Yeah fair enough. They’re too busy sowing the seeds of their own destruction and can’t see the forest for the trees.

In Econ there’s opportunity cost, I think that’s what companies end up losing, the greater profit they could have made (if they were like a bit less short term oriented).

I wonder if someone could make a series of movie trailers for each republic with the executive producer being the US and having all sorts of poor takes.

Executive Producer: “No, no, we need LESS military oversight for the next one, SPEND MORE on practical explosions, the audience will love it!”
Director: “But sir, we already had half an hour of explosions, the most common criticism was about the confusing plot which was always interrupted by explosion sequences.”
Executive Producer: “We need those to keep the audience on their toes! We can’t plan explosion scenes we need to let the invisible hand of the free market decide and let us know!!”

I had no clue there were several republics kinda like France (I think?), I searched Wikipedia and it said that they are on their 6th republic, not 5th. Maybe you are off by one? Either way it’s a poor mark on the country and its governance.

Dispenser? You put like toothpaste from a tube and it’s like those soap dispensers you push to get soap?

I have a dog-shaped teddy bear which I almost need to support my arms. It has such a novel shape as a pillow, there are so many uses compared to a rectangular/square cube or tube.

A clever tea maker / mug all-in-one. I imported it from China, it’s not expensive or anything, it does use Tritan for this steeping chamber thing where it only decants at like a 45° angle. I have some food containers I use for lunch which use the same plastic and they work well, don’t get stained. Hope it doesn’t have some new kind of cancer or medical issue associated with it, I’ll update this post in ~15 years if that’s the case.

I liked the first Avatar blue people movie in 3D when I watched it.

I use FreeCad as an alternative to Solidworks. It has its own way of doing things… but it’s more or less feature complete with respect to designing stuff.

I don't understand the comparison to Cuba, do you mind explaining?

I think the poster was being sarcastic, in agreement with you.

Interesting, yeah this sounds like a good idea. No they don’t care as long as it’s easy to find other people competent enough in the event I’m disposed or something.

Do you have any experience you could share?

Yeah mostly paranoid about getting doxxed and I think it would derail the the conversation. I tend to like to work abstractly to get novel solutions as well.

Could you comment on your own experience with this software and on-boarding users? The technical stuff isn’t always so much of an issue as the interpersonal stuff. It seems like you have a good deal of knowledge!

Have you thought of frendica? I think it’s kinda what you’re looking for but it doesn’t seem too popular. Have you used bumble for friends? I thought bumble was for dating, I’m not sure how that would work for friends.

Would bioinformatics stuff be appropriate for that community?

I’ll suggest The Doomed City by the Strutgatsky brothers. I found it much more satisfying than Roadside Picnic. It’s much longer and much more philosophical. My username is from one of the characters in the book!

Yeah. I want to say that everyone has enough in common to get along and be friends but that doesn’t seem to be the case in practice :/

Could anyone comment on how these compare to usenets?

Reading over it I also kinda don’t know. I was rambling more or less.

I think I was trying to say I have issues connecting with people who have struggles of their own because they way I try to connect. When it’s done personally by myself it doesn’t work as well compared to doing the same through an organization. Like if you go to a food bank vs going to someone’s house you know for food. I could drop off the food at the food bank and the person who is struggling could take it and not feel as ashamed because it is depersonalized (no one single face to attribute). Whereas coming to my home to get the food directly would be perhaps more shameful or difficult since there is someone (i.e. myself) who can direct focused judgement upon them.

I hope this didn’t make it more confusing. I might cut my losses and try not to explain it more before I get even more confused.