Joined the Mayqueeze.

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Does this make any sense?

    Yes.

    First they define pregnancy to start before conception.

    That’s not what’s happening. This is a statistical math problem and the last, reliably known variable is most likely the last period of the person before conception. That doesn’t mean they were pregnant before conception. If neither the date of the last period nor the date of conception are known, they use a different method, probably ultrasound picture comparisons, and add a lower number.







  • The problem is, I think, abundance of quality - or the lack thereof. For all the research based prizes, there is enough stuff floating around the ether that you can pick something interesting and worth the prize to be awarded. Old Phil Physicist, not by accident a man, will get the prize for fundamental research into clockwise spinning protons and that helps us today with welding or something. Nobody but the experts understands this and we’re okay with that.

    And then Literature and Peace. They seem more subjective. Us non-labcoats have opinions on these ones. And thus the controversy likelihood is much higher.

    Since they get awarded every year, it’s become a fixture in media coverage. Like the New Year’s ball drop, Carnival in Rio, the Pope urbi’ing et orbi’ing, Black Friday, etc. It’s predictable news coverage.

    I don’t think they should stop it. Even the institutionalized reminder once a year that it’s worth it working towards peace is not a bad thing. I think the prize has the most gravitas when it’s awarded for long time services to peace on the books. Like giving it to the chemical weapons disposers, the red crescent/cross or even the EU, which has probably prevented more deaths from wars within than it has tolerated refugees drowning in the Med. They have done more good stuff for peace. It’s tricky when they give it to people for more current achievements. Kissinger wasn’t the peacemaker it looked like he was. Aung San Su Kyi was a great figurehead while under house arrest 1.0 - and arguably not great enough for the Rohingya when she was let out. Obama got it because they thought he wasn’t Bush, and then he sent the drones. We want our laureates to be saints and it hurts when we find out they are just flawed humans.


  • Can? Sure. Should? No.

    It’s worthwhile remembering though that the people who get it aren’t all saints. Although rape and sexual assault are particularly distasteful items to have on the resume, if the person repented and then contributed meaningfully to lasting world peace, they shouldn’t automatically be stricken off the list.

    So those admittedly distastefully liberal guidelines should exclude any current resident of the White House then.

    I think they should ignore any person who is so publicly thirsty for it. It’s a prize you get, not one you ask for.

    It’s unnerving having to read that the US ally Norway feels like they need to prepare for retaliatory tariff action if the independent committee for the award, that only ended up in Oslo by a quirk of Scandinavian history, doesn’t award the prize to 47. Sad.


  • “Free healthcare” doesn’t exist. You can spread the cost differently. Either you pay what you need - which could be a lot - or you pay less but consistently into a big pool along with other people and then that pool money gets distributed to health care providers. That smaller but regular contribution will go up if everybody goes to see their family doctor unnecessarily so there is a bit of a feedback gauge. It isn’t all milk and honey in socialized health care.

    No matter what system your country uses, you will have heard about the same problems. Not enough staff, lacking qualifications, people being overworked and underpaid - in particular on the lower rungs of the ladder. That leads me to think that the staffing levels are about the same. Maybe one system has more work hours invested in preventative care while the other needs more in mop-up crews for those who fall through the cracks.



  • The dipshit could’ve been using services under their actual name. I sadly don’t remember which shooting it was but the shooter streamed it on Facebook live. So that’s easy for a journalist.

    If you posted a deranged manifesto anonymously on 4chan or similar but mention the gruesome deed before it happens that’s a good link to your dipshit’s online history.

    There is a show on German TV that is a rough copy of Last Week Tonight. Every once in a while they surprise their audience with a show that’s about the audience. You need to register for tickets with your name and email and then the researchers mercilessly dig through all the stuff people have been posting online or stuff posted about them by others. And then they gently rib them or surprise them on the show and to compensate for the public embarrassment they get a prize. It’s a concept inspired by the Snowden leaks. It’s unreal how easy it is to link people to their digital footprints. Even anonymous accounts on reddit or whatever. Armed with face recognition and syntax analysis it’s almost trivial to uncover these links. This is the sort of digging modern journalists need to do. So it is not surprising that they quickly find any dipshit’s profiles after they shot innocent people.