these are critical to target CO₂ absorption while avoiding spectral overlap with other gases. For further reading, see Infratec's application note and Delta Optical Thin Film’s technical explanation.
The gold component labeled “o119 ANC” is the MEMS microphone, used to detect pressure waves caused by gas molecules absorbing pulsed IR light—this is photoacoustic sensing. The vibration excited by 4.3 µm light occurs at ~70 THz, far beyond acoustic detection. However, the IR source is pulsed at a modulation frequency (typically 20–60 Hz, e.g. 40 Hz), and the microphone detects the resulting pressure variations at this frequency. The principle is outlined in patent US 2024/0133801 A1.
An example of a compatible MEMS microphone is Infineon’s IM72D128V01, which supports frequencies down to 20 Hz.
The final main component is the metal-shielded package. It likely contains a microcontroller responsible for:
- Driving the MEMS IR emitter with a modulated current (e.g., at 40 Hz)
- Capturing and analyzing the MEMS microphone signal to extract the amplitude of acoustic pressure oscillations (proportional to CO₂ concentration)
- Acting as an I²C master to retrieve temperature and humidity data from the SHT40
- Acting as an I²C slave to provide CO₂, temperature, and humidity data to an external controller
Here are top and bottom views of the sensor cap:
The cap has a circular gas inlet. The white material covering it is likely a hydrophobic ePTFE membrane, which allows gas exchange while blocking liquid water.
I hope someone else finds this interesting too!
EDIT: After posted this, I searched online and I found a photo from someone who went a deeper than me and did expose the microcontroller: https://www.hackteria.org/wiki/CO2_Soil_Respiration_Chamber
This is the photo borrowed from that site:
6
High Fidelity Waveguides Through Vitreous Media Recomposition for Next Generation Photonic Devices
(advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
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No I won't ;)