Notices by brie (brie@venera.social)
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Monday, 27-May-2024 10:57:25 JST brie
@clacke (How to live in a flat, by Heath Robinson and K.R.G. Browne) -
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Friday, 17-May-2024 23:16:48 JST brie
#Enshittification of the sky continues: After shitting in optical #astronomy pool, new exciting development appears: to shit all over both optical and #radioastronomy at once!
Whoever can, please send your opinion to FCC. No need to be US citizen. #Sky is for billions, not for billionaires.
♲ mastodon.social/@sundogplanets… -
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Thursday, 16-May-2024 18:27:33 JST brie
@kaia It's 2024 already, you're late. -
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Friday, 10-May-2024 21:48:54 JST brie
@clacke Always wanted to drive a silver Saab, I would put Swedish Air Force roundel on it ;) -
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Saturday, 04-May-2024 07:34:45 JST brie
So, today is a national holiday in #Poland. Anniversary of our first constitution, 1791. That never really worked, because… and this may be interesting for readers in other countries.
For hundreds of years Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was quite democratic state, for the time and place at least. Our kings were elected by popular vote (that is, by all nobility. More than 10% of society at the time, much more that typical elsewhere), the candidates had to present their programs beforehand, swear by it before coronation, and were held responsible before Parliament. The lower house of Parlament consisted of delegates chosen by popular (same note as before) vote in their lands, and were bound by voters' instructions; that is, they could deviate from them, if needed, but then had to explain the decision back home. Upper house was crewed by high-level state and church officials, no hereditary seats. To ensure that nobody's rights were denied, nor voice silenced, there was institution of veto, that had to be taken back by the one who stated it – after the settlement was reached.
Oh, and speaking of nobility – its structure was flat. A noble was a citizen, as good as any other. No formal aristocracy, no range ladder, no titles (some boasted, usually foreign, titles of barons, dukes, counts, whatever; it was a matter of courtesy to address them using these titles, but nothing more). Sure, there were differences of power, of wealth, of connections – just like in today's democratic societies. Any noble was eligible for any state office, including the throne. Any noble was entitled to vote (or not).
Of course, it always could be better – for example, cities were strongly underrepresented, and peasants not represented at all (formally they were, by ”their” lord, but such representation did not make them much good). System was clearly not ideal, but worked for long time — and I dare to say, for citizens it was better than absolutism so popular elsewhere. So how did it fail, and fail to the level of the state itself disappearing?
Well, dear reader in one of democratic states of today. Have you heard that simple message, that “taxes are bad”? That any attempt to curb oligarchs/barons/magnates influence is an attack on your rights? That every reform is just disguised plan to “take away your traditional freedoms”? That only warmongers want army, because who would attack us and why? Have you seen state organs paralyzed by seemingly absurd obstruction, with no real reason and no attempt to negotiate any settlement? Heard loud voices to abstain from voting, because it's futile? Seen random candidates out of nowhere, with history of enormous debts, but somehow having truckloads of cash for propaganda? Welcome to 18th century Commonwealth, then.
Finally we managed to get to senses. Rewrite laws. Vote a new constitution. It was too little and too late by then, and those who paid for all preceding paragraph took the ripe fruit. There was a war, so short that almost nobody remembers it, so ridiculously it was lost. Uprising. Another one. And another. It took, let me count… about two hundred years, ten uprisings (not sure if I counted all of them), multiple wars (including two world ones), two revolutions…
One of our then-neighbours has two hundred years of experience more in ”how to deal with democracies” field. You are at war. You just don't know it yet.
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 08:43:47 JST brie
@hermlon @kaia madame in the middle then. -
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Friday, 16-Feb-2024 23:32:29 JST brie
@clacke Not public transport, but a gem nevertheless. Staplerfahrer Klaus (Nick the Forklift Driver). Starts a bit slowly, but then...
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Friday, 16-Feb-2024 03:48:13 JST brie
@kaia Haven't it expired in 2018? 1919 + 99 years. -
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Sunday, 31-Dec-2023 03:11:19 JST brie
@RustyBertrand NASA claims that “no strike or mutiny took place during the Skylab 4 mission. The astronauts and ground controllers resolved crew scheduling issues during an inflight operations conference”.
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Sunday, 31-Dec-2023 02:20:34 JST brie
@clacke @jhv Yes, a.k.a. potato vodka. -
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Saturday, 30-Dec-2023 19:02:51 JST brie
@clacke @jhv “Wine of underground grapes” -
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Monday, 11-Dec-2023 20:16:02 JST brie
@clacke @notclacke Non-native, and I'd try to show the difference by inserting a (very short) pause, more like a stutter. Other than that, there'd be no difference in pronounciation.
(I have no poll-voting functionality)
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Tuesday, 31-Oct-2023 10:08:49 JST brie
@clacke Meanwhile, we on the south side of Baltic have temperatures around +18 centigrades. -
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Saturday, 28-Oct-2023 22:26:38 JST brie
@oliverg @feditips Maybe it's time for social: URLs, like mailto: -
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Monday, 09-Oct-2023 21:00:14 JST brie
@clacke Even today you can buy “mumia”, but nowadays it's mostly resin. Not unlike the kind that was used to mummfication, though. -
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Tuesday, 01-Aug-2023 13:50:47 JST brie
@clacke Oh. My two dream cars. I always wanted to have a silver Saab and put three-crowns roundels on doors. -
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Wednesday, 12-Jul-2023 17:32:08 JST brie
@aral I have probably quoted it before, but it nicely fits my experiences:
“And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human”
(William Gibson, Count Zero)
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 21:43:28 JST brie
@clacke Somehow it instantly brought Laibach “Whistleblowers” to my mind. -
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jun-2023 10:54:20 JST brie
@clacke Reminds me of the idea of trapping autonomous car by making salt circle around it... -
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brie (brie@venera.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Mar-2023 19:53:16 JST brie
@clacke Something for Royal Tit-watching Society of Britain.