circuscritic

FEDNA

Not nearly as catchy.

I can’t wait for the nonfiction historical accounts of the FEMA deathcamps, or revised textbooks that accurately tell the story of how a devout group of Salem men saved the country from witches and witchcraft.

God damn I’m excited. Let’s go Texas, let’s get even stupider with it.

… gladiator pit?

First off, no, this isn’t combat and I don’t suffer from that delusion…

Secondly, I’m talking about crazy vs. crazy. I want QANON nuts, antivax moms, liberals that accuse everyone they don’t like of being a Russian bot, etc.

Finally… I’m having a hard time moving past you calling this a gladiator pit, and implying that I’m a gladiator… Actually, what’s your Twitter handle. You sound like someone I should follow.

I said cultural clashes, not pedo and MAGA circlejerks.

Wait, do you not realize what an echo chamber is…?

Because that’s exactly what I don’t want in my Twitter-like experience.

I want to watch the opposing groups of internet brained waterheads, who view posting as combat, flail, whine, and throw hissy fits at each other, while on the same platform.

Removed by mod

One way they conduct themselves is by using the politicians they’ve purchased to advocate for forming public-private partnerships, in areas where they shouldn’t exist, which they can then legally siphon off the resources from.

I disagree on the private sector aspect of this, but I agree on the democracy part. Although, I don’t really view America as true democracy at this moment in history, but that’s besides the point here.

Fusion technology is at a point in its life cycle where it needs to be a public sector project. There is no path to profitability in the near-term, that would justify private sector involvement, except as a means to extract profit from the very expensive research process of even making this technology feasible.

Not that I’m against the private sector within the nuclear power industry. I’m very excited to see what they can do with SMR technology. I’m just extremely skeptical of most private-public partnerships, especially in cases like this.

Goddamnit, you’ve made one heck of a case and now I’m a believer.

Yes, they were a regional hegemon.

If I’m being generous, from the view of the average Roman citizen, they were a global hegemony, because they didn’t know how big the world really was.

But they were not. There was no shortage of rival empires, some even right on their borders, and all during Pax Romana, including the Parthian Empire, Kushan Empire, and the Han Dynasty.

And my history is a bit rusty, but I’m pretty sure Rome tried multiple times to conquer the Parthian Empire, and failed.

Most importantly however, their reach did not extend across the globe, only where they could build their roads through, or sail their boats to, such as Carthage.

Also, Pax Romana, refers to a period of relative peace for Rome, brought by their imperial power. It’s only indirectly related to their hegemonic status, but it’s not in reference to it.

Sorry, meant that now deleted reply for someone else.

Two words: Armenian genocide

You’re confusing hegemon and classical empire, with global homogeny. We can debate whether or not global hegemony is unique to a unipolar world, but I don’t think it’s very debatable that it’s only been achieved through the use of neo-imperialism.

That is to say, no classical empire has ever achieved truely global hegemonic status, but there’s no shortage of historical hegemonic powers and classical empires, including that European ones you listed.

I will say that while I generally view the British empire as a classical empire, it’s competition with other European powers in the 19th and 20th centuries is what really gave rise to the concept of neo-imperialism.

But the Monroe doctrine put real checks on their imperial power and influence, that they could not, or would not, overcome. Which is why I have a hard time considering them a global hedgemon in the same context as America, but I realize for their time, they could be considered the first global hegemon.

deleted by creator

I’m confused at what they think good imperialism looks like. Empire by it’s very nature, is a crime against humanity.

Regardless, all empires grow to be too large and unmanageable, eventually.

I think it’s their perspective, of seeing how awful empire is. The death and destruction it leaves in it’s wake, and every other awful thing that empires do.

Because objectively, America was the first real global hegemon, and created a brand new type of imperialism to achieve that objective. America was the best at empire.

But now that it’s dying many people wrongly assume there was any other way it could have gone, that there was a malevolent external actor who actually ruined it, or that it could have been done in a more just or humane manner.

Maybe there is some truth to the latter, on the margins, but ultimately those concepts are antithetical to the concept of empire.

This answer is very different depending upon your life circumstances.

A single person with fixed income, is different than a two income household with children. I’m not saying they can’t both reach the same conclusion, just at their circumstances justify different choices being valid.

There’s also your technical proficiency, and pain tolerance for saving money.

For example, you could eliminate all external services, self-host everything, and then configure an S3 object storage provider for critical cold storage backups. That might also require you spending a bit more upfront to expand your NAS storage capacity.

While that may save you a bunch of money in the long term, it will definitely cost you a lot of time and effort.

What’s convenient for you? What can you not afford to lose access to? What’s your budget? How much time do you have to manage different solutions?

Those aren’t questions for you to provide me answers for, just some of the considerations that will impact different people’s answer to this question.

Fusion reactors are incredibly complicated… This is a research reactor, with the goal of figuring out how to create sustainable fusion for real world uses by 2050.

This is not a performative action for a determinative outcome, this is aspirational and has no guarantee of achieving its goals, which is good. This type of research and science needs to be funded, even when it may fail.

Maybe this will spurn competition between powers to accelerate their own fusion reactor research, and create a virtuous cycle that accelerates this technology becoming a major source of green energy in the near, or medium-term, future.

Maybe I’m missing something here, but OnStar is a 3rd party service, so it makes sense they would have a bolt-on device that can be removed without too much concern for the rest of the car’s functionality.

Also, isn’t a TCU something that controls a car’s drivetrain and transmission?

Edit: nevermind, just searched and found telematic control unit. Interesting, thanks for the info, I might look into this more if I have more time later.

I unintentionally fibbed, because one thing I do have a bit of experience with is aftermarket car stereos, including double-DIN android units.

Granted, I haven’t tried to install one in a 2024 car, but a lot of modern infotainment systems can’t just be ripped out and replaced with aftermarket unit and retain the car’s original functionality, if it can be removed at all without breaking, or removing your access to core functions, like climate control, etc.

Here’s a picture of the interior of one of the cars in question, a 2024 Mazda CX-90

You’re not popping a double DIN in there, and even if you did remove the screen, I’m betting the actual infotainment system boards are inside the dash somewhere installed in a mounted panel box, and they aren’t just going to pop out and be replaceable like your standard head unit.

Another photo, this one from the linked article:

I might regret not searching about this before running my mouth here, but I would assume most automotive manufacturers, in 2024, are soldering the wwan modules onto the main board of the infotainment system for cost, and to prevent user removal of their subscription vector.

I would also assume most manufacturers who are converting standard automotive features into paid subscription services that dubiously rely on SaaS backends, are NOT also designing isolated architectures that separate the IoT infotainment system from the car’s critical systems like drive control, transmission, brakes, etc. I’m guessing most at least have CAN bus connections linking them together.

But I don’t know enough about cars and automotive systems to even pretend being knowledgeable. So, if anyone here is actually well versed on this subject (and not just searching forums before replying to me), please tell me I’m wrong, and how so.

Seriously, I want to be wrong about this.

When? Never

Cost? N/A