Notices by Peter Drake, he/him, LFHCfS 🔥 (peterdrake@qoto.org), page 2

@freemo It is a fabulous name!

FWIW, fathers are much more likely to leave their babies in a car:

https://www.safekids.org/press-release/new-study-14-parents-say-they-have-left-child-alone-inside-parked-vehicle-despite

@freemo Domestication does make them cuter:

https://theconversation.com/why-so-many-domesticated-mammals-have-floppy-ears-29141

@freemo Then I'm confused by your statement that it can be "used to determine latitude or longitude".

@freemo Why wasn't this used to solve the famous longitude problem?

@freemo So who are you voting for?

L. L. Bean stands for Large Language Bean. @lowqualityfacts

@freemo Sonewhere in the SubGenius literature is a reference to "the vampire Jesus who shed his blood for you and now WANTS IT BACK!"

@trinsec @freemo Can't we're interpret this as, "If a dose of morphine is like eating one hamburger, a dose of dilaudid is like eating two super meat towers"?

Up and at 'em, people! These splines aren't going to reticulate themselves!

@trinsec @freemo Did Tolkien's fantasy races represent contemporary peoples? It's complicated. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolkien_and_race

@LouisIngenthron @freemo This may be as far as one can get: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jain_vegetarianism

#Violet, with a rhino for comparison. #DogsOfMastodon

I'll take the old guy who wants to bring back trains over the old guy who wants to bring back coal any day.

@trinsec @freemo ... and let's not forget the cavorting!

@freemo As a backup, you could always frolic.

@admitsWrongIfProven @freemo @ABScientist Freemo is correct that, over the long term, things are getting better for everyone:

https://www.gapminder.org/tools/#$chart-type=bubbles

(Be sure to press the “play” button at lower left to see it progress over time. The Gapminder site in general will make one much less cynical about human progress.)

I don’t think it’s inconsistent with what I cited. It may very well be that at some point in the past 70% of people were in poverty, and of those the majority no longer are, but the poorest still are.

(I believe the elephant curve is per capita, BTW. Also note that it is a percentage increase. If someone making $10 a day and someone making $1000000 a day both double their income, they did not both get the same benefit.)

My mental model is that technology (artificial fertilizers, automation, etc.) has greatly increased humanity’s access to resources. The poor have benefited somewhat from this, the rich have benefited hugely, and (because much technology entails resource extraction and pollution) future people will suffer greatly.

I also agree with Freemo’s original point that population is a problem. (I don’t, of course, agree with the big historical names in the population movement who somehow concluded that poor, brown people are the problem.) I find the IPAT equation compelling:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_%3D_PAT

As to whether the poor have benefited because of the wealthy or despite them … we might need a control planet to test that. I certainly see people who are absurdly wealthy while others still struggle, and a demand for perpetual growth manifested in consumerism.

Capitalism in the small – private businesses producing goods and services, with competition driving them to improve – is one thing. Runaway, unchecked, predatory capitalism is another.

@freemo @ABScientist Better for everyone except for the extremely poor and, interestingly, the upper middle class.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elephant_Curve

Productivity has also increased greatly in that time, with the benefits going almost entirely to the very wealthy:

https://www.cbpp.org/income-gains-at-the-top-dwarf-those-of-low-and-middle-income-households-1

Yes, something trickles down, but not much.

Mastodon will appreciate this display case in our physics building.

@AaronDavid Alt text: The National Park Service employee who chose the verb "commit" here should be awarded a Nobel Prize in literature

Below is a photo of a notice taped to a bathroom stall: "Bathroom supplies may not be available here. Please check the roll before you commit."

#git

@Troetifant @ancient_catbus What if you just brick your phone?