First two paragraphs, sure. I wasnt disagreeing with your conclusions, just pointing out that your analysis was flawed. I share your opinion that Europe is unlikely to be credibly militarily threatened by the US, CN, RU, or even CN+RU. I do think china is significantly closer to being a credible threat than your analysis indicates. Historically, how many expansionist empires have decided they had enough territory on their own?
As far as disagreeing with SIPRI figures... they have been the global academic authority on defense economics for almost 60 years. You are welcome to disagree with them based on vibes but there's really no more to discuss if you don't have a reputable source of evidence to back your opinion.
This last paragraph is entirely vibes based on my end, so don't give it more credit than the opinion of some rando on the fediverse. I don't know that I'd count on Ukraine to be ride or die with Europe in the future. The rest of Europe certainly has not acted in a way to engender that level of mutual defense with Ukraine in the past 12 years. Maybe the Baltic states have, but the larger European economies have spent 12 years appeasing their gas station dictator rather than fully supporting Ukraine. They are saints beyond what the EU deserves if they do fully commit to the EU defensive bloc in the future.
Your analysis ignores the concept of purchasing power parity (ppp). I linked a SIPRI faq page below, #12 explains the concept of ppp as it relates to military spending pretty well. The second link I provided shows 2024 global military spend figures that account for ppp.
TLDR: your analysis underestimates European military spend compared to the US but vastly overestimates European military spend compared to Russia or China.
Mild to loud noise, and specifically white noise. The idea is to get something loud enough to drown out other stimuli but consistent enough to eventually mentally tune out. Idk what the professional consensus is on that method as a meditation aid (or if there even is one), but it works for me. I've also been able to use loud box fans or atmospheric metal like lantôs or *shels to similar effect
"Earlier this month, Madel said he helped ICE agent Jonathan Ross with paperwork to get Justice Department legal representation if he is sued or charged with a crime."
What's different about this one, you disingenuous piece of shit?
I like to sit under a tree near a creek in the mountains. The sound of the water rushing is really loud from that close; enough to put me into a kind of sensory overload state, but the general peacefulness of the situation makes it one that isnt distressing. The extremely complex path the various eddies and currents in the water help too, I can just stare at and try to follow them if "eyes closed next to the creek" isnt working. To generalize that a bit in case you don't have access to something like that, what works for me is lightly overstimulating my senses in a controlled and relaxed setting where it isn't scary that I'm a bit disabled by the overstimulation. That allows me to do meditation that's a mix of not thinking and thinking about neutral to positive things like fluid dynamics or water tables when I can't pull off mental silence
It strikes me as unintentional, but this post is a honeypot. I would not say anything here that I wouldn't be comfortable with a Kangaroo court judge reading back to me on record
The politicians go where the people are, not the other way around. It sounds weird but I think a social media platform has to be a good place for folk with low tech literacy to post and chat about cute cat videos before it can ever be politically relevant. I've yet to come across a fedi client that I think my mom in her 60s could handle/would find appealing, and I kinda think you need something like that for widespread adoption. If you had a fedi client like that and some incentive to sign up like free lotteries run on the eu server for the first few months to catalyze a critical mass of users, I bet you'd have a fighting chance at breaking away from US social media walled gardens
They did worse than that imo. I was a very early consumer of VR; had the original oculus headset and absolutely loved it. Then zuck bought them out, mandated that all oculus headsets would need a meta account, and effectively dropped support for anything other than the mobile headset. I was legitimately the kind of consumer that would put 5 figures into that hobby over a few years, but I set it down and never looked back after that. Im sure I'm not the only one who fits that description
My take is like... social media ban good, taking away an addictive thing and making the addicts go cold turkey with no real plan is VERY VERY BAD. Caps not to indicate that I'm yelling just to add more impact to how fucked up and stupid I think the implementation is
"Kimberly Meyer, the wife of Tippecanoe County Judge Steve Meyer, is now speaking out following Sunday's shooting at their residence.
The couple was shot and is believed to be in stable condition."
No disagreement or comment on that quote just wanted to put it in the comments for other people wondering if they are okay or if this is a story about death
Funny in a sick, dark humour kind of way. A lot of people don't understand how jokes can be a defense mechanism people learn in response to repeated or extended trauma and mistake that behaviour as making light of the situation. I laughed, but this also strikes me as the kind of meme I would only selectively send to friends of mine who have also been through hell and learned to cope with dark humour. I completely understand laughing at this meme while still being furious at the underlying situation
It's true. Friends call me Snow Miser, whatever I touch turns to snow in my clutch. Interstellar was still awful though lol. I might have enjoyed it like any other scifi if it wasn't specifically advertised as a scientifically accurate portrayal of space travel, but that is how it was advertised and accurate it was not
Im not familiar with kurzegesagt or Rick and Morty hentai but I'm pretty sure that was the expression on my face for most of the runtime of Interstellar
"Most people used the iron lung for a few weeks or months depending on the intensity of the polio attack. However, those with chest muscles permanently paralyzed by the disease need it for their lifetime."
I am not any kind of medical professional so I can't personally vouch for it, but here's where I got the quote
"Even users in r/massivecock, where most of the posts are images of erect penises, railed against ICE in their captions."