Notices by simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Friday, 21-Mar-2025 00:43:13 JST 
simsa03
Alex Reisner, "The Unbelievable Scale of AI’s Pirated-Books Problem" https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/libgen-meta-openai/682093/?gift=iWa_iB9lkw4UuiWbIbrWGYDRoX8kfg3ZQZL6J-W0kQE -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Thursday, 20-Mar-2025 09:15:34 JST
simsa03
Just a reminder that Article 5 of the The North Atlantic Treaty (1949) simply doesn't oblige any member state to mobilise its armed forces. Each member state decides individually what it contributes to help reach the status quo ante. The support may include armed forces but it doesn't need to.
« Article 5
The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security. »
That is: Even the proclamation of an Article 5 incident doesn't mean a military combat situation for each and every member state of NATO.
And so when Russia is said to be willing to test NATO in the near future for its readiness to adhere to Article 5, the supposition that this means Russia will be testing whether each and every member state is willing to engage militarily is an erroneous depiction of the situation.
Likewise, Russia's threat to reserve the use of nuclear weapons should this or that red line be crossed, which lead some European states (foremost Germany) to self-deter from support of Ukraine, displays an erroneous understanding.
Article 5 is way too "weak" to oblige any member state to contribute armed forces in a conflict with Russia. And that means that Russia cannot "test" the willingness of NATO to follow through on Article 5 simply by attacking a small city like Narva in Estonia with a considerable Russian minority. Every NATO member reaction would be an Article 5 contribution, and Russia cannot assess thereof what the NATO member states are furthermore willing to do to act in compliance with Article 5.
Thus these kind of war-gaming makes no sense for either party.
#Russia #NATO -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Thursday, 20-Mar-2025 07:12:19 JST
simsa03
Serbia's president Aleksandar Vučić has resigned!
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67654166
#peakfascism -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Thursday, 20-Mar-2025 04:31:17 JST
simsa03
Attention and respect may takes various forms. One is meaning. -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Thursday, 20-Mar-2025 02:54:54 JST
simsa03
Protests in Serbia and Hungary, now in Turkey where Islamist autocrat Erdogan has put his main rival in the upcoming presidential elections, Ekrem Imamoglu under arrest, stripped him of his university degree. (To apply for candidacy, yevery presidential candiate needs a higher education degree.)
#peakfascism -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Thursday, 20-Mar-2025 00:14:23 JST
simsa03
Don't worry. -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Thursday, 20-Mar-2025 00:10:01 JST
simsa03
This is to me the best explanation so far of the Russian negotating strategy in the Trump-Putin-conversations on a ceasefire in Ukraine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvXkuurLupY (after 2:15). English subtitles available.
(Christoph Wanner is a correspondet of the conservative German news outlet Welt. But he studied (perhaps even majored in) law and Slavonic studies before becoming a correspondent in Russia and now Ukraine. He has a balanced, nuanced approach, always telling when he is stating his own opinions or when an information he presents is not or only to an extent corroborated.) -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 23:49:37 JST
simsa03
Good idea. Thanks. I'll think about that. -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 23:48:38 JST
simsa03
This may be a reason why to you the new visual impressions don't come across as steelish or bluish. I don't doubt that I will adapt but I muse about the impact on my thinking and perceiving. Will both get harsher, more either-or, this-or-that, clear-cut? Will ambiguities and vagueness, very important to me ("Let the complexity of the world be"), disappear and be replaced by dumb single-mindedness? I find that a scary possible long-term outcome. -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 23:42:17 JST
simsa03
In Greek, καταρράκτης means "waterfall". The connection was already established long before Galen. The assumption was that in the development of a cataract substances run down behind the pupil – perhaps what we nowadays call floaters – and that the visual impression was like "seeing through a waterfall". -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 22:56:55 JST
simsa03
♪ Barry McGuire, "Eve of Destruction" (1965) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPIcwjFB1PY
Didn't listen to it for decades. I dimly remember that when I was a toddler the teenage nanny used to play it on the turntable, about the time of the first moon landing. It's even more up-to-date than I thought.
!listening -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 11:42:30 JST
simsa03
You give me my right eye, not my left. :-) Perhaps I skip the second surgery? -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 11:32:03 JST
simsa03
♪ Chicho Sanchez Ferlosio, "Gallo Rojo, Gallo Negro" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-41zdnkm4GA
!listening -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 11:26:50 JST
simsa03
♪ "¡Ay Carmela!" (Rolando Alarcon) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xanlmhjf1jc
!listening -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 11:22:20 JST
simsa03
Yes. And I can't help that I feel strongly the atmospheric difference that like effects my mood. It's almost as intensive as some odour in the air, flashing up memories from past and future. -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 11:15:44 JST
simsa03
Indeed I am :-) -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 11:14:20 JST
simsa03
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA6SouZua3s -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 11:00:57 JST
simsa03
Ah, and BTW: All the problems with losing the one job, having no unemployment benefits, welfare benefits, housing benefits, and a pending cataract surgery to deal with have been sorted out in time. Took me a lot of bureaucratic surfing to align and sequence all necessary steps and obligations for the employment office, the social welfare office, the housing benefit authority, my health insurance, the medical examinations prior to the surgery in the hospital, but after a lot of criss-crossing the authorities' offices, the doctor's offices, and the scanning of pay slips, bank statements, rent certificates, medical examination results, etc. etc., I'm almost done. Financial support is secured, medical sick leave approved, and only two visits at two offices left to having completed all and everything. Thus the rent is secured and the living conditions are stabilzed. Never had so many different demands to coordinate at the same time. Quite an experience. And I hope that after I'm fully convalesced I can get a new job quickly. -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 10:40:16 JST
simsa03
I'm glad you did. Waiting for the next move by the regime to close the northern border and prevent US-ians from getting necessary medical care in Canada. -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 10:30:36 JST
simsa03
Had my first eye surgery last Friday, fixing the cataract in my left eye. The next surgery on my right eye will be in about three weeks. The operation went fine and the hospital stay was pleasant. The only unwonted thing I noticed has been that my "new" eye renders colours in a more bluish and brilliant way while the other, the "old" eye on the right gives me the world in a sort of dirty-yellowish tone. This is an oddly feeling difference. The old eyes bathed the world in a warm light whereas the new eyes seem to render the world in a cold blusih monitor-style light. I already begin to miss my cataract. Perhaps I shouldn't have agreed to the surgery. I wonder how the difference in light sensation will impact my thinking and my sensing of the world. Pity.
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