concrete_baby

joined 2 years ago
[–] concrete_baby 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

See, this falls apart when there's another instance that focuses on solarpunk. When some communities on that instance become more popular and active than the communities in your local instance, you'd want to be subscribed to the solar punk communities on that new instance too. Now, your local feed is only showing you solarpunk communities hosted on slrpnk.net but not solarpunk communities on other instances. This distinction is not meaningful because where a community is hosted can be totally detached from the content. The users you know by handle can also be very active, if not more active, on other instances talking about solarpunk than slrpnk.net.

[–] concrete_baby 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (5 children)

Unique interests can be already be self-curated by subscribing to certain communities. All apps have the subscribed feed. There's no need for communities of a certain type to be on one instance.

Edit: typo

[–] concrete_baby 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I agree there's intention to present optimism and humanism in the face of conflict, but I find the execution to be lackluster. An example that comes to mind is Pike objecting to using mines in season 2 of DIS. He raises the issue directly to Cornwell, saying it's against Federation values. Then for some reason, the discussion becomes finding out why the Enterprise was diverted away from the Klingon war and ends praising Pike being "the best of Starfleet." The entire discussion about using unethical weaponry during wartime is sidetracked and left unresolved. The mines are still there on the station, and the responsibility of Starfleet Command for not taking down those Klingon mines is not explored.

Another example is the explanation of the Burn. From interviews I've seen, the intention behind the crying Kelpien is to highlight the need to understand and sympathize with people vastly different from you even when the universe is as vast with warp travel impossible. The resolution is Burnham and Saru finding this Kelpien and help him understand his visions and thoughts, calm him down, and make warping safe again. But this Kelpien lacks characterization from the beginning. The audience doesn't know him that well, and we don't know why we should sympathize with his personal resolution. It would be much stronger if the cause of the Burn is the Emerald Syndicate, which we have established as a hostile force against the Federation. And we know they have good cause to be suspicious of the Federation from Osyraa's meeting with Vance. In the show, despite this message of reaching out to the vastly different, the Federation and the Chain never understood each other and resorted to using force. Another good candidate for the cause of the Burn is Ni'Var, which has its reasonable suspicions of the Federation at the time.

[–] concrete_baby 4 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Why did the UK refuse?

[–] concrete_baby 8 points 4 days ago (8 children)

We already have Prodigy, Strange New Worlds, and Lower Decks under Kurtzman that are considered "optimistic." The question is, do kids want optimism?

[–] concrete_baby 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You just didn't read the article carefully.

 

In a TrekCulture interview a week ago, Rob Kazinsky, who plays Zeph in Section 31, talked about his reaction to the S13 movie.

He revealed one interesting point from behind the scenes about why the movie was made:

When I got this job, I was like, "Ugh, Section 31 movie, why are they doing a Section 31 movie? It's gonna be hated from the get-go. No ones gonna want to watch a Section 31 movie. We're doing a TV-budget movie. This isn't going to be what people want..." And I spoke to Alex [Kurtzman] and I spoke to Olatunde [Osunsanmi] and they explained to me that Star Trek is dying. And I don't know if people know that. You know, I was talking about Star Trek at my gym where I fight. You know, I'm a boxer where I fight with a lot of kids - you know, I don't fight them but train them - none of them knew what Star Trek was. Could you imagine that?

He went on to say that Star Trek had never had a base as big as Harry Potter or Star Wars but the small fanbase was passionate. He says that fanbase is aging and "we are going to lose Star Trek if we don't bring in new fans, new eyes and new ways of getting people to love the things that we love."

I think that's a valid point but Section 31 is not the answer. It's not particularly interesting for kids (I think) or for adults, whether or not they're Trek fans already. And for fans, this type of storytelling sacrifices the optimistic ethos (though not immune from criticism along the lines of DS9) that's at the heart of the Federation and the franchise. And I'm not even arguing this from a canon or gatekeeping point of view. It's not utlilizing Star Trek's niche and unique selling point in the market. Why should kids watch Star Trek instead of Captain America, Suicide Squad, or any MCU movie?

Here comes the question: If you're in Alex Kurtzman's position, how are you going to sell the franchise to a new, young audience? How are you going to convince kids who spend their time playing Roblox and watching Mr. Beast that Star Trek is a good show to watch?

 

Summary

Leaders at an unprecedented joint summit of Eastern and Southern African blocs aimed at defusing the crisis in Eastern Congo urged all parties to hold direct talks, including with Rwanda-backed rebels whose advance has fanned fears of a wider war.

In late January, the M23 rebels captured Goma, the largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo - the worst escalation of fighting in more than a decade that has left thousands dead. Despite announcing a unilateral ceasefire, they have continued to march south towards the city of Bukavu.

For context

 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and France's Marine Le Pen headlined a rally in Madrid on Saturday by Europe's biggest far-right bloc, buoyed by Donald Trump's return to power and calling for "a 180-degree pivot".

Patriots for Europe has realigned extreme-right forces in the European Union. It became the European Parliament's third-largest force after Orban helped launch it last year to pull the bloc towards the far right.

"Yesterday we were the heretics. Today we are the mainstream... We are the future," proclaimed Orban, sharing the stage with other leading extreme-right nationalists including Dutch anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and former Czech premier Andrej Babis.

 

China's top economic planning agency said on Sunday it was taking steps to scale back subsidies for renewable energy projects after a boom in solar and wind power installations.

China broke its own records for new solar installations in 2024 with installed capacity up 45% from the previous year. China now has almost 887 GW of installed solar power, more than six times the capacity of the United States, according to data from the International Renewable Energy Agency.

 

Five Thai farm workers released by Hamas in Gaza last month have arrived home in Bangkok, after spending nearly 500 days in captivity.

Pongsak Thaenna, Sathian Suwannakham, Watchara Sriaoun, Bannawat Saethao and Surasak Lamnao had all been working in southern Israel when they were kidnapped during the attacks by Hamas on 7 October 2023.

7
DK Eyewitness (www.youtube.com)
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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by concrete_baby to c/[email protected]
 

Highlights

Missed targets:

Indonesia’s energy transition efforts are continuously being undermined by policy inconsistencies and missed targets. Despite government regulations setting a limit of coal use at 30 per cent of the total energy mix by 2025, state electricity company Perusahaan Listrik Negara’s (PLN) coal use target was 62 per cent during the same period.

Renewable energy, which was supposed to reach 23 per cent of Indonesia’s energy mix by 2025, only reached 13.9 per cent in December 2024, even falling short of the revised target of 17–19 per cent by 2025.

The government is pushing EVs but the energy mix is still largely coal:

Electric vehicle policies fail to address that the electricity sector is Indonesia’s second largest emissions contributor, since the country favours coal for its electricity generation. And biomass cofiring is ineffective — 2.3 million hectares of land would be required to fire 52 power plants, potentially increasing emissions by 26.5 metric tonnes.

[–] concrete_baby 70 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Hmmm... This sounds like DEI?

[–] concrete_baby 1 points 1 week ago

It's an example of one company coercing another to enshittify for revenue. Getty also gets the blame here.

 

Some farms that feed cows in yards already use food additives that help reduce methane production in a cow’s stomach, but they have downsides, such as variable efficacy and the need to be constantly supplied, which is difficult if the animals are free to roam.

A vaccine could be an alternative, and the Pirbright Institute in the UK, a virology lab focusing on livestock, is leading a three-year study to develop one. “The appeal of a vaccine as part of the solution is that it’s a very well adopted, common practice, with infrastructure able to do this already, and people know about the benefits of vaccination for animal health generally,” says John Hammond, director of research at The Pirbright Institute.

[–] concrete_baby 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)
  • Google Image Search removing the ability to go directly to the raw image after Getty complained that web users are bypassing its website and therefore not generating traffic
  • Facebook removing chronological feed
  • Facebook showing you pages that you never followed on your home feed without the ability to turn this off
  • Microsoft trying to introduce ads to Explorer and the start menu
  • Microsoft making it difficult to create a local Windows account by making the process unintuitive, leading the user to believe that a Microsoft account is needed to use Windows
  • Apple dropping support for iOS web apps because it doesn't want to support browsers other than Safari
  • Reddit and Twitter's ban of third-party API use that killed nearly all third-party clients
  • EA producing games that require users to be always online, despite the game being single-player, presumably as a DRM measure
  • Ad companies making it easy for you to give consent to data sharing and selling but really difficult for you to opt-out

Edit: More examples

[–] concrete_baby 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I don't like the normalizing of using "woke" to describe progressives.

[–] concrete_baby 3 points 2 weeks ago

Is this on Wikifeet yet?

[–] concrete_baby 6 points 2 weeks ago

That's not correct. This is the origin report under the Biden administration from the Intelligence Community. This is the summary:

[...] the IC was able to reach broad agreement on several other key issues. We judge the virus was not developed as a biological weapon. Most agencies also assess with low confidence that SARS-CoV-2 probably was not genetically engineered; however, two agencies believe there was not sufficient evidence to make an assessment either way. Finally, the IC assesses China’s officials did not have foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of COVID-19 emerged.

After examining all available intelligence reporting and other information, though, the IC remains divided on the most likely origin of COVID-19. All agencies assess that two hypotheses are plausible: natural exposure to an infected animal and a laboratory-associated incident.

  • Four IC elements and the National Intelligence Council assess with low confidence that the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection was most likely caused by natural exposure to an animal infected with it or a close progenitor virus—a virus that probably would be more than 99 percent similar to SARS-CoV-2. These analysts give weight to China’s officials’ lack of foreknowledge, the numerous vectors for natural exposure, and other factors.

  • One IC element assesses with moderate confidence that the first human infection with SARS-CoV-2 most likely was the result of a laboratory-associated incident, probably involving experimentation, animal handling, or sampling by the Wuhan Institute of Virology. These analysts give weight to the inherently risky nature of work on coronaviruses.

  • Analysts at three IC elements remain unable to coalesce around either explanation without additional information, with some analysts favoring natural origin, others a laboratory origin, and some seeing the hypotheses as equally likely.

  • Variations in analytic views largely stem from differences in how agencies weigh intelligence reporting and scientific publications and intelligence and scientific gaps.

The IC judges they will be unable to provide a more definitive explanation for the origin of COVID-19 unless new information allows them to determine the specific pathway for initial natural contact with an animal or to determine that a laboratory in Wuhan was handling SARS-CoV-2 or a close progenitor virus before COVID-19 emerged.

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