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megane-kun

@ megane_kun @lemm.ee

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  • A Filipino villager is nailed to a cross for the 35th time on Good Friday to pray for world peace

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  • Ah, my bad. I didn't mean to imply that it being done in a religious context invalidates it, just that the religious context would inform us more about the man's intent and whether or not they'd continue on doing so regardless of the result.

    I used the term "pledge" earlier, but maybe it's better to use the word "vow" to refer this. The term in Filipino is "panata" (which wiktionary translates to "vow"). It usually isn't as dramatic as this, however. And as far as I've observed, a lot would do these vows after they deem their prayers to have been heard (usually recovery from illness or accidents, or recovery from financial ruin), and thereafter, no matter what, they'd try to fulfill their vows, whether that'd be a crucifixion reenactment, or attending processions, or even just as simple as foregoing alcohol or vices or letting their hair grow.

    edit:

    I must clarify my position here, I‌ guess. I am neither in favor nor against the practice. But having grown up in the country where these practices occur, I just felt I have to clarify some things. Personally? I don't mind. They're doing these things with good intentions, and they're hurting no one. As far as I know, they don't force anyone to join them, but rather, make sure that those who are following their footsteps are sure they want to.

  • A Filipino villager is nailed to a cross for the 35th time on Good Friday to pray for world peace

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  • I agree with your sentiment, but I felt compelled to comment on one crucial element here: what he has been doing isn't a protest, but some form of a religious pledge. It just so happened that this year, he's praying for world peace. This is akin to some traditions in India and other parts where self-flagellation is part of religious ritual, but only for those who pledge themselves to it. It's touched upon in the article, but he's been doing it since the 1980's as thanksgiving for his survival in an accident. Some people just do it once, but some devote their lives to it, and it seems to me that he's one of the latter.

    Whether or not his actions will lead to results doesn't matter, as far as I see it. He's already devoted to the bit, and only old age (and poor health) will likely stop him.

  • xkcd #2912: Cursive Letters

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  • I remember coming across a similar comment chain, and someone brought out cursive Hanzi, and everyone lost their minds.

  • South Korean companies are offering workers $75,000 to have babies amid the country's desperate bid for more children

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  • Thanks for the explanation.

    It reminds me of the concept of depreciation in accounting, in which you're accounting for the "loss of value" of a piece of machinery as time goes on. I guess it fits how the capitalists view people (labor) as yet another kind of machine. I dunno how it fits with what you're trying to explain here, but it somehow clicks for me. So that the factory owner can keep buying machinery, they must allocate some of their funds not just for the upkeep of the equipment, but also save up for the cost of buying a new one.

    Admittedly, I'm not very well-versed with neither accounting nor the theories put on display here, but we learn something new every day, right?

    (PS:‌ I'm still working through the pamphlet you've linked. I might have gotten a lot of things wrong, and in that case, I apologize.)

  • South Korean companies are offering workers $75,000 to have babies amid the country's desperate bid for more children

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  • I was like "(companies) paying parents to have children" belongs to a caricature of capitalism, but here we are. (My bad, it's companies paying parents to have children, and not some bigger entity, like the government. I already edited the previous sentence for clarity.)

    If you don't mind me asking though, what "marxist theory in action" do you see in this article?

  • China using cyanide to 'destroy' Scarborough on purpose — BFAR

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  • "If I can't have you, no one will." -- China, apparently.

    And as usual, no one will do something decisive about it because China is a huge bully and is using its reputation as the world's factory and its economic heft to intimidate anyone who thinks of doing anything about it.

  • Japan’s salarymen opt for ultra-cheap lunches as food prices continue to rise

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  • I expected someone to make this joke, but this still made me chuckle. Thanks for the laugh!

  • If you don't have coding skills, why don't you help foss software by making it more user friendly instead?

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  • I came here to say something similar.

    Just writing documentation alone, is a skill worthy of a full-time job! Of course, there'd be people who can volunteer their time to do that, but without someone with such skill at least taking a look and making sure it's understandable to someone who's got no idea what's going on? Let's just say that open source software help documentation is filled with such examples.

  • A community about anti-natalism

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  • I'm not exactly antinatalist, but I'm somewhat sympathetic to their position. The way I see it is this: humanity's effect on nature is on the average, harmful.

    We've been very successful as a species, but at the cost of a lot of others that weren't able to cope with our success. Perhaps some species which are useful to us—sometimes just by being cute, have learned to live with us, or have learned to live despite us, have managed to thrive. But for one species that gained our protection, how many others have disappeared with no one caring?

    If that's not bad enough, I don't think that the average individual human being is thriving. We've destroyed a lot only to build depressing cubicles for us to rot in.

    I don't think it's worth it.

    Having a child means condemning them into an ever worsening world. And I don't think I'll be able to properly equip my child to even have a smidge of a chance of being "well-off", healthy or even happy.

    However, our innate instincts, as well as societal and other pressures pushes people to have children even when it's not going to end well for the children as well as their parents. Antinatalism is a counterbalance to this pressure.

  • I'll never learn to not do this either.

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  • I've picked up a habit to (sometimes) write in all caps. On the flipside, I've picked up some strategies to differentiate letters and numbers from each other:

    • 1 would have the top serif if it needs to be differentiated from lowercase l.
    • 2 would start like a question mark, and then continuing on with a horizontal line, something like: ʔ︭
    • 5 would be written in two separate strokes, the top one from left to right, and the second from top-left straight down, then a semi-circle going clockwise
    • 6 would be written in one smooth stroke from top-right going counter-clockwise down, then up halfway, then intersecting itself at the bottom rather than bottom-left. (Kinda like φ)
    • 7 would have the middle bar (differentiating it from a 1)
    • 9 would have two strokes, first is a loop starting from top-right counter-clockwise almost meeting itself; second stroke goes from where the first one ends straight down-left-ish
    • 0 would have a light stroke going from top-right to bottom-left
    • D would be two strokes, kinda like this: |>
    • I would have the top and bottom serifs
    • J would have its top serif and its tail emphasized and angular, kinda like this: ˧˩̅ (I really hope the unicode characters show up properly)
    • S would have its upper part smaller, and its lower part larger and more emphasized, so that it'd look more like a coiled snake.
    • U would look like my lowercase u (with the right vertical downward stroke).
    • V would be written in two strokes: top-left to bottom, and top-right to bottom.
    • X is also written in two strokes: top-left to bottom-right, and top-right to bottom-left
    • Z would optionally have the middle bar (Ƶ), but it usually doesn't need it to differentiate from 2