If anyone else wants to do this, coin silver is nominally cheaper and is significantly more durable, and about as easy to melt.
I view things like a furnace or nice blowtorch as an investment into future projects that may otherwise not even be viable (in my mind) without the knowledge that I have said tool, so a small furnace for melting, while being more expensive, might expedite the process or increase quality, while also opening doors to future potential endeavors.
The only thing that kind of bothers me about libraries is that, as a tech focused individual, basically every book I read or whatever is either an ebook or a audiobook, and I don't want to have to go to the library to pick it out. I understand if I were getting physical books the need to go to a physical location to grab them, but if I'm getting something digital I don't want to have to go to the library. My library doesn't really offer an online catalog that you can just download from, only look at to see what you want to get in the library, and the free library services that they offer like the big ebook repositories don't have any books that I feel like I want to read, so it is just far easier to torrent things or have an audible subscription. Most libraries don't have really cool extra stuff like maker spaces or aquariums or anything remotely interesting other than books and maybe some computers for homeless people to use or whatever, so unless you're physically going there for a book, they're kind of pointless.
I'm not saying I don't appreciate and respect libraries, but they really just didn't change with the times around where I am, and it makes them far more inconvenient to use for someone in my particular position than it does to make them convenient. I will still support them as a public access, and I think it would be tragic if they went away, but I wish they would spend a little bit more of whatever budget they get investing on making it. Not a terrible experience to get shit online.
I really liked The Windows 7 theme and kept it on on every computer that wasn't a gaming PC, because I'm gaming computers. I want to squeez every last frame. But my dad always turned off the theme on all of his computers because it reminded him of Windows 98, and frankly, I am very sad that you cannot just get the old windows 98 theme in Windows today as a default feature. I know they're a third party apps that do that, but I wish it was still just a feature that they had because it really wouldn't add that much development time. I kind of am just over it with all of the extra bullshit in Windows, like I want an operating system with a file browser and a built-in web browser that I probably will never use, I don't want telemetry, I don't want recommended files, I don't want widgets, I don't want a news center on the side of my computer, I don't want any baked in AI bullshit.
I wish I could literally just get Windows 7 with all of the security and performance and compatibility improvements of Windows 11. Also a functioning search bar, which would be really nice.
For me, the part that is most wild is that I have never heard a Japanese onomatopoeia that sounds remotely close to what I would actually assume the sound to sound like. when I was a little kid and I was studying Japanese, it always made me think that Japanese people had different ears than I did, because if they're hearing all of these sounds the way they are and I'm hearing them all the way I am, there's no possible universe where we are describing them the same way, which would mean that we have to hear them differently. I now realize it's likely more of a societal thing, but it's still interesting nonetheless
I think the problem with open source in today's day and age is that old school programmers were all about making the landscape better, because they enjoyed computers where they had a passion for it. Modern-Day programmers, as a general statement, want money. Open source software is generally a terrible way to make money, but modern-day programmers believe that they can just create a really nice program and then make money from it. From a financial perspective, open source software is basically terrible for the people that make it, but really really great for the people that use it. That kind of goes against capitalism, almost, because basically every other capitalist-based business rapes all of the benefits for the person that develops the thing, so coming from a very american-centric perspective, it seems kind of wild to think that I can develop something that is really the backbone of a bunch of different stuff and very good, and make absolutely no money from it.
Yes. Hosting it for personal use would not be a crime, but distributing it would be. Additionally, even if people were to get it from you without you getting in trouble, they would all have to use a VPN to even begin to see anything, which is past the capabilities of most of the populace currently, which would make hosting it and distributing it via sneakerware basically useless.
The reason it is kind of wild is because a company being forced to sell basically the only thing it has in order to stay relevant in the second most major region of the world is kind of big news, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they just took the ban and then only started working in Europe and China. Is bytedance even known for anything other than tiktok? What do they do other than provide the service for tiktok?
ByteDance did a ton of stuff in China before getting into short videos, which was a hype cycle with a whole bunch of players until eventually they consolidated to one or two.
The amusing thing looking at this from China perspective is that ByteDance has been hit by the government over and over again for appealing to the mainstream.
The first big success they had was a social media platform centered around memes/jokes, and because the CCP doesn't have a sense of humor they crushed this platform when it started getting too popular.
Their second big success was a news aggregator that focused on surfacing news people actually wanted to read instead of the news the CCP wanted people to read. Which is to say mostly lowbrow gossip and sensationalist storytelling instead of long and tedious treatises about how great the party is. The Xi administration crushed that too, mandating changes in the platform that made it just as sanitized as all the other Chinese "news" outlets.
TikTok getting popular overseas seems like the result of a very well-timed purchase of musical.ly. The small number of western Gen Z youth I'm in contact with say they came to TikTok through musical.ly. Either way, we all see how successful that has been. Once again, ByteDance figured out a product that gave the "low end population" exactly what they wanted, and once again the government is punishing them for it.
At this point you wonder if these guys should just throw their hands in the air and pivot into oil or pharmaceuticals or some other addiction industry that's totally in the government's pocket. I guess the suspicion of some in the US government is that that's already happened and that's why this fun app that everyone loves is actually a tool of the CCP.
It originally started in china as short video sharing and is quite successful there. TikTok came after their home market success. I’m spacing on the name.
The thing about China banning stuff is that it is sponsored by the whole government, so every ISP in China is forced to comply with the ban. In the US, unless all of the ISPs are forced to ban tiktok at a network level, the ban will essentially be on new downloads I'm sure.
If the ban is on new downloads, it will mean that the ban doesn't hit particularly hard, except for there will be no more platform growth, which would mean that the company sees all of the issue with it, but the users do not which would stagnate the platform and lead to its eventual death. Frogs in a pot of water turned up to a boil, instead of dropped in at a rolling boil kind of thing.
If it is banded in ISP level, there is essentially no real chance that anybody will put any effort to get around it. I see big statements all the time about how people slightly younger than me don't even know what command prompt is, which is frankly a wild statement because even people I know my age that are not techy. Like I am still know how to do almost all of the basic commuter commands and know how to download a VPN and similar. We are either going to see a Renaissance of tech people opened up because of the ban on tick tock and them learning about technology to try and circumvent it, or we are going to see the total death of the platform because most people don't really know how to do anything technical on a phone or computer anymore.
Either way, it's going to cause some fairly large shifts until something is done, and if nothing is done, maybe the main shift will be just to a different platform rather than a different societal state of mind.
It is wild to me how it seems like every blight or environmental disease or pest I hear about comes from Asia, Chestnut blight, Bark beetles, wildly invasive tree species where I live, carp, Burmese Pythons, that orange disease like 10 years ago, COVID, bird flu, etc.
Not making any kind of statement really, just that the only type of invasive species I know of from NOT Asia is climbing ivy
It’s definitely curious, but makes more sense when you realized that problems that spread from “the west” to Asia have no reason to be brought up, or even talked about in our languages.
“Eastern Filbert Blight” is a fungal disease native to North America, and our native hazelnuts are able to tolerate it. European hazelnuts are typically used in agriculture (for multiple good reasons) however these are basically wiped out by EFB without constant copper sprays, as they never evolved with the arms race against this pathogen. While I hear about it a lot here in Oregon, where we have a lot of European hazelnut variety orchards, I never hear much about what it’s doing in say England, or Turkey.
Incidentally, while an EFB resistant series of hazelnut cultivars was developed in response by Oregon State University, containing the Gasaway gene, there is now version of EFB that can fully overcome that resistance and is rapidly spreading here in Oregon, though it’s likely on the east coast as well.
OSU is working on new resistant varieties, but nothing will be released until there are multiple modes of resistance (at least 3), otherwise a new EFB strain will just get selected for again.
Rather than trying to create EFB resistant European varieties (Corylus avellana), another approach is to concentrate on developing naturally-resistant American varieties (Corylus americana) with larger nuts. Since these varieties are also more cold tolerant, the hope is that this will allow a hazelnut industry in the North East. More info here: https://znutty.com/pages/about-hazelnuts (not associated, just following their work).
That to me seems like the wrong way to think about it. Of course most invasive species would come from Asia, because there was already free-flowing contact between North and South America, and there was already hundreds of years of contact between Europe and the Americas. East Asia was the place that was isolated from the Americas for the longest period of time.
I think a more interesting question is what kinds of organisms are treated as highly problematic invasive species in Asia from the Americas. That is, shouldn't we expect Asian species to be susceptible to novel American pathogens?
For example, it's famously known that diseases like small pox wiped out many Native American populations because they had no previous exposure to the disease. Perhaps less known is that it's widely hypothesized that a virulent strain of syphilis wrecked havoc in Europe after being brought back by sailors fro the Americas.
Obviously not. But my point was that contact between America and Asia, in significant volume, happened significantly later than contact with Europe (and, by extension, North Africa, as there was always tons of contact between Europe and North Africa).
And yes, places that have been truly isolated from the Americas until relatively recently are also are places where novel invasive species and pathogens come from (e.g. HIV, Ebola).
How is Africa connected with America? How is Europe connected? Even if you count ancient ice connection, Asia is more connected than they either of those. Wtf are you talking about
I suggest you find something more substantial to complain about.
This is hackernews, respond to the core of my comment. From the guidelines:
> Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article or post to complain about in the thread. Find something interesting to respond to instead.
(Also, ironically by commenting on the post you disable editing, so you made your own request impossible)
As soon as you are able to post something non-flippantly, then I will be able to respond likewise.
I agreed with your post and could expand upon it, but your attitude does not allow for it.
My comment was a soft ball for you to improve rather than doubling down, and for us then to move forward. I do see that my comment ironically broke guidelines too. We can both be better.
There is an aphid which attacks grape vines that originated in North America. It's the reason that much of the European wine varieties has to be grafted onto American root to survive.
This is a great, interesting example. From the Wikipedia page on Phylloxera:
> In France alone, total wine production fell from 84.5 million hectolitres in 1875 to only 23.4 million hectolitres in 1889. Some estimates hold that between two-thirds and nine-tenths of all European vineyards were destroyed.
A lot of the European ones have been here so long people don't really call them invasive but they still are. Some common ones like honeybees, wild horses, pigs (boar), rats, mice, feral cats.
> The appeal of acclimatisation societies in colonies, particularly Australia and New Zealand,[12] was the belief that the local fauna was in some way deficient or impoverished. There was also an element of nostalgia in the desire of European colonists to see familiar species.[13] An Australian settler, J. Martin, complained in 1830 that the "trees retained their leaves and shed their bark instead, the swans were black, the eagles white, the bees were stingless, some mammals had pockets, others laid eggs, it was warmest on the hills..." It was there that the desire to make the land feel more like England was strongest.
> Eugene Schieffelin ... became chairman of the American Acclimatization Society and joined their efforts to introduce non-native species to North America for economic and cultural reasons. His 1890 release of European starlings in Central Park resulted in the first successful starling nesting in North America to be observed by naturalists.
> In 1864 the commissioners of Central Park had introduced Java sparrows, house sparrows, chaffinches and blackbirds into the park. The European sparrows were reported to have "multiplied amazingly". They quickly became one of the most common birds in New York, though the others did not seem to do as well. After the society's founding, such efforts were redoubled. The group's annual meeting held at the Great New York Aquarium in 1877[4] reported that the release of 50 pairs of English skylarks into Central Park had only been a partial success, since most had flown across the East River to take up residence at Newtown and Canarsie in Brooklyn. At the meeting, the recent release of European starlings, Japanese finches and pheasants into the park were noted. The meeting adjourned with the group resolved to introduce more chaffinches, skylarks, European robins and tits—"birds which were useful to the farmer and contributed to the beauty of the groves and fields"—in the city.[5]
The potato blight of the Irish famine came from south America, and the phylloxera that destroyed the french wine at the beginning of the 20th century came from north America.
We have some native red squirrels in parts of America, too. Not like yours, though. Ours are big and fat, slow, and terrible decision makers. They get run over at incredible rates. The greys seem (barely) smarter.
At least your airgunners get some fun. I didn't realize your reds were nearing extinction.
I'm really surprised we haven't figured out better ways of manipulating these invasive populations. Everything seems ineffective, and sometimes disastrous.
One of the most invasive species is the domestic house cat. It has exterminated many species of animals and kills untold billions of animals each year.
It was domesticated in the Near East, so technically from Asia, I guess?
You mentioned Burmese pythons, which are invasive in the Everglades and Florida in general. Do you know about the Australian plant species Melaleuca quinquenervia? From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melaleuca_quinquenervia :
> Its unchecked expansion in South Florida is one of the most serious threats to the integrity of the native ecosystem.[25] This tree takes over sawgrass marshes in the Everglades turning the area into a swamp.[26] Melaleuca causes severe ecological impacts, including displacing native species, modification of hydrology, alteration of soil resources, reducing native habitat value and changing the fire regime.[27]
Off the top of my head, Marmokrebs, the north american crayfish capable of asexual reproduction, is invasive in China, Taiwan, and Japan, although more prevalent in Europe.
> Lantana camara (common lantana) is a species of flowering plant within the verbena family (Verbenaceae), native to the American tropics ... it was brought to Europe by Dutch explorers and cultivated widely, soon spreading further into Asia and Oceania where it has established itself as a notorious weed, ... L. camara is listed in the IUCN's “List of the world's 100 worst invasive species”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantana_camara
> Cecropia peltata - Invasive in Malaysia, Africa, and Pacific Islands. Native to tropical Central and South America
> Chromolaena odorata - Invasive in tropical Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. Native to Neotropics.
> Euglandina rosea - Invasive in Indian and Pacific Ocean islands. Native to the southeastern United States.
> Leucaena leucocephala - Native to Central America, invasive throughout other tropical regions.
> Lithobates catesbeianus (American bullfrog) - Invasive in Central and South America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, and East Asia. Native to eastern North America.
> Micropterus salmoides (widemouth bass) - Invasive worldwide. Native to the eastern United States
> Mikania micrantha - Invasive in the Pacific. Native to Neotropics. ["Pacific" here includes "Nepal, covering more than 20% of the Chitwan National Park", says https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikania_micrantha]
I stopped at this point. There may be a few I missed or didn't get to.
That is because the history of contact between NA and Europe is older than Asia and Europe. A lot of invasives from Europe are endemic to NA.
Common Tumbleweed, Zebra Mussel, English Ivy, all the different lawn grasses, cats, wild pigs etc. are all European invasives that are now part of the NA ecosystem.
This happens in every industry once that business is opened to the stock market. Larian is great because its private. Steam is great because it's private. Facebook used to be great then it went public and went downhill fast. Same with basically any company that doesnt have 2 vectors of VERY solid competition (AMD v Intel v ARM, nvidia v AMD v Intel, Micro v Samsung v hynix, Ford v GM v Dodge, etc). Companies that exist only to drive profits will do shit to ruin their brand in the name of profits, because stock profits make more money than being a good company.
I view things like a furnace or nice blowtorch as an investment into future projects that may otherwise not even be viable (in my mind) without the knowledge that I have said tool, so a small furnace for melting, while being more expensive, might expedite the process or increase quality, while also opening doors to future potential endeavors.