Don’t try to fool me: that’s a small scale prototype for the death star superlaser

100% powered by renewable energy

Is the supercomputer off the grid and powered by an independent renewable source?

The EU says that JUPITER “runs entirely on renewable energy” to limit its impact on the environment. Lippert says that this is achieved by paying to use only renewable energy from Germany’s national grid.

Oh, so it’s greenwashing nonsense and the computer uses the same grid everybody uses, which is only in part powered by renewables. Go figure.

Russia has used the widely-banned weapons “extensively”

It must be said that neither Russia nor Ukraine signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions (nor did the US or China or Israel, in case you are wondering… basically, they are banned in roughly half the world - including western Europe, the Commonwealth, and Japan - and perfectly legal in the other half).

Of course, this is not to say that Ukraine used cluster munitions in the same amount or in the same way as the Russians did: the differences in doctrine between the two armies are great and go well beyond cluster munition (see War crimes in the Russian invasion of Ukraine on wikipedia - yes, of course crimes have been reported on the Ukrainian side too, to a much lesser scale).

I’ve long been torn whether we should just ignore this kind of nonsense or call it out.

For a while I believed in ignoring it but, seeing as people seem unable to learn by themselves (at least, in the small world of my acquaintances), I’m now trying calling it out. If nothing else, this will serve to make me feel like I’ve done something (not much more I can do, honestly).

After the inverse defense of Russia from Ukraine aggression (the kind of defense where you invade another country that is aggressing you by opposing your invasion), Putin now issues an inverse declaration of war (the kind of declaration of war where you declare someone else is at war with you). What a total buffoon.

A/C is nice, but you can live without it.

That depends on where you live.

It’s now 29°C where I am (feels like 32°), and if you don’t find a parking spot in the shade (quite likey, given how coveted they are) entering your car will feel like entering an oven.

Yes, I could survive without A/C (we used to in the olden days), but I am not more likely to buy a car without proper A/C than a Dane is to buy one without heating.

those moped cars […] are too slow to not even impede the relatively slow traffic in cities

They go 45km/h… how fast do you drive inside the city? (I agree that they are slow and a PITA to encounter outside cities)

Those aren’t real cars, they have no A/C (yes, I live down south)

I had a call with Putin and he says he’s really intimidated by the European response and that he will surely stop being a naughty boy from now on (BTW I talked with Nethanyahu the other day and he said the same).

Can we get a group discount if we deport ministers from other countries together with him?

It’s the usual theatrical play of the Italian far right; the recipe is the same as everywhere else: victimism and fearmongering mixed together with revanchism.

The US-style flabby macho fascists (FMF, let’s make this a thing) would probably not have said they were moved to the point of crying like Salvini did… he must have heard that sensitive men are more popular than machos in Italy (Salvini is generally very deliberate in his acting).

That said, don’t get me wrong: one must be concerned about the growing political violence in the US (and elsewhere), take it very seriously, and treat it with extreme care.

Specifically, exploiting political assassinations for partisan propaganda campaigns can only exacerbate the political climate, and likely lead to more violence (which of course is welcome if one plans to exploit the new violence as well).

IIUC so far it’s Iceland, Ireland, Slovenia and Spain.

It’s really sad that the list isn’t longer and, personally, I am ashamed that my country is not in there (not that I have much hope, given how Italy’s broadcaster is controlled by Meloni’s government and that she’s a vassal of Trump)

I fear that Germany too is in turn just the tip of the iceberg.

We have been infiltrated much more thoroughly than we think.

I guess I should have writtem “Both purchase and possession …”?

IIUC they don’t need to prove you bought the narcotics (as opposed to just finding them or getting them as a gift from a friend), the fact that you have them (regardless of quantity) is enough. IDK if it’s the same for fake branded stuff.

Purchase/possession of drugs is also illegal in France IIUC

Controversial debate titles such as “Men vs Women: Should women be surgeons? Pros and cons,” and “Women vs Men: Who in Polish surgery works harder, and who is more privileged?” were initially proposed for the programme of the upcoming 72nd Congress of the Polish Society of Surgeons, to be held in Poland.

WTF Poland doctors? In which century do you live?

IDK… is it a generational thing?

Politicians/leaders (not only labour, and not only UK ones) seem to just not grasp what the Internet is and why it’s become what it is (actually, they seem to think it’s just facebook, twitter and tiktok)

I wish everyone stopped debating how to properly classify the Israeli mass extermination of Palestinians, and started doing something about stopping it instead.

Not that the classification isn’t important or won’t be consequential for international law, but that debate can be done later (and it will be easier then) and I’m sure the starving Gazaui don’t care what we call Israeli actions as long as we stop them.

Considering what Russians attacked so far, what’s not a legitimate target in Putin’s mind? Also… can you really have legitimate targets in an illegitimate war?

equate all criticism with “terrorism” and “discrimination” proves how narcissistic and mentally ill they are

Nope, it just proves they are fascists (*)… painting anyone who doesn’t 100% buy into their ideology as an enemy is what all fascists do.

(*) meaning they follow a far-right, authoritarian, supremacist, ultra-nationalist and inhuman political ideology - not that they agree with Mr. Mussolini in everything he did

Limited resources are a very underhanded, if quite popular, excuse to justify inaction.

“We don’t have infinite resources, so we can’t do anything” is something that’s been repeated over and over in all contexts (and, lately, especially by the right to justify sweeping the migration problem under the rug by paying off Libya/Turkey/etc instead of actually doing something about it).

People (and countries) should be only allowed to complain about limited resources after they actually exhausted their resources and done all they could: first you do all you can, and only then you can complain that you couldn’t do more.