bloup

joined 1 year ago
[–] bloup 14 points 1 day ago

Hand restoring cream only works if you once had a hand.

[–] bloup 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Wild to think that a sentient anything would relate to something else on the basis of how it derives energy more than on the basis of how it personally experiences the world.

[–] bloup 70 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

is there any particular reason you’re saying that besides cynicism? I am having trouble finding specifics, but there’s a lot of reporting that the MTA is expecting to raise $15 billion from congestion tolling to fund public transportation repairs and improvements and pretty much all of the proposals for this in the past required all of the revenues to be earmarked for use by the MTA

[–] bloup 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

-Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

[–] bloup 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

The irony is, I like proton because I don’t think you should trust literally any business to behave altruistically, including proton. By structuring the business in the manner that they have, I don’t just have to trust them. I just have to trust that the people in charge don’t want to go to jail or get fined, which is literally not true for any business owned by private individuals.

[–] bloup 6 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

First of all, I did not say that proton is opposing capitalism. I said that to oppose capitalism does not mean you have to be opposed to free enterprise. As in, you can be opposed to an economy comprised primarily of capitalist institutions without being opposed to the concept of free enterprise. Proton is simply an example of such a business, which can be used as evidence for the fact that it is entirely possible to start businesses in a free market economy which are actually interested in solving problems as opposed to using the existence of problems as a vehicle to enrich a class of shareholders.

Second of all, “it’s filling a niche created by other companies’ poor privacy policies” is essentially nothing more than a restatement of the second sentence I wrote, which I will repeat here: “I pointed out that as long as it’s a for-profit corporation, it would have not have any financial or legal incentive to continue pursuing its mission if it ever achieved a certain level of market share.”. You’re right that them adopting a nonprofit structure doesn’t change that, but it does change their ability to sell out their customers at the discretion of a class of shareholders, unlike any business which is owned by private individuals.

[–] bloup 152 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (11 children)

I remember one time I criticized proton for positioning itself as community oriented while still being a for-profit corporation. I pointed out that as long as it’s a for-profit corporation, it would have not have any financial or legal incentive to continue pursuing its mission if it ever achieved a certain level of market share. But then several months later, they actually announced that they were going to put their money where their mouth is, and transition to a nonprofit structure.

I think that proton is perhaps the greatest example at the moment that to oppose capitalism does not mean you have to be opposed to free enterprise, and people should always think about this sort of thing when they listen to any kind of business leader try to convince them that it’s actually really important that they be allowed to cash out whenever they want.

I can’t imagine that their set up is perfect, but I definitely am going to have to give this offer serious consideration.

[–] bloup 27 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Scranton was an industrial manufacturing powerhouse in the first half of the 20th century and still had a population of like 120,000 people by the time Joe Biden and his family moved away in 1953

[–] bloup 28 points 1 month ago

I think it’s wild how much job security professors often have and yet they let themselves get dicked around like this constantly

[–] bloup 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Because telling people capitalism began in the 16th century creates a confused and misinformed understanding of history that makes it more difficult for people to reason about the world.

[–] bloup 8 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Capitalism began in the 18th century, not the 16th century

[–] bloup 3 points 1 month ago

my hypothesis for why this association exists is because I imagine that meat consumption promotes a gut microbiome high in putrefactive bacteria that produce a lot of toxic waste.

 

I would see this squirrel from time to time in my parents’ neighborhood about two years ago. I was always struck by its crimson tail. I remember being very young and all squirrels were just gray. When I started to get a little older, I noticed the odd black squirrel every now and then. By the time I was fully grown, black squirrels seemed to be just as common as gray ones. And now apparently there’s the odd squirrel with a red tail. Makes me wonder if in 30 years a child will have grown to notice the odd calico squirrel.

 

Musk says for-profit OpenAI harms public interest—and his own company, xAI.

 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/17556433

This controllable prosthetic, the Third Thumb, attaches to the right hand, granting wearers the ability to perform a slew of one-handed tasks such as grasping objects, opening bottles, sorting cards, and even peeling a banana.

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