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UltraMagnus

@ UltraMagnus @startrek.website

Posts
3
Comments
98
Joined
6 mo. ago

  • Ireland plans to make a $1,500 a month basic income for artists permanent

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  • Has the concept of UBI been around long enough to fulfill your requirements? A 20-year study across a large population would of course be superior, but shorter-length studies with less people are necessary to prove/disprove whether those large scale studies should be funded. Not to mention the ethical implications of forcing someone into a large scale study like that before any results have been shown at all.

    I think it's fine to be skeptical of anyone considering UBI to be "case closed", but small studies being done before large studies is standard practice. You can't give that kind of grand scale funding to every hypothesis that pops into someone's head, so it's a reasonable way of determining what shows promise and should be looked into more.

  • Ireland plans to make a $1,500 a month basic income for artists permanent

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  • It is a good point, though I suppose the argument would be that it's easier for a bridge builder to find paying work than an artist

  • Ireland plans to make a $1,500 a month basic income for artists permanent

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  • Well, there are plenty of famous artists who only became famous after they died. Contemporary popularity doesn't guarantee historic/cultural impact.

    I'm not aware of the specific requirements of this program, but Iteland also has a case for cultural preservation, particularly with works in the Irish language, which may not have the international appeal necessary to make a good profit but are important for intrinsic reasons to Ireland.

    There's also the case to be made that in order to become a great artist, you must first be a bad artist - and there aren't that many jobs for internships/apprenticeships in the arts, especially as some of the more "basic" jobs (cheap graphic arts, copywriters, muzak, etc.) are snapped up by AI.

    I think there is an interesting discussion to be had about what an artist must have in order to qualify for something like this. I would also be concerned with "antiestablishment" works possibly being excluded.

  • I've recently turned into a blocker.

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  • I haven't blocked anyone here, but on Tumblr I started unfollowing folks who posted about doom and gloom all the time. That site's more conducive to memes and TV show discussions than it is discussion about news/politics, and I don't like scrolling through a bunch of superhero memes and then getting hit with a post about the latest atrocity in the world. That stuffs important, but it's not healthy to fixate on it all the time.

    It's important to curate what you're doing so that you dont fall into a doomscrolling trap or get ragebaited into arguments that go nowhere.

  • Portland cyclists strip down in pouring rain to protest ICE facility and Trump troop deployment

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  • Well, any event could be "the straw that breaks the camels back" for someone who is apathetic about politics or supports trump. No single protest or action is going to cause millions of people to suddenly flip, it's going to be more like a slow trickle.

    (Of course, you can argue all day about it not being quick enough, or it not accomplishing its goals in time, but it's not like other methods would be particularly faster)

  • Everyday AI looks more like the '08 housing bubble

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  • Timing is a fools game for sure. Bubble could pop next month, next year, or even later.

    If you're old, make sure you have a good percent in bonds. If you're young, make sure you have 6-12 months saved in case of layoffs and keep saving - market will look completely different in 20-30 years anyways so it's not worth worrying about.

  • Flag burning incident near White House leads to arrest hours after Trump's executive order

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  • The other option is that the supreme court undoes a prior decision, like they did to roe v. wade. Texas v. Johnson was only a 5-4 decision (To be clear, I think this would be awful as well, but it is likely how the admin plans to enforce this, assuming they have a plan).

  • LibreOffice is right about Microsoft, and it matters more than you think.

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  • No, what you say makes sense, and I think it's part of the reason why linux usage (as a daily driver) is starting to increase now versus 20 years ago. It's just easier to install and use linux distros nowadays.

    And most folks who want office for free are going to go with google docs, for the convenience factor.

  • New data shows No Kings was one of the largest days of protest in US history

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  • I disagree with the idea that some "great leader" would be helpful and not a liability. Or the idea that there aren't already leaders in the movement.

  • New data shows No Kings was one of the largest days of protest in US history

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  • Yes. It's natural that participation will ebb and flow, that's why it's important for folks not to give up and say it was all useless after just one day. Having regular weekly events and a monthly "big" protest seems to be the strategy for maintaining momentum.

    Escalation could also be useful - though of course that doesn't necessarily mean jumping to blood-and-violence, there are many other tactics that can be used (like the targeted boycotts, for example, or a general strike). Even more "passive" things like voter education (where polls are, how to register, etc.) can add up over time.

  • Microsoft Is Now Being Sued Over Sunsetting Windows 10

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  • The assumption that you'll lose a lawsuit against a large corporation probably stops a lot of viable lawsuits from ever happening - good for him for giving it a go.

  • New data shows No Kings was one of the largest days of protest in US history

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  • Even if a movement went all "blood and violence" it wouldn't be done in a day. What makes you so certain that something is useless just because it doesn't immediately solve everything?

  • Games Where Nothing Happens (SPOILERS for various game plots)

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  • The newer zelda games are interesting since you can see how the world has changed between botw and totk, but on the macro scale you're definitely right. Most zelda games have formula of "all is well, bad guy appears to threaten realm, link saves the day, back to normal". BOTW was an interesting way to change that formula - hyrule isn't restored after you beat ganon, but things change with new settlements being formed and so on in totk

  • Kodak cautions there's 'substantial doubt' about its ability to stay in business

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  • To be honest, I don't know much about film at all! That is pretty interesting to hear about Kodak - if all the indie/"hipster" companies are dependent on it, then I can see why you wouldn't want to lose it. That was my bad for relying on memories of 20+ years ago - naturally, they would've changed since then

  • New data shows No Kings was one of the largest days of protest in US history

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  • One of the factors in whether a nonviolent resistance movement can succeed or not is whether any state forces end up shifting loyalty. "Appealing to the moral sense of the people oppressing them" may be false if you're just talking about whoever's at the top, but it absolutely is a factor for the day-to-day bureaucrats and security forces. Nonviolent campaigns are more likely to cause these sorts of changes (particularly when violent crackdowns against nonviolent resistance backfires).

    Consider the success of the following movements:

    • Peoples Power Revolution (First one in 1986) - several military leaders defected from the Marcos regime
    • Velvet Revolution (1989) - had several government officials defect
    • Malagasy Political Crisis (2002) - Defense minister resigned, generals and military officers were split on who to support (source for this one, since the article is hard to find). In fairness, although this one would largely be classified as nonviolent, at the time, it was hard to say whether or not there would be any armed conflict (aside from some incidents with police attacking protesters early in the movement)

    There's several other cases of this happening over the past century, but I hope you get my point - nobody's appealing to the guy on the throne, they're appealing to all the other cogs in the machine.

  • Kodak cautions there's 'substantial doubt' about its ability to stay in business

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  • Yeah, the tricky thing about the "analog" Renaissance is the folks going for film cameras, typewrites, vinyl, and so on are looking for higher-quality equipment, rather than "mass market" stuff. Kodak could plausibly rebrand itself to appeal to this crowd.

  • ChatGPT killed my wife (GPT5 release drama)

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  • Part of me wonders if the way our brains humanize chat bots is similar to how our brains humanize characters in a story. Though I suppose the difference there would be that characters in a story could be seen as the author's form of communicating with people, so in many stories there is genuine emotion behind them.