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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 22nd, 2023

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  • The concept of independence can be a problem because it tends to manifest in a “I’m a lone ranger that doesn’t need anyone” mentality.

    If you’re someone who generally just wants to live alone off-grid in a cabin in the woods and interact with people once a year that’s fine.

    If you’re massively dependent on your neighbors and international trade and are in a self-destructive anger spiral about it because the realities of living in society damage your sense of self-worth, which has been tied to the fiction that everyone is an island, it’s an issue.


  • And even if they did, it doesn’t matter.

    “But they have an iPhone / Computer / Telephone / Refrigerator” is a very tired trope about how people shouldn’t complain. None of those are luxury items anymore and, even if they were, someone prioritizing getting one doesn’t mean they aren’t struggling. A used or prepaid iPhone/smartphone is <$100 and necessary for even the lowest jobs and assistance programs and far more available and useful than a full computer.




  • turmacar@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.world*Permanently Deleted*
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    4 days ago

    Their footnote section is doing a lot of work.

    1 In some countries and regions taxes are included in the total price displayed. The total price including taxes is always displayed prior to checkout.

    They also either don’t know how notations work, or the AI they’re using to generate this doesn’t because it has a separate footnote with that same sentence later on.

    I would be thoroughly unsurprised if some EU or other regulation came into effect so that they have to do this, and now they’re taking credit for being consumer friendly.



  • It’s possible there was a lab leak, and relevant labs should be investigated for the same reason we investigate all plane crashes, it either leads to finding gaps in processes or confirms whether or not a systemic issue was a factor. The probability has decreased as COVID has been further researched and shows more markers of a ‘natural’ development, but it’s generally beneficial to have a comprehensive audit when processes are in question.

    That’s not what these people are arguing. They’re arguing that it’s China’s fault and not Trump’s. That’s it. For that to be the case it ‘must’ be a lab leak, and so they’re retroactively finding justification for how that is possible. That they’re running parallel to a reasonable line of logic for a portion of their argument does not validate their argument.




  • The longer it takes to find the lab origin link the higher the probability of zoonotic origin. /s

    The problem with conspiracy theories is they’re non-falsifiable. That something is possible is not evidence that it is probable, that something is probable is not evidence that it happened.

    Maybe a lab had something go wrong. Maybe that was because they were careless. Maybe that’s because Trump withdrew funding and oversight from the programs that helped labs like this. That should all be investigated. There’s a difference between asking for a due diligence after action report and assigning blame because “it had to be someone’s fault.”



  • This is/was letting a contract expire. It’s not something that was brought up to the level of congress. Up until the last few years of supreme court decisions agencies were founded with broad powers in their domains, including discontinuing sub-programs.

    That’s how it’ supposed to work. None of this has been brought to a vote, which would give Democrats the opportunity to oppose it. For “some reason” congressional Republicans are continuing their prior strategy while being a majority and having the leadership of just, not doing things.


  • Remember how after SARS universities started researching novel vaccine creation methods and that research lead to an extremely rapid development and response to COVID when more traditional vaccines would have taken several more years. But none of that was obviously profitable so there were no companies interested in doing that kind of research?

    You know how nMRI and CRT machines are really neat but they didn’t exist because we didn’t understand physics enough to use giant spinning magnets and radioactive isotopes to see inside people without cutting them open. And how there wasn’t a commercial use for those kind of low energy particles so existing reactors were just disposing of them as waste?

    That kind of stuff.