jarfil

jarfil , 4 months ago to U.S. News in Public Funding of Journalism Is the Only Way

by necessity and definition, the world must operate under someone’s social model

I disagree. The world could operate under a model shaped by the continuous contributions of everyone, without anyone necessarily imposing or convincing others to adopt their particular model. A model that could evolve as people independently decide what’s best for them in relation to everything.

As for capitalism… some countries have “being a welfare state” encoded in their constitution, above being capitalist. It may not be a full departure from capitalism (which doesn’t seem like what people want anyway), but some countries have implemented it to a decent degree.

jarfil , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to U.S. News in Public Funding of Journalism Is the Only Way

it’s not obvious there’s public alignment with the kind of journalism that’s needed and the kind of journalism that’s wanted

The journalism that’s “needed”… for what goals? Which becomes a question of “wanted by whom?”.

You might want to shape society into a certain way, and you might have compelling reasons for it… but it’s still an attempt at imposing your social model over others.

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Democracy is intended to be a way to avoid that kind of singlehanded impositions, a way for “informed citizens” to vote on what benefits them most, even against what “a single wise man” (like a benevolent dictator) might want.

Consensus would be an even better form of government… but if you know people, then you’ll know how hard it is for a large enough group to reach consensus, or even for two people, or even for one.

(Consensus used to be how Poland was ruled at one time, called “liberum veto”, where any noble could veto any proposal. It did not go well. Nowadays we have a similar thing going on, where someone like Hungary can veto what everyone else has already agreed to, like the incorporation of Sweden into NATO)

Keep in mind though, that democracy relies on two key concepts:

• Informed citizens
• One vote per person

There is not even a real democracy in the world right now:

• Citizens need to be informed… while they rarely are, instead being lead by propaganda and misinformation.
• Representative democracy, where representation is chosen once in a blue moon, bundled into a few options, with no choice for a single person to disagree on a single point of a vote… is not democracy.
• Having some people’s votes be worth more than other’s, even if it is for whatever “positive action” reasons (ethnicity, residence, having voted for a more voted option, etc.)… is not democracy.

There is a lot of work to be done, on all fronts, to get a society “better for itself”… but imposing a single point of view, no matter how well intended, is not the way.

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For the moment, neither public nor privately funded journalism is the answer… the best answer is to have both, while working on ways to enable citizens to get better informed on the consequences of their votes and how they will impact them.

One such way, could be for people to have a trustable personal assistant capable of comparing their personal wishes and needs, to the various options available. This is where open source AIs on a smartphone might come in handy.

jarfil , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to Do It Yourself in What do you recommend as a solution to harden paper?

Depends on the project, and the paper… or more exactly, the ink on it.

If the catalogs are printed with water based ink, then you can soak the paper in water and make paper pulp, then mix in whatever hardener you want: corn starch, white glue, any wood glue, or even epoxy (but mind the toxicity and curing times).

If they are printed with toner (basically fused plastic), then you may have a harder time separating the pulp. You can shred the paper and throw it into boiling water, stir well then let it rest to hopefully separate the toner by density, then use as the pulp above.

Or… you can use the plastic to your advantage, by heating it up to fuse one piece of plastic/toner coated paper to another (toner should fully melt at around 130C), with a clothes iron, hair iron (set to 130-150C, and through a sheet of non-toner paper or some kapton tape so you don’t fill them with toner), or carefully with a heat gun (better if it has temperature control, 150-200C should be a safe range). Or… use glues, but plastic ones this time, like lacquer, super glue… and I guess epoxy should work in either case.

Depending on the project, you might even encase it fully in epoxy, either a two part or a UV reactive one (but probably avoid 3D printer resin, it’s formulated to only react in a thin layer at a time).

PS: from the numbers alone, it should be possible to melt the toner away from the paper in a 120C liquid, but you may have a problem doing that with water (a high pressure cooker comes to mind, which would get ruined afterwards; salt might help, but not sure how would that impact the pulp; maybe high temperature steam in a microwave could work, but that gets dangerous pretty fast). Oil would be an obvious choice, but it would coat the pulp, then you’d have to use a detergent… quite a mess.

jarfil , 5 months ago to U.S. News in More than one-third of Americans believe Israel is committing genocide, poll shows

“Cherry Genocide, the Thirst Mutilator. Now with Electrolytes!” /s

jarfil , 5 months ago to U.S. News in The three genders, per one GOP super PAC: Male, working woman and homemaker

Well, finally some recognition for the males… just need one working woman and one homemaker, for the perfect bliss of not lifting their ass from the couch in all day!

/s

jarfil , 5 months ago to U.S. News in ‘I’m not ready, brother’: US man to be put to death months after botched execution attempt

As of late, that seems to be fentanyl, which is only bad if your goal is to survive.

jarfil , 5 months ago to U.S. News in ‘I’m not ready, brother’: US man to be put to death months after botched execution attempt

I’d settle for only killing those who wanted to die… but that would make too much sense, or something.

jarfil , 5 months ago to U.S. News in ‘I’m not ready, brother’: US man to be put to death months after botched execution attempt

What about drug cartels? They’re happy to provide fentanyl overdose amounts to unsuspecting end users, could they provide the same to jails? It’s apparently also pretty cheap, and no injections needed.

jarfil , 5 months ago to U.S. News in ‘I’m not ready, brother’: US man to be put to death months after botched execution attempt

Pigs are tasty. Don’t look into how smart they are, or how much they suffer, just focus on the bacon… 🤷

jarfil , 5 months ago to U.S. News in Ohio pastor charged for housing the homeless

C-3 Central Business District, which prohibits residential usage

Can someone explain the reasoning behind that?

I can understand “no business noise at night in residential zones”, but the reverse looks like total nonsense: “no sleeping in the office”… WTF?

jarfil , 6 months ago to U.S. News in The dangerous impact of ‘fake news’ on the lives of Spanish speakers in the United States

Spain has a public TV, that is relatively neutral and mostly free of fake news (except on Dec 28, that’s the April Fools day for Spain), but some find it too “bland”. Then a bunch of regional TVs that spin everything each its own way, a “catholic” one, and some private nationwide TVs that live from “engagement” (aka: controversy). Plus the usual share of scam filled tele-shops, fortune readers, casinos and similar.

As for newspapers, with their digital editions, there is no neutral one. Right, Left, Sports, Market analyst BS, all flavors of regional nationalisms, a bunch of “engagement” based ones, down to content mills, and random scammers. Pretty much any “shareable” piece of news, either has a heavy slant, or is BS. That’s when it isn’t directly fabricated as a “meme”.

Without digging deeper, I’d only consider anything shared from RTVE… but that’s usually too boring and lacks the “wow” factor to get shared in the first place.

jarfil , 6 months ago to U.S. News in Minor who died in poultry plant accident got the job with the identity of a 32-year-old

They honestly care about (not getting sued or hit by regulations that could reduce their profits for disregarding the safety of) people.

Kind of like all corporations.

jarfil , 6 months ago to U.S. News in Texas AG threatens to prosecute doctors in emergency abortion

all the steps of making it official. So many chances to stop and think for a minute about what you’re doing and why.

…then mentally patting themselves on the back and proudly going on, maybe boasting to their like-minded friends along the way for an extra ego boost.

It’s not just “random” men, it’s a clearly defined group who believe the world should work this way.

jarfil , 7 months ago to U.S. News in A Texas university removed its unique public billboards after students used them to share thoughts on Gaza war

has picked a side from inserting an adjective into “The Oct. 7 terrorist attack, and ensuing assault on Gaza …”

How is that “picking a side”? It’s possibly the mildest neutral way of writing about what happened, as opposed to something like “The Oct 7. freedom fighter operation, and ensuing pacification of Gaza”, or similar.

jarfil , 7 months ago to U.S. News in Minnesotans aren’t happy about the six finalists for the new state flag

Oremus cum nobis etiam.