Trevor would love it there.

Pétanque, a game similar to boules, has been popular here since the French introduced it in the former colony. But children often see the round, metal cluster munitions and mistake them for lost pétanque balls. “Many children pick up bombies thinking they’re toys, we hear this a lot,” says Ket. It’s why awareness and education programmes are as important as the land clearance operations, she adds.

Fucking hell.

Still, aid to clean up the UXOs pales in comparison to the cost of the bombardment – in 2023 dollars, the US spent $16 million every day bombing Laos for nine years. According to Legacies of War, funding to decontaminate now stands at just $45 million per year.

(16)(365)(9) = 52,560 million or 52.56 billion. 0.045/52.56 = 0.086%

deleted by creator

Oh hell yeah! I hope they bring back Hunters mode. Such manic, chaotic fun.

Great cover art, compelling title, intriguing premise, very reasonable price.

I love it. Fun, nice, life, youths, beautiful. I’m all for it!

Buckaroo, vaquero, vaccine!

TY! One moment, I just ctrl CV’d and this is what happens.

“In October 2018, the United States Army Research Laboratory publicly discussed efforts to develop a super wideband radio receiver using Rydberg atoms. In March 2020, the laboratory announced that its scientists analysed the Rydberg sensor’s sensitivity to oscillating electric fields over an enormous range of frequencies—from 0 to 10¹² Hz (the spectrum to 0.3mm wavelength). The Rydberg sensor can reliably detect signals over the entire spectrum and compare favourably with other established electric field sensor technologies, such as electro-optic crystals and dipole antenna-coupled passive electronics.”

Wikipedia, Rydberg atom

It’s a neat wiki entry, I recommend it. I hadn’t heard of Rydberg atoms before today.

For those of us just learning about CGP Grey, what are some videos that those in the know would recommend?

And all the fish, plankton, sea greens and protein from the sea that we can eat!

The pigoons said they would leave your garden alone if you stopped hunting them.

So they finally acknowledged you were due for promotion, eh Stamets?

If you truly don’t see how any of those things are related, you’re the pigeon. How did you put it, I think we’re done here? Have fun losing more freedoms to other violent extremists in the future.

They’re taking a symbol

I believe they are buying a copy of a symbol, then burning it. If they’re genuinely stealing Qurans and burning them, I don’t condone that.

Even if there were a factory where religious texts were systematically copied and then immediately burned onsite, the total number of religious texts in the world would remain the same. The number of adherents would remain the same. Nothing would change but CO2 levels.

You can’t call someone ugly and then follow it up with, “It’s nothing personal.”

Is a book burning really a personal attack? Did they write it? Did they personally know the author? Was an original burned or was it property that was purchased?

I think people should be able to express their opinion that an ideology is ugly. Without fear of repercussions, especially from those who can’t control their emotions.

How is the burning of a book a personal attack? It’s criticism of an ideology. If someone wants to take it personally, that’s their problem. Saying a book is garbage is not the same as saying a person is.

Does burning a book delete its fans? Couldn’t they just, I don’t know, print more? Why wouldn’t they just laugh while printing more?! And hell, sell it to the burners. Turn a profit off their opinions. Why would you threaten violence and prove their point?

you cannot understand how someone can get upset, or feel frightened over others publically burning their symbols.

I do not understand why someone would be moved to violence by the destruction of a copy of a symbol that wasn’t theirs. I absolutely understand anger and fear in reaction to libraries, museums, or historical sites’ destruction. I absolutely understand being upset and frightened by organisms burning. But not symbols, no. That seems a breath away from insanity to me.

That isn’t what this is though. The symbol endures, that’s kind of the point of symbols. It’s destruction of a book, yes, but it’s the burner’s copy. They’re not marching through the city, taking Qurans from people’s homes, and burning them. That fool paid for the thing he burned. And the shopkeeper already ordered another one. Again, they could profit from this, and all the while seeming cooler and funnier. That would be the real power move. Not threats of violence.

So how do you expect to argue or debate anything if you don’t even comprehend the issue?

We are still talking about Quran burnings right? Copies of paper and the imaginary friends of adults? Free speech v religious protection? Walking the secular line without leaving room for racist skinheads who abuse liberties like these for their own agenda?

I think if people want to hold on so tightly to and refuse to update an old inflammatory book, they should get used to a certain number being destroyed each year by readers who thought it was as good as ash.

This goes for all ideologies. They are not immune to criticism, however inflammatory it may be. I don’t think public spaces should be policed to restrict expression of criticism of ideologies, so long as there aren’t threats of violence toward people. There can be strong criticism of an ideology without hate, threats, and violence. I think book desecration qualifies as acceptable criticism. I wouldn’t do it, but I wouldn’t jail someone for it either (provided it’s their copy).

Now if someone starts waving a flag of hate, then we have a problem. That is promotion of an ideology of hate not criticism of one. Ideologies that call for violence, deserve criticism and resistance. The criticism and resistance deserve protection, not medieval ideologies.

…you’re not allowed to burn flags.

It may be illegal for some but not for all. I believe people should be allowed to do this (provided they do it safely). Because it isn’t a big deal. It’s not an expression calling for violence. I interpet it as, “I think this flag (or book) is dangerous trash.” I may or may not agree with their opinion, but that doesn’t matter. I believe they have a right to express it, as I have a right to express mine.

Now you got me laughing hard

I mean, you need permits for large protests/assemblies right? What’s the intention there? Expression, incitement, a hope that change can be provoked?

Shouldn’t the state sponsor protection of expression, within reason?

As long as they aren’t starting other fires when burning, I really don’t care. I’d rather they use a method that results in fewer greenhouse gas emissions (perhaps an ax and a block of wood?), but it’s ultimately a small amount in that regard.

I genuinely wasn’t trying to strawman or bad faith anything. I understand why some people really don’t like religion. What I do not understand is why people lose their heads over the condition of someone else’s copy of a book that believers didn’t even author.

It’s silly. Those who are offended by this behavior are making it about themselves. They aren’t hearing the burners’ side. It’s the believer’s way or the highway, and their way is unreasonable.

Threatening violence over this nonsense is absurd. Now people are gonna burn out of spite. This is going to have the opposite of the intended effect.

It’s just a book. And a flag is just cloth. How is this the hot topic when the atmospheric [CO2] is over 420ppm?

They can get over people burning copies of their own books. No one is coming for temples or holy sites or libraries here. No one is talking conversion.

Some people think that book is holy, some think it’s trash. I think both groups should be able to express their opinion however they like, so long as it does not infringe upon the rights of others. And if they want to live in a world where people don’t want to burn their book, perhaps they should write a better one. Or just get over it. It is just a book after all. It’s not like crops burned.

No, I suspect this is really about power. It’s a powerful statement, the act of burning something in public. If it weren’t powerful, it wouldn’t be so…inflammatory. And a certain amount of any structure’s power comes from the perception of that power. Allowing this to occur anywhere in the world is an erosion of that power. It says there are those who resist, there are those whose priorities are otherwise, and they have the strength to publicly display their opinions. And they do so without setting fire to a bunch of other stuff. It’s a very controlled and specific criticism. I want people to have this power. Doing it privately is meaningless, it may as well have not occurred.

Anyway…do what you will. I think it’s fine. You want to restrict it. We’re neither of us budging, I agree.

This is beautiful. I feel silly it took me a couple reads. Then in a flash I saw Picard elbowing Data out of the way to mash the fire button like a kid playing Tekken for the first time. Desperate shots go wide, there’s a heavy sigh as realization sets in…he stands up straight, smooths his uniform, “Onscreen.”

And when the religious extremists next come for queer public displays of affection? Are people supposed to only do that in private, too?

It’s a book. They can get over it. I won’t hurt them if they want to burn LoTR, The Selfish Gene or any other book (or flag) privately or publicly.

Ultimately this is capitulation to threats of violence. It’s a rather slippery slope.

If this kind of thing becomes the trend, it will only beget more violence not less. And climate activists using this strategy will be the least of our worries.

‘But why are you helping the Nothing, G’mork?’

‘Because people without hopes and dreams are easier to control.’

Fuck! Shit. Jesus.

Let me just flip on some Fern Gully to clean the palette…Oh, ffs.

WALL-E!

I’m realizing now I saw Atreyu have his good day to die moment long before I got into Trek. It’s a rather heavy story now that I think about it.