There are many report stating that these promises were made.

Whether Russia made a tactical mistake in codifying these promises… is it relevant? There is clear evidence that NATO promised not to expand. And again, it seems obvious that a NATO expansion would set up a conflict with Russia. So why would you do it?

Here is another good german language article about the situation

Please check the Spiegel article. Also, again, isn’t it common sense that if you put troops against a country’s border, that country feels threatened?

edited “border”

Sure I can.

We can cite John Maersheimer from 2014

Here is the outline link to the same article.

More recently the german Spiegel published documents demonstrating the promises. Here is an english language Russia Today link, referencing the original german article (you can find the paywalled link there).

But let’s be frank, the idea that a NATO expansion to the east will set off a conflict with Russia is just obvious. There were high ranking officials confirming that over the last thirty years (I believe even Genscher).

The argument that states should be able to choose their allies is a little bit absurd since we are not talking about a club that you can vote yourself in if you wish to do so. The NATO has to extend an offer for your country to be able to join it.

Russia and before that the Soviet Union expressed their issue with that and asked NATO not to put troops against their borders. Yet, NATO did.

The sources I link to above are from the most realist IR academic and from a totally mainstream german news outlet.

So what about the eastern expansion of NATO? Do you sigh over this too?

Yes, but there are precedents to this. The situation didn’t come out of the blue. Russia surely carries the responsibility for acknowledging the separatist states and escalating the situation with “piece troops”.

But NATO surely is responsible for creating the situation at large. The promise was no eastern expansion, yet eastern expansion took place.

The references made to the previous US interventions by Op are highlighting the aggressive nature of the US which created the pretext to the current situation. You cannot wipe those away by saying you are referring to the last 48 hours only.

I know of some of the shady people that were supported by the West and the Ukraine.

Could you shed some more light on the war crimes that Putin refers to? Also could you share the evidence that exists?

Very cool video, thanks for sharing

Fully agree with you here and particularly your longer response above.

VR / AR has some fantastic use cases in industrial work, where experienced workers can overshadow a field person and be enriched by some sort of global database that covers whatever that field person is working on. There are probably other niche tech use cases as well.

As for an entertainment gadget that is widely used, I just don’t think it is as immersive as portrayed or will be in the foreseeable future.

I mean, can you imagine the desire, of being able to leave behind your real world, your dirty, exhausting, imperfect real world, where you are weak and ugly and unsuccessful and going to a virtual world where you can experience whatever you want?

All just through a head set? I honestly don’t quite buy this (admitting fully that I might be wrong) and really can’t relate to the desire you are describing either.

It’s not real and won’t look / feel real. So maybe there is a one or two hour entertainment to be had, but I can’t see this overhyped potential and VR being used “everywhere”.

Consider all the video chats we are having since the pandemic at work. What did 80% people do pretty quickly? Turn off their cameras, turn off their mics, while they are browsing the web in the background or doing the dishes, letting the meeting/call pass by. Would any of those go into VR to experience a virtual version of their colleague without being forced? I don’t think so.

Yes, monetising it also creates stupid incentives. In the educational scenario you’ll have to face the fact that if someone pays you for a service they are your client. How do you educated someone on whose feedback and money you depend? Certainly not in an objective manner.

Maybe the fact that you pose the question is a hint to its answer.

We are so quick to abstract this question, as in tech allows us to call our family from wherever we work and anytime, but this means we don’t have the same resources to question why we are away from our family.

Likewise, it allows us to reach beyond the social norms of our physical circle, but it doesn’t provide a neutral framework of how to be beyond those norms.

I think the problems with tech are related to the ownership of tech. Currently, I do think it makes us more lonely but maybe we have to move beyond tech to be able to use it well :)

Whatever you do then, do not move to Sydney… cockroaches the size of puppies and yes some fly but none of them is happy to chip in for rent

One of the things that just work really well for me. The webclipper is quite decent too.

This is an interesting question and discussion.

I do feel that left/right is a useful distinction. It is useful from my perspective in terms of values, even though we don’t focus on this in most discussions.

The point is: are you are ok with a person next to you suffering. Suffering because they did wrong, suffering because they have to for a bigger cause. If you are ok with it, you will, in the end, support some form of right wing or authoritarian policies.

The alternative is “One for all and all for one”.

You quote David Graeber somewhere else. In his spirit, I do believe that this is a decision. We either care or we don’t.

Did you find the workflow easy enough in the end?

Thanks, I might play around with it a little

Is anyone using Blender for woodworking or architectural type of work? Or do people rather use something like FreeCAD for it? Thanks!

Absolutely! I think any extra power in the phones is simply used to suck up more data and telemetrics. The phones get faster so the Samsungs, Googles and Apples can run their useless extras for their own benefits.

That’s why the phones run so much smoother once you e.g. remove google and put on a custom rom

Yes, generally agree.

However the bloat in Linux can be managed more easily and is nowhere as intense. Even old RPis and old laptops are still usable after 10+ years.

My IT experience at work has been deteriorating for at least 6 years now. It is now at a stage where I go back to handwritten notes and MS Notepad, because those generally don’t crash my work laptop that often.

The other areas where there is intense bloat is phones. After de-googling my phones (incl. custom ROM), everything works more smooth and the battery typically lasts 50% longer (guestimate). I’ve de-googled probably over half a dozen phones so far and the end product was always way smoother and faster and much extended battery life.

I’m not quite buying this. First of all, most people are forced to use some bloated OS and software at work. This means they get used to certain apps and unless they have a specific interest in say Open Source, they won’t look into alternatives. Schools, universities, etc. all get “sponsored” by big tech as well, leading to further market capture.

Secondly, things like Linux are presented by large corps as complicated, which simply isn’t true but again, the large corp would have some credibility bonus.

In general, the computer industry is largely consolidated from a customer perspective to a number of large players that scare people actively away from open solutions. As with nearly everything, you cannot vote with your wallet, since the markets are heavily tilted towards large corporations.

Finally, what is “woke-sufficiency”?