lechekaflan

Fucking reactionaries almost everywhere on “mainstream” where one’s words are being vetted so as not to displease the shits, which put me here now.

Easy to say, yet so far most of the other modding sites seem to be content sitting on their butts right now.

Building an alternative would take time. And some money.

File a lawsuit. Paying customers are supposed to do that if they were given an explanation but in bad-faith language.

Fileplanet content is back but not how it looks right now.

Doctorow is always right.

In my part of the world, cops are near on top of the food chain in any town and city, sometimes literally getting a free pass as long as they do something for a politician, a celebrity, or a business personality. So some of them, especially senior officers, do eventually get obese because not only they get to choose what duties they want to carry out, but also either they have three full square meals plus two snacks a day, or maybe a drinking party two to four times a month.

Of course they – the Philippine National Police – are a government agency, but also they’re a fraternity, the so-called “Brotherhood”: “you scratch my back as long as I scratch yours”.

Couple this with American Exceptionalist propaganda which created the myth and social elevation of the American Soldier as the ultimate freedom fighter / patriot and maybe you can sympathize with those who enlist.

That myth. One of the things Umberto Eco discussed about in Ur-Fascism.

You had a “turtle” (green triangle) that you needed to move to a specific spot on the screen, and you typed in commands to make him move.

Ah. LOGO.

Tough changing things back to where they were – cops armed only with a pistol and a nightstick. Now they have to use all that gear and weaponry to up the intimidation factor and to make clear they mean business. Whether it’s a store robber on meth or a heavily armed group of narcos. It’s so worse now that some procedures have to be rewritten.

I do not forget that the United States has the most firearms in private hands, more than any country.

Where I come from, gun laws are very strict and the only people carrying heavy firearms other than military and police are either the few with special licenses, or stolen weapons used by bandits, separatists, and terrorists. So by consequence the police in my country are locked in an arms race against those outlaws, cops now equipped as much as the soldiers sometimes they have to work with.

That was before the 1997 North Hollywood robbery, which changed all that.

Curriculum and unappetizing methods of teaching are the problems.

This kid has the right to question, to speak out what’s really logical, and is likely to be more street-wise.

They have very blunt takes at the space launch industry, for one.

Not surprising, it’s always expected from tech corporations, where at the end of the day it’s profit and favor with conservative politicians. If they’re not trying to use information gathered on people to bad government looking to cut costs (“saving taxpayers’ money”) by removing minority beneficiaries, they love to shove content you don’t even want.

Why I never use my real name online.

While the report did not specify the brand, the design and user interface closely resembled those of a Huawei or Honor device.

It’s unclear whether these companies officially sell phones in North Korea, but if they do, the devices are likely customized with state-approved software designed to restrict functionality and facilitate government surveillance.

I remember watching a series of Youtube videos by a guy working in the diplomatic department of a Southeast Asian country who I can’t name, and he took videos while on the sly, his camera (or phone) hidden carefully, showing some glimpses of life in Pyongyang. At one point he and his wife visited the government-run department store and, yeah, it’s pretty much a drab place to be there, you’ll be only buying necessities. However, there’s the special section where certain types of people such as high officials and foreigners are allowed to buy electronics, mostly with hard currency, and the merchandise included smartphones, all of them looked to be Chinese brands.

There in that place where closed systems are frowned upon, Install Linux, Problem Solved.

That corporation is still stuck in 1985 or 1989 (otherwise stuck in the Showa Era), trying to keep absolute control of anything it made.

How 50-80 years ago winning an appliance on TV used to be a big deal, like all the sudden the winner’s household gets a massive jump into the space age because the appliances then must have been expensive.