Made the Eros comparison just a few comments above!
They were dead anyways (thanks to Protogen releasing the protomolecule), the real tragedy would be to let their deaths be in vain…
Grimpen
joined 2 years ago
Eros in the Expanse.
#My Mastodon Copypasta (formatted for Reddit)
Consider making an account on a Canadian Mastodon instance. Mastodon is a decentralized open-source social media platform similar to X/Twitter. There are many Canadian based general interest "instances" where you can make an account: Mstdn.ca, TheCanadian.Social, CoSocial.ca or any of many others you can find at MastodonServer.ca.
There is no one company fine-tuning an algorithm to entertain you, sell you crypto, and radicalize you, so you'll need to do some work on setting up your feed. Check out Fedi.Directory, Interesting Accounts to Follow on Mastodon and the Fediverse and Fedi.Tips- An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse.
For some Canadian themed news sources, I recommend the following Mastodon follows. You can follow pretty much any Mastodon account from any Mastodon instance.
- CBC News
- Global News
- The Tyee
- PressProgress
- Meanwhile In Canada
- Winnipeg Free Press
- The Narwhal
- Cory Doctorow
- Michael Geist
- Senator Paula Simmons
- Canadian History Ehx
- Saskatoon Star Phoenix
- Andrew Kurjata, CBC Journalist
Following #Hashtags is also a good way to stay in the loop on a topic. For now, I'd suggest #Canada , #CdnPoli , #ElbowsUp and #Never51st .
There are also Canadian instances for other Federated services, but Mastodon is probably a good gateway. Even if it isn't your primary social media, at least you'll have a backstop of news and a way to connect without the algorithms manipulating what to show you. Hope to see you out there.
There are two things that I find soothing in the recent debacle wrt basic Canadian sovereignty.
First, executive authority resides in the PM, and the PM is selected by and must face question period in the House of Commons. The vaunted US system of checks and balances is useless when the other branches are compromised.
Second, the fundamental problem in the US isn't structural, it's that around a third of the electorate is okay with the rank corruption and self-dealing from the top. They cheer on the acts of a Presidential monarch. It doesn't matter how your democracy is structured, when around a third of your electorate no longer values democratic traditions you are in a dangerous place.
In Canada though, we've seen a fairly strong repudiation of Maple MAGA and the Qonvoy movement. It's a little weird, I've seen Qonvoyers missing the point, thinking everyone is on side with them somehow, because Canadian flags? But the ratio of pro-Qonvoy pro-Canada sentiment (where there isn't an obvious and rampant bot problem) seems to skew pretty far away from the Qonvoyers. I think we face the same dangers the US is facing, but it looks like we have a little more runway.
As to point 2, do not rely on Xitter for your news. It has turned into an algorithmically twisted bot-manipulated hellscape of discord and echo chambers. Speaking to the choir here on Lemmy.ca Canada community, but encourage Canadians to make an account on a Canadian Mastodon or Lemmy instance. I recommend dipping their toe into the Fediverse with Mastodon, and just following some Canadian news sources.
This is one of the reasons I really liked the Saab offer. Supporting a domestic aerospace defence industry is probably a good strategic aim.
GCAP would also offer a chance to foster our domestic aerospace industry.
There are other combinations that achieve much the same though. FCAS (Future Combat Air System) is similar to GCAP, a joint France, Germany and Spain project, but it isn't scheduled to deliver until 2040.
I am in no position to know what's "best", but it's undeniable that there are some good options. It's unfortunate though that there will be a cost to pay that we went with F-35 all those years ago. Still don't have a Canadian F-35 in the air.
Another piece of trivia, that I really don't know if significant is that Sweden nearly joined GCAP. If we went with Gripen and GCAP, and Sweden rejoined GCAP there might be opportunities for long term partnerships. Then again I think there are similar opportunities with Eurofighter and FCAS.
Back in the day, Cott was the #1 pop brand in Canada because they were the private label manufacturer for President's Choice cola. I remember because they also sold their own branded pop in Fields. Cott's Beverage got sold off somewhere, and more private label pop bottlers have taken the crown, but there is no reason why some of these pl bottlers couldn't start a house brand.
We are entering an era when the new Cott's Cola might outsell Coca Cola because it's the Canadian alternative.
I think I'd just supporting the inevitable insurgency. Lots of Americans would probably join in as well. I'm sure China and Russia would gladly supply support. Putin's such a good buddy with Trump, he might even not smile as he funds the absolute destruction of the US for generations at pennies on the dollar.
It's the stupidest speculative future I can imagine. Who gains in this scenario? Why do something so obviously self destructive? Thing is, who would start a trade war and "joke" about annexation so much? Only someone so ill-informed that they can't remember how Afghanistan played out (twice) as well as Vietnam, Iraq, etc. Look how much Russia has bled in Ukraine, and to gain so little.
This isn't Europa Universalis IV. The strength of empires is not built on force of arms. It's built on the ability to wage war at an industrial scale, to maintain the supply lines and build the tools of destruction. More than that, it the ability to develop the connections to never need to war, and make war too costly.
The steel and aluminum tariffs are a great example of that. Alcan (now Rio-Tinto Alcan), originally Aluminum Company of Canada, is the largest producer of aluminum in the world. It was originally a subsidiary of Alcoa, Aluminum Company of America. It was an example of "friendshoring" or "nearshoring". Canadian aluminum helped build the Spitfires and Mustangs, the Lancasters and Flying Fortresses of WW2. Similar with steal. Since then, it's only become more interconnected. The cold war wasn't won in the fields of Vietnam, but in the studios of Hollywood and the factories of the Free World. Now Trump is throwing that away. For what? That's the scary thing, I remember learning about Mercantilism in Grade 10. The President of the US is operating at a Grade 10 level of understanding of the fate of nations. He's just ignorant enough he could do something really stupid.
“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity" —Sun Tzu, probably the one quote Trump ever saw.
“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” ― Sun Tzu, the chapter Trump never got to.
That's kind of what I was thinking.
I used to run Folding@Home, as well as others, as a screensaver. It's been a while, but I think you had some control of how hard to work the computer. As someone who regularly works with 30 year old computers that run 24/7, it seems weird to kill a GPU by running it,but if it runs cooler maybe it will last longer? Although that defeats the purpose kind of.
Now you need to use the money you saved and the $15 in crypto to buy two identical computers, then run one flat out and the other at around 50% and see how long they last. Report back every couple of years.
Excuse me while I look at extreme uptime posts.
…for naught.
You're welcome, trying to make it feel more like Reddit!
I was going to look up the Saskatchewan community as well. There are just less people on Lemmy though. You'll likely get more discussion on the main Canada community.
If you want to "be the change you want to see", maybe get into the habit of posting Saskatchewan news articles into the Saskatchewan community. More people keep showing up, maybe one day soon it will be busy enough to keep you busy.
Good ol' Dougie!
Even if you think he's a crook, there's no denying he's our crook. Unlike the Quisling Danielle Smith.
I'm pretty sure that 80% if what we learned from the Nazi/Imperial Japan super unethical experiments was "what can a psychotic doctor justify in order to have an excuse to torture people to death."
Maybe 20% was arguably useful, and most of that could have been researched ethically with other methods.