• 0 Posts
  • 210 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: October 21st, 2023

help-circle
rss









  • I’ve come across many a users here who don’t know VOA is US State Department propaganda.

    In the literal sense, it is an organization funded fully by the US government with the purpose of publishing information that is helpful towards their policy objectives.

    That doesn’t mean they’re spreading lies, or somehow equivalent to RT, it’s just a statement of fact. It is the organization’s purpose.

    As to your question, maybe they intentionally degraded the quality or substituted a synthetic image for counterintelligence purposes, or maybe it’s just a bad photo, I don’t know.




  • Yes, Monero fills a niche, and it’s the closest crypto asset to resemble a currency.

    However, your previous post talked about replacing finance with Bitcoin. Even if we pretend you were talking about Monero, that just means you have a one world currency, and no one at the helm who can guide monetary policy for any one country.

    You shouldn’t need a degree in finance or economics to understand how disastrous that would be, especially for smaller and poorer countries.

    So, Bitcoin and the rest of crypto are all commodities, not currencies. They are commodities with a high environmental cost, and a floor of zero because they have no tangible assets to speak of.

    Monero can fill a niche, and I’m actually happy about that because I like Monero and the principles behind the project. Unless of course you believe that includes delusions of grandeur and replacing all world currency and financial systems, with the magic of the “just the right crypto”.


  • If I was support, had a list to work through because my calls were monitored and recorded, and you were being a complete know-it-all asshole, I would walk through them as slow as possible, and repeat as many as I could plausibly get away with.

    Because that’s the actual job: following instructions from their boss, which means following their processes. Why would they deviate from that, and risk their job, for someone who’s rude, and/or self-important?

    As someone who’s also technically competent and rarely calls support, when I do, I’ve never had to repeat the same steps 17 times, or even 3 times.

    I let them tell me to turn off and on again, confirm it’s done, explain why I need a level 2 support or escalation. Then they’ll typically ask me one or two more questions, which I’ll politely answer, reiterate my polite request for level 2, and they will escalate for me.





  • This has to be a joke right? Satire?

    I mean, it’s one thing to be a long on Bitcoin, or even just see it’s value as a niche commodity.

    But suggesting Bitcoin mining is an energy efficient way to heat buildings, is capable of replacing global finance, or that it creates more tangible benefits than artisanal glass blowers…?

    You know what I can do with a artisanal piece of glass? Hold it, use it, own it.

    You know what I can do with Bitcoin? Speculate that if I hold on to it long enough, I can convert it to actual currency that can actually be used as a currency.

    Unlike BTC, which is just a speculative commodity, with no tangible assets to provide an actual floor.

    The floor on crypto is zero. If I buy a bunch of gold right now, even if the price crashes, I still have a bunch of gold.


  • People here get really uppity when you point out that Ukraine’s enemy lossss and casualty reports are likely inflated, because that’s what all militaries do in all conflicts. It doesn’t even always have to do with wartime propaganda, but because it’s hard to accurately tally enemy losses during active conflict.

    Anyways, when you point that out the usual responses to point out the patently ridiculous reports on Ukrainian losses that the Russian MoD puts out, as if somehow that means Ukraine’s are accurate.

    The best I can say is that Ukrainian reports are almost certainly exponentially closer to reality than Russia’s comically absurd and fantastical figures.

    I will finish it up by saying that there are good independent sources who open source intelligence to track verified losses, and air on the conservative side.

    That of course means their loss reports aren’t accurate either, but they provide a good figures to be used as a floor for any estimate ranges.


  • Casualties are not the same as KIA, and not all WIA are permanently combat ineffective.

    Someone who got shrapnel in the leg or abdomen and requires 6-8 weeks of recovery, before returning to combat, is a single casualty.

    That same soldier can return to combat, catch a bullet in their arm, and be a casualty again.

    That same soldier can return to service three months later, etc.

    If after returning to service a 3rd time, they’re eventually KIA, then they would have been counted as a casualty three times.

    Not saying this is typical, or that this is indicative of the normal WIA casualty. Just pointing out that a single soldier can be counted as a casualty more than once, and it’s not uncommon.