The knowledge of geography is top notch.
And Brazil is the colony, not the other way around.
Those. Not the civilians being held almost at a hostage situation
The war that country triggered is the work of a dictator but the country itself does not deserve obliteration.
For the giggles of it? I would. Do I have the cash? I don't.
What I find more difficult to fit in my head in all of this is that it was Germany one of the first supporters of re-industrializing Europe, to off-set the huge dependency on foreign production.
And now this?
Let's say some crazy person decided to just go and buy, let's say, a million rubles, just for the sake of saying they're a millionaire.
It is on a sinking course but it will eventually recover value. If time was of no concern, wouldn't that person eventually make something out of it?
So many questions...
The author of the text makes it sound as if deviant sexual behavior is unique to our era.
Have you heard of Sade, Sacher-Masoch, the entire Roman Empire, the Greeks? They we're pretty well versed on the subject.
You're welcome. Always glad to help someone broaden their horizons and ideas. Keep reading and keep thinking and exchanging ideas with others. It's the best way to evolve as an individual.
Oh, they did. Those times were just slightly less made known to broader audiences. But bulls win and usually with terminal results for the bull fighter.
Are all orphans or children of single parents unbalanced? I can't put much credit to that claim. The same with children of same sex couples.
Uncommon life and family arrangements have existed since humans are humans. That is why all societies have edicts on what "normal" relations are and why deviations from the norm have been so persecuted throughout history.
Yet...
China has an ethnic group where one woman has several husbands. The children stay with the mother, while the men have the role of providing for the household. Suffice to say it is hard to know which man conceived which child, so they are colectively considered fathers to all children.
In Africa and the Arabian peninsula it is common fare for one man to have several wives and where there is that tradition all women are addressed as mother by all children.
Again in Africa, there is a tribe where children are raised, from very young age, by their uncles and aunts, away from the parents.
The first time I read about it, what came to mind was two brothers or sisters exchanging children, like a sort of perverse hostage situation: "you raise mine, I raise yours, nobody kills the other!"
Yes, I have a strange mind.
Divorced couples. Remade families. Same sex couples. Adoptive parents and foster families. Non standard families, whatever that may mean. And then we have the "really" out there arrangements, like poliamory. How about nudists? Or hippies?
So what?
Growing up, there was this family in my street that was composed of two couples, where each woman had given birth to a child of each man. The four lived as a small community, where all children address both men as father and all women as mother.
None of them grew up "fucked up". Or did, only just as much as anyone else.
As old time bull fighters used to say: some days the bull fighter wins, some days the bull wins.
There's no time for rational solutions.
In my country, yes. And not presenting it when requested is motive for an immediate fine, upon calling police services. If unexistent, it escalates the infraction. Then there are the mandatory times to reply to the complaint, that if failed automatically escalates the situation. And the complaints book is supervised by a national authority that supervises food safety and fiscal evasion, in parallel with normal police services, plus the regular audits by our tax authority.
Is it perfect? No. But it does produce results.
Why?
Let's break the matter in two parts:
if the adults involved in such a relationship are all informed and consenting, no harm is done to anyone. No one has the right to interfere or comment on those people way of life.
If, eventually, there is the decision to have children, the chance of them growing in a dysfunctional home is as high as any other.
The family may be unconventional but it does not imply nor it is a given it is unable to properly care for children and pass down values of good individual and social behaviour.
Help a wannabe writer if you can.
I'm in the process if working on a story and a small detail came to mind, as something I can add to give more depth to one of the characters.
Only problem with adding this particular detail is two fold:
a) I don't have the slightest idea on what I'm thinking to mention
b) I don't know anyone I can resort for first hand information (and possibly embarrassing questions)
For context
In the story, two persons meet again after several years, now completely different individuals. The relation between the coprotagonists builds over memories of when they first met and what opportunities were lost then and what they are in the present and what made them into it.
Plus some other things, which are not relevant now.
Throughout the story, there are several moments where I put out background but details, the kind that can be easily overlooked in a first readthrough, is what, for me, makes a good story great and a book re-readable, and that is what I'm looking to do.
One of such details I want to insert is one of the protagonists having had nipple piercings, which are no longer used. This is not openly stated; I just go into a very detailed description of a piece of jewelry that can be mistaken for coventional earrings and have a dialogue between the characters where nothing is really confirmed nor disproved.
I intend this to build on a background of a troubled time in teenage years, hinting at a period of rebelion, some anger towards others, even a small degree of low self esteem, but also a gesture of self affirmation, of going into a new personal direction, that after some time fell out of need.
My doubts
Well... if you managed to read this far, you're probably thinking (or saying out loud) something along the lines of me being full of it. I agree. I read what I wrote above and thought that exact same thing.
But does/can my idea hold any water? Is it credible? Or am I trying to put too much weight on a twig?
Adding insulation to an old house.
Here is my problem: I have an old house - nearly 100 years old - that I need to insulate but I have a few problems and concerns I need to deal with. The walls are essentially stone and an old kind on solid cement block.
I've been looking into the insulation solutions available in my market and it is basically a matter of gluing thick boards of styrofoam-like material to the walls.
On the outwalls this is not feaseable as the house faces a road with no sidewalk, so I'd be encroaching onto the road. Inside, adding 5cm of insulation would make small rooms smaller to the point some would be, for all practical purposes, rendered into generous pantries.
Because I live in a somewhat rural area, mice and rodents are a concern, so adding materials they can chew through makes no sense. It would be like supplying an easy to move through medium to run the entire house. I have seen houses and buildings with this kind of insulation chewed into, the moment the smallest of pieces of the hard plaster gets cracked, which is very easy. The added fire hazard is a concern as well, I'll admit.
I've already seen cork insulation but the base color is always brown and does not deal well with being painted on.
What other options may I look into? I'm in southern Europe but in an area with harsh winters.
Reproducing old tree varieties
I have a small plot of land where a few old trees exist.
For what I could gather, these are heirloom trees no longer commercially available, probably even local varieties: one pear (possibly two), one apricot, one peach and one cherry tree.
I would like to reproduce these trees without the need to use root stock.
Talking with arborists always returned the same kind of answer: not commercially viable, too long to obtain fruiting trees and even an argument that the new trees would become "wild" and never bear fruit or only bear unedible fruit. This one I find particularly wild...
Does anyone have any sort of experience trying this? Can anyone recommend a technique?
I've read about a technique that recommends wrapping branches in cloth, with a lump of soil in contact with the wood to promote rooting but the trees I want to prioritize are not eligible for it as they are extremely old, with very thin and frail branches.
Are there any others you would recommend or suggest?
Writing program
Besides Libre Office, what other programs/solutions exist in the Linux world for writers?
(Please, don't suggest VIM. After all the memes and comments I've read, I've come to dread it).
I like writing but the standard Writer tends to send me in a constant formatting spree.
I want to get back to writing regularly and something that could help me stay focused and somewhat organized would be nice.
What was the embarassing moment of your life that turned out positive?
It's friday, so lets try to end the week in a positive note with a laugh.
My own: got the first compliment of my life after a locker room raid.
I was told I was pretty easy on the eye with no top on, with a smile and a wink to boot, after a few minutes of playing the toss the bundle around game.
E será que nos deixam?
Uma start-up alemã desenvolveu um sistema que transforma o seu carro a gasolina num carro elétrico em 8 horas. O preço pode ser interessante!
12 a 15 mil para fazer a conversão é uma bela maquia mas poder converter um carro que já é nosso e que provavelmente até gostamos parece muito bom.
Quando a conversão a GPL começou a ser uma coisa, era horrivelmente dispendiosa mas quem a fez dizia que compensava o custo rapidamente.
Porque não isto?
Curiosidades sobre coisas de outros tempos.
Alguém se lembra do leite escolar, em pacote com essa específica designação, em vez de marca comercial?
Porque terá acabado essa designação?
Partilhem as vossas curiosidades e as vossas respostas para solucionar alguma se a tiverem.
E antes que alguém pergunte: ninguém sabe onde se encontra o vídeo de batatada no Batatoon.
What decorations are on your walls?
And what do you recommend to hang on walls, for decorative purposes, besides family photos?
Mine are blank and barren, an empty canvas for the maniacal decorator in me, after carefully negotiated with the family.
What makes Debian so different from its derivatives that gaming on it is almost an heroic task to achieve?
A few years ago, almost out of despair, I moved away from Debian in order to be able to play a few games natively.
On those days, the main concern with running games on Debian came mostly from unavailable dependencies or older, incompatible versions.
Fast forward today, returning to Debian, all installers from GOG run smoothly, with no error, but many games report errors on launching.
So, as per the title, what crazy voodoo magic is cast upon Debian to create Ubuntu, Mint and others, making those derivatives gaming-capable but their base distro not?
Can someone enlighten me on this, please?
Out of many games I tried, I managed to run three: Kingdom Rush and the Frontiers sequel and Martial Law.
Other titles failed miserably, including Desperados, Eschalon and even Stardew Valley.
Because it's useful/required info:
system
- AMD Athlon II x2 250
- 8GB RAM
- GeForce G210
It's a very reliable work horse, with maxed out memory. The GPU proprietary drivers are no longer available; running nouveau.
When launching from the console, I get this report (example from Stardew Valley):
start.sh: 7: Bad substitution
start.sh: 9: source: not found
start.sh: 12: get_gameinfo: not found
start.sh: 13: get_gameinfo: not found
start.sh: 14: get_gameinfo: not found
start.sh: 29: define_option: not found
start.sh: 32: standard_options: not found
Encontro de Escritores Indie
Pessoal, conforme o título, estou a formar a ideia de organizar um encontro de escritores indie para o ano de 2024.
Tudo está ainda em cima da mesa, só mesmo a localização é que já está decidida: Gouveia, na Guarda.
Não imagino se este será o melhor lugar para começar a divulgar ou mesmo se será um tema de interesse aqui mas em algum lado tinha de começar.
Se quiserem participar ou mesmo só divulgar, haverá brevemente uma morada de email que irei deixar aqui.
Obrigado pela atenção!
Window Managers for the un-initiated
As I'm about to start renewing and expanding the computer fleet in my house I decided I want to have a machine solely for my personal use, where I can use some solutions no one else will feel comfortable with in the house.
I've been wanting to try window managers for a while but after researching on it for a bit I'm none the wiser on which to choose.
There are a few distros out there that already deliver this kind of experience but I want to use the opportunity to learn and start from a stock Debian and build from there to where I want to get to.
I'm fully capable of setting up my computers as is but I'm aware WMs require a bit more involvement, so having at least good documentation is a must.
I'm also not averse to learn some coding, even more when considering I want to have a fully costumized conky, but I've never coded before.
The machine will be used essentially for writing, web surfing and email and, if possible, running Stardew Valley.
Any advice will be welcome.
Thanks in advance.
Tell us your definitive "I really should not do this" moment.
Ever had one those moments in life when you know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, you are making a very, very bad decision, with a great chance for instant regret and a miserable, probably long lasting, outcome and notheless followed that path?
Yeah, that one. Care to share with us?
I'll start. I dated a person, after we had already dated for a very short time, during which I was cheated on and eventually was left for a fourth person.
Yeah, not my brightest moment. And yes, I was cheated on again and again was left for another person.
Friendly games to play in cooperation with kids
As per the title, I'm looking to find some titles to play with my kids, especially RPGs, as Baldur's Gate 3 as struck the eye here but I'm not willing to fork the money for the graphics card required to run it.
I've been considering going back in time and go into Neverwinter Nights but I don't know if it has a cooperative mode.
Can someone give a few suggestions?
The machines available are not that powerful (one AM3 based system and one soon to be assembled AM4 with a budget G series Ryzen). The rest are laptops reserved solely for work.
Any help is appreciated.
What determines a computer as obsolete?
While moving from one nest to another (we're lemmings here; RP it a bit) I realized I still have all computers I ever bought or assembled, except for those that literally broke beyond any hope of repair.
Some are no longer used daily but all work and being on a point in life where everything and anything in the nest needs to have a purpose or a function, led me think what actually renders a computer useless or truly obsolete.
I was made even more aware of this, as I'm in the market to assemble a new machine and I'm seeing used ones - 3 or 4 years old - being sold at what can be considered store price, with specs capable of running newly released games.
Meanwhile, I'm looking at two LGA 775 motherboards I have and considering how hard can I push it before it spontaneously combusts to make any use of it, even if only a type writer.
So, per the title, what makes a computer obsolete or simply unusable to you?
Addition
So I felt necessary to update the post and list the main reasons surfacing for rendering a machine obsolete/unusable
- energy consumption
overall and consumption vs computational power
- no practical use
Linux rule!
- space take up
Is ZeroNet still a thing?
If this is the wrong place to pose this question, point me in the right direction
I discovered ZeroNet well before the pandemic and the concept was attracting, although, I admit, it was hard to adapt and everything felt... unfinished.
Because life happens, I eventually forgot about it and moved on to other waters, Reddit included.
With the current debacle of Reddit and other social sites/networks, I started wondering if ZeroNet or a fork of it could propose an alternative/add on to the growing Fediverse?
Running and maintainning an instance of any network is easy to realize that is highly time and resource consuming. I myself was forced to sign up to another instance because the one running in my country is constantly having issues.
By contrast, I never faced this sort of constraints when I was a user of ZeroNet. There wasn't anything even remotly resembling the reddit format or facebook but you could find a good deal of diversity there.
There was also the possibility of publishing/hosting your own webpage with no need to resort to hosting services, subscribe to mailling lists, cross link to external sources, etc.
It's not that I dislike the current fediverse: I have a Mastodon account and I'm here as well. But are we doing it all wrong?
From the perspective of someone with addmitidly very low technical knowledge, the current state of distributed social networks feels fragile, comparing with the alternative of having a truly distributed network where every user acts as a server themselves.
Please share your thoughts.
What would your contribution be for a book put together to restart a a civilization?
The title is a bit over dramatic but, per the title, if you could contribute with one piece of knowledge to a book that every single individual should learn from in order to kickstart a civilization, what would be yours?
My personal choice would be the process of soap making, from scratch.