@Dragofix@veganism.social2025-12-29 13:36:46
Do prawns feel pain? Why scientists are urging a rethink of Australia’s favoured festive food https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/22/crustaceans-feelings-sentient-christmas-new-year-prawns-australia
@pre@boing.world2025-11-22 10:39:50
Despite much opinion to the contrary, the government money we use is crappy.
I'm at bitfest in Manchester to find out if Bitcoin could be a better money.
It could hardly be worse.
The mood is still good, people are joking about recent devaluation rather than crying. Those who aren't all in are trying to buy more at the discount.
After an introduction by Mad Bitcoins, Joe Bryan explains the problem with government money.
He imagines an island on which two types of money are tried, with a dividing wall between them.
When economic problems hit, government can just print more money on the fiat side. Everyone now using money which is worth less. Distorting prices, inflating asset prices, making the rich (who hold assets) richer and the poor (who have to pay inflated prices) poorer. Driving wealth inequality.
On the hard money side, government must tax properly. Take in more from the rich rather than inflating to take it from the poor. Reducing wealth inequality.
On the government money side, the wealthy monitize houses, stocks, resources. Saving in money is impossible, its inflated away. So they save in assets and hording resources. Capital is misallocated. The youth can't afford houses. Poverty traps are caused. The only way out is printing more for benefits. Making it all worse. More economic crises, more printing. More government debt.
Eventually, the wall is broken. Government money people can save in the hard money instead. It reduces the value of government money further. More printing. More inflation.
Eventually, war. Funded by printed money.
The dollar is the best of a bad bunch all other government money is falling in value even faster.
I wonder, is bitcoin really this better money though? It's limited, hard, and can't be printed without energy investment.
I'm still unsure that fixing money fixes the world.
--
Note: "crypto" is mostly more like government money than bitcoin. It can be printed indefinitely by it's makers, does not cost it's makers to print. Crypto is usually just a scam people to get more bitcoin. Bitcoin is not crypto.
#bitfest #bitcoin
@Xavier@infosec.exchange2026-01-18 17:32:18
Today, I attended service at a Unitarian Universalist congregation, and my soul is energized. There are a lot of people that want to make this world a better place. If you are feeling alone out there in a world of hate, there are those that side with love.
Today was especially powerful as a woman of color that marched with MLK Jr. read to the multi-colored children of the congregation a book of his speech. She choked up reading his words as my own tears ran freely.
"I have…
@schtobia@augsburg.social2025-12-02 05:36:19
Ich hatte ja Sorge, dass die Sprachbarriere Europa und insbesondere Deutschland zurückhält. Jetzt bin ich froh darum. Wir haben selber ne Wagenladung voll Probleme, wir müssen nicht noch importieren. https://silvan.cloud/@gersande/115647757482315486
@hex@kolektiva.social2025-11-17 09:26:08
And you don't need to accept the trap of authoritarian masculinity on logic alone, the proof is right there in male influencers like Andrew Tate and their followers. These dipshits get so obsessed with gatekeeping they don't realize that the gates they're tending keep them in, that the more walls they put up to protect their privilege, the smaller their identity can be. They huddle in tiny pens, terrified of crossing imaginary bounds that they imposed *on themselves.*
They have built their own torture chambers and locked themselves inside, and for what? They turn themselves into dragons, hoarding what they see as valuable while repressing every emotion including joy. And if they let themselves experience joy, they would, perhaps, realize that all these privileges are inconsistent with it. They might, perhaps, recognize that they have built up these privileges so they don't have to admit that their suffering and fear are not, in fact, admirable. They might have to face the fact that they have lived lives that are deeply pathetic, might have to face the fact that only empathy can give one access to deep satisfaction, might have to face the fact that they have lived their whole lives on a treadmill, going nowhere.
But I assume that they won't ever do that, because to do so would force them to face the enormity of the emotional debt, the pain and suffering they have inflicted on the world, and those are big feelings. It's far easier to hide in a hole, forever alone, making up silly rules to keep everyone inside scared and keep everyone outside from seeing in.
@Dragofix@veganism.social2025-12-22 02:18:23
Do prawns feel pain? Why scientists are urging a rethink of Australia’s favoured festive food https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/22/crustaceans-feelings-sentient-christmas-new-year-prawns-australia