aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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Today I Learned #2: Gone for a Wiki Walk
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Zardnaar
Deity
TIL central government can totally over ride local government essentially sidelining the local council.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/bay-of-plenty...to-stay-in-charge-prove-futile?cid=app-iPhone
https://i.stuff.co.nz/bay-of-plenty...to-stay-in-charge-prove-futile?cid=app-iPhone
This link works for me: https://www.stuff.co.nz/bay-of-plen...ncillors-pleas-to-stay-in-charge-prove-futile
This is not the case in NL for the city councillors. They are elected for 4 years and that's it.
But our country started with towns and agregated upward in governance during centuries of nation forming.
NZ got I guess a top down structure from the start.
But it does raise for me the question: "which other countries can override the local government ?
Zardnaar
Deity
yung.carl.jung
Hey Bird! I'm Morose & Lugubrious
The fundamental problem w/r/t people talking ITT about "being useful/useless" and "work" is thinking that work is necessarily loan-work, which is something that we have been conditioned to think for decades when it is clearly a lie. this, I believe, is one of the cleverest moves that capitalist ideologoes have ever pulled. It makes us think that all work that isn't contract-based loan work (or self-employment I guess) is basically worthless and not really work and not a substitute for a job.
We call chores in the household "housework" without thinking, yet never question why it is unpaid. We consider emotional/social labor as "not really work", even though it clearly is. A great painting is a "work of art", does it suddenly change with the employment status of the artist? My bosses get paid outrageous sums of money to come together in a room and talk ****, and that is work, but my girlfriend cleaning the kitchen five times a week because we don't have a dishwasher somehow isn't proper work? But when she does it in a restaurant, it suddenly is?
the phenomenon is pretty well shown in this post:
Is writing a novel or a short story not work? Why is writing a novel considered "work" when you are getting paid for it, but not when you are doing it for a different reasons? It's absolutely nonsensical.
There was some guy in Germany who looked like Santa Claus and had pretty interesting ideas about what "work" really is
We call chores in the household "housework" without thinking, yet never question why it is unpaid. We consider emotional/social labor as "not really work", even though it clearly is. A great painting is a "work of art", does it suddenly change with the employment status of the artist? My bosses get paid outrageous sums of money to come together in a room and talk ****, and that is work, but my girlfriend cleaning the kitchen five times a week because we don't have a dishwasher somehow isn't proper work? But when she does it in a restaurant, it suddenly is?
the phenomenon is pretty well shown in this post:
Is writing a novel or a short story not work? Why is writing a novel considered "work" when you are getting paid for it, but not when you are doing it for a different reasons? It's absolutely nonsensical.
There was some guy in Germany who looked like Santa Claus and had pretty interesting ideas about what "work" really is
Synobun
Deity
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I don't buy that. People interpret work as contributing to the machinations of society. On a micro scale, individual relationships are important, but helping a friend with a problem or someone in the neighbourhood inevitably feels pale in comparison to contributing to The Economy(tm) or some other larger-than-life concept that's propped up by millions of other people in the same position as you. More to the point, if someone takes more from the system than they offer, they will feel useless, and based on that system, they are. If I take $10,000 from the government but only earn $8,000 myself, I'm not taxed on any of that. I buy things, which is some money being funneled back into the economy, but I am by and large a leech on society's coffers. Thus, useless.
If you reject the system, cool, but then you're in fantasyland and not real life.
If you reject the system, cool, but then you're in fantasyland and not real life.
aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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Today I learned about the Lloyds Bank coprolite. And what a coprolite even is. I end up in strange places on my wiki walks.
Any of them, if they change the rules and give themselves that power.
The education minister here in Alberta has a pathological hatred of the public school system, specifically the Calgary Board of Education (one of the first things she did when taking office last year was to forbid the public school boards from using the word "public" in their names; the same restriction was not required of the Catholic school boards). She keeps threatening to fire the CBE for a variety of reasons, none of which have been proven valid. So that's provincial-level government interfering in municipal-level government.
There's confusion over which level of government's mask laws people should follow (they're all different).
Look at it this way: Kyriakos does translations, which is a legal use of someone else's copyrighted work. He also writes and presents his own original material, and gets paid for both endeavors.
I write fanfiction, for which I cannot be legally paid - I'm playing in someone else's copyrighted sandbox (usually) without their permission (I do have permission from the creator of the Fuzzy Knights webcomic to create my own FK stories and post them - but cannot claim to have created either the webcomic or the original characters). But most authors are smart enough to understand that anything that promotes their own work is a good thing (hence George Lucas didn't crack down on anyone writing Star Wars fanfic or making fan films).
So... what Kyriakos does is work. What I do is a hobby, though I probably put in as many hours a day at it as he does (and he types his material; I did my last couple of NaNo events in longhand, in looseleaf notebooks).
Any I, Claudius fans here? There's a segment in which Messalina (Claudius' 3rd wife) is bored and decides to compete with a prostitute to see which of them can "wear out the most men in a night". Scylla, when told she shouldn't expect any pay for this, that she should do it 'for the honor', informs Mnester (Messalina's actor friend who arranged the contest), "The difference between this great lady and myself is that my profession is her hobby. My hobby happens to be gardening, for which I don't expect to be paid."
Scylla is paid 3 gold pieces per man... and loses the contest. The novel speculates that she realized that it would be a good idea to deliberately lose, so as not to anger the Empress.
O-kay...
You are not useless. And to anyone who says you are, they can go fly a kite in a thunderstorm.
Consider all the services, goods, and government programs set up to deal with people who cannot work what society considers a normal 37.5 hours/week. They get paid for that, so if the "useless" people all vanished, these others would be out of a job. As I told someone one time who was less than courteous about my situation: "People like me keep people like you in business."
Can you imagine all the millions of people who would have to find other employment if a foolproof cure for cancer was discovered? A cynical outlook says that this is why there may be advances here and there, but a definitive cure will never be found.
(I don't subscribe to that particular conspiracy theory, but in a truly cynical world, I could see it happening that way)
I knew what a coprolite is but I didn't realise they were putting human ones in musuems now!
The fundamental problem w/r/t people talking ITT about "being useful/useless" and "work" is thinking that work is necessarily loan-work, which is something that we have been conditioned to think for decades when it is clearly a lie. this, I believe, is one of the cleverest moves that capitalist ideologoes have ever pulled. It makes us think that all work that isn't contract-based loan work (or self-employment I guess) is basically worthless and not really work and not a substitute for a job.
We call chores in the household "housework" without thinking, yet never question why it is unpaid. We consider emotional/social labor as "not really work", even though it clearly is. A great painting is a "work of art", does it suddenly change with the employment status of the artist? My bosses get paid outrageous sums of money to come together in a room and talk ****, and that is work, but my girlfriend cleaning the kitchen five times a week because we don't have a dishwasher somehow isn't proper work? But when she does it in a restaurant, it suddenly is?
the phenomenon is pretty well shown in this post:
Is writing a novel or a short story not work? Why is writing a novel considered "work" when you are getting paid for it, but not when you are doing it for a different reasons? It's absolutely nonsensical.
There was some guy in Germany who looked like Santa Claus and had pretty interesting ideas about what "work" really is
He was influenced by Rudolf the Red.
I really wish you could consider yourself not-useless. You've helped and influenced more people than you realize.
aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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In the confines of a capitalist system, disabled people who can't work are useless. Yes I know "services goods blah blah" but that's broken window fallacy.
Doesn't mean we actually are useless. Just that capitalism considers us so.
Any of them, if they change the rules and give themselves that power.
The education minister here in Alberta has a pathological hatred of the public school system, specifically the Calgary Board of Education (one of the first things she did when taking office last year was to forbid the public school boards from using the word "public" in their names; the same restriction was not required of the Catholic school boards). She keeps threatening to fire the CBE for a variety of reasons, none of which have been proven valid. So that's provincial-level government interfering in municipal-level government.
There's confusion over which level of government's mask laws people should follow (they're all different).
Look at it this way: Kyriakos does translations, which is a legal use of someone else's copyrighted work. He also writes and presents his own original material, and gets paid for both endeavors.
I write fanfiction, for which I cannot be legally paid - I'm playing in someone else's copyrighted sandbox (usually) without their permission (I do have permission from the creator of the Fuzzy Knights webcomic to create my own FK stories and post them - but cannot claim to have created either the webcomic or the original characters). But most authors are smart enough to understand that anything that promotes their own work is a good thing (hence George Lucas didn't crack down on anyone writing Star Wars fanfic or making fan films).
So... what Kyriakos does is work. What I do is a hobby, though I probably put in as many hours a day at it as he does (and he types his material; I did my last couple of NaNo events in longhand, in looseleaf notebooks).
Any I, Claudius fans here? There's a segment in which Messalina (Claudius' 3rd wife) is bored and decides to compete with a prostitute to see which of them can "wear out the most men in a night". Scylla, when told she shouldn't expect any pay for this, that she should do it 'for the honor', informs Mnester (Messalina's actor friend who arranged the contest), "The difference between this great lady and myself is that my profession is her hobby. My hobby happens to be gardening, for which I don't expect to be paid."
Scylla is paid 3 gold pieces per man... and loses the contest. The novel speculates that she realized that it would be a good idea to deliberately lose, so as not to anger the Empress.
O-kay...
You are not useless. And to anyone who says you are, they can go fly a kite in a thunderstorm.
Consider all the services, goods, and government programs set up to deal with people who cannot work what society considers a normal 37.5 hours/week. They get paid for that, so if the "useless" people all vanished, these others would be out of a job. As I told someone one time who was less than courteous about my situation: "People like me keep people like you in business."
Can you imagine all the millions of people who would have to find other employment if a foolproof cure for cancer was discovered? A cynical outlook says that this is why there may be advances here and there, but a definitive cure will never be found.
(I don't subscribe to that particular conspiracy theory, but in a truly cynical world, I could see it happening that way)
Tbh translating isn't paying that much, at least in Greece. Compared to my seminar work the pay is rather not worth the hours spent either (when I was staying in Athens I usually had to finish one 30K word book each month).
As for writing original stuff, you will almost never do it for decent pay, unless you are connected/write for tv-films-similar or are one of very few who become massively popular (itself not a yardstick for literary worth, going by almost all of those in the past being unknown now).
Furthermore, if you are writing in a language not spoken by endless millions of people, you will at best have to wait decades before you become known - IF you become known. Constantine Cavafy is a good example there, probably by now one of the most celebrated poets of the 20th century.
Crime doesn't pay; neither does writing. If you are hack, crime-writing can pay ^_^
I have no idea what your financial situation may be. All I know is that you're a professional who gets paid for writing. I'm a fanfiction author/filk writer who does it for fun. I can't be legally paid for my efforts unless there's a contest of some kind that's sponsored by the actual copyright holders. Your profession is my hobby.
I actually did consider entering the "Strange New Worlds" anthology contests some years ago, as they were only open to amateur authors who had either never been professionally published or who had only been professionally published once. Alas, the contests were shut down when I was about a quarter of the way through my story outline.
Well, I already knew what a coprolite was, but I had no idea that such a large one existed!
Berzerker
Deity
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...ds-a-remarkable-era-of-san-franciscos-history
We went to the Cliff House many many times as kids, they had an arcade with antique and modern games. Its too bad I missed the Sutro Baths, I think we moved to SF a couple years after it burned down. But we used to play there among the ruins a lot. At the northern end a rock platform juts out over the waves like the bow of a ship and people could walk out and risk the avalanche of spray from the collision of ocean against rock.
Straight across the bay's entrance to the north lie WWII forts, gun emplacements, etc. When we got 10 speeds we were trekking all over that city and beyond, those forts NW of the Golden Gate Bridge were one of the places we played army. There was a really cool amusement park just down the hill to the south of the Cliff House. We spent many hours there too, roller coaster, bumper cars etc , and a fun house with a ~4-5 story high slide.
They closed that place in the 70s I think, just outside was the beginning of lengthy stretch of the Great Highway heading south along the western edge of Golden Gate Park where Friday night drag racing was another tradition. Too many wrecks, too many mangled bodies. There's a 9 hole 'executive' golf course within earshot where I learned the game, nothing but par 3s on hilly terrain.
We went to the Cliff House many many times as kids, they had an arcade with antique and modern games. Its too bad I missed the Sutro Baths, I think we moved to SF a couple years after it burned down. But we used to play there among the ruins a lot. At the northern end a rock platform juts out over the waves like the bow of a ship and people could walk out and risk the avalanche of spray from the collision of ocean against rock.
Straight across the bay's entrance to the north lie WWII forts, gun emplacements, etc. When we got 10 speeds we were trekking all over that city and beyond, those forts NW of the Golden Gate Bridge were one of the places we played army. There was a really cool amusement park just down the hill to the south of the Cliff House. We spent many hours there too, roller coaster, bumper cars etc , and a fun house with a ~4-5 story high slide.
They closed that place in the 70s I think, just outside was the beginning of lengthy stretch of the Great Highway heading south along the western edge of Golden Gate Park where Friday night drag racing was another tradition. Too many wrecks, too many mangled bodies. There's a 9 hole 'executive' golf course within earshot where I learned the game, nothing but par 3s on hilly terrain.
aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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Today I learned that NASA uses HWiNFO (a freeware system information tool).
I picked this up after the suggestion of a friend 
Presenting the "Busy Beaver" Turing machine (this is just the machine for 2 states; 2 symbols is the norm for all such machines, though you can have as many as you like)
Basically this is a Turing machine which has the ambiguous distinction of taking most steps to reach a halt, when you can only factor states and symbols. So this will print "1" four times (repeat printing is allowed; the machine reprints 1 on a cell which already had it printed) and end in 6 steps. R & L are instructions to go 1 cell to the right or left. The states define what the machine does when it reaches the new cell, depending on whether the cell has 0 or 1 printed (and 0 is there by default when there is no 1).
The BB machine is created by having a (so called) m-configuration that will force it to take the most possible steps before terminating. The maximum number of steps is a result of limits in what it can do (since it has to do something in each step). So the above machine is busy printing 1s until there is no variation in which it can go on, so halts (obviously you have to include the Halt order somewhere, and the point is to avoid infinite loops).
BB machines are actually more than a game, given various people have constructed models where such machines (but with massive number of states; eg over 200) would prove stuff if they could be verified to act according to the rules (the difficulty there is tied to the Halting problem, which - with a different name - was first presented by Turing in his early 30s paper on such machines and Goedel). Such stuff include the Riemann hypothesis and the Goldbach conjecture.
Naturally, I will learn more about this.
Presenting the "Busy Beaver" Turing machine (this is just the machine for 2 states; 2 symbols is the norm for all such machines, though you can have as many as you like)
Basically this is a Turing machine which has the ambiguous distinction of taking most steps to reach a halt, when you can only factor states and symbols. So this will print "1" four times (repeat printing is allowed; the machine reprints 1 on a cell which already had it printed) and end in 6 steps. R & L are instructions to go 1 cell to the right or left. The states define what the machine does when it reaches the new cell, depending on whether the cell has 0 or 1 printed (and 0 is there by default when there is no 1).
The BB machine is created by having a (so called) m-configuration that will force it to take the most possible steps before terminating. The maximum number of steps is a result of limits in what it can do (since it has to do something in each step). So the above machine is busy printing 1s until there is no variation in which it can go on, so halts (obviously you have to include the Halt order somewhere, and the point is to avoid infinite loops).
BB machines are actually more than a game, given various people have constructed models where such machines (but with massive number of states; eg over 200) would prove stuff if they could be verified to act according to the rules (the difficulty there is tied to the Halting problem, which - with a different name - was first presented by Turing in his early 30s paper on such machines and Goedel). Such stuff include the Riemann hypothesis and the Goldbach conjecture.
Naturally, I will learn more about this.
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TIL that the language of Sparta, Tsakonika, is still spoken by a couple of thousand people in Greece.
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20201215-the-last-speakers-of-ancient-sparta
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20201215-the-last-speakers-of-ancient-sparta
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