Napoleon already did it

Could have a single picture of it that isn’t a render, to start

High speed rail… mmmmm…

I do civil engineering work, mostly related to soils etc. I have a computer for work but that’s about as far as it gets for me professionally.

Engineer here, but my technical expertise is about as far away from computing and technology as you can get and still be an engineer.

I was a kid in the 90s and the first album I bought was Metallica’s black album. I spent over $18 in like 1999 so with inflation that’s like $300 or something now. Then the drummer of what was then my favorite band says hey, if you’re downloading our music on Napster, then we don’t want you as a fan. That hit teenage me pretty hard and basically radicalized me to find “alternative methods” for every piece of digital media I could, if that’s how the people I looked up to were going to treat me for not having as much money as them. Everything I host now started at that inflection point, from picking up Linux as a hobby to learning about networking and security. Turned out to be a pretty good path to follow though seeing how Microsoft, Netflix, Spotify et. al. turned out in the end.

I still download and share all of Metallica’s discography out of spite, but haven’t listened to them since.

Pieces of paper can’t actually do things

Some non-polotical reasons:

If you live in the US there’s a better chance than not that your ISP is selling your personal data. Outside US idk, maybe still though. Either way you’re putting a lot of trust in a telecom company.

Since net neutrality was removed your traffic can be throttled based on what type of traffic it is, so having it all encrypted for the first hop at least has it treated all the same.

Two political ones I haven’t seen mentioned yet:

You don’t actually know you don’t have anything to hide. Again, assuming US, the amount of federal laws there are couldn’t fit in a pickup truck if they were all printed out. And if someone’s looking to make an example of you then you shouldn’t make it easy for them to find a reason. My favorite example is that throwing out mail that isn’t addressed to you (like junk mail for a previous tenant etc) is a felony.

You also could be falsely accused of a crime. For example, your phone gave out it’s location info near a place where coincidentally an actual crime had taken place. Best to not give that information freely to everyone and have to pony up $10k for a lawyer for nothing.

Cool, can’t wait for nothing to happen afterwards

This is also kind of true of plants in the nightshade family like potatoes and tomatoes where they can be pretty poisonous if you eat the wrong parts, we just know which parts we can eat. We also don’t have cultural stigma against eating potatoes so more people know about them. Knowledge is power!

Also, tobacco and chile peppers are in the nightshade family as well, but the “poisonous” chemical in those is slightly altered in each case to make nicotine and capsaisin respectfully. Neat!

Make matrix as easy to use and understand and make sure all their friends are there first

Started a mutual aid group in our small town. Mostly deals with some local agriculture etc but hoping to expand it to more community needs etc. Trying to make the local community more resilient in turbulent times

I can’t think of any artist more divorced from their work than Orson Scott Card

Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Mat. 25

Go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. Mat. 19

Of course if you quote Jesus’ literal words at these people they start screeching about how the Devil can quote scripture too

Is there some tool that turns like an eBook or PDF into this format?

Yes/yes

The benefits far outweigh the downsides and it’s my personal belief that this is a gateway conspiracy theory

If I had to estimate it might be about three-fifths of a democracy on a good day

Works better when spoken but just say this in your head really fast

What’s the difference between a good joke and a bad joke timing.

The best arguments for metric is that you get to travel slightly faster for an equivalent speed limit (100 kph > 60 mph) and only needing to own one set of wrenches

Is “remain ‘impartial’ to political agendas” a dogwhistle for “tolerates Nazis” or have I just become too cynical

Good strategy, blame individuals for systemic problems lol